timvp
12-20-2007, 12:26 AM
The Spurs gave a pitiful effort for 45 minutes of the game against the Memphis Grizzlies. I haven’t seen the Spurs play as disinterested this season as they did tonight. It was as if half the team missed the trip to Memphis. After the game, Manu Ginobili said the Spurs played soft for much of the contest – which was an accurate description.
By the time the Spurs starting giving effort, they were down ten with three minutes to go in the game. To their credit, they upped their intensity and were able to come all the way back to tie the game. However, Rudy Gay made it all for naught when he hit an off balance, leaning three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Grizzlies the victory by a final score of 88-85.
I’m not sure what good there is to take out of this game. Sure, Tony Parker was out with an injury but that’s really no excuse. To give no effort against a Memphis team missing Pau Gasol is disappointing. The late rally was nice but that was more Memphis choking than the Spurs really playing great basketball. If the Spurs give away games like this, they will start negating all the nice early season victories they had.
Concerning the Grizzlies, I was mildly impressed. Gay and Mike Miller are very solid players. Gay is a very good athlete whose talent is starting to match his athleticism. Miller has always been a bit underrated. Put him on a good team and he’d be really tough to guard night in and night out. Other than those two, the Grizzlies still have a lot of work to do. Juan Carlos Navarro can score but his basketball IQ is questionable and he’s a horrible defender. Darko Milicic doesn’t look worth his big contract but he did show some flashes of being a capable defender.
-I thought Tim Duncan was one of the few players to give somewhat consistent effort. The problem for him was the Spurs weren’t giving him the ball enough. Instead of shooting 28 three-pointers (of which the team hit only six), the Spurs should have given it to Duncan more often. Pull up transition threes don’t make sense when you have the best bigman in the game on your team. Duncan finished with 16 points, 14 rebounds, four assists, two blocks and only one turnover. There were some points in the game where Duncan’s effort was questionable but he was far from the worst in that department. On the last second buzzer beater Gay hit to win the game, Duncan actually defended him well. Gay just knocked down a tough shot.
-Manu Ginobili followed his recent formula: try too hard in the beginning of the game, get totally out of rhythm in the second quarter, get rolling in the third quarter, tire in the middle of the fourth and then make good plays late. His stat line looks better than the stat lines he’s been putting up of late. He finished with 20 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals in 33 minutes. The bad news is he shot poorly again, just 7-of-21 from the field and 2-of-8 from beyond the three-point line. He also had three turnovers and got a scolding from Pop early on for playing pitiful defense. Overall, it was a sub par effort from Ginobili, but it was actually a step in the right direction considering his last few outings.
-Bruce Bowen has been very consistent about giving effort on a nightly basis this season. However, tonight the opposite was true. Bowen gave pitiful effort and was horrible tonight. With Gay and Miller going off, Bowen did little to stop either one. With Parker out, Duncan working his way back into form and Ginobili struggling, the Spurs couldn’t afford for Bowen to lay an egg. Not only did Bowen lay an egg, I think he had twins.
-Michael Finley was halfway decent. He had a highlight reel baseline drive for a reverse dunk. He also gave good effort at times. But his shooting against failed him – hitting just 5-of-13 shots from the floor, including 1-of-7 from three-point range. He wasn’t responsible for the loss but he also didn’t exactly help the Spurs try to pull out the victory. After watching him miss yet another three-pointer tonight from straight away, I looked it up and Finley is now 3-for-17 on three-pointers from straight on. He actually shoots really well from the corners and the arc. He just can’t knock down straight away threes this season for whatever reason.
-Fabricio Oberto had some moments but he was another one of the players who lacked effort at some points in the game. He finished with a respectable six points and six rebounds in 19 minutes, but he could have done much more. With Rudy Gay guarding him, Oberto should have exploited that matchup more so than he did.
-Jacque Vaughn played well at times and played with too much confidence at other times. I still can’t stand it when he dribbles the ball up the court and fires a jumper without letting anyone else touch the ball. That’s not his game and it totally destroys the cohesiveness of the offense. To his credit, he played good defense and his offense was solid for the most part. That said, Parker can’t get healthy fast enough.
