ambchang
08-05-2009, 05:14 PM
Just finished watching games 1, 3, 5, and 6 (the winning games) of the Spurs series vs. the Nets in 2003. Too bad they don’t have games 2 and 4, or the Lakers and Mavs series … oh well.
Some general thoughts:
Broadcasting
- Tom Tolbert tries so hard to be funny, kinda like the shock DJ of the NBA commentators. Too bad he was neither funny nor informative. I was just shocked at how little he knows about the game of basketball despite being a basketball player most of his life. He couldn’t stop talking about how Martin negated Duncan because of the stats, but never noticed that Martin can’t create, defend, stay out of foul trouble, etc … like Duncan could. More on this later.
- Bill Walton is an idiot. Same deal, I don’t know why someone as good as he was as a basketball player know as little as he does. I am giving him the benefit of the doubt and say that he lacks the broadcasting skills rather than the knowledge. As a comparison, Hubbie Brown was about a billion times better than both of them.
Nets
- Kenyon Martin had the physical skills to be great. He can run, he can jump, he is quick, and he is strong. Too bad he was also stupid. He would put up 23 and 12 in a game at the most meaningless times, but it seems like everytime the Spurs make a comeback, it was off of Kenyon Martin mistakes. Technicals, stupid fouls, turnovers, bad shots, you name it he did it. On top of that, he was also a dirty player would aims to hurt, or at least hard foul, anyone around him.
- Jason Kidd was fantastic. I don’t want to bring up the Parker vs. Kidd debate, but if Kidd joined the Spurs in the summer of 03, there is just no doubt that the Spurs would win the 04 and 05 championship. But the Spurs would be mortgaging the future if that had happened.
Kidd’s offense facilitation was just ahead of everyone. He was better than Nash in his prime, and if Kidd played in the 80’s, he would be mentioned in the same breath as Magic and Bird. Too bad he played in an era where fast break was a bad word.
- Jefferson was up and down. When he was on, he was hard to stop. His athleticism gave Bowen some headaches, but he scored most of his points when Jackson or Ginobili was on him.
Spurs
- Even at his advanced age, he was still one of the major components of a championship. He was no longer as quick or as athletic as he was in the mid-90s, but he was still incredibly quick and athletic for any 7 footer. His defense around the rim allowed the Spurs to rest Duncan for a few minutes without a huge drop in defensive intensity.
- Duncan was absolutely dominant in the series. I will have to run the normalized numbers comparing his numbers against the Nets in 03, and Shaq’s numbers against the Nets in 02 to have a good look at all the claims that Shaq’s peak was way higher than Duncan’s peak. I didn’t even recall Duncan being this good. It was absolutely incredible the way he dominated both offense and defense. One thing of note is that there were spots were Duncan could be scoring like crazy, and the Spurs would be losing, but then Duncan stopped scoring and the others started to, the Spurs would win. The best example would be Game 6 – Duncan scored 20 of his 21 points in the 1st 3 quarters and the Spurs were down by 6 entering the 4th. Duncan scored 1 point (but had a huge amount of assists once people started nailing wide open shots) in the 4th, and the Spurs went on a 19-0 run to finally win by 11 points (a 17-point turn around). Just to prove that no matter how good you are, if you have bad teammates, you are never going to win anything.
- Stephen Jackson was such a fun player to watch. He had no shot selection, he just shoots whenever he damn well pleases. The funny thing is, Pop would sub him for Ginobili when Jackson plays out of control, I am not sure what Pop expected out of Ginobili. Anyways, the Spurs would win handily whenever Jackson is on, but when he is not, he would take stupid shots and make stupid TOs.
- Tony Parker was not ready for prime time. His confidence really wasn’t as high as it is now, when he would continue to shoot even when his shots are not dropping. As the Lakers do successfully in 04, pack the lane, make him take outside shots, and he is basically useless.
- Bowen really put the clamps on Kittles or Jefferson. The two were really good scorers, but Bowen just takes them out of the game. Bowen would also shoot 3 pters whenever open. One thing I have forgotten was that Bowen would miss all of his stop and pop jumpshots in the series.
- Ginobili showed potential. He didn’t have the ability to control the game he did later on in his career, but his athleticism was in full display. He was quick to the ball, facilitates the offense very well, especially for a rookie backup SG. His defense was overall poor, where he would gamble way too much. Talks about his flops were way overexaggerated, as …..
- Malik Rose was by far the worse flopper on the team, and that is quite an accomplishment given that Ginobili and Bowen were both on the team. But since he was on the Spurs, I love it. He frustrates Kmart to no end whenever he was in the game, and would run around like a ball of energy. He was the most reliable FT shooter, and can make those wide open 18 foot jump shots whenever Duncan was doubled.
- Speedy Claxton played like a man possessed. I didn’t really follow his career closely since he left the Spurs, but that series may well be his career highlight. Given how well it played, it was quite a highlight too. He would nail open jump shots, penetrate the lane and create havoc, and would smartly look for Duncan down the court.
- Steve Kerr nailed down his open jump shots, no surprises.
- Kevin Willis didn’t play a lot, but I had to mention him because of the significance of what the championship meant to him. He started playing in the 84-85 season, that is 18 freaking years before he finally won his ring. He was also great against Shaq vs. the Lakers.
- Pop was phenomenal. The Spurs defense really put the clamps on one of the best fast-breaking teams of that season. The offense was really not creative, as it was Duncan and out every damned time, but hey, if you have the back to back MVP on your team, you use him to the max of his abilities.
I already watched a couple of the 05 Finals vs. the Pistons, and that was a totally different team. It seems like the 05 team was much better than the 03 team, but meet a stronger opponent in the Pistons. If the 03 Spurs played the 05 Pistons, I am pretty sure the Spurs would have lost in 5, maybe 6 games.
