"Timeout! Timeout!"
The instant Curry's shot went in, Popovich shouted at the sideline referee.
He had held onto his final timeout of the fourth quarter precisely for this moment.
Watching Leonard gulping for air, Popovich let out a quiet sigh.
Leonard was excellent in almost every aspect—except his stamina.
If Leonard were only the second or third option, he would be an absolute elite player. But right now, the team needed him to carry everything on his shoulders.
From the last few possessions alone, it was already obvious. Leonard's tank was empty, and his shooting form had started to deform.
"Can you still go? Do you want us to change the offensive option?"
Popovich asked softly.
"I can do it. Just give me a short rest."
Leonard nodded, his expression as calm as still water.
Since Leonard said so, Popovich didn't press further. He simply turned to Aldridge and Wood.
"You two, same as usual—stay in the corners. Make sure you crash the boards. Even if you don't get the rebound, you must provide enough impact to disrupt their formation."
Back on the court, feeling the pressure in the arena thick enough to be tangible, Wood couldn't help but shudder.
As one of the league's most infamous home courts, Warriors fans were nearly all on their feet, blasting noise at full volume to rattle the Spurs.
Parker brought the ball across half-court, handed it to Leonard, then immediately ran to the weak side to clear space.
Facing a fully locked-in George, Leonard dribbled slowly two steps beyond the three-point line, waiting for the clock to wind down.
With eight seconds left, Leonard suddenly exploded forward, snapping into a quick crossover and driving inside.
George, already prepared, sealed off Leonard's path.
But Leonard's added muscle over the past two years hadn't been for nothing. After the long timeout, he had recovered just a sliver of strength.
He forced his way into the mid-range area and rose up almost while hanging onto George's body, launching the shot through sheer power.
"Bang!"
The ball traced a beautiful arc before bouncing high off the rim.
As it rose, every heart in the arena rose with it.
In the paint, Aldridge, Wood, Draymond Green, and a crashing Thompson were all tangled together.
The ball bounced straight up and down on the rim—five full times—before finally dropping through.
A wave of collective groans swept through Oracle Arena.
97:97!
Overtime.
Popovich slowly sat back down on his chair, his brow still tightly furrowed.
That shot had gone in, but it only bought the Spurs a single breath at the edge of the cliff.
If possible, Popovich would have preferred a three-pointer, staking everything on that one shot.
Leonard had already logged more than thirty minutes. With his stamina gone, overtime only tilted things further against the Spurs.
As the Spurs walked off the floor, Popovich quickly pulled everyone together into a tight circle.
"Tony, you come off. CJ goes in. We need more scoring options in overtime."
He glanced at Leonard, still breathing heavily.
"At the start, Kawhi, don't force it. Take the time to recover. CJ, you and LaMarcus run the two-man game—hold the score tight."
"Understood!"
CJ and Aldridge exchanged looks and nodded firmly.
"Chrstian, just keep protecting the rim. You don't need to do anything else."
On the other side, Kerr looked completely composed.
"We're in overtime, but the advantage is still ours."
He addressed the Warriors.
"George, you did great. Don't worry about whether those shots went in—your defense was flawless. Keep playing the same way. Stephen, no more off-ball movement. In overtime, you have unlimited green light."
"The Spurs' old guys are running out of gas, and Kawhi's not holding up either. Push the pace right from the start and finish them."
"Got it!"
The Warriors nodded and focused on recovering what little energy they could.
...
Once overtime began, the Spurs quickly fell into a slump.
Even with CJ and Aldridge providing extra offense, Leonard's stamina problem became the Warriors' main target. On offense, Curry and George repeatedly hunted Leonard, preventing him from recovering and instead draining him even further.
"We've lost."
Watching the Spurs struggle, Popovich slumped back in his chair.
Leonard, as the Spurs' offensive and defensive centerpiece, was simply too important. Once Leonard was broken down, the team faced complete collapse.
This was the price of a franchise star handling both offense and defense.
Many fans have a long-standing misunderstanding about superstars.
They often confuse a franchise player with a true superstar.
True superstars like Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird all combined elite offense with strong defense—what people call a two-way core.
The benefit of this style is that one player can carry the entire team. The downside is the enormous physical burden it places on the body.
In later years, people joked that Leonard was a "suit warrior" or an injury-prone player.
A major reason was that during his time with the Spurs and Raptors, Leonard was simply too devoted, overextending his body.
Leonard was never a player blessed with overwhelming physical gifts to begin with. Being used that way year after year was bound to cause problems.
Among active players, LeBron James is the closest to fitting that mold.
Take LeBron in 2012—he was a true two-way force. But as he aged, he cleverly began dialing back his defensive workload to protect his body and extend his career.
That's where the talk of "coasting on defense" came from.
Team executives understand this well, especially after the rise of the small-ball era. With more possessions and longer running distances, handling both offense and defense has become far more difficult.
That's why role-player defenders have become so valuable in recent years.
Players like Ariza next to Harden, or Thompson and Green next to Curry.
As time passed, the Spurs ultimately fell in overtime.
"Go back and get some rest."
In the postgame locker room, Popovich—rarely one to explode in anger—quietly comforted his players instead.
"Recover your energy. We still have two games left."