San Antonio 86, Los Angeles Clippers 83

On a whim, I joined some law school friends in taking advantage of $10 tickets at Staples Center for the lesser of the LA teams tonight. Snuck down to the 100 level for the second half, which was sweet.

It was a pretty uninteresting game, save for the last few minutes, in which the Spurs blew a seven-point lead. San Antonio had three possessions during the Clips' 7-0 run. Total number of Tim Duncan touches: 0. Remember, the Spurs are without Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili due to injuries. I thought Gregg Popovich was supposed to be some sort of coaching genius.

The last of those possessions resulted in a blocked Roger Mason layup, followed by a terrible inbounds pass by Michael Finley where he just threw the ball to Marcus Camby. Cuttino Mobley badly missed a wide-open three on the other end, and the Spurs -- finally! -- called timeout to draw something up, presumably for Duncan.

Of course, the resulting play was Mason dribbling the shotclock down -- there was like a seven-second differential -- with Duncan racing out to the top of the key at about six left. Mason dribbled right, saw daylight, and drained the three. I guess they didn't want to go to Duncan in the post because Camby guards him so well, but I'm not sure how many games you win with Roger Mason shooting 24-footers.

The Clippers then exhibited their own mismanagement, calling one timeout to advance the ball, then another for some as-yet unexplained reason. That was their last timeout, which meant they did not have one to advance the ball on a subsequent possession, which meant they couldn't go for a quick two and then foul, which meant they needed a three.

Inbounding with eight seconds left, the Clips basically ran a nine-second play. They inbounded to Baron Davis -- who incidentally was horrible tonight -- who ran a pick and pop with Steve Novak at the top of the key. Novak was covered, so Baron, moving left, pitched it behind him to Ricky Davis moving right. Baron then went all the way down the left wing to the baseline, across the baseline, and off a screen to the right corner, while Davis dribbled right. The pass got to Baron with just enough time to catch and shoot -- no time to set his feet -- and he missed badly.

So an exciting finish, but only due to some really bad basketball. Ah, the NBA.