SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Sports can be so simple. For the San Antonio Spurs, fixing what ailed them in Game 2 \u2014 that they didn\u2019 t \u201cbelieve\u201d in themselves \u2014 wasn\u2019 t goin<\/b>
\nSAN ANTONIO \u2014 Sports can be so simple.
For the San Antonio Spurs, fixing what ailed them in Game 2 \u2014 that they didn\u2019 t \u201cbelieve\u201d in themselves \u2014 wasn\u2019 t going to be enough to compete with the Golden State Warriors. Not if they\u2019 re playing without Kawhi Leonard, who was held out of the contest by coach Gregg Popovich.
\u201cYou just make a decision and you move on, \u201d Pop said before the Warriors pushed the Spurs to the brink of elimination with a 120-108 win.
By holding Leonard out, the decision was clear: It\u2019s time to punt this series and think long-term, because these Spurs aren\u2019 t beating the Warriors.
Not in a best-of-seven series \u2014 especially not if it requires digging out of a 3-0 hole.
Game 3 wasn\u2019 t an embarrassment like Game 2. The Spurs showed up to play on Saturday night at the AT&T Center, but after a strong start to the game \u2014 including a six-point lead in the first quarter \u2014 San Antonio lacked the firepower to keep it close.
\u201cEvery time you look up, you\u2019 re playing against four all-stars, so you better be pretty perfect, \u201d a resigned Popovich said after the game. \u201c\u2026 That\u2019s a hell of a team.\u201d
The immortal Manu Ginobli (21 points on nine shots) carried the Spurs with little assistance. That\u2019s not enough when there\u2019s no one on the floor to slow down Kevin Durant.
Durant finished with an efficient 33 points while grabbing 10 rebounds, doing most of his damage in the third, when the Warriors showed they weren\u2019 t going to loosen their grip on their double-digit advantage. That was made easier by an 16-0 run by Durant himself.
KD burning an opponent is fine, almost expected at least once in a series. But what\u2019s more damning for the Spurs and their complete inability to make this a competitive Western Conference Finals is that the Warriors were legitimately bad in several key areas of the game on Saturday.
They were sloppier with the ball than they\u2019 ve ever been with Mike Brown as the acting head coach. They lost the rebounding battle, allowing the Spurs to grab 15 offensive rebounds.
Saturday\u2019s was the second-straight game in which the Warriors allowed a playoffs-high number of boards on the offensive glass, and it was the second time in the last three games they committed 19 or more turnovers.
None of those three games were in danger for Golden State since Leonard was injured in the third quarter of Game 1.
Those miscues haven\u2019 t mattered in the grand scheme.
And a piece of Popovich\u2019s philosophy that Brown revealed before the game informs us why. When the Dubs coach was a Spurs assistant after the 2000-01 season, Pop allowed Brown in on a secret of NBA team building.
\u201cI\u2019 ll never forget, Pop said, and this was a while ago: \u2018In today\u2019s game, you need three quote-unquote superstars or perennial all stars to win in the playoffs,\u2019 Brown recalled.
\u201cI believe he said that because of him feeling if somebody goes down or if somebody has a bad stretch of three or four games, you need two other guys to carry the load.\u201d
The Spurs, right now, meet all the requirements of that theoretical team Popovich believed wouldn\u2019 t seriously compete for a championship. They had a crucial guy go down. They have somebody struggling through a stretch of bad games (LaMarcus Aldridge) , and they don\u2019 t have the extra impact players to carry the load.
Durant didn\u2019 t believe the report when he heard Popovich was preventing Leonard from playing.
\u201cIn those situations, you can never believe what Pop says, \u201d Durant said. \u201cMentally, he\u2019s always a step ahead of everybody.\u201d
That\u2019s true. He\u2019s so far ahead of the situation, he\u2019s already looking to next season.
Contact Jacob C. Palmer at jpalmer@sfexaminer.com or on Twitter, @jacobc_palmer.<\/p>\n

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