San Antonio Spurs respond Gregg Popovich’s “get nasty” demand – NBA Feature
The San Antonio Spurs had to do a bit of tweaking to their game plan, but they hung on to win game 1 of the Western Conference Finals over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night.
In doing so, the rampant Spurs maintained their record of not having lost a game this post season, stretching their winning streak to 19 games.
Giving credit where credit is due, the Oklahoma City Thunder brought the best out of the Spurs, and then some more. Scott Brooks was exceptional and he had Gregg Popovich making plays after plays, every one of which seemed to be failing, to the point where Popovich had to go to his team and tell them to just “get nasty”.
The Thunder controlled the game for the first three quarters, but slipped in the final one, which was all it took.
After trailing by 9 points at the end of the third quarter, San Antonio coach Popovich told his team in the huddle that he wanted them to get “nasty”. And out came the Spurs, charging in all directions and hounding OKC to get the job done. It was as if there was a button that he had pushed.
The Spurs wiped away the 9 point Thunder lead within 4 minutes. They scored 39 points in the final period after managing only 62 in the first three and had 16 points within the paint in the fourth period, after scoring just 34 in the first three quarters.
The Spurs kicked into another gear. And one of the key factors of that Spurs turnaround was Stephen Jackson. After rookie Kawhi Leonard failed to control Kevin Durant, Popovich sent in a veteran in S-Jax, who hunted down Durant and made life miserable for him in the fourth quarter.
Durant was 0-of-2 in the final period and finished with 27 points. With him not scoring, the Thunder seemed lost on offense as Westbrook struggled with his jump shots.
“Oh yeah, it makes me smile, it gets me going when he talks like that. When he says that he wants to go out and be physical, go out and leave it all on the court. Play hard for your teammates, back your teammates up. That's all he meant” said Jackson when asked about Popovich’s demand to be nasty.
Gregg Popovich was also asked what he meant by the comments he made to his team ahead of the final period and he replied:
“I thought that we were playing for most of the first half, and even at the beginning of the third quarter, a bit unconfidently, kind of on our heels a little bit, unsure of ourselves. So I talked to them about they've got to get a little bit uglier, get a little more nasty, play with more fiber and take it to these guys”
Gregg’s words got the job for the Spurs, who now have the psychological advantage after the game 1 victory.
The Thunder came close to a win but were denied right at the end. Now they go back to the drawing boards and figure out what went wrong in an attempt to win game 2 before they head back to Oklahoma City.
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