Reply With Quote
Thanks, Will!
On a different note, we're 13 and 1, and timvp still hasn't made a contribution to these forums?
I noticed that no game thoughts were posted for the last 2 games (Grizz and Cavs), so I thought I'd go for it this time. Maybe we should have some kind of roll call with people volunteering to write some thoughts for different games? That would ensure we get Game Thoughts for every game. This kind of thread is a huge reason why I visit SpursTalk, so I'd hate to see them disappear. Besides, we might discover somebody this way who has a hidden talent for game thoughts and who would contribute them regularly.
Let's keep the Game Thoughts alive!
So... Pelicans @ Spurs. Well, the Spurs destroyed the Pelicans, as was expected. I have not been following New Orleans this year and was surprised to see they had a .500 record when they showed the division standings. They appeared to be a joke of a team to me (no offense). I actually wondered if they have a coach at all, as they don't seem to have any set plays, only isos, and their defensive scheme seems to be "stay with your man for as long as you can". This was disappointing. The NBA is in an even worse state than I thought if the Pelicans are a .500 team. I must assume they only won against other "pick-up" teams.
All in all there was no hope for the Pelicans. Even if a team has superior players, be it in athleticism or talent, but takes only contested shots, it will always lose against a team that only takes open shots... and that was the story yesterday night. The ball movement on the Spurs was impressive.
The Spurs started well with an aggressive TP (always bad news for the opponent) and managed to establish an early lead thanks to a Manu explosion (back-to-back 3s + drawing an offensive foul on the other hand). Sadly the Spurs defense collapsed at the end of the 1st and the 11-point lead shrunk to 3. The Spurs went on another run to start the 2nd quarter and this time managed to keep it, before suffocating the Pelicans in the 3rd. Slaughter is the word that comes to my mind when I think about the 3rd quarter. I think the lead grew to 32. In garbage time (a.k.a the 4th quarter), Pop went for a horrible line-up, which was one Baynes away from the absolute worst line-up the Spurs can put on the floor: Mills-Diaw-Bonner-CoJo-DeColo. Since that lineup would be competing for the 8th playoff spot in the East, it evened things out a bit and the lead went down to 25 for most of the quarter. Had Pop kept his starters on the court(or even a half-decent team), the Pelicans could easily have lost by 50.
Talking specifically about the Spurs, the ball movement was great; the players are still way too clumsy and tentative in general, leading to too many turnovers; our fast break was off last night, confusing speed and precipitation.
I'm going to look at the glass half full and consider this Duncan's breakout game this year. He had rebounds, blocks and a steal. He defended quite well. He established his presence in the post, scored at a 50% clip, drew some fouls and schooled the Pelicans bigs on a few plays. He also attempted only one jump shot and it looks like the Spurs weren't calling that play at all tonight. That's a positive as far as I'm concerned as I felt there was no point in increasing Duncan's lack of confidence by having him attempt jump shot after jump shot, which then contributed to destroy the rest of his game. He looked a lot more comfortable and confident in his abilities tonight.
A-
Parker set a good tone for this game by being aggressive early on. He was really good in limited minutes, shot well, made all his FTs (worth noting), assisted a lot and bailed his teammates out on a few plays. He still made a few iffy decisions but all in all nothing that affected the game too much. Solid outing.
B+
If this is really the new version of Manu, I'll gladly take it. Actually if he keeps playing that well it will definitely be the biggest story for the Spurs this season, ahead of Splitter, Diaw, Kawhi or Mills. He sparked a nice run in the 1st quarter, and played solid most of the time with great shooting (again, worth mentioning). There's always Bad Manu lurking around the corner though. His back-to-back 3s + generating an offensive foul were quickly followed by 2 bad passes and a defensive foul. About those passes, it doesn't matter in such a game, but when the going gets tough and the score is much closer, I really wish he would settle for safer plays. These potential highlight passes are always 50-50 propositions, and can't be relied on. Right now I have the impression Manu plays the same role as Mills last year, i.e. a spark off the bench. The Spurs O definitely surges when he enters the game. All in all a great game by Manu. Hopefully we'll see more of those.
