Game Thoughts: Spurs vs. Suns - Dec. 17

[timvp]

First of all, props to the Phoenix Suns for gutting out a nice victory. Even with Tony Parker sidelined you have to hand it to the Suns for finding a way to win late. Phoenix had some late offensive execution that gave them just enough to pull it out.

All things considered, I’m happy with the effort the Spurs gave. The physicality and energy levels were superb. Sure, the Spurs could have executed better at times on both ends of the court. Some players could have played better. However, overall it was a good ballgame out of San Antonio.

Honestly, I think it was more important to note how the Spurs and the Suns matched up with the changes the Suns made over the summer. Grant Hill was impressive for Phoenix. He gives them good diversity on offense and he’s a willing defender. That said, any thoughts of Brian Skinner being able to defend Tim Duncan one-on-one can be thrown out the window.

Do I think the Spurs would have won with Parker? I do. Without Parker, the Spurs had to work much harder than usual to score baskets against the Suns. With Parker in there, he can get easy buckets and he opens up room for others because the Suns have to pay so much attention to him.

Do I think not having Parker is a good excuse? I don’t. The Spurs lost. The Suns won. End of story.

-Tim Duncan answered any questions about whether or not he’s healthy. He finished with a season-high 36 points to go along with a season-high 17 rebounds. After missing four games due to injury, he looked sluggish in his first game back. This game Duncan looked very good. His post moves were impressive, as was his defense for the most part. The Suns’ strategy was to not double-team Duncan for much of the game and make him win it single-handedly. Duncan almost did so. I think the only thing that kept him from really have a monster game was fatigue in the second half. A 100% healthy and conditioned Duncan goes for 45 and 20 against the defense the Suns were throwing at him.

-Manu Ginobili is baffling me at this point. He looks like real Ginobili one second and then the next second you realize he’s still mired in a slump. For the third time in the last four games, he was last on the team in plus/minus at -13. Again, he was oftentimes hurting the Spurs more than he was helping. He hit only 6-of-19 shots from the field, including 1-of-6 from downtown. Ginobili also had a late turnover that sealed the victory for the Suns. All that being said, it’s hard to fault him too much. Unlike earlier games in his slump, the energy was there. He had some big plays throughout the game that helped the Spurs stay in it and almost pull out the win. I truthfully think that against the Suns, not having Parker out there hurts Ginobili the most. When Parker is healthy, the Suns have to account for him at all times. With Jacque Vaughn or even Brent Barry in there instead, the Suns can blitz Ginobili and then rotate to shooters much easier because there’s no one on the perimeter a threat to drive the ball to the basket. If you blitz Ginobili with a healthy Parker, all that happens is the ball gets swung to Parker and he drives in against a rotating defense for an easy layup. Not only that, Ginobili has to pick up extra defensive responsibilities with Parker out, which tires him out quicker. From what I saw, I think Ginobili is about to end this mini-slump and he’ll be back to his legendary ways once Parker returns.

-I don’t know if Bruce Bowen got faster or Steve Nash got slower but it seemed like Bowen was guarding Nash better than ever. He was always right up on him and wouldn’t give him an inch to breathe. He had a number of big plays on the defensive end, per usual. However, offensively he missed a big three late off of a nice pass by Ginobili.

-Michael Finley had an impressive outing for the most part. He hit 6-of-13 shots for 15 points in a shade under 40 minutes of action. I was most impressed by his physical play on the defensive end, specifically on the boards. His tough play down there was a big reason why the Spurs outrebounded the Suns 49-38. On the negative side, Finley had a bad pass to Duncan late and also had a missed assignment on transition defense.

-Jacque Vaughn played decently well. He had 14 points, four assists and two rebounds in 35 minutes of action. He hit 7-of-10 shots from the field, but I’d prefer to see him shoot a bit less. He hasn’t yet mastered the art of only shooting open shots. The concern is that even if Vaughn hits a shot in the first three quarters, he’s not a threat late in the game so him being or not being in rhythm isn’t of a major concern. I’d like to see him pass a bit more a shot a bit less, but it’s tough to complain about 70% shooting.

