The Spurs lose Wednesday evening in devastating fashion yet making NBA history. The San Antonio Spurs were down 2-1 in the series leading up to game four, with such a deficit, tensions were high leading up to the tip-off. Throughout the first half San Antonio seemed unstoppable, Wemby shot at 71 percent on 13 points, Vassell with 10 on perfect shooting. The Spurs set an all-time record for most points scored in a half by an away team in the NBA finals. By the end of the first half the Spurs had outscored the Knicks 76-49.
The second half, however, was not as one-sided for the Spurs. After the half, Wemby and Co while still dictating the pace, were indeed slowing down.
Gradually the game slipped from a historic win for the Spurs into another Knicks victory as New York played through adversity in the hopes of changing the tide.
Eventually the onslaught from Brunson and his bunch was too much for the young Spurs’ roster to handle and the Knicks prevailed and came out triumphant on a hard fought 107-106 win.
At the end of the day, this game displayed to the Spurs an inconsistency crisis that urgently needs to be addressed if they want any chance at making the series more competitive. Regardless of their quarter or half-game barrages, games aren’t defined by short bursts of output, rather, on performances we see from those like the Knicks highlights.
The box score doesn’t always paint the full picture, however just a first glance we see a more consistent spread from New York, 22 in the first, 27 in the second, 26 in the third, and 32 in the fourth. In comparison San Antonio’s spread looks more like this: 41,35,14,16 in game four.
After crunching the numbers, on average in this series the Knicks score 27.4 per quarter whereas the Spurs on average score 26.25, with a little over 1 point in average. However what these numbers fail to mention is the number of times each team has scored under 20 in a quarter; four times this series San Antonio has scored under 20 while the Knicks have scored under 20 once. Which begs the question, is this inconsistency attributed to the fact that the Knicks are a more seasoned and composed roster compared to the Spurs?
In the same evening the Colorado Rockies beat the Chicago Cubs, edging out a 3-2 win, and marking their second win in their three-game outing against the cubs and look to sweep them Thursday. Regardless, the Rockies still remain the worst team in the MLB.
On Tuesday night the NHL showcased the highly energetic and virtuosic matchup of the Carolina Hurricanes versus the Vegas Golden Knights. Vegas looked to extend their lead over the Canes following their evenly matched 5-4 win over Carolina in home territory. Once the puck dropped however, Carolina came out ablaze, setting the pace this game and scoring in the opening minutes. They would ultimately be the judge jury and executioner for the rest of the game as they slam the gavel down, sentencing the Golden Knights to a 5-3 loss on home ice.
