timvp
12-29-2007, 01:31 AM
Wow. That was about as bad as the Spurs can play. I thought the effort was actually decent. The problem was the Spurs just sucked. It wasn’t their night for whatever reason. The defense was pretty bad but the offense was horrid. Not only sloppy but the Spurs were missing wide open looks.
A big part of the problem was Manu Ginobili and Brent Barry were sidelined with injuries. Without those two guys coming off the bench, the bench was just horrid. In the first half, the bench was outscored 20-0. Even after a couple of late baskets when the game was over, the bench still shot only 4-for-22 for the game.
The bench wasn’t the only problem, though. Nobody on the whole team played a par game. The starter’s level of suck wasn’t that much higher than the level of suck produced from the bench.
I guess you have to give the Raptors some credit but I’m not sure how much they deserve. The Spurs missed a lot of open shots. The Raptors, especially with Andrea Bargnani starting in place of Rasho Nesterovic, aren’t exactly a lockdown defensive squad. Every team in the NBA would have beaten the Spurs tonight. The Spurs made a run in the third quarter but that was mostly due to horrible play from the Raptors.
-I liked Tim Duncan’s effort but his play was erratic at best. It didn’t look like he had his legs and couldn’t get any separation on his post moves, no matter who he was going against. Defensively, he was a step slow in each of his rotation. He played well in spurts but overall it wasn’t a good game from Duncan. He finished with 16 points and 12 boards, which doesn’t look bad but with the amount of touches he got Duncan should have done much more.
-Tony Parker was horrible. Seven turnovers and 4-for-12 shooting from the field pretty much tells the story of his outing. I couldn’t tell if his ankle was bothering him or he just played bad. At times, he looked gimpy and a number of his turnovers were off of jump passes when he didn’t get his usual elevation on his jump. But then other times he’d blow right by his man to the basket or would pressure the ball full court. Whatever the problem was I wasn’t too enthused by Parker’s effort. With Ginobili out, Parker should bring more energy than he brought tonight.
-You don’t hear me say it much but I think Pop played Bruce Bowen way too much tonight. When you are struggling with offense the way the Spurs were struggling with offense, you don’t play Bowen 38 minutes. You just can’t do that. While it’s true that the players behind him were playing poorly, at least some of those guys have a chance to take over the game offensively. Bowen especially didn’t make sense for 38 minutes because the Raptors don’t have a perimeter player that you have to pay extra attention to defensively.
-Michael Finley’s stats look pretty ugly but I like how he competed. For a lot of the game, he was the only Spur who looked capable of getting up a quality shot. Granted a lot of those shots were off their mark but everyone else looked like they were allergic to the basketball. For the game, Finley finished with 20 points and eight rebounds, while shooting 7-for-19 from the field including 3-for-10 from beyond the three-point arc. I wouldn’t say Finley played well but without him the Spurs probably lose this game by 30 points.
-Fabricio Oberto didn’t help matters with his uninspired 12 minutes of action. During that time, Oberto went scoreless and pulled down three rebounds. He was 0-for-2 from the field and both of his shots were forced shots out of his range. Defensively he did a poor job respecting the jump shooting bigs the Raptors put out on the court.
-If forced to pick a bright spot at gun point, I’d probably go with Matt Bonner. He wasn’t even that good but he was one of the few Spurs who acted like he cared. He started the second half in an attempt to inject some life into the team. Bonner responded with ten points and ten rebounds in 25 minutes but shot only 2-for-7 from the court. I thought his defense was better than usual, but that isn’t saying much.
-After back-to-back games in which he couldn’t miss, Ime Udoka was missing everything tonight. Part of the reason Pop didn’t put Bowen on the bench more was that Udoka was so bad offensively. Whether he was forcing a shot or shooting a wide open jumper, he couldn’t hit anything. If he could have provided any offense at all, the Spurs might have been able to pull this game out.
