Now Mike Budenholzer knows what it’s like to be on the losing end of all those Spurs victories.
This win didn’t come easy for the home team.
The Spurs used a late fourth-quarter rally, that required a Tim Duncan jump shot with .4 seconds left, for a 102-100 victory over the Hawks Monday night at the AT&T Center.
Duncan, Tony Parker and Danny Green hit consecutive baskets, the last a 3-pointer at the shot-clock buzzer with 2:53 left, to put the Spurs up by seven points.
The Hawks rallied as Paul Millsap hit a 3-pointer to make it a 98-97 game with 17.5 seconds left. Manu Ginobili hit a pair of free throws with 15.1 seconds left. Jeff Teague answered with a 3-pointer with 4.7 seconds left to tie the score, 100-all.
Then Duncan delivered with a screened jump shot. Millsap’s less-than-a-second-left attempt hit the side of the backboard.
“That was a heck of an NBA basketball game,” said Budenholzer, the long-time Spurs assistant and first-year Hawks head coach. “I’m proud of our guys, a very good effort. If we play that long and that hard in games, we are going to be OK. San Antonio tests you in a lot of different ways. They test you on both ends of the court. It’s good for our guys to compete the way they competed. We would have all liked to find a way to get it done, but we didn’t. There are a lot of positives to take from how long and how hard we played.”
For the Hawks (9-10, 4-7 road) it was their sixth straight loss to the Spurs and 16th straight in San Antonio. The Hawks have lost five of their last six games to fall below .500 for the first time since the first week of the season.
All five Hawks starters scored in double-figures led by Teague with 19 points. Al Horford (18), DeMarre Carroll (17), Paul Millsap (15) and Lou Williams (10) were the others in double digits. Millsap had a double-double with 14 rebounds.
The Spurs (15-3, 8-1 home) were led by Duncan with 23 points and 21 rebounds. Former Hawks first-round draft pick Boris Diaw had 16 points.
On the game-winner, Marco Belinelli set a screen on Al Horford to free Duncan at the elbow. Carroll made a run at Duncan but the 6-foot-11 power forward made the most of his opportunity.
“They did a good job running that play,” Horford said. “They had guys flying all over the place. Belinelli came and set a pin-down on me. At that time, I called the switch. If I had to do it again, I may have tried to chase down Duncan but Belinelli got me pretty good. I have to give him credit. That’s how he was able to get free and get that shot up.”
Budenholzer coached his first game in San Antonio after 19 years in the Spurs organization. His mentor during all those seasons, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, admitted that the notion of coaching against his long-time friend was difficult.
“I don’t like it at all,” Popovich said before the game. “It’s awkward. Win or lose it’s an odd feeling with any of them. You win and you feel badly. You lose and you feel even worse. … You don’t want your opponent to lose in those situations, as crazy as that might sound. I want Bud to win. I want our guys to win. It’s just strange.”
The Hawks led by as many as eight points late in the third quarter, 71-63, with an 8-0 run that included a 3-pointer and steal and layup by Millsap. However, the Spurs answered with a 10-0 run, the last six on back-to-back 3-pointers by Diaw and Ginobili, for a 73-71 advantage going into the final quarter.
The Spurs led 50-49 at the half in a back-and-forth first two quarters. The Spurs led by as many as four points, the Hawks by as many as three points.
The Hawks put up 100 points against the Spurs, who entered the game second in the NBA in points allowed at 91.6 points per game.
“The effort was there,” Millsap said of the Hawks, who had fallen behind by 17 and 18 points in the previous two games. “Guys were out there. They were in sync. To go out and lay it all out there and not come out with a victory is kind of tough.
“If we can play like that every single game, or just come with that type of effort, we’ll be all right.”
The Hawks open a four-game homestand Wednesday against the Clippers. It starts a span of seven out of eight games at Philips Arena.
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