Misc observations about victory over Suns

[Man of Steel]

I was thinking--it would be interesting to make this thread about misc thoughts about the game--where were you when Mason made the game winning shot, what did you notice about the game that was unusual, etc.

Let me start.

1. Did you notice that after Mason made the shot, some Suns fan shot the bird at the team? On national TV, you saw two signs-one was a V and the next was the bird. I laughed my ass off--when the replay comes on--if you pause right after the shot, you see this.

2. Suns fans were stating that when the shot was made, Manu also was wide open for a three--about as wide open as Mason was. Don't know if that is true or not.

3. In post-game comments, Amare was still complaining about his three shots that failed against Tim Duncan's defense--said he drew contact with Tim but the refs refused to call a foul.

4. When Mason made the shot, people at my house went absolutely crazy--even my 87 year old mother, who screamed at the top of her lungs for about 20 seconds because she had been praying for some kind of break.

5. --your comments...

[xtremesteven33]

I havent seen a Spurs victory at the buzzer in awhile.

Does anybody remember the last one?

[hater]

Roger Mason did not play a single minute in the 4th quarter until he came in for the last play of the game. He had not touched the ball at all all before Parker passed it to him and shooting the game winner. what a beast

[jag]

God must hate the Suns.

I don't even dislike the players on their team...i just hate their fans.

[Biggems]

I was thinking--it would be interesting to make this thread about misc thoughts about the game--where were you when Mason made the game winning shot, what did you notice about the game that was unusual, etc.

Let me start.

1. Did you notice that after Mason made the shot, some Suns fan shot the bird at the team? On national TV, you saw two signs-one was a V and the next was the bird. I laughed my ass off--when the replay comes on--if you pause right after the shot, you see this.

2. Suns fans were stating that when the shot was made, Manu also was wide open for a three--about as wide open as Mason was. Don't know if that is true or not.

3. In post-game comments, Amare was still complaining about his three shots that failed against Tim Duncan's defense--said he drew contact with Tim but the refs refused to call a foul.
4. When Mason made the shot, people at my house went absolutely crazy--even my 87 year old mother, who screamed at the top of her lungs for about 20 seconds because she had been praying for some kind of break.

5. --your comments...



wah wah wah wah wah.......Amare needs to change his diaper and put his pacifier back in his piehole. Duncan and Parker were getting hacked relentlessly in the 2nd half and the refs were calling nothing. On the offensive end, the Suns were fouling the Spurs and no call....then go down to the other end and the Spurs get called for some tacky fouls.

So when the refs stop bailing out the Suns and actually make them play like men, they lose. But Einstein Stupidmire does nothing but whine when things don't go his way. IMO, he is one of the biggest babies in the entire association. The dude cries about everything.

[Shastafarian]

I havent seen a Spurs victory at the buzzer in awhile.

Does anybody remember the last one?

I think the last one came at the hands of Michael Finley. It was last year against either the Lakers or Knicks. I forget.

[T Park]

I believe there's been many a playoff games that amare had 5 down the stretch and he hacked and got away with stuff and didn't foul out coughgame42007cough....

[T Park]

I think the last one came at the hands of Michael Finley. It was last year against either the Lakers or Knicks. I forget.


Those games the other team had a last shot to go after it. The last one the immediately comes to mind is Duncan's jumper against Cleveland in 05.

[ehz33satx]

I had X-Mas lunch at my parent's house with about 10 family members. We also went loco when Mason hit the game winner! When people point out that Spurs fans must not be loyal because we don't sell out home games, they don't seem to realize here in San Antonio, it's a family thing. We get everyone together to watch games where we and eat, drink, and cheer for our San Antonio Spurs!



:flag:

[T Park]

Yeah. They don't see the city either with the go spurs go banners either...

[K-State Spur]

in amare's mind, "drew the contact" = attempting to bull through the defender (although not being strong enough to do so).

[samikeyp]

I believe there's been many a playoff games that amare had 5 down the stretch and he hacked and got away with stuff and didn't foul out coughgame42007cough....

*dingdingding*

We have a winner!

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

God must hate the Suns.

I don't even dislike the players on their team...i just hate their fans.

When you say their fans, do you mean everyone who cheers for them, or do you only mean the ones that think the refs have something to do with every loss and didn't watch any basketball prior to 2004......cause I hate those Suns "fans" as well. No need to generalize with comments like the one you made.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

in amare's mind, "drew the contact" = attempting to bull through the defender (although not being strong enough to do so).