Some general thoughts:
Broadcasting
- Tom Tolbert tries so hard to be funny, kinda like the shock DJ of the NBA commentators. Too bad he was neither funny nor informative. I was just shocked at how little he knows about the game of basketball despite being a basketball player most of his life. He couldn’t stop talking about how Martin negated Duncan because of the stats, but never noticed that Martin can’t create, defend, stay out of foul trouble, etc … like Duncan could. More on this later.
- Bill Walton is an idiot. Same deal, I don’t know why someone as good as he was as a basketball player know as little as he does. I am giving him the benefit of the doubt and say that he lacks the broadcasting skills rather than the knowledge. As a comparison, Hubbie Brown was about a billion times better than both of them.
Nets
- Kenyon Martin had the physical skills to be great. He can run, he can jump, he is quick, and he is strong. Too bad he was also stupid. He would put up 23 and 12 in a game at the most meaningless times, but it seems like everytime the Spurs make a comeback, it was off of Kenyon Martin mistakes. Technicals, stupid fouls, turnovers, bad shots, you name it he did it. On top of that, he was also a dirty player would aims to hurt, or at least hard foul, anyone around him.
- Jason Kidd was fantastic. I don’t want to bring up the Parker vs. Kidd debate, but if Kidd joined the Spurs in the summer of 03, there is just no doubt that the Spurs would win the 04 and 05 championship. But the Spurs would be mortgaging the future if that had happened.
Kidd’s offense facilitation was just ahead of everyone. He was better than Nash in his prime, and if Kidd played in the 80’s, he would be mentioned in the same breath as Magic and Bird. Too bad he played in an era where fast break was a bad word.
- Jefferson was up and down. When he was on, he was hard to stop. His athleticism gave Bowen some headaches, but he scored most of his points when Jackson or Ginobili was on him.
Spurs
- Even at his advanced age, he was still one of the major components of a championship. He was no longer as quick or as athletic as he was in the mid-90s, but he was still incredibly quick and athletic for any 7 footer. His defense around the rim allowed the Spurs to rest Duncan for a few minutes without a huge drop in defensive intensity.
- Duncan was absolutely dominant in the series. I will have to run the normalized numbers comparing his numbers against the Nets in 03, and Shaq’s numbers against the Nets in 02 to have a good look at all the claims that Shaq’s peak was way higher than Duncan’s peak. I didn’t even recall Duncan being this good. It was absolutely incredible the way he dominated both offense and defense. One thing of note is that there were spots were Duncan could be scoring like crazy, and the Spurs would be losing, but then Duncan stopped scoring and the others started to, the Spurs would win. The best example would be Game 6 – Duncan scored 20 of his 21 points in the 1st 3 quarters and the Spurs were down by 6 entering the 4th. Duncan scored 1 point (but had a huge amount of assists once people started nailing wide open shots) in the 4th, and the Spurs went on a 19-0 run to finally win by 11 points (a 17-point turn around). Just to prove that no matter how good you are, if you have bad teammates, you are never going to win anything.
- Stephen Jackson was such a fun player to watch. He had no shot selection, he just shoots whenever he damn well pleases. The funny thing is, Pop would sub him for Ginobili when Jackson plays out of control, I am not sure what Pop expected out of Ginobili. Anyways, the Spurs would win handily whenever Jackson is on, but when he is not, he would take stupid shots and make stupid TOs.
- Tony Parker was not ready for prime time. His confidence really wasn’t as high as it is now, when he would continue to shoot even when his shots are not dropping. As the Lakers do successfully in 04, pack the lane, make him take outside shots, and he is basically useless.
- Bowen really put the clamps on Kittles or Jefferson. The two were really good scorers, but Bowen just takes them out of the game. Bowen would also shoot 3 pters whenever open. One thing I have forgotten was that Bowen would miss all of his stop and pop jumpshots in the series.
- Ginobili showed potential. He didn’t have the ability to control the game he did later on in his career, but his athleticism was in full display. He was quick to the ball, facilitates the offense very well, especially for a rookie backup SG. His defense was overall poor, where he would gamble way too much. Talks about his flops were way overexaggerated, as …..
- Malik Rose was by far the worse flopper on the team, and that is quite an accomplishment given that Ginobili and Bowen were both on the team. But since he was on the Spurs, I love it. He frustrates Kmart to no end whenever he was in the game, and would run around like a ball of energy. He was the most reliable FT shooter, and can make those wide open 18 foot jump shots whenever Duncan was doubled.
- Speedy Claxton played like a man possessed. I didn’t really follow his career closely since he left the Spurs, but that series may well be his career highlight. Given how well it played, it was quite a highlight too. He would nail open jump shots, penetrate the lane and create havoc, and would smartly look for Duncan down the court.
- Steve Kerr nailed down his open jump shots, no surprises.
- Kevin Willis didn’t play a lot, but I had to mention him because of the significance of what the championship meant to him. He started playing in the 84-85 season, that is 18 freaking years before he finally won his ring. He was also great against Shaq vs. the Lakers.
- Pop was phenomenal. The Spurs defense really put the clamps on one of the best fast-breaking teams of that season. The offense was really not creative, as it was Duncan and out every damned time, but hey, if you have the back to back MVP on your team, you use him to the max of his abilities.
I already watched a couple of the 05 Finals vs. the Pistons, and that was a totally different team. It seems like the 05 team was much better than the 03 team, but meet a stronger opponent in the Pistons. If the 03 Spurs played the 05 Pistons, I am pretty sure the Spurs would have lost in 5, maybe 6 games.