Game Blog: Nuggets @ Spurs - Dec. 22

[Cessation]

lol!! neal running the train on the nuggets!!

[Spurologist]

I still would've preferred that RJ 3....would've been unreal

[SpursRulez4eVeR]

pop would have went absolutely insane if neal missed that pull up jumper when there were still like 20 seconds on the clock..

[janetcn12]

Thank you..Gary...Gonna be another win...Kudos to the bench

[CFH]

Make your free throws!

[ShoogarBear]

Neal
The Real Deal
Makin the Nuggies Squeal
Enough of this spiel

[Darkwaters]

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9176/neal.png

[CFH]

Whoa, that was scary...

[TIMMYD!]

We definitely pulled this one out of our ass!

[Dex]

:lol Pop having a coronary.

[TampaDude]

Okay, guys...you got this...no mistakes!!!

[tmtcsc]

Gary Neal's a boss. What a friggin stud. He's everything Finley and Mason weren't.

[MannyIsGod]

quinn is actually a 10X better point guard than hill..

Thats ok because Hill 348904308243095834095203x the basketball player Quinn is.

[Dex]

We definitely pulled this one out of our ass!

Spurs found the switch. :downspin:

[Drachen]

http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/9176/neal.png

:lol

[L.I.T]

Quinn and Neal as pickups are paying huge dividends for the Spurs.

And Splitter better have stamped his name on 20+ minutes a game from now on.

[jestersmash]

Thank fucking god this game isn't nationally televised. Otherwise opposing coaches might actually realize Neal isn't just a 3 point shooter.

[tmtcsc]

Neal
The Real Deal
Makin the Nuggies Squeal
Enough of this spiel

You forgot he's a steal !

[janetcn12]

Hahaha another win...next team pls

[Spurs Brazil]

Mvp
mvp

[AidanNelson2009]

we got this, Neal is awsome !!

[L.I.T]

Thats ok because Hill 348904308243095834095203x the basketball player Quinn is.

Agree. Quinn though is great as 3rd string PG for this team right now.

[TIMMYD!]

10 in a row motherfuckers! All we do is win!

[Dex]

Suck on that, Denver.

[HighLowLobForBig-50]

well done guys !!!:downspin:

[ohmwrecker]

Props to the Nuggs for for being slightly more stupid than the Spurs tonight.

[Libri]

:elephant

[DieHardSpursFan1537]

Fail at all the missed Nugget shots there.

[jestersmash]

Ginobili with the MVP chants at the end but Neal/Splitter deserve all the kudos for tonight's game.

[CFH]

Another win, yes! Gary Neal is unbelievable!

[SpursNextRomanEmpire]

Great game

[Chieflion]

All they do is win!

[loveforthegame]

Hope the starters play better tomorrow night.

But I wouldn't mind seeing more of Splitter and Neal.

[timtonymanu]

Wow. How many games have we won because of our bench?

[Drachen]

Ok, Tomorrow is my birthday. I ain't getting shit because we are broke. I want a spurs win.

[BoricuaCJA]

IDK how the fuck we pulled that out but Damn, we won!!!

[AidanNelson2009]

That's what i'm talking about. 29-14 in the 4th. 10th straight win for the SPURS !!

[janetcn12]

Gary Neal our hero...Thank you for the awesome game.

[Hemotivo]

thanks for coming
:eyebrows:jack

[SpursRulez4eVeR]

neal the real deal sealed the deal.

[Spurs Brazil]

Huge props to the guys who started in the 4th
Tiago/Bonner/Neal/Manu/Quinn played solid zone D and bring us back

Tiago with his best game of the season and Neal was FANTASTIC

[Capt Bringdown]

What a ride this is!
Just when I thought Pop had thrown in the towel with Splitter.
And Neal...what can you say.

[MannyIsGod]

Now I get to watch my Lobos beat up on another Colorado team.

[ShoogarBear]

Props to the Nuggs for for being slightly more stupid than the Spurs tonight.

:tu

[Hemotivo]

excellent zone defense SPURS

[Crookshanks]

I don't know how the Spurs pulled this one off - but wow what a 4th quarter!!

[ohmwrecker]

Hope the starters play better tomorrow night.

But I wouldn't mind seeing more of Splitter and Neal.

McDyess will get Splitter's minutes tomorrow.

[jestersmash]

One good quarter of defense. Spurs taking a page from Mavs and generously using that zone defense in the 4th.

