Blackjack
01-13-2010, 01:23 PM
A Quiet Night for DeJuan Blair (http://www.48minutesofhell.com/2010/01/13/a-quiet-night-for-dejuan-blair/)
by Andrew A. McNeil
DeJuan Blair started for the Spurs last night against the Los Angeles Lakers. He finished it too. In between? Nada.
Blair played the first five minutes of the game before being substituted for Antonio McDyess. He didn’t step on the floor again until there were just a couple of minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and the final score was just a formality.
I made a little prediction pre-game (http://www.48minutesofhell.com/2010/01/12/lakers-nothing-more-needs-to-be-said/) that there was a chance that Blair wouldn’t play a lot against the Lakers. Coach Popovich tends to lean on older players more in big games, and I thought that Theo Ratliff might see more time as a result.
Ratliff played in the second quarter but only totaled four minutes for the game. Instead, the Spurs used a combination of Antonio McDyess and Richard Jefferson at the four position, with excellent results. Lakers starting power forward Lamar Odom scored just 10 points on 2-6 shooting and was practically a ghost for the majority of the game.
But back to Blair. With Coach Pop’s tendency to favor vets, and Blair’s propensity to get into foul trouble, I thought his minutes would be limited in this game. Seven minutes was more limited than I expected, though.
At 7-foot, 280 pounds, Andrew Bynum is simply too big for Blair to guard, even with Blair’s knack for playing bigger than he looks. And DeJuan’s inexperience at guarding more perimeter-oriented bigs like Odom and Ron Artest meant he could easily end up in foul trouble early in the game.
With those things going against him, Coach Pop probably felt more comfortable going with a veteran front court and resting Blair for tonight’s game against the youthful and energetic Oklahoma City Thunder. Given the final result, it’s hard to argue.
Jefferson and McDyess were fantastic on defense and George Hill and Manu Ginobili each spent time guarding Artest. Even Ratliff played a solid four-minute stretch for San Antonio. With a 20-point win over the best team in the NBA, there is no second guessing Blair’s extended time on the padded seats of the AT&T Center on Tuesday night.
It just wasn’t your game, rook.
by Andrew A. McNeil
DeJuan Blair started for the Spurs last night against the Los Angeles Lakers. He finished it too. In between? Nada.
Blair played the first five minutes of the game before being substituted for Antonio McDyess. He didn’t step on the floor again until there were just a couple of minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and the final score was just a formality.
I made a little prediction pre-game (http://www.48minutesofhell.com/2010/01/12/lakers-nothing-more-needs-to-be-said/) that there was a chance that Blair wouldn’t play a lot against the Lakers. Coach Popovich tends to lean on older players more in big games, and I thought that Theo Ratliff might see more time as a result.
Ratliff played in the second quarter but only totaled four minutes for the game. Instead, the Spurs used a combination of Antonio McDyess and Richard Jefferson at the four position, with excellent results. Lakers starting power forward Lamar Odom scored just 10 points on 2-6 shooting and was practically a ghost for the majority of the game.
But back to Blair. With Coach Pop’s tendency to favor vets, and Blair’s propensity to get into foul trouble, I thought his minutes would be limited in this game. Seven minutes was more limited than I expected, though.
At 7-foot, 280 pounds, Andrew Bynum is simply too big for Blair to guard, even with Blair’s knack for playing bigger than he looks. And DeJuan’s inexperience at guarding more perimeter-oriented bigs like Odom and Ron Artest meant he could easily end up in foul trouble early in the game.
With those things going against him, Coach Pop probably felt more comfortable going with a veteran front court and resting Blair for tonight’s game against the youthful and energetic Oklahoma City Thunder. Given the final result, it’s hard to argue.
Jefferson and McDyess were fantastic on defense and George Hill and Manu Ginobili each spent time guarding Artest. Even Ratliff played a solid four-minute stretch for San Antonio. With a 20-point win over the best team in the NBA, there is no second guessing Blair’s extended time on the padded seats of the AT&T Center on Tuesday night.
It just wasn’t your game, rook.