Quick Grades: Spurs @ Pistons - Feb. 8

[timvp]

Tony Parker A
Started slowly but turned it on and was hyper-aggressive in the comeback bid. Came up short but great effort.

Kawhi Leonard A-
Tenacious on D. Rebounded well. Made things happen on O. A bit erratic with decisions but played hard.

Danny Green B-
He’s still on fire on threes. Good D in transition. Terribad defensively in the halfcourt. Couldn’t handle screens.

Tiago Splitter C
Wasn’t physical enough in the paint. Poor on the defensive glass. Played well at times but too inconsistent.

Boris Diaw D+
Second straight poor shooting game. Really weak on the boards. Never found anything resembling a groove.

Gary Neal C+
Relatively decent. Actually hit a few shots and authored good passes. Transition D bad; halfcourt D adequate.

Stephen Jackson C+
Tried to carry slack with mixed results. Plus passing. Competed on D. Efficiency still a problem. Got tired late.

Matt Bonner B-
Did good work on D but lack of boards undid a lot of positives. Three-point accuracy returned.

DeJuan Blair B-
Another outstanding night rebounding-wise. Offense mostly a struggle but good aggression. Woeful on D.

Nando De Colo C
No playmaking to speak of tonight. Got benched for defensive mistakes.

Patrick Mills D+
Got his shot at backup PG. Didn’t take advantage. Impotent on O. Ineffective on D.

Aron Baynes Inc.
Checked in. Turnover. I think I’ve seen that before…

Pop C-
Yeah, let’s scratch the idea of using 4 different point guards in one game. Bigman rotation also odd.

[Brunodf]

Bonner/Blair/Pop grades are too high.

Agree with everything else

[KaiRMD1]

Looks like Baynes is on his way to earning a reputation.......not a good one though.

[Boomersgold]

I think Patty's poor play on the offensive end was more Tony Parker's fault than it was his own. In the second quarter, for some reason, Parker got overly aggressive and began driving the ball in on almost every possession (hero ball style). As a result of Parker's increased aggressiveness, there was very little ball movement on the offensive end.

There is no excuse for Patty's poor defense though. He kept going behind screens instead of fronting them, and Bynum took advantage of this.

[freetiago]

Splitter stepping up to stop point guard penetration
no one checks his guy and they get an easy drop off pass or offensive rebound
team still hasnt adressed this the entire time Duncan has been out
his D on Monroe was also either really good or really bad
he started off really strong stealing the ball and keeping position then other times hed get put behind him
only one who was able to contest his midrange shot and force him to put it on the floor

Greens defense gives him a C tbh
Pop should have tried Parker on Knight and Green on Calderon
Calderon uses more screens arguably but he isnt as quick and green has the length to contest

Blairs rebound numbers were padded off his own misses as usual and i dont think anyone will miss his stupid mistakes
suprised he didnt get the 3 second call in a game
the obvious push off leading to 2 free throws when Pistons were in the bonus and Blair jogging back smiling was vintage Blair

Jackson has been terrible everywhere but passing this season

Diaw is at least being aggressive which is a positive but his selection is what makes him so efficient
he did rush a few tonight that you normally wont see

Kawhi Leonard has been trying to show off a little more mid range game now that manu/duncan are out and they shoot the majority of the teams midrange shots
pop should be posting him up more

[SPIDER2311]

I think Patty's poor play on the offensive end was more Tony Parker's fault than it was his own. In the third quarter, for some reason, Parker got overly aggressive and began driving the ball in on almost every possession (hero ball style). As a result of Parker's increased aggressiveness, there was very little ball movement on the offensive end.

There is no excuse for Patty's poor defense though. He kept going behind screens instead of fronting them, and Bynum took advantage of this.

Agree. I think Patty was wide open on 3 or 4 times but tony had the blinkers on. Yes Patty was terrible tonight on defence. To me it semmed like Patty wasnt himself tonight? A trade coming up?

