timvp
12-27-2007, 02:14 AM
With as poorly as the Chicago Bulls played tonight, this victory by the Spurs was basically hollow. It’s tough to take much away from kicking a team that is already down. With Pete Myers taking over for the night using Scott Skiles’ old rotation and philosophies, nothing changed for the Bulls.
For the Spurs, it was just nice to come out and burn off some of that holiday weight while collecting a win with Manu Ginobili sidelined with an injured finger. A couple of players had good outings but overall the most notable occurrence of the night was when Brent Barry went down injured. He checked into the game with rubber tubing on his calf and seemed to re-injure his calf early in his stint. It looked like the type of injury that will keep him out a couple of weeks – depending on whether anything worse is found on the MRI tomorrow. This is bad timing because the Spurs might have to force Ginobili back into action quicker than they’d like.
Regarding the Bulls, they need to bring in a coach from the outside. The current system simply isn’t working. A players’ coach that knows how to construct a good offense should be the target. I’ve heard that Paul Westphal could be in the running and that makes some sense.
-Tim Duncan had a quiet game. The Bulls were swarming him and had a number of bigman defenders to throw at him, so Duncan decided to play quarterback instead. For the game, Duncan finished with eight points, 11 rebounds and a team-high six assists. While he shot only 2-for-9 from the floor and had five turnovers, it’s pretty easy to chalk it up to boredom or a bad game. He seems healthy and his 11 rebounds in 27 minutes was good to see. Over his last four games, Duncan is averaging 15 rebounds per game. Coming into this stretch, Duncan hadn’t grabbed double-figure rebounds in three straight games all season long.
-Tony Parker was a monster tonight. Parker’s play in the second quarter basically won the game for the Spurs. In the other three quarters, the Spurs outscored the Bulls only 64-62. But in the third behind Parker, the Spurs outscored the Bulls 30-17. After entering the ballgame in the second period with the Spurs up five, Parker went on a run in which he scored or assisted on 17 straight points. After that run, the Spurs were up 18 points and they never looked back. Parker finished with 28 points, five assists and zero turnovers while shooting 12-for-19 in 33 minutes.
-Bruce Bowen didn’t distinguish himself that much this game. He did a decent job staying in front of Ben Gordon despite the six inch height differential. Offensively, Bowen chipped in 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field. He also connected on 2-of-3 three-pointers to improve his percentage to a career-high 46.5%.
-Fabricio Oberto, like Bowen, didn’t do anything to stand out from the crowd against the Bulls. He had a couple of good defensive possessions and finished with four points and three rebounds in 22 minutes. Over the last couple games, Oberto is only 2-for-8 from the field. That’s surprising considering that Oberto’s field goal percentage was climbing all the way up to around 70% before those two games.
-Michael Finley played pretty well as he picked up some of the slack with Ginobili and Barry out injured. He finished with 15 points as he shot 7-for-15 from the field in 36 minutes of action against his hometown team. His shooting percentage would have been even better if he wasn’t forced to shoot a handful of shots with the clock winding down. An aspect of Finley’s game that is quietly improving is his passing. He had two assists this game and is averaging 3.3 assists over his last six games. Finley has never been known as a great passer, especially in the halfcourt setting, but he has shown some nice improvement in that regard since last season.
-Ime Udoka has started to calm down and has really played well in his last two outings. Against the Bulls, Udoka finished with 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting from the field and 2-for-2 shooting from beyond the arc. Perhaps the most impressive part of his night was his plus/minus of +25 in only 25 minutes played. The biggest difference in Udoka’s game overall is he has begun to figure out where to get his shot. With the players he has around him, Udoka now understands he never has to force a shot. Compared to how he played in preseason and earlier in the year, his decision making offensively has been greatly improved. He still has a ways to go before he becomes a regular part of the rotation but he seems to be on the right track.
-Matt Bonner, much like Udoka, let the game come to him and he responded with a very nice performance. Bonner had 12 points, nine rebounds and a plus/minus of +18 in 22 minutes. He hit 5-of-8 shots from the field and 2-of-4 shots from downtown. When Bonner is rebounding and hitting open shots, he becomes a valuable piece for the Spurs.
