Official Game Thread: Hawks at Spurs

[lethalweapon3]

“Even Denzel knew better than messing around with Godzilla! Kong doesn’t stand a chance!”

 

So, this is gonna be it, right? Atlanta Hawks versus Gregg Popovich: The Finale?

Ever since the Spurs’ GM hopped on board the team bus in Oakland after a loss in 1996 and stunned the players by declaring he was taking over for Bob Hill, it has been a long ride for Coach Pop. 1,301 regular season wins later, Popovich has three annual Coach of the Year awards, a sterling 5-1 record in The Finals, and a coaching legacy tree that looks more like kudzu. Aside from a couple years at Golden State, Popovich has been associated with Spurs Basketball ever since coming on board as an ace assistant for Larry Brown in 1988.

A former star hooper in the 1960s at Air Force, invited to team trials for the U.S. men’s basketball team ahead of the fateful 1972 Olympic Games, Popovich will aim high by going for the gold once more at the delayed Summer Games in Tokyo. With former Hawks headmaster Lloyd Pierce serving as an assistant on Team USA, Coach Pop hopes to make amends after coaching, as best he could, the flawed 2004 grouping that settled for bronze in Athens.

From this standpoint, it sure feels like this NBA season and the Olympics will finally be the end of the road. That is, unless the 72-year-old Hall of Fame lock still can’t let go.

“I had to keep making promises,” Popovich explained while helping Coach K oversee practice for what would be Team USA’s most recent gold medalists in 2016. He changed his mind after firmly and repeatedly committing he would follow retiring Spur legend Tim Duncan out the door.

“Manu [Ginobili] was going to [re-]sign a few years back and he was like, ‘Are you going to be here?’. Tony [Parker], then, Kawhi [Leonard],” Coach Pop told ESPN, as reported by the San Antonio Express-News, before pivoting to 2015’s biggest free agent prize, Texas native LaMarcus Aldridge.

“Then, when we were recruiting LaMarcus, he was like, ‘Are you going to be here?’. It just goes on and on. So I guess I can never stop. I can never retire.” Having ably aided with the transition away from Duncan and company, Aldridge was bought out last week to let him pursue a trip to glory with Blake Griffin in Brooklyn. That move gives Team President Pop and the Spurs a chance to formally look ahead.

Popovich probably hoped he could leverage The Games of the XXXII Olympiad with an eye on leveraging one Last Ride with an NBA superstar, probably 2020 free agent Anthony Davis. Then COVID hit, the games and the Games were all postponed, and AD re-upped with the world champion Lakers in 2020’s deferred free agency period. Giannis locked himself down with Milwaukee, as did much of the cream of 2017’s draft class in securing rookie-max deals with their respective clubs.

Now, barring more pandemic-related shenanigans, Team USA will tip off group play three calendar days after the theoretical Game 7 of the NBA Finals in mid-July. While in Japan, San Antonio’s team president will hardly have time to Zoom call during 2021’s NBA Draft across the Pacific. A prized lottery pick is far from a certainty – because, Coach Pop – for the oft-overachieving Spurs (24-21, 8^th in NBA West but better than 5 Eastern clubs, including the 23-24 Hawks; 3.5 games ahead of 11-seed Sacramento) at this stage.

This summer’s free agent period will likely wait until Tokyo 202One concludes. The most anticipated headliners for his Spurs to target could be Kawhi (player option with the Clippers), Hawks restricted free agent John Collins, current Spur hanger-on and remodeled point-forward DeMar DeRozan (team-highs of 20.6 PPG and 7.2 APG), veteran guards Mike Conley and Jrue Holiday, and former Hawk Dennis Schröder.

A Kawhi reunion in San Antonio is Not Happening. And with all due respect to these other fellas, Popovich doesn’t dream of riding off toward the sunset chasing titles with them. Not as a coach, anyway. He’s particularly not waiting around to be asked if he’d stay on the sidelines for the course of DeRozan’s next contract.

Collins suffered an ankle sprain and a bone bruise in the first half of Atlanta’s 117-110 loss at Phoenix on Tuesday, and he will sit this game out (8:30 PM Eastern, BALLY Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, BS Southwest in SATX), plus at least the next four. The injury gives the Spurs’ front office, with or without Coach Pop, one less game tape to review ahead of their summertime pursuits.

It is conceivable, once DeRozan moves on to greener pastures, and the contracts of old-fogeys Patty Mills and Rudy Gay come off the books, too ($54 million combined expiring salaries), that the Spurs will be the team with an offer sheet bearing Collins’ signature. Before putting ink to paper, JC will have to ponder whether it’s better to risk tethering his near future with guards Derrick White (38.8 FG%) and Dejounte Murray (15.6 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 5.3 APG), or alternatively with Trae Young.

