J-Speaks: The Perfect, Imperfect Spurs And Their Record Setting Head Coach

Last season, the San Antonio Spurs set a franchise record for wins with 67, with 40 of those victories coming at home and tied the NBA record with the 1985-86 World Champion Boston Celtics going 40-1 at the AT&T Center. This season, the Spurs have gone just 5-4 on their home court, but they have been an entirely different team on the road and their head coach made some history along the way.

With their 105-91 victory at the Minnesota Timberwolves (6-16) back on Tuesday evening, The Spurs (18-5) improved to 13-0 on the road, moving them past the 1969-70 World Champion New York Knicks taking sole possession of the second-best road start to a season in NBA history. They also improved to 5-1 in the back end of back-to-backs.

Reserve guard Patty Mills, who scored 15 points off the bench on Tuesday night said of the Spurs undefeated mark away from home, “Maybe there’s just a little extra focus when we go into someone else’s arena. It’s hard to put your finger on it.”

To put the Spurs road start into perspective, they were averaging 108.1 points per contest on the road. Their average margin of victory was a +9.5 and they shot 49 percent from the field.

"This has been what we've been doing all year. We want to get better in that first half. Starting the game in the first quarter, but luckily we were able to come out with some energy in that second half to pull it off," Spurs All-Star forward Kawhi Leonard, who led the Spurs with 31 points in their eighth win in a row over the Timberwolves said to NBATV's Dennis Scott after the game.

The Spurs magical carpet ride away from home on Thursday night on national television as they lost at the Chicago Bulls (12-10) 95-91 for their first road loss of the season and falling one game short of tying their Western Conference rivals the Golden State Warriors, who won their 14-0 games away from Oracle Arena a season ago and overall started the season 24-0.

The Spurs shot just 40.2 percent from the floor in the defeat; went just 4 for 5 from the free throw line, while the Bulls were 21 for 27. They were out-rebounded 57-53; outscored on the fast break 16-9 and in the paint 46-42.

Leonard, the 2014 Finals MVP led the way for the Spurs with 24 points, going 10 for 19 from the field with eight boards and five assists. Mills had 16 points off the bench hitting 4 for 6 from three-point range and Gasol, who played the past two seasons in the “Windy City,” had a double-double of 13 points and 10 boards, but perennial All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge had just 10 points on just 5 for 15 shooting.   

That first road loss also ended a 14-game winning streak on the road for the defending Southwest Division champions, whose last loss was back on Apr. 8 at the Denver Nuggets 102-98.

There is a lot of ways to explain why the Spurs have been so good on the road. For starters, they early season schedule was very road heavy, which meant more time for this veteran team, which has seven new faces on the roster and the fact that future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan is no longer with the team because he retired this off-season.

Another reason for the Spurs road success is their uncanny ability to make plays in the closing moments, especially after trailing by double-digits. Just ask their last four opponents like the T’Wolves.

Leonard hit a pair of three-pointers down the stretch that ended any hopes for the Timberwolves of winning one night earlier.

The previous night at the Milwaukee Bucks (11-9), the Spurs scored just nine points in the second period and trailed 48-35 at intermission. With 7:27 left in the third quarter, the Spurs were behind 57-42, but the reserves led by backup center Dewayne Dedmon, who had 10 points and Rookie forward Nicholas Laprovittola, who had five assists keyed a second-half rally where the Spurs outscored the Bucks 36-23 in the third to cut the deficit to 73-71.

The rally was completed in the closing moments as All-Star LaMarcus Aldridge hit what turned out to be the game-winning basket with 21.2 seconds remaining after Giannis Antetokounmpo was called for goaltending that gave the Spurs the lead and the win after Bucks forward Miraz Teletovic missed a game-winning triple with 3.9 seconds left.

The Spurs used a second half rally back on Nov. 23 at the Charlotte Hornets (13-9) outscoring them 60-54 in the second half to beat them 119-114.

They used a similar formula two days later outscoring the Boston Celtics (13-9) 87-67 over the final three quarters to win 109-103 the day after Thanksgiving.

While Leonard had 25 points and 10 boards to lead the way, it was the 56 points the defending Southwest Division Champions got from the bench that made the difference. Mills had 19 points off the bench. David Lee had 15 points and 12 boards in 18 minutes. Rookie forward Davis Bertans also had 15 points.

