The San Antonio Spurs are returning to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2017. After closing out the series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team has raised and answered questions. Despite taking an extra game to defeat their opponents, the Spurs’ grade for their second series should arguably be higher. The teams’ struggles have only made them play with more resilience, something other teams should be fearful of. Let’s explore how the Spurs won the Timberwolves series and who stood out.<\/p>\n
Center Victor Wembanyama<\/a> got his first NBA ejection<\/a>. The Spurs came out flat in their first game in the series. Anthony Edwards<\/a>, who was questionable in the first game, needed to be double-teamed multiple times. For most teams with almost no playoff experience, these are all reasons why they would have played poorly. Instead, both of their losses were close games. The Spurs played especially poorly in their first game and only lost by two points.<\/p>\n At the start of the series, the Spurs were contributing to the number of problems they had as much as the Wolves were. Not helping on rebounds, overreliance on three-point attempts, and turnovers were all stars of the show for that opening matchup. Also hurting San Antonio was their lack of size, especially at the power forward position. The Timberwolves picked apart the Spurs’ defense from range. This was somewhat of an embarrassment for the Spurs, considering that the T-Wolves have an inconsistent and unreliable three-point game.<\/p>\n What the Spurs did in Game 2 improved everything<\/a>. Different defensive schemes, a different offensive approach, and a new intensity in every part of the game. The intensity did not go anywhere in the series. Even in the final game, the T-Wolves and Edwards cut the lead from 29 to 13 in the second quarter. The Spurs turned the gas back on in the third and got the lead back up to 28 in the quarter.<\/p>\n San Antonio doesn’t play like the playoffs are a new experience. When their offense goes flat, they know how to turn the gas back on. They close out games correctly, and they know how to play when their best players are on the bench.<\/p>\n De’Aaron Fox<\/a> has raised questions since he was traded for. San Antonio fans were in disagreement as to how long it would take for him to be replaced. Could Dylan Harper<\/a> replace him in a year or two? The noise rose to a roar after Fox had more turnovers than made shots in the first game against the T-Wolves. Immediately after being the key player in putting away the Trail Blazers, he is back in the hot seat.<\/p>\n His playoff stats have been identical to his regular-season stats. However, with more pressure and minutes on the court, a single bad night is something that could be the difference between a historic ring or going home. Fox’s resilience needs praise, but his overall performance needs improvement.<\/p>\n Stephon Castle<\/a> had arguably the best performance in the entire series. To send Minnesota on vacation, he dropped a 32-point double-double. What makes him truly scary is the efficiency with which he did so. Shadowing his regular-season performance in which he became the first player since Wilt Chamberlain<\/a> to drop a 40-point triple-double with above 75% shooting<\/a>. He also brought his shooting to above 40% from three in his last game.<\/p>\n Considering this is only his second year, what is his potential? At six-foot-six, his defense, athleticism, and playmaking are all excellent. His shooting is also coming along well. To say that he has the potential to be a future Hall of Famer seems almost tame. The only thing stopping him is an injury.<\/p>\n Featured Image: Jesse Johnson-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The San Antonio Spurs are returning to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2017. After closing out the series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, the team has raised and answered questions. Despite taking an extra game to defeat their opponents, the Spurs’ grade for their second series should arguably be higher. The teams’ […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5757,"featured_media":195769,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,34],"tags":[2109,664,596,49264,4669],"class_list":["post-195757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-spurs","tag-anthony-edwards","tag-deaaron-fox","tag-nba-playoffs","tag-stephon-castle","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"modified_by":"Benjamin Yu","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5757"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195757"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195770,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195757\/revisions\/195770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/195769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}De’Aaron Fox: The Problem, Or The Solution?<\/h3>\n
Stephon Castle: More Than A Future All-Star<\/h3>\n