In Amare's mind, he can just throw up a lazy shot once he thinks he drew contact and if it doesn't go in he can use the excuse that in his little self-absorbed mind he thought he was fouled.


I was sitting literally right behind the hoop, and 2 out of those 3 crunch time misses it was clearly visible that Amare was capable of making the shot but was more concerned with drawing contact so he gave a half-assed effort once he thought he was fouled. On one of the three misses Duncan probably fouled him, certainly the ref did the right thing by making Amare earn his points in crunch time and not bail him out with a ticky tacky foul. I know the term, "a foul is a foul", but we can all agree that we want to say the players play the game out and have to make difficult shots. The refs were letting players get away with fouls on both ends.

[Yuixafun]

I was watching it in my room a little lethargic after eating some christmas ham..

When I saw Grant Hill get that easy layup I was thinking damnit wtf how did he get so open, then they showed the back pick on Finley.

crafty suns.

But i didn't feel like the game was over. 4 seconds is plenty of time to get something.

In real time on the final play, I saw Tony at the top of the arc, Manu was flashing open to the right, and I thought he would get the ball, but TP drives it instead kicks it to Mason and he drains it.

I gave a gutteral cry YEAA when it went down. My brother in law comes in and tells me 'I guess that means the Spurs won." I nodded enthusiastically.


For anyone who doesn't think TP can create, they need to watch that last play in slow mo. It was tremendous, decision making and execution in limited time.

Manu is flashin open, you see Tp's head track him and think ahh, he's going there its the obvious choice. Yet in this instance TP I'm guessing, figures Manu taking a moving 3 pointer going away from the basket isn't the best shot.. so uses Ginobili as a decoy lulling them with the threat of the pass... then instantly drives down the lane forcing defenders to react and believe he's going all the way.

But TP is using himself as a decoy too! He keeps cutting hard far enough to the left until he baits Richardson to collapse on him just a smidgen, leaving Mason for a second. At that moment he flicks the ball to Mason who fires a set shot with daylight. Money.

I love the play and the outcome and that they didn't go to Manu but instead had confidence in Mason and he was able to fulfill it. That was an important step to become a championship caliber team.

[YoMamaIsCallin]

I watched it carefully because I am really interested in how the Spurs defend Amare. It was brilliant towards the end of the game. First, they were absolutely marvelous on the Nash/Amare screen and rolls -- they brought a double team on the catch off the S&R and Amare didn't know what to do with it, he just had to dump it back outside and they had to run something else or freelance. Then, they tried to feed Amare in the post against Duncan, after they switched Thomas onto Shaq to save Duncan from fouling out, and Amare just did some half-assed semi-drop-step and turned right into Duncan, who simply stood his ground as Amare flailed like a quail hit with a round of buckshot to try to get a whistle. They did that three times in a row and it didn't work once. First, it wasn't a foul. Second, the refs know that Duncan has five and aren't going to whistle him unless it's obvious. The Suns deserved to lose after that dumbass strategy down the stretch.

Then, the lack of defense on the last play was astonishing. As a coach, and as a player, the last thing you say out of that time out where you're up by 2 is "No threes!" Because, DUH, you'd rather play overtime than LOSE. So what does the new guy do? LEAVE HIS MAN WHO'S AMONG THE LEAGUE LEADERS IN THREES to double-team the driver. Good god. That's as bad as Rasheed in the finals leaving Horry alone. I screamed at the TV, "What were you thinking?" That one you have to put on the coaches, or maybe on the general manager for recruiting stupid, offensive-minded players

[xtremesteven33]

Also it was a well designed play. Parker drew all the attention and had just enough time to throw it out to Mace

[50 cent]

Some observations:

* Shaq had 23 points and 12 rebounds.
* Amare had 25 points and 13 rebounds.
* Grant Hill had 16 points on 7/11 shooting.
* The Suns outrebounded the Spurs 50 to 43.
* Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Tim Duncan all shot less than 50% with Manu having a brutal game.
* The Spurs were called for several ticky tack fouls especially Duncan's 4th and 5th and got hammered several times in the 4th quarter with no calls.
* The Spurs were down 5 points to start the 4th quarter and only scored 20 points in the 4th.


And Phoenix couldn't win this game. Hilarious.

[urunobili]

For anyone who doesn't think TP can create, they need to watch that last play in slow mo. It was tremendous, decision making and execution in limited time.