[Spur|n|Austin]

I still would've preferred that RJ 3....would've been unreal

My neighbors would have called the cops - I'm loud enough as it is!

[DieHardSpursFan1537]

http://s3.amazonaws.com/readers/2009/06/19/fast-shinkansen_1.jpg

CHOO CHOO!

[Spurologist]

http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/559/blairaclaus.png

was gonna post this earlier but NEAL was owning the nuggets.....unreal performance

[timvp]

That was a horrific zone that left players open left and right. But it somehow confused the Nuggets so I guess it was successful :tu

[Darkwaters]

Ok, Tomorrow is my birthday. I ain't getting shit because we are broke. I want a spurs win.

Hey the Spurs won on my birthday (the 20th...against the Suns). Why not yours too?

:flag:

[Crookshanks]

Props to the Nuggs for for being slightly more stupid than the Spurs tonight.

That's what Kenny Smith was saying when he said the Spurs are insulting teams - the Spurs think other teams aren't smart enough to play good ball for 48 minutes - and tonight he was right! :king

[DieHardSpursFan1537]

Now lets kick some Orlando ass tomorrow!

[ElNono]

Great comeback win. Neal is nails. Wow, the guy has stones.
Off to Orlando!

[ShoogarBear]

You forgot he's a steal !

I feel ya. Tonight he was the Meal Ticket.


neal the real deal sealed the deal.

:nope Can't double-deal.

[siraulo23]

Ok, Tomorrow is my birthday. I ain't getting shit because we are broke. I want a spurs win.

today is my b-day, and the spurs win :flag:

[Spurologist]

Props to the Nuggs for for being slightly more stupid than the Spurs tonight.

:tu

proves Kenny Smith's point about how the spurs "insult" opponents by allowing other teams to make more mistakes

[Darkwaters]

I think Manu missed that last free throw so he wouldn't have more points than Neal on the night. Neal and Manu each with a team and game high of 22 tonight (along with JR Smith and Ty Lawson).

[scottspurs]

This just might be the best regular season spurs team ever. Unbelievable season thus far.

[Crookshanks]

What a game - you know the Mavs were watching this game and just going aw crap!

[TampaDude]

Neal was burning up the hardwood again tonight!!!

Another 100+ points and another Spurs win...NEXT!!!

GO SPURS GO!!!!!

[galvatron3000]

McDyess will get Splitter's minutes tomorrow.

:pop:

[ShoogarBear]

That was a horrific zone that left players open left and right. But it somehow confused the Nuggets so I guess it was successful :tu

You mean as opposed to the man-to-man that left players open left and right?

I wonder if Pop is going to struggle with a bottle of Dasani in the post-game.

[Dex]

Another game gained over the Lakers. :tu

Now we just need to get the Mavericks off our ass.

[Dex]

You mean as opposed to the man-to-man that left players open left and right?

I wonder if Pop is going to struggle with a bottle of Dasani in the post-game.

:lmao

[jestersmash]

I think Manu missed that last free throw so he wouldn't have more points than Neal on the night. Neal and Manu each with a team and game high of 22 tonight (along with JR Smith and Ty Lawson).

I think he missed that free throw because he was inundated with just thunderous MVP chants and it probably threw him off a little :hat

[ElNono]

And lol @ Karl trying to hide Chauncey on defense on the rookie. That worked well... for the Spurs.
But props to Denver for making a game out of this with Melo out

[Darkwaters]

Lost in all of this is that Bonner actually had a very efficient and productive game.

13 pts
4-5 FG's
3-4 3 pts
2-5 FT's (yea, those three in a row were pretty bad)
2 rbds, 1 asst, 1 block, 1 TO
25 mins

Yea, not rebounding much. Seriously, whats new?

[Spurologist]

That was a horrific zone that left players open left and right. But it somehow confused the Nuggets so I guess it was successful :tu

I questioned it at first too but the Nuggets were caught completely by surprise especially since there was no zone in the last game they played against the spurs.....their passes were wayward and they really couldn't get any offensive flow. The killer drives from Lawson were slowed and the all the 3s were contested. I still don't understand why Nene didn't get more touches. Neal's clutch shooting was also a back-breaker.

I'm still in :downspin: over Neal's performance

[Dex]

Lost in all of this is that Bonner actually had a very efficient and productive game.

13 pts
4-5 FG's
3-4 3 pts
2-5 FT's (yea, those three in a row were pretty bad)
2 rbds, 1 asst, 1 block, 1 TO
25 mins

Yea, not rebounding much. Seriously, whats new?

