Manu benched - in crunchtime?

[Blackjack]

Can't watch the game, but listening live.

Guess he looked as bad as it sounded . . .

[hater]

Manu was the better Knick player than even Kidd in the 4th

[TD 21]

It's about damn time. I've had it with him. If he doesn't look like an NBA player in his initial rotation next game, Pop should bench him for the remainder of the game.

[hater]

send his ass to the Toros

[DAF86]

Sit him for a while, he just doesn't seem right. His shooting is just non-existent right now.

[DPG21920]

The only mistake Pop made was not benching TP at the same time. He was even worse. TP and Manu really let the Spurs down in a big way with a large lead at home. Really no excuse for it, but the it happens I guess.

[024]

he deserved it. he trips when he tries to drive and ends up throwing wild passes that end in turnovers.

[hater]

um, if not for Parker Spurs lose by triple digits. If not for Manu Spurs actually have a chance

[ElNono]

He tried to salvage the loss after Tony Parker gave the game away, but he's still a work in progress...

[Blackjack]

I heard him make what sounded like a fluke 3, only to follow up by fouling Chandler on a dunk. Then what sounded like a barrage of turnovers or bad decisions.

What were they up, 11, with 7 or 8 minutes to go? lol

[ElNono]

um, if not for Parker Spurs lose by triple digits. If not for Manu Spurs actually have a chance

what game did you watch? :lol letting fat Felton drop 25 on his sorry frenchie ass

[ElNono]

What were they up, 11, with 7 or 8 minutes to go? lol

Manu walked in when the lead was down to 3 already, after Tony went hero ball

[DPG21920]

what game did you watch? :lol letting fat Felton drop 25 on his sorry frenchie ass

The first 3 quarters was a lot of TP doing great work.

[hater]

what game did you watch? :lol letting fat Felton drop 25 on his sorry frenchie ass

:lmao you must not know Parker. He's got no D. It's all O

on the other hand at least he did not sport a knick jersey underneath like Ginobili

[Solid D]

Manu isn't right. He needed to come out for that awful TO in crunch time when the Spurs were down a bucket. But Pop was the real one to blame for this debacle for leaving an obviously gassed Parker in the game. Parker's legs were like jelly in the 4th, too many continuous minutes and he was directly resposible for 6 empty trips. Everything was front of the rim. Pop was stubborn.

[hater]

agree. It's on Pop. Manu should have not come back in.

[DPG21920]

Doesn't Parker always say how he is still young and can play big minutes as the main offensive option? No reason to be so gassed when Felton was not.

[TDMVPDPOY]

what game did you watch? :lol letting fat Felton drop 25 on his sorry frenchie ass

parker was fkn pathetic on defense especially on felton, gave the clown to much spacing and undercutting the screen man...

then he decides to man up on felton, felton just abuses him to the lane...

dude is fkn pathetic

ginoboli is a scrub, dude should be bench with his shithouse performance

[ElNono]

:lmao you must not know Parker. He's got no D. It's all O

so he was worst than Gino, but he's excused because he has no D? :lmao

[Kuestmaster]

Neither parker nor manu is good enough right now. But manu wasn't the reason we lost today. Parker atrocious 4th was.

[jestersmash]

Parker was overworked and tired in the 4th because Manu didn't provide him proper relief as the team's resident 3rd option, tbh.

[spurraider21]

mad scientist pop should start manu

[hater]

so he was worst than Gino, but he's excused because he has no D? :lmao

who said he's excused. At least he did not lead the knicks in assists like Manu

[ElNono]

Parker was overworked and tired in the 4th because Manu didn't provide him proper relief as the team's resident 3rd option, tbh.

:lol overworked from what? watching Felton walk right past him time and again?

[jestersmash]

I mean when Manu single-handedly throws the game away by turning the ball over when we're down 3 and need a score, it's only natural for Parker to assume that he can't trust Ginobili anymore. In fact, I think it was after this play that Pop benched Ginobili in favor of Danny Green.

In retrospect we could've gone to Timmy more in the post to provide some "on court" rest for Parker.

[justinandimcool]

shut Manu down until he's 100%

he hurts the team EVERY minute he's on the floor. let him take the time to get back and let other people have a chance. because he's more insufferable than Bonner right now. at least Matty doesn't have the ball in his hands all the time.

