A human explanation for tonight's performance

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Okay, so that was depressing as hell to watch. Simply a pathetic effort by most of our team. That was close to our worst performance this year, which I think was game 1 against the Nuggets. I put that game down to rust, and they proved that it was by playing solid-as-fark Spursball for the rest of the series.

So, tonight Duncan was excellent and the rest of the team non-existent. It wasn't 4-down or smallball that lost us the game - we had already lost it by the 2nd half.

We were tired.

We were slow.

We looked apathetic.

We honestly seemed like we'd rather be sinking beers in a bar somewhere.

In the first quarter I could tell we were going to lose this one and said so a number of times in the game blog. We were breaking down on simple plays, both offensive and defensive, we weren't hustling for loose balls or to make plays, and we were making terrible decisions like JV shooting on 3/5 possessions. We were out of sync from the start, and the only reason it wasn't an early blowout was that our first half D was okay, and they couldn't make a shot.


HOWEVER, I think this is just another "rust" game. They've been living in hotel rooms for 5 nights in a hostile town. They are tired, want to see their own beds and loved ones. These things contribute to flat as f##ck performances like tonight.

They got the split they wanted, felt tired tonight, and thought "what the hell, we'll beat them at home." I'm pretty sure that's what happened.

WE WILL NOT PLAY LIKE THIS IN GAME 3.

[SpursDynastyLooms]

I agree it was probably the days in a hotel. The Spurs have little experience staying in hotels for road games.

Spurs win Games 3-5 then take the championship!!!!

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

And Kori, don't get pissed at me - this is a legit take, not a whinge - and I so rarely have anything to say or can be bothered to say it... :lol

[Nashfan]

Okay, so that was depressing as hell to watch. Simply a pathetic effort by most of our team. That was close to our worst performance this year, which I think was game 1 against the Nuggets. I put that game down to rust, and they proved that it was by playing solid-as-fark Spursball for the rest of the series.

So, tonight Duncan was excellent and the rest of the team non-existent. It wasn't 4-down or smallball that lost us the game - we had already lost it by the 2nd half.

We were tired.

We were slow.

We looked apathetic.





We honestly seemed like we'd rather be sinking beers in a bar somewhere.

In the first quarter I could tell we were going to lose this one and said so a number of times in the game blog. We were breaking down on simple plays, both offensive and defensive, we weren't hustling for loose balls or to make plays, and we were making terrible decisions like JV shooting on 3/5 possessions. We were out of sync from the start, and the only reason it wasn't an early blowout was that our first half D was okay, and they couldn't make a shot.


HOWEVER, I think this is just another "rust" game. They've been living in hotel rooms for 5 nights in a hostile town. They are tired, want to see their own beds and loved ones. These things contribute to flat as f##ck performances like tonight.

They got the split they wanted, felt tired tonight, and thought "what the hell, we'll beat them at home." I'm pretty sure that's what happened.

WE WILL NOT PLAY LIKE THIS IN GAME 3.


Whatever helps you sleep at night :)

[Kori Ellis]

How is a rust game when they played 2 days ago?

And just so you know, I don't appreciate your defiance like your take is needed to be posted again when I'm in the middle of cleaning up utter chaos.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

I agree it was probably the days in a hotel. The Spurs have little experience staying in hotels for road games.

Spurs win Games 3-5 then take the championship!!!!

Yeah, way to miss the point. :rolleyes

The point is that they're human. They got their split, felt tired and banged-up, and couldn't be bothered, an utterly human trait.

The exceptions were Tim, who is such an ultra-competitor that he can't give up, and Tony, who tried but looked like he was playing hurt.

We'll be fine for game 3. 4 days rest is just what they need right now to re-focus.

[Marcus Bryant]

Bullshit. Pop's rotations were off and TD picking up #4 sent him to the bench with about 2:30 left in the 3rd when the Spurs were starting to get a rhythm didn't help. Holt should fine Pop every time Elson takes off his warmups. I think Pop also erred in not getting Barry more involved in this game early.

[Kori Ellis]

And they haven't been in a hotel room for five nights. They got there Saturday. Saturday-Sunday-Monday - 3 nights.

[Dingle Barry]

How is a rust game when they played 2 days ago?



Uhhhh, the team stayed in a hotel those days hellooooooooo??

[Dingle Barry]

fuck you hotel!!!

[SpursDynastyLooms]

Yeah, way to miss the point. :rolleyes

The point is that they're human. They got their split, felt tired and banged-up, and couldn't be bothered, an utterly human trait.

