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Hollinger going far out on that limb.But if they can't figure out why their offense keeps suddenly disappearing after halftime, then it might be the Spurs who quickly vanish when the Western Conference playoffs start a month from now.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailyd...ge=dime-080318
Disappearing Act In Second Half Continues For Spurs
Hollinger
By John Hollinger
ESPN.com
(Archive)
SAN ANTONIO -- The San Antonio Spurs and Boston Celtics will take a lot away from Monday's showdown.
Like their timeouts, for instance.
Boston's Kevin Garnett inexplicably failed to call one with his team up two and all the options for an inbounds pass covered. But then San Antonio's Bruce Bowen and Robert Horry made the same gaffe after the Spurs stole the ball on KG's inbound attempt, resulting in a rushed 3 at the buzzer by Horry that missed the mark. The Celtics hung on for a 93-91 win.
But let's set the timeout debate aside and look at the bigger picture. One suspects the defending champions have a much larger takeaway from Monday's game, considering it's their fourth straight defeat and the sixth in their last seven contests. It dropped them to 44-23 on the season and into a tie with Dallas for sixth place in the West -- unheard-of territory for this squad so late in the season.
Though it's a hard thought to fathom giving their amazing finishing kicks in recent campaigns, the Spurs' finishing kick is exactly their problem right now. Not just in season terms, but in a game context too.
For the first 13 minutes Monday, they did all the things we expect San Antonio teams to do -- play suffocating defense, execute in the halfcourt, and sprinkle in the occasional open-court dash from Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili.
That put San Antonio up by 22, but they lost steam from there -- most notably during a 15-2 haymaker the Celtics landed to start the third quarter. And it's part of a disturbing recent pattern in which the Spurs play a strong first half but fizzle after the break.
San Antonio scored 38 points after halftime Monday, marking the fourth time in seven games that they had a sub-40-point second half. You can throw the 42-point effort against Denver into the mix too, since the Nuggies' league-leading pace inflates scoring so much. In each of those five games, a lame offensive second half from San Antonio either cost them the lead or blew open a previously close game.
"I'm mad that we were up 22 and blew it,' said Robert Horry. "I know we're playing one of the best teams in the league in the Celtics but there's no excuse. It's tough to maintain big leads like that against good teams but you have to defend home court. You just have to."
Ginobili was brilliant with 32 points, but like his teammates did most of his damage in the first half. He scored 18, including 4-of-5 on 3s, to give the Spurs a 10-point edge at the break. But he was 1-for-4 from the field in the fourth quarter, and had a key turnover late.
"When you play good for 45 minutes and then you miss two shots to almost win it, it doesn't count," said Ginobili. "Down the stretch they made every shot, [and] we couldn't make one.
"We played great for 20 minutes, then we kind of started slowing down and the second half was totally different."
And as the "What's wrong with the Spurs?" questions came up, the general consensus inside San Antonio's locker room was that the problems were mental and not -- as some suspect -- physical deterioration from the team's increasing age.
A few of the diagnoses:
"We're kind of insecure, a little lack of confidence," said Ginobili. "So when things start to go bad we don't have the same response as when things go right."
"This thing lately is in our heads, it's not physical," said Bowen. "Right now we are not completing, not finishing our games the way we would like."
"The simple things got away from us," said Horry. "Taking care of the basketball, simple ball control, and those types of things. And that's just simple basketball."
"Down the stretch I thought execution-wise we made a couple of mistakes that really got us," said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich.
Perhaps it's just a blip that will all be forgotten when the Spurs are having another festive float down the Riverwalk in late June. But while Ginobili said the Spurs remain good enough to repeat as champions, other indicators aren't pointing their way.
For instance, San Antonio only has the seventh-best victory margin in the conference, so you can't just blame their record on bad luck -- and much of that +4.1 margin was built up during its now long-forgotten 17-3 start. Since then they're 27-20 -- good enough for most, but not for defending champions.
The schedule has been cruel during this stretch, which is one reason the Spurs' struggles have seemed so much worse of late. However, it doesn't get much easier the rest of the way. The Spurs still have road games left against Dallas, Orlando, Utah, and the Lakers, plus home dates against Utah, Phoenix and Houston.
"March is horrible, we were talking today that at least since I'm here I don't remember a month like this," said Ginobili.
