For those Spurs fans who fight against the national perception that the Spurs are boring, it’d be best to burn any copies made of last night’s game against the New Jersey Nets. With their offense in shambles, the Spurs relied on their stingy defense to come away with an 81-70 victory.
As a team, the Spurs shot 33.8% from the field for the game. Subtract Tim Duncan and Tony Parker from the equation and everyone else had a combined shooting percentage of 24%. Fortunately, the Spurs shot 15 more free throws than the Nets and held New Jersey to 37.3% shooting.
The Nets didn’t show much fight after putting up 24 points in the first quarter. That team has a decent amount of talent – probably enough to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference – but now with Jason Kidd gone, it doesn’t appear like the team has a leader on the court. Vince Carter led the Nets in scoring with 19 but it was a quiet and passive 19.
Despite the ugliness of the game, the Spurs did enough to secure their tenth straight victory. The most exciting aspect of the win streak is the Spurs have done it with defense. In the last ten games, the Spurs are only allowing 86.1 points per game on 40.7% shooting from the field. Those are vintage Spurs defensive stats and a sure sign that Spurs Basketball is in full gear.
-Tim Duncan bounced back from a pair of difficult outings with a very good performance on Tuesday night. He was easily the best player on the court for either team. Duncan finished with 29 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots in 34 minutes of action. While most of his offensive production came in the first half, his energy and effort were steady throughout the game. Without Duncan’s offense, the Spurs would have been in a world of hurt against the Nets.
-Manu Ginobili was back in the starting lineup after coming off the bench in the previous contest. I thought Ginobili had one of his better defensive games of the season. He defended Richard Jefferson extremely well and was active both in the passing lanes and on the boards. Offensively, Ginobili struggled with his shooting – connecting on only 1-of-9 on shots outside of the paint. Driving and attacking the basket probably would have done Ginobili good but overall he had a decent enough game. He finished with 12 points, seven rebounds, four steals, three assists and a blocked shot.
-Tony Parker got in early foul trouble, which seems to happen a lot when he goes against Devin Harris. As a result, Parker only played 26 minutes on the night. He never got rolling offensively and had trouble looking for his own shot or creating for others. Whenever he did create a shot for another player, the player missed – which was a common theme for pretty much everybody in silver and black. Parker finished with 11 points, three rebounds and one assist, while shooting 3-for-6 from the floor with four turnovers. Offensively, it was a forgettable night for Parker. Defensively, he was much more successful. Harris was only 2-for-11 when Parker was on the court and Parker also did a better than average job in terms of rotating defensively.
-Bruce Bowen again did a good job against Vince Carter. Carter scored 19 points on 18 field goal attempts – a ratio that Bowen will live with against any quality scorer. Offensively, Bowen was only 3-for-9 from the field, including 1-for-3 on three-pointers. The Nets attempted a Bruise-a-Bruce tactic in the fourth quarter but Bowen stepped up and knocked down 3-of-4 free throws to end that strategy.
-Kurt Thomas got another start at center. In 19 minutes, Thomas had six rebounds and a blocked shot. He didn’t score and only attempted one shot from the field. Although his stat line looks pedestrian, his defense was solid and he did a good job on the boards. In the two games Thomas has started, the team has had 51 and 52 rebounds, respectively. On the season, the Spurs average 41.7 rebounds.
-It’s getting tough for Pop to keep Ime Udoka off the court. Udoka led the bench in minutes with 31 and played very well. His defense was top notch and he finished with a career-high 11 rebounds. To go along with those 11 boards, Udoka also had five points, three assists, two steals and a blocked shot. He too missed a lot of shots, finishing only 2-for-6 from the field, but he more than made up for his misses in other areas.
-Michael Finley was back on the bench. In 18 minutes, Finley had six points, two rebounds and one assist. He missed from just about everywhere, shooting 2-for-6 from the field and 1-for-3 from the free throw line. While it was mostly a disappointing night for Finley, he did bring defensive intensity and his decisions offensively were better than they have been in recent games.
-In 17 minutes off the bench, Fabricio Oberto totaled four rebounds and an assist on 0-for-3 shooting from the floor. Offensively, Oberto has struggled massively coming off the bench this season. In 11 appearances off the bench, Oberto is averaging 1.8 points in 16 minutes per game. As a sub Oberto is shooting 38.1%, compared to 63.1% a starter. If Thomas is going to continue to start, Oberto must adjust and learn to be capable offensively with the bench unit.
-I was extremely unimpressed with how Damon Stoudamire played. I thought he was a ball hog offensively and slacked defensively. He finished with two points, two rebounds and one assist, while shooting 1-for-8 from the field. When he first joined the team, he was looking to pass first and shoot second. Now it appears as if his priorities are changing.
-In 13 minutes of action, Jacque Vaughn thoroughly outplayed Stoudamire. While his stats aren’t overly impressive, he did a much better job running the team and bringing energy defensively. He had six points and two assists, while giving the team a good spark off the bench. The compe ion between Vaughn and Stoudamire should be interesting to watch. Stoudamire is the more talented player but Vaughn has more corporate knowledge and a championship ring says he’s good enough as a backup.