[Richie]

I was shocked when I saw Blair had 10 boards, didn't think he had a good game at all. He was horrible on offence IMO, took bad shots and missed easy ones.

[ElNono]

Anything over C for Blair at this point is too much, IMO

[timvp]

I think Patty's poor play on the offensive end was more Tony Parker's fault than it was his own. In the second quarter, for some reason, Parker got overly aggressive and began driving the ball in on almost every possession (hero ball style). As a result of Parker's increased aggressiveness, there was very little ball movement on the offensive end.


Weak comment, tbh. (:rolleyes @ hero ball.)

Mills running the point by himself generated two points in the second quarter. Parker comes in next to Mills and they score eight points.

If Parker doesn't go hyper-aggressive, the Spurs got annihilated. He was the only player who could make a play tonight. Literally everyone else was subpar in that category. Who was the next best at making plays? I don't even know ...... Stephen Jackson? Kawhi Leonard?

31 points on 16 shots. Eight assists and one turnover. And yet he's pointed to as the problem. Amazing.

[phxspurfan]

Baynes looked like he tweaked something going for that badly thrown oop from Mills at the end there.

[freetiago]

Spurs not developing a post game or at least letting him iso a couple of times and pops reluctance to change things will bite them in the ass
if we play a team like the Lakers in the playoffs you have to abuse bad matchups
put ginobili in the starting lineup so nash cant hide on defense vs green
if he tries to put nash on leonard then it will be even more lol since he could just post him up with probably over a foot in length in that matchup
instead hell be content to sit with what is working and play his terrible lineups that include everything but that

[Boomersgold]

Weak comment, tbh. (:rolleyes @ hero ball.)

Mills running the point by himself generated two points in the second quarter. Parker comes in next to Mills and they score eight points.

If Parker doesn't go hyper-aggressive, the Spurs got annihilated. He was the only player who could make a play tonight. Literally everyone else was subpar in that category. Who was the next best at making plays? I don't even know ...... Stephen Jackson? Kawhi Leonard?

31 points on 16 shots. Eight assists and one turnover. And yet he's pointed to as the problem. Amazing.

Yeah, Mills wasn't great in this one. He was passive and never looked to score. Maybe being given inconsistent playing time has ruined what confidence he had gained during his Olympic campaign.

Why does everyone seem to think that the word "hero ball" has negative connotations to it? I use it to describe when there is little ball movement, and a player puts it on his shoulders to carry the scoring load, which may or may not be bad depending on the player that is playing "hero ball". I had no problems with Parker playing hero ball, tbh, as he was the only one capable of slicing the Pistons' defense.

About 5 minutes of Patty's 7 minutes was played with Parker. What I meant was that you can't criticize someone (not only Patty) for not producing points when Parker's taking most of the shots.

[8FOR!3]

Yeah that turnover had nothing to do with Baynes, it was just Mills trying to make something out of literally nothing.

[ChumpDumper]

Baynes looked like he tweaked something going for that badly thrown oop from Mills at the end there.Pop will have to think twice about playing Baynes in a league where such dangerous passes occur.

[phxspurfan]

Pop will have to think twice about playing Baynes in a league where such dangerous passes occur.

http://d2tq98mqfjyz2l.cloudfront.net/image_cache/1267551672392848.jpeg

[Beaverfuzz]

Shit happens, suck it up and move on.

[200 miles]

What's it going to take for Splitter to be more assertive on offense in most, if not all, games? Perhaps a large can of spinach or even whatever they gave Drago?

[gambit1990]

i was surprised baynes played so little. you'd think his physicality would've helped in the rebounding department...

[Brunodf]

What's it going to take for Splitter to be more assertive on offense in most, if not all, games? Perhaps a large can of spinach or even whatever they gave Drago?

