Mike Brown has experienced the gamut in his 18 years on an NBA bench: a Coach of the Year award, three firings, a Finals berth. But Thursday night, as he watched the Spurs pummel Houston in Game 6 to set up a date with his Warriors in the Western Conference finals, Brown was stunned.
“It was just shocking,” Brown, Golden State’s acting head coach, said after practice Friday.
That San Antonio was without Kawhi Leonard and Tony Parker only reinforced what Brown, a former Spurs assistant, already knew well: In Gregg Popovich’s egalitarian, movement-oriented system, the emphasis is on making the right read, not finding a specific player.