GAME 1: San Antonio Spurs (0-1) vs. Dallas Mavericks (1-0)| 119-126 WIN!

[KillerLeft]

Given we played 36 games where we were +/- 3 points in the final 30 seconds (Credit Damaris), late execution can be a 10-12 game swing in the tight west.  Do it well and we could host a playoff round.  Do it poorly and we are hoping for ping pong balls again.  Part of picking 48 wins was the idea that we have two late game savants surrounded by good defenders who can either hit shots or create massive vertical gravity.  Hopefully, Kidd will design some actual plays to run the final play of the game this year.

Absolutely. Doesn’t get talked about enough. During the WCF season they won many of those. It felt like Luka was hitting a game winner once a week. Last season, any clutch game could almost be penciled in as a loss. We spent a lot of time blaming coach Kidd and his ATO’s, and I still happen to believe that was a problem, but the bottom line is that Luka’s clutch scoring wasn’t on par with the previous year. He was still a top 10 player, but I believe a statistical analysis might reveal that he wasn’t a top 10 CLOSER like he had been the previous year. (Not intended as a Luka bash, could be a plethora of causes)

As you say, if they fix that, they fix a lot.