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Who knew Gasol would have more points than Tim, Z, and Splitter combined
Lost amid all the praise for what the Spurs were able to accomplish in Game 1, was Tim Duncan's performance. True, he had 4 assists to go along with his points and rebounds but he had a very sub-par game. I'm glad we didn't need offense from him yesterday but when those 3's don't fall, he's going to have to score more than that.
It's not lost on me that he played pretty good defense too. He did things in which there are no revealing stats. -- Other than Z-bo's limited effectiveness.
The Spurs played so well, so early and got contributions from so many different people that Memphis wasn't sure what to do on defense. And if they knew what to do, they didn't execute. Let's hope they forget about Duncan in Game 2 and he tears them up.
Who knew Gasol would have more points than Tim, Z, and Splitter combined
Didn't run much through him. He took some shots that were somewhat out of his comfort zone but he did play good defense and worked the glass well. He needs to hit his shots but defense and rebounding is key and it was good to see him play well on that end.
Yeah but ZBo shot 12.5% and only wasn't 0% because he got a cheapie putback going over someone's back late in the game when they were down pretty big already. Duncan shot 33.3% and was one make from 44.4%. Duncan also had 4 assists, 2 blocks, and only a SINGLE foul while holding ZBo to a pathetic 2 point game and managed to avoid picking up bogus fouls on Gasol's flop attempts early in the game.
Defense on ZBo is more important than scoring on Gasol for Duncan. I would happily take that Duncan game every single time if it means that's all ZBo does. Btw, Duncan also kept the Grizzlies off the offensive boards for most of the game too, which very heavily hurts their offense.
I want Duncan focusing his energies on the defensive end. If Duncan can consistently help stop their offensive rebounding and stop one of their best 2 players defensively, the Grizzlies have nearly no chance to win any game unless they get some flukey shooting.
Duncan is needed more for his defense and rebounding. Anything we can get from him offensively is an added bonus.
It is better for the team to depend on Duncan defensively, than offensively. Sometimes he tries too hard in the post, or hesitates on his shooting when he is our last hope to score.
Duncan had zero shots in the paint. A game where you blow a team out twice and don't need scoring in the post is gravy on the potatoes.
It also shows how the Spurs have the role players to overcome that. If 1 of MEM top 3 players lays an egg (Zbo, Gasol, Conley) it's really tough for them to score enough points even with their tremendous defense.
Duncan playing Randolph to a draw = Spurs win every time, tbh..
As DPG said, Memphis doesn't have the offensive players to overcome a ty game from Z-Bo..
If Randolph isn't scoring an efficient 25 points in this series, Spurs will win..
I'm sort of okay with the Spurs winning this series without Duncan breaking much of a sweat. Should they be fortunate enough to get to the finals, Duncan's going to have to go til the wheels fall off.
Looking at the box scores for the game it appears that the Spurs inside game failed. I think it is just an indication that the team didn't need TD and TS to work on offense. The outside game was lethal. I'm good with it!
Z-Bo has to outplay Timmy for the Grizz to stand a chance. i'm fine with Tim barely outscoring zach tbh.
Timmy putting up big scoring numbers nowadays usually means the Spurs offense is struggling tbh.
They executed the game plan well and didn't have to go inside to Timmy. Really no problem with his using his energy on D.
Both teams were preprared for battle inside. Spurs won battle outside.
Tim shot varies from game 2 game.
Soft with higher arc, money in the bank.
hard and flat, ugh.
Well if you watched the game there was no need for him to force anything as we killed them from the outside kicking it out to the shooters.. Game 2 he will likely need to be more aggressive..
This is no excuse for Tim but the knee he has trouble with looks like it is tight. He seems to drag that leg at times. Don't know if you can see it on TV but i can see it from my seat ...
If they get to the finals I expect Duncan to horribly outplay Bosh e.. You take a champion like TD and tell him "This is your last chance at glory" he will likely knock you the out..
My memory of the last time the Spurs faced Memphis in the playoffs is that the Spurs got plenty of stops - it was the second chance points that totally killed them. In Game 1, the Griz didn't get many second-chance points. Tim was responsible for a lot of that. Even when he didn't get the rebound himself, he held off Z-Bo and allowed another Spur to come down with it. Just another thing that doesn't show up on Tim's stats, but was a HUGE part of the Spurs' success.
When perimeter shooters are loose, they are a lot more accurate. And when they know that their bigs are going to clean up a lot of their missed shots, it lets them play loose. The thing feeds on itself. IMO, maintaining parity with Memphis on the boards is probably the single most important element for the Spurs. Limiting turnovers is right up there, but those second chance points are demoralizing.
Another nice thing about game 1 is that Tony had a solid, all-round game and not one where he went off and took the majority of shots and makes. That is definitely fools-gold. His big bursts of offense (like in Game 3 - vs GS) are great but not sustainable and leads to others not getting involved. Sometimes it works out ok but other times, not so much. That was definitely a positive to me. Our bench really stepped up and produced big.
Every game is different. Perhaps Tiago and Tim get more points tomorrow and keep Z-Bo and Gasol in foul trouble. You just have to take the wins any way you can get them.
Sounds a lot like what we expect from Splitter, right?
in different series, roles are different. depends on the opponents. i think the spurs feel comfortable in our backcourt vs their backcourt as far as scoring punch. if their presumed advantage is with their bigs, and we just do what we can to shut them down, it bodes well for us.
and when you try to defend a guy like ZBo who tries to play ymca ball with his size, girth, strength, it takes a lot of wind out of ya. rather timmy continue to focus on that end. won't be nearly as much an issue in a potential nba finals series, unless the pacers do somethin crazy
Which is why looking at box scores is a big fat fail. The Spurs' dribblers got to the rim at will throughout that game. Somehow Memphis managed to collapse their defense chasing Parker and Ginobili and still managed not to stop anything. On the made layups by the Spurs guards in the game there was always at least one three point shooter completely uncovered.
It was one of the best executed games I've seen -- and I've seen plenty.
And when the Grizz adjust and stay with outside shooters, I can only imagine this will allow Tim and Tiago to score down low. Spurs are probably a real pain in the ass to defend.
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