-Brent Barry had some really nice moments in tonight’s game. He was aware defensively in the fourth quarter. He finished with a season-high four steals to go along with eight points and four assists. His three-pointer in the fourth quarter with about three minutes to go cut the lead to seven point and gave the Spurs the momentum to try to get back into it. On the game, Barry led the Spurs in plus/minus with a +18 in 29 minutes.
-Matt Bonner didn’t play in the first half but ended up starting the second half. I think it was a move by Pop to put someone out there who was going to give effort. Bonner, despite all his other deficiencies, is a player you can almost always count on for effort. In his 14 minutes of action, he had seven points and three rebounds.
-Ime Udoka’s offense was garbage. He was hesitant and looked amazingly uncomfortable on that end of the court. That said, Udoka’s defense was really, really good. He came into the game in the third quarter and cooled down a blazing Mike Miller. Miller was having the game of his life until Udoka came in and shut him down. Miller never really got going again thanks in large part to Udoka’s defense in the third.
-Robert Horry seemed like the only Spur who realized that Duncan was indeed playing this game. He repeatedly looked for Duncan down low and made some nice passes throughout his 12 minutes of playing time. Horry’s offense is still a work in progress, though, as he didn’t even attempt a shot this game.
-Darius Washington’s time on the court this game was a disaster. His offense was poor as he was forcing up bad shots and wasn’t getting the Spurs into their sets. However, even more damning was his defense. He played poor transition defense a number of times and even got schooled by the rotting corpse of Damon Stoudamire. I can’t blame Pop for pulling Washington after six minutes and not playing him again. Washington has a whole lot of learning to do.
-Pop pulled all the stops tonight. I don’t know how many different lineups he put on the court to try to find a group that was going to give energy. He mixed and matched all night until finally he found some combos that were working in the second half. I can’t blame much of this game on Pop. The Spurs got good looks out of timeouts in the fourth quarter and their defense on the last play was good. Without Pop pulling out all the stops, the Spurs lose this game by 25. However, Pop might have to use the Soft Card if the Spurs make a habit of playing this way too often. Bottomline is the Spurs played poorly and deserved to lose. The gay jumper at the end was a fitting way to close out this weak showing by the Spurs.
By the time the Spurs starting giving effort, they were down ten with three minutes to go in the game. To their credit, they upped their intensity and were able to come all the way back to tie the game. However, Rudy Gay made it all for naught when he hit an off balance, leaning three-pointer at the buzzer to give the Grizzlies the victory by a final score of 88-85.
I’m not sure what good there is to take out of this game. Sure, Tony Parker was out with an injury but that’s really no excuse. To give no effort against a Memphis team missing Pau Gasol is disappointing. The late rally was nice but that was more Memphis choking than the Spurs really playing great basketball. If the Spurs give away games like this, they will start negating all the nice early season victories they had.
Concerning the Grizzlies, I was mildly impressed. Gay and Mike Miller are very solid players. Gay is a very good athlete whose talent is starting to match his athleticism. Miller has always been a bit underrated. Put him on a good team and he’d be really tough to guard night in and night out. Other than those two, the Grizzlies still have a lot of work to do. Juan Carlos Navarro can score but his basketball IQ is questionable and he’s a horrible defender. Darko Milicic doesn’t look worth his big contract but he did show some flashes of being a capable defender.
-I thought Tim Duncan was one of the few players to give somewhat consistent effort. The problem for him was the Spurs weren’t giving him the ball enough. Instead of shooting 28 three-pointers (of which the team hit only six), the Spurs should have given it to Duncan more often. Pull up transition threes don’t make sense when you have the best bigman in the game on your team. Duncan finished with 16 points, 14 rebounds, four assists, two blocks and only one turnover. There were some points in the game where Duncan’s effort was questionable but he was far from the worst in that department. On the last second buzzer beater Gay hit to win the game, Duncan actually defended him well. Gay just knocked down a tough shot.
