Grades: Spurs @ Hornets - Mar. 24

[timvp]

Following a highly entertaining victory over the Mavs, the Spurs went out on the road for the middle game of their first back-to-back-to-back set. In New Orleans, the Spurs had a lot of trouble with the short-handed Hornets before prevailing with an 89-86 victory.

Throughout the game, both sides played a lot of ugly basketball. The culprit for the Spurs appeared to be a lack of energy mixed with a lack of focus. The Hornets, conversely, simply didn't have the horses to do much other than scratch and claw -- which they did very well all game long. Give the Hornets a lot of credit for playing hard.

As for the Spurs, they were facing a deflating loss before Tim Duncan scored four straight points in the fourth quarter to put the Spurs up for good with 1:19 remaining. While there is a lot to complain about, San Antonio will gladly take the victory considering the brutal upcoming schedule.

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http://oi43.tinypic.com/34ovtx2.jpg

Tim Duncan B-
To begin the game, Tim Duncan was running on empty. He appeared totally listless and his mobility was even worse than it normally is on a back-to-back. In the first two quarters, Duncan did very little right. But in the final two quarters, he illustrated why he's regarded as one of the fiercest competitors the game of basketball has ever seen. Even though he never regained must pep, Duncan came through when it counted. In the second half, Duncan totaled 11 points, six rebounds and two blocks on 3-for-6 shooting. Offensively, he used his size and power to his advantage in the final two quarters. Defensively, his pick-and-roll defense remained poor but Duncan stepped up his rim protection -- especially down the stretch.

Tony Parker C+
It was definitely an odd game for Tony Parker. He began the game only -- and I mean only -- looking to pass. He had seven assists before he tallied any statistic in any other category; Parker didn't attempt his first field goal until the middle of the second quarter. Typically, I don't mind Parker looking to pass early on but this game he just wasn't moving with much purpose. He wasn't pushing the pace on offense and he wasn't offering much resistance on defense. Eventually, Parker picked up his aggression and began looking to score the ball -- sometimes even looking too much -- but he failed to ever take command of the action. And his defense never improved very much. It's difficult to criticize a point guard who had ten assists and no turnovers but Parker just wasn't much of an asset tonight.

Danny Green C
Danny Green is proving to be an extremely streaking three-point shooter. Over a period of six games, Green was 16-for-24 (66.7%) from deep. However, in his last three games, he's 0-for-11 on three-pointers. Besides missing his threes, Green had a couple cringe-worthy runners in the lane. But give him credit for knocking down a late jumper that gave San Antonio its final margin of victory. Defensively, Green was up-and-down but I liked that he was active and looking to make plays. He's also much more valuable when he's crashing the boards like he did tonight. Green had the coaches scratching their heads at times tonight but overall he did enough right to avoid a total disaster.

Kawhi Leonard C-
The rookie had one of his most rookie-ish games of the season. Kawhi Leonard lacked a bit of explosion around the basket, which led to his poor field goal percentage. However, Leonard kept battling on offense and never got passive despite his struggles. Defensively, I thought he was much worse. The Hornets ran him around a ton of screens and Leonard wasn't keeping up. To be a successful defensive player long-term, he's going to have to get much better at navigating around picks. Even in isolation situations against the Hornets, the rookie was sub par.

DeJuan Blair A
If there was one bright spot for the Spurs, it was definitely the play of DeJuan Blair. Defensively, he was very attentive and his switches and rotations were surprisingly crisp. Especially early on, Blair's defense was better than any of his teammates had to offer. On offense, Blair was equally as effective. He used his body well to free himself in the paint. With the Hornets lacking size in the paint, Blair took full advantage. There were a few stretches tonight where it seemed like Blair was the only Spur going all out. Props to him for not overlooking this game and coming out ready to play.

Stephen Jackson C+
The bad: Stephen Jackson had his first poor shooting game for the Spurs. He tried to take over a couple times but failed to really sustain any positive momentum. On defense, Jackson's lack of chemistry with his teammates was painfully obvious when he was expecting help that never arrived. The good: Stephen Jackson competed. When the Spurs were desperate for buckets, Jackson stepped up to the challenge and created a few good looks. Even though he didn't shoot the ball well, the vast majority of his shots were good looks and he didn't turn the ball over. And even though his defense was far from flawless, it wasn't for a lack of want-to.

