In the March 21 newsletter, Jason Concepcion examines the battle between the Warriors and Spurs, Jonathan Tjarks breaks down the best matchup of March Madness, and the staff ranks the top characters on Sunday-night TV. Getty Images The Five Reasons Why the Spurs Had to Beat the Warriors By Jason Concepcion 1. A win would position the Spurs to capitalize on a potential Warriors late-season wobble. It is Year 19 of the Duncapopolithic age, and the Spurs are flirting with 70 wins. They are posting a historic net rating (13.4). They have assembled their best defensive team since 2003-04 — a mobile, physical, in-your-face Voltron, anchored by gray-bearded Tim Duncan’s rim fortress. They have the stoic synthetic human Kawhi Leonard and not-shooting-well-but-doing-everything-else-well Danny Green. And still they are three games behind the Golden State Starkiller Base in the Western Conference, and likely won’t have Game 7 of the conference finals on their home court (where they are undefeated). 2. If not now, when? In any other season, the Spurs would be runaway title favorites. This, however, is the season of Steph Curry, who has officially reached “for the children” status. In the first clash between these titans, back in January, Steph stood next to the mountain and chopped it down with the edge of his hand: 37 points on 12-of-20 shooting (including 6-of-9 from 3), plus five steals for good measure. When, during that game, Pop fulfilled the fantasies of basketball nerds everywhere by aiming the Kawhi-bot at him, Curry entered bullet time and put Leonard on a Vine. True, Duncan missed the game with knee-related oldness, but that was little comfort, considering the 120-90 scale of the demolition. On Saturday night, Golden State came into the AT&T Center (where they had not won in the regular season since 1997) on the second night of a back-to-back and down two key players (Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala, a card-carrying Lineup du Mort). If the Spurs couldn’t have beaten the Warriors under those circumstances, it would’ve been fair to wonder if they ever could. 3. LaMarcus Aldridge deleted his social media accounts after the Spurs had lost the first regular-season matchup. Drastic times call for drastic measures. Aldridge looked out of sorts in the first meeting, scoring only five points on 2-of-9 shooting, with a plus-minus of minus-20. Since deleting his Twitter and Instagram accounts, Aldridge’s scoring average has increased from just over 15 points per game to 22. If someone makes a “Never Tweet” Aldridge T-shirt, I will buy it. 4. Pop really went for it. Gregg Popovich is often referred to as a chess player. But in my mind, the best game-of-skill metaphor is Hearthstone. He understands which cards to play early and which to play late, how to force his tempo on an opponent, and how to effectively use his mana. I don’t even care whether you understand that reference. The point is, Pop used his best deck for this game. He pulled Tim Duncan from the starting lineup for Boris Diaw (last time Duncan came off the bench at home: March 18, 2004) and went small. Well, small in a sense. The Diaw-Aldridge frontcourt may be short on 7-footers, but in terms of B2H (butt-to-height ratio) they are dominant. All that rear (and the absence of Bogut) helped the Spurs clear acres of space under the glass and rack up a 53-37 rebounding advantage. Here’s me looking at Pop’s small-ball lineup: Pop kept human victory ogre Boban Marjanovic (13 minutes in the first game) out of sight; there was no Professor Andre Miller; there was barely any of Professor Andre Miller’s Looper, Kyle Anderson (16 minutes on January 25); and Kevin Martin played the same amount of time it takes to microwave a bag of popcorn. Pop was serious. 5. Tim Duncan spent most of the game on his docking station. Only eight minutes of floor time! The Spurs dare not waste his sacrifice. Getty Images The Best Heavyweight Fight of the NCAA Tournament So Far By Jonathan Tjarks On Saturday night, Utah’s Jakob Poeltl and Gonzaga’s Domantas Sabonis squared off in the NCAA tournament’s version of a heavyweight fight. Arvydas’s kid won by TKO, and it wasn’t even close. Sabonis almost quadrupled Poeltl’s point total (19 to 5) and more than doubled his rebounds haul (10 to 4) in an 82-59 win for Gonzaga. If you hadn’t known anything about the two, you would have thought that Sabonis was the prospective top-five NBA draft pick and Poeltl was the late first-rounder. But going into the game, many projected the Utes big man to be a much higher pick than Sabonis. Sabonis pushed Poeltl around the court all night on defense, beating the Austrian to his spots. That’s why Poeltl had only five field-goal attempts — he wasn’t used to catching the ball so far away from the basket. When big men battle for position, it’s more like wrestling than basketball. For the first time all season, someone took the fight to Poeltl. By the middle of the second half, he had his hands on his knees, while Sabonis looked like he could go another 10 rounds. Poeltl didn’t fare any better guarding Sabonis. The Bulldogs big man scored in the paint and took Poeltl off the dribble on the perimeter. The knock on Sabonis is his outside shot, but he was making them on Saturday. Both players had similar regular-season numbers, but Poeltl was more hyped coming into the tournament because he was coming from the Pac-12, while Sabonis was underrated coming out of the smaller West Coast Conference. But how strong was the Pac-12 this year, really? It sent only one team (Oregon) to the Sweet 16, same as the WCC. Sabonis was the best player Poeltl faced all season, and he wilted, putting up his worst game of 2016. That’s probably not a coincidence. As I mentioned in Thursday’s newsletter, the tournament was going to be huge for Poeltl because it would finally test him against the best big men. The first time he went up against somebody in his weight class, he folded. Sabonis vs. Poeltl felt a lot like Hakeem Olajuwon vs. David Robinson in the 1996 playoffs. Obviously, the stakes weren’t as high on Saturday, nor were the players as good, but it was the same dynamic: one guy with all the awards and all the hype getting roasted by the better player. The bracket has opened up for Gonzaga. Its 2-seed (Michigan State) is already out, so the Bulldogs will face a 10-seed in Syracuse. Sabonis is the perfect weapon against the Orange’s famous 2-3 zone defense; the key to beating that system is a big man who can pass, and Sabonis is one of the best passing big men in the country. If Gonzaga advances past Syracuse, the Bulldogs will play either Virginia or Iowa State in the Elite Eight, and neither team really has an NBA-worthy big guy, much less someone of Poeltl’s caliber. This is Gonzaga’s best chance to make the Final Four under Mark Few, in large part because Sabonis is the coach’s best pro prospect since Adam Morrison. DraftExpress has Sabonis as the no. 24 pick in the first round, but mocks at this stage are fluid. If Gonzaga makes it to Houston, he could go much higher. Domantas Sabonis is making the leap in real time. Savor it.