The exceptions were Tim, who is such an ultra-competitor that he can't give up, and Tony, who tried but looked like he was playing hurt.

We'll be fine for game 3. 4 days rest is just what they need right now to re-focus.

Wat do you mean ? I'm agreeing with you!

Spurs in 5 and then on to the championship!

[Kori Ellis]

Uhhhh, the team stayed in a hotel those days hellooooooooo??

:lmao

You mad me laugh out loud.

[Johnny_Blaze_47]

.

:lmao

[ploto]

Totally confused-- 3 whole days in Phoenix and they are so sick of the Four Star hotel they stay in? The guys with kids get more sleep on the road than at home.

[Kori Ellis]

Yeah I didn't get the point of the thread either. That's why I merged it into the complaints and excuses thread. To me, saying they are rusty when they played 2 nights before or saying they miss their families and their beds because they stayed in a hotel 3 nights is a b.s. excuse.

That's why I merged the thread the first time. But Ruff felt like re-starting it.

[kris]

Okay, so that was depressing as hell to watch. Simply a pathetic effort by most of our team. That was close to our worst performance this year, which I think was game 1 against the Nuggets. I put that game down to rust, and they proved that it was by playing solid-as-fark Spursball for the rest of the series.

So, tonight Duncan was excellent and the rest of the team non-existent. It wasn't 4-down or smallball that lost us the game - we had already lost it by the 2nd half.

We were tired.

We were slow.

We looked apathetic.

We honestly seemed like we'd rather be sinking beers in a bar somewhere.

In the first quarter I could tell we were going to lose this one and said so a number of times in the game blog. We were breaking down on simple plays, both offensive and defensive, we weren't hustling for loose balls or to make plays, and we were making terrible decisions like JV shooting on 3/5 possessions. We were out of sync from the start, and the only reason it wasn't an early blowout was that our first half D was okay, and they couldn't make a shot.


HOWEVER, I think this is just another "rust" game. They've been living in hotel rooms for 5 nights in a hostile town. They are tired, want to see their own beds and loved ones. These things contribute to flat as f##ck performances like tonight.

They got the split they wanted, felt tired tonight, and thought "what the hell, we'll beat them at home." I'm pretty sure that's what happened.

WE WILL NOT PLAY LIKE THIS IN GAME 3.

We?

I don't like that, it's not like we're all one with the Spurs. We are the widget checkers scraping in $7 - $40,000 a year to buy 2 $47 upper deck seats from a scalper to watch a group of guys who have no idea who we are. We then sacrifice fancy groceries for a week to get their replica jersey some widget sculptor in korea made.

The Spurs are guys who have or will have millions in the back and live a glamorous life. If they saw us on the streets, we would find out we aren't we by their reluctance to speak to us, let alone sign their name on a napkin.

So I disagree with we.

Anyways, couldn't disagree with you more on the basketball. I think the Suns just beat the Spurs ass.

Duncan was dominate for a stretch and then he let Kurt Thomas just push him around and settled for almost impossible angle bank shots. That's when the dominance was over.

[timvp]

The Spurs were in Detroit in 2005 for like a month before the Game 5 performance. I fail to see how a hotel can make an entire team come out flat.

[Marcus Bryant]

The Spurs were in Detroit in 2005 for like a month before the Game 5 performance. I fail to see how a hotel can make an entire team come out flat.

Unless they were staying at the Elson Inn (http://www.bbonline.com/oh/elson/index.html).

[dbreiden83080]

Gee Whiz they just sucked tonight no way they play like this in game 3. The sky is not falling it is 1-1 we still have the advantage and we have proven time and again that we can win big road games in the playoffs. Even if we go 1-1 in the next 2 we can still win this series in 6.

[Man of Steel]

That damn hotel!!!

Now I know what happened!

It was that damn hotel!

They probably bugged their rooms--every word uttered by Tim, Manu, Pop, etc., were secretly tape recorded and delivered to Rat face D and Tony.

He knew everything we were going to do.

He knew what he had to do when he put in Thomas. When Elson was going to go for his dunks, etc.

I knew we couldn't trust those damn bell boys.

Or was it the hookers.

Yeah--that sounds right.

The hookers slipped our players a Mickey and when they went to sleep, secretly grabbed their playbooks.

They put some of that shit in the wine that Pop slurps at night--knocked his ass out and copied those little plastic 3 by 5 cards that Pop looks at when he's about to call a time out.

