Game Thoughts: Spurs vs. Suns Game 2

[timvp]

yeah, Manu's lucky Parker and Duncan are there while he's recovering.

That fastbreak dunk, proves he's not at 100 percent.

He looked healthier today than in Game 1. Hopefully this two day break will allow him to be close to 100% for Game 3.

I have a feeling that for the Spurs to win one in PHX, Ginobili is going to have to have a legendary type game.

[ManuTim_best of Fwiendz]

He looked healthier today than in Game 1. Hopefully this two day break will allow him to be close to 100% for Game 3.

I have a feeling that for the Spurs to win one in PHX, Ginobili is going to have to have a legendary type game.

Me too. That stuff he was doing in the middle of the season when we badly needed wins?
Pop needs to tell him to do it again.

[whottt]

The man-to-man part of his defense I've seen before ... most notably last year versus Allen Iverson. However, I've never seen him dig in and fight bigs. Ripping the ball away from Shaq and Amare was new territory, IMO.

Good point about the d on bigs...that could be new. He's definitely giving it everything he's got.

The fact his D was so great in game 1 was pretty amazing too when you think about the fact that he had a headache. D and headaches definitely don't go well together.

Honestly, the way Parker is moving, the speed he's moving at...it's like he's from another planet than everyone else on the court...it's just this insane level of quick he's playing at on both sides of the ball...no one can match it.

[ManuTim_best of Fwiendz]

TP was like a rabid pitbull in game 2. I hope he keeps it up on the defensive end in game 3, but going off his quotes, it seems promising.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

I'm just glad (according to the post game quotes) that the Spurs don't plan on relaxing.

I also hope they come out better to start the game in game 3 (although they always tend to chuck away games that have them winning big early)

[ManuTim_best of Fwiendz]

I'm just glad (according to the post game quotes) that the Spurs don't plan on relaxing.

I also hope they come out better to start the game in game 3 (although they always tend to chuck away games that have them winning big early)

I think the Spurs have gotten better mentally in the last few years.

And I hope they know they can't afford to be down 15 AGAIN in the first quarter /half in the Suns homecourt. I don't think they can expect to stop the bleeding, because once the Suns go on a mini run in the 2nd half, it'll be one of those humiliating losses.
I think the Spurs will prepare for that and not allow it to happen.

[timvp]

I also hope they come out better to start the game in game 3 (although they always tend to chuck away games that have them winning big early)

I expect the Spurs to get down early in the first quarter in Game 3. The Suns will be energized and ready to rock. But the Spurs need to bounce back quicker than they did in the first two games. It needs to be a one or two point game at the half instead of eight to ten.

[sabar]

Maybe Pop wants to be the first to win a series with hack-a-shaq to cement his legacy.
Or he's just messing with D'Antoni. Pure CIA. I have a feeling hack-a-shaq won't be seen for the rest of this series, D'Antoni figured out that shaq will get in a rhythm and doesn't have to knee-jerk and pull him.

As for reverse-game thoughts, if I'm a phx fan, I'm wondering where all this Diaw-love is coming from. Dude gets a lot of plays down the stretch for some reason.

[ShoogarBear]

Hack-a-Shaq when ahead in the third quarter pissed me off to no end. And it really seemed to slow down the Spurs' momentum at that point.

I was told that going to Hack-a-Shaq when you have the lead is Dennis Lindsey's brainchild.

[romain.star]

Good point about the d on bigs...that could be new. He's definitely giving it everything he's got.

The fact his D was so great in game 1 was pretty amazing too when you think about the fact that he had a headache. D and headaches definitely don't go well together.

Honestly, the way Parker is moving, the speed he's moving at...it's like he's from another planet than everyone else on the court...it's just this insane level of quick he's playing at on both sides of the ball...no one can match it.

After his injury, none could expect he would be that good early in the Playoffs. That's why this guy is a champ

[m33p0]

phoenix came out hot off the gates as usual building a 14 pt lead... suns bigs avoided foul trouble.... they were able to post up diaw for most of the first half and the third... they were able to limit duncan to just 18 pts... spurs didn't score 70+ in the paint like in game 1... Shaq was even making his free throws... they were within striking distance in the last 2 minutes of the ballgame...

and yet they still lost.

[alamo50]

There´s only 1 team in Texas.

[DarrinS]

I think Barkley said it best on TNT last night. The Suns CAN'T guard Tony and Manu at the same time. Sure, Raja might be able to defend Tony, but he's got his hands full with Manu. Basically, there's nowhere for Nash to hide on the defensive side, and his weak defense is exposed.


