Six years ago
those boring old San Antonio Spurs were winning another title and then Tony Parker was jetting to Paris to
wed Eva Longoria and Tim Duncan, we think, was happily
married and that barren pasture on top of Manu Ginobili‘s dome, well, the recessive gene hadn’t quite kicked
in.
The point is a lot has changed over six years. And then something like Saturday night happens, a 103-94 Spurs overtime win that might as well have dialed back the calendar to 2007 or heck even ’05. Even as San Antonio has retooled, added snipers to transform the old plodders into a high-powered offensive juggernaut and significantly reduced the median age all around the Big Three, it was the Big Three on this night that carried them to the brink of a fourth Finals appearance together and the fifth in the Duncan-Gregg Popovich era that now bridges three consecutive decades. The start of Game 3 was painful for the Spurs, who couldn’t quite believe what was happening after all the talk of “Remember Last Year,” two wins away from their first Finals berth since ’07 and then wiped out four in a row by
Eight turnovers in the first quarter with
four by Parker in the first two minutes as he called it maybe “the worst start
of my career.” Down 18 points before the first 12 minutes were up. The
Grindhouse in full throaty howl. With 4:53 left in the opening quarter and Memphis
up 16-5, Popovich called a 20-second timeout and sat all five starters, pinning
the first eight minutes as “one of the worst starts I have ever seen.”
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