timvp
03-29-2008, 06:32 AM
Stop me if you’ve heard this plot before. The Spurs get up early on a lottery-bound team. The Spurs fall asleep. The lottery-bound team makes a run. The Spurs wake up and put away the lottery-bound team. Friday night’s game was the same song, with the Minnesota Timberwolves singing the chorus.
It’s almost comical how the Spurs haven’t been able to put away these bad teams lately. The Spurs can get up but they can’t land the knockout punch. Instead, it takes a big fourth quarter to secure the win. This game, the Spurs outscored the T’Wolves 31-22 in the fourth to win 99-84.
Minnesota has assembled some good talent on their roster. Even though the Spurs guarded him well tonight, Al Jefferson is an offensive machine. Next to Tim Duncan, he might have the best post moves in the entire NBA. Ryan Gomes, Randy Foye, Corey Brewer and Craig Smith are quality role players that should help the T’Wolves make a push for the playoffs in a couple seasons.
For San Antonio, it was another ugly victory. I’m going to chalk the lack of a killer instinct to boredom at this point. You can literally see the team get bored and then regroup for a game-winning run.
Overall, I’ll definitely take the win. This current six-game winning streak has the Spurs near the top of the Western Conference standings. A few more wins and the Spurs could be back on top of the pack.
-I wasn’t too impressed with how Tim Duncan played. He didn’t have much energy offensively and settled for difficult shots most of the time. Defensively, he was pretty good but it was nothing to write home about. Duncan finished with 12 points, 14 rebounds, two assists, two blocks, one steal and no turnovers, while shooting 4-for-13 from the field and 4-for-4 from the line. His numbers turned out decent because he’s Tim Duncan, but the Spurs will need better efforts in the upcoming games.
-Manu Ginobili had another spectacular fourth quarter. In the final stanza, Ginobili had 16 points on 5-for-5 shooting from the field. The entire team has started to look to Ginobili to come up with magic in the fourth quarter. For much of the season, Ginobili has had no trouble pulling a rabbit out of his hat. In 25 minutes, Ginobili had 26 points, three assists and one rebound, while shooting 8-for-11 from the field and 5-for-8 from three-point land. Defensively, Ginobili wasn’t too active and he was one of the many Spurs who seemed to let up on the gas in the third quarter. But when it counted, Ginobili was there – again.
-Tony Parker played his role well. The Spurs need him to continually push the action and get easy shots for himself and others. He did just that for most of his time on the court. Parker finished with 18 points, eight assists and three rebounds, while shooting 7-for-13 from the floor. Parker’s play suffered when Pop moved him to shooting guard in the third quarter. The team became stagnant and Parker didn’t have the ball enough to help rev up the offense. That said, Parker has to be among those who keep constant pressure to not allow the team to hit lulls.
-Bruce Bowen only played 19 minutes since the T’Wolves don’t currently have a perimeter scorer. It was basically a night off for Bowen. In his 19, he had two points and two rebounds. With nothing for Bowen to do defensively, Pop opted for more offense.
-I don’t want to say Michael Finley is back but it is safe to say his condition is no longer grave. Left for dead just a few weeks ago, Finley poured in 16 points in 23 minutes on 7-for-8 shooting from the field. He’s playing confidently and his shot looks smooth right now. Even his defense is better than it was during his shooting slump. The Spurs don’t need much from Finley but if he can prove to be a semi-consistent fourth scorer, the Spurs become a much more difficult team to beat.
-Fabricio Oberto was one of the main culprits in the lacking energy department. He wasn’t moving too well and wasn’t very alert offensively or defensively. In 15 minutes, Oberto had two points and four rebounds. Hopefully Oberto will bring more effort on a consistent basis from here on out.
-Ime Udoka had a really nice game. He did a good job of picking his spots offensively and was active defensively. Udoka played 26 minutes and had eight points, three rebounds, one assist and one steal, while shooting 3-for-4 from the field. He also finished with a team-high plus/minus of +22. It was one of Udoka’s most solid outings in recent weeks, all aspects considered.
-Kurt Thomas played 21 minutes and did decent. The brightest spot of his play was his defense in the post against Jefferson. Offensively, Thomas was ragged and took a couple of questionable shots. He finished with four points and four rebounds on 2-for-5 shooting from the field. Thomas is proving to be a decent to good backup center but hasn’t shown many flashes recently of being capable of playing a major role for this team.