A
I really wonder if getting paid by the Spurs this summer wasn't all the confidence boost that Tiago needed. He's just so much more confident. And I don't think, as has been suggested, that it has that much to do with Duncan's decline. Last night Duncan was playing well and Splitter played exactly the same he's been playing so far this season: not being pushed around any more on D, and solid on O. I'm also bewildered how a guy shooting from the hip can have such a quick release. Maybe he'll play in western movies when his career endsHard to grade him on the few minutes he had before rolling his ankles, so I'll be generous.
A
Kawhi was everywhere tonight. He didn't shoot too well but his rebounding was great, he was going hard on fast breaks and keeping the ball alive and moving on other plays. He's also obviously good at stealing the ball, but I hope he won't start confusing that with "appropriate defense", because it isn't. Apart from that, I wish he would always play with so much energy. He tends, as was the case again, to be too passive in the 1st half, for whatever reason.
A-
Green was invisible in the first half. He came alive in the 3rd with a lot of steals but was also making some boneheaded plays, such as shooting a contested three out of an inbound pass with a full shot clock. He's also not particularly helping his teammates, such as when Kawhi was stuck in the corner and Green ran away from him... Sorry, but that doesn't cut it.
B-
Diaw's shot was not falling in the 1st half, but he redeemed himself in the 2nd half. Again, this guy showed that he is one of the most skilled (all-around) players in the NBA. He can literally do everything on a basketball court. For whatever reason in the 3rd quarter the Pelicans decided that leaving him alone in the post was apparently a smart defensive move. They quickly understood that it wasn't. Diaw also had the responsiblity of leading a putrid line-up in the 4th quarter, sadly he didn't take PG duties away from CoJo.
A-
I wasn't sold on Belinelli before, but he's really better than Neal. If only because he can recognize a bad shot from a good one. He doesn't hesitate to shoot, but he doesn't hesitate to pass either. I'm glad with the decision-making he exhibited last night. And if he can rack a couple of rebounds and assists, all the better, such as the great connection he had with Bonner on a fast break.
A
Mills has become a much smarter player than he was last year. He's really trying to model his game on Parker's, learning when to push and when to be patient--he is a lot more controlled and focused than before. He's definitely grown into the best back-up PG we've had in years. Sadly, that's only true when he plays with players of starting caliber. When playing with the garbage boys, bad habits die hard: ill-advised shots, rushed plays, bad passes, etc. It was really Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. On the other hand, he's not going to play with this kind of ty line-up in serious games, so that shouldn't be too much of an issue.
A-
The best thing I can say about Ayres is that he "doesn't suck", which is more than I could say of him a couple of weeks ago, and probably more than I could say of some of the end of the bench big men the Spurs had in the past. He's doing his job. Not great, not bad, just doing his job. I'll take that for now.
B
Corey Jospeh sucks. As simple as that. Don't be fooled by his garbage time stats line (which can look half decent). As soon as he enters the game, the playbook goes out of the window and the Spurs start playing like the Pelicans. It's suddenly all iso plays, overly optimistic drives to the basket (dude, you're no Tony Parker) and whatnot. Ball movement dies completely. Not only is he trying too hard to impress Pop with "me me me" play, he's also killing opportunities for his teammates by being completely out of sync with the Spurs system. Whatever his qualities as a player, he simply doesn't fit. If there's a player that absolutely has to "get over himself" and start playing within the system, that's him. Mills did it (and is now light years above both CoJo and De Colo), so maybe he can do it as well. Right now there's nothing showing he intends to.
D
If CoJo was bad, De Colo was worse. I usually like him, but he just doesn't seem to get it. And what's with throwing the ball OOB after being put on your ass by an opponent? Right now he's lucky to get 6 minutes when the Spurs lead by 30. And he doesn't even deserve that much. From what he's showing, there's still a loooong way before he can considered to contribute for a NBA team.
D-
Last edited by will_spurs; 11-26-2013 at 05:19 AM.
Thanks, Will!