Matt Bonner C+
Against bad teams, the Spurs rely on Matt Bonner to find open spaces to make the opposition pay for sagging into the paint. This game, Bonner just wasn't able to do that. He wasn't moving crisply (to be fair, it appeared as if his back was bothering him) and he was slow to pop to open spots after setting picks. As a result, Bonner was basically a non-factor on the offensive end. Defensively, I thought he was mostly good. He was a tad slow to rotate at times but he was physical in the paint and pulled down a few contested boards.

James Anderson B-
James Anderson continues to look like a new player since the trade deadline. He plays much faster and with a lot more liveliness. On defense, he really moved his feet well and was able to blow up a few plays by correctly reading the call. Of all the Spurs perimeter players, I thought Anderson did the best work. On offense, he has suddenly turned into an impressive finisher who displays a lot elevation on his forays to the hoop. Unfortunately, not only is he missing three-pointers, his stroke appears to be regressing. The ball is coming out of his hand with sideways spin now and his misses are rarely even on line anymore. Anderson, known for his outside shooting coming out of college, hasn't hit a three-pointer in more than a month.

Boris Diaw C
Tonight, Boris Diaw actually looked like a newbie. His post D wasn't good and he made a couple mistakes in pick-and-roll defense. On offense, he looked comfortable when paired with Parker but otherwise he was consistently in the wrong spots in the sets the Spurs were trying to run. Diaw also passed up a few shots ... but everyone needs to get used to that because that's what Diaw does. All in all, though, Diaw wasn't bad and the talent remains obvious. He just needs more time to figure things out.

Justin Dentmon B-
Playing his first NBA game, I was fairly happy with Justin Dentmon. Compared to Cory Joseph, he appears much more ready to play the NBA game. On defense, he made a few savvy rotations and his on-ball defense was solid. Offensively, while he needed to shoot more because the Hornets weren't respecting his jumper, Dentmon played at a good pace and made a few quality passes. It's obviously too early to predict his future but Dentmon didn't fail the eyeball test.

Pop C-
The Spurs were without Tiago Splitter (back spasms), Gary Neal (mid foot sprain) and Manu Ginobili (rest) so Pop had his work cut out for him. While the end result was positive, Pop had his ups and Pop had his downs. On the positive side, I liked that he called plays for Jackson when the Spurs couldn't get anything else going. He also made the right move by having the ball go through Duncan down the stretch. On the other hand, I didn't like that he played Bonner and Blair together when Diaw was available. And Pop never was able to come up with a combination that was playing well together. Tonight, that didn't end up costing the Spurs ... but that was mostly due to the competition, or lack thereof.

[gambit1990]

the game was very sloppily played by the spurs, but i'll take the w.

i would also give anderson and denton a c as well.

[ElNono]

Thanks for the writeup :tu

[urunobili]

ugly but i'll take it. If only JA would get his shot back :rolleyes

[skin]

Didnt have the chance to watch the 1st half. Great writeup, thanks!

[Mr. Body]

Ugly, ugly game. But it's a game that is hard to get up for, especially looking at a tougher one tomorrow. At least they gutted out the W.

[jjktkk]

Thanks for the writeup Tim.

[Ditty]

If JA gets his shot back, I wouldn't be shocked if he starts over Green at some point. JA seems to work very well with the big 3, and if it wasn't for that missed layup, he would of had almost the perfect game.

[BRHornet45]

Marco Belinelli B-

solid when given the opportunity and delivered two clutch shots

Carl Landry C+

solid, but 5 turnovers is pathetic

Lance Thomas C

solid during his limited playing time given

Al-Farouq Aminu C

another with limited playing time, but solid on the boards when in

Greivis Vasquez C-

made a few nice plays happen, but made a few terrible mistakes as well

Gustavo Ayon C-

grabbed a ton of boards, but chucked the ball like Kobe Bryant

Jarrett Jack D

forget about the points scored. his selfishness, lack of clutch, and stupidity single handedly cost the Hornets yet another win.

