Chieflion
01-04-2010, 04:21 AM
Disclaimer: Again, if you disagree on my opinions, feel free to comment. I know it is very lengthy, bear with my rant. If you want to see the entire boxscore:
http://www.nba.com/games/20100103/SASTOR/gameinfo.html?ls=gt2hp0020900491
The Starters: Richard Jefferson, Antonio McDyess, Theo Ratliff, Keith Bogans, Tony Parker.
On Richard Jefferson: RJ had 12 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal. He shot 5 of 10 from the field, 0 for 2 from three point range and 2 of 2 from the FT line. I thought Jefferson deferred a little too much this game, especially when Duncan sat the entire 1st quarter. His counterpart, Antoine Wright, arguably had a better game than him, which is a sad thing. RJ seemed to have lost his fire in this Raptors game, played soft defense, lets hope it is just the cold weather freezing him up. He also played a team leading 37 minutes and 54 seconds.
On Antonio McDyess: Statlines do not reflect how weak he played. His mind seemed to have floated off somewhere else. Dice had 2 points, 4 rebounds. He shot 1 of 6 from the field in 18 minutes and 8 seconds of gametime. Dice looked completely lost out there after being moved into the starting lineup. He played off the bench in the past few games and was money with the jumper, now he seemed to blow. He failed to get himself open and set screens properly and almost singlehandedly gave away momentum to the Raptors with his fouls and misses.
On Theo Ratliff: Not much needs to be said about Theo Ratliff who only played 8 minutes and 28 seconds. Theo shot 0 for 1 from the field, and dished out one assist. Defensively, he did not do that well and was average in the 1st minutes of the ball game he played and was clearly a non-factor on offense.
On Keith Bogans: One of the brighter spots in the loss against the Raptors. His defensive effort was always there. During the last minutes of the game, when he got switched on to Bosh, Bogans was there to deny Bosh the ball with his hustle and effort. He was also the guy out there harassing Jarrett Jack all 94 feet of the basketball court during the final minutes. However, he had problems with DeMar DeRozan flying all over the place with his athletic ability and pure talent. Bogans hit 2 three pointers on 3 attempts and missed all his other 3 two point shots, including one at the rim which I thought he got fouled on. Bogans also had 3 steals, more credit to his defense, with 2 rebounds and an assist to boot.
On Tony Parker: He was fantastic when he touched the ball at least. In the 1st quarter, he was brilliant. Nothing else could be said. If I remembeer correctly, he had 14 of the Spurs' 19 points in the 1st quarter. Parker's offense practically saved the Spurs from having a single digit scoring 1st quarter. Although he scored only 5 points in the 2nd half, I thought he should have gotten the ball more.
The bench: DeJuan Blair, Manu Ginobili, Roger Mason Jr, George Hill, Tim Duncan
On DeJuan Blair: Blair played 18 minutes and 29 seconds. Blair shot 4 of 7 from the field and scored 8 points. He also grabbed 6 rebounds. He missed both his FT attempts. For some weird reason, Blair was relegated to the bench despite his recent play for Antonio McDyess. Blair still played hard in his minutes, but was also thrown off course as he racked up for 4 fouls, 3 of which are offensive fouls, crediting him with 3 turnovers and stopping all momentum when the Spurs were trying to make a run. He made rookie mistakes and we hope he can cut down on these in the near future.
On Manu Ginobili: Manu has been less than stellar after his near triple double circus act and did not do that well. Manu scored 7 points on 2 of 9 shooting, missed all 3 of his 3-point attempts. He did hit all 3 all of his free throws. Manu still had his impact by rebounding the ball 7 times and dishing out 4 key assists. Manu also played 30 minutes and 38 seconds when he is ill and assisted his illnesses to half the team.
On Roger Mason Jr: After carrying the Spurs offense in the Wizards game, Mason scored 5 points by hitting a three and making all two of his free throws. Mason played not so smart and I was disappointed by his lack of common sense, attempting two behind the back passes (none of them succeeded when it is such a close game. He took some good shots though, unfortunately he missed.
On George Hill: Oh man, George Hill, we really need you to wake up. You have been in a slump for the past few games. For a player averaging 24.1 minutes a game, Hill only played 11 minutes and 18 seconds because of Mason's increased minutes. Hill had 2 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists. He shot 1 of 4 from the field and 0 for 1 from three. Hill noticeably began to suck on defense, getting burned by Marcus Banks on numerous occasions. As the only backup point guard of the Spurs, I expect Hill to play better in the upcoming games.
On Tim Duncan: In case you have been wondering where he was in the writeup, Tim Duncan got benched by Pop in the entire 1st quarter and came off the bench. Tim Duncan's stats looked like the usual 21 points and 12 rebounds, the numbers we have been used to seeing. However, he choked in the clutch and missed 3 free throws in the clutch. The Tim Duncan who improved so much from the FT line this season was 5 of 9 from the FT line and was 8 of 22 from the field. Tim could not get past the defense of Andrea Bargnani and even got beat by Bargnani on the dribble for the reverse dunk. For Duncan, this indeed is a game he would like to forget about. Tim also made an incredibly stupid play by jumping into Jack with milliseconds left on the shot clock in the 2nd quarter and gave Jack 3 free throws when he was like 37 feet away from the hoop.
On Gregg Popovich: In case you didn't watch the game, Pop's gametime decisions confused everyone in the basketball world by benching Tim Duncan and DeJuan Blair (his entire PF/C frontline) and started Theo, who rarely plays and McDyess. After the 1st quarter, everyone thought Tim was not going to play, then he entered the court after the team dug itself into a 12 point deficit. Pop's shocking decisions left his players confused as players like Dice and RJ, the new guys on the team, had no idea what Pop was trying to do. The loss certainly did not help Pop's case either. Pop also failed to get the white-hot Tony Parker open looks to attack and score to create for everyone else.
http://www.nba.com/games/20100103/SASTOR/gameinfo.html?ls=gt2hp0020900491
The Starters: Richard Jefferson, Antonio McDyess, Theo Ratliff, Keith Bogans, Tony Parker.
