https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/11/20/18103441/san-antonio-spurs-lost-specialQuote:
The Spurs are a bizarro-world version of the Rockets. Both teams run isolation-heavy offenses built around two primary scorers, which limits their turnovers and keeps the game in the half court. But there's an underlying philosophical difference that creates dramatically different outcomes from the same basic formula. The Rockets take as many 3s as possible and avoid long 2s at all costs; the Spurs do the exact opposite. James Harden and Chris Paul average 17.3 3s per game and 4.5 long 2s (shots between 10 feet and the 3-point line); DeRozan and Aldridge average 2.2 3s and 16.3 long 2s.
The Spurs can beat the percentages on a given night, but the math is hard to overcome over a longer period of time. They have no margin for error. They have to run incredibly crisp offensive sets to even have a chance at scoring as efficiently as teams that play four and five 3-point shooters at a time. It's a dramatic reversal for a franchise that pioneered the corner 3, allowing players to consistently generate higher-percentage shots than their opponents. The Spurs were counting cards when their run began at the turn of the century. Now they are trying to beat the house with the deck stacked against them.
