Game Thoughts: Spurs vs. Rockets - Nov. 16

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Originally Posted by timvp

-Jacque Vaughn was out on the court for 15 minutes and did nothing other than miss two shots. One of those shots was a bad shot early in the possession. However, when it comes to Vaughn, less is more. If you see an empty stat line, that means Vaughn is doing his job. Vaughn is best when he plays defense and then on offense gives the ball to someone else (usually Ginobili) and just gets out of the way.

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I only got to see the second half, but what I saw was that Vaughn was horrible on defense. Rafer Alston went buckwild on him for a stretch.

Scola is just starting to show his skills, every nba coach underestimates foreign players by default, Manu and Scola will never be the stars, because they play good team basketball and fans don't like team play :D.

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Originally Posted by kuato

Scola is just starting to show his skills, every nba coach underestimates foreign players by default, Manu and Scola will never be the stars, because they play good team basketball and fans don't like team play :D.

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Yeah, that's why selfish guys like Tim Duncan are the stars and more popular in San Antonio than Manu.

Yes just in SA, and that's why I'm an spur´s fan but look other teams and other foreign player like Chapu, Delfino, Herrmann ... well I'm just pointing that team play is not popular and thats why a lot of fans don't see what spurs have lost in Scola trade . I don't see why Luis Scola need to prove that he is a good player.

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Yes just in SA, and thats why im an spur´s fan

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Well congratulations on your nationality-dependent fandom.

Nothing to do with nations, I'm just pointing that a lot of people is still talking about if Scola can play in NBA, suggesting that all of his euro credits are nothing.

Euro credits don't necessarily mean anything in the NBA.

Euro Credit = 1.45 x NBA Credit

:p:

Yea Right, because euro basket is played with sticks ¿?¿?¿ ahaha, your point is valid too but basketball is basketball and Scola was multiple mvp, we cant discuss if he knows how to play, if he knows how to shoot ... , we can discuss if he will adapt to the league (personally i think he will). Anyway, spurs won and that's what counts. I will send you an Argentina flag (joke).

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Originally Posted by ploto

I could have sworn people said Scola could not play alongside Duncan but he sure looks fine alongside Yao. Then they said he could not defend, but he has that sneaky Argentine defense. Oh, but his game will NEVER transfer to the NBA. We need Bonner! :lol

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:reading I don't remember that :p:

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Originally Posted by whottt

He's making me think that too...I know they are both chokers...but Bonner takes it to a whole new level. The slightest bit of pressure and he becomes a headcase...Mengke Bateer had more poise. I know he's a nice guy...but he can go be a nice choking guy on someone else's team...I'll still like him...in fact I'll like him even more if he does it for the Mavs :tu





No! Really?

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Bonner sucks. Last year timvp made a rallying call to take your least favorite Spur and make him your avatar and somehow came up that mine was Horry so I made mine Horry. wtfn. Well I'm legitmately about to change it to Bonner for the 2007-2008 year, Here's the next guy Spurs will be dumping assests to unload. Pobably Splitter and Bonner for some 1998 second round pick playing in Kamkuchee.

SAS concentrated on limiting the things Houston did well in the game earlier this month - such as limiting their offensive rebounds, slowing down Bonzi, slowing down Mike James, slowing down YAO. They did a pretty good job on all of those fronts. All of those shots for Scola tonight will dry up when McGrady gets back.

I have seen a few Rockets games earlier this year and LS has tended to move around on the weak side of the floor patrolling for offensive rebounds - he looked a little lost to me and was not getting a lot of shots. His teamates would not pass the ball to him. Tonight, without TM, he let the shots fly and the Spurs did not contest his outside shot more than once or twice. Unfortunately for the SAS, the shots went in.

When McGrady is on the floor, the Rocket offense is basically (1) Watch TM pound the ball, make a move and get a shot off (2) Throw the ball to YAO for a jumper (3) Allow the smaller scorers (Alston, James, Wells) to go one on one and jack up a shot. (4) Scraps for the power forward. There is not consistent movement of the ball in and out or side to side. As a result, opponents can often limit their scoring. Adelman's offensive system historically has required good passing from the forwards and center (Webber, Divac, Miller). Houston's big people are not as good in that area and McGrady needs the ball be in his hands a great deal of the time to shoot or (occasionally) pass. It may take a while for Houston to become a good offensive group with the new system assuming everyone can stay healthy. HR scored only 84 points even with Luis' 10-11.

By the way, I have not seen so many uncontested jumpshots from an opposing player in a long time. I would rather sag off LS than to allow James or Alston a bunch of uncontested 3's. Pop was going with the percentages and in the end it worked.

Correct me if I'm completely off base (I don't think I am), but I think Splitter (next year) and Mahimi (in time) will take away a lot of the temporary teeth nashing we are seeing now in the ST forum. Those guys are young (21 or 22), athletic, legitimate 6-11 players with the versatility to play the 4 or 5 - they can help us for many years in the future. Bonner does contribute in that he speads the floor as a long range shooter and competes well defensively - he even worked over Yao Ming by fronting him a time or two tonight.

It is not a good thing for us that Scola is with Houston. We as Spurs people need to remember that the 5 year impasse with Scola, his agent, and Tau Ceramica got to the point where the agent accused the SAS of making LS a "Prisoner". LS can talk all he wants to about there being no hard feelings, but nothing is further from the truth. He was highly motivated for this game in SA - he and his agent had absolutely NO interest in coming to San Antonio and being a backup to Tim Duncan for the next three to five years. Unfortunately for the Spurs, bridges had already been burned before this summer and there was apparently no turning back. Shoulda, Woulda, Coulda.

