The San Antonio Spurs are here. Still playing. Manu Ginobili hit a wild shot. Gary Neal hit the thrilling game saver to force overtime. Tony Parker morphed into Tony Parker circa 2005 in the overtime. San Antonio staved off elimination Wednesday in dramatic fashion.
But it did not change the underlying issues in this series. The things that put the Grizzlies up 3-1 in this series are still there heading into Game 6 in Memphis Friday night (Memphis is now up 3-2). So long as the Grizzlies stay true to who they are — as they have through the first five games — it may take another San Antonio miracle to force a Game 7. And it’s hard to survive on miracles.
Memphis still has Zach Randolph and the Spurs still have no good answer for that. Mark Gasol and Mike Conley continue to be rock solid, consistent every game. Memphis continues to defend the corner three well (the Spurs are shooting 2.4 fewer of their bread-and-butter shots per game and are hitting 39 percent, down fro 42 percent in the regular season). The Spurs are shooting just 31 percent from three overall in the series. Memphis continues to own the paint. And the boards.
And now Memphis goes home. With the chance to close out the franchise’s first ever playoff series win in front of their home crown in a legendary upset. They are going to bring it hard.
At this point in a series there are no more surprise coaching adjustments, it’s simply execution. The Spurs are going to need the Manu Ginobili from Game 5 — 33 points on 18 shots — and the Parker from overtime of that game to pull off the win. The Spurs will need Tim Duncan to jump in the hot tub time machine for a night because this older one struggles against the Grizzlies twin big men. San Antonio cannot count on end of game heroics. Not this time.
San Antonio needs to find the Spurs from December, the ones whose offensive execution ripped everyone apart. Otherwise this will be the last stand for the West’s top seed this season.