One thing that will be intriguing, going forward, is whether Popovich will come around to selecting Young for Team USA, effectively reuniting the Hawks superstar with Pierce. There’s a really good chance that former gold medalists, especially those that can afford to wait until 2024 to chase another one, will graciously bow out of this summer’s Games.

Strong likelihoods of a Tokyo Drift, among Team USA’s 57 finalists to make the 12-man roster, are prospective NBA Finalists and conference finalists who already lacked much of an offseason, to say nothing of quality family time, after 2019-20’s proceedings concluded in November.

Trae’s 25.4 PPG scoring average is virtually tied with Tokyo Drifter LeBron James, while the 22-year-old phenom’s 9.5 APG is behind only tricenarians James Harden and Russell Westbrook. Tack onto the court FIBA’s court dimensions, making it less necessary for Ice Trae to hoist threes from Nagano, and his case becomes more compelling. A high-caliber passer, double-team draw and floor spreader, who – let’s go ahead and say it – will not likely have logged a ton of postseason minutes over the course of 15 calendar months? What’s not to like?

San Antonio has gone 7-9 during back-to-back series, but it has only won two out of eight of those games on the back end, catching the Knicks napping and splitting a pair in Detroit last month. The Spurs stumbled through the start of this nine-game homestand that began with a loss to Charlotte on March 21 and followed a decent close to its mid-March Eastern excursion. But there have been signs that they’re regaining their footing.

They bounced back from a bad 17-point home loss to De’Aaron Fox and the Kings on Monday with a payback 120-106 win over their playoff-hungry rivals here at AT&T Center last night. Victories will require a balanced offensive effort going forward, and the Spurs got that last night with all five starters, plus Mills and Gay off the bench, logging double figures.

It was a similar deal when the Spurs bested the Hawks in Atlanta by a 125-114 score (belying a 110-72 drubbing after three quarters) on February 12, only with the injured Lonnie Walker (out, sore wrist) chipping in more than Gay. Skylar Mays’ and Brandon Goodwin’s final-quarter garbage time allowed the Hawks to double their double-digit scorers to four, in a game that didn’t help secure Popovich’s Team USA assistant’s long-term employment at all.

Young (25 points, 3 assists in three quarters vs. SAS on Feb. 12) and Atlanta would love to spread the wealth tonight, and they may have no choice, given that Collins’ absence renders the Hawks’ rotation under coach Nate McMillan seven-deep, six if De’Andre Hunter (DNP’d last three games, listed as questionable again tonight) is again a no-go with his swollen knee.

Full-court production from Kevin Huerter, whose chicken-dinner winner-winner mercifully ended the 21-game San Antonio Slide in January 2020, Bogdan Bogdanovic (team-highs of 22 points, 4-for-8 3FGs, and 4 steals @ PHX), and the gun-shy Tony Snell (4.1 3FGAs in his first 7 starts, 2.1 in his past ten, incl. 5 total in his past four) will be essential for Atlanta to avoid its first losing streak of three or more games since February 15. Despite shooting just 31.1 FG% in his last seven appearances, Red Velvet has shown signs of green-lighting in the past two games (5-for-11 3FGs at DEN and PHX).

The wings especially also have to outwork their counterparts on the glass, as the Spurs know better than to rely too heavily on Jakob Poeltl (team-high 8.0 RPG; 3.3 O-Rebs per game in March, 7^th in NBA) to do everything in the paint. Aside from Murray, second-year swingman Keldon Johnson (6.3 RPG; 20 points in the win @ ATL on Feb. 12), likely DeRozan’s heir-apparent as the undersized four, and sixth-man Gay (5.0 RPG) collect more caroms per game than Aldridge did in his abbreviated Spur stints.

The Hawks’ help-rebounding activity will alleviate Clint Capela (16 ‘n 16 @ PHX, but just 1 O-Reb in each of the past 2 games), who won’t have Collins to clean up all the shots he redirects, and Danilo Gallinari, who is likely to slide back into the starting five. Capela will likely get a new swat streak going after his 20-game string of blocking at least one shot ended in Denver. The Spurs’ frontline will be unable to counter with either Gorgui Dieng (out, shoulder), the vet who debuted for San Antonio after being picked up this week, or Trey Lyles (out, ankle).

