Quick Grades: Spurs @ Celtics - Nov. 21, 2012

[timvp]

Tim Duncan A
Gargantuan on the boards. Very good interior defense. Timely scoring. Another retro effort.

Manu Ginobili B-
Didn’t shoot it straight and is still rusty but he did the little things on both ends to help get the W.

Tony Parker A-
Fantastic aggression all game. Made Rajon Rondo work. Kept pedal to the metal.

Danny Green B-
Commendable energy on D, though not always smart. A couple iffy shots but otherwise fine on O.

Gary Neal B
Seemingly forced most of his shots but we can't be mad about his FG%. D was good, relatively.

DeJuan Blair B+
Infectious tenaciousness. Above average defense. Effective on offense. Limited his mistakes.

Tiago Splitter A+
Got angry and then erupted in Boston. By far his most aggressive game of the season. Really went all out.

Boris Diaw A-
All-around game on display. Ball-handling and passing were great. D was solid. Passed up some shots.

Nando De Colo B+
Quietly had a quality outing. Added creativity, calmness and passing to second unit. Defense was a plus.

Pop A-
Imaginative rotation but his players didn’t seem to mind. Team’s attention to detail was impressive.

[Brazil]

the real good news about this game is Splitter.

[bklynspursfan]

Splitter and Diaw played great. (In addition to TP and TD) if they can play like that consistently I'd be thrilled. Pop should call them out more often

[HI-FI]

good grades. everyone seemed really keyed in on the game.

[elemento]

Pop gets an A+ for giving Bonner another DNP

[TD 21]

Pop gets an A+ for giving Bonner another DNP

I was very surprised by this. As I alluded to yesterday, everything seemed to be adding up for him to replace Diaw in the rotation. It just goes to show you, Pop really is done with him. He's not getting fooled by him in the regular season again and won't even go to him to give Diaw a kick in the ass.

As for Splitter, obviously he was much more engaged and ridiculously efficient/productive offensively, but 3 rebounds in 25:58 is still nowhere near good enough.

[timvp]

Pop gets an A+ for giving Bonner another DNP

Tbh, that's a good point.

I'm sure there were a lot of angry lumberjacks in the stands who came to see Bonner play.

[BillMc]

Tbh, that's a good point.

I'm sure there were a lot of angry lumberjacks in the stands who can to see Bonner play.

Que the Monty Python Lumberjack song.

[Richie]

Three rebounds is obviously not great from Splitter, but to be fair he was guarding Garnett on the mid range a lot. When Garnett did get fed in the post, he was going up defending his fade away, not much chance of a defensive board in those situations.

He got points, but I was most impressed with his defence on Garnett all night.

[arles]

Manu with +24?
Woah, I missed the game, but I'd love to see how he did it despite the other low stats.

[racm]

Three rebounds is obviously not great from Splitter, but to be fair he was guarding Garnett on the mid range a lot. When Garnett did get fed in the post, he was going up defending his fade away, not much chance of a defensive board in those situations.

He got points, but I was most impressed with his defence on Garnett all night.

This, and he was boxing out among others. He's one of the reasons the Spurs gave up but one offensive board (granted, the Celtics being the worst offensive rebounding team in the league helps).

[TDMVPDPOY]

SPLITTER has been beasting the last few games...

[jjktkk]

Thanks Tim.

[Libri]

Wow look at those grades! Oh why did I miss this game? :depressed

[racm]

Splitter scored 23 points. The entire Celtics bench scored 17.

:lmao

[jesterbobman]

It's not really a game where you can complain about rebounding. Giving up only 1 offensive board(late, when the game was essentially decided) is a great effort. Splitter only having 3 isn't an issue when you outrebound by 16.

I continue to be impressed with the offense when Nando is running it, hopefully the work on his shot starts to help. He's hesitant to shoot at the moment, though I think that it's him looking for best team offense, rather than padding assist numbers/Rondo-ing. When the shot gets better, hopefully he can get to a slightly better balance of score pass.

[Ice009]

Tiago is starting to get aggressive and that is a really good thing. He needs to keep going and become Tiago Drago.

[dunkman]

Pop gets an A+ for giving Bonner another DNP

Bonner isn't in the rotation this season, he's the fifth big apparently.

