timvp
01-30-2008, 06:40 AM
The Spurs have had some bad losses this season but I can confidently say that this game was the worst of the bunch. Against a Seattle Supersonics team that had lost 14 games in a row, the Spurs found a way to lose.
This was one of those games where even if the Spurs are playing bad, they always find a way to win. It was close most of the way but I felt pretty confident that the Spurs would win. Against a Sonics team that not only sucks but wasn’t even playing particularly well, I thought the Spurs would be able to snap their two-game losing streak. I was wrong.
Props to the Sonics, I guess. Kevin Durant hit enough of his ill-advised shots to help lead his team to victory. Chris Wilcox, Nick Collison and Kurt Thomas all played well for Seattle. PJ Carlesimo has his team playing hard.
Truthfully though, this was just a horrible loss for the Spurs. I don’t even know how they found a way to lose the game. I’m hoping that this is the low point of the season but I’ve hoped that a couple times already this year.
Even worse than the loss is the news regarding Tony Parker. Parker not only missed this game, he returned to San Antonio to get an MRI on his troublesome foot. At the very least he’s out a week. It sounds as if there’s a strong possibility that he’ll be out a lot longer.
-Tim Duncan was decent. He got bullied in the low block by the Sonics’ bigs a little bit but he played well enough for the Spurs to win. His energy was good and even defensively he was better than he has been in recent games. He finished with 27 points, 12 rebounds and one blocked shots in 38 minutes of action. His defense still his room for improvement and I’d still like to see him utilize a wider repertoire on the low block, but overall Duncan wasn’t part of the problem tonight.
-Manu Ginobili played fantastic. Props to him for stepping up and having a big game with Parker sidelined. He took on a lot of the playmaking duties and on top of that scored very efficiently. Ginobili finished with 29 points, seven assists and only one turnover while shooting 10-for-17 from the field. He even led the team tonight in playing time at 40 minutes. My only complaint with Ginobili tonight was his defense suffered in the fourth quarter due to him being tired. He started reaching instead of moving his feet. However, I lay that blame on Pop more than I do Manu. Ginobili just isn’t built to play 40 minutes – not even in the playoffs, much less on the second game of a back-to-back in January.
-When Bowen played, the Spurs did well. In his 28 minutes, the Spurs had a plus/minus of +15, which was the best mark on the team. Defensively, his energy level wasn’t high but he was doing a decent job. Offensively, Bowen hit the one shot he took. Pop sat Bowen to try to get more offense into the game but it turned out that the Spurs could have used Bowen’s defense in the fourth quarter.
-Jacque Vaughn started and made every Spurs fan miss Parker tremendously. In 37 minutes, Vaughn went 2-for-9 from the floor with four points and four assists. With Parker out and a lot of the role players struggling, more offense or more playmaking from Vaughn would have been nice. The Spurs got neither.
-Fabricio Oberto was playing harder than he has in recent weeks. In 33 minutes, the Argentine bigman scored 12 points and pulled down seven rebounds. He hit 6-of-9 shots from the floor and his defense all night was decent enough. That said, Oberto missed a big layup late and had Wilcox score a bucket on him late. That kind of performance at the end of the game won’t win Oberto more minutes from Pop.
-With Ginobili back in the starting lineup, Michael Finley was relegated to the bench. Offensively, he was bad. He finished 2-for-7 from the field on his way to six points in 22 minutes. Defensively, he was horrible. I haven’t seen Finley play this poorly on the defensive end of the court all season. He was matched up against Durant when Durant hit what turned out to be the game-winner late in the contest. Finley’s defense on that play might have been the worst defense played by a Spur all season long. He just ran into a pick and stopped. Thanks Fin for that fabulous effort.
-Udoka played 18 minutes and did nothing. He was 0-for-4 from the floor and his defense was uncharacteristically lazy. He was getting beat around screens all night without giving his usual effort. In the fourth quarter he got elbowed in the temple and blood started squirting out. I’m not sure if that was the highlight or the lowlight for Udoka on the night.
