Tomorrow, April 20, is the tenth anniversary of the primary Spurs sport within the 2014 playoffs. Whereas we all know how that season ended (spoiler alert: fortunately), they got here into the 2014 playoffs with recollections of the 2013 Finals contemporary, and painful, of their minds. The Spurs and their followers knew that the workforce confronted a really robust street to even get again to the Finals, and that LeBron James and the defending champion Miami Warmth would possible be ready. In hindsight, the Spurs “Stunning Recreation” championship appears inevitable immediately. However when the playoffs started on April 20, 2014, a Spurs victory parade was removed from sure, and even possible.
The 2013-14 common season Spurs have been distinctive. Regardless of being a high-scoring workforce which led the league in three-point taking pictures at 39.7%, nobody averaged 20 factors throughout the common season, and even shut, led by Oui Frenchman Tony Parker with 16.7 factors per sport. Regardless of being a superb passing workforce which led the league in assists, no participant averaged six assists — Parker once more led the workforce with 5.7 per sport. Regardless of being a very good rebounding workforce, nobody averaged double digits — the Nice Tim Duncan, who turned 38 throughout the playoffs, averaged 9.7 per sport. Much more remarkably, and maybe explaining the prior numbers, no Spurs participant averaged even half-hour per sport. Because of spreading the minutes round, the Spurs had six completely different gamers common double digits in scoring, with 9 gamers averaging over 8 factors per sport. Oddly, bench participant Marco Belinelli was one of many gamers in double figures, whereas 2013 Finals star DannyGreen! averaged solely 9 factors per sport.
The Spurs completed the common season with a superb 62-20 file, greatest within the league. They weren’t the chief in offensive or defensive effectivity — coming in sixth in each — however that mixture led to the most effective level differential within the league as they outscored their opponents by a median of 8 factors per sport.
Regardless of all their common season success, the Spurs had a really tough path in the event that they wished to get again to the Finals. The Western Convention had a really spectacular prime eight groups, with seven groups profitable fifty video games or extra sitting as potential street blocks to the Finals (listed by seed):
2. 59-23 Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder, led by MVP Kevin Durant
3. 57-25 LA Clippers, led by Chris Paul and Blake Griffin Clippers
4. 54-28 Portland Path Blazers, led by LaMarcus Aldridge and Damian Lillard
5. 54-28 Houston Rockets, led by the James Harden and Dwight Howard Rockets
6. 51-31 Golden State Warriors, led by the younger Steph Curry/Klay Thompson/Draymond Inexperienced trio, and…
7. 50-32 Grit-n-Grind Memphis Grizzlies, led by Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph and Tony Allen.
Remarkably, the primary six of those seven groups had a greater level differential than each workforce within the East, together with the Warmth. The Spurs knew that in the event that they gained their first spherical match-up, they must defeat two of those groups to make the Finals — presumably the most effective two as a result of these groups would have defeated the others to get to to the Spurs.
With the most effective file, the Spurs began the playoffs taking part in the the eighth seed in West within the first spherical. That workforce — the Dallas Mavericks — solely missed 50 wins by one sport, going 49-33. That file would have positioned the Mavs in third place within the East, however as a substitute they completed eighth within the West. That’s as robust a primary spherical matchup as any prime seed may ask for; in the meantime the highest workforce within the East (not the Warmth, however the Indiana Pacers) obtained to open the playoffs towards the Atlanta Hawks, who completed 38-44 and had been outscored on the season.
The Mavs proved their mettle immediately towards the Spurs. Within the first sport, the Spurs barely prevailed, profitable a defensive battle 90-85. The Mavs held the Spurs, who led the league in three-point share, to three of 17 from three, with all 3 three-pointers by My Man Manu Ginobili. The rest of the Spurs have been 0 for 11. Two gamers who later keyed the Spurs within the Finals, Patty Mills and Boris Diaw, scored a mixed 6 factors between them.
Within the second sport, the Mavs blew out the Spurs 113-92, tying the collection at one sport apiece. This defeat meant that the Spurs, who had spent the season working to garner home-court benefit within the playoffs, misplaced that benefit after solely two video games. The Spurs’ street to an NBA Championship for 2014 was something however inevitable, particularly in April of 2024, because the workforce climbed onto their bus to journey to Dallas for Recreation Three of the opening spherical, uncertain of what was in retailer.