On Richard Jefferson: RJ had 12 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal. He shot 5 of 10 from the field, 0 for 2 from three point range and 2 of 2 from the FT line. I thought Jefferson deferred a little too much this game, especially when Duncan sat the entire 1st quarter. His counterpart, Antoine Wright, arguably had a better game than him, which is a sad thing. RJ seemed to have lost his fire in this Raptors game, played soft defense, lets hope it is just the cold weather freezing him up. He also played a team leading 37 minutes and 54 seconds.
On Antonio McDyess: Statlines do not reflect how weak he played. His mind seemed to have floated off somewhere else. Dice had 2 points, 4 rebounds. He shot 1 of 6 from the field in 18 minutes and 8 seconds of gametime. Dice looked completely lost out there after being moved into the starting lineup. He played off the bench in the past few games and was money with the jumper, now he seemed to blow. He failed to get himself open and set screens properly and almost singlehandedly gave away momentum to the Raptors with his fouls and misses.
On Theo Ratliff: Not much needs to be said about Theo Ratliff who only played 8 minutes and 28 seconds. Theo shot 0 for 1 from the field, and dished out one assist. Defensively, he did not do that well and was average in the 1st minutes of the ball game he played and was clearly a non-factor on offense.
On Keith Bogans: One of the brighter spots in the loss against the Raptors. His defensive effort was always there. During the last minutes of the game, when he got switched on to Bosh, Bogans was there to deny Bosh the ball with his hustle and effort. He was also the guy out there harassing Jarrett Jack all 94 feet of the basketball court during the final minutes. However, he had problems with DeMar DeRozan flying all over the place with his athletic ability and pure talent. Bogans hit 2 three pointers on 3 attempts and missed all his other 3 two point shots, including one at the rim which I thought he got fouled on. Bogans also had 3 steals, more credit to his defense, with 2 rebounds and an assist to boot.
On Tony Parker: He was fantastic when he touched the ball at least. In the 1st quarter, he was brilliant. Nothing else could be said. If I remembeer correctly, he had 14 of the Spurs' 19 points in the 1st quarter. Parker's offense practically saved the Spurs from having a single digit scoring 1st quarter. Although he scored only 5 points in the 2nd half, I thought he should have gotten the ball more.
The bench: DeJuan Blair, Manu Ginobili, Roger Mason Jr, George Hill, Tim Duncan
On DeJuan Blair: Blair played 18 minutes and 29 seconds. Blair shot 4 of 7 from the field and scored 8 points. He also grabbed 6 rebounds. He missed both his FT attempts. For some weird reason, Blair was relegated to the bench despite his recent play for Antonio McDyess. Blair still played hard in his minutes, but was also thrown off course as he racked up for 4 fouls, 3 of which are offensive fouls, crediting him with 3 turnovers and stopping all momentum when the Spurs were trying to make a run. He made rookie mistakes and we hope he can cut down on these in the near future.
On Manu Ginobili: Manu has been less than stellar after his near triple double circus act and did not do that well. Manu scored 7 points on 2 of 9 shooting, missed all 3 of his 3-point attempts. He did hit all 3 all of his free throws. Manu still had his impact by rebounding the ball 7 times and dishing out 4 key assists. Manu also played 30 minutes and 38 seconds when he is ill and assisted his illnesses to half the team.
On Roger Mason Jr: After carrying the Spurs offense in the Wizards game, Mason scored 5 points by hitting a three and making all two of his free throws. Mason played not so smart and I was disappointed by his lack of common sense, attempting two behind the back passes (none of them succeeded when it is such a close game. He took some good shots though, unfortunately he missed.
On George Hill: Oh man, George Hill, we really need you to wake up. You have been in a slump for the past few games. For a player averaging 24.1 minutes a game, Hill only played 11 minutes and 18 seconds because of Mason's increased minutes. Hill had 2 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists. He shot 1 of 4 from the field and 0 for 1 from three. Hill noticeably began to suck on defense, getting burned by Marcus Banks on numerous occasions. As the only backup point guard of the Spurs, I expect Hill to play better in the upcoming games.
On Tim Duncan: In case you have been wondering where he was in the writeup, Tim Duncan got benched by Pop in the entire 1st quarter and came off the bench. Tim Duncan's stats looked like the usual 21 points and 12 rebounds, the numbers we have been used to seeing. However, he choked in the clutch and missed 3 free throws in the clutch. The Tim Duncan who improved so much from the FT line this season was 5 of 9 from the FT line and was 8 of 22 from the field. Tim could not get past the defense of Andrea Bargnani and even got beat by Bargnani on the dribble for the reverse dunk. For Duncan, this indeed is a game he would like to forget about. Tim also made an incredibly stupid play by jumping into Jack with milliseconds left on the shot clock in the 2nd quarter and gave Jack 3 free throws when he was like 37 feet away from the hoop.
On Gregg Popovich: In case you didn't watch the game, Pop's gametime decisions confused everyone in the basketball world by benching Tim Duncan and DeJuan Blair (his entire PF/C frontline) and started Theo, who rarely plays and McDyess. After the 1st quarter, everyone thought Tim was not going to play, then he entered the court after the team dug itself into a 12 point deficit. Pop's shocking decisions left his players confused as players like Dice and RJ, the new guys on the team, had no idea what Pop was trying to do. The loss certainly did not help Pop's case either. Pop also failed to get the white-hot Tony Parker open looks to attack and score to create for everyone else.