I had to rewatch.
I was finishing up work — don’t judge me — and was comforted by the fact that the Spurs were up 30. I wasn’t missing anything! Everyone was hitting and The Cs were bricking. Life was good.
As I put my work stuff away and prepared to kiss the children goodnight I looked at the TV one last time and saw the score was 116-116.
I had to rewatch.
I saw and confirmed a 30-point half time lead. I saw and confirmed a 28-point lead with 6 minutes in the third. I saw and confirmed a 20+ point fourth quarter lead.
It was a slow march. The Celtics hit everything. The Spurs looked shocked. It’s hard to find the rhythm and change it up because there weren’t any alternatives. The Cs started doing what the Spurs do late: give it to the closer and see what happens.
From the last 4-minutes or so on into overtime The Spurs’ DeRozan was getting clutch buckets but not as well as Jason Tatum did. DDR was good! Tatum was better — even though he missed the potential game-winner right before half.
If there was a glaring difference it was that Marcus Smart was giving DeRozan fits and making him work for everything. No one could guard Tatum to the point of discomfort. He was *on* but also DDR is not a lockdown guy.
NBA squads had gone 940 or so games without blowing a 32-point lead (according to twitter) until this one.