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At least timvp didn't blame the officiating!
The Orlando Magic came to San Antonio as the best road team in the NBA and left with another notch on their belt. Out-executing the Spurs down the stretch, the Magic were able to pull away late and capture a 105-98 victory.
The biggest play of the game came with about two and a half minutes left in the contest. After Manu Ginobili tied the game at 94, the Spurs were clamping down on D for a stop. However, with just a few seconds on the shot clock, Roger Mason, Jr. inexplicably double-teamed Dwight Howard and in doing so left JJ Re wide open for a three-pointer. The Magic would never trail again in the contest.
Orlando deserves a lot of props for the win. Dwight Howard, Hedo Turkoglu and Jameer Nelson all played very well. Stan Van Gundy also drew up a masterful gameplan that both limited San Antonio’s three-point opportunities and forced the Spurs to scramble to cover Orlando’s long range shooters. It’ll be tough for the Magic to make it to the Finals this season but they have the look of a legitimate championship contender.
As for the Spurs, it was a difficult loss. The only bright spot is that they can point to one statistic as the reason for the defeat – three-pointers. The Magic hit a stunning 14-of-22 from beyond the three-point arc compared to 3-of-13 for the Spurs. In virtually every other statistic, the Spurs had the edge. That said, a loss is a loss and the Spurs still have a lot to prove – especially against the better teams in the league.
Tim Duncan
37 minutes, 18 points, ten rebounds, five assists, three blocks
7-for-14 from the field, 4-for-4 from the line
Tim Duncan came out of the gates on fire offensively, cooled off for a large stretch in the middle and then closed the game decently. Although Howard deserves some credit for defending him well, the Spurs could have used a more demonstrative and aggressive Duncan in the final three quarters. On defense, Duncan didn’t start out too well but eventually got into a good groove defending Howard. Overall, it was an acceptable effort but the Spurs needed an exceptional effort – especially considering that the Magic weren’t sending many double-teams Duncan’s way.
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Manu Ginobili
32 minutes, 18 points, four assists, three rebounds, four turnovers
5-for-13 from the field, 1-for-5 on three-pointers, 7-for-7 at the line
As has been the case lately, Manu Ginobili’s stats look solid outside of his three-point shooting. However, this time Ginobili’s impact wasn’t nearly as positive. He seemed to have difficulty getting into a rhythm on both ends of the court. Ginobili was either trying to do too much or not doing enough. His team-worst plus/minus of -19 is indicative of his struggles on the night. One of his main issues is his three-point shooting. Connecting on just 16.7% of his threes in his last five games seems to have robbed him of some of his confidence and has made him indecisive at times. The good news is that he got to the free throw line seven times for a new season-high mark.
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Tony Parker
37 minutes, 31 points, six assists, three rebounds
13-for-22 from the field, 1-for-2 on three-pointers, 4-for-4 at the line
Tony Parker had a peculiar game. He played really well for the first three quarters and then appeared to simply run out of gas down the stretch. In his first 27 minutes, Parker had 29 points and six assists. In his ten minute stretch in the fourth quarter, Parker had only two points on 1-for-4 shooting and didn’t have his usual elevation on two late shots at the rim. Parker’s defense also suffered in the fourth. Heading into the fourth, he had limited Nelson to ten points on 4-for-12 shooting. In the final stanza, Nelson had 12 points in ten minutes. Parker’s fourth quarters struggles tarnished an otherwise fine performance and were strange because the fourth has been his most productive quarter this season.
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Michael Finley
31 minutes, ten points, three rebounds, three assists
4-for-9 from the field, 0-for-3 on three-pointers, 2-for-2 at the line
Michael Finley was the one player outside of the Big Three to find a way to hit double figures. He played hard and contributed offensively despite missing all three of his shots from beyond the arc. Defensively, Finley was mostly above average and even made a few of the better perimeter rotations for the Spurs on the night. And, for the first time in eight games, Finley drew a foul to get to the free throw line.
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Roger Mason, Jr.
33 minutes, five points, four rebounds, three assists
2-for-4 from the field, 1-for-1 on three-pointers
Roger Mason, Jr. had a quiet night. With the Magic keying on him, he only got four shot attempts in 33 minutes. To his credit, he made a few good passes to help out a bit offensively despite the lack of attempts. The shame about his botched late game defensive rotation is that he had actually been playing good defense up until that point.