Xavier Henry F

17 minutes of absolutely nothing

[jhuan16]

Pop F
Blair had a great start in this game, yet he only play 25 mins without any foul trouble. WTF Pop?

[freetiago]

james anderson has become the best finisher at the rim for the spurs
he tries to make a lot of explosive dunks now

spurs fastbreak/rim finishes are a trainwreck
we either get to see blair brick an open layup
green airball a floater or get called for a charge
leonard who usually was missing dunks
or tiago throw a pump fake against nobody

[DMC]

It's amusing to read some comments that seem to suggest that playoff games are never sloppy. Good teams win sloppy games. Games decided by offense are normally prettier, but defense wins championships and often that's what wins the sloppy games.

[DMC]

james anderson has become the best finisher at the rim for the spurs
he tries to make a lot of explosive dunks now

spurs fastbreak/rim finishes are a trainwreck
we either get to see blair brick an open layup
green airball a floater or get called for a charge
leonard who usually was missing dunks
or tiago throw a pump fake against nobody
Idiot or troll. Take your pick.

[G-Dawgg]

....20 point game from Dejuan Blair? ...fuck this guy sucks, trade him.......Eric Dawson is waaaay better right? There's gotta be much better available.. :rolleyes

[DMC]

...another 20 point game from Dejuan Blair? ...fuck this guy sucks.. trade him.......

RJ had a few decent games.

:lol boxscore fans

[G-Dawgg]

RJ had a few decent games.

:lol boxscore fans

Pffft...we could be stuck with alot worse..... stop going with the general consensus on these boards and appreciate the stuff he does rather than nit-pick on the stuff he doesn't do...we'd have a cotton-soft frontline without him.

I could bitch and complain that Parker doesn't have reliable 3pt range and shoots a bit too much, or complain that Manu is garbage because he spends more time on the injured list than on the court too if I wanted.....lol

If we can upgrade I'd be all for it, but unfortunately I don't think Dwight Howard is coming to San Antonio.

[Kurik]

Thanks for the writeup.

[therealtruth]

How could Blair not have had trade value with his ability to explode for 20 point games?

[G-Dawgg]

How could Blair not have had trade value with his ability to explode for 20 point games?

Because all the Spurs experts on this messageboard say he's worthless so they must be right.....:lol

[freetiago]

Idiot or troll. Take your pick.

theres a reason tony doesnt pass it on the fastbreak
anderson is the only one ive seen now who has some moves around the rim and can dunk with some explosiveness

leonard is getting better but he was still missing dunks in the begining of the season

[Mr. Body]

Marco Belinelli B-

solid when given the opportunity and delivered two clutch shots

Carl Landry C+

solid, but 5 turnovers is pathetic

Lance Thomas C

solid during his limited playing time given

Al-Farouq Aminu C

another with limited playing time, but solid on the boards when in

Greivis Vasquez C-

made a few nice plays happen, but made a few terrible mistakes as well

Gustavo Ayon C-

grabbed a ton of boards, but chucked the ball like Kobe Bryant

Jarrett Jack D

forget about the points scored. his selfishness, lack of clutch, and stupidity single handedly cost the Hornets yet another win.

Xavier Henry F

17 minutes of absolutely nothing

Jarrett Jack left it all out there. He's a splendid player forced to try to be the star on a team without any talent. On a team where he doesn't have to do that, he could be very good.

I watched the whole game and didn't realize Xavier Henry was there. At all.

[Nathan89]

theres a reason tony doesnt pass it on the fastbreak
anderson is the only one ive seen now who has some moves around the rim and can dunk with some explosiveness

leonard is getting better but he was still missing dunks in the begining of the season

Anderson sucks. Green, Kawhi, Sjax, and Manu all finish better than him.

[Nathan89]

No 4th quarter playing time for Blair:lmao
Blair getting bench after the first three games in the playoffs:lmao
Only getting playing time so he doesn't get depressed and eat himself into retirement:lmao

[Bruno]

Even if Hornets are a bad team and they are without a lot of players, it's a very good win for Spurs.
For Spurs, it was a b2b on the road, without Manu, Tiago, Neal and Mills, Parker and Bonner weren't at 100% healthy and Diaw didn't know the team. It was a lot to overcome.