I said it before and I'll say it again: If Bonner could rebound, he'd be amazing.

[Spurs Brazil]

Great we were able to win after Tony awful game. There were 2 games or so this season that he couldn't score but didn't play stupid. Today a lot of TOs and terrible D.

Tony is playing great this season so I hope he kills the Magic tomorrow

[Borosai]

I said it before and I'll say it again: If Bonner could rebound, he'd be amazing.

And he'd cost a lot more.

[cutewizard]

:lol Pop having a coronary.







LOL

Go spurs go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Mugen]

The best and most promising part of this game....

was that Pop played Tiago with Timmy.

[Texas Chili Dog]

Will y'all lose a damn game already? :lol

ok well I guess not. :lol

[Capt Bringdown]

Crazy thing is, Spurs could play a whole lot better and are not anywhere near their potential right now - yet we keep piling up the wins.

[Pauleta14]

Great we were able to win after Tony awful game. There were 2 games or so this season that he couldn't score but didn't play stupid. Today a lot of TOs and terrible D.

Tony is playing great this season so I hope he kills the Magic tomorrow


I agree but the difference with this year's Tony is that he stillmanages to dish 9ast...

He looked out of rythm today, we'll need him bad tomorrow to defend Nelson!

[TampaDude]

Crazy thing is, Spurs could play a whole lot better and are not anywhere near their potential right now - yet we keep piling up the wins.

Yup...it feels like the Spurs kind of coast through much of the games...they have a couple more gears, and they're probably saving those for SPAM and the playoffs.

[Spurs Brazil]

Game notes
Spurs G George Hill (sprained toe) won't travel with the team to Orlando for Thursday night's game. He is expected to miss at least several more games.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=301222024

[Budkin]

Game notes
Spurs G George Hill (sprained toe) won't travel with the team to Orlando for Thursday night's game. He is expected to miss at least several more games.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=301222024

Crossing my fingers he's back for the Mavs on the 30th... he plays well against them.

[Spur|n|Austin]

I could feel a comeback coming for the Spurs at the end of the 3rd. That's the kind of season were having. It's also fun to see the chemistry this team has this year - from the end of the bench all the way to Timmy.

[Budkin]

Could we have found a brighter diamond in the rough than Neal? Wow.

[Yorae]

Did jefferson carried us in the 3rd as play by play suggests?

[Banzai]

Great win Spurs..now I have a question, when the Lakers played the Pacers in Indiana..and came out of the gate hitting everything..why is it hard for them to continue playing like that? If a team blows out a team one night..is it unrealistic to think they can do it every night or is it the energy factor and the players themselves?

[duncan228]

NBA-best Spurs beat Anthony-less Nuggets (http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2010122224)
By Paul J. Weber

Manu Ginobili finished off the Denver Nuggets for the second time in a week.

There was no doubt about it this time.

Ginobili scored 22 points and buried the go-ahead 3-pointer late in the fourth, and the San Antonio Spurs beat Denver—playing without All-Star Carmelo Anthony following the death of his sister—109-103 on Wednesday night for their 10th victory in a row.

The Nuggets said Anthony will return after Christmas. Their next game is Saturday at Oklahoma City.

The victory for the Spurs came six days after Ginobili assured a victory in Denver by drawing a charge with 0.3 seconds left on Anthony, who had thought he scored the winning shot on a hard drive to the basket.

Gary Neal also had 22 points for the Spurs, who outscored the Nuggets 29-14 in the fourth quarter as Denver made just two field goals in the final 5 minutes.

“It was a huge fourth quarter,” Ginobili said. “I’m still kind of in shock by the way we won it.”

The Spurs reached their second double-digit winning streak already this season and improved their NBA-best record to 25-3. It ranks among the 11 best starts to a season in NBA history.

Ty Lawson and J.R. Smith led the Nuggets with 22 points apiece, and Kenyon Martin played 17 minutes in his season debut after missing the first 26 games while recovering from knee surgery.

The Nuggets were slow to adjust to San Antonio’s zone defense in the fourth, which coach Gregg Popovich implemented after Denver took an 89-90 lead at the end of the third, mostly thanks to five Denver 3-pointers in the quarter.

Smith, making his first start in three seasons in place of Anthony, was 4 of 5 from beyond the arc in the third quarter alone and scored 16 points in the quarter.

“I feel bad because I couldn’t help my team as much as I should against the zone situation,” Nuggets coach George Karl said. “I think if we had made some shots early they would have gone away from it. We didn’t have a lot of cohesiveness against their zone attack.”

