timvp
04-14-2008, 02:43 PM
The Spurs found themselves in another big game on Sunday afternoon. By Sunday night, the Spurs were trying to figure out what went wrong. After getting blown out for the third time this month, things do not look rosy in Spursland.
Give credit to the Lakers for playing a strong second half. With the teams tied at 53 at halftime, the Lakers came out in the third quarter and promptly started dominating the game. It appears that they will finish with the top seed in the Western Conference and they definitely looked the part on Sunday.
The Spurs are basically a mess right now. It doesn’t help that Manu Ginobili is out injured but the team should have shown more fight than it did on Sunday. They competed well in the first half but then came the predictable second half scoring drought. After getting outscored 53-32 in the second half, the Spurs looked as poor as they have all season.
The worst aspect is that both their offense and defense are struggling now. The Lakers shot 50% from the floor and were carving up the Spurs with ease. The Spurs shot 41.8% and struggled all afternoon to find open looks.
Is it time to give up on the season? Hardly. However, there should be concern. With the playoffs less than a week away, the Spurs are currently limping their way to the finish line. If you are a Spurs fan, the thing you have to hold on to is the team’s championship experience and playoff know-how. Other than that, it doesn’t look good right now.
-Tim Duncan is slumping at a bad time. He played another horrible game. Against the Lakers, he played about as poorly as Duncanly possible. Defensively he was invisible. Offensively he was missing everything. It was just an awful display of basketball. Worst of all, it didn’t even look like Duncan was competing out there. For the game, he had 16 points and 12 rebounds, while shooting 6-for-19 from the field. The Spurs desperately need the real Tim Duncan to resurface if they have any hope of turning this season around.
-Tony Parker played a really nice first half. In the second half, he was nowhere to be found. He simply disappeared off the face of the Staples Center court. With Ginobili out and Duncan struggling, Parker needed to carry the team. He did just that in the first half, as he had 18 points, five rebounds and five assists in the first two quarters. However, in the final two quarters, Parker managed only two points and two rebounds. That was far from the second half performance the Spurs needed out of their point guard. To be fair, Parker spent a lot of the second half watching from the bench. I’m starting to be a bit more concerned about the health of his ankle. In recent games, he seems to be fatiguing faster than usual. The result is not as much speed from him in the second half of games, which in turn makes the offense stale. Hopefully I’m wrong.
-Bruce Bowen defended Kobe Bryant decently well. Bryant only had 20 points on 6-for-14 shooting from the floor. Bowen didn’t help offensively, where he was 1-for-4 from the field. I thought his overall energy level was a bit lacking, which could be said for a lot of the Spurs.
-Michael Finley was a tiny bright spot for the Spurs. His shooting gave the Spurs a little bit of life. He was even able to create shots off the dribble when the Spurs offense had completely shut down. Finley finished with 11 points on 5-for-11 shooting from the field. Defensively and rebounding-wise, Finley didn’t help at all. No defense and one rebound in 33 minutes wasn’t exactly helpful.
-Fabricio Oberto started and played nine minutes. In that amount of time, he had three rebounds and a blocked shot. While he wasn’t horrible, it appeared to be another game where he was just going though the motions. If Oberto doesn’t give the team consistent effort in the playoffs, he won’t be starting much longer.
-Ime Udoka played 28 minutes off the bench and did a pretty good job. He finished with 14 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals, while shooting 4-for-10 from the court. I would have liked more rebounds out of him but overall it was a solid effort. It definitely wasn’t his fault that the Spurs lost.
-Kurt Thomas played 20 minutes and I wasn’t too impressed with the result. Two rebounds was weak, especially considering the Spurs were dominated on the boards 51-36. Thomas needs to start being more of a physical, rebounding presence when he’s out on the court. He shows glimpses of what he can be but overall his scoring, rebounding and blocked shots are down compared to his time on Seattle. The Spurs need more out of Thomas.
-I thought both Jacque Vaughn and Damon Stoudamire played pretty well off the bench, all things considered. Vaughn had eight points, three assists and no turnovers on 4-for-5 shooting from the floor. Stoudamire had six points, four assists and two rebounds on 3-for-6 shooting. Vaughn struggled at times with pace but overall he played well enough for the Spurs to win. Stoudamire played his best game since his early days with the Spurs. Hopefully this two-headed backup point guard monster will play well in the playoffs.
-Matt Bonner and DerMarr Johnson both mostly trash minutes. Neither did much, although it appears that Johnson did a lot of growing up while with the Austin Toros. He’s no longer the showboating gunner he used to be earlier in his career.
-I’m not even sure what to think about Pop right now. He has been preaching about how unimportant the end of the regular season is for the last couple weeks. He acts and coaches like these are your run of the mill regular season games and not the important games they appear to be on paper.
The Spurs don’t play with much intensity or heart these days. I think that starts with Pop. Hopefully his plan of keeping things safe and not going balls to the wall for homecourt advantage pays off in the long run. Right now it’s frustrating to watch. I definitely don’t think he’s throwing games on purpose but it’s also pretty obvious that he’s not coaching like these are important games.
Times are rough for the Spurs. I guess all we Spurs fans can hope is that the team stays as healthy as possible heading into the playoffs and that the team can then find its rhythm in the postseason. It’s not too far fetched to believe that Duncan can pull his head out of the Virgin Islands, Parker can pitch complete games and Ginobili can return to his earlier season form. If those three things happen, the Spurs will still have a shot at it all.
