SAN ANTONIO — Players joked it was for ambiance, but maybe the dimness in the locker room before and after Friday’s 136-105 loss to the Houston Rockets symbolized the dark times the San Antonio Spurs have entered.
A 39-point loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, coupled with Friday’s debacle, gives the Spurs defeats by margins of 30 points or more in back-to-back outings for the first time in Gregg Popovich’s tenure as head coach. The loss also drops the Spurs to 14th place in the Western Conference standings.
“Guys feel embarrassed and deflated, and rightfully so,” guard Patty Mills said. “It’s the big picture. It’s who we represent when we put these jerseys on. It’s who we play for. It’s much bigger than that, and we need to understand that we are here just for a short time amongst this organization that will be here for a lot longer than we are. We’ve got to take pride in that.”
The last time San Antonio ranked in the bottom two spots in the conference standings this late in a season (20 games or more) was the end of the 1996-97 campaign, which led to the Spurs selecting Tim Duncan with the first pick of the 1997 draft.
The Spurs have tumbled to this new low in devastating fashion. San Antonio has given up 135 points or more in an NBA-high four games this season. Heading into 2018-19, San Antonio had given up 135 points or more in only two outings during Popovich’s entire tenure.
Popovich walked into the interview room miffed by what had just transpired but still took responsibility for the team failing to live up to the high standards he has set in 22 years at the helm.
“It’s a game where you try to continue to get better at all aspects,” Popovich said. “We’re obviously discombobulated on offense. So a lot of that has to do with me. I’ve got to do a better job there. I think defensively, we’ve obviously got to shore up our effort and our wisdom at that end of the court. So we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
LaMarcus Aldridge led the Spurs with a hollow 20 points on 7-of-16 shooting, and San Antonio needs to figure out a way to involve him more to climb out of its current funk. Aldridge carried the Spurs last season with Kawhi Leonard missing all but nine games, and he averaged 23.1 points. Heading into the loss to the Rockets, the Spurs held a 9-0 record when Aldridge scored 20 points or more. But he’s currently averaging 17.7 points, after averaging 18 or more in eight of his first 12 seasons.
Aldridge has struggled with his shot this season, which in turn has led to him deferring and taking fewer shots. It’s no coincidence the Spurs were 8-2 entering Friday’s matchup when he takes more than 15 shots, and 2-9 when he attempts 15 or fewer.
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Patty Mills expresses his thoughts on the Spurs’ tough loss to the Rockets and how the team plans to regroup moving forward.
Defense remains an issue, too. In just the first three quarters Friday, the Spurs had given up 110 points while forcing only two Rockets turnovers.
“It’s always defense,” shooting guard DeMar DeRozan said. “[We have] got to look at everything defensively. What other options [are there] of things that could work, but didn’t work? What did they see that was kind of exposing us to give up so many points? It starts defensively.”
Having traded away Leonard to Toronto in addition to losing future Hall of Famers Tony Parker (to Charlotte) and Manu Ginobili (retirement), San Antonio fields a roster with a total of nine new faces if you count two-way players Ben Moore and Drew Eubanks.
The Spurs also lost three point guards in Dejounte Murray, Lonnie Walker IV and Derrick White at the beginning of the season, and veteran Pau Gasol is out indefinitely because of a stress fracture in his left foot.
That no doubt plays largely in the inconsistency San Antonio is experiencing.
“We’ve got a whole bunch of new people in here that are learning the system,” Mills said. “For someone who has seen how we usually start a preseason and a training camp, it’s like we always start a few steps ahead because guys have come back, and it’s easy to teach one or two or three guys maybe. But when you teach a whole new group offensively, you’ve got to strip it back. Continuity stuff where you’re able to teach how to move the ball and that stuff, Timmy, Tony and Manu were here forever. It was easy to do that.”
Such isn’t the case anymore, but the Spurs remain confident they can rebound.
“Our frustration definitely just comes from losing the way we did, but in no way, shape or form is it going to break us or anything like that,” DeRozan said.
As for the burned-out light in San Antonio’s locker room, that’s easily fixable with the replacement of a couple of bulbs. The team, meanwhile, will take much more work based off its past two performances.
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