Tim Duncan had a game with no rebounds for the first time ever
Tim Duncan will go down as one of the greatest players in NBA history for many reasons, but one of them is his dependability. The San Antonio Spurs big man has been a rock for the franchise for 19 seasons, all but two of which have seen him fail to make an All-Star team. Yet Duncan has even managed to remain stellar in his basketball dotage, to the point where he was the team’s most consistent player in last season’s playoff series against the Los Angeles Clippers. He’s as essential to the Spurs’ championship hopes as ever.
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It was something of a shock, then, to see Duncan log a first in his storied career in Friday’s game against the New Orleans Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center. The Big Fundamental somehow grabbed zero rebounds for the first time in 1584 games over both the regular season and postseason.
There is no real explanation for this event, but we’ll try to provide one anyway. Duncan played 19 minutes and 11 seconds in the Pelicans’ 104-90 win and was not altogether terrible despite his struggles on the boards. He put up, six points on 2-of-6 shooting, two assists, a block, and a steal. He even ended with a plus-7, one of just two Spurs to end up in the black in a poor night for the team overall.
Duncan’s Spurs teammates were as confounded as anyone. From Michael C. Wright for ESPN.com:
“Timmy didn’t get a board?” point guard Tony Parker asked. […]
“That’s because we played New Orleans,” Parker said. “It’s always something here. For whatever reason, every time we play them, it’s a tough one. I don’t know why. That’s very rare.” […]
“Yeah, I didn’t know that,” guard Danny Green said when told Duncan didn’t record a rebound. “Strange things happen some nights. I’m not taking anything away from their win. But strangely, Tim didn’t get a rebound. They’re a good team. Every time we come here, we know it’s going to be a tough matchup for us.”
Only Karl Malone (1,457) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1,431) played more consecutive games than Duncan with at least one rebound to start their careers, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
It’s also not as if Duncan had flirted with this anti-milestone many times before. A quick search at Basketball-Reference.com shows three games with only one rebound, all of which also involved a minutes total under 20. There are 11 other games in which Duncan had only two rebounds, but none of them saw him play 30 minutes.
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Those previous lows indicate that Duncan may well have grabbed a rebound if Gregg Popovich weren’t so concerned with giving him rest throughout the course of the season. Playing on the first night of a back-to-back, Duncan had to look ahead to his responsibilities in Saturday’s home game against the Memphis Grizzlies. As usual, the Spurs took the long view.
Naturally, Duncan rebounded a missed Mike Conley runner all of 35 seconds into Saturday’s matchup with the Grizzlies.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
