These Spurs seem to love suspense. That’s the only explanation as to why they didn’t seal their 113-110 win against the Trail Blazers while they had the chance and instead had to rely on an incredibly lucky bounce on a Damian Lillard three-pointer to avoid overtime.
The only constant in the Spurs’ first three games has been an inability to play hard and smart for a full 48 minutes. On Monday they had two good quarters bookended by some awful play that almost cost them their undefeated status. The Blazers, on a SEGABABA and with Lillard in supernova level late, deserve an enormous amount of credit for fighting until the end, but without San Antonio’s collaboration they wouldn’t have been able to get to the last possession with a chance to pull off the comeback.