Tonight the Spurs face the Kings in what is unquestionably an important game in the Western Conference standings. If the Spurs lose this game, there’s a very real possibility that the Spurs will open the first round of the playoffs on the road. They need this one.
Believe.
Give credit to the Lakers for playing a strong second half. With the teams tied at 53 at halftime, the Lakers came out in the third quarter and promptly started dominating the game. It appears that they will finish with the top seed in the Western Conference and they definitely looked the part on Sunday.
The Spurs are basically a mess right now. It doesn’t help that Manu Ginobili is out injured but the team should have shown more fight than it did on Sunday. They competed well in the first half but then came the predictable second half scoring drought. After getting outscored 53-32 in the second half, the Spurs looked as poor as they have all season.
The worst aspect is that both their offense and defense are struggling now. The Lakers shot 50% from the floor and were carving up the Spurs with ease. The Spurs shot 41.8% and struggled all afternoon to find open looks.
Is it time to give up on the season? Hardly. However, there should be concern. With the playoffs less than a week away, the Spurs are currently limping their way to the finish line. If you are a Spurs fan, the thing you have to hold on to is the team’s championship experience and playoff know-how. Other than that, it doesn’t look good right now.
-Tim Duncan is slumping at a bad time. He played another horrible game. Against the Lakers, he played about as poorly as Duncanly possible. Defensively he was invisible. Offensively he was missing everything. It was just an awful display of basketball. Worst of all, it didn’t even look like Duncan was competing out there. For the game, he had 16 points and 12 rebounds, while shooting 6-for-19 from the field. The Spurs desperately need the real Tim Duncan to resurface if they have any hope of turning this season around.
-Tony Parker played a really nice first half. In the second half, he was nowhere to be found. He simply disappeared off the face of the Staples Center court. With Ginobili out and Duncan struggling, Parker needed to carry the team. He did just that in the first half, as he had 18 points, five rebounds and five assists in the first two quarters. However, in the final two quarters, Parker managed only two points and two rebounds. That was far from the second half performance the Spurs needed out of their point guard. To be fair, Parker spent a lot of the second half watching from the bench. I’m starting to be a bit more concerned about the health of his ankle. In recent games, he seems to be fatiguing faster than usual. The result is not as much speed from him in the second half of games, which in turn makes the offense stale. Hopefully I’m wrong.
-Bruce Bowen defended Kobe Bryant decently well. Bryant only had 20 points on 6-for-14 shooting from the floor. Bowen didn’t help offensively, where he was 1-for-4 from the field. I thought his overall energy level was a bit lacking, which could be said for a lot of the Spurs.
-Michael Finley was a tiny bright spot for the Spurs. His shooting gave the Spurs a little bit of life. He was even able to create shots off the dribble when the Spurs offense had completely shut down. Finley finished with 11 points on 5-for-11 shooting from the field. Defensively and rebounding-wise, Finley didn’t help at all. No defense and one rebound in 33 minutes wasn’t exactly helpful.
-Fabricio Oberto started and played nine minutes. In that amount of time, he had three rebounds and a blocked shot. While he wasn’t horrible, it appeared to be another game where he was just going though the motions. If Oberto doesn’t give the team consistent effort in the playoffs, he won’t be starting much longer.
-Ime Udoka played 28 minutes off the bench and did a pretty good job. He finished with 14 points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals, while shooting 4-for-10 from the court. I would have liked more rebounds out of him but overall it was a solid effort. It definitely wasn’t his fault that the Spurs lost.
-Kurt Thomas played 20 minutes and I wasn’t too impressed with the result. Two rebounds was weak, especially considering the Spurs were dominated on the boards 51-36. Thomas needs to start being more of a physical, rebounding presence when he’s out on the court. He shows glimpses of what he can be but overall his scoring, rebounding and blocked shots are down compared to his time on Seattle. The Spurs need more out of Thomas.
-I thought both Jacque Vaughn and Damon Stoudamire played pretty well off the bench, all things considered. Vaughn had eight points, three assists and no turnovers on 4-for-5 shooting from the floor. Stoudamire had six points, four assists and two rebounds on 3-for-6 shooting. Vaughn struggled at times with pace but overall he played well enough for the Spurs to win. Stoudamire played his best game since his early days with the Spurs. Hopefully this two-headed backup point guard monster will play well in the playoffs.
-Matt Bonner and DerMarr Johnson both mostly trash minutes. Neither did much, although it appears that Johnson did a lot of growing up while with the Austin Toros. He’s no longer the showboating gunner he used to be earlier in his career.
-I’m not even sure what to think about Pop right now. He has been preaching about how unimportant the end of the regular season is for the last couple weeks. He acts and coaches like these are your run of the mill regular season games and not the important games they appear to be on paper.
The Spurs don’t play with much intensity or heart these days. I think that starts with Pop. Hopefully his plan of keeping things safe and not going balls to the wall for homecourt advantage pays off in the long run. Right now it’s frustrating to watch. I definitely don’t think he’s throwing games on purpose but it’s also pretty obvious that he’s not coaching like these are important games.
Times are rough for the Spurs. I guess all we Spurs fans can hope is that the team stays as healthy as possible heading into the playoffs and that the team can then find its rhythm in the postseason. It’s not too far fetched to believe that Duncan can pull his head out of the Virgin Islands, Parker can pitch complete games and Ginobili can return to his earlier season form. If those three things happen, the Spurs will still have a shot at it all.
Tonight the Spurs face the Kings in what is unquestionably an important game in the Western Conference standings. If the Spurs lose this game, there’s a very real possibility that the Spurs will open the first round of the playoffs on the road. They need this one.
Believe.