AT&T Center — The San Antonio Spurs fell to the Portland Trailblazers.
That's not surprising as playoff-bound teams are going to lose to teams not in contention and Portland has been a thorn in the side of the Spurs. What has gotten many of the fan base riled up is by how much they lost.
The Spurs allowed 136 points in that loss, something unseen during the Gregg Popovich era in regulation and also a new high (or low) for the AT&T Center.
While some fans may have wanted to punch the TV or even question the legitimacy of the team's championship hopes, Stephen Jackson offers his own opinion on the matter.
"It happens. I've been in this game a long time… it happens. It's nothing to panic over, it's nothing to try and evaluate too much," said Jackson after the Spurs loss.
Jackson's always been an optimistic player and that's the type of mentality from a leader that helped his eighth seeded Golden State Warriors defeat the first seed Dallas Mavericks in the 2007 playoffs.
"They hit their shots, they played better than us and won the game," said Jackson. "Our defense was horrible. That's not the way we play defense. They beat us."
"Captain Jack" has been there before and so have the Spurs. In what may have been a moment to forget to the majority of San Antonio faithful, Tracy McGrady also gave the Spurs a moment that the silver and black legion hanging their heads in shame. On December 9, 2004, the Spurs faced McGrady's Houston Rockets and had the game in hand or so they thought. McGrady went on fire in the last 33 seconds and scored 13 points to propel the Rockets over the Spurs.
I don't want to open old wounds, but look at what happened that season.
The Spurs won the NBA championship and that memory now seems to have no influence on the fan base. If the team can put this incident behind them and there's no reason to believe they can't or won't, this will be a loss that'll be thrown in with that McGrady magic act. You have to also believe the Spurs may have been looking forward to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday and may have looked past the Trailblazers. Whatever the case is, it's not the end of the world or season.
The team is still playing without it's MVP candidate and playing well overall as a team. When Monday comes along and the Spurs come out with a win against the Thunder, this loss won't mean much. If the Spurs come out as the last team standing in June, this loss will be forgotten or lose any meaning. It's just like Jackson said, "it happens."