I bet those bitches took those damn cards to D and Tony at the local Subway Shop (he figured the hookers could meet him there since no Spurs would be caught dead in a Subway shop except for Bonner, but they had Suzy with the king size knockers keeping Matt boy busy in Room 222.)

Hookers--Mickeys--and Subs--

Now we need some counter-espionage

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Bullshit. Pop's rotations were off and TD picking up #4 sent him to the bench with about 2:30 left in the 3rd when the Spurs were starting to get a rhythm didn't help. Holt should fine Pop every time Elson takes off his warmups. I think Pop also erred in not getting Barry more involved in this game early.

They lost it well before that.

They were all over the place, especially on O, from the start of the game. The only thing that kept them in the game in the first half was some decent D and the Suns missing shots.

They never looked like winning this one.

[Marcus Bryant]

They lost it well before that.

They were all over the place, especially on O, from the start of the game. The only thing that kept them in the game in the first half was some decent D and the Suns missing shots.

They never looked like winning this one.


Down 6 or thereabouts late in the 3rd.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Yeah, let's just pick on the hotel bit and miss the point. :flipoff

The point is, they were mentally weak tonight. They came out with no energy, messing up plays, missing assignments, not hustling for loose balls etc. right from the start of the game.

They defeated themselves before they even started because they were satisfied by the game 1 win and the split.

That's the point.

The fact that we played 80% 4-down in the second half and forgot how to play basketball didn't matter. Their heads were already on the plane home, which I know they are taking tonight and not tomorrow even though it gets them home at 5am, probably because they want to see their families and sleep in their own beds.

They are only human, and the flatness of their performance was a mirror of thier humanity.

Kris - as for "we", I am referring to "We the Spurs Clan" which includes all who love the team (which does not include random bandwagoners). WE are a family. What do you want me to say, "they"?

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Down 6 or thereabouts late in the 3rd.

Yeah, but that was a fluke, and poor Suns shooting.

My whole point - we were NEVER in this game, even when we were leading. The way we played, and the blind schoolgirl mistakes we made ALL NIGHT, told me that.

Anyway, that's why I'm not worried. The REAL Spurs will turn up in game 3. They will be MORTIFIED when they watch the game tape - that's how horrible they were. As a consequence, there will be no lack of effort next game.

[kris]

You just used we so much.

This is the Spurs job and part of the time they have to sleep on a different raulph lauren silk pillow or talk to their families via their video conference phones.

It's like the luxurious version of when real life people have to do their jobs.

If you're going to make that excuse for them, then I don't know what's next.

[Marcus Bryant]

Yeah, but that was a fluke, and poor Suns shooting.

My whole point - we were NEVER in this game, even when we were leading. The way we played, and the blind schoolgirl mistakes we made ALL NIGHT, told me that.

Anyway, that's why I'm not worried. The REAL Spurs will turn up in game 3. They will be MORTIFIED when they watch the game tape - that's how horrible they were. As a consequence, there will be no lack of effort next game.

How about running a better rotation during the game? That's a better explanation than this 'we missed our teddy bears' excuse.

[Kobulingam]

only 1 day rest, plus 2 key injuries really hurt spurs

I think Parker is suffering from some effects of a small concussion.
Finley was obviously being bothered by effects of the back injury.

[Tek_XX]

WTF these players have been staying in hotels for years and we blame this one loss on that. bullshit.

Who knows why the Spurs decided to let this game get away from them but they did. On to game 3

[Tek_XX]

only 1 day rest, plus 2 key injuries really hurt spurs

I think Parker is suffering from some effects of a small concussion.
Finley was obviously being bothered by effects of the back injury.

He's been checked for a concussion, he doesn't have one. But he has been knocked on his ass a couple of times.

[boutons_]

It's not rust. It's being satisfied with the split.

The Spurs could have nailed this series tonight, but they just couldn't be bothered to make the effort.

[kris]

How about running a better rotation during the game? That's a better explanation than this 'we missed our teddy bears' excuse.

:lol

[Kobulingam]

He's been checked for a concussion, he doesn't have one. But he has been knocked on his ass a couple of times.

Small concussion I said. There are soccer players who get small consussions when heading the ball the wrong way, but they play on with some soreness. For the next few days they continue to have huge headaches but doctors don't label it as a concussion.

It's only in recent studies have they found that these incidents are concussions, same effect just so small that nobody worries too much about it.