-It was good to see Francisco Elson healthy again and back in the lineup. He had only two points and three rebounds in 19 minutes but his injury didn’t seem to be bothering him. I’ll give Elson a free pass on his 1-for-5 performance from the field and his otherwise lackluster game due to the extended time away with an injury.
-Jacque Vaughn played his role well tonight. Although he didn’t score, he had five assists and no turnovers in 19 minutes. Vaughn also had some nice hustle plays and was active defensively. When Vaughn blends into the background and concentrates on defense and passing, he becomes a valuable backup point guard.
-In Horry’s five minutes, he was in fully Robert-Horry-regular-season mode. The only place he really dented the boxscore was his 1-for-4 shooting from the free-throw line. Horry wasn’t needed tonight and Horry played like he knew that fact.
-Marcus Williams was in the game for exactly two minutes as he made his NBA debut. Surprised about Williams being on the team? Read this thread. (http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84001) Williams didn’t have time to do much. He got beat defensively but responded with a good blocked shot. Offensively, he shot an ugly 16-footer that barely drew iron. Hopefully he gets a few more games to show if he can do anything on the NBA level.
-I don’t have any real problem with how Pop managed this game. The Spurs came out slow but that’s to be expected on the day after Christmas and the Bulls entering the game with a new head coach. The one critique I have is that with Ginobili out, Pop has to figure out a way to limit the time that both Parker and Duncan are on the bench. The Spurs without any of the Big Three on the court can’t do much of anything offensively. A good team would run that lineup off the court. One problem I have with not only Pop but the rest of the training staff is they seem to be a step slow when it comes to sitting players with injuries. Parker played a few games on an ankle that was obviously not right. Ginobili should have been sat for the game against the Clippers because his finger had worsened to the point he was having trouble warming up. And now this game, Barry enters the game with an inner tube on his leg and promptly further injures his calf. This early in the season, the Spurs shouldn’t risk injury by playing hobbled players. It’s weird that I even have to bring this up because Pop and the training staff are usually overly cautious when it comes to injures. This season, it seems like they’ve allowed the players to decide whether or not they are playing.
For the Spurs, it was just nice to come out and burn off some of that holiday weight while collecting a win with Manu Ginobili sidelined with an injured finger. A couple of players had good outings but overall the most notable occurrence of the night was when Brent Barry went down injured. He checked into the game with rubber tubing on his calf and seemed to re-injure his calf early in his stint. It looked like the type of injury that will keep him out a couple of weeks – depending on whether anything worse is found on the MRI tomorrow. This is bad timing because the Spurs might have to force Ginobili back into action quicker than they’d like.
Regarding the Bulls, they need to bring in a coach from the outside. The current system simply isn’t working. A players’ coach that knows how to construct a good offense should be the target. I’ve heard that Paul Westphal could be in the running and that makes some sense.
-Tim Duncan had a quiet game. The Bulls were swarming him and had a number of bigman defenders to throw at him, so Duncan decided to play quarterback instead. For the game, Duncan finished with eight points, 11 rebounds and a team-high six assists. While he shot only 2-for-9 from the floor and had five turnovers, it’s pretty easy to chalk it up to boredom or a bad game. He seems healthy and his 11 rebounds in 27 minutes was good to see. Over his last four games, Duncan is averaging 15 rebounds per game. Coming into this stretch, Duncan hadn’t grabbed double-figure rebounds in three straight games all season long.
-Tony Parker was a monster tonight. Parker’s play in the second quarter basically won the game for the Spurs. In the other three quarters, the Spurs outscored the Bulls only 64-62. But in the third behind Parker, the Spurs outscored the Bulls 30-17. After entering the ballgame in the second period with the Spurs up five, Parker went on a run in which he scored or assisted on 17 straight points. After that run, the Spurs were up 18 points and they never looked back. Parker finished with 28 points, five assists and zero turnovers while shooting 12-for-19 in 33 minutes.
