The Duncan Block

[Cry Havoc]

He didn't even touch the ball! -Clyde Shithouse Drexler

http://i.imgur.com/EluthJ1.jpg

[Cry Havoc]

Looks like all ball to me. :hat

[TXstbobcat]

Greatest power forward to ever step onto a basketball court

[RD2191]

http://i.imgur.com/EluthJ1.jpg
:lol

[neboat]

hahaha....yup, it was a block, clear as day

damn Timmy D, you are the best!

[TampaDude]

Timmay the gawd!!!

GO SPURS GO!!!!!

[NASpurs]

:worthy::worthy::worthy::worthy::worthy::worthy:

[01Snake]

TD's GF better be sucking that D tonight for that performance, tbh

[Spurs9]

Tweet him that pic tbh

[Cane]

Smartest shotblocker of all time; this is from 2010 but still relevant:


Huizinga’s paper is titled “The Value of a Blocked Shot in the NBA: From Dwight Howard to Tim Duncan,” and not without good reason, explains Pruiti:

…As [Huizinga] explained, through a series of charts, Tim Duncan has had the best season in history when it came down to value/block with 1.12, meaning he saved 1.12 points with every block and Dwight Howard ended up with the worst season in terms of value/block with with .53 (both came during the 2008 season).

Is blocking a layup more valuable than blocking a jump shot? Mr. Huizinga’s data says yes. In his presentation, he said that it all comes down to expected value. A jumper has an expected point value of 1.04 while a layup has an expected point value of 1.54

http://www.48minutesofhell.com/the-value-of-tim-duncans-blocks

:flag:

[Seventyniner]

If you get the ball first and hit the arm on the follow-through, is it a foul? I mean according to the rulebook. I know that they'll usually call a foul if you hit the player's head with the follow-through even if you get the ball first.

[Capt Bringdown]

Somewhere, Rick Pitino cries himself to sleep.

[siraulo23]

... Made up for all those late inbound passes pre all star break

[024]

From one angle it looked like he hacked Harden's arm but from the replays, Duncan definitely got ball first.

[MultiTroll]

Tweet him that pic tbh
Seriously. If any of you tweet and can, go for it!

[MultiTroll]

pic of block
Nicely done. thank you.

[milkyway21]

Wow clearly a Duncan block !! Thanks..

[Cowboys_Wear_Spurs]

MVP to self proclaimed MVP, Get yo shit outta here!

[cd021]

but but Drexlers a HOF, he can't have shit takes.

[cd021]

Duncan to Harden :

YOU SHALL NOT PASS

[cantthinkofanything]

Good for the refs not to bail out Hardin.Would have been a weak ass call to decide the game.

[PublicOption]

how about 53 fta to 24 fta......bullshit....and they still lost......LOL!

[TheGreatYacht]

Admiral blocked Hakeem from an MVP award....

Duncan blocked snaggle teeth from an MVP award decades later...

[Mugen]

:lol honestly, you'd think Clyde was a slot receiver in the NFL for 35 plus years with the amount of WTFuckery that comes out of his mouth

[tim_duncan_fan]

Duncan to Harden :

YOU SHALL NOT PASS

Wrong wizard lol.


Timmy Da God aka Merlin.

[Mikeanaro]

http://dc390.4shared.com/img/ro53qqQXce/s3/14ca676d948/Block

[313]

Admiral blocked Hakeem from an MVP award....

Duncan blocked snaggle teeth from an MVP award decades later...

What game did the admiral block Hakeem from the MVP?

[BillMc]

I'll say again. "Live by the foul James, die by the foul."

[exstatic]

The WORST thing for the Rockets was that they STOPPED PLAYING. There was 1.6 seconds left when we got the rebound. THEY QUIT.

[manufan10]

586725312597200897

[cantthinkofanything]

The WORST thing for the Rockets was that they STOPPED PLAYING. There was 1.6 seconds left when we got the rebound. THEY QUIT.I think the block was the worstest thing for the rockets. The very worstest.

[exstatic]

I think the block was the worstest thing for the rockets. The very worstest.

No, the block was bad, I'll give you that. Players walking off the court with time on the clock is just SAD. Down 1, they should have fouled. Even 2 makes leaves the game within a Harden or Ariza 3 of OT.

[Sense]

No, the block was bad, I'll give you that. Players walking off the court with time on the clock is just SAD. Down 1, they should have fouled. Even 2 makes leaves the game within a Harden or Ariza 3 of OT.

Yes that is why they won't win a championship anytime soon..

they also gave up last game.. they're quitters.

