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Gregg Popovich didn't put much thought into San Antonio's
playoff streak when it was rolling along.

He's not thinking about it now, either.

The Spurs' record-tying run of 22 consecutive playoff
appearances is over, and the longest season in team history —
almost 300 days from the first game to the last — is also,
strangely, over earlier than the NBA is used to seeing. The
final outcome was a 118-112 loss to the Utah Jazz on Thursday
night, a game that was meaningless in the standings.

“Looking at the past doesn’t do much good,” Popovich said. “Any
success we’ve had has been because we’ve had some great players.”

Rayjon Tucker had 18 points for the Jazz, who finished with
eight players in double figures and used their regulars either
sparingly or not at all. Jarrell Brantley and Georges Niang each
added 13 for the Jazz and All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell had 11
points in just 11 minutes in his final tune-up before the
playoffs.

“You can't say enough about the Spurs," Jazz coach Quin Snyder
said. “They've been the premier franchise in the NBA for a long
time."

Keldon Johnson scored 24 points to lead seven Spurs in double
figures. Marco Belinelli and Luka Samanic each had 16 for San
Antonio.

The Spurs were officially ousted when Memphis beat Milwaukee,
and Phoenix completed an undefeated eight-game run in the NBA’s
restart bubble with a victory over Dallas.

Those games went final shortly before San Antonio-Utah started.
The Spurs needed the Grizzlies or the Suns to lose to have any
chance of getting into the West play-in series that begins
Saturday to decide the NBA’s final postseason berth.

“It's tough," Spurs guard DeMar DeRozan said. “It's more so
tough putting your faith in somebody else's hands."

Popovich's routine seemed normal. He met with assistants to
discuss strategy before addressing players during timeouts. When
someone needed a little 1-on-1 instruction, he approached and
offered a word or two.

It looked just as it always does. Only this time, it was very
different.

For the first time since April 1997, the Spurs played a game
knowing that the playoffs were out of reach. The 22-year run of
playoff spots tied the Philadelphia 76ers’ franchise for the
longest in NBA history. The 76ers, starting as the Syracuse
Nationals before moving to Philadelphia, went to the playoffs
every year from 1950 through 1971.

With San Antonio out, the longest active postseason streak now
belongs to the Houston Rockets. They’ll be in the playoffs for
the eighth consecutive year starting next week.

This is how long the streak went: David Stern wasn’t even
halfway through his 30-year run as commissioner when it started.
The Charlotte Bobcats — that’s what today’s Hornets went by then
— were still 6-1/2 years from playing their first game. Pat
Riley was still coaching, then with the Miami Heat.

And now, for the first time since 1981, the playoffs will happen
without either Riley or Popovich as head coaches.

The Spurs won five championships during the streak. They played
284 postseason games over those years; the only franchises
within 100 of that were the Lakers (218), Miami (196) and Boston
(192). And the Spurs won 170 playoff games in that span; only
seven franchises have more playoff wins in their entire history.

All 170 of those wins for the Spurs came under Popovich, a total
that gives him more career playoff victories than any two
current coaches combined. There were 102 players who got into at
least one Spurs playoff game during the streak, including
current NBA head coaches Jacque Vaughn, Steve Kerr and Monty
Williams.

The Spurs came into Disney as playoff long shots and felt the
eight games they were guaranteed of playing during the restart
would be ways to have young players grow from competition. They
made it to the last possible day of contention.

“At this point, it’s been a huge success for our team and our
young players, the development that we’ve talked about from the
beginning,” Popovich said. “We’re very happy with what’s gone on
here.”

He has given the restart rave reviews, both on and off the floor.

Popovich — an Air Force Academy graduate and the coach of USA
Basketball’s men’s national team — wore a shirt pregame that
read “Vote Your Life Depends On It.” He has remained outspoken
on the need to end racial injustice and police brutality during
the Spurs’ time in the bubble, talking about that perhaps as
much if not more as he has about basketball.

“It's important to bring these up, painful as they are,"
Popovich said. “Some people talk about getting tired of hearing
about it. But that’s the point. It has to change.”

TIP-INS

Spurs: This was the first losing season for the Spurs since 1996-
97, the year that Popovich became coach 18 games into the season
— and just before Tim Duncan went San Antonio as the No. 1
overall pick in the 1997 draft.

Jazz: Mike Conley (right knee soreness) and Rudy Gobert (lower
back soreness) were ruled out of the finale. ... The game was
meaningless to Utah, which was locked into a first-round matchup
against Denver that starts next week.

JERSEY SWAP

A pair of Australian national teamers, Utah's Joe Ingles and San
Antonio's Patty Mills, exchanged jerseys postgame. Mills didn't
play and spent the game as an assistant coach.

UP NEXT

Spurs: Season complete.

Jazz: Game 1 against Denver, Monday.

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/its-over-for-first-time-in-23- seasons-spurs-miss-playoffs
 

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