Duncan needs some help

[DarrinS]

He leads in every stastistical category, except 3pt FGP.

PPG Duncan 29.5
RPG Duncan 11.0
APG Duncan 3.5
FG% Duncan 0.588
3P% Bowen 0.500


Hopefully, Parker and Ginobili will heal quickly and get back to playoff form by Saturday.

[A-Train]

Duncan needs some help...up front. Pop needs to get over his newfound small-ball fetish and get back to Spurs Basketball. That means playing Mohammed or Nesterovic alongside TD up front instead of Horry or Barry. Pound the rock inside, shut down the paint and grind out the win. Pop leaving what got the Spurs' the 1 seed in the regular season is not working.

[DarrinS]

Rasho, yes. Nazr, no.

I saw a picture of Nazr's game on the back of a milk carton.

[dbreiden83080]

I am starting to wonder if we are just cursed by the injury bug this year. I mean we finally have Timmy feeling good enough to play like the MVP of the league again and Manu and Tony are hurting badly right now. Manu hitting the deck last night with that tailbone could be really bad. Anyone who has ever hurt their tailbone like that knows you wake up the next day barely able to walk. I think the 3 days off will help Tony's thighs out and he will be better in game 3 and we need Timmy to keep it up but Manu may now be too hurt to play like Manu.

[DarkReign]

OMG, he leads in assists?! At a measly 3.5 pg?!

Hurt or not, Parker should be running half court sets and finding his guys. I watched the whole game last night, from a TV angle (which admittedly, throws off depth perception) I seen numerous plays he had a cutting teammate with their hands open that he didnt pass.

Is that an assist? No, but it is ball movement and getting teammates involved. Who knows, maybe they shoot and make. Theres an assist.

Im sorry, I just dont like TP's game at all. He is a helluva scorer and can penetrate at will. But he should average 6+ assists a game. That goes for any PG in the league.

EDITED: Omg, is there a vacuum of good PGs this generation or what? In the regular season, only 13 PGs averaged over 6 assists per game. Thats....horrible. Oh yeah, TP was close at 5.8 pg

[SenorSpur]

Duncan needs some help...up front. Pop needs to get over his newfound small-ball fetish and get back to Spurs Basketball. That means playing Mohammed or Nesterovic alongside TD up front instead of Horry or Barry. Pound the rock inside, shut down the paint and grind out the win. Pop leaving what got the Spurs' the 1 seed in the regular season is not working.

Couldn't agree more. That's how we won 63 games. Sure, we're having matchup problems, but why the hell is Pop allowing other teams dictate his lineups? The teams defense and rebounding are suffering severely.

If Parker is not as effective because of the injury, NVE and Beno are simply gonna have to replicate Parker's contributions. I do worry about NVE because there's no way he can stay with Harris. I'd rather see Beno on him.

Barry and Finley need to contribute more off the bench and within the flow of the offense.

[Jimcs50]

I am so proud of TD.

He is bringing it, man.

I am looking for the rest of the team to join him this weekend.

:elephant

[ShoogarBear]

Or at least be in the same building with him.

[v2freak]

I love it, but I hate it when fans are always calling out someone. Not every player on the Spurs - mainly the big 3 - can average 25 points a game.

[J.T.]

I think we left our 3G game in Sacramento cuz it hasn't been here at all this series. Not that we need 3Gs to win but it would fucking help.

[Winnipeg_Spur]

If Duncan is going to play like the best player in the league again, the least the team could do is get him the fucking ball, all game long. :cuss

[Kori Ellis]

OMG, he leads in assists?! At a measly 3.5 pg?!



I know you'll hate to hear this, but in the Sac series, Pop told Tony to shoot 20-25 times a game -- that's why you don't see 6 assists per game from him yet this playoffs.

After game 1 of this series, Pop told me that he wants Tony to shoot even more than he did in game 1.

