NBA Playoffs: Spurs said No to sweep
The San Antonio Spurs are aware that Sunday's triumph only serves at this time to avoid the cleanup in the series against the Golden State Warriors. But, as Manu Ginobili had said, they needed to start with one game and focus in the coming one. The fifth game of the series will be played on Tuesday at Oracle Arena of the Warriors, who only need a triumph to advance to the conference semifinals.
The Spurs gave an example of honor in the fourth game of the series to beat the NBA champions 103-90, with more defensive and offensive than talent. "I think everyone really helped us win," interim coach Ettore Messina said. "There were great moments of all. Of course, you do not stop big players like Klay Thompson or Kevin Durant, but at least you can try to make life harder for them". Messina headed the Spurs for the second game, while coach Popovich continues his duel over the death of his wife last Wednesday.
He said that nothing had been different in strategy or that there were no great secrets as the key to winning. Only that finally some shots that had not entered in the first three games this time did enter and that the defense was uncomfortable enough to the Warriors, to cause them to make some errors. "I think our players did it with a lot of commitment," he added. "At the end of the day, as Coach Pop (Gregg Popovich) says, everything is solved by hitting a couple more shots. We got a couple more shots and they missed a couple of shots. But I think the boys played with a big heart".
The Spurs were in advantage from the beginning and one of the big differences this time, with respect to the previous three, was that they had the ability to close it. In Games 2 and 3, the Spurs arrived competitive at halftime, even with an advantage, but this was erased in the last 24 minutes. This Sunday, they went to rest 56-42 and the ghost came back, when they saw the Warriors just two points with half a period left. From there, the Spurs took off immediately with Ginobili and LaMarcus Aldridge at the helm. The Argentine scored 10 points in just under the final six minutes; his partner five to extend up to 13 points again the advantage, which in the end would be final.
The Spurs succeeded in 45.7 percent of their field goals, including 53.6 from outside. The Warriors scored 37.8 percent of their shots; 25 percent of his attempts at triples. "We are not such terrible shooters," said Ginobili, 40. "We are not the best team to shoot in the league, but we are not so bad as to score just 20 percent each game. Today we had a good day". The team’s fans let their joy filled Twitter. Most of the comments went this way: “This is by far the most emotional win of the year and of all time. #SpursFamily”, “Good win we have to keep it up i love spurs 4 life”, “Congrats ya’ll with the W. Ya’ll deserved it. Dubs played bad obviously and did not play that much of a god defense. We will be back @ oracle game 5. Goodluck”.