Yet he has not given up on other states, and on Wednesday he intends to prove the point by starting a round-the-clock, 48-hour sprint through six crucial states spanning four time zones.
But some of his players were well aware of what a victory would have meant, even in mid-March, especially on the eve of a treacherous 8-game, 17-day trip spanning four time zones that begins Monday night in Detroit.
The railway would span seven time zones and it would take eight days to make the transit from Moscow to Vladivostok.
And China has a timezone disparity even more dramatic than Spain's -- the country physically spans five time zones, but runs entirely on Beijing time.
The contiguous lower 48 states span three time zones, and usually have two to three frontal weather systems moving across them.
Flight A goes from New York to Los Angeles and crosses three time zones; flight B, to London, crosses five time zones; flight C, to Sydney, spans nine time zones; and flight D, to Delhi, crosses 10 time zones.
Cross the border from Nepal into Tibet and you have to put your watch forward by two-and-a-quarter hours, because China, which really spans five time zones, operates a single time across the land.
China is big enough to span five time zones but is the largest country in the world to insist on a single one.
The United States, by comparison, spans six time zones.
The United States spans six time zones: Eastern Time, Central Time, Mountain Time, Pacific Time, Hawaii Time and Alaska Time.
The continental United States spans four time zones, from EST (Eastern Standard Time) which is GMT -5 to PST Pacific Standard Timee) which is GMT -8.