-Robert Horry four minutes and didn’t do much of anything. Matt Bonner played the final 41 seconds and had a missed shot and a rebound.
-These are the types of games Pop loves. The offense was horrible but it didn’t matter because the defense was stifling. Pop can use this as an example to show that no matter how inept the offense will be on a given night, the Spurs can still win as long as they are focused defensively.
I really have no clue as to why Pop put Ginobili back into the starting lineup. The only thing that makes sense is that Pop is looking at different lineups in an attempt to find one he likes. Expect more tinkering in upcoming games.
Another lineup related question is whether Thomas will remain in the starting lineup. The Spurs don’t play against a small ball team for a while so this would be a good stretch of games to keep Thomas in the starting lineup. That said, Pop will probably start Bonner next game just to experiment and stay in CIA mode.
The bottomline is the Spurs just keep on winning. That will likely change soon as the schedule becomes extremely tough. In the next 12 days the Spurs have eight games, including three back-to-back sets. On Thursday, the Spurs embark on their unenviable schedule with a game against the Indiana Pacers in the AT&T Center.
Pretty good effort for a sick man. Right up there with the Jordan Flu Game.
I had no idea the Spurs rebounding and D had improved that much. They've certainly looked better of late, but actually seeing the numbers still impresses me. Part of that it just due to the time of year, but it's also fair to say that KT is making an immediate impact, and I hope the trend continues.
Better team rebounding in part because Udoka can board like a monster from the 3 or 4 when needed.
Thanks timvp.
Hope you're feeling better.
It was ugly, but it was a win. With the West the way it is, any win is a good win.
My highlight was Duncan. It was great to see him shake out of the funk he'd been in for a couple of games.
I've fallen for Udoka, I have no problem with him getting some steady minutes. He brings hustle, and he really seems to have fit into the team perfectly.
You've returned.
I said so many times Oberto coming off the bench hurts his game but Bonner as start next game?
It's awesome out of the box. Kudos to Pop
I remember the Spurs player and a great song thread. to Matt?maybe Money for nothing by Dire Straits.
I'm just kidding.
Good to see the D playing better and betterDespite the ugliness of the game, the Spurs did enough to secure their tenth straight victory. The most exciting aspect of the win streak is the Spurs have done it with defense. In the last ten games, the Spurs are only allowing 86.1 points per game on 40.7% shooting from the field.
On the season the Spurs are on 6th place on the FG% allowed with 44.52%
And I think at one point in the season we were around the 20th mark and our opponent was shooting about 46%. Very good improvement.
This is a quote from Travis' game thoughts in the "Where are the game thoughts" thread. Do you concur?
Regarding Udoka - I can't seem to remember the last time a Spurs guard not named Ginobili/Parker had such a good rebounding game... It is great to finally have a guard who still has enough juice to bruise other teams!
If I'm not wrong in the All Star Break we were on 14th place
I don't think that Pop ever took Manu OUT of the starting line-up (at least not yet). The only reason he came off the bench on Sunday was to limit his minutes on a back-to-back.
It'll be interesting to see how the swing minutes look once Barry returns. I know Pop is still messing with the rotation but already Fin's minutes have gone down while Udoka's has gone up. Nothing wrong with that especially if Udoka can continue to score. It makes me wonder why Barry chose SA with not many minutes available.
Somewhat but I don't think it was anything too out of the ordinary. Finley is a streaky player. When he's going good, he's an asset. When he's going bad (as has been the case for the last two or three games), he kinda self implodes. The running joke amongst the Spurs is that they have to put Michael Finley on suicide watch whenever the team loses or he doesn't play well. He's probably too much of a perfectionist for his own good sometimes.
Yeah, Udoka is deceptively strong. You rarely see anyone able to move him when he's establishing position under the basket. And his rebounding is all about positioning. He's relatively short, can't jump and has short arms ... so he has to clear out a lot of room to get his rebounds. Luckily he's strong enough to do that.
True. Udoka is a Pop favorite right now but Udoka has shown to be extremely inconsistent with his jumper. Barry likely won't see big minutes but in games like yesterday when the Spurs couldn't score, Barry is useful to jumpstart the offense. He did that a couple times last year in the playoffs ... even though he was struggling with his own shot.
Thanks for the recap.
Right now, Stoudamire sucks on both end of the court. I have nothing with Pop giving him a fair chance to crack the rotation but if he doesn't significantly improve his level before the playoffs, he should be Spurs 3rd PG behind Parker and Vaughn.
After the NVE faillure, I'm confident Pop won't make a similar mistake this year.
Udoka is great. You're right... Thomas + Udoka = rebounds. About the only bad point for Udoka at this point is the off-shooting night, plus he doesn't seem as trustworthy with the 'game-tipping' 3s like Bowen is.
Stoudamire is pressing too much. Last night he seemed wanting to pick up the offensive slack, but was unable to. Matching up with Harris is tough for him.
I apologize for calling you a ball hog. You were just playing how Pop wants you to play.I was extremely unimpressed with how Damon Stoudamire played. I thought he was a ball hog
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