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When I read your thoughts, timvp, I admire how you start it off, it fires me up man. But by the time you criticize the players, honestly, I cringe lol.
Glad to see the Spurs showing some signs of getting ready for the postseason. Go Spurs Go!!!
The biggest news of the day for Spurs fans on Thursday had to be Bruce Bowen getting suspended by the league for his incident with Chris Paul earlier in the week. Personally, even though I’ve gone on record saying Bowen should have been suspended for a couple of his previous acts, I saw nothing that warranted a suspension for Bowen. Nothing. Bowen’s streak of starting 500 consecutive games started ending due to a poor decision by the NBA was extremely lame.
After learning about the suspension, the Spurs had to take on the Detroit Pistons in Motown. All things considered, I thought the Spurs played well and I was proud with the way they play. They fought hard, didn’t give up and played with a purpose all game long. It’s too late in the season to be counting moral victories but I don’t think anyone associated with the Spurs will go to sleep tonight ashamed with how the team responded to the adversity.
Other than a bad third quarter where the Spurs were outscored 22-11, San Antonio played quite well. The Pistons were able to come away with an 84-80 win but I thought the Spurs showed signs of breaking out of their slump.
Regarding the Pistons, they are a solid team. The Pistons are basically the Spurs of the Eastern Conference. They aren’t flashy and they aren’t pretty, but they get the job done with defense and execution on offense. I expect Detroit to make another run deep into the postseason as they are once again a legitimate championship contender.
Overall, there are reasons to be concerned with how the Spurs are playing. They’ve lost four of their last five games and the Spurs just aren’t playing at a high level right now. I don’t think it’s time to panic but concern is an acceptable response at the moment.
-Tim Duncan had a difficult game. The Pistons threw a number of bigmen at Duncan and forced Duncan to work hard all game. Detroit was allowed to be physical with Duncan and that plan of attack was effective. Duncan had 18 field goal attempts before he even shot his first free throw. On the night, Duncan finished with 20 points, ten rebounds, three assists and four turnovers, while shooting 9-of-23 from the field. Defensively, Duncan was solid. He remained attentive all night and had few mental lapses on that end of the court. Duncan played his best ball in the fourth quarter but it turned out to be too little, too late for San Antonio.
-Manu Ginobili continues to play like a s of his superstar self. He’s admittedly dead tired and it’s obvious with how he’s playing. Ginobili shows little energy on either offense or defense and just seems to be going through the motions for the most part. When he does try to press the issue, he doesn’t have enough juice to do what he wants to do. Ginobili finished with nine points, five rebounds and two assists on 4-for-10 shooting from the field. After the game, Ginobili said that he’s just waiting for this rough stretch of games to end. And while it’d be nice to have Supermanu right now, it’s more than understandable that his energy is going to suffer in this stretch of games where the Spurs have played so many games in such a short period of time.
-Tony Parker had a really, really good game. Considering the compe ion and considering how much the Spurs needed him to come up big, this was probably Parker’s best game since November. His speed was on full display and he was showing a nice touch with all of his field goal attempts. Against the Pistons, Parker scored 26 points, dished out seven assists, grabbed four rebounds and swiped three steals. He also hit 12-of-18 shots from the field and had only one turnover in 38 minutes of action. Parker carried the team on his shoulders for much of the game. With the Spurs in zone defensively for almost the entire contest, Parker took Bowen’s place in the zone and performed very well on that end of the court. Hopefully this is a performance he can build on and start improving his night to night consistency.
-Kurt Thomas played 21 minutes and I was mostly disappointed with his play. The Spurs as a team were outrebounded 51-39 and that Thomas wasn’t helping much in terms of rebounding. There were a lot of available rebounds he didn’t grab in his time on the court. On a whole, I’d like to see Thomas step it up a notch in the rebounding department. If he can team with Duncan to help the Spurs dominate the glass, that’d go a long ways in making this even more of a championship squad.
-Michael Finley started and once again had a streaky night. After hitting his first three shots from the field, Finley followed that up by missing his final four attempts. He finished with eight points, two rebounds and one assist in 35 minutes of action. While this was actually an improvement compared to what he’s recently been giving the Spurs, it would have been nice if Finley stepped up more with Bowen out.
-Robert Horry played 23 minutes, the most minutes he’s played since Dec. 12. While he had a couple of poor moments, overall he played a lot better than we’ve seen as of late. He finished with eight points, five rebounds and one blocked shot, while going 3-for-5 from the field and 2-for-3 from beyond the arc. Pop seems to be oiling up Horry's joints for playoff time.
-Damon Stoudamire got extended minutes against the Pistons due to Bowen’s absence and he didn’t help matters much. He hit only 2-of-10 shots on his way to five points and two rebounds. From three-point land, Stoudamire was only 1-for-7. If Stoudamire doesn’t find his shot soon, it’s going to be time to give up on this experiment. He’s playing almost exactly like Nick Van Exel, except Van Exel at least had a reputation of being clutch to fall back on.