BTW LS is not a good one on one defender. LS was help defending in the lane three or four times waiting for drivers and flying backward like he's been shot after minimal contact. A couple of those offensive fouls he drew were simply laughable. Scola needs some more acting lessons from Manu - a least MG actually gets hit some when trying to to draw an OF.

I have rarely seen a rookie player like Scola get more unwarranted respect in a game defensively, allowing continuous, heavy contact in the post - Duncan was about to go upside his head after getting pounded the entire first half. If the officials had been doing their job tonight, Luis would have played about ten minutes and fouled out.

Thanks for the recap timvp

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For the same money, would you rather have Luis Scola or Matt Bonner?

Thanks.

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If Bonner could play like he did against LA I'd prefer him. He made that game a lot easier when he hit his shots and played hard, going after boards and trying to play D. But I'm afraid that Bonner will not show every night

For the next 3 season for the same money I'd rather have Scola but I hope that Bonner can play in that LA level more often.

And I have one question.

Do you want to keep JV playing as a backup PG or would rather give DW minutes eary in the season?

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Originally Posted by ChumpDumper

I'm dumb

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you bet your ass YOU ARE.

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Originally Posted by ArgSpursFan.

you bet your ass YOU ARE.

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Uh, I think he was being sarcastic...

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Originally Posted by some_user86

Uh, I think he was being sarcastic...

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yeah,me too.....

But now that I think about it, He was actually right.

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Originally Posted by ArgSpursFan.

yeah,me too.....

But now that I think about it, He was actually right.

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You changed your post since I posted. You hadn't malformed Chump's quote when I replied to it.

I think Finley's pressured by Manu's great early season play. He feels guilty that he's a starter who's not producing, while Manu is kicking ass yet not even make the smallest gesture of wanting to start again. He's in a slump yet the pressure makes it worse IMHO.

On Bonner, yeah, ChumpD said it correctly, he's playing outside his boundary trying to impress while Horry's out, yet when it backfires, his game becomes uncontrolled offensively, and his already weak defense gets worse.

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Originally Posted by SpursIndonesia

I think Finley's pressured by Manu's great early season play. He feels guilty that he's a starter who's not producing, while Manu is kicking ass yet not even make the smallest gesture of wanting to start again. He's in a slump yet the pressure makes it worse IMHO.

On Bonner, yeah, ChumpD said it correctly, he's playing outside his boundary trying to impress while Horry's out, yet when it backfires, his game becomes uncontrolled offensively, and his already weak defense gets worse.

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If bonner wants to impress while Horry is out,He should defenetly go take some classes from Scola.
He actually impresed everybody last night.

I only got to watch part of the fourth quarter. Although Tim had better stats than Yao tonight, I saw a look of frustration on his face when Yao hit a couple of fade away jumpers with Tim all over him defensively.

although he is a little slow footed, Yao is the real deal on offense.

Scola may have proved to his team he can step up and score when he's needed (like with TMAC out). In past games they've appeared to be playing 'freeze out' when he was open, but he hasn't played 10 games in the NBA yet.

Spurs did their usual thing at the end. Stepped up the defensive pressure yet another notch and waited for the opponent's offense to break. It did. We won.

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Originally Posted by timvp

-Matt Bonner has to be making the Spurs think about whether they made the right move by trading away Scola. While he was on the court, the only thing he did of note was turn the ball over. He didn’t score and didn’t grab a rebound, while on the other end Scola was playing flawlessly. Considering that Bonner got a larger contract than Scola, the Spurs front office has to be second guessing themselves right about now. Bonner was good early in the season but he’s been pretty horrible for the last couple weeks. Scola showing a perimeter jumper and better defensive skills than Bonner has ever shown isn’t a good combination.

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I can't make it out. Why Pop put Bonner over Scola as soon as he did?. Why not Oberto? How many points Scola scored on Bonner? 8 in 2nd quarter (and 4 over Elson in 1st quarter).
Oberto controlled Scola easily when he to guard him, the rox rookie couldn't score on him and missed his shot (2:10' remaining 3nd quarter).
Fab knows how to play against Scola much better than Matt. I put it down to his lack of experience but when it comes to the crunch Bonner's defensive sucks.
I'd rather have Oberto plays D on Scola all the time, the rox rookie is a small forward and Oberto always did well in those match up (like Boozer/Utah West/NO, ).
Popovich has nothing to lose to by trying the next games vs Rox.

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Originally Posted by thousandth

I can't make it out. Why Pop put Bonner over Scola as soon as he did?. Why not Oberto? How many points Scola scored on Bonner? 8 in 2nd quarter (and 4 over Elson in 1st quarter).
Oberto controlled Scola easily when he to guard him, the rox rookie couldn't score on him and missed his shot (2:10' remaining 3nd quarter).
Fab knows how to play against Scola much better than Matt. I put it down to his lack of experience but when it comes to the crunch Bonner's defensive sucks.
I'd rather have Oberto plays D on Scola all the time, the rox rookie is a small forward and Oberto always did well in those match up (like Boozer/Utah West/NO, ).
Popovich has nothing to lose to by trying the next games vs Rox.

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I thought about it too,Oberto knows Scola for a long time,and knows his moves.
I guess Pop was trying to show the fans and media that it was the right choice to keep Bonner and give away Scola,and stiked Matt on Scola and just got owned last night.

Scola would have been good to put on Dirk...:angel

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Originally Posted by 1Parker1

Scola would have been good to put on Dirk...:angel

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and He will,but not with a Spurs jersey. :rolleyes

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Originally Posted by 1Parker1

Scola would have been good to put on Dirk...:angel

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:lmao

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Originally Posted by ArgSpursFan

I thought about it too,Oberto knows Scola for a long time,and knows his moves.
I guess Pop was trying to show the fans and media that it was the right choice to keep Bonner and give away Scola,and stiked Matt on Scola and just got owned last night.

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:rollin

U killing me, bro