Spurs lose to Warriors in Game 3 without Gregg Popovich

APD NEWS

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SAN ANTONIO -- One by one, the San Antonio Spurs public address announcer called out five names into the microphone, rattling off the Spurs' starting lineup, just like always, while fans screamed and hype music thundered off the AT&T Center's cavernous walls. The Spurs players then huddled under the nearby rim Thursday, bouncing up and down beneath a spotlight, surrounded by darkness.

A beat later, the lights still down, music still blaring, fans still roaring, another Spur should have been introduced, would have been introduced, as he has been in every Spurs game over the past two decades. But Gregg Popovich was absent, and in his absence there was ... nothing.

Not a moment of silence or tribute video or anything to acknowledge the death of Erin, his wife of 40 years, the day before, after fighting illness for an extended period. Nothing recognizing Spurs assistant Ettore Messina as their interim head coach before Game 3 of their first-round series against the Golden State Warriors. There was simply ... nothing. No introduction of a head coach at all, a subtle but telling moment that passed in an instant, buried amid the noise.

And in another instant, there was basketball. Just basketball, only basketball.

It's what Popovich wanted, the focus on his players, the game, on everything but him, no matter how many grieved with and for the intensely private icon. There was LeBron James' voice breaking on national television, there was former president Bill Clinton tweeting his condolences to the entire Popovich family.

"Thoughts and prayers from me and mine for Pop and his fam at such a time," Lil Wayne tweeted. "All love."

The tributes kept pouring in.

"He's overwhelmed by the support," Spurs general manager R.C. Buford said at the Spurs' practice facility Thursday morning, his eyes flooded with tears that seemed ready to flow like a river down his cheeks.

"We're all suffering a profound loss to a really important member of our family and our team," Buford said -- some of the 134 words he shared, each one more difficult than the last.

History will note that the Warriors prevailed 110-97, taking a 3-0 series lead with Game 4 -- and perhaps the end of San Antonio's season -- coming Sunday at their home arena. But the game felt as meaningless as Popovich has long preached that it is in the grand scheme of life -- and even more meaningless with the man who has preached that belief gone, mourning a life lost.

Before the game, nothing in San Antonio's locker room betrayed the sorrow that hung over the franchise. Printed game plans sat still in chairs before each player's locker, even for star forward Kawhi Leonard, who has been away in New York City for weeks and isn't expected to return at any point in this postseason. Game 2 of their playoff series against the Warriors aired on large flat-screen televisions, and on the whiteboard, in black marker, was the number 16 -- the number of wins that separates any postseason team from a championship. It was all business.

But the Spurs had vowed to play for Popovich.

"We're going to try to do our best, give it 100 percent and try to get a win for him and his wife," Spurs guard Tony Parker said early Thursday.

"You show your support and then respect trying to go out there and compete even harder than you ever did," added teammate Manu Ginobili. "It's what we can do."

Both players were among a small Spurs contingent that spent time with Popovich at his home Wednesday night, and each acknowledged the pain they felt, that the organization felt and that resonated far beyond.

"It's going to be very hard to play basketball today," Parker said, "but we have to do it."

On the opposite sideline, Golden State head coach Steve Kerr walked down to the Spurs sideline before tipoff and embraced each of the coaches. Kerr played for Popovich in the late 1990s and credits him for helping shape him in so many ways.

"I know it's affected Steve greatly," said Warriors shooting guard Klay Thompson. But that grief extended to the Warriors as a whole -- a "subdued feeling" that permeated the locker room, as Kerr described it. Players approached him, asking how Popovich was doing, if he knew Erin, asking what she was like.

Erin, Kerr said early Thursday with a laugh, was "the balance that Pop needed." When he offered prickly answers to sideline reporters or during news conferences, Popovich would return home and face her scowl. "What are you doing?" she'd ask.

"She kind of kept him in check," Kerr said.

When he traded Kerr to the Portland Trail Blazers in 2001, Popovich called Kerr to break the news and said, "I don't think I can go home because Erin is going to be so mad at me for trading you."

Above all, Kerr said, "She was a wonderful person."

And in recent years, Popovich told Kerr how much he and Erin were enjoying being grandparents.

"So it's hard not to think about the grandkids right now and, of course, Pop and Erin's two kids, Jill and Micky," Kerr said. "We all mourn her loss."

And Kerr talked about the game as not a game but a day for perspective, as Popovich always said.

(ESPN)