The San Antonio Spurs have become the kind of team that they spent the past decade dismantling in the playoffs.
On Sunday, they found out what happens this time of year when a team relies more on 3-point shooting than a grinding defense: They lose.
The Memphis Grizzlies shot 55.2 percent from the floor and held the top 3-point shooting team during the regular season to six 3s as the eighth-seeded Grizzlies upset the top-seeded Spurs 101-98 in Game 1.
Obviously, San Antonio could have used the offensive creativity of Manu Ginobili, who missed Sunday’s game with a sprained right elbow, but it’s the change in the Spurs’ philosophy that is flawed.
San Antonio allowed 98 points a game this season, the most since Tim Duncan was drafted in 1997, and made a franchise-best 685 3-pointers — shooting 39.7 percent from behind the arc. The change in style may have led to 61 regular-season victories, but it’s not the recipe for playoff success.
In 2007, the Suns hit the most 3-pointers in the NBA, won 61 games and raced to the second-best record in the conference. But they lost to the Spurs — the best defensive team in the league that year.
As a No. 7 seed last year, the Spurs upset the second-seeded Mavericks behind their defense — holding Dallas to 90 points or less in their four wins.
San Antonio has four championships because of its defense, but an aging Duncan — who averaged a career low in minutes — forced coach Gregg Popovich to change the way the team plays. No longer could Popovich count on 20 points, 10 rebounds and first-team All-NBA defense from Duncan on a nightly basis.
The adjustment to a more uptempo, perimeter-oriented offense earned the Spurs homecourt advantage in the West. But it could also be their demise this postseason.