-I was really impressed with how Matt Bonner played. Usually, players who have taken residence in Pop’s doghouse don’t live to talk about it. Bonner seems to have taken his limited role in stride and there isn’t much rust when he plays. He just competes and provides good energy. That was especially true against Minnesota. In 21 minutes, Bonner had seven points and four rebounds, while hitting 3-of-4 shots. He doesn’t appear to be in line for meaningful playoff minutes but it’s good to know he’ll be ready when called on.
-Jacque Vaughn was again solid but he didn’t play as outstanding as he had been playing in the last six games. In 19 minutes, Vaughn had two points and two assists on 1-for-4 shooting. Even though his play wasn’t as crisp, he was still more than good enough.
-Damon Stoudamire played nine minutes and didn’t make a case for himself to play any additional minutes – to say the least. Honestly, he was horrible. Stoudamire was hesitant offensively and was a sieve defensively. He single-handedly stagnated the offense and allowed the T’Wolves to go on a run. To be fair, Stoudamire was obviously rusty after not playing meaningful minutes in quite a while.
-Robert Horry and Brent Barry both didn’t play. Horry is still recuperating from a knee bruise. Barry is trying to come back from his second calf strain of the season.
-Pop coached this game like he was coaching earlier in the year. The rotation was tossed to the side as Pop let everyone who was eligible to play get into the game for a decent run. Basically, Pop coached like this was a preseason game.
The results are pretty difficult to argue with. The Spurs won relatively easily with Parker playing 27 minutes, Ginobili playing 25 minutes and Bowen playing 19 minutes. It’s always good to get those players some rest, especially during this brutal month of March.
The coaching move I question most was Pop inserting Stoudamire into the game. The Spurs were rolling in the third quarter and then Pop let Stoudamire play the second half of the quarter. Instead of putting him in for Parker, Pop put Stoudamire next to Parker. That alignment just caused confusion for everyone and it couldn’t have done much for Stoudamire’s confidence. I realize that Pop is trying to keep Stoudamire in shape and mentally into things but it was a odd time and an odd alignment to put him in there. Waiting for the start of the fourth quarter and letting him play the whole fourth quarter would have made more sense, to me at least.
The bottomline is the Spurs didn’t end up losing the game. Pop and the team casually went about things and got their sixth straight win. But now it is time for the team to dial it up. The schedule gets a lot tougher from now until the end of the season. The Spurs play the Houston Rockets on Sunday afternoon at home in a game that has a lot of playoff implications. The Spurs need to handle the Rockets and extend this winning streak to seven games.
Believe.
It’s almost comical how the Spurs haven’t been able to put away these bad teams lately. The Spurs can get up but they can’t land the knockout punch. Instead, it takes a big fourth quarter to secure the win. This game, the Spurs outscored the T’Wolves 31-22 in the fourth to win 99-84.
Minnesota has assembled some good talent on their roster. Even though the Spurs guarded him well tonight, Al Jefferson is an offensive machine. Next to Tim Duncan, he might have the best post moves in the entire NBA. Ryan Gomes, Randy Foye, Corey Brewer and Craig Smith are quality role players that should help the T’Wolves make a push for the playoffs in a couple seasons.
For San Antonio, it was another ugly victory. I’m going to chalk the lack of a killer instinct to boredom at this point. You can literally see the team get bored and then regroup for a game-winning run.
Overall, I’ll definitely take the win. This current six-game winning streak has the Spurs near the top of the Western Conference standings. A few more wins and the Spurs could be back on top of the pack.
-I wasn’t too impressed with how Tim Duncan played. He didn’t have much energy offensively and settled for difficult shots most of the time. Defensively, he was pretty good but it was nothing to write home about. Duncan finished with 12 points, 14 rebounds, two assists, two blocks, one steal and no turnovers, while shooting 4-for-13 from the field and 4-for-4 from the line. His numbers turned out decent because he’s Tim Duncan, but the Spurs will need better efforts in the upcoming games.
-Manu Ginobili had another spectacular fourth quarter. In the final stanza, Ginobili had 16 points on 5-for-5 shooting from the field. The entire team has started to look to Ginobili to come up with magic in the fourth quarter. For much of the season, Ginobili has had no trouble pulling a rabbit out of his hat. In 25 minutes, Ginobili had 26 points, three assists and one rebound, while shooting 8-for-11 from the field and 5-for-8 from three-point land. Defensively, Ginobili wasn’t too active and he was one of the many Spurs who seemed to let up on the gas in the third quarter. But when it counted, Ginobili was there – again.
