The Spurs found themselves on the edge of elimination in the first round, stunned in complacency and disbelief as the bloodthirsty Memphis Grizzlies stole Game 1 on the road, pulled off a home rally in Game 4 & shocked the world in Game 5, winning again in San Antonio. An almost too-tough test for the defending champions eventually righted its course as the Spurs won a close Game 6 & Game 7 in a blowout, marking the first series since the Lakers & Jazz years ago to go the distance. The Grizzlies, being 1 of 5 teams to defeat the Spurs this season, nearly had the biggest defeat of San Antonio in over a decade, beating them 3 more times (4 total) which is just one less than the rest of the league!
"They are going to be dangerous soon, and I plan to retire before then," Coach Popovich said after San Antonio's Game 7 victory. "I want to commend them on a great season and one hell of a series. They play beautiful basketball, but so do we. I'm very proud of our team for digging down deep and remembering how to play this game, especially Murray & Fred. They made history, and we can't understate that."
Coach Pop was speaking to Dejounte Murray, who looked more like Jamal Murray in the playoffs last season. Dejounte dropped 60 points in Game 5 in a crushing defeat, a career-high mark, and then he did it again, sensationally scoring his way past the previous record set by Michael Jordan. Murray scored a phenomenal 71 points in Game 6 on a night with his team facing elimination and only him having the hot hand. For years now, both Spurs fans and league analysts have debated "who's the leader" between Murray, Ingram & Drummond. Dejounte clearly convinced the critics and silenced the skeptics with, "Oh, it's me."
Then, Game 7 happened. Fred VanVleet crushed ex-Spur Joe Harris' previous Playoffs record of 12 three-pointers, hitting 19 of his own for a career-high 62 points after another season of 50% from deep. Meanwhile, he tied Allen Iverson with 10 steals in a playoff game as the Spurs blew out Memphis, 112-141. "He was struggling early this series, so we put KCP in, and it lit a fire under him," Coach Popovich spoke as Kentavious Caldwell-Pope outplayed VanVleet in the first two games, with most critics saying KCP should've closed out Game 1 and maybe in hindsight the Spurs would've avoided this seven-game war.
The Series:
The Grizzlies won Game 1, 140-132.
The Spurs won Game 2, 118-134.
The Spurs won Game 3, 106-96.
The Grizzlies won Game 4, 112-132.
The Grizzlies won Game 5, 133-127.
The Spurs won Game 6, 140-125.
The Spurs won Game 7, 112-141.
Brandon Ingram scored 27 points in Game 7, struggling with his shot for most of the series. Jarren Jackson, Jr played phenomenally for Memphis, proving to be the difference maker in Game 4 and again in Game 5, in which Jonas Valanciunas & Ja Morant both nearly fouled out, with Game 5 being the worst collapse in the 4th Quarter of the two "had it, then lost it" outings for the Spurs. Ja Morant is on the cusp of superstardom, turning in a stellar series with several 20+ scoring performances.
P.J. Tucker played a great series for the Spurs and without his effort, they may have not gotten any farther, as Tucker shot 60% from 3PT range, scoring 18 points in Game 2 and 12 in Game 7. Andre Drummond went to war against Valanciunas, as both men tallied nearly 20 rebounds every game, with Dre averaging 14.4rpg so far with 2.6 blocks per game. His scoring will need to improve as he only had 7.9ppg in this tough series.