timvp
03-11-2008, 12:35 AM
The Spurs snapped their two-game losing streak by beating the Denver Nuggets in the AT&T Center by a final score of 107-103. It wasn’t a classic Spurs victory because their defense wasn’t great but they came up with enough offensive production to sneak away with a victory.
No one player dominated offensively for the Spurs; instead, the Spurs used good teamwork and physical play to score. Against a desperate Nuggets team that is playing with their season literally on the line, nothing was easy for the Spurs on Monday night.
The Nuggets are immensely talented. They can go about nine players deep with guys who can really play. Their cohesiveness defensively is lacking but offensively, they have as many weapons as any team in the NBA. Like I said a couple days ago, I fully expect the Nuggets to make the playoffs. I don’t think they’ll lose many more regular season games between now and the end of the regular season.
The Spurs were playing their fourth game in five nights and at times it was obvious that they lacked energy. Luckily, everyone in the building knew this was a game the Spurs really needed to have with their wicked upcoming schedule.
Overall, it was an important victory. For the moment, the Spurs are back on top of the Western Conference standings. While that probably won’t remain that way at the end of the week, at least the Spurs have given themselves a fighting chance at the number one seed with 19 games left in the regular season.
-The Nuggets always give Duncan trouble because they are physical, long, athletic and can throw multiple defenders at him. Give Duncan credit because he competed all night long and helped will his team to victory. He finished with 23 points, 18 rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots, while shooting 7-for-15 from the field and 9-for-10 from the free throw line. His defense was adequate and he was being a lot smarter with the ball compared to recent games. Duncan wasn’t great but, like the Spurs, he was good enough tonight.
-Manu Ginobili did a fantastic job of adjusting to how teams have been guarding him recently. He has been scoring the ball so well that teams are now sending help to him and overloading the strong side when he has the ball. Last game against the Phoenix Suns, Ginobili tried to fight through that type of defense. Tonight, Ginobili drew the attention and then found the open man – over and over again. He handed out a career-high 14 assists, with ten of his assists coming in the first half alone. To go along with those assists, Ginobili had 13 points on 4-for-11 shooting from the field. Defensively, he wasn’t nearly as effective. Pop continually put him on the worst player on the court but Ginobili had close to no energy on that end of the court. He was mostly just using defense as a time to rest, which is somewhat understandable because he has played a lot of minutes recently. Ginobili, who was back in the starting lineup, left the game for a period of time in the fourth quarter with what looked like a hip injury. Hopefully he won’t have to miss any time because the Spurs desperately need him this week.
-Tony Parker is playing an odd brand of basketball right now. I would say he’s hurting but he shows bursts of speed and quickness that he didn’t show the last time his ankle was bothering him. Let’s hope that his offensive game is just in some sort of a funk. Parker finished with 16 points and four assists, while shooting 6-of-14 from the field. While his offense as a whole wasn’t up to par, he did save his best offense for the end of the game. The Spurs’ late game offensive execution came in large part due to Parker. Defensively, Parker started off relatively weak but by the end of the game, he was playing terrific defense on Allen Iverson. In the fourth quarter, Iverson hit only one shot. In fact, Parker held Iverson scoreless in the last six minutes of the game. When Parker is giving 100% effort defensively against Iverson, I don’t think anyone in the NBA guards Iverson as well as Parker can.
-Bruce Bowen led the team in minutes with 41 and most of that time on the court was spent guarding Carmelo Anthony. Anthony is a tough player for Bowen to guard but he did a respectable job against Anthony. In the first half, Anthony had the upper hand. In the second half, Bowen took control and held him to one basket. Offensively, Bowen hit half of his eight shot attempts, including both of his three-pointers. He also added two rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot.
-I was impressed with what Kurt Thomas did for the Spurs. He played the entire fourth quarter and hit perhaps the biggest basket of the night for the Spurs when he drained a jumper to put the Spurs up four points with one minute left. On the night, Thomas had 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting from the floor. In 24 minutes, Thomas only had two rebounds – which is probably an anomaly of a stat because his rebounding numbers have been outstanding all season. It’s interesting that Pop trusts him so much in the fourth quarter right now. I’m not sure if it’s because Pop thinks Thomas is the team’s best option or Pop is just trying to speed up Thomas' learning curve.
-Michael Finley didn’t get into the game until a couple minutes into the second quarter. He has struggled violently with his shot as of late but tonight he actually shot the ball well. He hit half of his six attempts to total eight points in 19 minutes. This was hopefully a step in the right direction offensively for Finley. Although defensively, I’m seeing some distressing signs. Finley, who was matched up primarily with JR Smith, let Smith drive around him with ease almost every time Smith touched the ball. Finley’s lateral quickness has been horrible in the last couple of weeks. I don’t know if he’s battling an injury or if age has caught up to him. Whatever the reason, Finley is a huge defensively liability right now.
