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Wow, they are uglier than , you forgot Pop and Kiwi.
The Spurs entered this game at the top of the Western Conference, but carried a 1-8 record vs. the other top teams in the league..tonight was a chance to improve that record against the best team in the Western Conference..
The Thunder were coming off a back-to-back after playing against Portland on Tuesday, as they continue playing without Russell Roidsbrook..
San Antonio played this game without Tiago Splitter and Danny Green, 2 of their 4 defensive anchors..to make things worse, Kawhi Leonard left the game early in the 1st half, and it appears that the Spurs will be without his services for an extended stretch of games, tbh..the team's defense had already been struggling since Green's demotion to the bench and if tonight's game was a preview of the upcoming month, it's only going to get worse..
A game against the Thunder is always a frightening experience for the viewer, tbh, for the following reasons:
- Historically biased officiating..Dominos Durant, especially, along with their screen setting and defensive reputation..
- Their fanbase..mostly meth addicts with mayonnaise stains on their boxers that impregnate their own sisters, tbh..
- Watching them in HD..
Tim Duncan
Offense: B
Timmy had a good offensive game, battled well in the post, he got good position several times, he ran the floor well as the trailer, and didn't settle for jump shots all game..
Duncan disappeared in the 4th quarter, but his offense was not needed at that point, as Parker was carrying the load, tbh..
Defense: D
This was arguably Tim's worst defensive game of the season IMO..
Duncan has been a great rim defender this year, he ranked 6th in the league in FG% at the rim(for those statistically eligible), is still a very good shot blocker and has been rebounding at a high level the past few months..
However, at age 38, Duncan is no longer capable of defending anywhere else at a high level IMO..he's a liability in the pick&roll, he can't contest guards on switches and he has trouble recovering after he already made a commitment..
His defensive style works when he is surrounded by other good defenders to carry the load with him..last year, Duncan had a great defensive season and the Spurs were an elite defensive team unit with Splitter/Leonard/Green supporting Tim..
When Duncan is put in a situation where he's surrounded by poor defenders, which was the case in tonight's game, he's going to fail miserably at this point in his career..
Tony Parker
Offense: A+
Tony Parker had a fantastic offensive game, tbh..
He attacked relentlessly and never got discouraged by getting his shot blocked, his mid-range jump shot was working, and he was the only Spurs player that kept the pressure on OKC's defense..
Parker only had 4 assists, but I thought he passes the ball decently, his assists opportunities were scarce IMO..
Defense: F
While Tony was terrific on offense, he was atrocious on defense, which seems to be a common occurrence for him this season..
It appeared that Parker going under screens was strategical, but still, he showed no effort at fighting through or contesting shots on the perimeter..his habit of leaving shooters wide open for 3 was also on display in the 1st half, tbh..
The 4th quarter was horrifying, as that Sponsor-a-Child, starving Somalian-looking Reggie Jackson destroyed Parker on virtually every possession for a long stretch of the final quarter, tbh..
I'm giving Tony an F for defense, but we can't expect him to exert much defensive energy as a scoring PG that carried the offensive load tonight, to be fair..
Manu Ginobili
Offense: C
Manu was aggressive offensively, as usual, but it just wasn't there for him tonight, tbh..
He missed a few wide open 3s, had a couple of his typical questionable passes, missed some FTs, and outside of a beautiful driving floater over Ibaka(which should have been an and-1), he didn't do much offensively..
Defense: A-
A big reason for Manu's offensive struggles is the amount of energy he needed on defense, as the Spurs were playing without their 2 defensive stoppers..
Manu is physically limited and at an advanced age, yet his task for a large portion of the night was to defend Dominos Durant, the best scorer in the league that also has 5 inches of height and a massive length advantage on him..
Ginobili clearly got in Dominos' head, he played him physically and used the usual tricks that have made Manu one of the most irritating players in NBA history for opposing players..
Marco Belinelli
Offense: C+
I didn't like Beli's offensive output tonight..he did good work off screens, but missed most of his looks from deep and has some poor turnovers that led to easy points for the Thunder..
Defense: B
I actually thought this was one of Belinelli's best defensive efforts of the season, tbh..
He's a poor defender most of the time, so he should be graded on a curve, but other than a few lapses late in the game, I thought he defended well..he had 3 great strips down low against the Thunder's bigs, he forced a turnover against Durant, and Sefolosha missed both his isolation shots against Beli down low..
Boris Diaw
Offense: B+
Diaw did his job offensively IMO..
He made a couple of 3s, he had 2 good attacks for layups against Ibaka, trademark passing, and the usual great chemistry with anybody on the floor with him..
Defense: C
I didn't like Diaw's rebounding, he had trouble grabbing boards against OKC's bigs..
He didn't make a notable impact on either end of the spectrum, in regards to covering the opposition IMO..
Patty Mills
Offense: B+
Patty did a great job providing instant offense and stayed within the offense, tbh..
The Spurs really needed an offensive spark with Ayres/Joseph out there for defensive purposes, and Mills was the answer..several 3s, good energy, good shot selection..