-Brent Barry gave good effort this game. He finished with five points, six rebounds and five assists in 32 minutes of action. For once, I thought he forced a couple shots where he could have taken his time and set his feet better. But overall, Barry played well enough for the Spurs to win despite his 2-of-6 shooting from the field.

-Fabricio Oberto had his first quiet game in a while. He finished with only four points and five rebounds in 20 minutes. Coming into this game, he was shooting 68% from the field. In this game, he went only 2-for-5 from the court. On his time on the court, Oberto didn’t show enough to keep Pop from going with small ball for a good chunk of the game.

-Robert Horry had a nice hard foul against Nash but that was about it. In 13 minutes, his only stats of note were four rebounds and a steal. Since his extended layoff, Horry’s offense seems like it’s the last aspect of his game that hasn’t come around. Until he can show he can knock down shots, teams won’t guard him as tightly as they did in the past.

-Oddly enough, Matt Bonner led the Spurs in plus/minus at +7 despite only playing six minutes of action. While that’s a statistical fluke, Bonner didn’t do much overtly wrong during his time on the court.

-Ime Udoka and Darius Washington both got DNP-CD’s for this game. Udoka not playing isn’t much of a surprise. However, Washington not playing is a mild surprise. It’s been obvious that Pop doesn’t have much confidence in him yet but you’d think Pop would at least play him in the first half to get his feet wet. Pop must trust Washington less than we all realize. Francisco Elson also didn’t play due to an ankle injury. Elson might have been useful in this run-and-gun type setting.

-There were a number of areas you can question Pop’s coaching, but I don’t really disagree with much that he did. The Spurs played a lot of small ball but that didn’t seem to hurt as the Spurs outrebounded the Suns and held their offense in check for the most part. I thought he did a good job of holding back Duncan’s minutes as well as possible. Pop didn’t fall victim to trying to win the game and let Duncan re-injure himself. I do think that Pop should have played Ginobili less. Playing him a bit over 32 minutes in this situation is too much considering Ginobili has more responsibilities with Parker out and will get tired sooner. Playing Ginobili 27 or 28 minutes makes more sense to me. On a whole, I can’t be too disappointed with this game. The Suns didn’t show me anything that tells me they can’t be beaten in the playoffs. The Spurs played hard and just didn’t do enough at the end to win. Again, props to the Suns for a nice regular season win.

[timvp]

I'm in a hurry so please excuse any typos.

Thanks.

Bye.

[duncan228]

As always, well done and very appreciated.
After games, especially losses, there's so much to try to make sense of coming out in bits and pieces all over the board.
Having your well thought out and well written thoughts is a way for me to gather and digest what I just saw.

I'm going to leave it to others to nit pick.

I thought the game was great, I thought Duncan was unreal. Absolutley amazing.

A win would have been the preferred outcome, but as you say, it wasn't a game to be too disappointed with.

[da_suns_fan]

Game thoughts:

The Spurs protest every call as if they weren't even on the floor when the whistle blew.

[anakha]

Game thoughts:

The Spurs protest every call as if they weren't even on the floor when the whistle blew.

:lmao :lmao :lmao

Aaaaaaannnnd d_s_f FINALLY figures out a way around being put on all-ignore.

[ShoogarBear]

Game thoughts:

The Spurs protest every call as if they weren't even on the floor when the whistle blew.The difference between the Spurs and the Suns is that the Spurs aren't on the floor when the whistle blows if they aren't supposed to be.

[dougp]

Game thoughts:

The Spurs protest every call as if they weren't even on the floor when the whistle blew.Forum thoughts:

Get the fuck out of here because this is a Spurs website.

[MONTENEGRINO]

This game is dedicated to all people who thought that Timmy is past... I'm not sorry for this defeat. Thanks Tim! :)

[FromWayDowntown]

I mentioned this in the game blog, but it seems appropriate to point out here as well. I thought the Suns made a decision to stay with the Spurs' shooters above the arc and to bring only sparse extra attention to Duncan. It does seem like a calculated gamble -- they realize that they have no chance to deal with Duncan, so they focused on denying open looks to "the other guys" and forced the Spurs to find offense in the mid-range. That's not to say that all of the Spurs' woes from behind the arc were attributable to the Suns defense; but I think it would be hard to deny that this was a new strategy for the Suns.