[DPG21920]

timvp - are you surprised that Pop completely did the opposite with Tiago tonight vs the Knicks game. Again tonight Tiago handed the starters a lead with approx 7 minutes left in the fourth when he was subbed out. The momentum almost instantly slipped and Pop immeadiately went back to Tiago to close the game out.

Pretty interesting turn of events especially considering it was Tim/Tiago closing it out.

[racm]

Not timvp but not surprised at Pop doing the right thing after his experiment failed.

[99 Problems]

Tiago is starting to get aggressive and that is a really good thing. He needs to keep going and become Tiago Drago.


This is more like it. This is what's going to get him a big pay rise shortly.

[timvp]

timvp - are you surprised that Pop completely did the opposite with Tiago tonight vs the Knicks game. Again tonight Tiago handed the starters a lead with approx 7 minutes left in the fourth when he was subbed out. The momentum almost instantly slipped and Pop immeadiately went back to Tiago to close the game out.

Pretty interesting turn of events especially considering it was Tim/Tiago closing it out.

I think the Knicks game was a good learning tool. The players realized they can't turn it off and then try to turn it back on, especially since no perimeter player is playing at a superstar level right now. Pop realized he has to stick with the hot hand (AKA Splitter) even if the matchups aren't great.

Tonight when the Celtics made those runs in the fourth, you know the players and coaches were thinking about that Knicks game. The decisions they made tonight were the opposite of the mistakes from that game.

[freetiago]

only player who hasnt showed up this season is turnobili
he had one fluke game where he was pulling up in transition and knocking down 3s
if he could string together some 15/5 type performances id feel a lot better about this season
he hasnt been able to split the trap like he use to do in his sleep
teams are just trapping on the pick and hes forcing bad passes
i know someone picked off his pass to the corner so there is no way he had 0 turnovers

[Blake]

...... Danny Green nailed a 3-pointer in the middle of the streak, giving him 30 straight games with at least one 3, the league's longest current streak........

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/parker-duncan-carry-spurs-past-030004966--nba.html

[spurraider21]

Tiago is starting to get aggressive and that is a really good thing. He needs to keep going and become Tiago Drago.
I was going to make some sort of Drago quote, but you beat me to it hehe. When he plays strong it makes our team that much better, because it means between Tim and Tiago we always have an inside presence. When Tiago starts playing soft, there is a huge discrepancy when Tim is on the bench and it forces him to play too many minutes

[therealtruth]

Tiago's playing too well. Pop going to start messing with his minutes again.

[DPG21920]

I agree but I was still somewhat surprised to see it tbh. Not because it was Tiago, but because doing what he did meant saying screw what the match up says to do and go with the hot hand as you desribed with the Tiago/Tim pairing. That would be a pretty big change from the Pop of old to start doing that.

What we also saw (which many of us have seen before) is that this team's ceiling is pretty damn high with The Big 3 + Tiago playing to the level he is capable of. It's pretty damn ridiculous how good he can be and his defense was also pretty damn good. Not only did he block shots, but he rotated well and did something he had not been doing so well - making guys finish over his length without fouling. If he can do that consistently this team is really, really good assuming the health of the big 3.

While Diaw really helped this tonight and played great, I can't give him all the credit because Tiago also did this vs the Knicks without Diaw playing very well. It certainly helps when one or both of Diaw/Manu are on the court with Tiago, but he's shown some nice growth (albeit in small doses so far) to be a pretty damn good focal point despite who's around him.

[pjjrfan]

Well I as well as a whole lot of people have been clamoring to see Tiago and Tim on the floor at the same time and during crunch time, and in this game I got that, and in those last minutes of this game both of them complimented each other and helped control the boards and the game. Hopefully Pop will continue to let them get some chemistry together.

[DPG21920]

Damn good tbh.

[letmk]

I don't mind Neal taking quick shots as he really has the range all over the court. When he is open and in-the-mode, he could be our Jason Terry or Jamal Crawford.

However, I don't like him taking tough shots. His body control is not that good when the good defense collapses on him --- well, that's exactly the reason he's a just great supporting scoring-player instead of a star SG --- so he needs to make quick decisions as well when the defense emphasize on him instead of forcing the shots.