[manufan10]

If you get the ball first and hit the arm on the follow-through, is it a foul? I mean according to the rulebook. I know that they'll usually call a foul if you hit the player's head with the follow-through even if you get the ball first.

586725831625441280

[cd021]

Wrong wizard lol.


Timmy Da God aka Merlin.

Wasn't trying to make that joke.

[Rapper]

Clearly a block.

A successful shot blocking by Duncan despite he touched Harden's hand after it

[still.focused]

Man I thought Sean ****** was bad calling games
Clyde Drexler is absolutely awful

[crc21209]

Theres seriously people on Twitter bitching saying it was a foul? GTFO here. If you call that a foul you've never played ball in your life. That was a damn great defensive play. TD gets absolutely no damn respect...

[cantthinkofanything]

Theres seriously people on Twitter bitching saying it was a foul? GTFO here. If you call that a foul you've never played ball in your life. That was a damn great defensive play. TD gets absolutely no damn respect...

From the still pics, it looks like Hardin was clearing out anyway. His elbow was in Duncans neck.

[Agloco]

how about 53 fta to 24 fta......bullshit....and they still lost......LOL!

Well that was primarily due to Hack a Smith

[Malik Hairston]

Harden is the boy who cried wolf, tbh..I said the same thing about the Randolph no-call when Z-Bo clearly fouled Harden and the Rockets lost..

If you're going to base your entire career and effectiveness on drawing cheap fouls, be prepared for the refs swallowing their whistles at the end of games, once in a while:lol..

Rockets announcers, so salty, so beautiful:lmao..don't bite the hand that feeds you, tbh..

[LoneStarState'sPride]

Fuck you, harden.

fuck you beard.

fuck your flops.

fuck your bullshit shots.

fuck you not swallowing your pride to come off the bench in okc

fuck your team

fuck your coach

fuck your fans

fuck your mvp candidacy

fuck your no-ring having, unsubstantiated shit-talking, poor man's ginobili nigga bitch ass

[manufan10]

how about 53 fta to 24 fta......bullshit....and they still lost......LOL!


Well that was primarily due to Hack a Smith

Yeah, Smith had 25 FTA. :lol

[lefty]

586725312597200897

[GSH]

http://i62.tinypic.com/av3qpt.jpg

[cantthinkofanything]

^ yeah... That's it


From the still pics, it looks like Hardin was clearing out anyway. His elbow was in Duncans neck.

[Diego20]

Btw Kawhi made a big mistake. Harden is a left handed guy, why did he let Harden use his left hand to drive to the basket?

[therealtruth]

To the Houston crew's credit they did acknowledge you can't expect to get that call anyway.

[kjhip1]

Block if I ever saw one. If they want to be salty, be salty at these players that can't hit free throw. I mean we gifted them at least 15-20 fts by intentionally fouling. Favorite game of the year. Love how Drexler said the only way we can beat rockets is by hacking them, like dude did you watch last game?

[GSH]

Btw Kawhi made a big mistake. Harden is a left handed guy, why did he let Harden use his left hand to drive to the basket?

Because Harden put a forearm into his chest and shoved to get space.

http://i62.tinypic.com/2wnr71t.jpg
http://i59.tinypic.com/2ztisg2.jpg

[tmtcsc]

Duncan to Harden :

YOU SHALL NOT PASS

Harden to his teammates :

I SHALL NOT PASS

[ViceCity86]

One of the best and most clutch block of Duncan's career

[BillMc]

Harden to his teammates :

I SHALL NOT PASS
:lol

[BillMc]

Tim better not retire. He's still a Top 5 (Top 3?) big in this league.

It's so fun to watch ancient Timmy, be better than prime Howard.

[tim_duncan_fan]

Wasn't trying to make that joke.

I didn't think you were.

[LoneStarState'sPride]

Harden to his teammates :

I SHALL NOT PASS

:lmao

[SpurPadre]

Skip "MY Spurs" Bayless tweeted that he thinks we got away with one. Fucking tool.

[pgardn]

Tim better not retire. He's still a Top 5 (Top 3?) big in this league.

It's so fun to watch ancient Timmy, be better than prime Howard.

You are so mainstream.
He is so done.

-Just posting for our team oriented members

[TVI]

how about 53 fta to 24 fta......bullshit....and they still lost......LOL!
Well, to be fair, 16 of those (by my count) were intentional fouls on Josh Smith in the 4th.