Touches

[Bong]

im not pro baynes but im sad that pop did not gave baynes more minutes to gave us some box out and possible rebounds, the pistons destroyed us in rebounding 33 against 49 with 15/49 are offensive rebounds resulting to putbacks so thats all in all + 30pts some of with and 1, when we are having a run and the pistons missing some shots their front court just outrebounded as resulting to putbacks/3pts/or 3 pt play which really hurt us....

splitter just dont have the upper body strength to box out greg monroe
blair/diaw were just too small to contest monroe on rebounds its like greg monroe vs. a guard

on SJax - i think that fractured finger are getting to his shots, his in a shooting slump lately especially missing those open 3s which was a walk in park for him before.

green/kawhi - bright future of the spurs their very good defensively and offensively

neal - i think its a very bad idea letting neal handle the PG he really chokes alot especially when getting pressured by other guards which is almost always resulting to a turnover or a bad play, when neal and green were both in the floor our team is out of sync because they play the same position as a SG, i hope pop could device a rotation that would let neal to be an exclusive SG because ball handling wise his really poor compared to NBA standard but shooting the ball even with a fast break 3 pts im all hands on this guy.

[Strategic]

Nice grades. It seemed like the good guys were fighting up hill the whole damn game, and they were. Detroit's ability to penetrate tore up the Spurs. Need to bounce back hard to have success in the next two, likely need at least Manu or Tim, or both. That "cowboy" pass that Mills tossed to Baynes either slipped out of his hands, or maybe he needs to be sent to Austin in lieu of Joseph, who wouldn't throw something so dumb. Pop going with Diaw and Blair was ..........nope.

[Blake]

Seemed like the game plan early on was to get Boris involved and aggressive.

Not really his game, imo. He's more of the type that needs to have the game come to him.

[Capt Bringdown]

A game in which Blair is the leading rebounder and Bonner is gifted extended minutes tells you all you need to know about where Pop's head was tonite.

[200 miles]

Touches

That's it, isn't it? I didn't even see the game; I just followed it on the yahoo box score. Splitter is probably the fifth best player on the team, frequently scores through pick and rolls and can cause a lot of damage to the opponent on both ends. But we already know this. So the question is: why don't his teammates know this? Instead, with just Splitter on the court sans Duncan and sometimes Parker, they actually prefer to shoot from the outside.

So what the fuck is wrong with this picture?

[team-work]

Thanks for the grading, as usual. It seemed as if I watched the whole game within a couple of minutes.

Just a sidetrack (please direct me to relevant link if it exists), why there's no/seldom grade E between D and F?

[Brunodf]

That's it, isn't it? I didn't even see the game; I just followed it on the yahoo box score. Splitter is probably the fifth best player on the team, frequently scores through pick and rolls and can cause a lot of damage to the opponent on both ends. But we already know this. So the question is: why don't his teammates know this? Instead, with just Splitter on the court sans Duncan and sometimes Parker, they actually prefer to shoot from the outside.

So what the fuck is wrong with this picture?

I really don't know, maybe because Neal/Green aren't good passers... Splitter is ignored under the rim at least 5 times/game...He isn't aggressive enough... He is getting less touches in the post this season...

[Hoops Czar]

This game didn't come down to offense. 109 points should have been enough to win a game against the Pistons. Those grades are way too generous accross the board. Nobody competed on defense. Oh, yeah, a couple of steals by Leonard and Green, BIG DEAL! Detroit got the shots they wanted on nearly every possession... wide open three's, uncontested layups, when they did miss a shot or had one blocked , Detroit was in position to grab the Offensive board and easy stickback as the Spurs would just give up on the play. This game was a long time comin and if I were to rank the Spurs 10+ game win streaks, this would be the least impressive of the bunch.

Btw, Baynes didn't have a Turnover.

