Game Thoughts: Spurs vs. Raptors Dec. 28

Wow. That was about as bad as the Spurs can play. I thought the effort was actually decent. The problem was the Spurs just sucked. It wasn’t their night for whatever reason. The defense was pretty bad but the offense was horrid. Not only sloppy but the Spurs were missing wide open looks.

A big part of the problem was Manu Ginobili and Brent Barry were sidelined with injuries. Without those two guys coming off the bench, the bench was just horrid. In the first half, the bench was outscored 20-0. Even after a couple of late baskets when the game was over, the bench still shot only 4-for-22 for the game.

The bench wasn’t the only problem, though. Nobody on the whole team played a par game. The starter’s level of suck wasn’t that much higher than the level of suck produced from the bench.

I guess you have to give the Raptors some credit but I’m not sure how much they deserve. The Spurs missed a lot of open shots. The Raptors, especially with Andrea Bargnani starting in place of Rasho Nesterovic, aren’t exactly a lockdown defensive squad. Every team in the NBA would have beaten the Spurs tonight. The Spurs made a run in the third quarter but that was mostly due to horrible play from the Raptors.

-I liked Tim Duncan’s effort but his play was erratic at best. It didn’t look like he had his legs and couldn’t get any separation on his post moves, no matter who he was going against. Defensively, he was a step slow in each of his rotation. He played well in spurts but overall it wasn’t a good game from Duncan. He finished with 16 points and 12 boards, which doesn’t look bad but with the amount of touches he got Duncan should have done much more.

-Tony Parker was horrible. Seven turnovers and 4-for-12 shooting from the field pretty much tells the story of his outing. I couldn’t tell if his ankle was bothering him or he just played bad. At times, he looked gimpy and a number of his turnovers were off of jump passes when he didn’t get his usual elevation on his jump. But then other times he’d blow right by his man to the basket or would pressure the ball full court. Whatever the problem was I wasn’t too enthused by Parker’s effort. With Ginobili out, Parker should bring more energy than he brought tonight.

-You don’t hear me say it much but I think Pop played Bruce Bowen way too much tonight. When you are struggling with offense the way the Spurs were struggling with offense, you don’t play Bowen 38 minutes. You just can’t do that. While it’s true that the players behind him were playing poorly, at least some of those guys have a chance to take over the game offensively. Bowen especially didn’t make sense for 38 minutes because the Raptors don’t have a perimeter player that you have to pay extra attention to defensively.

-Michael Finley’s stats look pretty ugly but I like how he competed. For a lot of the game, he was the only Spur who looked capable of getting up a quality shot. Granted a lot of those shots were off their mark but everyone else looked like they were allergic to the basketball. For the game, Finley finished with 20 points and eight rebounds, while shooting 7-for-19 from the field including 3-for-10 from beyond the three-point arc. I wouldn’t say Finley played well but without him the Spurs probably lose this game by 30 points.

-Fabricio Oberto didn’t help matters with his uninspired 12 minutes of action. During that time, Oberto went scoreless and pulled down three rebounds. He was 0-for-2 from the field and both of his shots were forced shots out of his range. Defensively he did a poor job respecting the jump shooting bigs the Raptors put out on the court.

-If forced to pick a bright spot at gun point, I’d probably go with Matt Bonner. He wasn’t even that good but he was one of the few Spurs who acted like he cared. He started the second half in an attempt to inject some life into the team. Bonner responded with ten points and ten rebounds in 25 minutes but shot only 2-for-7 from the court. I thought his defense was better than usual, but that isn’t saying much.

-After back-to-back games in which he couldn’t miss, Ime Udoka was missing everything tonight. Part of the reason Pop didn’t put Bowen on the bench more was that Udoka was so bad offensively. Whether he was forcing a shot or shooting a wide open jumper, he couldn’t hit anything. If he could have provided any offense at all, the Spurs might have been able to pull this game out.

