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Interesting perspective. Cool read.
http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/sha...listen_an.html
Watch, listen and learn
By Sekou K Smith
The Atlanta Journal-Cons ution
There’s more to a night with the San Antonio Spurs than just precision timing on back cuts and the obligatory Gregg Popovich snarl at Joey Crawford.
It’s a chance to see a machine run the way it was intended to run. It’s an opportunity to view masters of their craft show the rest of us how a team is supposed to operate. It’s NBA basketball at its finest (I don’t care that the ratings are always awful when the Spurs are in the NBA Finals).
And if you’re not careful, you might sit back, watch these masters of the game, listen to the sound that their clockwork makes and learn a little something about how to win.
I wonder if the Hawks took notes while they were being schooled Tuesday night. Really, I do. Because it’s hard to tell what they’re doing these days other than turning a little early season promise into hot garbage.
Tim Duncan and Al Horford were chatting under the basket in front of the Spurs’ bench during one lull in the action and they were both smiling like they knew something most of the other people in the building didn’t. Guess it was a championship thing.
But you must know that they’ve experienced some things, as multiple le winners, that very few people have. The beauty of what the Spurs do lies in the fact that they do it every night. They play the same way on Tuesday night in November as they do on a Tuesday night in May or June. It’s just the way they’ve been built and the way they run things.
You wonder if the Hawks have any better understanding of that after being smacked around by this team, or if they knew as much before the game and just couldn’t do anything to stop it.
I’m not sure. Just when you think they start to understand how this whole thing works (why the winners consistently win and why the others do not), they show up with one of these listless, glass-eyed outings that takes us all back to the 13-69 stinker the Hawks put forth a couple years back.
Take for example the Spurs’ at ude about Tuesday’s game. They didn’t treat the Hawks like the 3-7 punching bag they’re on their way to becoming. They treated them like the dangerous, athletic, high-flying outfit that punished both Dallas and Phoenix on the same floor this season.
“We wanted to come in here and respect them,” Popovich said when it was over.
Indeed.
Interesting perspective. Cool read.
They play the same way on Tuesday night in November as they do on a Tuesday night in May or June. It’s just the way they’ve been built and the way they run things.Not really. I believe last season on a Tuesday in November they were losing to the Bobcats and Bucks. And of course we all knew what happened Tuesday night in June of last season....
You don't have a .700 winning percentage without playing good basketball .700+ of the time.
That's a truism that this article locked into without using the percentages. The Spurs are the most consistent team in the NBA, night in and night out.
What is unusual is that Pop and the team can apparently motivate themselves night after night to play with seriousness.
3-1, i call it right for the last 4 games sequence. But Orlando Magic will be another hard test tonite.
Can't ing read. Way too drunk.
Last edited by Supreme_Being; 11-21-2007 at 10:10 AM. Reason: Typo.
That's part of the magic of it all. They stay pretty motivated through a long season. They've been known to take a few games off but Pop gets them back on track fast.
They're contenders every year and this year the chance to repeat seems to be a stronger focus than previous years when they've had that chance.
I think they know, as we do, that Duncan's window for a repeat is starting to close just a little bit. They brought back the same team, something they hadn't done before after a Championship. They gave Duncan the best shot at it this season.
It's going to be a fun ride.
The first three quarters were not only clinical basketball...it was awesome to watch. In the third quarter, even the home crowd seemed to delight in some of the moves and the passing. That one play where TP's pass was tipped high in the air, Manu leaped up and grabbed it, fired it to Tim who touch-passed it to Fab for the layup. "Ohhh, Mama!", as Bill Land would say.
A pretty play. A wonderful touch pass.
I also loved the play where Duncan kicked it out and it went through each perimeter guy without touching the floor until it got to Parker for the three. Just basketball at its finest. A joy to watch.
I didn't get to see the game last night, but what you've decribed here sounds pretty exciting.
To me, the interesting part is that they do these things on a nightly (give or take a night) basis, but no one (other than Spurs fans) notice.
Just imagine if the media, for once, stopped labeling the Spurs as "Boring," and started talking about the fun things that they do. Instead of just accepting the media's take on the Spurs, more people would be willing to watch them...and actually enjoy what they bring to the league. What would that be like?
But then, I'm preaching to the choir.
Sekou Smith is one of the best basketball writers around.
gr8 article thanks!
awesome! reading is fun when your under the influence of drugs and midget pros utes
And he's a very cool guy. He's one of my favorite beat reporters that I know. I used to read him a lot more when he covered the Pacers. I don't read that much about the Hawks, but his stuff is always good.
Nice 5-5 record, King. It keeps things nice and uniform, you know. 5 up, 5 down.
Machine references aside, the Spurs will need to bring their A-game on this b2b against the Magic. #12 and #14 give the Spurs fits. The Magic's poor record mystified me last season, but not this year.
o, Louis.
Point differentials are still the biggest indicator on how a team does. Too bad for Dallas and Phoenix, its still obvious San Antonio is still ahead of them.
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