[freetiago]

considering the fact that Tim/Manu/Pop missed a majority of the games it is actually impressive
Baynes passed it to Mills who was behind the halfcourt line for whatever reason

and Duncan is the elite rim protector who brings the defense together
theyve been doing a lot better at running guys off the 3 point line this season but in this game they could just take it all the way to the basket uncontested after the initial run off
Splitter isnt an anchor
hes a solid complement who can defend post guys but not a true anchor
combined with all the traffic cone perimeter defenders on the team and bonner/blair is why the defense is so bad

[TJastal]

This game might just be a microcosm of what the team is going to look like once Duncan retires and Pop doesn't have him to cover all his flaws.

[Hoops Czar]

considering the fact that Tim/Manu/Pop missed a majority of the games it is actually impressive
Baynes passed it to Mills who was behind the halfcourt line for whatever reason

and Duncan is the elite rim protector who brings the defense together
theyve been doing a lot better at running guys off the 3 point line this season but in this game they could just take it all the way to the basket uncontested after the initial run off
Splitter isnt an anchor
hes a solid complement who can defend post guys but not a true anchor
combined with all the traffic cone perimeter defenders on the team and bonner/blair is why the defense is so bad

Considering only three of the teams had winning records and two of them were badly slumping (Memphis and Atlanta), the coyote could have coached this team to an 11 game win streak. As for the game, I shut it off after the third. According to the ESPN box score and play by play, Baynes wasn't credited with a turnover. I agree with your assessment on Splitter. Hopefully the Spurs continue their due dilligence to find another competent big by the trade deadline.

[TJastal]

Pop will have to think twice about playing Baynes in a league where such dangerous passes occur.

Bad passes can happen in any league, and are forgiveable if the cause is simply operator error. Unfortunately for your misguided logic, the difference is Mills wasn't attempting to do anything unfundamentally sound, like trying to lob an entry pass from the top of the key.

[freetiago]

Tim/Tony/Manu are the team and you can plug in any scrub which the spurs have done and still get 50+ wins
so to win a large amount of games missing them is impressive since without them the spurs are a treadmill playoff team

and im guessing you missed the play Mills injured Baynes on
a horrible lob from the top of the key

[TJastal]

Tim/Tony/Manu are the team and you can plug in any scrub which the spurs have done and still get 50+ wins
so to win a large amount of games missing them is impressive since without them the spurs are a treadmill playoff team

and im guessing you missed the play Mills injured Baynes on
a horrible lob from the top of the key

It's quite common to see lob passes from the top of the key. I would qualify this by saying that lobs/alley oop passes should be practiced heavily before being attempted in a real game. In this regard I am a bit surprised that Mills attempted it, unless they have practiced it before on their national team which i somehow doubt. Could be indicative a very low bball IQ. Or perhaps Mills was trying a little too hard to help a fellow Aussie teammate. Hard to say for sure.

[Hoops Czar]

Tim/Tony/Manu are the team and you can plug in any scrub which the spurs have done and still get 50+ wins
so to win a large amount of games missing them is impressive since without them the spurs are a treadmill playoff team

and im guessing you missed the play Mills injured Baynes on
a horrible lob from the top of the key

The Spurs weren't nearly as reliant on the big three last year as they are this year. That's a FACT. Tony hasn't missed a beat while Tim and Manu have missed games sporadically but not many together. Last years team featured many role players stepping up in the clutch, this year, not so much. This team is much worse off than last year's team, You can quote how the defense has improved, but the offense has tailed off quite a bit. They aren't equiped to beat a team like OKC unless they get a total team effort and those types of games have been far and few between. Out of all the years Bonner made the three point shooting contest, this is probably his least deserving. S-jax is beyond finished and the Spurs have no depth behind tony Parker at pg primarily because of Pop's indecisiveness between De Coolio and Mills. Playing Mills alongside Parker really defeats his being on the court because he doesn't play well off the ball. And I'm not defending his athetic effort, but he was far from the only one bombing tonight. I told you I missed the 4th, so I missed the Baynes injury but for all you know, it was just a niggle.

[Slippy]

What's it going to take for Splitter to be more assertive on offense in most, if not all, games? Perhaps a large can of spinach or even whatever they gave Drago?

