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Good win all the way around. Larry Brown has the Bobcats playing very good basketball and it's no accident that they came into this contest with a six-game winning streak. The Bobcats play hard on defense and their structure on offense is impressive for a team that hasn't been together for too long.
The Spurs got a lot of good efforts and won re despite not getting stellar performances from any member of their Big Three. The inspired play in the fourth quarter was fun to watch, especially their defensive energy, effort and execution.
-Watching Tim Duncan play was at times difficult. He's simply not moving all that well. Tonight it seemed like he took a step back in terms of his health. His mobility was poor in the half court sets and he wasn't running the floor well. His lift off the ground was not only minimal, it was slow in developing. Hopefully he's on the road to recover because right now he's at about 70-75%.
-Tony Parker played decently well. His numbers look a little bit better than he actually played. Parker was loose with the ball in both his dribble and his passes. He also missed a number of easy shots. The good news is that he gave good effort on defense and the pressure he applied offensively helped open the door for others.
-Roger Mason, Jr. looked better running the point. He showed more variety off the pick-and-roll. I liked the hesitation move to the basket for a layup and his penetrate-and-kick to open shooters. He's definitely herky-jerky for a point guard but he can get the job done at that position.
-Michael Finley quietly had a really good game. For the second straight time the Spurs played the Bobcats, he played very well when matched up against Gerald Wallace. Finley plays him physically and doesn't give him the open space necessary for Wallace to utilize his athleticism. On offense, Finley had nice variation on his shots -- mixing in pumpfakes, drives and catch-and-shoots.
-Matt Bonner simply cannot guard Boris Diaw. Why? I'm not sure but Diaw gets wherever he wants to go when Bonner is on him. Diaw either out-muscles him or out-smarts him but Bonner can't hang. That forced Pop to go elsewhere for much of the game.
-Kurt Thomas was the main recipient of Bonner's lost minutes. He played very well once again. His rebounding was fantastic and the picks he set offensively can't be praised enough. Thomas now has good chemistry with both Parker and Mason so he's able to anticipate the angles those two players want to take and he positions himself to create the necessary space.
-Ime Udoka had another better than average game. Pop gave him some good minutes -- even in the guts of the game. If he could shoot a high percentage following his ball fakes, his offensive game could really start coming around. Getting open isn't his problem -- it's knocking down the open looks. Defensively, he was hustling and gave good effort on the boards.
-Bruce Bowen had a few moments defensively but I thought he was flopping a little too much. He seemed intent on drawing offensively fouls when fighting through screens instead of sticking with his man. But Bowen did rebound with much more purpose than usual and his passing was timely.
-George Hill was once again Mr. Fourth Quarter. He ended up playing 12 of his 18 minutes in the fourth and was great in the final stanza. He literally ac ulated every stat you see in the boxscore outside of six minutes and one foul during his fourth quarter action. It appears as if he's getting more comfortable off the ball and his defense right now is better than it's been all season.
-Pop still used a funky rotation but it was apparently good enough to get the job done. I don't think he's intentionally saving Hill for the fourth quarter but the last two games have looked that way. I like that he put defensive lineups on the court in the fourth quarter. As it turned out, those lineups paid major dividends down the stretch.
(full Game Thoughts to come)
Cool
Simpler, I like it
Cool do we get regular game thoughts too???
Good read. Thanks.
I wonder if Pop will try to use Hill on Kobe.
Thanks, timvp. Once again, I had to miss the game due to illness, so your game thoughts are much appreciated!
Nice. It's great to get the overview from your perspective while it's still so fresh in my mind. Wonderful addition, I hope it stays.
So timvp, do you think George Hill's minutes will go up again?
I know a lot of us were annoyed in feeling that Pop isn't giving him a fair amount of minutes.
Not necessarily. He has played well the last two games but he's playing shooting guard. Once Manu returns, the shooting guard minutes will be filled.
The last few games, Hill and Udoka have basically taken minutes Manu would usually get.
What's weird is that Bonner usually doesn't get overpowered ... even by the stronger players in the league. Either Diaw is much stronger than he looks or he has located a in Bonner's armor because Diaw was treating him like he was up against his kid brother.
hill and mason will take minutes away from the SF position if they continue to suck
that seems logical, but unlike some here that have said he won't get minutes in the playoffs do you think that has changed?
