San Antonio’s blow out victory in game 2 on Wednesday night came at a huge cost: Tony Parker will miss the rest of the playoffs with a ruptured quadriceps tendon.
Parker was carried off the floor during the fourth quarter and it emerged last night that he would not return in the post-season, no matter how far the Spurs can go.
Parker had been the Spurs’ second leading scorer in the postseason, averaging 15.9 points per game, providing excellent support for Kawhi Leonard. At times this postseason, Parker has looked back in the kind of form that helped the Spurs win four titles.
Now San Antonio will have find a way to win without their French general, who has 221 playoff games of experience – fifth on the all-time list and the most amongst active players.
To put that in perspective Tony Parker has played more playoff games (since 2002) than the Kings, Pelicans, Bucks, Timberwolves, Knicks & Hornets have combined!
Whilst there is no doubt that this loss is a huge blow for the Spurs the injury does provide an opportunity for Australian guard Patty Mills.
Mills has been doing an outstanding job of leading San Antonio’s second unit this season – averaging 9.5 points and 3.5 assists per game – and providing a three-point threat off the bench. Parker’s injury will probably see Mills promoted by coach Greg Popovich to the starting line up and see his minutes increase significantly.
Mills and rookie Dejounte Murray will have to take on the burden of filling the void left by Parker’s absence. Expect to see Kawhi Leonard take on more of a point forward role whilst Mills acts as a floor spacer. This could actually benefit the Spurs as Mills is a much better three-point shooter than Parker and will prevent defences collapsing in on Leonard.
It is a long and tired cliche in sports that an injury to one player can provide an opportunity to an another. Let’s hope that Patty Mills can seize his chance and keep the San Antonio Spurs in contention for yet another NBA title.
express34texas
Guest
Mills has never played more than 20-21mpg before in the regular season or the playoffs. Most guys have a much harder time playing much higher minutes than what they've previously played. I suspect Pop won't play Mills more than 25-27 minutes tops. Maybe Murray gets some run, but probably not more than 5-7 minutes. Leonard can handle the ball, but it's not a good idea for SA for him to have to play PG. I just don't know who else could. Maybe Ginobili a little. Though SA's system isn't really built on needing a typical NBA PG. Lots of movement/passing in their system. Mills is much better defensively than Parker, too. I doubt Mills will have that big of an impact, but if he can play steady, make a few shots, and play solid defense, that'll be just fine. I'd think GS would beat SA fairly easily even if SA was at full strength. SA had a hard time beating MEM, and already lost homecourt advantage after game 1 vs HOU. They'd have a hard time beating HOU even with Parker, but both teams still pretty evenly matched, anybody's series.