San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich made a surprising decision to bench his star player DeMar DeRozan in the winding seconds of regulation, as the Spurs had only 1.1 seconds to tie the Philadelphia 76ers or leave with a win on their hands on Wednesday night after trailing 122-120.
DeRozan was hit hottest player on the court, hitting 12 of his first 16 shots at one point in the fourth quarter, but despite leading the team with 26 points, Pop chose to keep him out for the very last possession of the game.
“We didn't want to go to overtime,” Popovich said, according to ESPN's Tim MacMahon.
Popovich's answer stands to reason as DeRozan isn't among his best 3-point shooters, only shooting 17.5 percent from deep this season after reverting to his old mastery of the mid-range game.
DeRozan had increased the volume of his 3-point attempts in each of the last four seasons with the Toronto Raptors, but playing for Popovich, who's known for resisting the NBA's new fad of volume 3-point shooting — he was able to get back to his comfort zone with the mid-range game and slashing drives to the basket.
The 10th-year shooting guard seemed unbothered by the substitution, having fully bought into The Spurs' Way.
“Oh, yeah. I'm pretty sure that's what we were doing. Going for the win,” DeRozan said. “We just couldn't get an attempt off.”
Marco Belinelli, who was subbed in for DeRozan, was stifled — as Rudy Gay's inbound pass was deflected by Ben Simmons, putting an end to a hard-fought battle.
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