Was thinking this. He playing too content on offense. Waiting to get fed, happy to starve kind of attitude. Gone away from making things happen and calling for the ball. If we were to split grades for both ends it be D on offense B for defense.

If i din't know Danny Green any better you'd think he didn't respect Knight even after knocking down his first few shots. Lazy and retarded comes to mind. Gave his guy way too much room when chasing, ran around screens like it was a preseason training drill and most concerning is his in-ability to change direction quickly enough.

The seperation the pistons got in the second quarter, that they never relinquished should fall squarely on the feet of Pop. strange subs and rotations. Was wondering if he was in experimental mode for awhile there.

[TJastal]

Was thinking this. He playing too content on offense. Waiting to get fed, happy to starve kind of attitude. Gone away from making things happen and calling for the ball. If we were to split grades for both ends it be D on offense B for defense.

If i din't know Danny Green any better you'd think he didn't respect Knight even after knocking down his first few shots. Lazy and retarded comes to mind. Gave his guy way too much room when chasing, ran around screens like it was a preseason training drill and most concerning is his in-ability to change direction quickly enough.

The seperation the pistons got in the second quarter, that they never relinquished should fall squarely on the feet of Pop. strange subs and rotations. Was wondering if he was in experimental mode for awhile there.

Not to excuse Green's lack of hustle (which is troubling) Knight is no stranger to these types of shooting nights, having dropped 20+ 10 times already this year, and 30+ twice.

[Slippy]

Not to excuse Green's lack of hustle (which is troubling) Knight is no stranger to these types of shooting nights, having dropped 20+ 10 times already this year, and 30+ twice.

That doesn't surprise me. The piston's feed talked about KNight's shooting ability pre-game . Obviously, Danny let the scouting report go out the other ear or forgot it once the game started. It's happening way too often with this guy.

[TJastal]

That doesn't surprise me. The piston's feed talked about KNight's shooting ability pre-game . Obviously, Danny let the scouting report go out the other ear or forgot it once the game started. It's happening way too often with this guy.

I put part of that on Pop also (actually most of that). It's ultimately the coach's job to know the scouting reports on everyone and communicate that to the players and then follow that up by getting into their faces if they're sluffing off a critical assignment.

[freetiago]

Spurs offense isnt as good because theyre not relying on fools gold matt bonner and his reg season +- king numbers
the Tim/Tiago frontcourt pairing has a 107 offensive rating and a .89 defensive rating
so lets not act like giving up 3 pointers per 100 possesions to go from 110 (last year) to 107 while increasing the defense from around 10-15 most of the year to #1 pace this year isnt worth it
and youre saying think acting like being a top 4 offense is a bad thing
the 3 other top offenses all play mostly smallball and rely on 3s
and you cant really say the spurs roleplayers were being clutch since they didnt ever play any close games
most games were blowouts by the 4th quarter last year which was made easier by the fact that most teams shut it down earlier in the season and some teams like golden state started tanking around 1/3 of the way through

and last year manu had one of his best seasons ever while this year hes fallen off
the spurs relied more on the big 3 last year and they always have and will rely on them a lot
SA is basically a 2 man game with Tim/Tony who draw all the help or doubles and pass it out to open shooters and make the right passes based on rotations
Manu does the same thing with Splitter off the bench
they have no consistent offense that they go to anywhere else
and Neal green leonard and splitter all increased their scoring averages this year

[Russo21]

Tough game to judge. Looking at the RRT schedule i had this game penciled in as a Win.

But playing without Tim and Manu on the road isn't an easy task.
Winning 10 straight games we're bound for a loss at some stage.

We shot well, 46%FG, 42%3PTFG, 83%FT
Looked after the ball better, just 7 turnovers to Detroit's 12.
Had 8 steals and 9 blocks, seems fine. Better then Detroits 5 steals and 4 blocks.
Fouled less. 16 fouls v Detroits 20.
Scored 109 points without Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, not bad.