At that, I think it worked well tonight, but I'll be interested to see if they can stick with that an be effective with Parker on the floor. If that's their strategy, they'd better hope that they can find someone who can stay in front of Parker for 40 minutes and deny him any sort of penetration; if they're going to stick with shooters and bring token doubles at Timmy, that lane is going to be wide-open for Parker to do what he does better than any point in the NBA at the moment. It will also be interesting to see how long they can sustain that if Duncan's interior play can punish the Suns with fouls as well as points. I think when things matter most, the Spurs will exploit that strategy and I'm not sure what Phoenix does beyond that.

With that said, I thought the Spurs started to figure out ways to counter the Suns' defense late and finally got a few really good looks that they knocked out. Bowen's miss late was a killer, but it was a great look and one that he regularly hits.

I was pleased, generally, with the Spurs' defensive effort -- holding the Suns to 100 on a night where they shoot almost 30 free throws is a great job.

I didn't think that either team played particularly well, but the Suns did enough to get a win.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

great post FWD

[whottt]

LOL @ Horry giving Nash a hard foul.




RE: Teams not guarding Horry...

That's exactly what you want...that's when Horry is at his deadliest, he's made a career out of sucking until teams think he's scrub and then not sucking in the decisive moments.

Horry is definitely at his best clutch wise when he appears to be sucking...

[DazedAndConfused]

Timmy plays very well against lesser competition. You put any quality defender on him and he wilts like a flower. Luckily there is Parker and Ginobli to pick up the slack when that happens.

[Southwest Texas Fan]

Timmy plays very well against lesser competition. You put any quality defender on him and he wilts like a flower. Luckily there is Parker and Ginobli to pick up the slack when that happens.


:drunk

[mystargtr34]

Timmy plays very well against lesser competition. You put any quality defender on him and he wilts like a flower. Luckily there is Parker and Ginobli to pick up the slack when that happens.

The old fool should retire

[Cry Havoc]

I mentioned this in the game blog, but it seems appropriate to point out here as well. I thought the Suns made a decision to stay with the Spurs' shooters above the arc and to bring only sparse extra attention to Duncan. It does seem like a calculated gamble -- they realize that they have no chance to deal with Duncan, so they focused on denying open looks to "the other guys" and forced the Spurs to find offense in the mid-range. That's not to say that all of the Spurs' woes from behind the arc were attributable to the Suns defense; but I think it would be hard to deny that this was a new strategy for the Suns.

At that, I think it worked well tonight, but I'll be interested to see if they can stick with that an be effective with Parker on the floor. If that's their strategy, they'd better hope that they can find someone who can stay in front of Parker for 40 minutes and deny him any sort of penetration; if they're going to stick with shooters and bring token doubles at Timmy, that lane is going to be wide-open for Parker to do what he does better than any point in the NBA at the moment. It will also be interesting to see how long they can sustain that if Duncan's interior play can punish the Suns with fouls as well as points. I think when things matter most, the Spurs will exploit that strategy and I'm not sure what Phoenix does beyond that.

With that said, I thought the Spurs started to figure out ways to counter the Suns' defense late and finally got a few really good looks that they knocked out. Bowen's miss late was a killer, but it was a great look and one that he regularly hits.

I was pleased, generally, with the Spurs' defensive effort -- holding the Suns to 100 on a night where they shoot almost 30 free throws is a great job.

I didn't think that either team played particularly well, but the Suns did enough to get a win.

Bravo. :toast Complete agreement.

And I totally salute TimVP for recognizing that Parker being out hurts Manu. I was thinking that to myself earlier tonight.

[SouthernFried]

I dunno...I was not impressed defensively.

Wide open men all over the court. Usually because someone had to double off of Finley's or Barry's men. Barry, Finley, and Horry seemed to get beaten all night, demanding rotations...and the Suns capitalized on them. We never could get a stop, and that's not usually what I expect from the Spurs. If the Suns would have hit more of their wide open stuff, the score could have been a lot different.

Then again, if we could have hit more of ours...