But these are the Spurs. Since when did the schedule matter? This is the team that's used a brutal Rodeo road trip as the catalyst to their le march on three different occasions.
Because of that, nobody is ready to write them off quite yet, least of all this scribe. But if they can't figure out why their offense keeps suddenly disappearing after halftime, then it might be the Spurs who quickly vanish when the Western Conference playoffs start a month from now.
Hollinger going far out on that limb.But if they can't figure out why their offense keeps suddenly disappearing after halftime, then it might be the Spurs who quickly vanish when the Western Conference playoffs start a month from now.
Awesome...we've never been this far under the radar in a repeat year before
Thanks for highlighing those quotes...but Manu and Horry both know they are good enough to win a championship, as they've done it before. Not the same...even if they wanted it to be. They can't unknow what they know.
Jesus. They need a psychiatrist.
A surprisingly well-written article...although, I don't question so much the fact that Bowen didn't call a timeout.
This team's struggles are all mental, which is a big surprise for me. This is practically the same squad we had last season and it's full of vets.
That being said, the West is stacked and any edge a team can get will be crucial.
The Spurs have that edge -- they're playoff-tested. Having these next two days off should pay HUGE dividends for their stretch run to the playoffs.
Since when do they remove sections of the season away from a team's record? The team's gone 27-20 since starting the season 17-3, but they still went 17-3.
That's like taking away Houston's 22-game winning streak and saying their really a .500 basketball team.
If Barry comes back and can contribute, the role-players find their niche, Duncan, Parker & Ginobili find that cohesiveness they had in the beginning of the season and Pop settles on a rotation the team can still find themselves.
The West is too wide-open this season to call our team a "sinking ship."
In all fairness, the stretch of teams they were playing when they went 17-3 isn't nearly as difficult as the stretch now. Hence, the losing skid.
I'm a little perplexed by these quotes.
I hope they get it together soon, and it's nice to see they're just as concerned as we are, but for a team to have mental lapses this late in the season is puzzling.
I just went here: http://www.nba.com/spurs/schedule/results_2006.html and checked out the Spurs' post-ASB Break records since 2002-03, and the disturbing this is that we are in uncharted territory right now. We have not had a stretch like this post-ASB in the era of SPAM.
The team looks old, slow and tentative, and we've never looked that this late in a season and won a championship. I hate to say it, but Hollinger is on the money and we are in trouble.
I think we'll make the playoffs, but this feels like a "changing of the guard" year to me - sadly, I think one of the younger teams (Jazz, Hornets, Rockets, Lakers) will win the West this year. And I think it's imperative for the Spurs to get 4 or 5 younger players for next year (Splitter, Mahinmi, J Jones, ?, ?).
The heart says never give up, the head says this is not our repeat year.
I understand that, but why attempt to discredit the team's great start? They're basically the same team that went 17-3, they just need to get their confidence back up after going through (another) bad stretch. This is the NBA, a marathon, not the NFL, a sprint, they've gotta pace themselves. If their still playing this up-and-down in late-March and into April, then will have reason to be as pessimistic a Hollinger is at end of his article.
It's very hard to see a repeat next June.
And if no repeat in 08, then Tim won't have repeat ever.
They just look so lost, so ineffective, so lottery team.
Of course it's mental. They haven't physically declined across the board that much since only last June.
No fun, none at all.
I just went here: http://www.nba.com/spurs/schedule/results_2006.html and checked out the Spurs' post-ASB Break records since 2002-03, and the disturbing this is that we are in uncharted territory right now. We have not had a stretch like this post-ASB in the era of SPAM.
The team looks old, slow and tentative, and we've never looked that this late in a season and won a championship. I hate to say it, but Hollinger is on the money and we are in trouble.
I think we'll make the playoffs, but this feels like a "changing of the guard" year to me - sadly, I think one of the younger teams (Jazz, Hornets, Rockets, Lakers) will win the West this year. And I think it's imperative for the Spurs to get 4 or 5 younger players for next year (Splitter, Mahinmi, J Jones, ?, ?).
The heart says never give up, the head says this is not our repeat year.