[freetiago]

Anderson sucks. Green, Kawhi, Sjax, and Manu all finish better than him.

we can see how manu does at the rim once he actually plays
jack was ok but he missed a few
kawhi does score in the paint but on the fastbreak type situations he isnt a good finisher
his only move so far is bull rushing into the defender who should be drawing a charge then shooting it once they get knocked back
he used a step through once that i would like to see him do more
you should go through previous game threads and see all the "green misses layup" posts

anderson has been taking contact and doing reverses and windwill type finishes
in the trailblazers game he was going up for dunks in traffic but got denied
im sure once he actually starts playing hell become a good player
but that probably wont happen in a spurs uniform

[crc21209]

A couple weeks ago with RJ, I'm not sure the Spurs could gut out this type of win. The Spurs would have given up 95+ points to a depleted Hornets team like this a couple weeks ago. At the least the D is looking a little better, slowly but surely...

[Redshadows]

Even if Nuggets are a bad team and they are without a lot of players, it's a very good win for Spurs.
For Spurs, it was a b2b on the road, without Manu, Tiago, Neal and Mills, Parker and Bonner weren't at 100% healthy and Diaw didn't know the team. It was a lot to overcome.
Nuggets?

[Ditty]

Anderson sucks. Green, Kawhi, Sjax, and Manu all finish better than him.

:nope, and Kawhi is debatable. Anderson has been finishing at the rim pretty damn good lately being agressive, and using his athleticism now.

[Nathan89]

we can see how manu does at the rim once he actually plays
jack was ok but he missed a few
kawhi does score in the paint but on the fastbreak type situations he isnt a good finisher
his only move so far is bull rushing into the defender who should be drawing a charge then shooting it once they get knocked back
he used a step through once that i would like to see him do more
you should go through previous game threads and see all the "green misses layup" posts

anderson has been taking contact and doing reverses and windwill type finishes
in the trailblazers game he was going up for dunks in traffic but got denied
im sure once he actually starts playing hell become a good player
but that probably wont happen in a spurs uniform

:lmao

[Darkwaters]

Because all the Spurs experts on this messageboard say he's worthless so they must be right.....:lol

I would think the fact that Blair never closes games is probably evidence enough.

Seriously, how much time does he ever log in the 4th quarter?

[Nathan89]

:nope, and Kawhi is debatable. Anderson has been finishing at the rim pretty damn good lately being agressive, and using his athleticism now.

JA is not athletic. JA doesn't have a clue when to and when not to attack the paint. There could be five people in the paint and he'll still think it's a good idea. Also I don't think he has much of a clue what to do when he gets there. Imo, a few of his finishes were luck. Even if he continues to get playing time I don't expect it to continue.

[Bruno]

Nuggets?

Hornets, of course. :)

[Spur|n|Austin]

james anderson has become the best finisher at the rim for the spurs

:wow

[TheSkeptic]

james anderson has become the best finisher at the rim for the spurs
he tries to make a lot of explosive dunks now

spurs fastbreak/rim finishes are a trainwreck
we either get to see blair brick an open layup
green airball a floater or get called for a charge
leonard who usually was missing dunks
or tiago throw a pump fake against nobody

I blame the quality of his feed. I really do.

Anyway, thanks for the grades timvp. You're the best. :toast

[Beanzamillion21]

James Anderson B-
James Anderson continues to look like a new player since the trade deadline. He plays much faster and with a lot more liveliness. On defense, he really moved his feet well and was able to blow up a few plays by correctly reading the call. Of all the Spurs perimeter players, I thought Anderson did the best work. On offense, he has suddenly turned into an impressive finisher who displays a lot elevation on his forays to the hoop. Unfortunately, not only is he missing three-pointers, his stroke appears to be regressing. The ball is coming out of his hand with sideways spin now and his misses are rarely even on line anymore. Anderson, known for his outside shooting coming out of college, hasn't hit a three-pointer in more than a month.




He had a solid game. I guarantee that James' rebirth has not gone unnoticed around the league, It is just to bad it is so late in the season. I bet plenty of teams are looking at him for next seasons roster.