He has grown enough to be a threat that opponent teams have to respect, which proves to be an asset to our team. But right now he is going to the other extreme opposite of Bonner, but ends up with the same negative results sometimes. When Bonner hits 3-pointers, he is useful to us; but when defense sticks with him, he shies away from the shots, which in turn makes him a liability to the team as the rest of his game is sup-bar to say the least. Whereas Neal would just force the shots anyways and hope them go in like the open shots he takes.

So Neal needs to grow his games more to find the balance between what he does and what Bonner does. Be aware of teammates' positions, and avoid penetrating too deep without second option in head when the Howard/Garnett are ready for him.

[therealtruth]

Bonner isn't in the rotation this season, he's the fifth big apparently.

Hopefully Pop's outbreak of common sense stays. Unfortunately about four years too late. I would rather get into the playoffs as an eight seed than win 70+ regular season games with Bonner. Pop overplaying players who have no business playing has probably cost us a couple of rings.

[therealtruth]

Well I as well as a whole lot of people have been clamoring to see Tiago and Tim on the floor at the same time and during crunch time, and in this game I got that, and in those last minutes of this game both of them complimented each other and helped control the boards and the game. Hopefully Pop will continue to let them get some chemistry together.

Imagine if he had done that about two years ago. They would probably be alot further along now.

[pjjrfan]

He moved the ball around, got the offense rolling, played decent defense on both Rondo and Pierce and just made some smart plays, he missed some tough shots that for him normally go in, and though he had some turnovers he made more good plays than bad, and he helps that second unit especially De Colo, Splitter and Neal.

[racm]

...... Danny Green nailed a 3-pointer in the middle of the streak, giving him 30 straight games with at least one 3, the league's longest current streak........

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/parker-duncan-carry-spurs-past-030004966--nba.html

Schooling Ray Allen tbh

[letmk]

Tiago and Tim really complement each other well considering that Tim has better mid-range shots than ever (I don't have the statistics, but that's my impression while watching the games, especially the non-hesitation from Tim). When Tiago can move his feet to the position, even without Tim's blocking capability, his height instantly makes him our far-away second best low-post defense. You can see the huge difference between him and Blair guarding KG on mid-range shots.

[Ice009]

I was going to make some sort of Drago quote, but you beat me to it hehe. When he plays strong it makes our team that much better, because it means between Tim and Tiago we always have an inside presence. When Tiago starts playing soft, there is a huge discrepancy when Tim is on the bench and it forces him to play too many minutes

lol I mentioned it after the last game as I got tired of him not being physical and aggressive enough consistently. If he can develop an attitude towards his opponents, something close to Ivan Drago, then I think that will take his game to the next level.

[silverblk mystix]

It has only taken the genius coach three years.....THREE FUCKIN' YEARS!!!!

Imagine if he had thrown Tiago into the fire and let him make mistakes and allowed him to quickly get some chemistry with Timmy and the starters.

Imagine if he had allowed Tiago to get familiar with the physicality and the level of talent in the NBA----THREE FUCKIN YEARS AGO!!!

Imagine if Bonner had been benched THREE FUCKIN YEARS AGO!!!!


Imagine.

[TDMVPDPOY]

i bet yah pop is going to go away from playin tim and splitter together...fck him

[I1lovethespurs]

Tiago Fucking Splitter.

[dunkman]

Hopefully Pop's outbreak of common sense stays. Unfortunately about four years too late. I would rather get into the playoffs as an eight seed than win 70+ regular season games with Bonner. Pop overplaying players who have no business playing has probably cost us a couple of rings.

After the '07 title, Pop and RC become too slow adapting and improving. I'm not sure why K-Mart or Dice wasn't signed, because its clear that Blair will become a liability for the playoffs.

[SpurSwag]

Though TP's had a rough start to the season, its encouraging to see his 3 point stroke has greatly improved. in the next couple years he should really look to become a realiable three point shooter as he slows down

[boutons_deux]

pedal to the medal

:)

[timvp]

It has only taken the genius coach three years.....THREE FUCKIN' YEARS!!!!

