Game 17: The Spurs fall one short of history
Basketball-Reference box score.
The 2016-2017 Spurs are set to be another historically great basketball team. One year removed from setting a franchise record for wins with 67 (which would be a franchise record for every team in the league except for five), they don’t seem to have missed a beat, especially on the road. The Spurs had started the season off with 13 straight road wins, just one shy of the NBA record. There were only two things standing in their way: Chicago and the broadcasting duo of Marv Albert and Chris Webber.
The TNT magic cast its hex on the Spurs, who, according to Bleacher Report’s Alec Nathan, “couldn’t buy a bucket during a first half in which they shot 31.3 percent from the field and 1-of-11 from three, and all but 10 of their first-half points came inside the paint as jumpers failed to fall time and again versus a stout Chicago defense.” It’s not the defense, Alec. It’s bigger than all of us.
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Chicago came into the second half with a 13-point lead that ballooned all the way to 18 midway through the third quarter. However, since it was a professional basketball game in which the Bulls participated, a fourth quarter lead had to be blown, so the Spurs managed to get it back within four before the Bulls could stumble to the finish line.
After the game, the Spurs went back to being really freaking good and the Bulls went back to being mediocre.