Thank god someone else sees this, I swear I thought I was the only one that thought this.
Bonner still dribbles like a 2nd grader, looking down at the ball the entire time.
Thank god someone else sees this, I swear I thought I was the only one that thought this.
I don't care if he shoves it up his ass and regurgitates it into his shooting hand, as long as he is knocking down 3/4 from downtown, playing something recognizable as D, and not turning the ball over.
Come on guys... Bonner is 6'10, not everyone is Duncan....
I don't get why there are so many ragging on Green and Leonard. I thought they both played their roles and contributed to the win, esp for two guys who are practically rookies. Neither was stellar on this particular night, but then again nobody is perfect every single game. People seem to have this expectation that they are going to net 10-15ppg, along w/ 5 boards, multiple steals and blocks every single game. Just ain't gonna happen. Especially considering the fact that the spurs are running a 10 deep rotation where you have 3 guys who can bust out for 30 any given night, and the rest are capable of 20+.
This was just a warm-up game.
Thank you again for the time and the write-up, timvp.
Green to me was having his shot denied quite a bit and the Jazz seemed to make a concerted effort to keep him from getting an open three.
Leonard was tough but, the second half his defense and play was much better.
I expect better game 2s from both.
I'll take zero turnovers from each every game along with solid defense and a few buckets sprinkled in. The only real complaint I would make is neither made a 3, but the bench more than made up for that.
These guys just need to hold the fort defensively and on the board with the starters. Manu and Jack relieve them early and provide the scoring.
I'm with TJastal for once. The rookies produced, I'm really fine with Kawhi 0 TO, 1 foul performance. That is to me a great indicator of patience and not letting the pressure affect him.
Ya know what is not noticed but I've caught on the last weeks with Duncan.
Hes back to his days of as TIMVP coined it one time
Death, taxes, 24 12.
Today 17-11 a made free throw and couple buckets and he gets it.
Timmy is back to 24 and 12 days again.
Good question.
The Spurs were 24-for-37 at the rim for 64.9%. During the regular season, the Spurs averaged 16.7-for-25.4 for 65.6%. So even though the Spurs missed 13 shots at the rim, their percentage was in line with their normal percentage. I guess it just seemed like the Spurs missed so many layups just because they were getting there so much more often than usual.
Outside of 16 feet, the Spurs were 9-for-28 (32.1%) in Game 1. On average during the regular season, they were 15-for-37.7 (39.8%). Personally, I think it's a good sign that the Spurs won a playoff game even though they weren't too sharp execution-wise and didn't shoot that well from the perimeter.
Sure, the compe ion level was relatively low for the playoffs, but the Spurs did well to win by utilizing old school, shove-it-down-your-throat basketball.
Good thing about game 1 too is we kept missing lay-ups and easy shots but we were always in control, now if we hit those lay-ups we blow them up easily.
It was our most disjointed offensive effort in quite a while. There's no denying Manu played poorly overall. If I know Manu - and I think I do - game 2 will feature vintage filthy Manu.
Interesting note is that when Parker and Ginobili were on the court together, the Spurs were a +15. That means neither one could make some much headway without the other on the court. But during the 16 minutes that backcourt played together, the Spurs destroyed the Jazz.
Parker/Ginobili has been on fire for the last month. Great to see it transfer into the playoffs
What I liked the most was the tremendous energy showed by the big 3. It is very clear that in many games this season, either of the three were coasting at different times. Manu was not going to risk injury by trying anything else but jumpers or open layups; Tony was clearly coasting early season before carrying the team for long stretches when Manu was injured and then dialing it down a bit after Manu's return; while Tim was pacing himself for the playoffs by steadily building up momentum and game speed.
And in the first game itself, while the big 3 were rusty, there was no question that they were at their most energetic the whole season. Parker was super efficient. He seems like a well drilled machine making decisions like clockwork. And Timmy and Manu looked like exploding to the rim the moment they saw the tiniest sliver of space that they could exploit. It bodes really well.
The best offensive move, though, for the Spurs this game for me was Boris Diaw's running hook shot. It completely took the Jazz by surprise.
