TimVP, you are awesome, you should get this syndicated. I bet all the Spurs players read your grades. They probably wager large stakes on what they get rated at.
I'm not concerned about Manu yet. His playmaking and passing were great yesterday, and he did good work on the boards as well. His shot will come back.
TimVP, you are awesome, you should get this syndicated. I bet all the Spurs players read your grades. They probably wager large stakes on what they get rated at.
what do you think about moving Manu back to the starting lineup and moving Danny Green back to the bench. Manu doesn't bring the energy anymore that made him a great sixth man all of these years and of course can't score. I thought he was sleepwalking through most of the game. Danny Green on the other hand has been amazing and we need that kind of energy off the bench.
No. As much as we praise Green's aggressiveness on offense, he is not a play-maker like Manu. With Neal essentially a short SG, we need somebody to play PG.
Really only one thing to say to Utah
Fuk yo best shot clown
Matty's three at the end of the first half was the difference in this game. It's the troof.
Once again, the Spurs were just out there shooting some shots...just beating a team they were supposed to beat...no surprises there.
stat padding in the fourth when the lead was cut at 5 with 8 mn to go you're probably the worst ST poster by far
Fratello with the goods on Bonner 3 pointer. The key was Jackson clearing out the space for Duncan to throw to and Ginobili to run to. Reminds me of soccer where many plays are about passing into space and letting the wing go get it for a cross.
http://www.nba.com/video/channels/tn...nba/index.html
Another key play not called out by anyone was the Parker back door cut and assist from Duncan late in the 4th. That was a back breaker for the Jazz and another plus for Popovich's grade.
Does anyone have more of a breakdown on how the Spurs shut down Harris after the first quarter? I couldn't figure it out. Another Popovich special?
Parker I have to give Parker and 'A'. His MVP performance in the 4th was unbelieveable and that's what MVPs do. They take the challenge, put the team on their back and win the game. Manu used to display that killer instinct. I never thought I'd see it in Parker tbh.
Bonner Somebody remarked that Bonner couldn't find a way to get his shot. I'd say that's because they were defending him pretty tightly--and that took one of their guys out of the middle so his presence as a perimeter shooter was doing what its supposed to do. Speaking of the lane, it looked like a rugby scrum in there at times and Bonner was pushing and shoving with the rest of them to keep Utah's 3 bigs from simply running over them. I remember on one play where Bonner was boxing out, facing the basket for a rebound and Millsap just blasted him with a shove in the back that threw Bonner about 4 feet forward into TD and Diaw and their men. It was a rough, physical game and Bonner was fighting to keep their bigs from taking over. With 2 blocks and several altered shots, I'd say it was an above average defensive performance in relief. Give him a B-/B.
Blair the less said the better. He should only play in blowouts and against teams who have 6'5" bigs with no ACLs in both legs. He's trying to recreate himself with the floater so maybe he'll wind up a shooting guard someday.
Pop Saw Kwahi was overawed by the Utah playoff crowd and wasn't going to be aggressive so he cut his minutes. Good call. Remember how Pop and Parker argued about shorting Parker's minutes in the last game? This time he realized he needed Parker down the stretch and gave him 40, probably more minutes than he played all season. And maybe Parker had enough gas to play great D and O in the 4th because of that decision in the previous game.
When you look at Pop, you have to consider not just the 'now' like the out of bounds plays he's so good at drawing up but the past moves and the future moves he's thinking about like a grand master in three dimensional chess. I bet other coaches think they are coaching against Yoda.
While Bonner hasn't been great, his shooting percentage will be good.
Fratello is the best commentator in the league, wished he did all the spurs games.
Tiago & Tim down the stretch of a playoff game brought tears to my eyes. Bonner getting thrown around like a vietnamese also brought tears to my eyes.
Watching guys like Green/Tiago/Jax step their game up in the playoffs is so great to see after watching the RJ/Bonner chokejob debacles of the past few seasons.
Love this team right now.
Harris just stopped hitting lucky shots, tbh. Most of the shots he hit early on either Parker was right on him or he hit an impossible floater over a big.
I was out of town and missed the game's second half.
So I am mindful that my questions are based on incomplete data. Timvp, would you explain to me. Why you gave TD a higher grade than TP? I notice that Tim's shooting percentage was lower than Jefferson's and Parker's. Parker also had a higher percentage than Harris. Tim had 6 rebounds and Tony had 6 assists.
Tony had five tos, but as you said, he also had the entire Jazz team on his ass the whole game, and he put the team on his back to get 27 points total on something like 10 of 18 shooting.
I know that it is subjective, but it seems to me sometimes that when Tony scores more points he gets lower grades.
I am not trying to challenge you, I 'm trying to understand how you grade the two. I know that they are each on their own sliding scale, but TD is a first round HOF and yet you seem to give him more slack than TP on a pretty regular basis and I don't understand why.
Please don't get pissed because I am really trying to understand, not criticize.
^That's what those words underneath the grades are for, tbh. I can't really explain it more clearly. Parker was great in money time but he had a rather large stretch of mediocre play (2-for-9 over a stretch of nearly 30 minutes with as many turnovers as assists). Duncan was great defensively throughout and was a consistent asset on offense.
Duncan was closer to an A than Parker was to an A-, fwiw.
I was shocked on who the crowd disappear in the second half. For a young inexperienced team like Utah, they need a great crowd behind them and they didn't get it. Maybe Jazz will have a reaction in the next game to avoid the sweep, but I got the feeling that everybody (fans, coaches and players) have given up.
Manu doesn't need to take his game up a notch. He's doing fine. We don't need more than the points we won by. We need a healthy Manu. When the time comes, Manu will crank it up. Right now I want him to play within the flow of the game, not try to do too much at either end and end up getting injured.
We are used to seeing Ginobili be the designated game-taker-overer in the late 4th quarter.
That role has moved to Tony this year. Ginobili has become leader of the 2nd unit, and facilitator, defender, and rebounder in the late stages.
It's not even about closing games though. I'll be the first to admit that he played a well-rounded game last night. He set teammates up and he rebounded. Manu really didn't need to score.
Against Utah it doesn't matter but once we start dealing with the elites, we'll need a little more than 6 points out of him imo. He doesn't have to be magical but around 10-12 should be within reach for him.
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