It's obvious pop made a mistake to pull the starters in the first minute of the 3rd quarter.In his press conference he actually spoke on the topic of some type of emotion, being his frustration. He also mentioned how he was disappointed. Disappointed his starters didn't respond with the proper fear to start the 3rd and disappointed his bench couldn't make some type of response, they had proven all year they were capable of that, and probably disappointed in the very decision.
The spurs battled hard in the first half and were only down by four when memphis was rolling. The incident to start the 3rd quarter happened and the game just got away. It's obvious pop wishes he could take it back, you don't think he's human and thoughts are not going through his brain? It was a horrible decision to not let our guys fight through the turmoil as they had all of the first half, no he f-ed up, everyone sees it.
The starters come back in at the 8 minute mark, and for Kawhi to not take it upon himself at that point and lead by example and bail pop out and dominate like he's supposed to dominate, was also very disappointing. That's the next step in his game that he needs to take. Instead of steadying the ship like Timmy might have been able to, he let memphis tip us over. Instead of fighting with every ounce of strength to get us back into this game, he folded, into a passive state. He's missing that killer instinct that a kobe had, and a manu had. He needs to realize sometimes it's going to be on him and only him to win a basketball game. He should have had pops back, cause coaches make mistakes too.
Timmy covered up 1000x mistakes and flaws in the spurs, pop toasts to it at all team dinners from what I've read. Thank Timmy for this, this is all because of Timmy. Kawhi needs to become that guy to be the best player in the NBA and for us to have a chance at beating the warriors. Everyone who knows and watches ball can see he has the talent. Timmy is gone, it's his time to become that guy. He should have had pops back, or should have at least fought like he had his back.
But Saturday will be here quick and he'll get another chance. Kawhi will dominate. Spurs in 5.