[marinoman]

The WORST thing for the Rockets was that they STOPPED PLAYING. There was 1.6 seconds left when we got the rebound. THEY QUIT.

meh, it was similar to when horry (with the lakers) missed the 3 down 2, D-Rob got the rebound with like 2 secs left.
Yea you should foul but your focus gets lost after that play

[UZER]

No, the block was bad, I'll give you that. Players walking off the court with time on the clock is just SAD. Down 1, they should have fouled. Even 2 makes leaves the game within a Harden or Ariza 3 of OT.

All they needed was Adam Morrison crying on the floor


It was all ball anyway but...It's Tim fucking Duncan. 5 time champion, two time MVP, 3 time FMVP. He's earned the benefit of the doubt. Hes made that exact play time and time again through out his career. It's not like he kinda got arm, it was all ball.

and it's not like harden was blocked by Brian Cardinal. plus, harden is the nbas reigning flopper and HE didn't even complain.

Incoherent I know, but /rant

[ElNono]

It was not just the block, but the fact that he didn't knock it out of bounds, but instead calmly caught it, and dropped it to Danny to run out the clock...

Rockets players didn't even react, they didn't even know what hit them...

[heyheymymy]

Yeah Rockets didn't even try to foul. wtf? Duncan just wrecked them into a daze I guess.

[Darius Bieber]

DPOY tbh

[TimmyDuncan21]

Thanks for the support Spurs fans....you guys rock!!


- Tim Duncan

[exstatic]

meh, it was similar to when horry (with the lakers) missed the 3 down 2, D-Rob got the rebound with like 2 secs left.
Yea you should foul but your focus gets lost after that play

As many last second shots have fallen against us this year to force overtimes that we lost, they should've done it. We had scads of players with 4 and 5 fouls from hacking.

[TampaDude]

As many last second shots have fallen against us this year to force overtimes that we lost, they should've done it.

Maybe it was a good thing Timmy missed that layup. Otherwise we'd be up 3, Harden hits a 3 at the buzzer to force OT, and, well, you know how unkind OT has been to us this season.

A win is a win.

[littlecoyotecoin]

Clear foul but who cares


Stop perpetuating ignorance.


1) Clear foul by HARDEN, you mean, right, maybe? He was clearing out with his right elbow in Tim's chest/neck area before Tim ever comes into contact with the ball, much less Harden's arm. There is no clamoring by the Rockets (or in your case, Trailblazer) fans to have that foul called. It seems a much more difficult case, to me, to excuse that clear out, but it goes ignored in favor of the more superficial "He got him on the arm!" even though the foul by Harden preceded the block. In addition, it might even be argued that if Harden did not impede Duncan's progress with the clear out foul, Duncan would have been in an even better position to block the shot without having any incidental contact after the block at all. Harden's foul hampered Tim's ability. You should not get a reward when you don't come into the situation with clean hands. There is even a legal term for it. Sufficient reason for a "no call" all by itself.


2) Tim contacted the ball, despite protests from local announcers. Since the shot was blocked, the following contact on the arm becomes incidental contact left to the discretionary judgement of the officials to determine if it affected "follow through". Check the rule book. Someone posted the rule in another thread. Follow through on a previously blocked shot doesn't seem all that important, as if he were able to follow through normally with his arm, the ball had already been altered in its trajectory, and unimpeded follow through would, arguably (thus left to the discretion of the referee), not have likely guided the ball on its intended course. Even in slow motion replay, the referee has some plausible deniability with this reasoning. The incidental arm contact after the block could be deemed irrelevant to the shot going into the basket. The block, even without the arm contact, would have been sufficient to deny the ball going through the hoop. In real-time, all the referee needed to see was that Harden fouled Tim on the clearout with the right arm/elbow, AND got the shot blocked, before any further contact occurred. That should be enough to not blow a whistle, and it was.


3) Referees have often been reluctant to call fouls to put guys on the line to win games with bailout free-throws. Slow motion seems to make a case that the referees made an acceptable judgement call in this case. It is sad that so many fans and "experts" like Skip Bayless believe it was an "obvious" foul, instead of realizing that it is at least ambiguous, if not even the right call, or a potentially missed foul call on Harden.


I am a little shocked that they "got it right", in my opinion, as the rest of the game was so poorly officiated. Howard's use of elbows while hooking his defender, etc. were just plain ridiculous. Games where you watch a guy like Baynes get fouled out because he kept fouling Howard's elbow with his neck, head, chest, and ribs makes you want to puke sometimes. Baynes should have fouled out much earlier based upon that criteria. I saw Baynes (and other defenders) foul Howard's elbow some other times that the referees missed.

[Darkwaters]

Well, to be fair, 16 of those (by my count) were intentional fouls on Josh Smith in the 4th.

