Manu20
03-30-2005, 03:43 PM
Not Feeling Sorry for Ourselves
http://www.nba.com/blog/blog31.html
Teams gear up to play us, with or without Tim
Right now, we're playing without Tim Duncan. And we miss him on both ends of the floor. On defense, it hurts us from the standpoint that he understands our system.
Every team in the league has a certain defensive philosophy or system. Tim being here his whole career, he understands this system better than anyone else could. And with that, you have guys of that talent and that nature that understand what's going on -- they know where to be at certain moments of the game.
That's one of the things for newcomers; that's why when you get a good team in the beginning of the year, it takes time before they can completely gel together because guys are still learning while they're out there playing.
So yeah, we miss him from the standpoint of just knowing the defensive philosophies that we have, and him trying to encourage other guys as well while he's on the court.
You miss different aspects of his game. He can talk to you on the court and tell you where you need to be, and things of that nature.
But we haven't changed anything on defense. I think the thing that was more disappointing for me is that I don't feel as if we competed the first two games without him -- in Indiana and then New York.
It was kind of like 'Ohh, we're going to feel sorry for ourselves. Ohh, we don't have Tim.'
You've got to understand, in this league, people are gunning for top teams, period.
Tim's absence creates an opportunity for others whom may not have otherwise gotten an opportunity to play a lot.
So here it is, you got an opportunity, show the coaches that 'Hey, we should keep this guy, even though he doesn't play a lot, we should keep him because he is doing this, this or that.'
I think now we're starting to do that; playing with a sense of urgency which is necessary for us, and also ball movement. If we can play moving the ball the way we are without Tim, when he comes back, it's going to add another dimension to our game. We did that last year when Tim was out.
That's why I was so frustrated with our play in New York and Indiana. Here it is, our core group was still here. We took the Lakers to double-overtime with their team last year. It is amazing that 'Hey, this is a situation that we've been here before fellas, and we're not playing like we have.'
And I know I can bring that up in the locker room. All the things that I've been saying all year is really start to take effect now. It's funny how -- I was thinking about this the other day -- someone was saying, 'Bruce with your leadership, is it either more important now that Tim is out or how do you think about that?'
My thought to that was, 'Wow, it's been a preparation for this moment for a while now.' Not to say that 'Yeah, we knew all along that Tim was going to be out.' No, we're not saying that, but all the things that I was saying before -- now it's not hard for guys to listen to me.
http://www.nba.com/blog/blog31.html
Teams gear up to play us, with or without Tim
Right now, we're playing without Tim Duncan. And we miss him on both ends of the floor. On defense, it hurts us from the standpoint that he understands our system.
Every team in the league has a certain defensive philosophy or system. Tim being here his whole career, he understands this system better than anyone else could. And with that, you have guys of that talent and that nature that understand what's going on -- they know where to be at certain moments of the game.
That's one of the things for newcomers; that's why when you get a good team in the beginning of the year, it takes time before they can completely gel together because guys are still learning while they're out there playing.
So yeah, we miss him from the standpoint of just knowing the defensive philosophies that we have, and him trying to encourage other guys as well while he's on the court.
You miss different aspects of his game. He can talk to you on the court and tell you where you need to be, and things of that nature.
But we haven't changed anything on defense. I think the thing that was more disappointing for me is that I don't feel as if we competed the first two games without him -- in Indiana and then New York.
It was kind of like 'Ohh, we're going to feel sorry for ourselves. Ohh, we don't have Tim.'
You've got to understand, in this league, people are gunning for top teams, period.
Tim's absence creates an opportunity for others whom may not have otherwise gotten an opportunity to play a lot.
So here it is, you got an opportunity, show the coaches that 'Hey, we should keep this guy, even though he doesn't play a lot, we should keep him because he is doing this, this or that.'
I think now we're starting to do that; playing with a sense of urgency which is necessary for us, and also ball movement. If we can play moving the ball the way we are without Tim, when he comes back, it's going to add another dimension to our game. We did that last year when Tim was out.
That's why I was so frustrated with our play in New York and Indiana. Here it is, our core group was still here. We took the Lakers to double-overtime with their team last year. It is amazing that 'Hey, this is a situation that we've been here before fellas, and we're not playing like we have.'
And I know I can bring that up in the locker room. All the things that I've been saying all year is really start to take effect now. It's funny how -- I was thinking about this the other day -- someone was saying, 'Bruce with your leadership, is it either more important now that Tim is out or how do you think about that?'
My thought to that was, 'Wow, it's been a preparation for this moment for a while now.' Not to say that 'Yeah, we knew all along that Tim was going to be out.' No, we're not saying that, but all the things that I was saying before -- now it's not hard for guys to listen to me.