Okay whatever. My point is Parker probably had a smashing headache.

[Man of Steel]

You have to admit--when we were down by six to 10 or 11 points--we were damn lucky. We should have been down by much more but the Suns missed some easy shots.

The team just sucked tonight--they'r human--shit happens.

SPurs in 5.

[kris]

Spurs in 5 isn't happening anymore. More like winner take all game 7. They won game 1, but think about it: did they really win game 1? Seemed pretty fortunate to me.

Game 2 was a chance to breeze into the WCF and they blew it.

[UV Ray]

How about running a better rotation during the game? That's a better explanation than this 'we missed our teddy bears' excuse.


The "Teddy Bear " effect. LOL! I'll need to factor that into my betting strategy.

[Streakyshooter08]

I really hope they get a good rest the next days and come out on fire next saturday. They really should win the next 2. A loss in SA would pretty much erase the big win in game 1. Go for it!!!

[JamStone]

So good to see that some Spurs fans still don't realize, after a decade of watching playoffs and seeing all kinds of different post-season situations the Spurs have been in, that they don't need to over-react to a road loss like this ... oh wait.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

only 1 day rest, plus 2 key injuries really hurt spurs

I think Parker is suffering from some effects of a small concussion.
Finley was obviously being bothered by effects of the back injury.

Yes.


It's not rust. It's being satisfied with the split.

Yes.


You have to admit--when we were down by six to 10 or 11 points--we were damn lucky. We should have been down by much more but the Suns missed some easy shots.

Yes.

All of those things.

I'm not giving them a "pillow excuse", I'm not giving them ANY excuses, they should've played harder, but they were BEAT UP, SATISFIED WITH THE SPLIT, and LAZY FROM THE VERY START OF THE GAME. (Remember 3 times in the first quarter passes were thrown to clear air - they were out of sync from the get go, and that tells me they were tired and unfocussed, which is not usual for the Spurs). That added up to our horrible performance, but they won't play like that again in game 3. A few days' rest is perfect for them, and they will come back with FULL INTENSITY next game, because they will actually care. They didn't care today. That's very human.

To all the "hotel" references - if you read all of the posts I've made in this thread, you should have gotten the idea as above idea, but I obviously wasn't making it clear.

No more references to hotels for me. In fact, I think I'll prohibit myself from using the word "hotel" on ST every again! :lol

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Spurs in 5 isn't happening anymore. More like winner take all game 7. They won game 1, but think about it: did they really win game 1? Seemed pretty fortunate to me.

Game 2 was a chance to breeze into the WCF and they blew it.

Check out my "Spurs were a little lucky to win" thread after game 1... :lmao

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66396

People tear strips in me for even suggesting that we were "FORTUNATE"! :lol

[Solid D]

The dog ate the Spurs' homework.

[TampaDude]

Clearly, it's all Bush's fault! :lol

[mbass]

Small concussion I said. There are soccer players who get small consussions when heading the ball the wrong way, but they play on with some soreness. For the next few days they continue to have huge headaches but doctors don't label it as a concussion.

It's only in recent studies have they found that these incidents are concussions, same effect just so small that nobody worries too much about it.

Okay whatever. My point is Parker probably had a smashing headache.


I agree with you - evidence his blinding headache on Sunday night after the game. I thought small concussion immediately. Wasn't he out for a bit after the collision?

[Doug Collins]

I blame Elson. That missed dunk set the tempo for the rest of the game. After it the Suns knew we weren't serious about winning. How does a 7ft player miss a dunk all alone under the basket?

[leemajors]

they must not have had tempurpedic mattresses. once you go space foam you never go back.

[nkdlunch]

Manu stayed up all night watching porn.

[41times]

The reason is Simple and predictable. The Suns had to win game 2 and the Spurs did not. The Spurs got what they went there for, a split. Now they have home court and should wrap it up in 6.

I expect the Spurs to come out in game 3 and have a great game at home and win.

[Solid D]

I blame Elson. That missed dunk set the tempo for the rest of the game. After it the Suns knew we weren't serious about winning. How does a 7ft player miss a dunk all alone under the basket?

Not that the missed dunk mattered, but Boris Diaw pushed Elson in the back when he went up to dunk it. Nobody really saw it, but that is what caused Elson to overshoot the target.

[Martin R]

maybe they should stay in a MOTEL next time.....

[spurfan81]

maybe they should stay in a MOTEL next time.....

lol...that would be a big change from the Ritz they stayed at!