EDIT> Not having Grant Hill play more minutes is also hurting them, IMO.

[wildchild]

He played a team-high 42 minutes and his only poor play of the night came late in the game when he was visibly exhausted.

I get worried about that if this series's prolonged so much.

Tony Parker played a fantastic Game 2. Offensively he was good but defensively is where he shined. His defense on Nash, specifically in the second half, could have very well been the best defense he’s ever played. Parker got up on Nash and was relentlessly pestering the Canadian with a defensive intensity that I’ve never seen from Parker. Even when Nash would pass the ball, Parker’s aggressiveness in his help defense was extremely impressive. He’s played good defense before but this was a whole new level. Offensively, Parker wasn’t half bad. He led the Spurs in scoring with 32 points, dished out seven assists, pulled down three boards and swiped three steals. From the floor, Parker was 13-for-25. On offense, I was most impressed by his fearlessness. He took some vicious hits and continued attacking over and over. Parker usually isn’t the type of player who you would say was playing like a man possessed, but that’s exactly how he played tonight

When Tony plays like this, he looks like gold and the Spurs
couldn't lose. Never. To Tony

Michael Finley scored only eight point but they were eight important points. Coming out of halftime, Finley hit the Spurs’ first four field goals of the quarter. His fourth field goal gave the Spurs their first lead since the first minute of the game. Finley finished with eight points, two rebounds and a steal, while shooting 4-for-5 from the floor. Defensively, he was much improved from Game 1 and actually made a few good plays on that end of the court. Finley’s stats don’t look like much in this contest but his shooting coming out of halftime was huge.

Fin should shot more and more. 4-5 in Game 2 is nice %FG.

-I don’t think Fabricio Oberto played very well at all. No matter who he guarded, he struggled in the matchup. Against Stoudemire, Oberto was pretty much helpless. He let Shaquille O’Neal get way too good of post position almost every time up the court. Even Boris Diaw went off against him in the first half. Oberto needs to step up his level of defense or his minutes in this series are going to become fewer and fewer. He finished with four points, six rebounds and a blocked shot in 20 minutes of action

Pop refused give to him more time and put Thomas in the starting line up in the second half, but I think is too early for that. Maybe Oberto deserves more confidence, he was played well in the last quarter.
I don't sure why Pop doesn't trust in Oberto's offense. When Tim double team, why not use Oberto?.
In two games he finished with 4-5 80%FG. He can score in clutch game, in overtime like Game 1 or in the last quarter like Game 2.
It's too early in this series for lose this guy.

-Brent Barry played 11 very solid minutes. He hit both of his shots from the floor, including one three-pointer. His three-pointer was the only points scored by anyone outside of the Big Three in the first half. With his tender calf, he’s not going to be winning any Defensive Player of the Year awards anytime soon but he’s invaluable on the offensive end of the court in this series. Overall, Barry is competing extremely hard and his shooting looks as smooth as ever. In fact, he’s hit his last six shots from the floor over the last three games.

I have confidence in his 3's and expect Pop feels the same in the next game.

Believe

[Spurs Dynasty 21]

The big 3 were all incredible, and Finely needs to keep shooting the ball




I am really glad Barry is back, as his 3pt shooting will be huge in PHX, and I feel Horry will be big in PHX also, he will get some Ts and fouls from the other team



great win, but the Spurs can't give them any hope, they must win Friday and avoid a blowout

[E20]

Why do people always think that Billups/Hamilton are the number 1 backcourt in teh NBA? It's by far Parker+Ginobili, who I think, are the best back court tandem in the leauge, tonight just further solidified that.

[E20]

Also looking at the box score, it's interesting to see how Pop plays so many players why D'Antoni's lineup is a rigid 7-8 man rotation.

[1Parker1]

What's amazing is that the Spurs Big three scored all but 3 points for the Spurs in the first half. Has that ever happened in a playoff game before? There is so much pressure on those guys night in and night out to run the offense and defense for this team, and the fact that all 3 continue to deliver it on a nightly basis is absolutely amazing.

I know Parker always spends time on the floor and gets contact, but yesterday was some of the most physical contact I've seen him get in one game in a long time. The elbow from Shaq alone had me hurting just looking at it in replay. The fact that he constantly just got up after 20 seconds and continued to play at both ends of the floor was amazing.

Ginobili needs to be 100% if the Spurs want to make a run in this playoffs. I didn't realize he injured his ankle earlier so hopefully this time off will do him some good. He was still great yesterday...

Brent Barry looks really smooth on offense and his ballhandling and passing skills are clearly helping the Spurs. I like that Pop was smart enough to realize that Vaughn isn't going to help them in this series and he decides to play Barry and Ginobili together when Parker rests.