-Bruce Bowen didn’t distinguish himself that much this game. He did a decent job staying in front of Ben Gordon despite the six inch height differential. Offensively, Bowen chipped in 12 points on 4-of-7 shooting from the field. He also connected on 2-of-3 three-pointers to improve his percentage to a career-high 46.5%.
-Fabricio Oberto, like Bowen, didn’t do anything to stand out from the crowd against the Bulls. He had a couple of good defensive possessions and finished with four points and three rebounds in 22 minutes. Over the last couple games, Oberto is only 2-for-8 from the field. That’s surprising considering that Oberto’s field goal percentage was climbing all the way up to around 70% before those two games.
-Michael Finley played pretty well as he picked up some of the slack with Ginobili and Barry out injured. He finished with 15 points as he shot 7-for-15 from the field in 36 minutes of action against his hometown team. His shooting percentage would have been even better if he wasn’t forced to shoot a handful of shots with the clock winding down. An aspect of Finley’s game that is quietly improving is his passing. He had two assists this game and is averaging 3.3 assists over his last six games. Finley has never been known as a great passer, especially in the halfcourt setting, but he has shown some nice improvement in that regard since last season.
-Ime Udoka has started to calm down and has really played well in his last two outings. Against the Bulls, Udoka finished with 12 points on 4-for-5 shooting from the field and 2-for-2 shooting from beyond the arc. Perhaps the most impressive part of his night was his plus/minus of +25 in only 25 minutes played. The biggest difference in Udoka’s game overall is he has begun to figure out where to get his shot. With the players he has around him, Udoka now understands he never has to force a shot. Compared to how he played in preseason and earlier in the year, his decision making offensively has been greatly improved. He still has a ways to go before he becomes a regular part of the rotation but he seems to be on the right track.
-Matt Bonner, much like Udoka, let the game come to him and he responded with a very nice performance. Bonner had 12 points, nine rebounds and a plus/minus of +18 in 22 minutes. He hit 5-of-8 shots from the field and 2-of-4 shots from downtown. When Bonner is rebounding and hitting open shots, he becomes a valuable piece for the Spurs.
-It was good to see Francisco Elson healthy again and back in the lineup. He had only two points and three rebounds in 19 minutes but his injury didn’t seem to be bothering him. I’ll give Elson a free pass on his 1-for-5 performance from the field and his otherwise lackluster game due to the extended time away with an injury.
-Jacque Vaughn played his role well tonight. Although he didn’t score, he had five assists and no turnovers in 19 minutes. Vaughn also had some nice hustle plays and was active defensively. When Vaughn blends into the background and concentrates on defense and passing, he becomes a valuable backup point guard.
-In Horry’s five minutes, he was in fully Robert-Horry-regular-season mode. The only place he really dented the boxscore was his 1-for-4 shooting from the free-throw line. Horry wasn’t needed tonight and Horry played like he knew that fact.
-Marcus Williams was in the game for exactly two minutes as he made his NBA debut. Surprised about Williams being on the team? Read this thread. (http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=84001) Williams didn’t have time to do much. He got beat defensively but responded with a good blocked shot. Offensively, he shot an ugly 16-footer that barely drew iron. Hopefully he gets a few more games to show if he can do anything on the NBA level.
-I don’t have any real problem with how Pop managed this game. The Spurs came out slow but that’s to be expected on the day after Christmas and the Bulls entering the game with a new head coach. The one critique I have is that with Ginobili out, Pop has to figure out a way to limit the time that both Parker and Duncan are on the bench. The Spurs without any of the Big Three on the court can’t do much of anything offensively. A good team would run that lineup off the court. One problem I have with not only Pop but the rest of the training staff is they seem to be a step slow when it comes to sitting players with injuries. Parker played a few games on an ankle that was obviously not right. Ginobili should have been sat for the game against the Clippers because his finger had worsened to the point he was having trouble warming up. And now this game, Barry enters the game with an inner tube on his leg and promptly further injures his calf. This early in the season, the Spurs shouldn’t risk injury by playing hobbled players. It’s weird that I even have to bring this up because Pop and the training staff are usually overly cautious when it comes to injures. This season, it seems like they’ve allowed the players to decide whether or not they are playing.