-Fabricio Oberto played another absolutely horrible game off the bench. He was bad on offense (1-for-5 from the field) but it was his defense and rebounding that were just atrocious. If he wasn’t getting burned defensively, he was letting yet another rebound get away. I don’t know if Oberto is just coasting right now or if he’s just not capable of playing off the bench. Whatever the cause, he needs to figure it out ASAP.
-Jacque Vaughn played 11 minutes off the bench and basically did nothing. However, producing nothing is better than the production the Spurs are getting out of Stoudamire right now.
-Matt Bonner only played seven minutes but I thought he played impressively. He entered the game in the fourth quarter with the Spurs down ten points and by the time he exited, the Spurs were down only one point. His aggression in terms of crashing the boards was needed and surprisingly enough, Bonner’s defense was actually really good. He was active in the zone defense and made a number of very good closeouts. What was perhaps most impressive was the fact that he played a substantial part of his time at small forward. His seamless transition to small forward was good to see.
-I have to give props to Pop for going to the zone defense look. I typically hate zone defense but Pop realized that without both Bowen and Ime Udoka (out with an ankle injury), the Spurs simply had no shot if they opted to play man-to-man. The result was more zone defense in this one game than we’ve seen in all of the Popovich Era combined. The downside to the zone defense was the 22 offensive rebounds the Spurs surrendered to the Pistons. However, a lot of that was just bad effort by bigmen tracking down the ball.
I do have to question Pop’s over reliance on Stoudamire. Instead of going small with Stoudamire, why not give Bonner more minutes or even play Horry at small forward? , Pop himself playing small forward is a better alignment than any look which features Stoudamire at this point.
The bottomline is the Spurs gave a good effort but it was yet another loss. The Spurs are desperate for a win and the bad news is that the schedule remains difficult. Tomorrow, the Spurs play a back-to-back against the surging Philadelphia 76ers. With Bowen back in the lineup, hopefully the Spurs can kick the Sixers in teeth.
Believe.
When I read your thoughts, timvp, I admire how you start it off, it fires me up man. But by the time you criticize the players, honestly, I cringe lol.
Glad to see the Spurs showing some signs of getting ready for the postseason. Go Spurs Go!!!
Finley's defense was an abortion and I don't know why the we can't get long defensive rebounds. Well, I take it back, I do know why... it's because we have three players starting towards the other end of the court and two players directly under the basket every time the Pistons take an outside shot. This team may need to re-learn the fundamentals of rebounding.
Oh and this game certainly proves that Bowen is really dragging down our offense.
I could have sworn there was a 4-5 minute stretch where Pop went with a frontline of Horry, Bonner and Duncan..And you know, it didn't work badly.
Maybe Udoka got put in or something when I wasn't looking...but it sure did look like Horry, Bonner and Duncan were out there. And you know...it was a zone, but it worked pretty well actually.
These scoring droughts are getting out of hand
Nice wrap up as always timvp, thanks.
Nothing else to add, I'll just echo it.
Believe.
I say wait till April = Barry back, KT has some more experience, Pop has more of the rotation figured out
I saw that too.
Read the Bonner part.
Sarcasm aside, Bonner's defense was nothing special. His guys just missed their jumpers.
Am i upset we lost? Sure. Totally devastated? No. I DID NOT even think we'd have a chance tonight with our 1-2 defensive wing punch of Bowen/Udoka out. With both of those in there we possibly stop/slow down Rip and Prince. But we hung in there, somethings championship teams do! I'm proud of them, regardless of the loss, The D was there for the most part, O was there besides the 3rd quarter funk, yet they fought back in the 4th despite the funk. We hung in there with the 2nd best team in the league missing Udoka, Bowen, Barry, and a tired Manu. It looks bad today cuz were in 5th now but the schedule gets tougher for OTHER teams now. And the Spurs get a much needed 3 day break after Mondays game with Boston, time for Manu to rest up. But look at these interesting schedules for other teams who get to beat the crap out of each other:
Lakers:
Sun, Mar 16 @ Houston
Tue, Mar 18 @ Dallas
Thu, Mar 20 @ Utah
Sun, Mar 23 Golden State
Mon, Mar 24 @ Golden State
Hornets:
Sun, Mar 16 @ Detroit
Mon, Mar 17 Chicago
Wed, Mar 19 Houston
Sat, Mar 22 Boston
Fri, Mar 28 @ Boston
Rockets
Sun, Mar 16 LA Lakers
Tue, Mar 18 Boston
Wed, Mar 19 @ New Orleans
Fri, Mar 21 @ Golden State
Sat, Mar 22 @ Phoenix
Suns
Mon, Mar 24 @ Detroit
Wed, Mar 26 @ Boston
Mon, Mar 31 Denver
Tue, Apr 1 @ Denver
Read the Bonner part.
Ahh...ok. You know what was funny about that line up? Bonner, Duncan and Horry all 3 seems to get excited about getting the chance to do it. I haven't seen Pop do something like that since 1999 when he did it with Robinson, Duncan and Perdue a few times. It's a good omen
I guess we can call them the triple almost towers
Works for me...instead of chasing all the fast SF around get out there and mash them with some big guys. They were running it with Bonner winding up on Prince a good deal of the time, which is really even more impressive if you think about it.