Anyway, Tony needs to get healthy. He could barely walk on Monday night and was very questionable for Tuesday. He wore 3 thigh pads on his left thigh last night. But I think Tony will be good to go health-wise in Game 3, he bounces back very quickly from injuries.

Manu on the other hand, I don't know exactly what's wrong with him so I can't guess when he'll be healthy.

[DarkReign]

I know you'll hate to hear this, but in the Sac series, Pop told Tony to shoot 20-25 times a game -- that's why you don't see 6 assists per game from him yet this playoffs.

After game 1 of this series, Pop told me that he wants Tony to shoot even more than he did in game 1.

Anyway, Tony needs to get healthy. He could barely walk on Monday night and was very questionable for Tuesday. He wore 3 thigh pads on his left thigh last night. But I think Tony will be good to go health-wise in Game 3, he bounces back very quickly from injuries.

Manu on the other hand, I don't know exactly what's wrong with him so I can't guess when he'll be healthy.

Well, if he is obeying his coach, then I will STFU.

CIA Pop > me in "How to win NBA Chamipnships 101"


doesnt make me like his game anymore than usual though

[JamStone]

Title of this thread might be the understatement of this year's NBA playoffs.

Duncan, for the most part, has been outstanding.

His teammates ... not so much.

[boutons_]

Duncan needs to help the perimeter players and re-discover his paint defense.
He's turned into El Matador for opponents drivers. Slow to rotate and only a nominal attempt to stop or alter the drive. He's turned into Andrei Kirilenko: let them past then try to block from behind.

Throwing the ball hard against the backboard support in a fake show of frustration ain't gonna help.

[Jimcs50]

Duncan needs to help the perimeter players and re-discover his paint defense.
He's turned into El Matador for opponents drivers. Slow to rotate and only a nominal attempt to stop or alter the drive. He's turned into Andrei Kirilenko: let them past then try to block from behind.

Throwing the ball hard against the backboard support in a fake show of frustration ain't gonna help.


Could that be because the refs sucked my balls that night and TD was handcuffed most of the night in foul trouble????

That blocking foul when Dampier was holding him and pushing him into the dallas player was the final straw....that was the worst call in the history of the NBA and even Reggie Miller saw the play as it happened and commented on it before the replay, it was so obvious

[Bruno]

EDITED: Omg, is there a vacuum of good PGs this generation or what? In the regular season, only 13 PGs averaged over 6 assists per game. Thats....horrible. Oh yeah, TP was close at 5.8 pg


Cough... Billups Cough...

Billups 03-04 : 5.7 apg
Billups 04-05 : 5.8 apg
Billups 05-06 : 8.6 apg

That doesn't mean that Bllups was a bad PG in 03-04 and 04-05 but that saying that average less than 6 apg is stupid.
People should begin to understand that pass first PG aren't way better than shoot first PG in the modern nba. As an example, Spurs need more a scoring PG than a passing PG.

[ShoogarBear]

I know you'll hate to hear this, but in the Sac series, Pop told Tony to shoot 20-25 times a game -- that's why you don't see 6 assists per game from him yet this playoffs.

After game 1 of this series, Pop told me that he wants Tony to shoot even more than he did in game 1.

Do you understand the rationale for this? Yes, it's nice that Tony's being aggressive, but it does have a negative impact on ball movement.

[Kori Ellis]

Do you understand the rationale for this? Yes, it's nice that Tony's being aggressive, but it does have a negative impact on ball movement.

Pop said that since teams were sagging off Tony, he wanted him to shoot a lot more.

I'm also guessing that because Manu doesn't seem to be in good health (for whatever reason) they are relying on Tony to get more shots off.

But yes, I agree that the ball movement isn't good lately.

[JamStone]

I've always felt that assists was a statistical category that was never completely accurate. Assists are predicated on teammates making buckets. A point guard could make 20 beautiful, pin-point passes to teammates throughout the game, but if his teammates are garbage that day, that point guard might only get 4-5 assists. Likewise, a below average point guard could get more assists if he plays with great shooters. I guess it's all relative to how you view it.

