Category: Sports News

They’re 16-2 since the All-Star break. They’re relatively healthy. They seem like they’re not only rounding into form but, quite possibly, existing in the roundest form any of us could’ve possibly imagined. I found myself at various times during the broadcast almost wanting to turn it off because it felt too bright. Too pure. Almost like we weren’t meant to be seeing this yet.

As always, my caveat here is that I’m an anxious person. When things are going too well, I get suspicious almost immediately. What do you mean they’re ready to win the title? You’re comparing Victor to who? No. Nope. Doesn’t add up. Something’s amiss.

If this isn’t you, congrats! I’m sure you’re having a wonderful time basking in the glow of this deliriously happy run of basketball. You’re having a better time than me and I’m well aware of it. If this is you, well, get on in here, brother and hug it out. Our team hasn’t been this good in years! It’s driving us nuts!

Truly, it’s a surreal experience to sit down and watch something you love and, against your better judgment, desperately try to poke holes in it. It’s made only more bizarre when you can’t find any.

Last night was billed as a test. On the road, against a talented team fighting for their playoff lives. The Spurs didn’t need this game the way the Heat desperately did. This was a classic setup for us to wander into a Heat Culture™ landmine and simply get outworked.

From the jump, it felt like that might happen. The Heat came out in a nonstop sprint, and instead of slowing things down, the Spurs decided to match them. The game was breathless at times. Back and forth, up and down. Fast and sloppy and difficult to track. It was like getting thrown in a cage with a steak and a starving wildcat and being told “don’t let him get that steak.” I kept waiting for the Spurs to put their hands up and say, “you know what, we have bigger fish to fry.”

Instead they led wire to wire, up by 30 at their peak, the largest road margin any team has had in Miami all season.

My assumption for the last few weeks has been that Wemby’s heater would die out any minute. Surely Bam Adebayo and the Heat would find a way to stifle him. What’s that? He had 26 points, 15 rebounds, and 5 blocks, and became just the third player in NBA history to reach 4,000 points and 300 three-pointers in their first 175 career games? Ok then.

The Spurs are vulnerable when Vic has to come out though, right? That’s the part where it all unravels. Except it didn’t. It actually got worse for Miami. Keldon Johnson and Dylan Harper combined for 42 off the bench. Carter Bryant wreaked havoc on the Heat’s athletic wings. Harrison Barnes looked spry. Luke Kornet held down the fort. The second unit didn’t just hold serve, they buried them.

The Spurs grabbed 17 offensive rebounds to Miami’s 6, a relentless physical edge that turned every missed shot into a threat and generated extra possessions all night. The Spurs won the paint 60-40, collapsing Miami’s interior on offense.

At every turn, every moment, when I had a question, the Spurs had an answer.

So… I guess that’s it. The Spurs solved basketball. Let’s go home, yeah?

I genuinely can’t put my finger on why this lack of flaws puts me on edge. It’s like, if I could just say “well, the three-point shooting isn’t good enough” or “they just lack physicality” then I could relax. I would know exactly where playoff opponents would try to exploit them and I could focus all my energy into stressing out about that.

I can’t, though. The Spurs have plenty of areas where they aren’t perfect, but they don’t have anything glaring. They have nits you can pick. They have theoretical blind spots. But they don’t have holes. They don’t have a weakness. Their floor is alarmingly high.

I’m left grappling with known unknowns over here. Stressing about things like playoff experience and injury luck. I’m having genuine stress dreams about Luka dropping 60 on us in a playoff game. Never mind that the Lakers are probably going to guard Wembanyama with DeAndre Ayton. I’m certifiably insane, is what I’m trying to say.

The answer can’t simply be that the Spurs are this good.

Can it?

Takeaways:

• Amidst all my unnecessary anxieties and worries about our very good basketball team, probably worth giving a brief nod to the boys clinching their first Southwest Division in a decade. Pretty cool! I don’t think any of us are rushing out to buy Southwest Division champs shirts at Academy this morning, but I’m certainly not mad about it. We’d rather be winning divisions than not winning them, yeah? 54-18, 22-2 since February. Again, the Spurs are very good, if you aren’t stressed about them then you are the correct one.
• I loved seeing Stephon Castle back in the lineup. I hated watching him repeatedly dive around on the court landing directly on his hip. It felt like that, didn’t it? It’s like he decided that the best way to prove he wasn’t actually that injured was to go out, throw his body around, and get to the line as much as possible. He went 9-of-10 from the line for 19 points, which tracks, because every time I looked up he was diving hip-first into the hardwood. Come on dude! Relax! Take the edge off! It’s hip to be square!
• Let me be the millionth person to point out that Dylan Harper has been out of his mind lately and we are exceedingly lucky to have him. Back-to-back 20-point games, eight on the season, and playing like a foundational piece of this team’s future. If I hear one more person say the Spurs should’ve drafted Kon Knueppel I’m going to…uh, stew about it internally, watch a series of YouTube compilations, and ultimately not do anything about it. You hear me! You’ve been warned!
• I don’t know how to describe this using words so I won’t:

WWL Post Game Press Conference

– If the team being good stresses you out, are you happier when they are bad?

– Of course not, I’m miserable! Every loss fills me with a deep sense of agony. I’m still fuming about a game they lost to Chicago on Valentine’s Day in 2022.

– You’re fuming about a loss from four years ago?

– Yeah dude, it was a nightmare, they were playing pretty well and then just like, could not buy a stop down the stretch. DeRozan just picked us apart.