-In the ocean of suck out there on the court for the Spurs, Jacque Vaughn might have been the worst of the bunch. He tried to do way too much and just single-handedly killed the offense. When he entered the game with 3:24 to go in the first quarter to replace Parker, the Spurs were up four. Despite Duncan being on the floor, Vaughn over-dribbled and was late on passes. The Raptors quickly scored 11 points in a row to put the Spurs down seven. By the time Pop could get Parker back into the game, the Spurs were already in a hole that they never could really escape.
-Francisco Elson continues to underwhelm. In seven minutes, Elson missed all three of his shots and played terrible defense. It’s starting to get to the point that it’s difficult justifying any minutes for Elson. He’s not even having his bi-monthly big game anymore. It’s just bad performance after bad performance.
-Pop dusted off Robert Horry to begin the fourth quarter. I guess Pop was looking for some sort of spark. Whatever he was looking for Horry failed to live up to his part of the bargain. While Horry did have a couple of good defensive plays to begin the fourth, he did nothing else in his six minutes of action.
-Keith Langford got some first half minutes and although he didn’t play much, Langford failed the eyeball test. He just doesn’t look like an NBA player. He was dwarfed by the shooting guards he was going up against. At 6-foot-3 and with a relatively slender build, I just can’t imagine how he could play shooting guard in the NBA. He’s not that athletic to be able to make up the inches he’s lacking. He also promptly blew a defensive assignment that got him yanked from the ballgame. Props to Langford for making it to the NBA. That said, I fail to understand how the Spurs can look at Langford and think he’s an NBA player.
-Pop’s coaching this game was puzzling. As I said earlier, Pop played Bowen way too much. Second of all, I know that Ginobili and Barry are out but some of the lineups Pop put out there were just awful. Vaughn, Udoka, Bowen and Elson at the same time? Did Pop forget there were two sides to a basketball court? And while Pop picked a good game to get ejected, he should have done so earlier in the game. Getting ejected mid-way through the fourth quarter with the Spurs down nine doesn’t really do anything other than put you down 11 and end the game. It wasn’t all Pop’s fault because the players were horrible but Pop certainly wasn’t helping matters.
Overall, it was just a bad loss. Unfortunately, throughout an 82 game season you are going to have games where everyone sucks. Hopefully this was just one of those games.
A big part of the problem was Manu Ginobili and Brent Barry were sidelined with injuries. Without those two guys coming off the bench, the bench was just horrid. In the first half, the bench was outscored 20-0. Even after a couple of late baskets when the game was over, the bench still shot only 4-for-22 for the game.
The bench wasn’t the only problem, though. Nobody on the whole team played a par game. The starter’s level of suck wasn’t that much higher than the level of suck produced from the bench.
I guess you have to give the Raptors some credit but I’m not sure how much they deserve. The Spurs missed a lot of open shots. The Raptors, especially with Andrea Bargnani starting in place of Rasho Nesterovic, aren’t exactly a lockdown defensive squad. Every team in the NBA would have beaten the Spurs tonight. The Spurs made a run in the third quarter but that was mostly due to horrible play from the Raptors.
-I liked Tim Duncan’s effort but his play was erratic at best. It didn’t look like he had his legs and couldn’t get any separation on his post moves, no matter who he was going against. Defensively, he was a step slow in each of his rotation. He played well in spurts but overall it wasn’t a good game from Duncan. He finished with 16 points and 12 boards, which doesn’t look bad but with the amount of touches he got Duncan should have done much more.
-Tony Parker was horrible. Seven turnovers and 4-for-12 shooting from the field pretty much tells the story of his outing. I couldn’t tell if his ankle was bothering him or he just played bad. At times, he looked gimpy and a number of his turnovers were off of jump passes when he didn’t get his usual elevation on his jump. But then other times he’d blow right by his man to the basket or would pressure the ball full court. Whatever the problem was I wasn’t too enthused by Parker’s effort. With Ginobili out, Parker should bring more energy than he brought tonight.