[Ditty]

JA is not athletic. JA doesn't have a clue when to and when not to attack the paint. There could be five people in the paint and he'll still think it's a good idea. Also I don't think he has much of a clue what to do when he gets there. Imo, a few of his finishes were luck. Even if he continues to get playing time I don't expect it to continue.

JA was never considered a guy to attack the basket much in college. He was pretty much a off the ball screen shooter(which Spurs don't run), and a spot up shooter, or he would shoot off the dribble. His ball handling has improved a bit lately to gain more confidence to getting the basket, he has done a great job slashing which most of his points come from, his passing has been great, and defense has been good. Of course he probably won't get any playing time in the playoffs because of the depth at the wing positions.

[maverick1948]

Kawhi Leonard C-
The rookie had one of his most rookie-ish games of the season. Kawhi Leonard lacked a bit of explosion around the basket, which led to his poor field goal percentage. However, Leonard kept battling on offense and never got passive despite his struggles. Defensively, I thought he was much worse. The Hornets ran him around a ton of screens and Leonard wasn't keeping up. To be a successful defensive player long-term, he's going to have to get much better at navigating around picks. Even in isolation situations against the Hornets, the rookie was sub par.


This is what a lot of teams will try to do in order to beat his defense. He will have to learn how to get around the screens in order to be the defensive threat Bruce was. Most of the time, he did a good job of rubbing off the screener to continue to defend. It is only the few times he fail, that you point out.

Matt Bonner C+
Against bad teams, the Spurs rely on Matt Bonner to find open spaces to make the opposition pay for sagging into the paint. This game, Bonner just wasn't able to do that. He wasn't moving crisply (to be fair, it appeared as if his back was bothering him) and he was slow to pop to open spots after setting picks. As a result, Bonner was basically a non-factor on the offensive end. Defensively, I thought he was mostly good. He was a tad slow to rotate at times but he was physical in the paint and pulled down a few contested boards.


For Bonner, he was doing his job. If you had watched closely, you would have seen the Hornets were not giving him space on offense after he dropped the first 3 he took. His defense over the last 10 or so games has stepped up. He is standing his ground and fighting for space as well as blocking out on the boards.

The biggest problem the Spurs had tonight was the 3 ball not dropping. After the early misses NO was leaving the 3 pt shooters and packing in the paint. This worked 2 ways for them.. Timmy was rendered ineffective for most of the game and stopped the drives by our guards. Tony finally got his drive going late and that is what opened up Timmy. The Hornets coach is a Spur disciple, he chose Blair to be the player who he was going to let beat him tonight and took on the rest of the team head on.

[TheSkeptic]

Kawhi Leonard C-


The biggest problem the Spurs had tonight was the 3 ball not dropping. After the early misses NO was leaving the 3 pt shooters and packing in the paint. This worked 2 ways for them.. Timmy was rendered ineffective for most of the game and stopped the drives by our guards. Tony finally got his drive going late and that is what opened up Timmy. The Hornets coach is a Spur disciple, he chose Blair to be the player who he was going to let beat him tonight and took on the rest of the team head on.

Could the solution be any more obvious? :bang

[Redshadows]

Could Diaw defend true PF, such as Zach Randolph?

[G-Dawgg]

I would think the fact that Blair never closes games is probably evidence enough.

Seriously, how much time does he ever log in the 4th quarter?

Dude, there was a time when Popovich would play Speedy Claxton over Tony Parker in the 4th qtrs...did that mean Claxton was a better player than Parker too?

[Paranoid Pop]

Dude, there was a time when Popovich would play Speedy Claxton over Tony Parker in the 4th qtrs...did that mean Claxton was a better player than Parker too?

Pop wanted to trade TP that summer tho if I'm not mistaken.

[Paranoid Pop]

JA is not athletic. JA doesn't have a clue when to and when not to attack the paint. There could be five people in the paint and he'll still think it's a good idea. Also I don't think he has much of a clue what to do when he gets there. Imo, a few of his finishes were luck. Even if he continues to get playing time I don't expect it to continue.

That's because he doesn't have confidence in his stroke. He's our SG with the highest ceiling and I hope we stick with him.