On a different note, we're 13 and 1, and timvp still hasn't made a contribution to these forums?
picking up CoJo's option looks foolish now. he's on the books for about 2 million next year. we also for some reason gave Ayres a 2 year deal.Nando on the other hand is a 1.5 mil expiring contract. Bonner is a 3.9 mil expiring contract. there is a chance these two could pair up and actually help the spurs this year... near the trade deadline
Thanks will ! Nice read
Thanks for the well done updates on the game will_spurs, only get to see a spurs game if espn broadcasts, speaking of which they elected to run the heat-cavs game on Wednesday instead of thunder-spurs which really just shows how far their heads are up their assholes and just how much espn sucks in general. Stupid s.
where bonner? butgood job!
and on pop too
Great read! Thanks. Please keep them coming whenever you can.
edited.
Last edited by Diego20; 11-26-2013 at 06:07 AM.
The grade is after the text. Manu got an A.
I'm not going to complain too much about the Cojo contract, in all honesty it's not a bad idea to have him as a backup in case Parker or Mills goes down for any length of time. I'm thrilled Pop has finally decided on a pecking order and is sticking with it. Not to mention picking the right guy for the job, Mills.
Yeah, the emergence of Mills has been a godsend, though I think it's only been this successful because of the way Manu and Marco are playing on the 2nd unit, taking a lot of the playmaking and offense initiation responsibilities away from Patty.
This reminds me I forgot to mention something in the game thoughts, but it can be derived from what I say about CoJo: the Spurs offense completely stalls if there's not at least one of Tony or Manu on the floor. So indeed that's a caveat when it comes to Mills, I don't think he could run the Spurs offense without their help. On the other hand it's no surprise that both players who can do it are veterans of the system (and excellent players too).
Yes, my bad.
Green absolutely destroyed Gordon last night on defense. For that alone, he deserves praise. However, offensively, he's pressing too much because he's not getting the ball in his spots. He's often wide open but ignored as whoever had the ball chooses instead to throw up a wild shot or make a more difficult pass. He's out of rhythm, and it's causing him to take bad shots. Sort of like what Sean was saying in the postgame.
I also think Ayres has been a good fourth/fifth big recently. As his jump shot continues to recover, his offensive usefulness increases. He's also holding onto rebounds better than he did earlier in the year. He still hasn't found his niche in the second unit. Once he does, I think he'll put up great per-minute numbers. Remember, he seemed on his way toward being a stretch-four last season.
At the same time, Patty is learning the ropes now that he has been handed the keys, and I can see him only improving in that area as well. Don't forget, it took Parker several years of hardknock lessons to learn how to distribute the basketball and realize that his job as a point guard wasn't just about scoring. Mills really is in a unique position of having a mentor like Parker, whose career path and playstyle are so strikingly similar.
Ultimately, I think Mills is simply the right fit even taking Bellinelli away from the equation because his game complements Manu's the best. This second unit would be strong even without Bellinelli, but with him as icing on the cake they are just tearing things up.
Great write up, thanks!!
I think Mills has come so far on defense. On offense the arrival of Marco, and playing with a more conservative Manu who often handles the ball, allows Patty to often effectively play shooting guard rather than point. This suits his strengths.
I also love watching Mills do a full court press so often, steal in bounds passes, etc. He's just a pest to the opponent.
Danny's defense was solid last night too.
Thanks.
Major reason the Spurs are playing so well during the first quarter of the season is chemistry. Some teams are just integrating new players, coaches, and/or philosophies. Aside from MB, everyone else (who's been getting significant minutes) has been on this team for at least a couple of years. We'll see around the all-star if this team is for real or not. Also, right now the second unit can compete with any opposing starting unit. Let's just hopes it continues through the end of the season.
Well, then the upcoming game against the Thunder will tell us more, because OKC also only has new players like Lamb and Adams to integrate, which is not much of a problem because Durant and Westbrook take all shots anyway ...
ITs Mills defense that is keeping him in the games. I should say his improved defense from last year. Cory played great defense last season and really helped the Spurs give Tony some rest in the playoffs. I like keeping him around as insurance. If Mills had not upped his defense, I would prefer Cory.
Quality job, will.
Solid job, thanks Will
Love the gunslinger analogy. Thanks for posting.
Nice post game write-up, Will
Thanks for those contributing these after games since LJ is MIA.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
