NBA Playoffs 2017: 3 takeaways from the Spurs’ crucial Game 5 victory over Rockets

In an overtime thriller, the San Antonio Spurs took a huge Game 5 over the Houston Rockets to take a 3-2 series lead.

One word: GINOBILI.

Game 5 between the Rockets and Spurs was befitting overtime. In what was the best game of the series — and the first one that didn’t end in a double-digit win — the Spurs staved off the Rockets to go up 3-2.

As is well known, Game 5 is crucial for any series that’s tied 2-2: winners of Game 5 advance 82 percent of the time. Not only do the Rockets have to win the next two games, they’ll have to buck history. Conversely, the Spurs will have to win one of the next two games with an injured Kawhi Leonard, who tweaked his left ankle and missed the end of the fourth quarter and the entire overtime. We won’t know how he’ll play until he actually steps on the floor in Game 6.

The Spurs matched the Rockets with a change to their starting lineup. While the Rockets went small and replaced forward Ryan Anderson with guard Eric Gordon, the Spurs replaced point guard Dejounte Murray with Patty Mills.

The game was back and forth. The pace favored the Rockets but the Spurs held strong. Both teams dug into their strategy, favoring points in the paint and twos vs. launching 3s. The Rockets went small with hopes that their pace and shooting would cancel out the Spurs’ ability to pound the ball down low and dominate the paint.

Both teams were right, but, again, the Spurs came out on top. The Rockets attempted 48 3s … and missed 32 of them, though they did hit 16.

Where the Spurs dominated, especially late in the fourth and in OT was on the glass. San Antonio finished with 18 offensive rebounds in Game 5, a product of sticking with their bigs-centric lineup.

Here are three takeaways from Game 5.

Takeaways

Take a bow, Manu Ginobili: This might be the last postseason we ever see Ginobili play. The long-time NBA veteran is a four-time champ and an ambassador for international basketball, and one of the first to bring the Euro step to the NBA.

Ginobili had been struggling this postseason, averaging postseason lows across the board, including just three points a game. So, as a basketball fan, it was great to see a vintage Ginobili game. He scored 12 points off the bench, nabbed seven boards and dished out five assists, all with zero turnovers.

Ginobili dunked (with his right hand!), made tough layups and blocked James Harden’s final shot at the buzzer in overtime to seal the win. If this is the final postseason in which we see Ginobili, let Game 5 be what we all remember.

Pau Gasol-LaMarcus Aldridge lineups have run their course: If the Spurs advance, maybe this changes. (Probably not.) But in this series, as much as it probably pains coach Gregg Popovich to take Gasol off the floor, leaving Aldridge as his de facto rim protector — though Aldridge is more just a guy who jumps straight in the air as opposing players go by him — the two-man lineup is just hemorrhaging points as the Rockets continue to go smaller.

In 78 minutes played this series, Gasol-Aldridge have a net rating of minus-13.3. To be fair, their lineup with Leonard, Patty Mills and Danny Green scored 125 points per 100 possessions in Game 5, though the sample size was small.

Offensively, their presence is felt — they combined for nine offensive boards in Game 5. The issue is defensively with the three-guard lineup the Rockets trot out. Trevor Ariza shifts to the four spot, dragging Aldridge from the paint. It can leave Gasol on an island as the only big.

The switch of Gasol for Jonathon Simmons continues to be the right move, as Simmons came up huge in overtime, stripping Harden on two separate possessions.

The Spurs are in trouble without Leonard: You mean a team is significantly worse without its superstar? You don’t say …

Leonard is the driving force behind the Spurs’ offense and the question surrounding the team is who could take off some of the burden from him. That question was going to be answered after he tweaked his ankle and was seen limping at times. As a precaution, and because his performance was affected by his injury, Popovich sat him for overtime. And that proved the Spurs don’t have anyone who can carry the burden.

With 11 seconds left and a chance to win the game, Mills dribbled at the top of the arc, pump faked with less than a second remaining and didn’t get his shot off until after the buzzer. The Spurs hit their first shot with :56 left in overtime. 

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Defensively, they picked up the slack in the fifth period, completely discombobulating the Rockets’ offense and forcing three Harden turnovers. But to go that long without scoring a basket is an issue, and if Leonard isn’t as close to 100 percent as possible, that Spurs offense has taken a huge hit.