Bill Simmons welcomes Fox Sports’s Jay Glazer to discuss the current NFL landscape, the secret to the 2007 Giants, the original NFL Insider, and more.

Jon Favreau and Dan Pfeiffer, former advisers to President Obama, host their inaugural joint podcast to discuss the political world and the 2016 election. HBO Sunday-Night TV Character Power Rankings By Ringer staff 1. and 1a. Adam and Jessa, Girls: The new Coach and Tami. After four whole seasons, Girls has found its heartbeat.



2. Seal, The Passion: The only thing braver than saying, “Yes, I’d love to play Pontius Pilate in Tyler Perry’s live church service,” is adding, “And as Pontius Pilate, I will sing a cover of ‘Mad World’ while wearing a top coat.”



3. Bronson Koenig, Wisconsin Badgers: Though Hannah Horvath failed to get in touch with her inner self at the Spring Queening, fellow Midwesterner Koenig managed to get in touch with his inner Steph Curry in resounding fashion, draining a 3 to tie 2-seed Xavier with 11.7 seconds left, then sinking another trey as time expired to send the 7-seed Badgers right past their identity crisis and into the Sweet 16.



4. David Bowie, Vinyl: Not to go full Finestra, but Vinyl is best when it’s focused on the music, maaaaaan. Forget the Nasty Bits, we’re talking about the real thing: Dustin Ingram’s turn as Alice Cooper from a few episodes back, and Noah Bean’s wonderfully playful approximation of David Bowie from last night’s “Cyclone.”



5. Ernst, Vinyl: Actually, maybe Vinyl is at its best when it’s powered by Richie’s drug-induced psychosis, which this week centered on a multiday bender with long-lost pal and enabler Ernst. We learn at episode’s end just how lost Ernst really is, and not even the finest powder or choicest whiskey could help us forget it now. A Nathan’s hot dog, though … Correction: The subject line for the March 18 edition of the newsletter contained an incorrect movie title; it should have read Midnight Special, not Midnight City.