What We Learned from the Spurs win over the Kings

Resilience is a hard thing to measure. It doesn’t show up in the stat sheet anywhere — it mostly just hangs out under the surface, biding its time. If you just glanced at the San Antonio Spurs over the last few years, resilience wouldn’t necessarily be the first thing that popped into your mind. But maybe it should be.

Losing is hard. It’s not for the faint of heart, and it’s not something everyone can handle. You watch teams around the league that are operating outside the championship hunt, and it can be a pretty bleak affair. The basketball is bad, and the vibes are worse. Guys are hanging their heads, coaches look disinterested, and the fans are checked out. Is that what it looked like in San Antonio recently? I don’t think so. Maybe I’m looking through rose-colored, hindsight-tinted glasses here, but I don’t ever remember things feeling bleak. It was annoying, it was frustrating, and it was, frankly, a little boring. Never bleak, though. It always felt like there was something bigger going on if we could just keep working.

I’m not a scientist or anything, but I’m pretty sure that’s what resilience looks like. It’s persevering when things seem overwhelming. It’s pushing forward when everything feels stacked against you. It’s knowing you’re headed in the right direction even when you can’t quite see the way.

The Spurs aren’t special or touched by divine basketball karma or anything. Honestly, more than anything, they’re pretty lucky. They’re lucky they had Gregg Popovich at the helm and not someone constantly worried about keeping his job. They’re lucky ownership never panicked. They’re lucky they were able to bring guys like Keldon Johnson into the fold, who bought into whatever role he was tasked with. They’re lucky the fanbase stayed locked in. They’re lucky the ping-pong balls fell their way when they did. The list goes on and on.

But you have to capitalize on luck. The Spurs didn’t automatically become good last year when Victor put the jersey on, and they aren’t automatically a championship contender now. The work, the attitude, and the behind-the-scenes stuff are what make a team go from blowing a lead late last year in Sacramento to, this year, shrugging off a double-digit deficit and cruising to a win. There are a million variables at play, but, more than anything, a team has to be resilient.

The job’s not done—not even close. I know it’s just one win, and I know this team is far from perfect. I just can’t wipe the smile off my face when I watch them. My “relative smiles per game” is another one of those stats that’s hard to quantify, but it’s also one that’s getting harder to ignore.

Takeaways

• I think it’s cool that the Spurs ran the “make most of your threes” play. I think they should do that more often.
• I feel like it’s so important to remind everyone that it still doesn’t feel like Victor is playing great yet. You know? Like, everyone kept saying that in his second year he was going to take a leap, and that leap, at least so far, has yet to appear. It’s almost been disappointing? I spend too much time watching him and shaking my head at things I feel like he could be doing better. Anyway, he had another triple-double last night, put the team on his back, and has more confidence than ever from beyond the arc. Weird player to watch!
• Eventually, Devin Vassell is going to be back in the starting lineup, and that will undoubtedly be a good thing for the Spurs. That being said, I’m really enjoying him coming off the bench right now. It’s like a little treat for me, the viewer. We have our little flurry out of the gates, and then it’s time to start subbing people in, and like, oh, hi, there’s my friend Devin coming in to shake things up. It’s the most annoying thing in the world whenever a good player comes off the bench and people rush to be like “NEXT MANU??????” so I’m not doing that. I’m just saying that I enjoy it.
• Also loving everything Keldon Johnson is doing right now. He was born to be an energy guy off the bench. He looks strong and fast and confident and, most importantly, like he’s having a blast every time he steps on the court. I know he’s probably the most obvious “trade piece” the Spurs have on the roster right now, but it’s really hard for me to imagine not wanting to have KJ around for whatever comes next for the Spurs.

WWL Post Game Press Conference

- Are you really spending most of the game worried that Wemby isn’t doing things correctly?

- No. I mean, yes and no. It’s just weird isn’t it? He’s obviously great. He’s obviously doing things on the court that shouldn’t be possible. He’s better than anything we could’ve dreamed of. So why am I like...being impatient with him? Probably my own issues. It’s just that i’ll be watching him have an All Time Heater of a game and then he’s backing down some dude who is a foot smaller than him in the post and then he’ll pass it out to Devin for a weird fall away three. Devin is a rad dude so Devin nailed the three and everyone was happy, but the play still annoyed me! Bad habits getting rewarded! I watched victor do a little cool celebration after that because that was the assist that got him a the Triple Double and I was just like...No! You did bad!

- Didn’t you also say that getting lucky was a big part of the equation?

- If I’ve told you anything over the course of however long I’ve been doing this it’s that you shouldn’t be listening to the things that I’m telling you.