[ChumpDumper]

Pop wanted to trade TP that summer tho if I'm not mistaken.:lol

[Ice009]

theres a reason tony doesnt pass it on the fastbreak
anderson is the only one ive seen now who has some moves around the rim and can dunk with some explosiveness

leonard is getting better but he was still missing dunks in the begining of the season

How many times has Anderson dunked the ball? I think you're going a bit far with this. He hasn't had many dunks at all. Layups aren't dunks lol.

[quentin_compson]

Well, that was one ugly game, but given the circumstances (Spurs missing important players and being b2b, Hornets not having much talent to begin with and missing players as well), that somehow was to be expected. If the Spurs had been even close to their normal three-point shooting, I guess they could have blown the game open somewhere along the way. But anyhow, that was definitely one of the better ugly wins you can have.

[DBMethos]

Amazing how much more of an impact that Stephen Jackson has in a C+ game than RJ did even in his occasional A-B games. Can't credit the FO enough for that trade.

[100%duncan]

Wow. Ugly grades! Good win though

[bigfan]

Im sure this wont change many minds about Blair but I like the guy and think he's damn sure a good team player capable of extremely good games. I hope we keep him around.

[Obstructed_View]

Two games in a row, Leonard has gotten a block/steal and a basket when the game was really close that turned around the momentum for the Spurs. Those kinds of four point plays are huge in close games.

[dbestpro]

....20 point game from Dejuan Blair? ...fuck this guy sucks, trade him.......Eric Dawson is waaaay better right? There's gotta be much better available.. :rolleyes

I love these type of games from Blair. All of the Spur fan kingdom knows its fools gold, but it can only increase his trade value for the summer to some unsuspecting GM.

[TJastal]

If JA gets his shot back, I wouldn't be shocked if he starts over Green at some point. JA seems to work very well with the big 3, and if it wasn't for that missed layup, he would of had almost the perfect game.

Some of these JA fanboys are so diehard it's funny.

[TJastal]

How many times has Anderson dunked the ball? I think you're going a bit far with this. He hasn't had many dunks at all. Layups aren't dunks lol.

I saw him try to dunk it once against the blazers. Too bad it didn't work out.

[alfahdlan]

guys, can we leave the starting 5 as it is and have the 2nd with neal, manu, jackson, diaw and splitter? any thoughts?

[TJastal]

Im sure this wont change many minds about Blair but I like the guy and think he's damn sure a good team player capable of extremely good games. I hope we keep him around.

He might have some bench value, but he shouldn't be starting. If he had trouble defending the paint against the hornets, those problems will be
magnified 5-fold against the big western conference contenders come playoff time. Problem is though, he's really most effective in the first 5 minutes of the game (probably as far as his attention span can handle). Going to be interesting to see what Pop does with him.

[TJastal]

:lmao

Hilarious that some JA fanboy would say that. Anderson was denied by... the rim!

:lmao

[therealtruth]

Two games in a row, Leonard has gotten a block/steal and a basket when the game was really close that turned around the momentum for the Spurs. Those kinds of four point plays are huge in close games.

That's clutch defense.

[wildbill2u]

Even if Hornets are a bad team and they are without a lot of players, it's a very good win for Spurs.
For Spurs, it was a b2b on the road, without Manu, Tiago, Neal and Mills, Parker and Bonner weren't at 100% healthy and Diaw didn't know the team. It was a lot to overcome.

Absolutely. This could have been the classic 'trap' game against a bad team. Be thankful we still had enough horses to win this, even without key players and a lack of focus, cause at the end of the season, it's not how you played the game but if you won..

[YoMamaIsCallin]

Parker I think was consciously not doing his usual aggressive drives to the hoop. He admitted after the game he did not have his usual explosiveness due to the tightness in his leg. But his series of jumpers in the 2nd half kept the spurs in the game. And he had some marvelous assists.

[cherylsteele]

Because all the Spurs experts on this messageboard say he's worthless so they must be right.....:lol
I wouldn't say he is worthless, I think he is being used improperly as a starting center, but with the lack of bigs, the Spurs have little choice.

[EVAY]

I have a hard time with the grades for Duncan and Parker. Parker, on a bad hamstring, played 39 minutes to Duncan's 31. In that time, he scored at a higher percentage shooting than did Duncan, had zero turnovers and ten assists.

