They're a veteran team. They can respond. They have it in them to answer. There's no point in overreacting to Game 4 anymore than there was a reason to overreact to Game 3. But if the San Antonio Spurs wind up losing this conference semifinals matchup with the Warriors, they're going to look back at Sunday afternoon's Game 4 and only have themselves to blame.
The Spurs had a chance to put the Warriors in a chokehold, to step on the throat and snuff out all their energy, all their youth, all their excitement. The "we believe" attitude the Warriors have been riding since Game 2 of the first round would have been given a cold splash of reality if the Spurs had gone up 3-1 after cleaning out the Dubs in Roaracle.
Instead, with an eight-point second-half lead, the Warriors snuck in and yanked this one away from San Antonio, while the Spurs stood by and watched.
The Warriors shot poorly for the game and even in the second-half comeback, just 44 percent. So how did the Warriors beat one of the best offenses in the league in the second half without blistering from the field?
Easy. The Spurs didn't make a damn thing. From the third quarter through overtime ...
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That's a lot of red.
But, hey, make-or-miss league, right? Except, look at the distribution. They shot 21 shots in the paint out of 54 total. Not nearly enough. But if that's going to be your approach, the rest need to be threes. If the Spurs had just missed threes the rest of the game, OK, they just missed shots. But they had more mid-range jumpers (17) than threes (16). And the Warriors were putting longer, more athletic defenders on their jump-shooters, then leaving guys like Boris Diaw open from the top of the key.
Tim Duncan was 2-12 for just five points and a -25 in the second half and overtime. Here's what that looks like:
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Yikes. The Spurs' offense is predicated on creating quality looks and making the right play. But they routinely settled. When that happens, and you also miss the shots you do get, you can't make up for it. When you're missing high-percentage opportunities like open threes, you don't revert to making the game harder for yourself. And the Spurs did a lot of that.
The Warriors didn't play exceptionally well on the defensive end and, truth be told, the Spurs did a great job defensively. But when you open the door with your offense, the Warriors are going to muster enough unbelievable shots with their scorers to knock the door down.
If San Antonio wins Game 5 at home, they are 3/4 of the way home. But the Warriors aren't scared of playing in the AT&T Center, they believe in their home-court even after the split and are willing to go the distance. The Spurs, for the second time in three games, looked old. In two of the three before this game, they looked experienced. That's the difference.
But their margin of error with the Warriors is effectively zero. Game 4 showed that most of all. If they don't regroup and get a hold on the Warriors' neck, it could be them who wind up running out of air.
