Does any elixir taste sweeter than a dose of revenge? Probably not if you ask the San Antonio Spurs.
The Spurs finally got revenge on the Miami Heat a year after blowing Game 6 of the NBA Finals. The Spurs were up 94-89 with 22 seconds left last year and lost. They could have gone up by 6 with 28 second left, but Manu Ginobili went 1-for-2 on free throws. They could have been up 96-92 with 19 seconds left, but Kawhi Leonard only made 1-of-2 free throws. Ray Allen hit a 3-pointer that tied the game instead of bringing the Heat to down one point. You know how the rest goes — Miami went on to win in overtime and then took Game 7 to clinch it.
Tony Parker called the way the Spurs lost last year’s game “cruel.”
San Antonio had its fifth NBA championship on its hands and let it slip away. They had to feel miserable for an entire summer and wait a full year before getting revenge, but they did it. And I firmly believe the way the Spurs lost last year — having their hearts ripped out — drove them to work harder than ever this season. They were much more motivated than they would have been under normal circumstances.
“What happened last year definitely helped us,” Tim Duncan said after Game 5 Sunday. “[The loss] helped our drive and (helped us) stay focused for an extended period of time. It very easily could have hit us in different ways and we could have reacted in different ways. But we reacted the right way. We got great leadership from the top in (Gregg Popovich), who came back absolutely fired up and ready to go. To push us this hard, this far and to come out with a championship is amazing.”
Ginobili, who in many ways was the goat of the Finals last year for San Antonio, said the Finals loss made them stronger. He said he felt guilty that he let his teammates down last season.
“Last year was a tough one for all of us,” Ginobili said after Game 5. “We felt like we had the trophy, that we were touching it, and it slipped away. It was a tough summer. We all felt guilty.
“We all felt that we let (our) teammates down. But we worked hard. Every game in the regular season we were trying to get better, to have the same opportunity again. We got to this spot, and we didn’t let it go.
“As you could see, every game we were up 15, 20, we kept it. No mistakes. Great mentality, and we kept playing until the last minute.”
Popovich called last year’s loss “devastating.”
“Last year’s loss was devastating,” said Popovich in his postgame presser. “I’ve said many times, a day didn’t go by where I didn’t think about Game 6. “So I think just in general, for the group to have the fortitude that they showed to get back to this spot, I think speaks volumes about how they’re constituted and what kind of fiber they have.”
Tony Parker, like Duncan, felt this year’s title was the sweetest for them to win because of what they had to endure to get there.
“It’s the sweetest one because it’s just unbelievable to win seven years ago and to be so close last year, it was very cruel,” said Parker. “It makes it even better the fact that we had to go through that and we had to go through a tough loss in Game 6 and Game 7, and to be able to come back. It just makes the journey even more worth it.”
It was a long, tough road for the Spurs, and I think we can attribute their machine-like focus and performance throughout the postseason to their determination to get revenge. Even before the Finals began, Duncan said he was happy to get the Heat because he wanted revenge.
You could just tell from the start of the Finals that the Spurs had that champion’s mentality. If they didn’t lose in such heartbreaking fashion last year, they would not have had the same determination and focus this year.