-In the ocean of suck out there on the court for the Spurs, Jacque Vaughn might have been the worst of the bunch. He tried to do way too much and just single-handedly killed the offense. When he entered the game with 3:24 to go in the first quarter to replace Parker, the Spurs were up four. Despite Duncan being on the floor, Vaughn over-dribbled and was late on passes. The Raptors quickly scored 11 points in a row to put the Spurs down seven. By the time Pop could get Parker back into the game, the Spurs were already in a hole that they never could really escape.

-Francisco Elson continues to underwhelm. In seven minutes, Elson missed all three of his shots and played terrible defense. It’s starting to get to the point that it’s difficult justifying any minutes for Elson. He’s not even having his bi-monthly big game anymore. It’s just bad performance after bad performance.

-Pop dusted off Robert Horry to begin the fourth quarter. I guess Pop was looking for some sort of spark. Whatever he was looking for Horry failed to live up to his part of the bargain. While Horry did have a couple of good defensive plays to begin the fourth, he did nothing else in his six minutes of action.

-Keith Langford got some first half minutes and although he didn’t play much, Langford failed the eyeball test. He just doesn’t look like an NBA player. He was dwarfed by the shooting guards he was going up against. At 6-foot-3 and with a relatively slender build, I just can’t imagine how he could play shooting guard in the NBA. He’s not that athletic to be able to make up the inches he’s lacking. He also promptly blew a defensive assignment that got him yanked from the ballgame. Props to Langford for making it to the NBA. That said, I fail to understand how the Spurs can look at Langford and think he’s an NBA player.

-Pop’s coaching this game was puzzling. As I said earlier, Pop played Bowen way too much. Second of all, I know that Ginobili and Barry are out but some of the lineups Pop put out there were just awful. Vaughn, Udoka, Bowen and Elson at the same time? Did Pop forget there were two sides to a basketball court? And while Pop picked a good game to get ejected, he should have done so earlier in the game. Getting ejected mid-way through the fourth quarter with the Spurs down nine doesn’t really do anything other than put you down 11 and end the game. It wasn’t all Pop’s fault because the players were horrible but Pop certainly wasn’t helping matters.

Overall, it was just a bad loss. Unfortunately, throughout an 82 game season you are going to have games where everyone sucks. Hopefully this was just one of those games.

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Originally Posted by timvp

-Pop’s coaching this game was puzzling. As I said earlier, Pop played Bowen way too much. Second of all, I know that Ginobili and Barry are out but some of the lineups Pop put out there were just awful. Vaughn, Udoka, Bowen and Elson at the same time? Did Pop forget there were two sides to a basketball court?

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I said the same thing earlier. At one point in the second quarter, the Spurs were coming out of a time out shooting about 23%, and I looked down on the court and saw Oberto, Udoka, Bowen, Vaughn, and Finley.

As opposed to what other great shooters that he was keeping on the bench?

I have no idea why Pop went small in the second quarter. That is when the game turned around.

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Originally Posted by ShoogarBear

I said the same thing earlier. At one point in the second quarter, the Spurs were coming out of a time out shooting about 23%, and I looked down on the court and saw Oberto, Udoka, Bowen, Vaughn, and Finley.

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Vaughn, Udoka and Bowen at the same time should be disallowed by a constitutional amendment. Udoka and Bowen might work with Parker. Maybe even Washington. But to put Vaughn with those two is just asking for a drought.

Heck, at that point I was hoping for more of Langford. I almost got so desperate I wanted Marcus Williams out there ....... almost.

:hat

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Originally Posted by timvp

Heck, at that point I was hoping for more of Langford. I almost got so desperate I wanted Marcus Williams out there ....... almost.

:hat

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:lol

Thanks for the recap.

Thanks for the wrap up timvp.
I was hoping it wasn't as ugly as I thought it was, hoping that you may have seen something positive that I missed.
But it was that bad.

I do think that you're right, it was just one of those games where everyone sucked.
It happens, but with this team it doesn't happen often where it's this ugly.
That's why it's so hard to watch.
Let's hope they got it out of their systems.

Bonner was the only one who played like he cared...for longer than a couple of minutes.

I did Like how Duncan got in between Bonner and the ref, when that ref decided he was gonna go chest to chest with Bonner. WTF was up with that anyway, very weird ref reaction. Still, Duncan got right back in his face. Suprised he wasn't ejected. Mebbe the refs are learning.