To be honest, I had my doubts last season after we lost to a horrible Boston team late last season - coincidentally on St. Patrick's Day as well - and then later to a Jermaine O'Neal-less Indiana team. The team had reasons to worry and doubt last season as well, the Mavs were lighting the league on-fire, yet they rose above the adversity to gain another championship. , in 2005 they headed into the playoffs with a hobbled Tim Duncan and missing a key role-player due to injury (Devin), yet they still won it all. Who's to say that this team can't possibly do the same exact thing?
I'm worried. But I'm not worried.
As much as I would have loved for Horry's shot to go in at the end, I think it's better to save that mojo for the playoffs.
I was disappointed with the execution at the end. Spurs had the game in hand more than once and should have won. They gave it away on so many levels, it's frustrating.
But after tonight and Friday night against Detroit, it looks like Robert Horry is coming to life. He still isn't shooting that well but it looks like he has a little left in the tank for the playoffs. That's one positive thing to take away from these losses.
lol just what I was thinking.
But seriously, I'm worried about them
I hope they get over this "mental" thing soon.
Not worried. It's not like we're being consistently blown out. In a 7-game series we can outplay and outcoach any team.
Don't jump off the bandwagon quite yet. Last time I went to ESPN.com the Rockets were barely in the playoffs on a 16 game winning streak and the Spurs were the number 1 team in the west.
You also need to consider that we haven't always won the championship ranked number one. In '05 we were ranked 2nd. Just last year we were ranked 3rd.
Currently we are ranked 6th in a VERY tight conference. If they put together even the slightest win streak they can move up a few spots and be right there in the same old position as always....just under the radar.
I really don't see how this is any big issue. So they can't finish out regular season games - big deal. Pop will get some things ironed out and you will get 120% intensity once playoff time rolls around.
Will the Spurs make the playoffs? I would happily put lots of money on it (and I'm just a poor college student). Will they get deep into the Western Conference? I say most likely. The only part I worry about is making it past all the Western teams into the Finals (very daunting considering the talent/vast amount of unknown factors), and then having to face some refreshed team who just took a leisurely stroll through the Leastern Conference.
I think this is one of the more iffy years of winning a Championship just because of the field of teams that have sprung up over the past......month......but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see them hoist the trophy one more time. All in all though - this skid is hardly indicative of how the Spurs will play in the playoffs. I don't see why it should cause any turmoil.
"Believe!" anyone?
2-pt 4thQ output from KG was already good enough for me. hehe
I am disappointed. Just a 2pt game. Almost the same with Detroit.
But, this losing to the Suns, then to Detroit, and then Boston is nothing compared to almost losing Tim Duncan to injury in 2005. That was almost the end of our journey for the Spurs that yr. You don't even even know if can play again the rest of the season. But we made history, he came back and they won. Awesome!
At least they're healthy, the 4(TD,TP, Manu & Bruce), of them.
BTW, that ESPN anniversary cover featuring the Spurs didn't work out well for the both of them huh!
They are sinking and sinking fast...
Just die already spurs!
Stop living in the past numbnuts, what does a 17-3 start has to do with sucking now?
I won't let a losing streak kill me faith, but we are losing badly, only got energy for 30 minutes or so, after that we are done.
When you need 3 guys at the top in any given night, it's hard to say we are gonna win with the presente level of TD, Manu, TP, Bruce, Mike, Kurt, Fabricio, etc.... we need to set an style we are playing bad offense, bad defense.
I don't see the light my friends, probably is still night and the light will come with suns
I don't think the NBA set up the schedule like this in prior years with all the BtoBs AFTER the Rodeo trip. In addition, more often than not, the second game of the BtoB is a home game, so essentially, some of the benefit of the home game is lost.
Grinding down an older team is done like this. Sucks.
We are falling.. and rather quickly..
Blame Finley for the lack of confidence. In the first quarter, he didn't attempt a shot and the SPurs got up 23 points. Then he misses that easy layup, followed by the wide open 3 pointer and the rest of the Spurs start slumping as well.
It kills me to say it but I think we will be in a Gone Fishing segment soon...if we even make it that far...
Awesome...we've never been this far under the radar in a repeat year before
It is wild to see a team that has won 4 championships in the last 9 years and is the defending champion lose it's confidence.
I mean this team has everything, they just need to get that trust back.....
Honestly, I think Popovich has screwed around with the lineup and roster a little too much and that people are unsure of their roles.
DD
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