Defense: D
Mills had no answer against Reggie Jackson in the possessions where they were matched up, and unfortunately, he had trouble against Derek Fisher's corpse, as well..
Jeff Ayres
Offense: C
Ayres' had his usual fumbles, failing to catch 3 balls IIRC, as well as getting blocked on a finishing attempt..
To his credit, he made some great passes, which seems to be his only notable strength as a player at this point in his career, tbh..
Defense: F
Ayres was awful defensively IMO..
Being capable of guarding mobile bigs and the pick&roll is part of the reason Ayres is on the roster, but he had trouble contesting Ibaka's shots from mid-range and provided minimal resistance against opposing guards..
The second half brought us a stretch where Thunder guards, specifically Jackson, attacked Ayres, and IIRC, 3 possessions where Ayres didn't even attempt to contest the shot nor take a charge, opting to stand in the circle and watch them score..
His effort on the boards was pathetic, getting manhandled by both Nick Collison and Steven Adams..
Overall, another discouraging game for Ayres, tbh..
Cory Joseph
Offense: C+
Watching Cory Joseph play NBA basketball is like watching an awkward man trying to lay game on a girl, tbh..
He has a beautiful floater over Ibaka and made some good passes, but he's really slow and has shown minimal ability to penetrate against defenders..he's also incapable of exposing mismatches on switches against bigs due to his erratic ball-handling..
Defense: C+
Joseph was in an impossible situation against Dominos, you can't judge him based on those possessions..
He had a nice recovery block against Jackson, but had trouble staying in front of him otherwise, just like every other Spurs player this season..
Matt Bonner
Offense: D+
Bonner did not do anything offensively, missing his only shot attempts of his 7-minute stretch..
Defense: F
Bonner was absolutely embarrassing on defense, tbh..
He missed a rotation on a 3, allowed Reggie Jackson to blow by him for a dunk, and allowed an isolation sweeping drive from Perry Jones..
Highlighting Bonner's defense was a weak-ass attempt at a double team against Durant, running in slow-motion, unable to recover as Durant passed it to Bonner's man in the corner for a wide open 3..
Bonner looked like he was playing in slow-motion against this long, athletic Thunder team, tbh..
Overall, even with the injuries, it's evident that the Spurs don't match up well with the Thunder..the Spurs have some major concerns from a personnel standpoint, tbh..
It's imperative that the Spurs acquire a 3rd perimeter defender to rotate with Green and Leonard..the Spurs have a difficult conundrum for their rotation, which is figuring out how to manage a rotation full of one-sided players, tbh(offense vs. defense; Cojo, Ayres, Splitter, Beli)..
Last edited by HarlemHeat37; 01-23-2014 at 01:36 AM.
Wow, they are uglier than , you forgot Pop and Kiwi.
thanks HH
there are so many things SA can do from a strategic point that they dont even attempt tbh...
a few things I would like to see changed
Green on Jackson
- obviously he wasnt here tonight but I dont remember Pop attempting it when he was
this would leave Parker on Thabo which did happen tonight to positive results for us
Thabo was calling for post ups on Parker and bricking everything taking away shots from a red hot Durant
Parker on Thabo
-reasons stated above
Trap on pick and rolls
- Spurs players, specifically Leonard get rubbed off hard on Perkins screens
it essentially makes Leonard a non-issue as soon as the screen is set and gets Durant those mid range floaters/1 legged jumpers he was getting tonight since Tim sits back
if the big traps Dominoes and exposes his shaky handles (11 turnovers tonight and Leonard had like 10 deflections last meeting) then they can get the ball out of his hands and make someone else beat them
if its Abaka setting the screen then Duncan would have to rotate to Ibaka on the midrange and have the guard dig down on Perkins in the paint and have him try to score which I would live with tbh..
Hit someone tbh..
- Perkins was screaming for his chance to post up and shoot fadeaways over Tim Duncan, obviously this goes in the Spurs favor but it shows a lot of disrespect
OKC is that y that they can beat us that someone has to knock them down a few pegs tbh...
Smaller player on Ibaka
-Ibaka cant do anything but shoot
he refused to post up even when he had Parker on him for stretch
if the smaller player can close out on his mid range shots it makes him a non-issue
Spurs would give up rebounding though here and they dont have a player capable of pulling this off since they have no backup small SF tbh...
Fantasy
- Trade for a guy like Mbah A Moute
him and Leonard can play the 3/4 and switch all pick and rolls
this would take Ibaka out of the game completely while neutralizing Durants advantage vs SA which is his ability to rub Leonard off on screens and get open mid range shots tbh..
I say the Spurs need to throw down some hard fouls on all of OKCs players. Especially KD, he gets all of the calls so might as well make him feel them, none of this ticky tack bull . Put him on his ass a couple of times. Kind of like what Duncan did tonight when KD tried to dunk on him. Contrary to popular belief most teams do not respect the Spurs, the national media hates us so lets give them a reason to hate.
