I refuse to read too much into this one.
You hear me? Won’t do it. Can’t do it. Under threat of fines, banishment, or even death, I simply will not do it. Every person has to have a code, and mine is that
I won’t read too much into the Spurs blowing a 19-point lead on the road on the second night of a back-to-back in January.
Because what are we talking about here?
Are the Spurs bad now? Are they suddenly not “clutch?” Should Wembanyama come off the bench? Should we trade everyone and call it a day? You tell me, because truly, I don’t know what the takeaway is supposed to be. I feel like my cat just dropped a dead pigeon at my doorstep and is now staring at me expectantly.
I want to run far away from this game. I want to bury it in a deep, dark hole. I want to take it to a farm upstate where it can have more freedom to run around with all the other bad losses I don’t want to think about. It just feels like no good can come from wading into this swamp and trying to sift through it for meaning. If the glaring flaws on display at the Target Center last night are real, then you can be assured we’ll see them again down the road and we’ll just have to reckon with that when the time comes. And if this was just a blip? Then hey, just a blip. These aren’t the droids you’re looking for. Move along. Move along.
Now unfortunately, like many of you, I did actually watch this game, so the matter of having the images of that lead slipping away amid a barrage of bricked, wide-open threes and Anthony Edwards heroics isn’t as simple as I’d like. I can objectively know that the Spurs flew out of Boston around midnight and landed in Minneapolis at the crack of dawn. I can rationally connect the red string between those two dots and conclude that the killer, in this case, is likely our old friend Dr. Fatigue.
But fandom isn’t a rational thing. We know this. From our privileged position on the couch, all we can really see is another data point on the “play from our trio of WonderGuards has started to dip” scatterplot. We’re seeing the team struggle to find its rhythm when Wembanyama starts versus when he comes in off the bench. We’re seeing the turnover issue rear its head again. Excuses abound for all of this, but the eyes see what they see. It was a bummer.
I’m getting away from my core mission here though, which, again, is to decisively not read into this. We simply must look away. Cast our gaze out upon the horizon and ignore the little bumps that are probably nothing anyway, I said don’t worry about it!
This is a difficult stretch of the year. It’s cold. The travel is hard. The All-Star break is nigh. The cascading highs of the NBA Cup have worn off. (Mr. Silver, I’ll take that check whenever you have a second.) More than anything, this Spurs team looks a little spent. Whatever adrenaline shot they got hit with during December has started to wear off, and they just don’t look like a group that can bring it for a full 48, night after night, right now. They need a nap. I need a nap. Reader, I think in all likelihood, you also need a nap.
So let’s just… breathe. Let’s practice some mindfulness. Let’s try not to FREAK OUT. This game might be something but also, crucially, it might be nothing at all. Do you really want to miss out on your chance to not let this game affect you? I didn’t think so. As the philosopher Seneca once wrote, “We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more in imagination than in reality.”
Unclear how or why an ancient Roman philosopher knew so much about watching mid-season NBA basketball, but I think we should listen to him here, mostly because I don’t have the energy to do otherwise.
Takeaways:
- Alright, so. Last time I wrote for this site I said something very definitive about how “shooting is not a problem on this team, stop yelling at me about it.” It was a good take. A strong take. I felt confident when I dished it out. What have the Spurs done since then? Well they’ve simply continued to make a really cool argument that I’m dumb and that shooting actually might be something we want to address.
- It’s not like we’ve fallen off a cliff or anything, it just feels like everyone cooled off in a very noticeable way at the exact same time. We’re still scoring around 110-ish points a night, but we’re just doing it while shooting in the low-40s from the field and the mid-20s from three, which is a big shift from earlier in the season. The looks are still there but they’re just not falling, particularly from the guards and wings. Can they not shoot or can they just not shoot right now? What do we do with that? Probably nothing! Hope for the best! Come play the long game with me and hope my “stop yelling at me about scoring” take comes out a winner!
- Adding the Timberwolves to my growing list of enemires that inexplicably give us the business for reasons I don’t fully understand. They join the Suns as teams I simply do not want to see in the playoffs because they give me the heebie-jeebies. Maybe they both just have that special cocktail of physicality and raw shot-making from a star player that’s difficult for us to counteract, especially when the shots aren’t falling? I don’t know. Keep them away. Give me a team we can bully like, I don’t know, the Thunder? Checking my notes… that can’t be right.
- I kind of can’t believe we have to go play the Thunder tomorrow. I’m maybe a little bit bracing for impact on that one. Not sure about you guys, but my mouth has been writing an awful lot of checks about the Thunder since Christmas Day, just assuming we’d be able to cash them, and things have been a touch… “yikes” since then. Probably nothing to worry about. Go Spurs!
- On a more serious note, much love to the people of Minneapolis and the surrounding communities, who are once again navigating a painful stretch of upheaval and unrest. Wishing you strength, safety, and some measure of peace in the days ahead.
WWL Post Game Press Conference
– Seems like you’re in a difficult position of being tasked with the job of looking directly at something you have no desire to look at.
– Yeah, for sure. This job is way easier when the game in question is something we’re all psyched about. Do you have any idea how easy it is to just ignore losses when you don’t have to pay attention to them?
– Um, yes. Yeah, I think most people do.
– Right. Well. So yeah. Best I can do is implore people to not be like me. Run away as fast as they can. Read a book! Eat a sandwich! Touch grass! Go do anything else! Why are you here wallowing?
– Well, now it almost sounds like you’re actively encouraging people not to read the website we’re on, which feels a little counterintuitive.
– No, now, hold on. You gotta read the website. That’s important. Come click all the links and read all the words. We work hard on this.
– So engage, read, interact with the site, but don’t actually focus on what’s being said? Don’t internalize it?
-Engage with the site. Read the words. Focus on our wit and wisdom. Laud our works to your friends, family, and coworkers. Tell everyone how great we are and convince everyone you know to Venmo each writer of this site five American dollars. But also, you know, don’t worry about the Spurs losing games. Just be chill, dude. It’s not that hard.
– Yeah, right. Simple enough.
