What We Learned from the Spurs loss to the Rockets

We are just sailing through a remarkably unmemorable stretch of Spurs basketball at the moment. Seriously. Go ahead and think back on all the games you’ve watched as a fan of this team. Maybe you were around for the Gervin years or maybe you came on board when Timmy was drafted. Perhaps you’re a real sicko who saw how the Kawhi trade went down and decided that now was the time to get invested in the Silver & Black. I’m not here to judge! All I’m saying is that no matter when you joined up, this particular stretch is not going to be one we’re singing songs about when we get to Valhalla.

That’s probably for the best, right? We don’t need to remember exactly what was going on here. “Did the Spurs beat the Rockets that one time in January? You know, during all the Covid stuff? Middle of the season? Primo’s rookie year?” I promise you that this will never come up. Maybe 10 years from now you’ll be watching a game and a stat will flash across the screen that will read something like, ‘The Houston Rockets haven’t won a game in San Antonio since January of 2022’ and you’ll scratch your chin and then continue to use that particular space in your brain to store something more important.

It’ll be like it never happened. The score? The record? Who cares?? They’re nothing more than necessary, yet unassuming, bricks in the foundation of that big, wonderful house we’re building. What you’ll remember is Dejounte Murray. Yeah. We’re going to be telling people what it was like to watch the dude ascend to another level of playmaking ability. Or Josh Primo. When he’s getting ready to make an All-Star team in a few years, we’re going to tell all kinds of tall tales about his first games in the League and how we could already see what was coming down the pike.

My point is, there’s plenty of bright spots to focus on right now that have nothing to do with the final score. If I sound like a broken record making this point it’s because I’m reminding myself. Every time the Spurs drop a game right now the reflex in my brain that wants to Bobby Knight a chair across the living room rears its ugly head. I’m sure we all get that way from time to time. Losing is not the end of the world, but that certainly doesn’t make it any fun.

Look, I’m not going to tell you that I know what the future holds. Maybe this is as good as it gets with Dejounte. Maybe the Front Office decides to blow up this rebuild and start a new rebuild. [Editor’s note: Not likely! - JRW] Maybe the Spurs don’t win another title in our lifetime! I don’t know! No one does! All I can tell you right now is that Wednesday’s loss doesn’t matter. The one a few nights before? Inconsequential. The one that’s coming up on the schedule sooner or later? It is neither here, nor is it there.

When you take a road trip to the Grand Canyon, the thing you will remember the most is that big, beautiful hole in the ground. That’s obviously number one. However, the time you spent getting there usually ends up being just as important. The food you ate, the music you listened to, the people you went with. Those parts make the trip that much more special. So be easy on yourselves, Spurs fans. Don’t focus on how many more miles we have to go. Just eat some beef jerky and try to relax.

Plus, I’m pretty sure if one more person asks Gregg Popovich, “Are we there yet?” he’s going to turn this bus around and go home.

Takeaways:

• It’s probably pretty dumb to have any takeaway from this game that isn’t, “Dejounte Murray is amazing.” He just continues to get better and better. It’s almost a bummer that we’re wasting a season like this on one of our rebuild years. I know that’s not a healthy way to look at things and that it all sort of comes out in the wash somewhere, but he’s such a competitor that you know it just kills him to drop games like this. Every time I watch him right now I just want to pull him aside and apologize for all the mess.
• It’s difficult to explain the immersive palette of pleasure and pain the makes up the anatomy of being a Jakob Poeltl Superfan. You have to be able to say something like, “Jakob Poeltl is the best center in the NBA” with a straight face and, you know, it can’t be a bit or anything. You have to really mean it. You have to see him work seamlessly with Lonnie Walker off the pick and roll, glide into the lane, deftly lay the ball in up under the rim and go, “surely, in his wildest dreams, Michelangelo couldn’t have imagined something more beautiful to paint upon his chapel ceiling!” You have to watch him get that INEXPLICABLE fourth foul in the 3rd quarter and realize that this might mean the game is over. I can’t stress enough how important Jakob has becoming to my ‘Watching the Spurs Experience’ lately. He is a light in the darkness.

• Is it just me, or are the Rockets significantly less hateable sans James Harden? I feel like my blood still boils a little bit when I see their name on the schedule but then during the game I felt almost...apathetic? Maybe It’s because they are stuck in their own little quagmire of a reboot like us that makes them seem a little more simpatico than they used to. Maybe that all goes hand in hand with the lack of James Harden floating around and giving off bad vibes?
• Hey, we survived to middle of the season! We’re halfway done! Congrats! What a ride. Feel free to never speak of it again.

WWL Post Game Press Conference

- So, in one of your, uh, many metaphors up there, you mentioned that something would serve as the bricks in the foundation of a house being built?

- Right, uh, the losses and overall poor record the Spurs have accumulated this season are the bricks that make up the, uh, foundation for the, you know, big wonderful house we’re building?

- Sure, so, like, do you think that bricks make up the foundations of house?

- They definitely do! I’ve seen pictures and stuff on the Internet! A brick foundation is absolutely a thing.

- It might be a thing, but there’s no way it’s the best thing to use for your metaphor there. They were doing brick foundations in, like, the early 1900’s. Civil War vets built their homes on a brick foundation. Nowadays, you want a slab foundation. A good, stable concrete pour. Then you don’t have any weird crawl spaces or, like, spaces for little creatures and pests to get in there and mess stuff up. Plus it’s WAY more cost effective.

- Ok, so like, I should change the metaphor to something like, “The score? The record? Who cares?? They’re nothing more than necessary, yet, unassuming cement and water that make up the slab foundation of that big, wonderful, cost effective house we’re building”?

- Perfect. Way Better.