McDonald: No surprise: Duncan will rest vs. OKC

No surprise: Duncan will rest vs. OKC
By Jeff McDonald

In the least surprising development perhaps of all time, Tim Duncan will be inactive for tonight's game at Oklahoma City.

Duncan played nearly 40 minutes in Tuesday's win over the Lakers, well more than the 32 a night Spurs coach Gregg Popovich would like him to play. Popovich will rest Duncan on the second night of this back-to-back, a plan the coach plans to employ more frequently over the second half of the season.

Tony Parker, who on Tuesday revealed that he was playing with plantar fasciitis in his left foot, is slated to play.

The 6-foot-7 Richard Jefferson will start at power forward alongside 6-foot-6 DeJuan Blair at center, giving the Spurs perhaps the smallest starting frontcourt in team history. This is a team that once paired 7-footer David Robinson with Duncan, after all.

It would be nice to have Parker out too, but I'll take it!

Hope this means we'll see some Ian.

Small ball :(

When has Pop become this predictable?

Hmm.. not sure how I feel about this.

lol ... front court .. this is going to be hilarious if it works ..

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Originally Posted by duncan228

[B][URL="http://blogs.mysanantonio.com/weblogs/courtside/"] 6-foot-6 DeJuan Blair at center.

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cmon hes not 6-6 ... wth ...

I don't blame him, RJ needs to have a tremendous game. :toast

WTF is with that starting frontcourt? Jesus, Pop. Put Theo in there or something.

I like TD DNP :tu whos starting is non-issue... just play spurs BB and live w/ the result
:flag:

rofl

Damned if he does damned if he doesn't...

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Originally Posted by EricB

Damned if he does damned if he doesn't...

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Surely you are not defending Pop's move here.

At least he should play Ian.

None of McDyess, Ratliff or Blair can stay with Greenanyway so i like the RJ matchup... but the Thunder are 8th in the league in rebounding so it coud turn out to be a problem in that regard, especially if Blair continues to struggle - he needs a good game if we are to have any chance. I guess we will see Bogans start on Durant and Mason and TP in the backcourt.

I expect to see plenty of Mahinmi aswell.

I don't really care who starts, but I really hope Ian gets some good PT..

Good idea about resting Duncan though, I'm 100% behind that..

Duncan is active but will not start according to the news.

"And here's the starting lineup for the San Antonio Warri...um..I mean Spurs."

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Originally Posted by benefactor

Surely you are not defending Pop's move here.

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In the least surprising development perhaps of all time, TPark defends Pop's decision.

This is smarter than the whole "sit a quarter and a half then dig us out of a hole" plan.

"No, no, no, dig UP, stupid!"

Well, at least this lineup isn't as small as the MICRO lineup George Karl had earlier this year.

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Originally Posted by Spursmania

Duncan is active but will not start according to the news.

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In the least surprising development perhaps of all time, Jeff McDonald makes a factual error in the first sentence of a six sentence blurb.

Duncan better not be active but coming off the bench..that was one of the worst strategies I've ever seen from Pop..

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Originally Posted by Obstructed_View

In the least surprising development perhaps of all time, TPark defends Pop's decision.

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I thought maybe for once even he could see a very obvious Pop fail moment.

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Originally Posted by HarlemHeat37

Duncan better not be active but coming off the bench..that was one of the worst strategies I've ever seen from Pop..

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Yeah, if the Spurs get down big early we might be wishing Timmy had come out in a suit, watching Pop fight the urge to put him in again.

super small ball. well then hairston is active. hope to see him get alot of minutes against a young thunder team.

Just rest baby!

Actually if Timmy's not going to start, it's not a bad lineup. Blair is for all intents and purposes 6'10", so he's not really undersized. Dice plays better off the bench, so you can put him in at the first timeout if you need more size and don't interrupt his rhythm, so long as you aren't starting Manu or Hill at the 2.

San Antonio's Tim Duncan won't play tonight against the Oklahoma City Thunder
The Oklahoman

San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said in pre-game that Tim Duncan will not play tonight. Popovich is trying limit his All-Star forward's minutes the second half of the season.

Duncan has played 29 consecutive games the past two months dating back to the first meeting with Oklahoma City on Nov. 11, when Duncan returned after missing two games with a sprained ankle.

Averaging 20.1 points, 10.4 rebounds and 1.9 blocks, Duncan played 40 minutes Tuesday night in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers.

"It's time to start (resting him)," Popovich said. "It's the second half of the season. It's part of rest and recovery. He started it last summer when he started doing his workouts a month later. We're going to continue it by making his sit out more back-to-backs than we ever have before. We'll see if it pays dividends come playoff time."

TD resting is no surprise, and I approve.

RJ at PF is kind of odd, but probably makes sense matchup-wise, with the Thunder's starting F-F-C being 6'9" Green, 6'9" Durant, and 7'0" Krstic.

Matchups aside, any other big besides Haislip next to Blair would have been fine.

Couple days off for Duncan means a fresh Duncan friday night.

Hope Ian gets a chance to make Pop make more tough decisions.

wow does pop not realize that the Thunder are not Pushovers anymore?

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Originally Posted by BanditHiro

wow does pop not realize that the Thunder are not Pushovers anymore?

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No he realizes without a rested and healthy Duncan in the playoffs, that means no championship.

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Originally Posted by BanditHiro

wow does pop not realize that the Thunder are not Pushovers anymore?

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im pretty sure he does. but a loss to the thunder is better than a loss to the lakers. besides duncan needs the rest.

good, i like this move.

i just hope pop doesnt flipflop and insert him if we are down 10+

IF we want TD playing at this level come playoff time, this is the way it has to be..

this isnt that bad of a decision anyway.

As much as I'd like to see Duncan get some rest, this team looks desperate and lost without him(Toronto game, Lakers when they cut the lead to 7 with Duncan on the bench).

Tony Parker, who on Tuesday revealed that he was playing with plantar fasciitis in his left foot, is slated to play.

Not sure if it's such a great thing if you rest the only guy who showed up during last year's playoffs, requiring the other players, including one who was injured during last year's playoffs, to have to play that much harder to pick up the slack against an otherwise pretty bad team.

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Originally Posted by HarlemHeat37

Duncan better not be active but coming off the bench..that was one of the worst strategies I've ever seen from Pop..

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agreed