-Manu Ginobili followed his recent formula: try too hard in the beginning of the game, get totally out of rhythm in the second quarter, get rolling in the third quarter, tire in the middle of the fourth and then make good plays late. His stat line looks better than the stat lines he’s been putting up of late. He finished with 20 points, five rebounds, five assists and three steals in 33 minutes. The bad news is he shot poorly again, just 7-of-21 from the field and 2-of-8 from beyond the three-point line. He also had three turnovers and got a scolding from Pop early on for playing pitiful defense. Overall, it was a sub par effort from Ginobili, but it was actually a step in the right direction considering his last few outings.
-Bruce Bowen has been very consistent about giving effort on a nightly basis this season. However, tonight the opposite was true. Bowen gave pitiful effort and was horrible tonight. With Gay and Miller going off, Bowen did little to stop either one. With Parker out, Duncan working his way back into form and Ginobili struggling, the Spurs couldn’t afford for Bowen to lay an egg. Not only did Bowen lay an egg, I think he had twins.
-Michael Finley was halfway decent. He had a highlight reel baseline drive for a reverse dunk. He also gave good effort at times. But his shooting against failed him – hitting just 5-of-13 shots from the floor, including 1-of-7 from three-point range. He wasn’t responsible for the loss but he also didn’t exactly help the Spurs try to pull out the victory. After watching him miss yet another three-pointer tonight from straight away, I looked it up and Finley is now 3-for-17 on three-pointers from straight on. He actually shoots really well from the corners and the arc. He just can’t knock down straight away threes this season for whatever reason.
-Fabricio Oberto had some moments but he was another one of the players who lacked effort at some points in the game. He finished with a respectable six points and six rebounds in 19 minutes, but he could have done much more. With Rudy Gay guarding him, Oberto should have exploited that matchup more so than he did.
-Jacque Vaughn played well at times and played with too much confidence at other times. I still can’t stand it when he dribbles the ball up the court and fires a jumper without letting anyone else touch the ball. That’s not his game and it totally destroys the cohesiveness of the offense. To his credit, he played good defense and his offense was solid for the most part. That said, Parker can’t get healthy fast enough.
-Brent Barry had some really nice moments in tonight’s game. He was aware defensively in the fourth quarter. He finished with a season-high four steals to go along with eight points and four assists. His three-pointer in the fourth quarter with about three minutes to go cut the lead to seven point and gave the Spurs the momentum to try to get back into it. On the game, Barry led the Spurs in plus/minus with a +18 in 29 minutes.
-Matt Bonner didn’t play in the first half but ended up starting the second half. I think it was a move by Pop to put someone out there who was going to give effort. Bonner, despite all his other deficiencies, is a player you can almost always count on for effort. In his 14 minutes of action, he had seven points and three rebounds.
-Ime Udoka’s offense was garbage. He was hesitant and looked amazingly uncomfortable on that end of the court. That said, Udoka’s defense was really, really good. He came into the game in the third quarter and cooled down a blazing Mike Miller. Miller was having the game of his life until Udoka came in and shut him down. Miller never really got going again thanks in large part to Udoka’s defense in the third.
-Robert Horry seemed like the only Spur who realized that Duncan was indeed playing this game. He repeatedly looked for Duncan down low and made some nice passes throughout his 12 minutes of playing time. Horry’s offense is still a work in progress, though, as he didn’t even attempt a shot this game.
-Darius Washington’s time on the court this game was a disaster. His offense was poor as he was forcing up bad shots and wasn’t getting the Spurs into their sets. However, even more damning was his defense. He played poor transition defense a number of times and even got schooled by the rotting corpse of Damon Stoudamire. I can’t blame Pop for pulling Washington after six minutes and not playing him again. Washington has a whole lot of learning to do.
-Pop pulled all the stops tonight. I don’t know how many different lineups he put on the court to try to find a group that was going to give energy. He mixed and matched all night until finally he found some combos that were working in the second half. I can’t blame much of this game on Pop. The Spurs got good looks out of timeouts in the fourth quarter and their defense on the last play was good. Without Pop pulling out all the stops, the Spurs lose this game by 25. However, Pop might have to use the Soft Card if the Spurs make a habit of playing this way too often. Bottomline is the Spurs played poorly and deserved to lose. The gay jumper at the end was a fitting way to close out this weak showing by the Spurs.