-Tony Parker played his role well. The Spurs need him to continually push the action and get easy shots for himself and others. He did just that for most of his time on the court. Parker finished with 18 points, eight assists and three rebounds, while shooting 7-for-13 from the floor. Parker’s play suffered when Pop moved him to shooting guard in the third quarter. The team became stagnant and Parker didn’t have the ball enough to help rev up the offense. That said, Parker has to be among those who keep constant pressure to not allow the team to hit lulls.
-Bruce Bowen only played 19 minutes since the T’Wolves don’t currently have a perimeter scorer. It was basically a night off for Bowen. In his 19, he had two points and two rebounds. With nothing for Bowen to do defensively, Pop opted for more offense.
-I don’t want to say Michael Finley is back but it is safe to say his condition is no longer grave. Left for dead just a few weeks ago, Finley poured in 16 points in 23 minutes on 7-for-8 shooting from the field. He’s playing confidently and his shot looks smooth right now. Even his defense is better than it was during his shooting slump. The Spurs don’t need much from Finley but if he can prove to be a semi-consistent fourth scorer, the Spurs become a much more difficult team to beat.
-Fabricio Oberto was one of the main culprits in the lacking energy department. He wasn’t moving too well and wasn’t very alert offensively or defensively. In 15 minutes, Oberto had two points and four rebounds. Hopefully Oberto will bring more effort on a consistent basis from here on out.
-Ime Udoka had a really nice game. He did a good job of picking his spots offensively and was active defensively. Udoka played 26 minutes and had eight points, three rebounds, one assist and one steal, while shooting 3-for-4 from the field. He also finished with a team-high plus/minus of +22. It was one of Udoka’s most solid outings in recent weeks, all aspects considered.
-Kurt Thomas played 21 minutes and did decent. The brightest spot of his play was his defense in the post against Jefferson. Offensively, Thomas was ragged and took a couple of questionable shots. He finished with four points and four rebounds on 2-for-5 shooting from the field. Thomas is proving to be a decent to good backup center but hasn’t shown many flashes recently of being capable of playing a major role for this team.
-I was really impressed with how Matt Bonner played. Usually, players who have taken residence in Pop’s doghouse don’t live to talk about it. Bonner seems to have taken his limited role in stride and there isn’t much rust when he plays. He just competes and provides good energy. That was especially true against Minnesota. In 21 minutes, Bonner had seven points and four rebounds, while hitting 3-of-4 shots. He doesn’t appear to be in line for meaningful playoff minutes but it’s good to know he’ll be ready when called on.
-Jacque Vaughn was again solid but he didn’t play as outstanding as he had been playing in the last six games. In 19 minutes, Vaughn had two points and two assists on 1-for-4 shooting. Even though his play wasn’t as crisp, he was still more than good enough.
-Damon Stoudamire played nine minutes and didn’t make a case for himself to play any additional minutes – to say the least. Honestly, he was horrible. Stoudamire was hesitant offensively and was a sieve defensively. He single-handedly stagnated the offense and allowed the T’Wolves to go on a run. To be fair, Stoudamire was obviously rusty after not playing meaningful minutes in quite a while.
-Robert Horry and Brent Barry both didn’t play. Horry is still recuperating from a knee bruise. Barry is trying to come back from his second calf strain of the season.
-Pop coached this game like he was coaching earlier in the year. The rotation was tossed to the side as Pop let everyone who was eligible to play get into the game for a decent run. Basically, Pop coached like this was a preseason game.
The results are pretty difficult to argue with. The Spurs won relatively easily with Parker playing 27 minutes, Ginobili playing 25 minutes and Bowen playing 19 minutes. It’s always good to get those players some rest, especially during this brutal month of March.
The coaching move I question most was Pop inserting Stoudamire into the game. The Spurs were rolling in the third quarter and then Pop let Stoudamire play the second half of the quarter. Instead of putting him in for Parker, Pop put Stoudamire next to Parker. That alignment just caused confusion for everyone and it couldn’t have done much for Stoudamire’s confidence. I realize that Pop is trying to keep Stoudamire in shape and mentally into things but it was a odd time and an odd alignment to put him in there. Waiting for the start of the fourth quarter and letting him play the whole fourth quarter would have made more sense, to me at least.
The bottomline is the Spurs didn’t end up losing the game. Pop and the team casually went about things and got their sixth straight win. But now it is time for the team to dial it up. The schedule gets a lot tougher from now until the end of the season. The Spurs play the Houston Rockets on Sunday afternoon at home in a game that has a lot of playoff implications. The Spurs need to handle the Rockets and extend this winning streak to seven games.
Believe.