Quick Grades: Spurs vs. Cavaliers - March 16

[timvp]

Tim Duncan A
A bit sloppy and a bit inconsistent on D but otherwise was a monster. His O is really coming around -- it's close to vintage-level again. Strong on the glass. Most importantly, his mobility and fluidity look great.

Manu Ginobili B
Still not piecing it completely together but much improved tonight. Better passing. Better taking care of it. Looked more explosive going to the rim. His D, though, was substandard. Lost his man much too often.

Kawhi Leonard A+
Missed his first four shots but then exploded. Great aggression on O; his confidence is sky-high. Very good passing. Physical in the paint. Strong defensively. An animal on the glass. Wow, what a joy to behold.

Danny Green B-
Had trouble getting open but still chipped in. Passed it well. Didn't force anything -- though he was a bit loose with the ball. On D he was decent; he had his moments but his consistently was lacking.

Cory Joseph B
Solid but still not stepping on the gas enough. D wasn't as rabid as it was a week or two ago but not bad. He's showing a strong ability to finish on O … now he just needs to take advantage of it more.

Tiago Splitter B
Efficient on offense, especially compared to last two outings. His D was about average but his rebounding wasn't up to par. He was a steady contributor tonight but seemed to lack his normal energy.

Nando De Colo A-
Provided a timely boost off the bench with his three threes and his toe-on-the-line two. I liked his energy on D and the boards. On the other hand, his playmaking was MIA and his decisions on D were iffy.

Boris Diaw B
Adequate aggression on O, although was plagued by indecision at times. Stout on the offensive boards. D was good late but lukewarm early.

Stephen Jackson C
Two quarter-ending heaves hurt his stats. Regardless, he just wasn't very productive. A smidgen too aggressive on O. D wasn't anything special. Technical foul in the fourth could have been costly.

DeJuan Blair C+
Didn't do much right on defense. Didn't provide anything on the boards. His passing on offense was a plus, though, and he ran the court well.

Pop B-
His ejection helped bring some energy into the arena. His more sensible rotations are helping the Spurs survive sans Parker. Calling plays for Duncan early and often turned out to be a great idea.

[racm]

Maybe it's just me or is coach Bud's caretaker status actually helping in setting sensible rotations?

Stuck with a 3 big man rotation and occasionally went small to counteract Scott closing out the game with Walton as his Diaw type player (stretch 4/playmaker).

Of note is that Tiago's the only player to play in every game this season - IMO he's due for rest by April.

[freetiago]

Pop F
Bud A+

Bud understands how to stagger Tim/Tiagos minutes to have one of them on the court at all times
also put in Leonard early to play with the bench at the 10 minute mark
unlike popovich who will sub out early and leave his turds in there til the 5 minute mark
also called the plays for Tim down the stretch unlike popovich and his ginobili pick and roll to close the Dallas game

[jestersmash]

Anyone know the mistake Gary Neal made during the game? He played 2 minute and was pulled by Pop immediately. He sulked over to the end of the bench and Pop proceeded to have a discussion with him. What happened? I don't remember anything egregious.

I believe he went under a screen on a prior play that resulted in a Cleavland 3 point make, but it wasn't awful defense. The guy hit a semi-contested 3 pointer.

[spurraider21]

I just wrote a long post about how Kawhi deserved an A but not an A+, and I realized I was dead wrong. Thanks for the grades tim :toast

[TDfan2007]

It was nice to see the Spurs go to Timmy down the stretch tonight. When a guy is feeling it, and he's as good as TD, you give him the ball and let him dissect the defense.

[Brunodf]

Anyone know the mistake Gary Neal made during the game?.
He played

[Brunodf]

:tu

[Floyd Pacquiao]

tim playing like its 2003...savor it fellow spurfans
kawhi continuing to shine
manu with the shooting bads
atrocious defense per the par over the last few games

hope the spurs get their act together over this 3 days rest. not having tp is not an excuse imo to be playing this sporadic on offense and defense.

[hooperflash]

Manu Ginobili - Dunk of the Night (Boy I sure hope no one decides to make a thread over this)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nKafzLN4no&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[milkyway21]

What was Duncan said to Kawli after that out of bound pass? he looked angry or frustrated to me.

Duncan's has another monster game 30 pt.-12 rbds, 5 blocks only 2 players accomplished that stat this season and that other one is only 27 yrs old. Those last 2 blocks of Duncan won the game for the Spurs, IMO.

DPOY worthy :worthy:

[AussieFanKurt]

Jackson was worst.. surprised by Nando's dead eye dick shooting. Duncan and Leonard great.

[jestersmash]

I just wrote a long post about how Kawhi deserved an A but not an A+, and I realized I was dead wrong. Thanks for the grades tim :toast

You should have more confidence in yourself. There's no right or wrong answer with grades.

[spurraider21]

You should have more confidence in yourself. There's no right or wrong answer with grades.
Haha I do. I'm never shy to voice displeasure in grades. At the same time, I sort of forgot timvp's grading system, where not everybody is graded on the same scale. Each player has his own curve based on past/expected performance. Kawhi was absolutely amazing, and i was nitpicking plays here and there I didn't like

[Spur|n|Austin]

Tim is now in control of the team; Pop is enjoying the ride.

