duncan228
01-09-2009, 12:04 AM
Updated.
Spurs pull past ailing Clippers (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Spurs_pull_past_ailing_Clippers.html)
Jeff McDonald
The way Spurs guard Michael Finley sees it, L.A. Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy could have been coaching 1,400 miles away in the BCS national championship football game Thursday night, instead of at the AT&T Center.
Faced with the task of finding a way to defend Spurs star Tim Duncan, Dunleavy opted for a strategy straight off of the gridiron.
“It was like (Duncan) was a wide receiver, and they were double-teaming him and letting everyone else beat them,” Finley said. “They were playing a bump-and-run double team on Tim and a ‘Cover 2’ zone on everybody else.”
For those without a master’s degree in Football Terminology 101 — or at least, without a Madden-addicted teenager in the house — what Finley means is this: When it came time for Dunleavy to pick his poison against the Spurs, he reached for the vial marked “Anybody but Duncan.”
The result was a slow death for the short-handed Clippers. The Spurs overcame a disjointed first half, ratcheting up their defense in the second half to — finally — come away with a 106-84 victory.
Tony Parker had 19 points and Roger Mason Jr. added 18 for the Spurs, who outscored the Clippers 31-15 in the fourth quarter to transform the game into a rout.
Content to lay back and play quarterback through a blitz of double teams, Duncan finished with eight points, marking the first time this season he’s finished with fewer than 11. On the other hand, he led the Spurs (24-11) with nine assists.
“Tonight, they just didn’t want Tim to beat them,” Finley said. “So he was distributing the ball and letting his teammates pick up the slack.”
The best example of somebody else beating the Clippers (8-27) came during the decisive fourth quarter. Then, he rested on the bench for the full 12 minutes while his teammates blew the game apart.
This wasn’t supposed to be much of a test for the surging Spurs, who have won nine of their last 10 and are 15-3 since a Dec. 4 loss at home to Detroit.
The Clippers, meanwhile, arrived on the heels of an eight-game losing skid, with only nine players healthy and with three starters — Baron Davis, Chris Kaman and Zach Randolph — out with injuries. Rumor has it they were one strained hammy away from squeezing Dunleavy back into uniform.
“Any time you play a team that, on paper, is less than you, and they have three or four injured players, it’s hard,” Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said. “Maybe you are not as motivated. It usually becomes a tougher game than expected.”
After two quarters, the Clippers JV led the Spurs 44-43.
The Spurs opened by making just 6 of 23 shots in the first quarter, sending coach Gregg Popovich to the index cards he keeps in his shirt pocket, in search of some magic spell to remove the lid from the basket.
Dunleavy’s strategy of forcing anybody but Duncan beat the Clippers had worked. Then, the second half started.
Duncan made a short jumper 17 seconds into the third quarter to put the Spurs ahead 45-44. It would be Duncan’s final basket of the night. It would also be the final lead the Spurs would need.
That kick-started a 10-0 run to start the second half, after which the Spurs began making stops and pushed their lead into double digits.
“Early on, we were missing wide-open shots,” Mason said. “The thing we wanted to do was to keep playing defense, and our defense got better as the game went along. You go through stretches sometimes when you’re not making shots. The constant always has to be defense.”
Before the night was over, the Spurs had topped 100 points, which was a pretty good indicator of where this game was heading. They have won 26 consecutive games when eclipsing the century mark, the longest such streak in the league.
The Clippers had dared anybody but Duncan to beat them. Anybody but Duncan did.
Spurs pull past ailing Clippers (http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Spurs_pull_past_ailing_Clippers.html)
Jeff McDonald
The way Spurs guard Michael Finley sees it, L.A. Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy could have been coaching 1,400 miles away in the BCS national championship football game Thursday night, instead of at the AT&T Center.
Faced with the task of finding a way to defend Spurs star Tim Duncan, Dunleavy opted for a strategy straight off of the gridiron.
“It was like (Duncan) was a wide receiver, and they were double-teaming him and letting everyone else beat them,” Finley said. “They were playing a bump-and-run double team on Tim and a ‘Cover 2’ zone on everybody else.”
For those without a master’s degree in Football Terminology 101 — or at least, without a Madden-addicted teenager in the house — what Finley means is this: When it came time for Dunleavy to pick his poison against the Spurs, he reached for the vial marked “Anybody but Duncan.”
The result was a slow death for the short-handed Clippers. The Spurs overcame a disjointed first half, ratcheting up their defense in the second half to — finally — come away with a 106-84 victory.
Tony Parker had 19 points and Roger Mason Jr. added 18 for the Spurs, who outscored the Clippers 31-15 in the fourth quarter to transform the game into a rout.
Content to lay back and play quarterback through a blitz of double teams, Duncan finished with eight points, marking the first time this season he’s finished with fewer than 11. On the other hand, he led the Spurs (24-11) with nine assists.
“Tonight, they just didn’t want Tim to beat them,” Finley said. “So he was distributing the ball and letting his teammates pick up the slack.”
The best example of somebody else beating the Clippers (8-27) came during the decisive fourth quarter. Then, he rested on the bench for the full 12 minutes while his teammates blew the game apart.
This wasn’t supposed to be much of a test for the surging Spurs, who have won nine of their last 10 and are 15-3 since a Dec. 4 loss at home to Detroit.
The Clippers, meanwhile, arrived on the heels of an eight-game losing skid, with only nine players healthy and with three starters — Baron Davis, Chris Kaman and Zach Randolph — out with injuries. Rumor has it they were one strained hammy away from squeezing Dunleavy back into uniform.
“Any time you play a team that, on paper, is less than you, and they have three or four injured players, it’s hard,” Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said. “Maybe you are not as motivated. It usually becomes a tougher game than expected.”
After two quarters, the Clippers JV led the Spurs 44-43.
The Spurs opened by making just 6 of 23 shots in the first quarter, sending coach Gregg Popovich to the index cards he keeps in his shirt pocket, in search of some magic spell to remove the lid from the basket.
Dunleavy’s strategy of forcing anybody but Duncan beat the Clippers had worked. Then, the second half started.
Duncan made a short jumper 17 seconds into the third quarter to put the Spurs ahead 45-44. It would be Duncan’s final basket of the night. It would also be the final lead the Spurs would need.
That kick-started a 10-0 run to start the second half, after which the Spurs began making stops and pushed their lead into double digits.
“Early on, we were missing wide-open shots,” Mason said. “The thing we wanted to do was to keep playing defense, and our defense got better as the game went along. You go through stretches sometimes when you’re not making shots. The constant always has to be defense.”
Before the night was over, the Spurs had topped 100 points, which was a pretty good indicator of where this game was heading. They have won 26 consecutive games when eclipsing the century mark, the longest such streak in the league.
The Clippers had dared anybody but Duncan to beat them. Anybody but Duncan did.