The low (relatively) scoring game seemed to come from the pace of the game, not so much from the defense the Spurs were playing, imho.

That said. Duncan...wow!

Ginobli looks weak to me. Like his legs are not strong right now. He's not finishing well, and his shot is short. That usually means his legs ain't doing the job for him. I agree with Tim...sometimes I was wishing he was off the court instead of on it. Not too worried tho, it's Ginobli after all ;)

Why wasn't Oberto out there more? Seems like he missed the entire 3rd quarter.

Vaughn did ok tonite. Pretty much on par with what I expected from him.

Ginobli, Horry, Finley and Barrry tho...

Still, we had a chance to win it at the end...without Parker. Not burning my t-shirts yet.

[slayermin]

I am not disappointed at all. This game was winnable.

The play of Michael Finley impressed me. He wants another ring. I thought he played tough low post defense tonight.

Great game thoughts as always, timvp.

[Dre_7]

The difference between the Spurs and the Suns is that the Spurs aren't on the floor when the whistle blows if they aren't supposed to be.

:lmao

[WalterBenitez]

TD played great, solid games on rebounds and scoring; another pure Star night, what else?

Manu was Manu in those days when you don't understand wtf he's doing, bad selections, not calm, Manu need a change.

Finley, I'd go with him last nite, he was doing great calls and good shots.

Bruce was good for me.

blah... blah ... blah ...

I do miss the little french, anybody else?

[wildbill2u]

Couple of uncharacteristic mistakes and turnovers --or good Sun's defense since I was just listening on radio--in the last minutes probably cost us the game.

As a fan you want to see good close games that seesaw back and forth all night. You can't complain if you lose some of them. You just want to win more than the other guys.

[wildchild]

-Tim Duncan answered any questions about whether or not he’s healthy. He finished with a season-high 36 points to go along with a season-high 17 rebounds. After missing four games due to injury, he looked sluggish in his first game back. This game Duncan looked very good. His post moves were impressive, as was his defense for the most part. The Suns’ strategy was to not double-team Duncan for much of the game and make him win it single-handedly. Duncan almost did so. I think the only thing that kept him from really have a monster game was fatigue in the second half. A 100% healthy and conditioned Duncan goes for 45 and 20 against the defense the Suns were throwing at him.

-Manu Ginobili is baffling me at this point. He looks like real Ginobili one second and then the next second you realize he’s still mired in a slump. For the third time in the last four games, he was last on the team in plus/minus at -13. Again, he was oftentimes hurting the Spurs more than he was helping. He hit only 6-of-19 shots from the field, including 1-of-6 from downtown. Ginobili also had a late turnover that sealed the victory for the Suns. All that being said, it’s hard to fault him too much. Unlike earlier games in his slump, the energy was there. He had some big plays throughout the game that helped the Spurs stay in it and almost pull out the win. I truthfully think that against the Suns, not having Parker out there hurts Ginobili the most. When Parker is healthy, the Suns have to account for him at all times. With Jacque Vaughn or even Brent Barry in there instead, the Suns can blitz Ginobili and then rotate to shooters much easier because there’s no one on the perimeter a threat to drive the ball to the basket. If you blitz Ginobili with a healthy Parker, all that happens is the ball gets swung to Parker and he drives in against a rotating defense for an easy layup. Not only that, Ginobili has to pick up extra defensive responsibilities with Parker out, which tires him out quicker. From what I saw, I think Ginobili is about to end this mini-slump and he’ll be back to his legendary ways once Parker returns.

-I don’t know if Bruce Bowen got faster or Steve Nash got slower but it seemed like Bowen was guarding Nash better than ever. He was always right up on him and wouldn’t give him an inch to breathe. He had a number of big plays on the defensive end, per usual. However, offensively he missed a big three late off of a nice pass by Ginobili.

-Michael Finley had an impressive outing for the most part. He hit 6-of-13 shots for 15 points in a shade under 40 minutes of action. I was most impressed by his physical play on the defensive end, specifically on the boards. His tough play down there was a big reason why the Spurs outrebounded the Suns 49-38. On the negative side, Finley had a bad pass to Duncan late and also had a missed assignment on transition defense.