But he got a lower grade than Duncan.

I agree that it was a terribly ugly game by both teams.

I don't agree that Parker's grade should have been less than Duncan's. If anybody on the team was shooting at anywhere near a normal level ( good grief we only made less than 20% of our three pointers) Parker would have had about 20 assists. As it was, on a gimpy leg, he accounted for about 1/3 of the point total for the spurs combining points and assists...and he played longer than anyone else.

Give the man credit for playing intelligently enough not to make his injury worse during this tough stretch of games.

[TJastal]

Horse shit. We have Tiago, start him with Timmy. Bring Diaw and Bonner off the bench and rotate these four. Easy as pie.

We absoltely won't see a Tim/Tiago combination until Pop goes into panic mode in the playoffs. Which I'm estimating could be as early as game 3-4 of the 1st round.

[TheSkeptic]

We absoltely won't see a Tim/Tiago combination until Pop goes into panic mode in the playoffs. Which I'm estimating could be as early as game 3-4 of the 1st round.

:bang :bang :bang

It's not like we have Chamberlain to start with Duncan and Kevin freakin' McHale coming off the bench. The team doesn't have very many true bigs. He needs to recognize that we don't have the luxury of treating Tiago like a 3rd or 4th big. My goodness.

[therealtruth]

I wouldn't say he is worthless, I think he is being used improperly as a starting center, but with the lack of bigs, the Spurs have little choice.

I assume that's why they got Diaw. Before Pop could use the tired argument he didn't have any other bigs. But with two rotation worthy bigs in Splitter and Diaw he should try to minimize Bonner and Blair.

[cherylsteele]

Horse shit. We have Tiago, start him with Timmy. Bring Diaw and Bonner off the bench and rotate these four. Easy as pie.
If Blair is so bad then and you start Tiago, then that weakens the bench don't you think? Then who do bring in as a big off the bench to spell Timmy, Bonner, Diaw?

[cherylsteele]

I assume that's why they got Diaw. Before Pop could use the tired argument he didn't have any other bigs. But with two rotation worthy bigs in Splitter and Diaw he should try to minimize Bonner and Blair.
Since when is Diaw a big, he is pretty much the same size as SJax and I don't consider him a big either. I consider them versatile wing players SF and PF's.

[jjktkk]

We absoltely won't see a Tim/Tiago combination until Pop goes into panic mode in the playoffs. Which I'm estimating could be as early as game 3-4 of the 1st round.

And if this doesn't happen, will you admit your a dumbfuck?

[benefactor]

Horse shit. We have Tiago, start him with Timmy. Bring Diaw and Bonner off the bench and rotate these four. Easy as pie.
Freshman year in college in a university that includes people from all over the state and country is like 0 - 0, first quarter, opening tipoff, a second chance at social life basically. And if you get involved in social gatherings and you've got such potential to be successful as I do with my smarts and guitar playing ability then cool guys and beautiful women will flock to you and check you out and other guys will be left with droppings.

[Obstructed_View]

Since when is Diaw a big, he is pretty much the same size as SJax and I don't consider him a big either. I consider them versatile wing players SF and PF's.

My guess would be since the year he started at center when Amare was hurt.

[timvp]

Horse-shit. Do you even watch the games anymore? :bang

Needless to say, the Hornets scored the majority of their points in or near the paint with Blair on the floor and in a 4th quarter where Blair barely played we only gave up 15 points the entire period while holding them to <30% shooting.

I know when I want an unbiased opinion on DeJuan Blair I got to the guy with "Blair needs to GTFO" under his username. :tu

[Darkwaters]

I know when I want an unbiased opinion on DeJuan Blair I got to the guy with "Blair needs to GTFO" under his username. :tu

Noted.

But Blair's deficiencies aren't new to anyone except the most obtuse Dejuan sympathizers.

[timvp]

Blair's deficiencies aren't new to anyone except the most obtuse Dejuan sympathizers.

True. Blair is a bottom 10% defensive player in the NBA ... which made it so surprising that he was the team's best defender last night coming out of the gates. It was a low bar but still notable, IMO.

[Josepatches_]

Not true.

Defense was a lot better when he was out in the 4th quarter.