Anthony’s sister, Michelle Anthony, died of a pre-existing medical condition Tuesday in Baltimore. She had four children.

Anthony traveled with the Nuggets to San Antonio but left early Thursday after receiving word about the death of a family member.

“It brings us down to earth,” Karl said before the game. “Basketball isn’t the most important thing.”

Richard Jefferson scored 16 points and rookie Tiago Splitter had 12 points and nine rebounds in his most meaningful game yet with the Spurs.

Ginobili had also hit the game-winner in Denver, and he had another big shot in this one. He pulled up on a fast break with 2:48 left to knock down his fourth 3-pointer, giving the Spurs the lead for good.

But Neal—a 26-year-old rookie who is quickly becoming another unlikely find for the Spurs—was just as crucial. He scored 10 in the fourth and had his second consecutive 20-point game, after scoring 22 on Monday in a win over Phoenix.

Neal is getting more court time because of a toe injury to backup Spurs guard George Hill, who is expected to miss at least several more games.

“In training camp I felt like a rookie. It felt like the game was going 100 miles per hour, but now it’s slowed down,” Neal said. “I feel like I belong out there and the game is manageable for me.”

Martin had eight points in his return to the Nuggets’ lineup, making four of his five shots.

Matt Bonner scored 13 points and Tony Parker had 11 for the Spurs.

The 26-year-old Anthony has recently been hampered by a strained right elbow, sitting out the previous two days of practice. He’s also been the subject of trade rumors since he spurned the team’s offer of a three-year, $65 million contract extension last summer.

Anthony is averaging 24 points and 8.3 rebounds this season.

NOTES: The Spurs are the eighth team in NBA history to start a season 25-3. The NBA record is 26-2, last done by the Boston Celtics in the 2008-09 season. … It is just the third time in Spurs history the team has had two winning streaks of 10 games or more in the same season.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2010122224

[Spursfanfromafar]

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/23058/sloan-just-never-stops-winning
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the San Antonio Spurs became the fourth team in NBA history to have a pair of 10-game win streaks prior to January 1. None of the three previous teams to do so (1973-74 Bucks, 1980-81 76ers, and 2006-07 Mavericks) won an NBA title.


:toast .. Spurs to buck the tradition!

[skinsfan1]

Great win, awesome game

[crc21209]

I went to the game and it was a great, great atmosphere. My 2nd game this year, and the 1st was the loss to New Orleans at the beginning of the season, so I wanted to see them win baaaad. Just a little note I wanted to leave everyone with (in case it hadnt been mentioned), James Anderson came out about an hour and half before tip-off and was walking well without the boot. :tu He signed some autographs and went back through the tunnel. Very nice guy as well...:tu

[duncan228]

San Antonio Spurs 109, Denver Nuggets 103: Coach Pop thought the defense was terrible, so he went zone for the win (http://www.48minutesofhell.com/san-antonio-spurs-109-denver-nuggets-103-spurs-win-with-zone)
by Andrew A. McNeill
48 Minutes of Hell

AT&T CENTER — When you hate something enough, change it up. That was what Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich thought on Wednesday night at the AT&T Center. Coach Pop couldn’t stand the defense being played by his Spurs, so in the third quarter he switched it up and put San Antonio in a zone.

The result was a fourth quarter that saw the Spurs outscore the Nuggets 29-14 en route to a 109-103 win.

Keep reading → (http://www.48minutesofhell.com/san-antonio-spurs-109-denver-nuggets-103-spurs-win-with-zone)

[Darkwaters]

I'm watching the Denver game from a few days ago as I never got to see anything except the 4th quarter. Nene is still getting no calls on a bunch of crazy fouls. That guy has the refs in his freaking pocket!

We got really lucky that we didn't face the Nuggets at full strength last night. Watching Carmelo reminds me what a bullet dodge that was.

[Dex]

Views from the other side:



Melo-less Nuggets blow fourth-quarter lead, fall to Spurs
By Chris Dempsey
The Denver Post

SAN ANTONIO — The losses that cut the deepest are the ones a person feels could have been prevented.

On Wednesday, Nuggets coach George Karl had that kind of night. He beat himself up the most in a heartbreaking, 109-103 loss to the San Antonio Spurs at the AT&T Center.

And all because of a zone defense.

Read more: Melo-less Nuggets blow fourth-quarter lead, fall to Spurs - The Denver Post http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_16924819#ixzz18xSchmk4