-Jacque Vaughn played decently well. He had 14 points, four assists and two rebounds in 35 minutes of action. He hit 7-of-10 shots from the field, but I’d prefer to see him shoot a bit less. He hasn’t yet mastered the art of only shooting open shots. The concern is that even if Vaughn hits a shot in the first three quarters, he’s not a threat late in the game so him being or not being in rhythm isn’t of a major concern. I’d like to see him pass a bit more a shot a bit less, but it’s tough to complain about 70% shooting

I couldn't agree more.


-Fabricio Oberto had his first quiet game in a while. He finished with only four points and five rebounds in 20 minutes. Coming into this game, he was shooting 68% from the field. In this game, he went only 2-for-5 from the court. On his time on the court, Oberto didn’t show enough to keep Pop from going with small ball for a good chunk of the game.

It's hardly surprising? when Timmy returns with 36points 17rebounds, we should expect Oberto go back to his normal production. Not all nights Fab had 16rebounds or 21 points.This isn't his role in the team and he knows that.

[NASHville]

It was a great game and the Suns took it down the stretch.

[polandprzem]

I woke up just for the ending of this game. And damnit we needed a stop right there. Esp. Tim missed the rebound he shuld taken.
They could realy stop Nash penetrating on the baseline and dishing the ball to Amare.

That all plus Bowen miss, Ginos turnover, Hill's cold blood, TP's absence made me say: Fuck!
I hate losing but then again - that was not a bad loss. Although I would prefer to lose like this on the road and 'keep home clean'.

The rematch time will be on the last day of January, till then I think Timmy and Tony will be on their normal game-action-speed.

[SAGambler]

I see JV has been reading ST. I noticed he didn't try dribbling so much last night. Good improvement there.

The missed three by Bruce.. Actually I thought he shot way too soon in the scheme of things. Even if he hits, there is still almost 10 seconds left for the Suns to score. Would have prefered they move it around for a few more seconds, and maybe get a drive to the basket, with the clock running down to zero.

Certainly we missed TP last night. With him on the floor it's an entirely different game. I think there is little doubt Spurs win with TP playing.

Tim Duncan....well, it was one of those monsterous nights, but it also shows the Suns have no, and I mean no defense for him. They better pray they don't meet the Spurs in the playoffs.

WTF happened to our three point shooting? It was god awful last night, especially for a team that is hitting 40% from the arc. No threes = a Suns win.

Even though they won, I don't think the Suns come away from this game with any confindence the can handle a Spurs team at full strength.

And the refs....Guess they were getting even with Horry for Nash last night. At least on a couple of occasions they made bad calls on him. And the one Fin got called for after being bowled over on the steal, was downright disgusting. At least twice Nash traveled, but was bailed out by a foul. Game certainly could have been called better.

But at least the media in Phoenix can have a field day today. Suns get Revenge.

[m33p0]

at least glad this guy played great. i'm glad for that.
http://assets.espn.go.com/photo/2007/1217/nba_ap_duncan_580.jpg

[ducks]

M. Ginobili 32:26 6-19 1-6 5-6 -13 1 4 5 2 0 1 2 4 18

[RonMexico]

I have to respectfully disagree with you on the Skinner read. While he allowed Duncan to make some nice moves in the post, he also worked very hard to deny him the ball and fought for position each time he was down there. He also has the athleticism to prevent a few offensive boards by Duncan.

He's not the polished defender that Kurt Thomas was, but I'll quote you and say this was only a regular season game, and you can't deny Skinner's energy and desire to improve. At the very least, he'll make Duncan work hard out there... much harder than Amare will.

[da_suns_fan]

I have to respectfully disagree with you on the Skinner read. While he allowed Duncan to make some nice moves in the post, he also worked very hard to deny him the ball and fought for position each time he was down there. He also has the athleticism to prevent a few offensive boards by Duncan.

He's not the polished defender that Kurt Thomas was, but I'll quote you and say this was only a regular season game, and you can't deny Skinner's energy and desire to improve. At the very least, he'll make Duncan work hard out there... much harder than Amare will.


Good point...the old rope-a-dope worked. Duncan was completely worthless down the stretch thanks to all the energy he wasted trying to get around Skinner.