If Nazr and Manu are throwing up bricks and fumbling passes, is it Tony's fault he's not getting enough assists? I'm not saying that's how it is, but you get the picture.

Plus, with the Spurs (when healthy), I always thought of Manu as the initiator on offense, and the one who should be racking up the most assists on the team. Tony is the slashing scorer. Sometimes it depends on the team, the personnel, and the offensive system as to whether a point guard gets a lot of assists. A point guard that plays with Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom in the triangle is never going to challenge for the league leader in assists. While even if it's not Steve Nash, the point guard of a Mike D'Antoni offense should get tons of assists just from all of the fast break opportunities.

[doldrums]

Ouch that tailbone tumble looked painful. I wouldn't want to be Manu's chiropractor in 10 years.

[ShoogarBear]

Yeah, I'm not worried about number of assists per se. In the Spurs current schema, nobody is going to average 8 APG. I'm just going by what I see on the floor, and or whatever reason, Pop has chosen to sacrifice ball movement in the offense.

[DarkReign]

Cough... Billups Cough...

Billups 03-04 : 5.7 apg
Billups 04-05 : 5.8 apg
Billups 05-06 : 8.6 apg

That doesn't mean that Bllups was a bad PG in 03-04 and 04-05 but that saying that average less than 6 apg is stupid.
People should begin to understand that pass first PG aren't way better than shoot first PG in the modern nba. As an example, Spurs need more a scoring PG than a passing PG.

Good post.

I stand corrected.

Like I said, Pop > me. Your argument is a good rationale for it.

[boutons_]

"Could that be because ..."

bullshit. it was not only last night that Tim has been playing matador defense this season and playoffs. Season was PF, but looking at his movement now, the playoffs matador defense is not PF.

When fast perimeter players get past the perim defenders, the whole idea of team/help defense is for somebody to help out as second line of defense. How many times did the Mavs get uncontested-at-the-basket layups last night?
"no easy layups in the playoffs" someone once said. Mavs had ton of them last night.

[TDMVPDPOY]

me, myself, i > if ur name not td on spurs

[ata]

Couldn't agree more. That's how we won 63 games. Sure, we're having matchup problems, but why the hell is Pop allowing other teams dictate his lineups? The teams defense and rebounding are suffering severely.

If Parker is not as effective because of the injury, NVE and Beno are simply gonna have to replicate Parker's contributions. I do worry about NVE because there's no way he can stay with Harris. I'd rather see Beno on him.

Barry and Finley need to contribute more off the bench and within the flow of the offense.

Exactly this I am wondering for quite some time. Opponent went small, so we had to go small? WTF? Spurs are champions, and tempo always dictates better team! Force them our tempo and our game, and this is something coach should do.
Damn, basketball is game of big men. Why are bigs so rare and so much better paid? If basketball would be "small" game, Sequ would be an instant all-star.

[ata]

I've always felt that assists was a statistical category that was never completely accurate. Assists are predicated on teammates making buckets. A point guard could make 20 beautiful, pin-point passes to teammates throughout the game, but if his teammates are garbage that day, that point guard might only get 4-5 assists. Likewise, a below average point guard could get more assists if he plays with great shooters. I guess it's all relative to how you view it.

If Nazr and Manu are throwing up bricks and fumbling passes, is it Tony's fault he's not getting enough assists? I'm not saying that's how it is, but you get the picture.

Plus, with the Spurs (when healthy), I always thought of Manu as the initiator on offense, and the one who should be racking up the most assists on the team. Tony is the slashing scorer. Sometimes it depends on the team, the personnel, and the offensive system as to whether a point guard gets a lot of assists. A point guard that plays with Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom in the triangle is never going to challenge for the league leader in assists. While even if it's not Steve Nash, the point guard of a Mike D'Antoni offense should get tons of assists just from all of the fast break opportunities.

:tu