Who Fell From The Altar?

At the end of the first quarter, the arena cameras cut to a close-up of Popovich's face.

Before the game, he had been brimming with confidence, proclaiming that he would remind the Grizzlies what a losing streak felt like and knock them off their pedestal.

But now, the old man looked dejected, none of the swagger from twelve minutes earlier remaining.

28–18. The Spurs had failed to even reach 20 points in the first quarter.

Not only had they failed to gain any advantage over the Grizzlies, they had instead let the defending champions stretch the gap to ten points in the opening quarter.

Whiteside put up 4 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 blocks in the first quarter, and another inspirational tale of an underdog's rise began spreading among the fans.

But Link knew perfectly well that there weren't that many inspirational stories. Whiteside simply wanted to feel a little better whenever he played 2K...

"Good work, Hassan. You did a great job completing your assignment in the first quarter. Keep it up—the game is still long," Joerger said, making a point of praising Whiteside during the break.

At first, Joerger had only hoped that Whiteside would avoid getting blown apart and buy Gasol a little more rest.

Who would have thought that this guy, who looked like all brawn and no brains, would instead embarrass the Spurs' interior defense? One alley-oop, then a standing leap for a thunderous dunk after taking Conley's brilliant pass.

Whiteside had started wreaking havoc beneath the Spurs' basket instead.

For a lowly reserve, scoring 4 points in a single quarter was already an excellent performance. The Spurs certainly had not expected to run into such a powerful obstacle.

Failing to gain an advantage inside was already a major failure for the Spurs, not to