[Geeboy]

Manu is forcing it too much. His pass timing is off (either too early or too late) and his shooting is drives me nuts! I think Pop needs to reconsider his minutes if he is still not 100%. :(

[ElNono]

who said he's excused. At least he did not lead the knicks in assists like Manu

His guy led the Knicks in points... by a long margin... lol Felton more points than Carmelo...

[Richie]

Manus turnovers have been killing us. Last 2 games he's 1-9 from 3 and 5-16 overall. He's clearly not 100%, let him rest

[jestersmash]

Manu is forcing it too much. His pass timing is off (either too early or too late) and his shooting is drives me nuts! I think Pop needs to reconsider his minutes if he is still not 100%. :(

His passing is off because he's not an offensive threat on the floor right now and so people aren't really providing much "help" defense to contain Manu like they used to.

Trolling ElNono aside (:lol sorry ElNono, I couldn't resist), I'm actually serious about this point - I think Manu needs to regain more of a scorer's mentality first instead of always looking to pass. He needs to re-build his reputation as a scoring threat.

[Malik Hairston]

He's painful to watch, tbh..

It's very uncharacteristic of Ginobili to miss open shots, and it appears that he doesn't have any balance on his drives..he's stumbling and tripping over himself, it's strange..

[superjames1992]

Tony's D is pathetic, tbh.

At least Manu is a pretty good defender, even if he has sucked on offense this season. I have faith he'll come around, though. He needs to stop turning the damn basketball over and he needs to start shooting threes. Perhaps he needs to be more aggressive as he often gets passive and tries to make stupid passes rather than shooting his own shot on his drives.

[hater]

His guy led the Knicks in points... by a long margin... lol Felton more points than Carmelo...

lol "his guy"

felton was scoring on top of everyone.

the boost for the Knicks came from a guy called Ginobili

[ElNono]

Manu had 3 turnovers all game... lol complaining about 3 turnovers when somebody else lets his guy drop 25 and 7 on his sorry ass

[Stabula]

Manu benched in crunch time? Bench him for a solid two weeks and give De Colo a shot. There's absolutely NO way De Colo can be any worse than Ginobili it's just not possible.

[ElNono]

felton was scoring on top of everyone.

:lol guarded strictly by Tony... lol not watching the game


the boost for the Knicks came from a guy called Ginobili

- Spurs up 12, Tony walks in
- Knicks 9-0 run
- Manu comes in

Yeah, Manu was the boost :rolleyes

[Spurs Brazil]

Manu back must be bothering him very much. He looked good just two months ago in the Olympics games

[hater]

Manu had 3 turnovers all game... lol complaining about 3 turnovers when somebody else lets his guy drop 25 and 7 on his sorry ass

LOL complaining over Tony's D

that's like complaining of rain in Seattle

:rolleyes

on the other hand Manu used to be good. when he used to have a heart and a brain

[ElNono]

LOL complaining over Tony's D

that's like complaining of rain in Seattle

:lmao giving Tony a pass after fat Felton dropped 25/7 on him...

You don't need to put excuses for Tony, he's a grown man, tbh

[letmk]

For this game alone, Tony missed more shots (much lower shooting percentage). But He typically makes those missed shots (many of them are close-range tear-drops being short), which means the shot itself is good.

However, Manu's 3-pointer shot looks much worse than atrocious. The only made one was actually not even close and a very lucky bounce. While at the same time, he keeps shooting them. Let's not even get to the total miss of the defense, unforced turnovers, and the same stupid touch-Dirk-in-game-7 plus-1 foul on Chandler.

And both of them totally forgot Tim. Tim never even TOUCHED the ball during those 3/4 minutes until it was too late.

To me, the best coaching Pop did in the Lakers game was benching Manu down the stretch. And the worst coaching he did tonight was to leave Manu in. So as bad as Manu plays, I pin this totally on Pop exactly because Manu has been this bad since the beginning of the season instead of just one erratic game.

I can't predict the future with respect to whether Manu can ever get back to be the old Manu. But right now, he only deserves situational minutes.