They're still free shots at the basket and free points if you can make them. Totally uncontested points. They took nearly 30 more FT's than the Spurs and still couldn't win. Thats pathetic.

[Drachen]

Well that was primarily due to Hack a Smith

Yeah, subtract about 20-22 from that total to get a clearer picture.

[littlecoyotecoin]

Yeah, subtract about 20-22 from that total to get a clearer picture.

Add back an unknown amount that would have been called on us during the offensive sets that would have ensued. Pop went to that for a couple of reasons, one of which being we were being called for bullshit fouls. We can't assume that ALL (edit) of those 10-11 posessions, by your count, would have been foul-less. On the contrary, we can probably assume that we would have continued to be called for fouls similar to those that partially inspired the strategy.

[Spurs 4 The Win]

Add back an unknown amount that would have been called on us during the offensive sets that would have ensued. Pop went to that for a couple of reasons, one of which being we were being called for bullshit fouls. We can't assume that none of those 10-11 posessions, by your count, would have been foul-less. On the contrary, we can probably assume that we would have continued to be called for fouls similar to those that partially inspired the strategy.

this, and it also makes the refs less apt to call fouls after we are done hacking because of the enormous disparity

[Killakobe81]

http://i.imgur.com/EluthJ1.jpg

Great angle thought it was a foul on the NBATV live shots and initial replay refs got it right. Duncan vis amazing that one block ...
won the game ...
Made Spurs faves for the 2 seed ...
gave them a easier path to the WCF ...
If they can beat LeBron again probably the faves to repeat

One of my favorite recent Duncan plays probably the three he hit vs Phx in the playoffs is the only past prime big play I admire more ...( I love blocks was a Danny green type shotblocker)

[cd98]

It would've been a foul if Duncan got all arm or hit the arm on the shot. But he blocked the shot and then got incidental contact after the fact. Houston is used to Harden getting every call, so they are in a tizzy over this, but he has to learn to finish in that last shot if he wants to be a true playoff warrior.

[BillMc]

Stop perpetuating ignorance.


1) Clear foul by HARDEN, you mean, right, maybe? He was clearing out with his right elbow in Tim's chest/neck area before Tim ever comes into contact with the ball, much less Harden's arm. There is no clamoring by the Rockets (or in your case, Trailblazer) fans to have that foul called. It seems a much more difficult case, to me, to excuse that clear out, but it goes ignored in favor of the more superficial "He got him on the arm!" even though the foul by Harden preceded the block. In addition, it might even be argued that if Harden did not impede Duncan's progress with the clear out foul, Duncan would have been in an even better position to block the shot without having any incidental contact after the block at all. Harden's foul hampered Tim's ability. You should not get a reward when you don't come into the situation with clean hands. There is even a legal term for it. Sufficient reason for a "no call" all by itself.


2) Tim contacted the ball, despite protests from local announcers. Since the shot was blocked, the following contact on the arm becomes incidental contact left to the discretionary judgement of the officials to determine if it affected "follow through". Check the rule book. Someone posted the rule in another thread. Follow through on a previously blocked shot doesn't seem all that important, as if he were able to follow through normally with his arm, the ball had already been altered in its trajectory, and unimpeded follow through would, arguably (thus left to the discretion of the referee), not have likely guided the ball on its intended course. Even in slow motion replay, the referee has some plausible deniability with this reasoning. The incidental arm contact after the block could be deemed irrelevant to the shot going into the basket. The block, even without the arm contact, would have been sufficient to deny the ball going through the hoop. In real-time, all the referee needed to see was that Harden fouled Tim on the clearout with the right arm/elbow, AND got the shot blocked, before any further contact occurred. That should be enough to not blow a whistle, and it was.


3) Referees have often been reluctant to call fouls to put guys on the line to win games with bailout free-throws. Slow motion seems to make a case that the referees made an acceptable judgement call in this case. It is sad that so many fans and "experts" like Skip Bayless believe it was an "obvious" foul, instead of realizing that it is at least ambiguous, if not even the right call, or a potentially missed foul call on Harden.


I am a little shocked that they "got it right", in my opinion, as the rest of the game was so poorly officiated. Howards use of elbows while hooking his defender, etc. were just plain ridiculous. Games where you watch a guy like Baynes get fouled out because he kept fouling Howard's elbow with his neck, head, chest, and ribs makes you want to puke sometimes. Baynes should have fouled out much earlier based upon that criteria. I saw Baynes (and other defenders) foul Howard's elbow some other times that the referees missed.

Nice post. Well said.