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Matt Bonner
27 minutes, four points, seven rebounds, two steals
2-for-4 from the field, 0-for-1 on three-pointers
Like Mason, the Magic purposely tried to limit Bonner’s looks. With a small forward on him for most of the game, Bonner had a tough time getting open. A good sign is that Bonner stuck with it and scored both of his hoops in the final half of the fourth quarter – a point of the game in which production out of Bonner isn’t very common. Defensively, he actually defended Lewis quite well for long stretches. More good news is that Bonner finally had a good rebounding game. The seven boards were the most he’s had since the fateful Hornets game.
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Bruce Bowen
21 minutes, three rebounds
0-for-1 from the field
Bruce Bowen didn’t have a very good game. He was scoreless on the offensive end and he didn’t make too much of a difference on the other end. Bowen’s defensive rotations weren't very sharp and he got beat in a few one-on-one situations. The only aspect of the game where he was helpful was on the defensive boards.
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George Hill
12 minutes, four points, two rebounds
2-for-5 from the field, 0-for-1 on three-pointers
George Hill wasn’t horrible but he also wasn’t as good as he was in his last two outings. His defensive intensity wasn’t at its highest level and he wasn’t aggressive enough offensively. When he attacks the rim with a purpose, he’s good at making plays. But when he goes to the rim unsure of himself, he oftentimes gets caught in no man’s land.
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Kurt Thomas
11 minutes, eight points, three rebounds
4-for-5 from the field
Kurt Thomas had his second consecutive quality showing. On offense, he was setting mean screens and connected on four shots from the perimeter. Defensively, Thomas roamed the paint well, rebounded with authority and played physical post defense. He basically played how the Spurs hoped he’d play when they traded for him last season.
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Gregg Popovich
Although it’s tough to beat a team that is shooting lights out, Pop probably would have changed a few things if he could go back and do it again. First of all, it became pretty apparent that Parker needed a few more minutes of rest before his final stint. Also, a few more minutes of Thomas in place of Duncan probably would have helped Duncan at the end. With as much attention as the Big Three were getting, I didn’t think it made much sense for Pop to continually draw up plays for Duncan and Ginobili. More plays for Mason, Bonner or Finley could have helped lighten the load and allowed for more Big Three juice at the end.
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Offense
The Spurs did enough offensively to win the game. If the Spurs score 98 points, they should come out victorious. On the night, San Antonio shot 50.6% from the field, connected on all 17 of their free throw attempts and had 23 assists to only 11 turnovers. The 3-for-13 three-point shooting wasn’t too helpful and it’d be nice if the Spurs could make life easier by getting to the line more often.
Defense
It’d be easy to say that the Spurs played good defense if you ignore the three-point shooting, but it wasn’t like the Magic hit 14 contested three-pointers. In fact, most of their 14 three-pointers were wide open looks. The Spurs were just not very quick on the perimeter rotations, didn’t pick up three-point shooters well enough in transition and collapsed too much on penetration. For the game, the Magic shot 63.6% on three-pointers, 42.3% on two-pointers, hit 19-of-23 from the line and had 22 assists. The Magic only had six offensive rebounds and were outrebounded by a final count of 38-33.
Drive to Five
That was a tough loss to swallow and I’m sure the Spurs players, coaches and fans will have dreams of raining three-pointers. However, the most important thing now is to forget about the Magic and prepare for the test we’ve all been waiting for – the Los Angeles Lakers. On Wednesday, the Spurs and Lakers will rekindle their rivalry in the AT&T Center. A win would be a good way to forget all about the loss against Orlando.
Believe.
At least timvp didn't blame the officiating!
Spurs 17-17 from FT line was impressive, too bad the perimeter D was awful
I really hope Manu's three will become as good as he shot last season.His layup is good now. It seems he can't miss the three during the practice but when it comes to game,the ball just can't go in.
And hope Pop can give Hill more time on the court.
the refs
Overall the big 3 played very well: 67 pts at 25-49, 15 assists, 16 rebounds and 15 FTs at 100%. I am not sure but I think that it is one of the best performance of the big 3 since the beginning of the season. Moreover we have dominated all the numbers of this game : steals, turnovers, rebounds, assists, FG, FTs.