[GrandeDavid]

Aside from Tim Duncan, grades way too generous. Everyone deserves at least one full grade less. Maybe give Kawhi an A-. This was a pathetic, atrocious defensive effort. Truly embarrassing, even sans Parker.

Way too generous in your grading this game.

[NASpurs]

Aside from Tim Duncan, grades way too generous. Everyone deserves at least one full grade less. Maybe give Kawhi an A-. This was a pathetic, atrocious defensive effort. Truly embarrassing, even sans Parker.

Way too generous in your grading this game.

I agree with this. Judging by the grades, you would have thought the Spurs were dominant and in control. Seems like the offense carries more weight than defense in his grades.

[John B]

I agree with this. Judging by the grades, you would have thought the Spurs were dominant and in control. Seems like the offense carries more weight than defense in his grades. Agree. Defense wins championships and by last night's performance, there is much to be desired. They were playing one of the worst teams without their best player and it went down the stretch. I've expected us to be a better defensive team by now. Let's keep working on our D Spurs.

[Strategic]

I think Pop's post game interview deserved a high grade. No grade for Bud? That was more that garbage time he coached in. Nice marks, but I think some one really sucked on defense, now who was it?

[TVI]

I always enjoy reading these after each game. Thanks for taking the time to do such a thoughtful analysis.

[pgardn]

Aside from Tim Duncan, grades way too generous. Everyone deserves at least one full grade less. Maybe give Kawhi an A-. This was a pathetic, atrocious defensive effort. Truly embarrassing, even sans Parker.

Way too generous in your grading this game.

I agree.

However it was a pleasure watching a team actually share the ball and move it around well. Cleveland did a good job finding the open man. The played good team ball for significant stretches.

[UZER]

I disagree...although it is a very good game....donkey kong is the greatest game ever.

[AFBlue]

Some have said it, but the decision to not play Blair and Diaw together for extended minutes was a great coaching move by Bud. He also went long with Nando, riding the hot hand, and put Kawai on Waiters late...other solid moves.

I don't know if the Spurs lose without those decsions, but they all had a positive effect. Coach Bud deserves an A for sure.

[DapDaGenius]

Jackson definitely deserved a D.

[EVAY]

I don't know if the decision to go with either Splitter or Tim always on the floor over the last half was Bud or Duncan. It sure seemed to me that Duncan was doing the coaching. I saw Bud call a play or set up for Manu, but Tim played a lot more minutes than he has been playing, as did Manu. And the team was better for it.I am not convinced that it wasn't Tim telling Bud who was going in and who wasn't and for how long. Whomever it was, it was a hell of a lot better than Pop's rotations. And Tim was definitely the one giving feedback to his teammates during the second half.

All the grades except Tim's and Manu's were too high, imo. Too much not taking care of the ball, even for Leonard, who has to be watched that he doesn't try to do too much on some fast breaks. He is not that much better than Green on fast breaks. Manu needs the kind of minutes he got last night to re-establish his touch and rhythms, and Pop doesn't want him to get hurt so he plays him as little as possible.

Tiago didn't get enough offensive touches last night, imo. He was flawless on his shooting, but rarely got the opportunity, since Tim was beasting. I'm glad that Tim took over the game...someone had to, but Tiago needs more offense to stay focused on defense.

[TJastal]

Pop F
Bud A+

Bud understands how to stagger Tim/Tiagos minutes to have one of them on the court at all times
also put in Leonard early to play with the bench at the 10 minute mark
unlike popovich who will sub out early and leave his turds in there til the 5 minute markt also called the plays for Tim down the stretch unlike popovich and his ginobili pick and roll to close the Dallas game

Thx for having the guts to tell it like is. Pop is overrated as a coach.

[Hoops Czar]

Timvp must have been baking cookies and petting puppies while doing the grades. This isn't the JV Spurs where we hand out brownie points for running the court well, hustling or just showing up in uniform. I suppose Stephen Jackson gets an average grade for being Stephen Jackson because his performance was anything but average. De Colo gets an A- for knocking down a couple of wide open shots because the opponent doesn't respect him. Forget about the fact that he's suppose to be in the running for backup pg and did nothing to improve his chances... 1 assist in 24 minutes. Blair gets a C+ for his 0 contributions on the court in 7 minutes of forgettable basketball. Outside of Duncan and Leonard, all the grades are too high.

The most troubling part about last night's game was the defense continues to regress as the season presses on. Tony Parker is a terrific defender but the heart & soul of this defense is and always has been Tim Duncan. Unfortunately, he can't play 48 minutes per game in the playoffs and the bench has been beyond awful on the D-side of the court. I keep waiting for that game that lights a fire under the Spurs asses. I thought that game was Phoenix, but then the Portland game happened, followed by the T-wolves, then a couple of nail biters at home against bad teams (Dallas and Cleveland). TP or no TP, the Spurs shouldn't be this bad defensively and it's starting to look more and more like they're more of a pretender than contender unless the team as a whole decides to play on two ends of the court. It probably hasn't helped matters that 67 games into the season, Pop still hasn't settled on a rotation.

[therealtruth]

Manu Ginobili - Dunk of the Night (Boy I sure hope no one decides to make a thread over this)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nKafzLN4no&feature=youtube_gdata_player

As much as I like Manu, he traveled on that dunk.

[Hemotivo]

As much as I like Manu, he traveled on that dunk.

nope