All signs points to a Win.

So where'd we go wrong? We let Detroit shoot 51.7%FG, 45.5%3PTFG and gave up 119 freakin points to a team averaging 95 on the season. Not Cool. Just an anomoly without Tim Anchoring the middle? Tim might have been the difference but this game just points out our biggest flaw, defense. We have to impove our D someway, shomehow. Whether it's in-house improvement or a trade, something has got to be done. Just a few weeks left for the Front Office to figure it out.

[maverick1948]

Weak comment, tbh. (:rolleyes @ hero ball.)

Mills running the point by himself generated two points in the second quarter. Parker comes in next to Mills and they score eight points.

If Parker doesn't go hyper-aggressive, the Spurs got annihilated. He was the only player who could make a play tonight. Literally everyone else was subpar in that category. Who was the next best at making plays? I don't even know ...... Stephen Jackson? Kawhi Leonard?

31 points on 16 shots. Eight assists and one turnover. And yet he's pointed to as the problem. Amazing.

Do you think some of those folks actually watch the same game we do? One thing no one ever points out is the opponents having a great shooting night. Until the last 2 mins of the 1st half, the pistons were firing up shots from all over and they were going in. In that time they were shooting over 60 %. And they were getting all the rebounds not because the Spurs didnt try but because some just fell into their hands. Give credit to them, good offense still beats good defense sometime. Patty was not right tonight and neither was half of the team. I guess we have to accept that they are NOT perfect and will lose a game once in a while. I still stand by my 6 or 7 wins on the RRT.

[chapnis]

Anyone know why Kawhi only played 26 minutes? Was pop trying to lose?

[quentin_compson]

The perimeter D was terrible, and Green especially completely inept at fighting through screens. Splitter has to be more dominant in a game like this, his rebounding was definitely subpar. But well, can't win 'em all, and frankly, the Spurs didn't deserve to win that one.

[TDMVPDPOY]

I was shocked when I saw Blair had 10 boards, didn't think he had a good game at all. He was horrible on offence IMO, took bad shots and missed easy ones.

all his fkn rebounds are misleading, contested rebounds with the pistons bigs? everyone was out muscled and out hustled
his rebs came from no one bothering to go for it and just landed into his arms, watch them rebounds he grabs them down hard while he shows no effort in contested rebounds with players around him, dude is a scrub...

[ChumpDumper]

Bad passes can happen in any league, and are forgiveable if the cause is simply operator error. Unfortunately for your misguided logic, the difference is Mills wasn't attempting to do anything unfundamentally sound, like trying to lob an entry pass from the top of the key.Still completely full of shit, I see.

[ChumpDumper]

I put part of that on Pop also (actually most of that). Quelle surprise!

[TDMVPDPOY]

will bynum clearly exposed whatever perimeter defense we had, walks into the key like nothing and kicking down t he door...fkn green, neal etc sucks monkeydick, to see splitter switch trying to defend leaving the open big for easy basket...

danny green and gary neal are nothin more that blackholes on the court, they g ive you production just as much giving up on the other end....fkn pathetic....

[Hoops Czar]

freetiago (http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/member.php?u=29775)... And what about when Tim goes to the bench? How good is there defense then? 60 points in the secod half to Washington, Minnesota shot terrible from the field but were getting wide open looks and Tiago couldn't handle Pekovic at all and tonights game speaks for itself. The Spurs are a one-man band on defense and without Duncan anchoring the defense, it completely collapses. And the Spurs are still way too reliant on the three. And your damn right about the scores, the Spurs were primarily blowing teams out, not because teams were tanking, because they were playing uptempo getting easier shots in transition, had better shot selection, shot the three better, and had the third fewest turnovers in the league compared to 21st this year. And you talk about Bonner as if his presence on the court was a bad thing. Did you miss the article posted on Bonners defense being the best among big men, statistical anomaly or not, he was hardly a liability during the regular season and his offense was more than adequate. You certainly can't blame him for the flame out against the Thunder because he barely saw the court.