Now if only Amare would take some notes.

Spurs looked pretty old.....Vaughn hit 7 of 10 shots in Parker's place and Duncan was extremely efficient. Hard to see how Parker would have made any difference (he can score but thats it).

[SKINNYPIMP210]

Good point...the old rope-a-dope worked. Duncan was completely worthless down the stretch thanks to all the energy he wasted trying to get around Skinner.

Now if only Amare would take some notes.

Spurs looked pretty old.....Vaughn hit 7 of 10 shots in Parker's place and Duncan was extremely efficient. Hard to see how Parker would have made any difference (he can score but thats it).


HAHA! That's too funny! Parker would of torn some shit up. And Elson would of ran right with ya'll. Spurs fan can love him or hate him but he is fast as hell for a big man.

[da_suns_fan]

I would rather Parker have taken some of his erratic jump shots that Duncan taking two foot layups.

You can have Parker.

[td4mvp21]

I would rather Parker have taken some of his erratic jump shots that Duncan taking two foot layups.

You can have Parker.

? Parker gets whatever he wants on the soft Suns defense. Including two foot layups.

[da_suns_fan]

? Parker gets whatever he wants on the soft Suns defense. Including two foot layups.

Thats funny...cuz for a guy who can get any shot he wants, he had three bad games against the Suns in last years playoffs.

Does he not "want" to score a lot of points?

[RonMexico]

If Pop played Parker less minutes, then he wouldn't be hurt.

[m33p0]

parker through the suns defense is like a hot knife through soft butter.

[da_suns_fan]

The guy who can get "ANY SHOT HE WANTS"

Game 2: 5-14
Game 3: 7-18
Game 4: 9-19
Game 5: 5-13
Game 6: 11-27

The only game in which Tony "I can get any shot I want" Parker shot over 50% was in game 1.

Compare that to Vaughn last night (7-10).

You can have Parker! :lol

I would have like to have seen some of his patented fourth quarter turnovers as well.

[da_suns_fan]

If Pop played Parker less minutes, then he wouldn't be hurt.


No joke! :lol

And LMAO at Pop playing Finley 40 minutes last night!

36 for Duncan (more than any Sun).

The Spurs are going to burnt out come playoffs.

[angel_luv]

I feel responsible that the Spurs lost. I was super sick and was not at the game yesterday. :(

[Sweetey]

I feel responsible that the Spurs lost. I was super sick and was not at the game yesterday. :(
That does it ! Your are BANNED !
:lol

Give the sunbabies their 5 minutes of fame. We'll kick their asses from here on out. At least we won't have to listen to their damned crying for a few weeks.

:santahat :toast

[Nashfan]

I see JV has been reading ST. I noticed he didn't try dribbling so much last night. Good improvement there.

The missed three by Bruce.. Actually I thought he shot way too soon in the scheme of things. Even if he hits, there is still almost 10 seconds left for the Suns to score. Would have prefered they move it around for a few more seconds, and maybe get a drive to the basket, with the clock running down to zero.

Certainly we missed TP last night. With him on the floor it's an entirely different game. I think there is little doubt Spurs win with TP playing.

Tim Duncan....well, it was one of those monsterous nights, but it also shows the Suns have no, and I mean no defense for him. They better pray they don't meet the Spurs in the playoffs.

WTF happened to our three point shooting? It was god awful last night, especially for a team that is hitting 40% from the arc. No threes = a Suns win.

Even though they won, I don't think the Suns come away from this game with any confindence the can handle a Spurs team at full strength.

And the refs....Guess they were getting even with Horry for Nash last night. At least on a couple of occasions they made bad calls on him. And the one Fin got called for after being bowled over on the steal, was downright disgusting. At least twice Nash traveled, but was bailed out by a foul. Game certainly could have been called better.

But at least the media in Phoenix can have a field day today. Suns get Revenge.


:cry
I think if Nash wasn't playing injured and could shoot and Raja could buy a basket and Marion would have rebounded more than six times and Barbosa would have hit more than six of nineteen shots we would have won by more than we did. Like all those excuses?? Didn't think so, quit whining. :rolleyes

[m33p0]

Thats funny...cuz for a guy who can get any shot he wants, he had three bad games against the Suns in last years playoffs.