Hopefully Splitter returns with little more than a mild discomfort and does what he is best doing -rolling to the basket, hustling and defending hard.
looking towards from game 2 what we can improve game 1....executing plays...
The positive:
-Spurs won even playing the worst game of the last two months (exception the home game vs Lakers).
-Depth IS important, even in PO: 10th man Blair comes in for an injured Splitter, and grabs important rebounds.
-Instead of Jefferson, Spurs have Jackson this year. With Jefferson, this game is decided in the final minute.
-Popovich is definitely involved. Good T to stop a few bad calls (to keep the game as close as possible).
-Parker gave the impression that he could penetrate and score or assist on every possession.
The negative:
-Splitter' injury. In the long run, the guy can't be replaced.
-Rebounding was an issue for most of the game.
-The missed dunk of Ginobili. When did we ever see that?
This is just a warm up game. In fact, don't we usually lose the first game of the playoffs?
I'm pretty excited to see how Kawhi and Danny perform in Game 2, especially Kawhi. I just get the impression that he's just letting the game come to him and absorbing everything there is to learn in Game 1. I think he'll be fine as long as he still goes tough on D even when the shots don't fall in.
As for Danny, he should make smart cuts and free himself up for J's. He's not gonna touch the ball a lot of times what with Tim and Tony sharing most of the scoring load, but if he can prepare himself for Tony's kickouts and make those shots, that should be more than enough contribution from Danny on offense.
Well, that and we did it in 2007, I remember them handing out black t-shirts at the second Finals game.
Couple of random thoughts from Australia...
- I thought Kawhi played pretty well. Offensively he wasn't flash, but he didn't look particularly overawed. I thought he competed well and defensively he was hawking the ball and I loved the steal and outlet. Solid debut.
- Green looked a little bit rushed when shooting his 3's. He didn't seem to have the same fluency he was showing the last few weeks. That said, he is streaky, he is quite likely to go 3/4 in his next game. I thought he got a couple of iffy calls against him as well. He has to get in there and rebound better and hopefully getting his hand on the ball a bit more will help him to relax and shoot better.
- Buckets was ballin out there. His rebounding was great, pulled a few down in the trees. His 3pt shot looked smooth and those couple of drives showed great patience and reading of the defense. The extra pass to Bonner for the 3.. He played an A+ game.
- Diaw's statline doesn't blow me away but watching him on the court I thought he was very good. His physicality and position on defense really go against the type of guy he is and it's pleasing to see it translating. I think the team could use him a little bit more offensively even if it is just to give Tony a possession or two off/
- Until he got hurt, I thought Splitter was showing great signs. I think he was a bit amped up and that lead to him missing a couple of easy ones but I honestly think he could have gone to work on the entire Jazz frontline. Hopefully the wrist injury isn't serious, it shouldn't bother him to much shooting wise but a big part of his game is catching the ball, so hopefully it doesn't bother him in that department.
- Blair played decent in the role he should be in. I think there is room for him to get minutes, I really like the idea of him going up against opposition second units.
- Bonner hit his 3's but the key thing is he didn't hesitate and looked confident. I had a few night tremors when Favors starting making a couple of midrange/short jumpers over him Darrell Arthur style, but thankfully that didn't last to long. He does look like a defensive mismatch in this series though.
- Baseline game from Neal. Not great, not horrible. Swished a few which was nice to see. Fouled a bit much though.
Tim, just a solid game. Loved the dunk.
Tony was the best player on the court by about 10 miles. He basically does what he wants.
Manu's passing was ridiculous. The pass to the slipping Blair around 3 defenders was astounding. I'm starting to get a bit worried when he initiates a pick and roll from the 45 going left though. He keeps picking his dribble up around the top of the key and it is getting stripped time and time again. That has been a staple of his game and scoring wise he isn't nearly as effective when he decides to not use the pick and go right.. Hopefully that gets sorted out.
Overall, a solid game. The Jazz hung tough but to be honest, with a tighter rotation, the thing would have blown out more and earlier.
What is the deal with Devin Harris?
I thought he got hurt when Tinsley stayed in the game so long
Yeah that was a little strange, he was doing a decent job making Tony work on both ends of the court then he disappeared for 10 minute or so in the 2nd quarter while Tinsley came in and looked way slower
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