roycrikside
04-09-2010, 10:37 PM
1. Clearly, this loss is on Pop. Again, he put the cart before the horse, thinking we could just breeze though the Grizzlies. I understand his plan was to limit Duncan's minutes so he'd be good to go for tomorrow, but with about 5 mins to go in the second quarter he should've realized that Memphis came to play, our interior defense w/out Duncan was going to be awful, and that no perimeter guys were going to stop their penetration. He reacted too late, plain and simple, and in a way I think giving Mahinmi 8 2nd quarter minutes inspired Memphis. Those guys thought to themselves, "The Spurs don't respect us."
2. Of course a major reason Pop's plan backfired was because both RJ and Dice gave us NOTHING in terms of effort or intensity. Both those guys thought they could just throw their jocks out there and we'd win easy. I'm not blaming Tony at all, and it's certainly unfair to him that it's happened this way, but it seems obvious to me that his return has caused too many guys on this team to relax, especially on D. I don't think we can exaggerate or over-emphasize how terrible both of them were tonight.
3. What's with Pop's sudden infatuation with Temple? He's a nice rook and all but how does he get playing time late in this game? I think it's a sad statement about Bogans, Jefferson, and Mason's defense that when the team needed stops late that Pop turned to Temple.
4. That being said, it seems to me that Pop will play ANYONE except Hairston. I don't quite understand why. His wing defense and smallball rebounding would've come in handy.
5. Seriously, what is going on with The Centerpiece? 9 minutes after a DNP-CD last game? Yeah Bogans stinks, but he doesn't stink worse than Mason. If I have to pick one of those two in the rotation, I'm going with Bogans 100 times out of a 100. He might, occasionally, get a stop out there, and he takes less stupid shots.
6. 34 minutes is too many for Bonner. I know he was hitting some shots early, and McDyess was terrible, and Duncan sat the first half, but still. He should never be on the floor that long. People think his defense is a liability, but that's not it at all, it's his rebounding. When he's in there we just give up way too many second chances. He got 4 freakin' rebounds in 34 mins!
7. Pretty good game from Manu but his 3-pt shot looked flat and he didn't seem to have much spring. His legs are pretty tired I think. Might be a good idea to sit him tomorrow.
8. Tony showed some good vision and picked his spots to be aggressive. For the most part I liked his shot selection and decision making. His defense was poor, but so was everybody's. My favorite Parker development of the day was I read that he'd have no problem going to the bench if that's what Pop wanted, saying, "He's the boss." Even if he doesn't mean it, the ball is now in Pop's court to do the right thing.
9. No second half minutes for Blair. Yeah, his D sucked. But everyone's D sucked. Maybe he could've gotten some boards.
10. Your guess is as good as mine what we do tomorrow. LA is resting Kobe. Cleveland is resting LeBron. Meanwhile, we're killing Manu and still losing to fucking Memphis. If I were him I'd be choking the shit out of RJ and Mace right now. If either of those guys show up we win this one easy.
11. It would be a mistake to let Tim off the hook in this game. He didn't try to do anything in the 3rd quarter. He basically started playing with 8 mins to go. That's not enough. But again, Pop did take him out of his rhythm.
12. Pop needs to realize, quickly, that Mason is the worst player on his team. Worse than Hairston, worse than Temple, worse than even Mahinmi. He simply brings less to the table than anyone. Supposedly he's a good shooter. Great. For the sake of argument let's say he is. He can't guard the kitchen sink. He can't dribble. He can't pass. He can't rebound. We've got guys who can contribute more than he can. 1-7 FGs, -11 in 16 minutes good god it's ENOUGH. Chain him to the bench already. We've got enough guys who take threes as it is.
2. Of course a major reason Pop's plan backfired was because both RJ and Dice gave us NOTHING in terms of effort or intensity. Both those guys thought they could just throw their jocks out there and we'd win easy. I'm not blaming Tony at all, and it's certainly unfair to him that it's happened this way, but it seems obvious to me that his return has caused too many guys on this team to relax, especially on D. I don't think we can exaggerate or over-emphasize how terrible both of them were tonight.
3. What's with Pop's sudden infatuation with Temple? He's a nice rook and all but how does he get playing time late in this game? I think it's a sad statement about Bogans, Jefferson, and Mason's defense that when the team needed stops late that Pop turned to Temple.
4. That being said, it seems to me that Pop will play ANYONE except Hairston. I don't quite understand why. His wing defense and smallball rebounding would've come in handy.
5. Seriously, what is going on with The Centerpiece? 9 minutes after a DNP-CD last game? Yeah Bogans stinks, but he doesn't stink worse than Mason. If I have to pick one of those two in the rotation, I'm going with Bogans 100 times out of a 100. He might, occasionally, get a stop out there, and he takes less stupid shots.
6. 34 minutes is too many for Bonner. I know he was hitting some shots early, and McDyess was terrible, and Duncan sat the first half, but still. He should never be on the floor that long. People think his defense is a liability, but that's not it at all, it's his rebounding. When he's in there we just give up way too many second chances. He got 4 freakin' rebounds in 34 mins!
7. Pretty good game from Manu but his 3-pt shot looked flat and he didn't seem to have much spring. His legs are pretty tired I think. Might be a good idea to sit him tomorrow.
8. Tony showed some good vision and picked his spots to be aggressive. For the most part I liked his shot selection and decision making. His defense was poor, but so was everybody's. My favorite Parker development of the day was I read that he'd have no problem going to the bench if that's what Pop wanted, saying, "He's the boss." Even if he doesn't mean it, the ball is now in Pop's court to do the right thing.
9. No second half minutes for Blair. Yeah, his D sucked. But everyone's D sucked. Maybe he could've gotten some boards.
10. Your guess is as good as mine what we do tomorrow. LA is resting Kobe. Cleveland is resting LeBron. Meanwhile, we're killing Manu and still losing to fucking Memphis. If I were him I'd be choking the shit out of RJ and Mace right now. If either of those guys show up we win this one easy.
11. It would be a mistake to let Tim off the hook in this game. He didn't try to do anything in the 3rd quarter. He basically started playing with 8 mins to go. That's not enough. But again, Pop did take him out of his rhythm.
12. Pop needs to realize, quickly, that Mason is the worst player on his team. Worse than Hairston, worse than Temple, worse than even Mahinmi. He simply brings less to the table than anyone. Supposedly he's a good shooter. Great. For the sake of argument let's say he is. He can't guard the kitchen sink. He can't dribble. He can't pass. He can't rebound. We've got guys who can contribute more than he can. 1-7 FGs, -11 in 16 minutes good god it's ENOUGH. Chain him to the bench already. We've got enough guys who take threes as it is.