Washington would have scored 35 points in this game. Of course, this is the only type of game he could have done that in... and actually helped us. Any other game, and that aggressive, go-it-alone style of Washington's screws the Spurs. Tonight tho...

Awful game. But, I think it will be the last awful game for awhile. Spurs were embarassed tonight. I don't think they're gonna be embarassed again for awhile...just a hunch ;)

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-If forced to pick a bright spot at gun point, I’d probably go with Matt Bonner. He wasn’t even that good but he was one of the few Spurs who acted like he cared. He started the second half in an attempt to inject some life into the team. Bonner responded with ten points and ten rebounds in 25 minutes but shot only 2-for-7 from the court. I thought his defense was better than usual, but that isn’t saying much.

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Matt Bonner fucking sucks.

Just like

Manu = Manure

and


"Stephen Jackson should be selling sodas in the upper deck"

Any more players you wanna say suck that turn out to be pretty good?

Beno?

Well I guess I'm relieved, because when I saw the score this morning my first thought was "Damn, who got injured?".

I still hate this stupid losses, even more when they happen at home.

I will summarize this edition of Game Thoughts:

Forget this game ever happened.

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Overall, it was just a bad loss. Unfortunately, throughout an 82 game season you are going to have games where everyone sucks. Hopefully this was just one of those games.

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spurs do have a penchant for sucking all at the same time.

This was, by far, one of the worst games I have ever witnessed. Unfortunately, I got to witness it in person. Actually, we are lucky to only have lost by 10 points. We should have been blown out the way we were playing.

I do think that the only player who played with any intensity was Bonner. Pop put him in to start the 3rd and it sparked us. We actually had a chance to take the lead at one point, but futility took over. We just turned the ball over way too many times. On 19 turnovers, we gave up 22 points. Ridiculous.

In the 4th, when all the tempers flared, Pop gets ejected, Bonner and Timmy get T'd and we miss crucial open looks and free throws. We did not deserve to win the game. I think Pop had seen enough and just wanted to get the hell out of the AT&T Center. I am surprised he didn't get himself thrown out sooner. He wanted out of there so bad that he walked out after only getting one T. When they told him he had to come back, he marched in there and immediately got in the face of Bob Delany in order to insure that he was tossed.

Total lack of effort. Poor execution. We would have lost to the YMCA team that played the mini game at half-time, that's how bad it was.

I know teams have bad games, but that was really bad. I know they will bounce back and they need to pay Memphis back for their last win against us. Let's hope the Spurs respond in the usual way they do after a bad loss.

we really sucks last nite, rigth? :wakeup

I do miss Manu, still asking why Beno plays well over there and why TP sometimes has one of those games, anyhow is still december.

It would've been nice to have somebody from the bench help TD and Co. last night with Manu and Barry out injuried.
BTW,LS pulled 22 pts last night and lead his team coming from the bench.
What can I say...............Keep up the good work Elson :tu

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Originally Posted by SouthernFried

Bonner was the only one who played like he cared...for longer than a couple of minutes.

I did Like how Duncan got in between Bonner and the ref, when that ref decided he was gonna go chest to chest with Bonner. WTF was up with that anyway, very weird ref reaction. Still, Duncan got right back in his face. Suprised he wasn't ejected. Mebbe the refs are learning.

Washington would have scored 35 points in this game. Of course, this is the only type of game he could have done that in... and actually helped us. Any other game, and that aggressive, go-it-alone style of Washington's screws the Spurs. Tonight tho...

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Yeah, it's kind of puzzling that on the day the Spurs waive Darius Washington that they get this type of sub-par performance from everyone - especially the backup PG position. I can't imagine D-Wash would've fared any worse than Vaughn or Parker on this night.

Look for more games like this until the Coach of the ASW team is named.

I thought JV was kind of coming along and not dribbling so much, but I guess he has decided he is a dribbler anyway.

WTF is up with TD waiting until the fourth quarter to drive the lane?

Spurs were just going through the motions last night. Mostly slow motion.