-Matt Bonner played 17 minutes but didn’t give Pop a reason why he should be put back into the rotation. Five points, two rebounds and 2-for-7 shooting against a horrible team isn’t exactly the performance you want to see from a guy who is trying to fight for more minutes. Bonner seems like a smart guy but it’d be nice if some of his real life IQ translated to basketball IQ at some point in his career. He had a defensive three seconds violation that had me wondering if Bonner had ever played in the NBA before tonight.
-Robert Horry played nine minutes and – surprise – did nothing. He missed his only shot from the field. He didn’t grab a rebound. Pop gave Bonner his minutes in the second half but Bonner made sure that the Horry experiment will live to see another day.
-This isn’t funny anymore, Pop. The Spurs are now only two games away from not even being in the playoffs. Their starting point guard is gone indefinitely. The Spurs are playing Duncan and Ginobili big minutes and even when they both play well at the same time, the Spurs are losing to horrible teams. Not good.
If you have a panic button at home or work or where ever you are reading this, it might not be time to push that button but you should definitely locate it hover your hand over it. If Parker is going to miss a significant amount of time, the Spurs won’t be fighting to move up the standings, they’ll be fighting to make the playoffs. This is the new reality.
With regards to the Sonics game, I thought Pop made an alarmingly high number of blunders. Bowen should have played more in the fourth because the supposed shooters weren’t hitting shots anyways. And, uh, Pop did you forget that Ginobili needs to rest? Ginobili was running on fumes in the fourth quarter. I know the bench sucks but the Spurs can’t pull out wins with Parker gone and Ginobili dead tired late in the fourth.
Next up, the Suns. In a weird way, this might be just what the doctor ordered. The Suns get destroyed by capable bigmen. Duncan is rather capable. The Suns also force the tempo and the Spurs would do well to actually have to run. Against the Sonics, the Spurs finished with a whopping zero fast break points. I know Parker was out but damn.
Logic tells me the Suns are going to destroy the Spurs. That said, I have a surprisingly good feeling about that game. I think the Spurs will beat the Suns. Then again, I was confident in the Spurs throughout the whole Sonics game and we saw how well that worked out.
This was one of those games where even if the Spurs are playing bad, they always find a way to win. It was close most of the way but I felt pretty confident that the Spurs would win. Against a Sonics team that not only sucks but wasn’t even playing particularly well, I thought the Spurs would be able to snap their two-game losing streak. I was wrong.
Props to the Sonics, I guess. Kevin Durant hit enough of his ill-advised shots to help lead his team to victory. Chris Wilcox, Nick Collison and Kurt Thomas all played well for Seattle. PJ Carlesimo has his team playing hard.
Truthfully though, this was just a horrible loss for the Spurs. I don’t even know how they found a way to lose the game. I’m hoping that this is the low point of the season but I’ve hoped that a couple times already this year.
Even worse than the loss is the news regarding Tony Parker. Parker not only missed this game, he returned to San Antonio to get an MRI on his troublesome foot. At the very least he’s out a week. It sounds as if there’s a strong possibility that he’ll be out a lot longer.
-Tim Duncan was decent. He got bullied in the low block by the Sonics’ bigs a little bit but he played well enough for the Spurs to win. His energy was good and even defensively he was better than he has been in recent games. He finished with 27 points, 12 rebounds and one blocked shots in 38 minutes of action. His defense still his room for improvement and I’d still like to see him utilize a wider repertoire on the low block, but overall Duncan wasn’t part of the problem tonight.
-Manu Ginobili played fantastic. Props to him for stepping up and having a big game with Parker sidelined. He took on a lot of the playmaking duties and on top of that scored very efficiently. Ginobili finished with 29 points, seven assists and only one turnover while shooting 10-for-17 from the field. He even led the team tonight in playing time at 40 minutes. My only complaint with Ginobili tonight was his defense suffered in the fourth quarter due to him being tired. He started reaching instead of moving his feet. However, I lay that blame on Pop more than I do Manu. Ginobili just isn’t built to play 40 minutes – not even in the playoffs, much less on the second game of a back-to-back in January.
