Thanks to a Clutch 3 from Manu Ginobili, the San Antonio Spurs (18-8) were able to finish the Boston Celtics’ winning streak (22-5) against the Western Conference. Celtics had to admit defeat in a competitive game with 105:102.
It didn’t take long before Gregg Popovich’s blood pressure shot up for the first time: after 85 seconds’ Pop’ took the patented early timeout, changed three starters a short time later and then, after six minutes of play, picked up a technical foul. Reason for this? The Spurs were overrun in the early stages by a red-hot Kyrie Irving, who hit almost everything and scored 17 points in the first quarter.
After Irving took his first seat on the bench for the first time, the Spurs fought their way into the game and took the offensive of the guests more and more out of rhythm. Boston had serious problems with LaMarcus Aldridge’s offensive presence. The lead continued to melt away and with a wild – but for Manu Ginobili absolutely typical – Buzzerbeater San Antonio could then actually take the lead with him into the halftime break: 56:55 Spurs.
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The third quarter was dominated mainly by a defensive that was stable on both sides. However, a 15:4 run to the end of the third quarter put the Celtics in front again 82:77. In a turbulent closing phase, the strong Aldridge continued to provide the majority of the Spurs points – for Boston Irving and Rookie Jayson Tatum were against it. Irving then missed the chance to lead and after an offensive rebound from Ginobili it was also he who, with five seconds left to play his team with a threesome, who felt almost scored the blanket, took the lead with 105:102. Irving’s answer from outside was already halfway there, but in the end he jumped out and couldn’t change the final score.
Aldridge led his team with 27 points (11/20 FG) and also scored 10 rebounds – 6 of them offensive. Frontcourt colleague Pau Gasol was similarly present and also had a double-double (14 points, 11 rebounds). The top scorer of the match was Irving with 36 points (13/21 FG). Tatum also convinced with 20 points (6/11 FG) and Jaylen Brown, who showed an unusual look with eyeglasses due to eye complaints, scored 15 points (7/10).
Good offense rebounding team (Spurs) against weak defensive rebounding team (Celtics) – as expected, this was reflected in the statistics: San Antonio, who collect an average of 10.3 rebounds per game on the offensive board, were already eighth in the first half. In total, there were 14 offensive rebounds for the home team.
In stark contrast to her Texas colleagues from Houston, San Antonio is still actively practicing the almost extinct art of throwing in the middle distance. Almost half of the track casts came from this area and what would lead to disastrous results for many teams was a big part of the Spurs’ offensive success. At 51.4 percent, they hit a high rate of this normally inefficient litter.
Kyrie Irving only darks when he really has to: When he had a notorious chasedown blocker behind him after a steal with Danny Green, Irving was actually forced to put on extra energy and stuff the ball through the trap. Doesn’t sound great – but this action was actually the first dark of his season so far.
San Antonio Spurs vs. Boston Celtics: Click here for the BOXSCORE
Manu Ginobili was the match winner – but the star of the game was LaMarcus Aldridge. Once again he carried his team in an offensive manner and scored some very important throws in the final quarter.
Al Horford. When it comes to rebounding problems, of course, you look at Horford, who would have had to resist most of all – against the much longer Gasol and Aldridge, he didn’t manage to do it consistently enough and he caught a raven black evening with 2 points (1/6 FG) offensively.
Brad Stevens relied on his small ball lineup as usual over long periods of time with Al Horford as centre and Jayson Tatum on the fourth. Instead of responding, Popovich continued to trust his two towers under the basket and made a wise decision. The offensive rebounding with Gasol and Aldridge overcompensated potential weaknesses in the perimeter defense.