The San Antonio Spurs are playing the best basketball that I have seen this season. Game three was built up to be the Portland Trail Blazers’ best shot at getting back into this series. They were in the crazy Moda Center and no team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in a series.
Well, the Spurs, yet again, put a stop to all of the hype and really ran Portland out of the building once again. The stat that keeps getting shown is that Portland has had the lead for all of 33 seconds in the entire series. That is ridiculous. Regardless, the Spurs handled business as they beat the Blazers 118-103 on Saturday to take a commanding 3-0 lead in what has felt nothing like a series for Portland.
Following a similar script, the first half was all San Antonio. They outscored Portland 28-18 in the first quarter and 32-22 in the second. After that, as we have seen in the previous two games, the Spurs only had to trade buckets it seemed to keep the lead. It is amazing to watch how the Spurs put together runs. Usually, it starts with a Popovich timeout after Portland makes a couple baskets in a row. Then the Spurs just quietly and effectively go on a 10-0 run and suck the life out of any run that Portland could muster.
What has fueled a lot of this season’s fantastic runs for Portland has been momentum. Popovich has not allowed the crowd or the Blazers to get into any kind of a groove offensively. The moment you feel like Portland might be on to something; the Spurs take a break and then come out and destroy you on both ends. The main culprit for the Spurs’ offensive machine has been Tony Parker. Parker has been playing like 2006-2007 Tony Parker and it has been something to watch. He finished with 29 points on 12-for-20 shooting, 2-for-3 from three and had six assists. Parker has been absolutely torching the Blazers from mid-range. The pick-and-roll game that is so, so effective for San Antonio has been absolutely lethal against Portland and the Blazers do not seem to have an answer defensively.
Constantly in game three, Portland would cut the Spurs lead to ten, but the Spurs would do the things necessary to get right back into the game. Eventually, that just ruins any kind of confidence Portland might have.
Portland outscored the Spurs 29-23 in the third quarter and made it interesting in a few stretches as they cut San Antonio’s lead to nine in the middle of the third quarter, but every single player on the Spurs’ roster stepped up and made timely buckets. Patty Mills, Manu Ginobili and Boris Diaw, in particular, have been outstanding for the Spurs.
The frustration from the fans comes from the fact that all three games have not even been competitive in the slightest. If you asked a lot of Trail Blazer fans before this series started, you would probably hear a lot of Spurs in five games or Spurs in six. Hardly anyone thought that Portland would be down 3-0 so quickly. It is hard for fans to get invested into a series when your team is down by ten at the end of the first quarter. For all the griping and complaining about how each game in the Houston series was like having multiple heart attacks, I think fans could take a few of those games even if Portland lost.
San Antonio continues to scorch from the field as they finished shooting 48%. Portland actually matched the assist total that the Spurs had at 23. Portland shot 43% from the field and 35% from three. However, the FT line was pretty terrible. They shot 74% from the line, while the Spurs converted on all 25 attempts.
If you want to look at a positive for this series, it is giving Neil Olshey a good look at what the Blazers need to do to improve. The biggest and most glaring hole is still the bench. Without Mo Williams in game three, the Portland bench only scored six points and two of those buckets were by McCollum in garbage time. So, the bench was only doing slightly better than the viewers watching at home. The Spurs, on the other hand, had 50 points from the bench in the first two games and had 40 points in game three. Needless to say, Portland still has very little backup.
If you looked at how the starters performed in game three, they did their job. Four out of five starters scored 20 or more points and had an effect at different parts of the game. Batum and Matthews clearly were ready to go. Batum finished with 20 points on 8-for-13 shooting, 4-for-7 from three, seven assists, nine rebounds and two steals. Batum has been playing great; unfortunately, no one wants to talk about it. He played 44 minutes and was the most effective player on the floor.
Matthews finished with 22 points on 6-for-14 shooting, 4-for-10 from three. Matthews continues to have quiet 20-point games. He plays hard-nosed defense and continues to be the heart and soul of this Portland squad. Unfortunately, he is only one man.
The biggest issue has been LaMarcus Aldridge, who is suffering from James Harden-itis. Tiago Splitter has been absolutely fantastic at not buying on any of LA’s fakes and not fouling him as he drives to the lane. He still finished with 21 points on 9-for-23 shooting and had 12 rebounds, but his efficiency has gone down dramatically. In game one, he went 12-for-25 and had a monster game. In game two, he recorded a double-double, but went 6-for-23. His last four games have been decent statistically, but again, like James Harden, his efficiency has gone down thanks to the relentless Spurs defense.
Damian Lillard finished with 21 points on 7-for-21 shooting, 0-for-6 from three and had nine assists. Again, if the Spurs were not clobbering the Blazers night after night, these individual performances would be seeing more attention. Lillard has been fantastic throughout these playoffs and really should be making fans excited for years to come. He has been clutch and fearless.
Finally, another stat I want to call to your attention was the turnovers. Portland had 14 and the Spurs had seven. The Spurs scored a whopping 22 points off of Portland turnovers. This is just a team that will absolutely capitalize on your mistakes. As I was watching some offensive possessions for Portland, I realized that with Houston you could get an open shot with two or three passes. Against San Antonio, you need to make that fourth or fifth pass to get an open one. You just have to applaud the Spurs for how disciplined and how well they are playing.
This post may have this underlying feeling of me already assuming that Blazers are out of it. Obviously, they are not as the Spurs still need to win one more game; however, like I said above, no team in the history of the NBA has come back from a 3-0 deficit. Furthermore, the way the Spurs are playing right now, no one could beat them.
Moving on, game four is on Monday night at the Moda Center at 7:30 p.m. PST. Portland tries to stave off elimination and avoid getting swept by the Spurs. Personally, I expect the Blazers to give everything they have left in the tank, not only to try and win this game, but to give the fans something to appreciate and cheer. Stay tuned!