It was clearly not the easiest match, on paper at least, to get this record which held out to Gregg Popovich, coach of the San Antonio Spurs. The 15 points behind posted at the start of the fourth quarter against Utah Jazz (66-81, 38th), finally filled in an electrifying last act, added sublime to the dramaturgy, magnified the feat finally validated by the 73-year-old coach, dean of NBA coaches, now the only record holder for the number of regular season wins with 1,336 successes gleaned.
After having failed for the first time to seize the new reference mark two days earlier against Toronto (104-119), the technician has long seen his proteges struggle against the suffocating defense of the Jazz, not helped by a cruel lack of skill at three points (6 out of 29, 20.7%). The slaughter of Dejounte Murray (27 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 5 steals) and the inability of Rudy Gobert’s team (13 points, 16 rebounds) to contain the furious return of the premises finally offered an end to thriller game.
A belated victory
The Spurs waited the last two minutes to switch to the lead (96-95) on two free throws from Lonnie Walker (11 points), to then take possession full in advance thanks to the activity of their Austrian pivot Jakob Poeltl ( 15 points, 11 rebounds). An ultra-precious offensive rebound from Keldon Johson captured on a missed free throw 12 seconds from the buzzer forced the visitors to make a mistake to take a four-point lead (101-97).
The baskets of Donovan Mitchell (24 points, but only 6 after the break) and Rudy Gay (9 points) proved to be in vain. In the crazy atmosphere of the AT & T Center in San Antonio, Gregg Popovich, not surprisingly, managed to mask his emotions. Until all his players throw themselves on him in order to mark the occasion, while tearing a smile from the hero of the evening who went straight to the locker room.
In a more relative intimacy, Popovich was once again celebrated by his proteges. “You deserve it, we all love you and we are happy to have been able to live this moment with you”, thus congratulated Dejounte Murray, before a new explosion of joy, and bottles of water. ” Shooting and tomorrow and we will run suicides! Finally joked the five-time NBA champion (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014) who has been at the head of San Antonio since 1996.