Good work, Harlem. I don't think the Spurs have played a single game against OKC at full strength. It's not just injuries; it's the rotation featuring Green, Leonard and Manu getting 90-percent of the wing minutes and Danny primarily guarding Jackson. I think Pop's been too keen to work Beli in, and it's just not going to be viable for both him and Mills to get minutes in the playoffs
I would have thrown Thomas on Durant instead of Joseph. What could it have hurt? Especially when the Thunder went small. There's no reason to have Malcolm otherwise.
Agree on the Thomas part, was pissed that he didn't get any playing time. Wtf is Pop thinking?
Pop had a little too much to drink Sunday night and forgot that he played Thomas on Sunday, probably doesn't even remember the kid
You couldn't have picked a worst night to call out the officiating seeing as how OKC was called for 25 fouls to the Spurs 17 and the Spurs actually had 6 more FT attempts, Durant got to the line 6 times because he was actually fouled 6 times. 0-3 vs the Thunder. Unless they play 6 times this season, I don't see them breaking even.
Yep, especially after the Spurs-Warriors series where Green played 36 MPG and Leonard played around 40 MPG IIRC..
They are the only athletic players in the rotation and by far the best perimeter defenders on the team, they'll both be playing heavily in the playoffs, but it would be nice to have a 3rd defensive option against opposing wings, tbh..
And ya, I don't think there's consistent minutes for both Beli and Mills in the playoff rotation, it would be too redundant..
But I thought those who were suggesting this weeks ago were just "typical fans overreacting to meaningless regular season games" and that "the Spurs have just as good a chance as any team in the West"?
Predicting lineup for this coming week; Parker, Beli, Bonner, Ayres, Duncan
Pretty odd huh?
It's difficult to lend credibility to those posters since they all picked teams like the Warriors, Nuggets and Grizzlies to be better than the Spurs last year, tbh(not you IIRC, but most)..
And the Spurs are definitely just as good as any team in the West outside of OKC..Durant has just taken the next step to top-10 all-time level dominance, so OKC will be difficult to beat if you aren't Miami..
Yeah, I said something like that the last game against Portland thing is, Pop is going weird places making strange decisions like a coach who doesnt know wtf is he doing, other teams exploit players talent even if they are rookies like that Reggie Jackson or Lamb in his second year, Pop wants to take 8 years to develop Kiwi and guys like Thomas dont get a chance, maybe in other teams he will be playing a good chunk of minutes right now, I mean its better than Cojo guarding Durant.
Stuff like that and the last 28 seconds without Timmy makes me think HEY MISTER... WHAT THE IS WRONG WITH YOU!?
Get ready for a Parker, Marco, Bonner, Duncan, Ayres starting lineup. The truth is, I don't think Pop has ever planned for anything like this to happen so he's going to be running all his old faithfuls out there in hopes that they have some kind of chemistry but I doubt Thomas gets any significant playing time. As far as Kawhi goes, it's sad for him because he does not fit Pop's system, the Spurs have never had a wing player that was more than a role player. The Spurs have had some wings that used to be good but all they did was fill a role with the Spurs and hardly deviated from that. The offense is not centered around our SF getting the ball and creating or getting high percentage looks, it's an afterthought.
Other teams don't necessarily rely on a system in order to get the job done, OKC can set a screen for Durant and he can either attack or pull up and shoot which opens up shooting for other players but it doesn't mean that the role players on their team are stuck in a certain location on offense and can't deviate. Other teams have had the luxury of being able to just throw in scrubs who can shoot and they end up getting confidence because nobody takes them serious.
good grades, however, i thought bel played horrible D tonight
Yes, a third defender would be great. And it'd be even better if said defender were in the rotation to not have a small perimeter bench unit. But I don't think it needs to be that special. Just someone who can do good work against either Durant or Jackson. Honestly, if either Leonard or Green were to miss the playoffs the Spurs could be upset in the first or second rounds.
Jack was such a tertiary defender two years ago, and even a crappy player like Butler, MWP or Bogans could be that player this year. Obviously, Ariza would be a godsend.
The problem I see is that if Leonard can't effectively check Durant anymore, the Spurs have problems. Obviously, Westbrook will help akow KD down, but by far, Kawhi's biggest assest is his Durant defense. If that's gone, his usefulness to the team decreases dramatically.
AK47 would have been great tbh
RC Buford said during the summer league last summer (and after the summer acquisitions) that they have a huge hole at the 3 position behind Kawhi. So it should come at no surprise that they're probably looking for a player in that position, and if there are any player movements, it will go towards addressing that. While the Kawhi injury probably will accelerate the search, this isn't particularly news. Seeing the Spurs modus-operandi, it's unlikely they'll knee-jerk and acquire any type of player at any cost.
Ariza would be great, and Afflalo too, I just don't know they're available, and we should probably talk about that in the official trade thread.
Enter Matt Bonner, Pop finally has a role for him to eat up valuable minutes.
Leonard did pretty solid work against Durant before he got hurt tbh. I don't think his ability to guard Durant has changed.
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