Does he not "want" to score a lot of points?

also had 1 average game and 2 monster games. you failed to mention those.

[m33p0]

That does it ! Your are BANNED !
:lol

Give the sunbabies their 5 minutes of fame. We'll kick their asses from here on out. At least we won't have to listen to their damned crying for a few weeks.

:santahat :toast


whining>>>gloating

some of them are. i'll take the whining anyday.

[Obstructed_View]

It is nice to see the sudden flood of Suns fans celebrating the victory. How many cars in Phoenix burned last night?

[smeagol]

Celebrating a victory over a Parker-less Spurs is pathetic any way you look at it.

[duncan228]

Dime chimes in:

http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/DimeMagazine/2007/12/18/No_More_Drama2

No More Drama

We absolutely wouldn’t mind watching Phoenix and San Antonio go another seven games with a trip to the ‘08 Finals on the line. Yesterday’s game had all the playoff atmosphere of last year without Tim Donaghy, Horry vs. Nash, Amare/Diaw vs. The League, or Bruce Bowen playing D like Wood Harris in Above the Rim to clutter it up. What we got was a back-and-forth contest with guys trading huge buckets down the stretch, from Grant Hill’s pull-up J in the final minute to Manu’s off-balance runner on the other end to Amare’s go-ahead free throws with 17 seconds left to Boris Diaw picking Manu clean to secure the ballgame …

It didn’t take long for Tim Duncan to get back into Tim Duncan Mode, putting up 36 points and 17 boards. On one play the Suns’ defense broke down to the point where Nash (10 pts, 8 rebs, 10 asts) was stuck guarding Tim in the post, and you can guess how that ended …

The one asterisk San Antonio can lean on, though, is that Tony Parker didn’t play (ankle) and they still didn’t get killed by Nash …

[da_suns_fan]

Celebrating a victory over a Parker-less Spurs is pathetic any way you look at it.

I guess the Spurs celebrating a victory over the Amare-less/Diaw-less Suns is pathetic as well?

:owned

[xapatan2]

I guess the Spurs celebrating a victory over the Amare-less/Diaw-less Suns is pathetic as well?

:owned

you are freaking funny ! Trolling is becoming an art at this point !

Some freaking idiots love to compare facts that are not comparable... and this is what make them "freaking idiots"

Please don't stop ! I am having a laugh almost every time you post !

Xap

ps : Timvp, thanks again and again for your time. I do still not post a lot but it is a real real pleasure down there to read the game thoughts
ps' : idem for you Chump, for the toros

[anakha]

I guess the Spurs celebrating a victory over the Amare-less/Diaw-less Suns is pathetic as well?

:owned

It isn't when a title comes with it.

"Owned", indeed. :lmao

EDIT: Grammar fix, as d_s_f has oh so helpfully pointed out.

Capitalize your O, motherfucker. :lmao

[da_suns_fan]

It is when a title comes with it.

"Owned", indeed. :lmao



Mother of all ownage!!!!


So celebrating a title when it comes against an Amare-less/Diaw-less team IS "pathetic" according to YOU?

You dumbass! :lol :lol

Anakha: Making my job easier since 12-07-2005!!!

[anakha]

Mother of all ownage!!!!


So celebrating a title when it comes against an Amare-less/Diaw-less team IS "pathetic" according to YOU?

You dumbass! :lol :lol

Anakha: Making my job easier since 12-07-2005!!!

Ah, what I miss out when I forget to check my grammar. Fixed.

This round goes to d_s_f, I guess. :lol

[da_suns_fan]

This round?

[anakha]

This round?

Still waiting for that 'Parker is a great defender' quote you promised so long ago.

And, again, 'Tony Parker>Kevin Johnson' =! 'Tony Parker is a great defender'. :lmao

[Spurs Brazil]

I think yesterday game showed how great TD is

If we play the 4 down everygame he could get 23-13 but he allow TP and Manu get his shots and the offensive with more movement.

TD is great

[lefty]

Robert Horry had a nice hard foul against Nash but that was about it.

