Culture of Hoops

Gregg Popovich annoyed yet surprisingly calm after Game 4 loss

By Aaron Lanton

Posted on May 28, 2014

Image courtesy of Aaron Vazquez/Flickr.

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The thing is, the Spurs started off just fine. Everyone talked about the importance of Parker returning to a high level and he did just that at the beginning, scoring or assisting on San Antonio’s first five baskets, staking the Spurs to a 12-4 lead.

And then?

“All of a sudden we were going to see if Serge could block a shot or something,” Popovich said. “I thought about passing a picture out on the bench, so they’d know who Serge was. But really unwise all of a sudden.

“Instead of hitting open people that are out there, we started attacking the rim unwisely, and that turns into blocked shots. We had seven turnovers in the first half, but really 14 because of the seven blocks; those are all like turnovers. And so that precipitated the 20-0 fast-break points. Game time.”

Actually, the numbers were six first-half blocks and 21 fast-break points, but I sure wasn’t going to correct Popovich at the moment, especially when he was in the middle of his most expansive answer of a news conference that featured seven responses of less than 10 words.

“So you’ve got to play smarter against great athletes,” Popovich continued. “They’re talented, obviously, but the athleticism and length gives you a small margin of error, and you’d better be smart the way you play, and you can’t afford to screw that up as many times as we did.” ESPN

What’s a telltale sign that Gregg Popovich is annoyed? One easy way to tell is whenever he gives answers at a press conference longer then ten words. I imagine it’s a pain in the ass to recount all the stupid stuff you did during a game. I don’t even like explaining why I went right instead of left during a failed shortcut in Pac Man.

Really, what’s new for Popovich to say about the loss?

Serge Ibaka kicked our butts and we kept running at him as if this were Games 1 and 2 without his presence.
The open shots that we took, we missed
They had 21 fast break points, we had 0.
Russell Westbrook took the same dumb shots and hit them.
We don’t like losing.

These are all predictable things fans expected prior to the series. Both teams already know each other well enough to barely look at the tape. The adjustments will be minor and execution will be king. Pac Man’s Clyde said it best.