Sports

Spurs coach tinkered with winning formula

In case you’re wondering throughout the read, this is no Pop Smear.

Wunderkind that Gregg Popovich is, he was first to decipher the scrawl on the cave wall.

It took the rest of us geniuses two imposing victories to realize the come-from-under Thunder was through thrashing around purposelessly.

Not duped by the Spurs’ 20 straight wins or the relative ease with which they dropped the Thunder’s decibels in their first two fandangos, Popovich started fidgeting with players’ functions and floor time, began readjusting to Oklahoma City’s superior stature, suppleness, size and strength.

And perhaps, more importantly, to its rapidly rising facility to emulate San Antonio’s altruistic style.

Hence, the subtle rearranging of responsibilities commencing in Games 3 and culminating in Game 5 with an acute decision to replace Danny Green with Manu Ginobili for the opening tap. By then, Matt Bonner and Tiago Splitter no longer had understudy roles, whereas DeJuan Blair was sighted briefly and then disappeared from view. Even Gary Neal and Boris Diaw seemed to lose their coach’s confidence.

In Popovich’s infinite wisdom, he had seen what was coming so he tightened and tidied up the rotation, a normal reflex as the competition elevates and the pressure mounts.

City boys seem to find out early that people who stand in one spot at rush hour and think they’re going to get a cab stay stuck at the curb. Those who keep moving make their own luck.

Sharpened street shrewd as Popovich is, he tried to shake things up in the Spurs’ favor. Instead, he made matters worse by mistrusting players he had trusted for weeks and months. He tightened up his already dragging team, if not Ginobili or Tim Duncan, more than it already was.

And, perhaps, more fatefully, Popovich dug a shallow grave for what was once, a “light week” ago, the NBA’s deepest miners.

The Spurs’ subs were a combined minus-62 in Game 5. Not one had a positive number. At home!

No wonder the primed and poised Spurs couldn’t close the sale.

When, exactly, did the “Spurs Way” turn into an off-ramp and pull into rest stop?

When your coach says stuff like “stopped competing.”

That can’t be good.

Popovich publicly emphasized that phrase once or twice prior to Game 6. Imagine what he mumbled under his breath after his team blew a 15-point halftime lead and then some that abruptly ended the hallowed comparisons to the Knicks of the early ’70s, the ’77 Blazers and, well, you get the idea.

The Spurs shot 54.5 percent from the field before intermission and piled up 15 assists versus three turnovers, as good a way to stave off the executioner save for a governor’s reprieve.

After recess, it was as if amnesia — 32.5 percent, nine errors, five dimes, loads of defensive indifference, death from off shore and a pushed panic button with 40-some seconds left, down four when Stephen Jackson and Tony Parker launched 3-pointers — seized control.

In reality, it was Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden and Lakers’ leper Derek Fisher.

Meaning the four-time titlist Spurs have now gone five seasons without a ring, the longest time frame in Duncan’s career without a championship.

Charles Barkley immediately called for Duncan to retire, saying he hates to see a great player finish his career on the downside. Yup, it doesn’t get any worse than putting up All-Star numbers and leading your team to the Final Four.

“Sir Charles has the right to feel so strongly about Duncan retiring because he left during his prime #SARCASM,” instantly tweeted Lee Kauffman.

While on the subject of Duncan, legions of analysts failed to detect, or at least didn’t stress it enough, Scott Brooks’ adjustment to The Big Fundamental. If the strategy didn’t turn around the series, it was right there at the top with the three Thunder Claps.

San Antonio thrives off Duncan being double-teamed, at which point the peripheral players cash in on open perimeter looks. Instead they got exposed when forced to shoot with a defender always within arm’s length.

Brooks dared Duncan to dominate by playing him one-on-one (occasionally running or faking help toward him) with either Kendrick Perkins or Serge Ibaka, which is completely contrary to what the Spurs want to do and what their center (not power forward) is all about.

Remember the Riverwalks!

To celebrate the heritage of the Seattle SuperSonics, the league announced all finals games shall be shown on tape-delay. Please check local listings.

This just in: To appease the nitworks, David Stern has promised to relocate the Thunder before the start of the Finals.