Im upset they loss, but the good i saw out of it was GOOD D. maybe it was part of the zone D, but I saw alot of team D going on tongiht. I was impressed most with this. I havent seen good TEAM D in a while. We need not panic yet still. Recall were still getting thomas part of this, Barry isnt back, Bowen out, oduka out. We lost, but never underestimate the heart of a champion.
I don't get it - Manu's a pro ball player presumably at his peak. Why does he need special consideration when it comes to rest when others do not? Is he that fragile and out of shape?
Shhhhhhh
Manu's sleeping
What is wrong with Damon, he took 7 3pt shots !!! And he made only 1 !
Is he insane ?
Pop let Damon shoot the 3 seven times (for 1 made) and Tony is not allowed to shoot more than 0 or 1 "3pt" per game ???
Seriously ! Come on ! POP... PLEASE !!!
3 quarters of championship basketball ain't gonna cut it
lame
You're too harsh. The Pistons should not count on Bowen/Udoka being out during a potential Finals meeting between the two teams. Plus we'll have Barry back by then.
-Damon did suck for the Spurs last night, but to defend him a little, at least three of his attempts were at the end of quarters trying to beat the buzzer. And, when he had that one turnover where he threw it past half court when he was caught on the baseline, the Detroit local broadcast panned on Pop upset at Damon but basically urging him to shoot the basketball. He definitely appears to be trying to find his way in the offense. And, yeah, he does look like NVE2 right now.
-The Pistons got a favorable whistle last night, no question about it. But, a couple points on this. The officials let both teams play a bit physical. Pistons had 15 free throws and Spurs had 6 free throws. But, Pistons last four free throws were in the final seconds when the Spurs were fouling Rip on purpose, and two other free throws were that Robert Horry clear path foul on Stuckey where Horry pulled on his jersey after the steal. Pistons were physical with Duncan but the couple of fouls I think should have been called were in the second quarter when McDyess was guarding him. McDyess can't guard Duncan and he fouled him at least twice on shot attempts in the second. Didn't see too much fouling in the fourth quarter on Duncan except the times he actually got calls. Rasheed played Duncan pretty well in that fourth quarter.
Two favorable calls that definitely went in the Pistons favor were 1) the so-called "trip" on Horry against Prince where it really looked like Horry didn't touch him at all and 2) Duncan's off arm offensive foul where on the replay it showed that Duncan had his arm up but it really wasn't extended. So, yes, calls were in Detroit's favor but I don't believe they were horribly lopsided.
-I still get the feeling that these Pistons players genuinely respect the Spurs. We already knew that, but watching tonight's game really reinforced that. The starters gave a true, genuine effort where they've been pretty lethargic recently. Rasheed even gave a hug to Popovich before the game. Sheed doesn't do that with many coaches. I know he does that with (ironically) Isiah Thomas and Mo Cheeks, but not sure how many other coaches, especially since Pop never coached Sheed. And, Sheed really admires Duncan. You can just tell. Sheed gets up for great teams, great players, and challenges. Sometimes it's to show up a player, as I believe he does with Dirk and Dwight Howard to remind them that Sheed's still the better player. But, there are two players that Sheed always gets up for even if he's not playing well, he plays as hard as he can, and it's out of sincere respect for how good they are as players, and that's Tim and KG. It's completely out of respect because he knows how good they are.
The game was ugly, but at the same time, it was a game that you could appreciate on many levels. I know the Spurs were short-handed. But, it was still nice watching two teams play hard, respect each other, and let the game speak for itself. I haven't had much interest in regular season games since the first game the Pistons played the Celtics way back in December. This was better than usual even though both teams had struggling periods of scoring droughts and it wasn't a really pretty game.
And, then I'm reminded there are still like 17 more regular season games for another month or so. Damn, I can't wait for the playoffs.
The refs swallowed their whistles for the most part which I was fine with, better than a parade to the line.
Still a pleasure to ready your recap even after a loss, nice comment JamStone!
Glad to have valuable posters while there are so many trolls in here!
Manu - it's not just that he's tired, it's also the thigh stinger he took the other day. Those things stiffen you up and take away your explosiveness. He's playing hurt right now. Give him a few games.
Oberto - has to start! He is just one of those guys. You want to get anything out of him, start him. I like KT better as Tim's backup most of his minutes anyway.
Horry - I really think Bonner should be getting more minutes than Horry. His energy is essential with the rest of the role players so old and slow, and even though Horry had a decent game today, he's just not bringing it consistently enough.
Good effort by the guys today, but the road ahead looks pretty tough to me. Let's hope they find their cohesion and get a break or two, because they haven't had one all season and it would be very welcome.
Does Brent come back March 21? He could be crucial.
Just A Disappointing Game
Here's my version of SpursDynasty's Game Thoughts:
Held Detroit to 40%, but the Spurs missed their shots. End of story.
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