– I’m almost positive your first child was born like two weeks before that game.

– Sounds right. Look, they’re basically little potatoes at that point so, I mean, not much going on really.

– Plenty of time to check in on a middling Spurs team starring Jakob Poeltl.

– Exactly.

I don’t think anyone was more excited about Jordan Clarkson joining the Knicks this summer than I was. I had been hoping they’d bring him in since last season. From day one, Knicks fans understood his role would be coming off the bench, but beyond that, it was unclear how much of an impact he would actually have. We expected some inconsistency, with off nights mixed in with games where he could get hot and take over.

Instead, it never really played out that way early on. Mike Brown used Clarkson sparingly for much of the first half of the season, as he averaged under 20 minutes per game and scored 20 or more just three times through December. The rhythm just never seemed to be there, and it was clear he hadn’t fully carved out a defined role within the rotation.

By mid-January, his role had basically turned into DNPs or the occasional garbage-time minutes. With the arrival of Jose Alvarado, Clarkson’s spot in the rotation became even less consistent heading into early March. During that stretch, he only appeared in about half the games, totaling just over 130 minutes. That left him behind younger and fringe rotation players like Tyler Kolek, Ariel Hukporti, and Mohamed Diawara in total minutes, which only added to the uncertainty around where he fit.

Clarkson’s usage during that stretch really highlights how inconsistent things had become. Between early February and early March, his minutes were all over the place, ranging from short stints of 5 to 12 minutes to multiple DNPs. Even when he did get on the floor, the production was hit or miss. He had a few efficient scoring nights, like shooting 5-of-7 and 5-of-8 in back-to-back wins, but those flashes were mixed in with quiet outings where he barely made an impact in limited time.

Things started to shift after the Knicks’ 126–118 loss to the Clippers, their second straight defeat following a loss to the Lakers the night before. In that Clippers game, Clarkson played just three minutes, and it felt like Mike Brown was searching for any kind of spark off the bench. Whether it was the matchup, a sense of urgency, or simply an opportunity, Clarkson responded. With 26 minutes of playing time, his most since Christmas, he delivered one of his best performances of the season with 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting against Utah. It was the type of game Knicks fans had been waiting for, a reminder of the scoring punch he can bring when given real opportunity.

Since that performance, Clarkson has settled back into more of a steady bench role over the past five games. He’s still been efficient and playing under control, but the scoring hasn’t reached that same level. He followed up with a solid 14-point performance against Golden State, but outside of that, he’s mostly hovered in the 8 to 10 point range. Against teams like Indiana, Brooklyn, and Washington, he’s contributed in shorter bursts, typically in about 20 to 22 minutes per night.

And maybe that’s enough right now. Since those back-to-back losses in Los Angeles, the Knicks have rattled off six straight wins and are starting to build real momentum at the right time. The offense looks more balanced, the rotations are tightening, but more importantly, they’re winning.

The Warriors’ longest road trip of the season lasted an extra five minutes.

A grueling six-game excursion spread across eight days and six states came to a merciful end Monday night in a frenetic 137-131 win in overtime over the Mavericks.

The extra period ultimately cost them much more.

Moses Moody, who had scored a team-high 23 points in his first action since March 2, collapsed as he went up for what would have been a game-sealing dunk with 58 seconds left.

Moody immediately grabbed his left knee and was eventually carried off on a stretcher after the game was paused for more than five minutes. The teammates whose faces weren’t buried in their hands wore expressions of despair.

“We don’t know what it is,” coach Steve Kerr told reporters afterward, “but it sure looked bad.”

Golden State both trailed by 15 in the first half and held a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter, but it still came down to overtime after the injury-ravaged team couldn’t put away Cooper Flagg and the Mavs.

Flagg scored 18 of his game-high 32 points after halftime, but the Warriors outscored Dallas 11-5 in the extra five-minute period to earn only its second win on the six-game trip.

Kristaps Porzingis returned from low back soreness and contributed 22 points in 29 minutes, while Brandin Podziemski played 40 minutes posted a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

But the win was overshadowed by the loss of Moody in the final minute.

What it means

The Warriors improved to 5-12 since the All-Star break while playing without Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler and a rotating cast of other names on the injury-report.

The Mavericks are one of seven teams with fewer wins since the All-Star break.

Turning point

The Warriors were leading 136-131, but the Mavericks had possession with a little more than a minute left in the overtime period. The ball was in Flagg’s hands.

All of a sudden, it was in Moody’s.

After missing the past 10 games with a sprained shooting wrist, Moody was in prime position for a game-sealing steal-and-score. He picked Flagg’s pocket at midcourt, glided toward the rim and had nobody between him and the basket. Then his knee buckled.

MVP: Gary Payton II

The only bucket Payton didn’t convert was a desperation alley-oop at the end of regulation that apparently didn’t go down as an attempt in the box score.

Payton, also returning from a one-game absence, finished 8-for-8 from the field for 17 points in 21 minutes off the bench. Will Richard, Gui Santos and LJ Cryer all scored in double figures as the Warriors got 61 points from their bench. 

Stat of the game: 17 offensive rebounds

The Warriors won the game on the offensive glass, grabbing 17 offensive rebounds that led to 23 second-chance points. The Mavericks got only five second-chance points.

Up next

The Warriors return home, where they’ll play seven of their final 10 games of the regular season. Golden State is 19-14 at Chase Center, opposed to 14-23 on the road.

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