[Killakobe81]

Didn't see the WHOLE game but the Suns have to be disheartened by that game ...Diaw freaking could NOT post up Finley, Manu or Parker ... freaking TONY PARKER is keeping Diaw from scoring in the post!!!!

Shaq as I said before the series is sucking (as he always does) on the pnr ...and the spurs are playing very smart ...they are out running and gunning the Suns ...the only explosive athlete they have now is Amare and Barbosa and barbosa is way too inconsistent ...

That said, i think the Spurs give up a game on the road because the suns intensity will be extremely high. BUt with the advantage at Center (dont care what yall say with the few mins Oberto plays Duncan is a CENTER) shooting gaurd and Parker playing Nash even... plus the HUGE advantage at coach .(you diehards are much too tough on Pop i think he is the best current coach...even over PJ) no way suns win this... i predicted Spurs in 7 and i wont puss out and change that now ...but Spurs in 5 wouldnt shock me either ... unless Manu is hurt.

[Dex]

Great recap, as always.

I question the Hack-a-Shaq theory as much as anybody, but it is awful hard to argue with the results.

Even though Shaq hit 5-6 free throws during that stretch (which is about as good as he can possibly hope for), the Spurs still only dropped 2 points off of their lead. Meanwhile, all the other Phoenix players looked discombobulated on offense because, like you said, they were either waiting for Shaq to get fouled, or they were rushing plays to avoid it.

It completely deflated the game for a while, and while it didn't give the Spurs much of a chance to run away since Shaq was hitting his free throws, it still denied Phoenix a chance to make a run even though they played it about as well as they could.

[ambchang]

Great recap.
I actually thought Bowen did a great job on Nash, and I couldn't understand why the team went away from the pick and roll mid 4th quarter, resulting in the Suns comeback.

As for the haq-a-shaq, it's puzzling. The suns were obviously struggling on offense, and the Spurs were flowing on offense, even with Shaq in the paint. The sole purpose is of haq-a-shaq is to have d'antoni pull Shaq out of the game, opening up the paint for Parker and Ginobili, but since the Spurs were already pretty much scoring at will, what is the point? Perhaps Pop is hoping to undermine the trust between Shaq and D'antoni?

[Elraptor]

I'm sick of all the bull on SportsCenter, stuff like:

"Oh Yea, Suns Will Come Back."

"Suns Will Win The Next 4."

Total bull .

[Streakyshooter08]

Great recap, as always.

I question the Hack-a-Shaq theory as much as anybody, but it is awful hard to argue with the results.

Even though Shaq hit 5-6 free throws during that stretch (which is about as good as he can possibly hope for), the Spurs still only dropped 2 points off of their lead. Meanwhile, all the other Phoenix players looked discombobulated on offense because, like you said, they were either waiting for Shaq to get fouled, or they were rushing plays to avoid it.

It completely deflated the game for a while, and while it didn't give the Spurs much of a chance to run away since Shaq was hitting his free throws, it still denied Phoenix a chance to make a run even though they played it about as well as they could.

I think that is a great point. No matter if Shaq hits his foul shots or not. It somehow disrupts the flow for Pheonix. I am not a big fan of this strategy too but once in a while it might help keeping the Suns away from making a run or even cut a lead.

[WalterBenitez]

Great recap, we sould need more balance next game ... the trio will be defended "properly", you how the little shaq could handle to hung Manu, TP and say hi to TD.

[jman3000]

-Ime Udoka rebounded from a tough Game 1 and was a bit better in Game 2. I wouldn’t say he played especially well but he wasn’t as overwhelmed as he was in Game 1. While he missed all four of his three-pointers, he hit his pair of two-pointers and both of his free throws. Udoka was also able to pull down three rebounds in his 15 minutes of work. He allowed the Spurs to go small and spread out the Suns’ defense, which was vital at different points in the game. Now if he can mix in a perimeter jumper at some point in this series, he’d be that much more dangerous.

Believe.

i think ime's production is a bit concerning for me. he's not just missing 3 pointers... he's missing wide open 3 pointers and since i saw both games live i dont have the luxury of a 2nd viewing... none of them looked particularly close. im not asking him to hit 80% on 3's... but hitting 40% on wide open looks isn't too much to ask... is it?

he also nearly blew that layup/dunk on that duncan pass... again.. im not trying to criticize the guy... but it is a tad worrisome.


all that being said... he's not a big enough cog on the spurs' offensive machine to warrant any major concern. guess im just trying to nit pick because he was the only spur, besides tony parker at times last night, that was pissing me off.