Even if they do break the record for consecutive road wins to start a season, that is not the ultimate goal for the five-time NBA champs. That is why head coach Gregg Popovich even in victory through the media reminds his team, especially in after game pressers that maintaining winning habits will help them as the season progresses when they play against better competition.

“I thought we played well the first 10 minutes and then we went to sleep like they were going to give us the game,” Popovich, who won his 1,099^th game as an NBA head coach, passing his mentor Larry Brown for seventh all-time in NBA history said of his team’s play after the Spurs 116-107 win at the Lakers back on Nov. 18.

He was less than thrilled with the Spurs 96-91 win versus their interstate rivals the Dallas Mavericks (4-17), who were without Aldridge and starting lead guard Tony Parker, who were resting.

“This was a pathetic performance on the part of the Spurs,” Popovich said during his 30-second interview with the media after the game. “You know, they had some guys out, we had some guys out, but they had a lot more out than we did. I thought we showed a lack of humility, a lack of respect for the opponent, a very pathetic performance on both ends of the court. It was an awful performance, Oh, and they deserved to win the basketball game, I forgot to say that.”

To bring into context how upset Popovich was at the Spurs play, the Mavericks who have struggled shooting the ball from the floor this season, shot 47.3 percent from the floor back on Nov. 21 against the Spurs. They out-rebounded their division rivals 49-44 and forced 14 turnovers that resulted in 14 points.

When the Spurs met back up with the Mavericks at the close of November, Popovich was a lot happier with his team performance especially being without Parker, Manu Ginobili and Pau Gasol and after their sluggish start, which they trailed after three quarters.

“We dug down deep, didn’t moan and groan or whine, stuck with it and kept pounding away and found a way to win,” Popovich said of the Spurs, who out-scored the Mavericks 33-21 in the fourth quarter to win the game 94-87.

The Spurs in their 11^th straight road win to open the season held the Mavericks to 42.9 percent from the field; out-rebounded them 50-42 and outscored them on the fast break 12-3.  

The thing that must be understood about the Spurs and the approach that coach Popovich has taken throughout his career with the team, it is not about just winning games, it is about taking care of business and getting better along the way. It is about improving and sharpening the details of what you want accomplished from practice to game time. It is about the team working together in cohesion and having the understanding that having bad habits during the season can lead to a tough loss late in the year and even in the playoffs where you might be going home early.

That was in full effect this past Tuesday at the Timberwolves when he saw the Spurs fall behind in the first quarter 10-1 and he subbed out his entire starting five. The bench in that game had 42 points in the victory.

It is also why Popovich again voiced his displeasure in their previously mentioned first road loss of the season on Thursday night at the Bulls.

“Our opponents have outplayed us physically and execute-wise in most first halves for most of the season, and somehow we put it together in the second half and play harder and smarter than we did in the first half,” Popovich said. “We got it to four, then some execution mistakes. That’s the disappointing part, that we’re not a very consistent team and we haven’t learned as a group the game is 48 minutes.”

Barring a cosmic chain of events, the Spurs will be in the playoffs for the 20^th straight season. They are the favorites to win the Southwest Division for the sixth time in the last seven seasons. For them however, it is about being in the best possible position to contend for another title and for that to happen, they must for starters be healthy and they must get better at doing the little things to make that dream a reality. On top of that they have to ready to play the entire game, which Popovich stated after the game to NBA on TNT's Allie LaForce.

"I don't remember playing tonight. I didn't play. Guys get a lot of money to be ready to play. No Knute Rockne speeches. It's your job," Popovich said toe LaForce and the rest of the press after the game.

"If your a plumber and you don't do your job, your don't get any work. I don't think the plumber needs a pep talk. If the doctor botches up operations, he's not a doctor anymore. If your a basketball player you come ready. It's called maturity. It's your job."

Information, Statistics and Quotations are courtesy of 11/19/16 2 a.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” with Casey Stern, Steve Smith and Mike Fratello; 12/9/16 12 a.m. edition of “Inside the NBA” on TNT presented by Kia Motors with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal; www.espn.go.com/nba/standings; www.espn.go.com/nba/team/schedule/_/name/sa; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_San_Antonio_Spurs_seasons and http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knute_Rockne .