Imagine if he had thrown Tiago into the fire and let him make mistakes and allowed him to quickly get some chemistry with Timmy and the starters.

Imagine if he had allowed Tiago to get familiar with the physicality and the level of talent in the NBA----THREE FUCKIN YEARS AGO!!!

Imagine if Bonner had been benched THREE FUCKIN YEARS AGO!!!!


Imagine.Add some music and I think you got yourself a song there.


Tiago Fucking Splitter.Quality first post :tu


pedal to the medal

:)




Ha, thx.

[Josepatches_]

Pop didn't need 3 years to realize that. He used Tim/Tiago when the situation was very difficult like playoffs or when we face the Lakers in the past. It's clear that he knows Splitter is one of our best 5 players. No doubt . But he doesn't want to play him a lot of minutes. Dumb move or good move?? It could be to avoid injuries.. whatever reason. He's one of if not the best coach out there. What i believe is that Splitter would be a better player and he would have a lot of more confidence on him if he had been playing more in these 3 years. He's arguably worse than the Splitter who played here in Spain.

[will_spurs]

Manu with +24?
Woah, I missed the game, but I'd love to see how he did it despite the other low stats.

Piggybacking his way to a B-, with a few "intangibles" thrown in.

Happy to see De Colo playing like a PG, after all he's the first backup PG who actually plays like one since... Jacque Vaughn? (and yes I'm being somewhat sarcastic) I'd rather have De Colo play 'the right way' than try to stuff the stats sheet and take a ton of ill-advised shots. He probably got some info from Tony and Boris about what not to do with Pop...

[Obstructed_View]

I refuse to believe that a team with two good bigmen can compete with unfavorable matchups simply by dictating their game. I absolutely refuse to believe it. You have to go small with small and constantly be watching what the other team does if you want to compete. The Spurs couldn't compete for a championship with two good seven footers in the game together.

[TDMVPDPOY]

wtf does this team need to do b4 they willing to accept to go in another direction with some changes, new leadership and some new innovation...someone whose ambitious to lead this team to the holy grail again....

seems like all you clowns are happy with 60win seasons and falling short in the playoffs...

[TDMVPDPOY]

I refuse to believe that a team with two good bigmen can compete with unfavorable matchups simply by dictating their game. I absolutely refuse to believe it. You have to go small with small and constantly be watching what the other team does if you want to compete. The Spurs couldn't compete for a championship with two good seven footers in the game together.

if one of ur bigs can run and jump like a deer, then u have no problem playing 2 bigs against small ball...we dont have that currently

[objective]

It has only taken the genius coach three years.....THREE FUCKIN' YEARS!!!!

Imagine if he had thrown Tiago into the fire and let him make mistakes and allowed him to quickly get some chemistry with Timmy and the starters.

Imagine if he had allowed Tiago to get familiar with the physicality and the level of talent in the NBA----THREE FUCKIN YEARS AGO!!!

Imagine if Bonner had been benched THREE FUCKIN YEARS AGO!!!!


Imagine.

Come on now. Pop and the media will tell you . . . it wasn't fair to the team. Just not fair.

Still isn't.

Why is loyal Bonner, wealthy with corporate knowledge and large Spurs checks, so shunned? This is not fair to him.

I fully expect this unfair Splitter nonsense to go away and a return to Bonner-ball.

[pookenstein]

I don't mind Neal taking quick shots as he really has the range all over the court. When he is open and in-the-mode, he could be our Jason Terry

I know what you mean, but :vomit:

[UZER]

I refuse to believe that a team with two good bigmen can compete with unfavorable matchups simply by dictating their game. I absolutely refuse to believe it. You have to go small with small and constantly be watching what the other team does if you want to compete. The Spurs couldn't compete for a championship with two good seven footers in the game together.

:lol .....good stuff. While watching the game I kept wondering how many of those jumpers KG would have hit over Bonner *shivers*

Parker needs to be this aggressive offensively against Chris Paul. I kept saying if his pull up mid range would be consistant, not spotty from game to game, he would ne unguardable.

De Colo is a true back up pt guard. Pop should let him get going now to have him solid by playoffs. Neal needs to stay as back up 2 with the occasional back up pt duties.