:lmao

[meta2007]

Without Kurt Thomas, Spurs will sweep Suns if they meet in playoff.

[RonMexico]

It is nice to see the sudden flood of Suns fans celebrating the victory. How many cars in Phoenix burned last night?

This isn't Detroit.

[TampaDude]

The Spurs made some mistakes and the Suns took advantage. In a close game, the team that makes fewer mistakes usually wins. We've all seen this before with the Spurs...coast through most of the season, then drop the hammer in the playoffs. Things will be much different come April, you can be sure of that. :toast

[ShoogarBear]

It is nice to see the sudden flood of Suns fans celebrating the victory. How many cars in Phoenix burned last night?None. It was a very well-behaved celebration.

http://science.ksc.nasa.gov/mirrors/images/images/pao/AS11/10075352.jpg

[nfg3]

tmvp & FWD - as usual excellant takes. Thanks for the input. :toast

As for the game it was winnable but the Spurs made some critical mistakes especially down the stretch. The two TOs - TD getting the ball poked way by Amare and Manu's at the very end - really hurt us. All in all I was reasonably happy with the game. I saw good effort by the team. Even thought Bruce missed the shot the play was executed well, he was wide open and in his spot but it just didn't go in. He'll make that shot more than he'll miss it so I'm OK with it.

The thing that stood out for me was that many a time the Spurs were trying to make the perfect or spectacular pass rather than a good one. Several times during the game they would try it in the paint and turn the ball over. I don't see this happening come playoff time. They'll stop this by then and the TOs on this particular play will decrease.

Congrats to the Suns for winning the game. They did what was neccessary to get it done but I believe that the Suns wont win this type of game in April/May.

[tlongII]

As the Blazers were playing at 7pm PST I did not watch the Suns vs Spurs game. They are merely also-rans when measured against the soon to be NBA Champion Portland Trail Blazers.

However, I do find it amusing to see Spurs fans post that they are not particularly concerned with the Suns even though they lost at home with Duncan going for 36 and 17! :lmao

[duncan228]

However, I do find it amusing to see Spurs fans post that they are not particularly concerned with the Suns even though they lost at home with Duncan going for 36 and 17! :lmao

One man does not win it all. (Although Duncan came damn close last night.)
This is a team game.
See the Cavs in the Finals.

[RonMexico]

"If Parker played"

Wah wah wah.

If Parker played, then Duncan wouldn't have had 36 points because TP would have taken some of his touches away.

20 from each still equals 40 points, which means the Spurs would have lost 100-99.

[BonnerDynasty]

It looked like Bruce was having a hard time getting around the screens the Suns would set. Nash was open way too much.

Spurs defense is still NO WAY NEAR playoff form. There were so many open shots for the Suns it was ridiculous.

[Bruno]

All the "if XXX has played, YYY would have won the game" is just plain stupid.

Fact : Suns have won against Spurs yesterday.
Fact : Spurs have won against Suns in game 5 last playoffs.

That is the only thing we can say.
Maybe Suns would have lost yesterday if Spurs had Parker, maybe not. It's pure speculation.
Maybe Spurs would have lost Game if Stoudamire/Diaw had played this game, maybe not. It's pure speculation.

The other stupid thing is to say that the win is tainted or lessen the credit to the winning team.
Suns have nothing to do with Parker's injury. Spurs have had the bad luck to be without Parker but Suns have nothing to do with that.
Spurs have nothing to do with Stoudamire/Diaw suspension. Blame their stupidity, assistants coaches not doing their job or nba rules and Spurs aren't responsible of that.
The only case where you could say that a win is tainted if one player injure on purpose a player from the other team.

And even if both teams were at full strength, a win in December doesn't mean that the team will won a possible playoff serie six month later.

Saying that, people can continue this uninteresting and endless argument. It brings nothing new outside some smack talk and trolling.

[ArgSpursFan.]

"If Parker played"

Wah wah wah.

If Parker played, then Duncan wouldn't have had 36 points because TP would have taken some of his touches away.

20 from each still equals 40 points, which means the Spurs would have lost 100-99.

you can take all the regular seasons games you want and I'll be cool with it.
Since we take all the playoffs series we meet on, I guess it's about fair.