Manu is flashin open, you see Tp's head track him and think ahh, he's going there its the obvious choice. Yet in this instance TP I'm guessing, figures Manu taking a moving 3 pointer going away from the basket isn't the best shot.. so uses Ginobili as a decoy lulling them with the threat of the pass... then instantly drives down the lane forcing defenders to react and believe he's going all the way.

But TP is using himself as a decoy too! He keeps cutting hard far enough to the left until he baits Richardson to collapse on him just a smidgen, leaving Mason for a second. At that moment he flicks the ball to Mason who fires a set shot with daylight. Money.

I love the play and the outcome and that they didn't go to Manu but instead had confidence in Mason and he was able to fulfill it. That was an important step to become a championship caliber team.

Great Post Dude

For each of the last silly plays he did, and the way he has always executed when it matters most, it makes me feel he is just teasing to make the game and the W bigger at the end... I think TP was as clutch as Mason on that final play :tu

[superbigtime]

I havent seen a Spurs victory at the buzzer in awhile.

Does anybody remember the last one?

Hello, Roger Mason had another game winning buzzer beater earlier this year. Are you sure you're a Spurs fan?

[Dex]

*Kicking the Suns in the face never seems to get old. :downspin:

[urunobili]

Hello, Roger Mason had another game winning buzzer beater earlier this year. Are you sure you're a Spurs fan?

it wasn't a buzzer beater it was the decisive bucket though... but the clips had a shot that Baron Davis missed:downspin:

[xtremesteven33]

Hello, Roger Mason had another game winning buzzer beater earlier this year. Are you sure you're a Spurs fan?


You know what a buzzer beater is?

[m33p0]

*it would have been much harder to get the ball to manu with all those defenders in between tp and him.
*tim duncan is A GREAT DEFENDER.
*god bless your mom. :toast

[timtonymanu]

Tim Duncan is a warrior.
Manu's offense was pissing me off.
Finley playing in the final minutes of the game was dumb.
When all the Suns starters score in double figures and one of our big 3 is struggling we wont win.

When the game was tied and it was the Suns ball, i thought the game was going into OT because the Spurs will play good defense causing a Suns miss. then Timmy gets a rebound and calls timeout. the Spurs run a play and miss the shot. Overtime.

Back to reality, Grant Hill inbounds the ball and the ball goes back to him for an easy layup. I go WTF. Suns win! Great how low are we on the standings. This game was rigged because the calls were all against us.
My spirit was low on the Spurs timeout. I was like we gotta have Duncan shoot the 3. Hey it worked the first time. Finley inbounds the ball to Parker. I was worried because i thought Parker or Manu would throw off an impossible shot that missed. I see Parker drive and I go "Oh no, he's gonna throw up a shot." Then he passes to Mason and Mason makes the 3. I jumped up and down so loud yelling "Roger fuckin Mason Jr." that my parents were freaking out. it was great. i went from low spirits to high.

[Thomas82]

These are some good observations.

[honestfool84]

1. the spurs won.
2. the suns lost.
3. spurs fans were happy.
4. the arena was eerily quiet after mason made the three.
5. my christmas was complete.

[raspsa]

When Amare received the inbounds pass, I guess the defense didn't expect him to pass it to Hill for a layup.. the Spurs probably felt Amare would try and be "the man" and hog the play.
The same thoughts must have been going thru the Suns' minds seconds after Hill put them ahead. They didn't think it likely that Parker would opt to pass to mason instead of trying to make a play for himself.
Both sequences deviated from what one would normally expect.

[T Park]

Agreed. I thought it was a clear out iso for stoudamire to end the game.

[LavaLamp]

Agreed. I thought it was a clear out iso for stoudamire to end the game.


This last set play where Grant inbounds to Amare, Nash sets a back screen and Amare dumps to Grant for a layup was also used two weeks ago to win against Orlando. Don't know how much more useful it can be now that's it's been seen a couple of times (and once on national TV).

This was a great game. Very entertaining. Props to the Spurs team for pulling it out. Of course, I would've wanted to see a Suns win but the game was close enough for it to go either way. I am hoping this current Suns team learns from its defensive lapses and to prep for the post-season. Overall, I liked what I saw. Suns got some stops, defended better than before, rebounded strongly, and played half-court basketball better than the old run-n-gun Suns.

[raspsa]

Hi LavaLamp. If the Spurs were caught napping on that last play, rest assured it's now been filed away for future reference. BTW, Do you think Kerr and Porter are done restructuring the team or do you anticipate more player movement before the trade deadline?