-Matt Bonner gave the Spurs big minutes off the bench. Pop likely turned to Bonner because Bonner has more energy to burn than anyone on the team at this point. Bonner was far from flawless but he provided grit and points – two things the Spurs desperately needed tonight. In 15 minutes, Bonner had ten points, two rebounds, one steal and one blocked shot, while shooting 4-for-8 from the field. Bonner has actually responded rather well to being placed in Pop’s doghouse. He doesn’t show many signs of rust or resentment – he’s just out there just trying to help the team win.
-Ime Udoka was the first swingman off the bench for the Spurs. He responded with a poor effort, overall. He seemed too trigger happy and wasn’t connecting on nearly enough of his attempts. His defense was below average and he wasn’t being his normal physical self. Thankfully, Udoka played better in the second half and scored a few important points in the fourth quarter. With a good performance tonight, he could have really made a case for himself to move head and shoulders over Finley in the rotation. He came up short in that respect.
-Fabricio Oberto is playing better and better off the bench. While his minutes were once again slim, he finished with two points, four rebounds, an assist and a steal in eight minutes. I thought he actually played pretty well and could have deserved more minutes but with Pop going with Thomas more and more, Oberto is seeing his minutes limited.
-Damon Stoudamire and Jacque Vaughn split the backup minutes at point guard. Neither one of them played too well. Stoudamire had two points and two assists in five minutes, while Vaughn had one rebound in three minutes. At some point, Pop will either need to stick with Stoudamire or give the backup job back to Vaughn.
-Robert Horry and Brent Barry played the same amount of minutes tonight.
-Pop didn’t reach too far into his ol’ bag of tricks tonight. He gave extended minutes to his best players and leaned on them in the fourth quarter to pull out the win.
Since I was hard on Pop for his coaching last time against the Nuggets, I have to applaud him for his much better coaching job this game – especially defensively. Parker on Iverson and Bowen on Anthony is the right way to defend the Nuggets. Pop didn’t mess with the assignments and let both Parker and Bowen adjust and defend better as the game went on.
Pop should soon decide on the rotation. I don’t know if he’s waiting for Barry to return but this is late in the season to still be tinkering on a daily basis. Ginobili can make the needed adjustment but it’d be nice if he knew whether or not he’d be starting from game to game.
The bottomline is the Spurs needed this win and they got it. The Spurs travel to New Orleans to take on the Hornets on Wednesday. Anyone who saw what the Hornets did to the Spurs in the AT&T Center earlier in the season knows how hard that game will be to win. The Spurs will need to play much better than they’ve played recently.
Believe.
No one player dominated offensively for the Spurs; instead, the Spurs used good teamwork and physical play to score. Against a desperate Nuggets team that is playing with their season literally on the line, nothing was easy for the Spurs on Monday night.
The Nuggets are immensely talented. They can go about nine players deep with guys who can really play. Their cohesiveness defensively is lacking but offensively, they have as many weapons as any team in the NBA. Like I said a couple days ago, I fully expect the Nuggets to make the playoffs. I don’t think they’ll lose many more regular season games between now and the end of the regular season.
The Spurs were playing their fourth game in five nights and at times it was obvious that they lacked energy. Luckily, everyone in the building knew this was a game the Spurs really needed to have with their wicked upcoming schedule.
Overall, it was an important victory. For the moment, the Spurs are back on top of the Western Conference standings. While that probably won’t remain that way at the end of the week, at least the Spurs have given themselves a fighting chance at the number one seed with 19 games left in the regular season.
-The Nuggets always give Duncan trouble because they are physical, long, athletic and can throw multiple defenders at him. Give Duncan credit because he competed all night long and helped will his team to victory. He finished with 23 points, 18 rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots, while shooting 7-for-15 from the field and 9-for-10 from the free throw line. His defense was adequate and he was being a lot smarter with the ball compared to recent games. Duncan wasn’t great but, like the Spurs, he was good enough tonight.
-Manu Ginobili did a fantastic job of adjusting to how teams have been guarding him recently. He has been scoring the ball so well that teams are now sending help to him and overloading the strong side when he has the ball. Last game against the Phoenix Suns, Ginobili tried to fight through that type of defense. Tonight, Ginobili drew the attention and then found the open man – over and over again. He handed out a career-high 14 assists, with ten of his assists coming in the first half alone. To go along with those assists, Ginobili had 13 points on 4-for-11 shooting from the field. Defensively, he wasn’t nearly as effective. Pop continually put him on the worst player on the court but Ginobili had close to no energy on that end of the court. He was mostly just using defense as a time to rest, which is somewhat understandable because he has played a lot of minutes recently. Ginobili, who was back in the starting lineup, left the game for a period of time in the fourth quarter with what looked like a hip injury. Hopefully he won’t have to miss any time because the Spurs desperately need him this week.