Toronto would have won this game if they had just stayed in their hotel.

Look for a few more like this until February.

Thanks for the update Timvp! I can always count on your accurate asessments after games and as a guy who lives in Dallas who doesnt get the games on tv, thats appreciated.

So Pop got ejected, and Timmy got between Bonner and a ref???
What the heck? I miss this game, and stuff happens.

The ref got right in Bonner's face like he was going to do something. Bonner barely even tapped the other player to get the T??????????

Lame ass NBA refs. They are pathetic.

Every single one of these shitty games it is always Bonner who helps the Spurs get back in and he is always one of few who shows the effort the entire game. Too bad some of his shots were so ugly.

The Spurs gave up too early in the fourth. Pop's two and Tim's one tech were ridiculous, considering Tim was just forcing it and trying to get bail-out calls for a couple of possessions at that time. The Raptors were pretty quick with their doubles on Tim in the fourth, and I thought Tim held the ball way too long on a night when none of the shooters was hitting.

Without Manu and Barry, the spurs don't have enough offense weapons, although they played good D.

BTW, the raptors is a good team. I think they are one of the top 3 teams in EC.

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Originally Posted by meta2007

Without Manu and Barry, the spurs don't have enough offense weapons, although they played good D.

BTW, the raptors is a good team. I think they are one of the top 3 teams in EC.

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Raptors are 4th at best (behind Detroit, Boston and Orlando), now, with TJ Ford out (not mentioning Garbajosa) maybe not even 4th.
It is actualy very close call between Raptors, Hawks, Cavs, Wizards and Pacers

Raptors are the deepest team in EC. They are getting better and better. I believe they will be the 3rd (behind Boston and Detroit) by the end of this season. Honestly, I don't think Orlando is a true contender. Actually, they lost 6 of last 10 games. They had a good start last season too, but they didn't finish stong.

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Originally Posted by ata

Raptors are 4th at best (behind Detroit, Boston and Orlando), now, with TJ Ford out (not mentioning Garbajosa) maybe not even 4th.
It is actualy very close call between Raptors, Hawks, Cavs, Wizards and Pacers

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In Dallas for Christmas and have been watching the Mavs games. The Mavs and Cavs played a game that looked like each team was playing to be chosen as the worst team in the league.

Maybe this is happening all over--the Holiday blahs?

Ouch!

Last night there were some fans at the game with a sign that said: " We drove all the way from Dallas to see some real basketball."

:lol

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Originally Posted by angel_luv

Ouch!

Last night there were some fans at the game with a sign that said: " We drove all the way from Dallas to see some real basketball."

:lol

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I saw that, too.

They should have kept driving.

What did audience chant in the 4th quarter last night? :wtf

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Originally Posted by meta2007

What did audience chant in the 4th quarter last night? :wtf

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Ref You Suck! Ref You Suck!

You were at the game?

Where were you sitting?

Why no visit to the Terrace Club? :(

Section 105.

I've never been to the Terrace Club. Will they let you go in if you're not eating?

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Originally Posted by ShoogarBear

Section 105.

I've never been to the Terrace Club. Will they let you go in if you're not eating?

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Next time just go to the N.E. VIP entrance and have the concierge call me at the Terrace Club.
They'll let you up if I ask them to. :)

Is this the water down version of game thoughts? Matt Bonner had stupid fouls, stupid technical, and terrible positioning... all he does is stand at the 3... also, his shot goes higher than the jumbotron on release. He missed a 3 attempt by at least 5 feet.

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all he does is stand at the 3... also, his shot goes higher than the jumbotron on release. He missed a 3 attempt by at least 5 feet.

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To inform you on the game some more.

1. Hes a 3 point shooter, so thats where he stays.
2. His shot goes high cause he puts good arc on it, a GOOD thing. Dumbass.
3. That shot was rushed, and it got blocked...

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Originally Posted by T Park

To inform you on the game some more.

1. Hes a 3 point shooter, so thats where he stays.
2. His shot goes high cause he puts good arc on it, a GOOD thing. Dumbass.
3. That shot was rushed, and it got blocked...

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in a losing effort.... :rolleyes