-When Bowen played, the Spurs did well. In his 28 minutes, the Spurs had a plus/minus of +15, which was the best mark on the team. Defensively, his energy level wasn’t high but he was doing a decent job. Offensively, Bowen hit the one shot he took. Pop sat Bowen to try to get more offense into the game but it turned out that the Spurs could have used Bowen’s defense in the fourth quarter.
-Jacque Vaughn started and made every Spurs fan miss Parker tremendously. In 37 minutes, Vaughn went 2-for-9 from the floor with four points and four assists. With Parker out and a lot of the role players struggling, more offense or more playmaking from Vaughn would have been nice. The Spurs got neither.
-Fabricio Oberto was playing harder than he has in recent weeks. In 33 minutes, the Argentine bigman scored 12 points and pulled down seven rebounds. He hit 6-of-9 shots from the floor and his defense all night was decent enough. That said, Oberto missed a big layup late and had Wilcox score a bucket on him late. That kind of performance at the end of the game won’t win Oberto more minutes from Pop.
-With Ginobili back in the starting lineup, Michael Finley was relegated to the bench. Offensively, he was bad. He finished 2-for-7 from the field on his way to six points in 22 minutes. Defensively, he was horrible. I haven’t seen Finley play this poorly on the defensive end of the court all season. He was matched up against Durant when Durant hit what turned out to be the game-winner late in the contest. Finley’s defense on that play might have been the worst defense played by a Spur all season long. He just ran into a pick and stopped. Thanks Fin for that fabulous effort.
-Udoka played 18 minutes and did nothing. He was 0-for-4 from the floor and his defense was uncharacteristically lazy. He was getting beat around screens all night without giving his usual effort. In the fourth quarter he got elbowed in the temple and blood started squirting out. I’m not sure if that was the highlight or the lowlight for Udoka on the night.
-Matt Bonner played 17 minutes but didn’t give Pop a reason why he should be put back into the rotation. Five points, two rebounds and 2-for-7 shooting against a horrible team isn’t exactly the performance you want to see from a guy who is trying to fight for more minutes. Bonner seems like a smart guy but it’d be nice if some of his real life IQ translated to basketball IQ at some point in his career. He had a defensive three seconds violation that had me wondering if Bonner had ever played in the NBA before tonight.
-Robert Horry played nine minutes and – surprise – did nothing. He missed his only shot from the field. He didn’t grab a rebound. Pop gave Bonner his minutes in the second half but Bonner made sure that the Horry experiment will live to see another day.
-This isn’t funny anymore, Pop. The Spurs are now only two games away from not even being in the playoffs. Their starting point guard is gone indefinitely. The Spurs are playing Duncan and Ginobili big minutes and even when they both play well at the same time, the Spurs are losing to horrible teams. Not good.
If you have a panic button at home or work or where ever you are reading this, it might not be time to push that button but you should definitely locate it hover your hand over it. If Parker is going to miss a significant amount of time, the Spurs won’t be fighting to move up the standings, they’ll be fighting to make the playoffs. This is the new reality.
With regards to the Sonics game, I thought Pop made an alarmingly high number of blunders. Bowen should have played more in the fourth because the supposed shooters weren’t hitting shots anyways. And, uh, Pop did you forget that Ginobili needs to rest? Ginobili was running on fumes in the fourth quarter. I know the bench sucks but the Spurs can’t pull out wins with Parker gone and Ginobili dead tired late in the fourth.
Next up, the Suns. In a weird way, this might be just what the doctor ordered. The Suns get destroyed by capable bigmen. Duncan is rather capable. The Suns also force the tempo and the Spurs would do well to actually have to run. Against the Sonics, the Spurs finished with a whopping zero fast break points. I know Parker was out but damn.
Logic tells me the Suns are going to destroy the Spurs. That said, I have a surprisingly good feeling about that game. I think the Spurs will beat the Suns. Then again, I was confident in the Spurs throughout the whole Sonics game and we saw how well that worked out.