And they didn't rely on the big three as much. There were games the big three sat out the entire 4th quarter, and others where Duncan and Ginobili played a total of 20 minutes or less. TP has had to bail them out of game after game because the Spurs piss away big leads in short periods of time against mediocre competition Btw, maybe I'm missing something, but Duncan doesn't draw a lot of double teams. He's shooting more and more 10-15 ft jump shots as opposed to battling in the low post and most teams elect to play him straight up unless he's having one of those unconscious moments.

[pookenstein]

Did TP get poked in the eye lately? I noticed that his left eyeball was bloody. Looked relatively fresh. You can see it when he was shooting FT's, with around 8:30 to go in the third for example. Didn't seem to bother him though.

[TDMVPDPOY]

Did TP get poked in the eye lately? I noticed that his left eyeball was bloody. Looked relatively fresh. You can see it when he was shooting FT's, with around 8:30 to go in the third for example. Didn't seem to bother him though.

that was from previous game or someshit, not in this game, but someone did get poked in the eye this game, i think it was KL

[Fireball]

Totally uninspired player and totally uninspired coach ... just a bad game ... with this kind of attitude this road trip will not be succesful. You can also see that on the road it hurts much more not to have Timmy and Manu on the floor ...

[urunobili]

Parker's first half shouldn't afford him an A. To his credit, he had the entire Pistons squad focusing on him since nobody from the Spurs could buy a shot...

[UZER]

Sheeeew....pop is glad that win streak is over. He would've given coach bud minutes if he could've just to lose that one.

[skin]

Blair grade is too high.
TP was by far our best man yesterday.

[Horse]

We obviously could've, should've played better and we didn't even try to defend till the 4th quarter. That said I think it was just one of those nights, they couldn't miss, played way over their heads, any other time 109 points would blow out the pistons. Not only that the ball bounced their way and they sure as hell got all the calls. So nothing really to see here and nothing to worry about. Every piece of shit they threw up went in, sun even shines on a dogs ass some days.

[Horse]

Thank you, why would anyone give this game a second thought? The pisstons came out on fire. This game is more about them playing way better than they really are. It happens big shit. Also at some point not have Tim and Manu is gonna hurt. All the games they missed and we still have the best record in the league and you fuckers still complain.

[EVAY]

Did TP get poked in the eye lately? I noticed that his left eyeball was bloody. Looked relatively fresh. You can see it when he was shooting FT's, with around 8:30 to go in the third for example. Didn't seem to bother him though.

Two or three games ago Tony got elbowed in the eye (no call) and had to get three stitches in the eyelid that still has blood in it.

[EVAY]

Oh for heaven's sake, people. They lost one game out of the last 12. They didn't play good defense and they were lethargic. It happens.

From the box score, everyone but Mills, Jackson and ...(I forget exactly- Neal?) on the spurs were shooting at a 50% or better clip. We played uninspired defense and they played inspired offense. End of story.

This team has been playing without one or two of its big three for most of the winning streak. This was bound to happen. Tony can't carry both offense and defense night in and night out without losing some intensity occasionally, and tonight he had no intensity in the first half. But without him, we would have been totally blown out.

[superbigtime]

Damn this game just sucked. Down by 21 in 1st half to such a shitty team is WEAK, I don't care who's out. Team came out really sluggish, and that's Tony's fault. But otherwise he had a pretty good game when everyone else struggled. Kawhi was alrite. Diaw just sucked. Neal just can't shoot his way out of his bad play it seems. Basically no one played good consistent ball. I feel that Tiago was underplayed. Blair is ok if he's got it going, but he clearly didn't; Pop overplayed him. Jack looks done tbh. This backup PG situation is really ugly when no one can find a groove. Embarassing loss.

