Much was made (read: borderline outrage) on Sunday as San Antonio Spurs managed to win their fifth in a row. While the winning streak is encouraging, what had set Twitter ablaze was the fact that the Spurs scored 116 points in their win over the Chicago Bulls but not a single field goal came from future Hall of Famer Tim Duncan.
It was the first time in his illustrious career that he went without a field goal, which was a span of 1,310 games. That’s quite impressive. Matt Bonner didn’t score a field goal last night too but you don’t see anyone starting riots for his cause.
At any rate, it once again reinforces that the Spurs are no longer built around the 15-time All-Star. He’s now 38-years-old old and if the Spurs win another title, it’ll be with him as a member of the cast opposed to the leading star. Kudos to Gregg Popovich for retooling this team on the fly but on Sunday, it became startlingly clear that the Spurs success is no longer solely tied to Duncan.
Parker Makes The Team Go
The main member that makes or breaks the Spurs these days is point guard Tony Parker. The team has won five straight and it’s no surprise that it’s coincided with one of his best stretches of the season. He’s averaged 20.0 points per game over his last five while chipping in 3.6 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.2 steals. On Sunday, he scored 16 points in the paint, which tied his season high, while connecting on 80% from the field.
When opposing teams focus on how to beat the Spurs, the game plan no longer zones in on Duncan. The new plan has to be to stop Parker. The numbers speak for themselves. The Spurs have won 31 times with Parker in the lineup this season and he’s averaged 16.3 points per game while shooting 49.4% from the field and 53.3% from three-point land. They’ve also lost 16 times with him in the lineup and that’s because he only produced 9.9 points per game while shooting 39.3% from the field and 34.8% from three. If they’re going to make another run, Parker will have to lead the way. Not Duncan.
Leonard Is The X-Factor
A case can be made that Duncan isn’t even the second most important player on the team anymore. That honor might go to Kawhi Leonard, who continues to emerge as one of the better young players in the game.
Leonard scored 29 points on Sunday while picking up eight rebounds and three steals. Diving into the analytics, it’s pretty clear just how important he is to the team. When he was on the court, the Spurs outscored the Bulls by 17 points and shot six percentage points better. They averaged just 0.84 points per play with him off the court compared to 1.12 with him on it.
While that’s a small sample size from Sunday, the numbers on the season speak volumes. The Spurs are an impressive 31-13 with Leonard in the lineup and are just 8-10 without him. That means their winning percentage goes from .705, which is good for the third-best in the Western Conference, to .444, which would seat them in 11th place. Clearly, this is not the same team when he’s not in the lineup playing at his peak.
Duncan Still Plays An Important Role
If you think that Duncan going scoreless is some kind of sign that the Spurs are done, think again. As mentioned, they still managed to score 116 without getting much help from him. That means this team is still capable of getting to that range when their two-time MVP doesn’t score a basket. Five other players still scored at least 11 points while 10 others overall scored at least two points. That’s impressive.
And just because Duncan didn’t score doesn’t mean that he wasn’t a valuable asset on the court. He still had three points (from free throws), collected eight rebounds, picked up three assists and registered a block. While the team is no longer built around him, he’s still a vital asset that they need.