-You don’t hear me say it much but I think Pop played Bruce Bowen way too much tonight. When you are struggling with offense the way the Spurs were struggling with offense, you don’t play Bowen 38 minutes. You just can’t do that. While it’s true that the players behind him were playing poorly, at least some of those guys have a chance to take over the game offensively. Bowen especially didn’t make sense for 38 minutes because the Raptors don’t have a perimeter player that you have to pay extra attention to defensively.
-Michael Finley’s stats look pretty ugly but I like how he competed. For a lot of the game, he was the only Spur who looked capable of getting up a quality shot. Granted a lot of those shots were off their mark but everyone else looked like they were allergic to the basketball. For the game, Finley finished with 20 points and eight rebounds, while shooting 7-for-19 from the field including 3-for-10 from beyond the three-point arc. I wouldn’t say Finley played well but without him the Spurs probably lose this game by 30 points.
-Fabricio Oberto didn’t help matters with his uninspired 12 minutes of action. During that time, Oberto went scoreless and pulled down three rebounds. He was 0-for-2 from the field and both of his shots were forced shots out of his range. Defensively he did a poor job respecting the jump shooting bigs the Raptors put out on the court.
-If forced to pick a bright spot at gun point, I’d probably go with Matt Bonner. He wasn’t even that good but he was one of the few Spurs who acted like he cared. He started the second half in an attempt to inject some life into the team. Bonner responded with ten points and ten rebounds in 25 minutes but shot only 2-for-7 from the court. I thought his defense was better than usual, but that isn’t saying much.
-After back-to-back games in which he couldn’t miss, Ime Udoka was missing everything tonight. Part of the reason Pop didn’t put Bowen on the bench more was that Udoka was so bad offensively. Whether he was forcing a shot or shooting a wide open jumper, he couldn’t hit anything. If he could have provided any offense at all, the Spurs might have been able to pull this game out.
-In the ocean of suck out there on the court for the Spurs, Jacque Vaughn might have been the worst of the bunch. He tried to do way too much and just single-handedly killed the offense. When he entered the game with 3:24 to go in the first quarter to replace Parker, the Spurs were up four. Despite Duncan being on the floor, Vaughn over-dribbled and was late on passes. The Raptors quickly scored 11 points in a row to put the Spurs down seven. By the time Pop could get Parker back into the game, the Spurs were already in a hole that they never could really escape.
-Francisco Elson continues to underwhelm. In seven minutes, Elson missed all three of his shots and played terrible defense. It’s starting to get to the point that it’s difficult justifying any minutes for Elson. He’s not even having his bi-monthly big game anymore. It’s just bad performance after bad performance.
-Pop dusted off Robert Horry to begin the fourth quarter. I guess Pop was looking for some sort of spark. Whatever he was looking for Horry failed to live up to his part of the bargain. While Horry did have a couple of good defensive plays to begin the fourth, he did nothing else in his six minutes of action.
-Keith Langford got some first half minutes and although he didn’t play much, Langford failed the eyeball test. He just doesn’t look like an NBA player. He was dwarfed by the shooting guards he was going up against. At 6-foot-3 and with a relatively slender build, I just can’t imagine how he could play shooting guard in the NBA. He’s not that athletic to be able to make up the inches he’s lacking. He also promptly blew a defensive assignment that got him yanked from the ballgame. Props to Langford for making it to the NBA. That said, I fail to understand how the Spurs can look at Langford and think he’s an NBA player.
-Pop’s coaching this game was puzzling. As I said earlier, Pop played Bowen way too much. Second of all, I know that Ginobili and Barry are out but some of the lineups Pop put out there were just awful. Vaughn, Udoka, Bowen and Elson at the same time? Did Pop forget there were two sides to a basketball court? And while Pop picked a good game to get ejected, he should have done so earlier in the game. Getting ejected mid-way through the fourth quarter with the Spurs down nine doesn’t really do anything other than put you down 11 and end the game. It wasn’t all Pop’s fault because the players were horrible but Pop certainly wasn’t helping matters.
Overall, it was just a bad loss. Unfortunately, throughout an 82 game season you are going to have games where everyone sucks. Hopefully this was just one of those games.