[Solid D]

hater, can you be any more obvious?

[rascal]

The only mistake Pop made was not benching TP at the same time. He was even worse. TP and Manu really let the Spurs down in a big way with a large lead at home. Really no excuse for it, but the it happens I guess.

TP was a big reason why the Spurs got out to the lead. He was the only one attacking the basket for most of the game.

[DPG21920]

I never said otherwise. Fact is, apparently he was "gassed" and was taking terrible shots so he should have been benched in the fourth too.

[Blackjack]

I picked up the game late. But, yeah, it sounded like Tony was the Tony Parker he was years ago and not of recent year. Hell, even of some of the earlier games this year.

Manu sounded terrible over the airwaves, but Tony sounded pretty damn bad himself.

25-6 run to end the game, at home, against the Knicks? (And I don't give a damn about their record.)

No bueno, Spurs. No bue-no.

[DPG21920]

Melo had like 4 of those points too...he was handled quite well. Which makes it even more of a head scratcher.

[hater]

hater, can you be any more obvious?

about what? Parker was being parker. anyone surprised?

Manu on the other hand was attrocious. yes it's on Pop to leave him in there but still you'd think the motherfucker would try to use his brain instead of making stupid no look rush passes to the 1st row in crunch time

[Solid D]

Obvious to everyone but you, I guess.

[superjames1992]

Overlooked is the fact that Manu is a pretty good defender, so even if he looks like shit on the offensive end, he can still be a positive force for good.

[TDMVPDPOY]

ginoboli was just matchin his countrymens production, nothing to see here...

[KaiRMD1]

For the first time in a while, Pop made a mistake by benching Splitter, that's my complaint about this game.

[Blackjack]

Who was Splitter gettin spoonfed by? Dude was killin, know he had to be rollin off someone in some kind of P&R action.

[Stabula]

If I took a shot everytime Parker or Ginobili bricked a big shot this game I'd be getting my stomach pumped in the emergency room right now

[TDMVPDPOY]

ginoboli played very well this game, it was like his the 6th guy on the court for the knicks...

[crc21209]

Pop f'ed up big time tonight. Once TP went into "hero mode" in the 4th, Pop should've taken him AND Manu out. I know a coach is usually suppose to ride his stars out till the end, but tonight just wasnt the night to do that. I would've also left Splitter in. Maybe go with a line-up of Mills, Green, Jax, Duncan, and Splitter, and see what happens...

[spurspokesman]

Can't watch the game, but listening live.

Guess he looked as bad as it sounded . . .

Parker should of been hip to hip with him on the pine.

[jag]

Manu isn't used to playing this early in the season, so he's probably not in game shape yet. It's an unfamiliar feeling for him to not be in a suit right now watching Tony shoulder the load until the All-Star break.

[bus driver]

Manu isn't used to playing this early in the season, so he's probably not in game shape yet. It's an unfamiliar feeling for him to not be in a suit right now watching Tony shoulder the load until the All-Star break.

i concur.

[diego]

trolling / jokes aside, if pop thinks manu's healthy he needs to play, no matter how bad, to regain his stamina and rhythm. if he's not healthy, then yes he needs to rest but you can't just bench him because of a bad stretch because it will only delay his recovery. if he is really done, which I doubt because he played very well just a couple months ago, then much better to find out now than during the playoffs.

with the leonard injury it makes the most sense to start manu to let him find his rhythm alongside tony and tim, than to bench him or expect him to do more. silver lining, it should allow pop to get a better look at de colo / mills / joseph and neal. If Manu still looks like this in January, then either he's injured (again) or really finished and if one of those other guards can't pick up at least some of that slack, the team is screwed regardless of seeding.

[Slippy]

Letting kidd shoot 3 wide open threes' got the knicks back into it. Danny Green should be feeling some heat. Was he gassed too?

[wildbill2u]

Manu has always been our best closer. I couldn't believe it when he was pulled. I wonder if this means we are at the end of an era or simply that he's not physically right.

[Slippy]

Manu would be the first one to admit he deserved to be benched. The TO's were happening at the worst time so i can see Pop's point of view. Coach would also keep in mind the way he's passing and shooting, the Manu we used to is not back yet.

Patience poeple.