[SenorSpur]

With Duncan out, the Spurs really need Diaw to play big. Thus far, he has not. Hasn't rebounded well, and to compound matters, he fails to box out. In short, he's playing like the SF that he really is. It was very evident versus the Pistons. Very disappointing.

[will_spurs]

Oh for heaven's sake, people. They lost one game out of the last 12. They didn't play good defense and they were lethargic. It happens.

That's not the point. This game was a prototype of the fool's gold scenario: most of the time Tony and Tim can carry the team and hide its deficiencies. On a day like yesterday when scrubs play like scrubs, they get exposed. This team isn't going anywhere with Blair/Bonner getting any PT, or the backup PG situation being as unresolved as it is now. It also shows Pop still has no answers against athletic teams with a couple of talented big men.

So in many ways this game was the canary in the coal mine rather than a mere bump in the road.

[jjktkk]

That's not the point. This game was a prototype of the fool's gold scenario: most of the time Tony and Tim can carry the team and hide its deficiencies. On a day like yesterday when scrubs play like scrubs, they get exposed. This team isn't going anywhere with Blair/Bonner getting any PT, or the backup PG situation being as unresolved as it is now. It also shows Pop still has no answers against athletic teams with a couple of talented big men.

So in many ways this game was the canary in the coal mine rather than a mere bump in the road.

Actually I think you overeacting. Spurs missing Duncan, their best defender, and their sixth man Ginoboli. You say Tim and Tony hide the team deficiencies. Really? Imagine taking a teams two best players and the team gets exposed. Who woulda thunk?

[Richie]

Actually I think you overeacting. Spurs missing Duncan, their best defender, and their sixth man Ginoboli. You say Tim and Tony hide the team deficiencies. Really? Imagine taking a teams two best players and the team gets exposed. Who woulda thunk?

Agreed. Take Bosh and Wade off the Heat and they would lose games too.

If anything, we've overperformed in the last few weeks with injuries. An 11 game win streak without Tim, Manu and Pop for stretches is excellent.

[ChumpDumper]

spurfan doesn't take losses well.

[HI-FI]

i was watching the post game interview with Pop after the Minnesota game and he commented on the win streak by saying "i'm sure we'll lay an egg soon."

not saying we threw this game, but I don't think Pop was super motivated to press hard. i'll be more concerned if we play like this the entire RRT, otherwise i'm not concerned. our flaws are pretty well known at this point.

[BlackSilver]

I'm surprised that no one's talked about how Detroit gave us fits with their hedge defense on pick and rolls. We got bogged down over and over again when the opposing big hedged the ball handler and then we didn't know what to do with the ball. Detroit looked like a well-coached team yesterday defense-wise. Their shooting was lights out...just one of those days and I'm not sure it's repeatable.

[Nero5]

Yeah, Mills wasn't great in this one. He was passive and never looked to score. Maybe being given inconsistent playing time has ruined what confidence he had gained during his Olympic campaign.


I doubt that there is any confidence hangover from the olympics. It *is* tough for any player when you get inconsistent minutes and who knows what the coach staff are asking him to concentrate on in each game.

[Slippy]

The part Pop can't control how-ever is Danny Green losing concentration constantly on the defensive end.

There sure is a lot of over-reaction to this loss.

[timaios]

Anyone know why Kawhi only played 26 minutes? Was pop trying to lose?

Seriously... I mean, wtf Pop ! This is insane !

[Paranoid Pop]

Seriously... I mean, wtf Pop ! This is insane !

The most hilarious thing is that Pop took KY out to play small with Green at the 3 and Neal at the 2...............................................

[will_spurs]

Actually I think you overeacting. Spurs missing Duncan, their best defender, and their sixth man Ginoboli. You say Tim and Tony hide the team deficiencies. Really? Imagine taking a teams two best players and the team gets exposed. Who woulda thunk?

I'd be surprised if the Spurs get through the playoffs without Duncan and Manu being hurt. At this point it's not if, it's when.