Spurs Notebook: How the Spurs dismantled L.A. in just seven plays

[duncan228]

Spurs Notebook: How the Spurs dismantled L.A. in just seven plays (http://www.kens5.com/sports/Spurs-Notebook-How-the-Spurs-dismanted-LA-in-just-seven-plays-89881612.html)
by Dan Oshinsky / KENS 5

The San Antonio Spurs will be in the NBA playoffs for the 13th consecutive year

But you didn't think the season would play out like this, right?

After a season-long slump against the NBA's elite, the Spurs have finally started to play their best basketball of the year. In the past 16 days, they've beaten the Cavs, Magic and Lakers. Not bad for a team that's still missing starting point guard Tony Parker.

Today, it didn't look like it was going to come easy. After the Spurs opened up a double-digit lead, Kobe Bryant and the Lakers climbed back into the game. With 7:58 left in the fourth quarter, the Spurs held a fragile 74-71 lead.

But that's when the Spurs broke out one of their most impressive runs of the season. The Spurs scored on seven consecutive possessions. The Notebook went to the play-by-play to confirm what we'd seen:


• Manu Ginobili makes two free throws.

• Antonio McDyess makes 20-foot jumper.

• Tim Duncan misses three-foot-hook shot. Ginobili rebound. Ginobili makes layup.

• Ginobili makes two-point shot.

• Duncan makes layup.

• Ginobili makes 27-foot three point jumper.

• Malik Hairston misses 24-foot three point jumper. McDyess rebound. Ginobili misses layup. McDyess rebound. Duncan makes seven-foot jumper. Duncan fouled. Duncan makes free throw.

By the time it was over -- just four minutes later, with 3:55 left in the game -- the Spurs' lead had jumped to 90-75. How many times can you remember L.A. giving up a 16-4 fourth quarter run this late in the season?

For Spurs fans, Sunday was a very big step forward -- and the biggest win of the season for Gregg Popovich's team.

Key Stat

Plus/minus is often a strong indicator of how well a particular player operates on the floor. But here's something you might not have guessed from watching today's game:

Roger Mason and Keith Bogans played similar minutes today. (Mason played 21. Bogans played 24.) Bogans scored 6 points, and Mason was held scoreless, but otherwise, their numbers were almost identical.

But with Mason on the floor, the Spurs were outscored by 1. With Bogans on the floor, the Spurs outscored L.A. by 26.

Take a guess at whose minutes will be dropping once Parker returns to the lineup.

[silverblk mystix]

good info,

I hope when parker returns, Manu can still have the ball in his hands during crunchtime--because it usually results in the spurs at least getting a good shot or free throws...

[Cant_Be_Faded]

I was not able to watch, only listened on the radio, but it did sound like Bogans did an admirable job on D today.

Amazing how good we can be when he plays well.

[TIMMYD!]

That last part about Bogans is interesting.

[CFH]

That last part about Bogans is interesting.

Why do you think Pop calls him the centerpiece??? :lol

[#2!]

I was not able to watch, only listened on the radio, but it did sound like Bogans did an admirable job on D today.

Amazing how good we can be when he plays well.

Would you say that maybe his importance is in need of a title, a moniker of some sorts? Like how we call Timmy the foundation, or Manu the closer.

Something indicative of his unique key role and how it fits within the larger picture... You know, something that says "this guy not fucking up has a positive effect on our team," but in a strong enough manner that everyone can understand just how central this "not fucking up" thing really is.

[HarlemHeat37]

Bogans has the worst +/- on the team this season..so that's a horrible argument..I agree that he should be playing over Mason though..

[jestersmash]

The reason why I take +/- with a grain of salt is because a player can simply be "riding the coattails" of another player who is offensively hot, and the +/- will make the first player seem amazing.

If Bogans is on the floor and Ginobili is going through one of his super-Manu bits ,scoring 8, 10 points in 2 minutes while LA scores only 2, Bogans just got a +6 or +8 from that alone.

Let's say more that Bogans didn't even have that great of defense, his player got around him and simply missed open shots.

Obviously, this didn't always happen, anybody who watched the game could tell that Bogans played pretty solid defense tonight, as well as hitting 2 sorely needed 3 points to keep bench production up, but still. The +/- stat is far and away the worst statistic available because it doesn't control for extraneous variables.