Nate Mac (2 wins behind Mike D’Antoni for 20^th all-time) has been hesitant to strategically deploy lotto-rook Onyeka Okongwu (12.5 rebounds per 100 possessions, a shade behind Collins’ 12.7; team-high 59.6 FG%) beyond a few minutes at a time. But with both Collins (3-for-11 FGs and team-worst minus-35 vs. SAS on Feb. 12) and Hunter healing up, and a meeting with a Pelicans team that likely will have Zion Williamson (sprained thumb) on the docket tomorrow, this seems like an ideal time to lean on both Okongwu and two-way wonder Nathan Knight, the latter all but silent during this eight-game road swing, to come off the bench and let their respective freak flags fly.

Already the winningest NBA coach all-time when the playoffs are included, Popovich may roll into next year just to surpass Lenny Wilkens and Don Nelson, as he sits just 34 games behind Nelson, before handing the keys over to any of his Spurstree assistants, be it Becky Hammon, Will Hardy or Nets assistant Ime Udoka. He could similarly get to 2,000 games coached (64 games away), and then pass his mentor Brown at 2,002, before turning in his trusty whiteboard.

With one postseason victory, Gregg could pull up with Pat Riley in second place at 171 playoff wins. Any chance, though, of surpassing the esteemed Phil Jackson’s 335 regular season wins-above-.500 (Pop’s at 333), and certainly Jackson’s 229 postseason victories, is too big of a lift. Unless the Spurs’ coach plans on chiding refs and reporters deep into his eighties.

In a one-sport pro town, I imagine when you coach the one major pro team to multiple championships and win at a legendary level, rest assured, you’ll be dearly missed. Even if you’re simply heading back upstairs to a cushy fulltime front office gig.

Win or lose, I’m just thrilled our Hawks, as of today, aren’t the only pro team under the heat lamp here in the ATL. Baseball and the defending NL East champs are back. Josef and Atlanta United are revving up for a tear through CONCACAF and MLS, and we’ve even got two other local clubs preparing to make Top-4 picks in their respective drafts this month. One thing I can say with confidence… the Bravos won’t suffer through any decades-long losing streaks in San Antonio any time soon. No fooling!

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[hawkman]

Not feeling too optimistic about this one without Hunter and Collins. Good thing the Playoff race in the East is so tight after 3rd place.

[lethalweapon3]

Peeking ahead to tomorrow's game, there are a few key Pelicans sitting out today's game against what's left of the Magic.

~lw3

[Spud2nique]

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

JC will have to ponder whether it’s better to risk tethering his near future with guards Derrick White (38.8 FG%) and Dejounte Murray (15.6 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 5.3 APG), or alternatively with Trae Young.

Nice game thread lw3, Collins would have to think Trae above Murray and White, one would think!

 

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Baseball and the defending NL East champs are back.

Yes siiiiir. In the bottom of 9th tied at 2. Let’s go Braves! 

GO HAWKS! 

[Spud2nique]

2 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

this seems like an ideal time to lean on both Okongwu and two-way wonder Nathan Knight, the latter all but silent during this eight-game road swing, to come off the bench and let their respective freak flags fly.

Unleash the girthy beasts!!! It’s time. People sleep on Okongwu here all the time, give him more than 4 minutes of game action Nate and he will help you, specially on the D end in his rookie year, O’s O game will evolve most likely next year and beyond.

2-2 top 10, Freddie up! quick correction 

Edited April 1, 2021 by Spud2nique

[lethalweapon3]

Spud's avatar reminds me to add that Lou Williams' final game as a Clipper was on this floor eight days ago. 16 points (6-for-12 FGs) in 17 minutes of play against the Spurs.

~lw3

[bleachkit]

OO better go get some lobs. He's been watching CC and JC do it all year.  

[JayBirdHawk]

I can't wsit for these late games to be over - I'm fatigued.

[bleachkit]

3 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

I can't wsit for these late games to be over - I'm fatigued.

This one is an 8:30. Not nearly as agonizing as those 10:00/10:30's.

[Peoriabird]

We need one of those games from Nathan Knight!

[JayBirdHawk]

 

Sigh, LOLomon.

[TheNorthCydeRises]

3 hours ago, lethalweapon3 said:

Peeking ahead to tomorrow's game, there are a few key Pelicans sitting out today's game against what's left of the Magic.

~lw3

The Lord looks out for the Hawks.

[hawkman]

Just now, JayBirdHawk said:

 

Sigh, LOLomon.

Man, what's the deal with coaches falling in love with Solomon Hill? It's getting weird now. 

[Dnice]

So Low...

[hawkman]

Just dunk that Solo!

[MaceCase]

Slowmo fast break by Solo

[Buzzard]

6 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

 

Sigh, LOLomon.

Better than last season when Collins was out. But I am still not happy

[MaceCase]

Too open, scrambled the brain.

[hawkman]

Sweet Lou!!!!!

[Peoriabird]

Here we go again with Capela