-Tony Parker is playing an odd brand of basketball right now. I would say he’s hurting but he shows bursts of speed and quickness that he didn’t show the last time his ankle was bothering him. Let’s hope that his offensive game is just in some sort of a funk. Parker finished with 16 points and four assists, while shooting 6-of-14 from the field. While his offense as a whole wasn’t up to par, he did save his best offense for the end of the game. The Spurs’ late game offensive execution came in large part due to Parker. Defensively, Parker started off relatively weak but by the end of the game, he was playing terrific defense on Allen Iverson. In the fourth quarter, Iverson hit only one shot. In fact, Parker held Iverson scoreless in the last six minutes of the game. When Parker is giving 100% effort defensively against Iverson, I don’t think anyone in the NBA guards Iverson as well as Parker can.
-Bruce Bowen led the team in minutes with 41 and most of that time on the court was spent guarding Carmelo Anthony. Anthony is a tough player for Bowen to guard but he did a respectable job against Anthony. In the first half, Anthony had the upper hand. In the second half, Bowen took control and held him to one basket. Offensively, Bowen hit half of his eight shot attempts, including both of his three-pointers. He also added two rebounds, two steals and a blocked shot.
-I was impressed with what Kurt Thomas did for the Spurs. He played the entire fourth quarter and hit perhaps the biggest basket of the night for the Spurs when he drained a jumper to put the Spurs up four points with one minute left. On the night, Thomas had 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting from the floor. In 24 minutes, Thomas only had two rebounds – which is probably an anomaly of a stat because his rebounding numbers have been outstanding all season. It’s interesting that Pop trusts him so much in the fourth quarter right now. I’m not sure if it’s because Pop thinks Thomas is the team’s best option or Pop is just trying to speed up Thomas' learning curve.
-Michael Finley didn’t get into the game until a couple minutes into the second quarter. He has struggled violently with his shot as of late but tonight he actually shot the ball well. He hit half of his six attempts to total eight points in 19 minutes. This was hopefully a step in the right direction offensively for Finley. Although defensively, I’m seeing some distressing signs. Finley, who was matched up primarily with JR Smith, let Smith drive around him with ease almost every time Smith touched the ball. Finley’s lateral quickness has been horrible in the last couple of weeks. I don’t know if he’s battling an injury or if age has caught up to him. Whatever the reason, Finley is a huge defensively liability right now.
-Matt Bonner gave the Spurs big minutes off the bench. Pop likely turned to Bonner because Bonner has more energy to burn than anyone on the team at this point. Bonner was far from flawless but he provided grit and points – two things the Spurs desperately needed tonight. In 15 minutes, Bonner had ten points, two rebounds, one steal and one blocked shot, while shooting 4-for-8 from the field. Bonner has actually responded rather well to being placed in Pop’s doghouse. He doesn’t show many signs of rust or resentment – he’s just out there just trying to help the team win.
-Ime Udoka was the first swingman off the bench for the Spurs. He responded with a poor effort, overall. He seemed too trigger happy and wasn’t connecting on nearly enough of his attempts. His defense was below average and he wasn’t being his normal physical self. Thankfully, Udoka played better in the second half and scored a few important points in the fourth quarter. With a good performance tonight, he could have really made a case for himself to move head and shoulders over Finley in the rotation. He came up short in that respect.
-Fabricio Oberto is playing better and better off the bench. While his minutes were once again slim, he finished with two points, four rebounds, an assist and a steal in eight minutes. I thought he actually played pretty well and could have deserved more minutes but with Pop going with Thomas more and more, Oberto is seeing his minutes limited.
-Damon Stoudamire and Jacque Vaughn split the backup minutes at point guard. Neither one of them played too well. Stoudamire had two points and two assists in five minutes, while Vaughn had one rebound in three minutes. At some point, Pop will either need to stick with Stoudamire or give the backup job back to Vaughn.
-Robert Horry and Brent Barry played the same amount of minutes tonight.
-Pop didn’t reach too far into his ol’ bag of tricks tonight. He gave extended minutes to his best players and leaned on them in the fourth quarter to pull out the win.
Since I was hard on Pop for his coaching last time against the Nuggets, I have to applaud him for his much better coaching job this game – especially defensively. Parker on Iverson and Bowen on Anthony is the right way to defend the Nuggets. Pop didn’t mess with the assignments and let both Parker and Bowen adjust and defend better as the game went on.
Pop should soon decide on the rotation. I don’t know if he’s waiting for Barry to return but this is late in the season to still be tinkering on a daily basis. Ginobili can make the needed adjustment but it’d be nice if he knew whether or not he’d be starting from game to game.
The bottomline is the Spurs needed this win and they got it. The Spurs travel to New Orleans to take on the Hornets on Wednesday. Anyone who saw what the Hornets did to the Spurs in the AT&T Center earlier in the season knows how hard that game will be to win. The Spurs will need to play much better than they’ve played recently.
Believe.