You can never assume that a positive or negative +/- is due to that person, because +/- makes no effort to control for other factors.

[Manufan909]

The reason why I take +/- with a grain of salt is because a player can simply be "riding the coattails" of another player who is offensively hot, and the +/- will make the first player seem amazing.

If Bogans is on the floor and Ginobili is going through one of his super-Manu bits ,scoring 8, 10 points in 2 minutes while LA scores only 2, Bogans just got a +6 or +8 from that alone.

Let's say more that Bogans didn't even have that great of defense, his player got around him and simply missed open shots.

Obviously, this didn't always happen, anybody who watched the game could tell that Bogans played pretty solid defense tonight, as well as hitting 2 sorely needed 3 points to keep bench production up, but still. The +/- stat is far and away the worst statistic available because it doesn't control for extraneous variables.

You can never assume that a positive or negative +/- is due to that person, because +/- makes no effort to control for other factors.

Indeed.

[ffadicted]

Bogans > > > Mason this season and it aint even close folks, and he did have a great effort defensively out there today, even though the +/- seems a bit inflated lol

[Shifty]

The reason why I take +/- with a grain of salt is because a player can simply be "riding the coattails" of another player who is offensively hot, and the +/- will make the first player seem amazing.

If Bogans is on the floor and Ginobili is going through one of his super-Manu bits ,scoring 8, 10 points in 2 minutes while LA scores only 2, Bogans just got a +6 or +8 from that alone.

Let's say more that Bogans didn't even have that great of defense, his player got around him and simply missed open shots.

Obviously, this didn't always happen, anybody who watched the game could tell that Bogans played pretty solid defense tonight, as well as hitting 2 sorely needed 3 points to keep bench production up, but still. The +/- stat is far and away the worst statistic available because it doesn't control for extraneous variables.

You can never assume that a positive or negative +/- is due to that person, because +/- makes no effort to control for other factors.

I agree it can be misleading but is not all bad. Surely not the worst. It does help to show if a player (or a combination of players) are working out for the team objective of scoring more points than their opponent. Of course, like most other statistics, small samples cannot be taken too seriously. However, due to the offensive bias of most common statistics, +/- is one of the few tools some players have to show up how important they are.

[jestersmash]

I agree it can be misleading but is not all bad. Surely not the worst. It does help to show if a player (or a combination of players) are working out for the team objective of scoring more points than their opponent. Of course, like most other statistics, small samples cannot be taken too seriously. However, due to the offensive bias of most common statistics, +/- is one of the few tools some players have to show up how important they are.

I like +/- stat with combinations of players more than just for single players. Combination +/- is a little bit more meaningful and can be read into more.

[Avitus1]

Didn't think Bogans and Mason were much different, aside from Mason forgetting how to shoot the damn ball.

[Manu-of-steel]

We outrebounded LA, 41-34. It showed how much we wanted to win this game.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Bogans played well. Pointing to the +/- to evaulate yesterday is misleading at best.

Bogans was running with Manu, Duncan, Jefferson, Dice, and Hill before he got hurt.

Mason was out there with a second unit of Blair, Bonner, Hairston, and either Duncan or Dice.

[ElNono]

Bogans will be starting with Hill down. So he better step it up.
He's going to get good looks with Manu running the point, so he has to knock them down.

[TJastal]

Bogans played well. Pointing to the +/- to evaulate yesterday is misleading at best.

Bogans was running with Manu, Duncan, Jefferson, Dice, and Hill before he got hurt.

Mason was out there with a second unit of Blair, Bonner, Hairston, and either Duncan or Dice.

Yup LOL. Mason and Bonner were basically taking turns running picks on the top of the key for each other trying to get open while Bogans was taking wide open kick outs from Manu and Duncan.

Gotta love the Mason haters around here, they just can't wait to jump on any opportunity to rip on him.

[NFGIII]

Yeah, it looks like Bogans will be in the 1st unit and it has already been stated - this guy has to step up. But unfortunately that's always been his problem - he needs to be consistent and isn't. Some nights he is really solid and then he disappears for games at a time. It's a crapshot as to what we see night in and night out.

[Mel_13]

48MOH has an excellent video breakdown from Kevin Arnovitz.

http://www.48minutesofhell.com/2010/04/05/arnovitz-the-lakers-nightmare-fourth-quarter/

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