Watching Tim v KG was great...kinda throw back, with Tim still owning KG as usual and KG trying to take his frustration out on someone.e (Tiago) as usual.

[Raven]

the improvement splitter is showing from the ft line is really impressive.. it doesn't look fluky either so i'm pretty happy about that since it was splitter's biggest problem ..

[urunobili]

Splitter :drool:

[DrSteffo]

Splitter still is very good, nothing new.

[TampaDude]

Splitter is straight ballin', bitches!

[silverblk mystix]

I refuse to believe that a team with two good bigmen can compete with unfavorable matchups simply by dictating their game. I absolutely refuse to believe it. You have to go small with small and constantly be watching what the other team does if you want to compete. The Spurs couldn't compete for a championship with two good seven footers in the game together.



BLASHPHEMY!


You are ordered to self-flagellation for an entire spurs season. You are to repeat this phrase for a whole season;

Pop is Lord.Lord is Pop. Pop has 4 rings. 4 rings are Pop. Pop is Lord.

Go humbly now!!!!

[ohmwrecker]

I'll take boards over points from Splitter anytime.

[ohmwrecker]

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but would it kill Splitter to grab a few more boards?

[Fireball]

Not to look a gift horse in the mouth, but would it kill Splitter to grab a few more boards?

in this game the Spurs only gave up 1 offensive rebound, so he did nothing wrong ... overall he could be better and I guess it would not kill him :lol

[JRHernandez88]

Tim Duncan's postmoves this season :worthy: He looks 10x more confident then the past few seasons. & that bankshot is looking pretty as fk again!!!!:spless:

& TP stepping his game up for that Rondo matchup!! Had me grinning like :D All damn night lol. He was being aggressive as fk. Glad to see him step up to the challenge. :toast

[Russ]

I'll take boards over points from Splitter anytime.

Like saying "I'll take fashion rather than brains from Bill Gates."

[maverick1948]

I'll take games like this from Splitter everyday. He may not have rebounded to suit some but watching block out KG was a beautiful thing. I was gone for the game but that replay button should is fun to have. You can back it up and replay shots and rebounds to you hearts content. Splitter played some great ball last night. For all of you who put down Pop for not playing him more, look back at the last 2 years and you will see how hard it is to learn the Spurs system without preseason workouts. I think we will see more of Tiago as the season goes along. Both as a starter and off the bench. Boris Diaw has been a disappointment this season. No improvement over last season. He should be going up instead of remaining the same.

[ohmwrecker]

Like saying "I'll take fashion rather than brains from Bill Gates."

That is, quite possibly, the worst analogy I've ever seen.

It's weird that you're cool with the big with the most minutes in this game grabbing a whopping 3 rebounds.

[Russ]

That is, quite possibly, the worst analogy I've ever seen.

I'll take your word . . .

[SanDiegoSpursFan]

Tiago should have had 4 rebounds; on that tip by Timmy, the staticians gave Duncan an assist, no rebound was recorded. Splitter should have gotten an offensive rebound.

[freetiago]

he also had more then one block
boston stat keepers are the worst in the league
probably right there with the hornets

9qJm4boZms0
lol at 1:14

[timvp]

Tiago should have had 4 rebounds; on that tip by Timmy, the staticians gave Duncan an assist, no rebound was recorded. Splitter should have gotten an offensive rebound.
Technically, that should have been a rebound and an assist for Duncan. A controlled tip to a teammate is considered a rebound.


he also had more then one block
boston stat keepers are the worst in the league


Manu looped a pass right to the Celtics early in the fourth quarter. Neal, who didn't even touch the ball that possession and was on the other side of the court, got credit for the turnover :lol

[Hemotivo]

+24

[Slippy]

That is, quite possibly, the worst analogy I've ever seen.

It's weird that you're cool with the big with the most minutes in this game grabbing a whopping 3 rebounds.


If you're able to, watch the game again. Numbers don't tell the real story. Tiago's Help defense was on que and so was his teammates rebounding. DPG summed it up well.

[Slippy]

If i had to be crtical about Tiago's rebounds would be that he tends to fumble once he get's hold of them but i reckon coach wants defense first and teammate cleaning up after.