I'm not concerned by this loss, they beat us on the 3 points shooting, it happens. It's also quite funny because the spurs have won a lot of games with the 3 points quite logical to loose a few by this manner. Globally if we compare the two games, the team has made a lot of progress.
Good game thoughts. I also noticed that Parker looked like he was out of gas late in the game. Not only did he miss those gimmes at the rim but Nelson blew by him on several possessions in a row. Pop has got to start trusting Hill for longer than 12 minutes. Hopefully as we move into the RRT he will.
Speaking of trust I think what you mentioned about mixing it up and running more plays for the role players is almost as important as our porous perimeter defense. Pop needs to go back to some of what he did last year when he started the second half of a couple of playoff games by running some set plays for Finley...except Mason needs to be the beneficiary this time. We need his points from behind the arc and he needs to know that he is more than just the bailout shooter if a play for Parker/Duncan doesn't work.
I know Parker roaming with the ball looking to create is something we do a lot...and it works out a lot of the time...but if we want to find ways to get some of our important role players involved we should probably do a little less of it. This goes for Manu too. I don't mind them doing what they do as stars of our team, but we would be better served having a little more of a balanced attack on the offensive end...both to keep them from forcing and to get others involved instead of letting them be spectators.
Spurs do not have a big load of games lately so why Parker was out of gas?
He was not playing 45 minutes so it is strange.
The only thing I took away from this game is that Orlando is a pretty damn good team and should probably make a very good run in the playoffs.
The reason we lost is solely on TimVP's shoulders. There was no vBookie and because of that he jinxed us.
Thanks Timvp. I wasn't able to watch the game last night, so I was looking for your recap.
It should be noted that Tony didn't have an assist in the second half, not just the fourth.
thanks timvp
Thanks for the recap. If our perimeter D was better and contesting those 3's I think we pull out the win. That was the only thing that I really didn't like - uncontested 3 pt shots. Film session on this one would be fun to attend. I'm pretty sure Pop will focus on the perimeter D.
And if history repeats itself the Spurs will pay attention to this in the future and improve on it. They always do.
A shame Mason only took 4 shots. He deserves a lot more than that.
maybe they can go through boston and clevland so theyll be tired if they play us in the finals
so we can get revenge
Yeah its called teammates missing shots, or again
for the millionth time thats been mentioned
the offense the Spurs run is not condusive to high assist numbers by the point guard.
maybe they can go through boston and clevland so theyll be tired if they play us in the finals
so we can get revenge
Whoever comes out of the East is gonna be a lot more beat up than in previous seasons.
Udoka last niche was as smallball PF. Against Magic, Spurs have played more than 20min of smallball, some of the wing players weren't playing well and Pop didn't use Udoka.
It really doesn't look good for Ime. He will have a hard time leaving Pop's doghouse.
His "teammates" made shots fine. And for a guy who plays on a team that doesn't allow the pg to have high assist numbers how in the did he have 6 assists in the 1st half?Yeah its called teammates missing shots, or again
for the millionth time thats been mentioned
the offense the Spurs run is not condusive to high assist numbers by the point guard.
nobody is saying TP is perfect, he has played great in the first 3 and he had a very difficult 4th.
Agreed about Ime. Too bad since when he first came to the Spurs I had high hopes that he could be Bowen's replacement. Unfortunately I was mistaken as Kobe pretty much exposed that idea in the WCF. Too slow and Timvp has lamented that very point on a regular basis when discussing how the Spurs and Lakers match up.
True...except for the part about peculiar. It's been a fairly frequent occurance over the past several years. Of course, there are exceptions, including an early-season 55 point OT performance. As the season wears on, expect more occurances. It's just the way it is.
This is why Manu was always the perfect Ying to Parker's Yang. Manu has historically been Mr. 4th Quarter, while Parker is strong in Q 1-3.
A healthy Manu (and a little stronger inside presence next to TD) has been what has hampered the Spurs since last year's WCF.
Manu seems more like he's rolling at 70% of Manu right now...not the 90% Pop suggested here recently.
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