Bonner has decent size and strength, but he's just unskilled. Diaw has very quick feet and can maneuver very adeptly in the paint. Bonner can't move his feet fast enough to get his body leveraged to stop anybody. He basically just does the best he can, but sometimes it's not enough.
Problem is, Diaw is by no stretch an elite power forward. That's why we'll see a marked improvement when Gooden gets in there. Bonner has no prayer against guys like Odom or Boozer or David West, so Gooden's better size and quickness will help us greatly.
If Hill remains in his current role, it will depend solely on matchups. If the Spurs have to go up against a smallish perimeter player who handles the ball a lot (think Nash, CP3, DWill), Hill could have a role as a defensive stopper. But against bigger teams or teams that don't rely on a single initiator (think Lakers, Rockets, Cavs), he wouldn't have much use.
The good thing about the backup point guard role is that it's needed no matter the matchup.
Worst C?????????? He might not be a traditional big, but I bet he's better than at least 5 Cs in the NBA.
I think Pop is playing him in a Manu lite role geared more towards defense. He's looking for him to come in with energy, play defense, grab boards, create havoc and spark the team.
Do you think he'll go back to back up PG or stay in this role or have no role at all?
Like I mentioned in the game thread I'm pretty sure that's what Mike Dunleavy said about opposing players when playing the Spurs. They want to attack Bonner on the defensive end.
If Matt doesn't play solid defense I'm not sure you can have him out on the court. Would his offense make up for it?
Timvp i really liked your game thoughts more. Please write them again
I really like the fact that Pop seems to be gluing Fin's ass to the bench when we need stops now. I was literally SCREAMING at the TV during the Dallas game. We were running Fin and Mason at the wings, and Mase was having a hard time checking Jet. The horn sounds, and Bowen checks in, and I'm thinking, alriiiight. Pop sent him in for Mason. WTF? Finley is STILL a bad defender, and now you've made yourself MUCH worse on offense. Fin/Bowen is ALWAYS a bad combo on O.
I think Diaw is really much stronger than he looks (at least his lower body strength).
He was doing a decent job on defense when he was playing center for the Suns.
I remember a game against Yao. He was able to deny access to the paint to Yao. I believe you need to be really strong to do that.
On the other hand, Bonner is probably weaker than he looks.
they have felton and augustin damn.
Pretty much exactly what I saw LJ, nice work.
I love this team right now - they have gone through injuries and upset rotations all season, and yet in typical Spurs form they now have a great and still developing chemistry, and look like a Spurs team should in mid-March.
The upset roster has also given Pop the la ude to blood the youngsters (welcome, George Hill and Malik Hairston! And about bloody time, Bonner!), give experience to the new guy (Roger "Revelation" Mason - Copyright on that one), and get his old blokes into form (welcome back KT, Fab and Fin!). He's also allowed the players to form their own potent two and three man games, and is mostly using them well together.
The team will only improve from here, and with Manu and Gooden to come in, this team looks deep and dangerous.
I've been following Diaw closely for 4 years now, and he's a surprisingly good low-post player due to his quickness, spring and touch (although sometimes the latter escapes him). He has nice hooks to both hands, drop-steps, and up-and-unders, although he should give up the fadeaway and sometimes tends to look like he's forcing it rather than flowing with the game, which is why he's not elite (yet). If he ever works out how to let the game come to him a little more, watch out.
As for Gooden, he's not a great defender by any stretch - far more of a scorer, and not a bad rebounder - so it will be interesting to see how he does under some Spurs defensive tutelage.
Um, no.
And Bonner's not the centre guys, he's the PF. I don't care what the team or the NBA says, Tim is clearly the Spurs' centre at this stage in his career, listed that way or not.
Agreed.
Nice lay out timvp, good idea to have the box score. I didn't realize for instance that Diaw is the only bob players with a + in +/-. It shows that 1) he is a good player and 2) Bonner incapacity to deal with him.
Great game for Mason with the same stats than TP with less minutes. I'm loving the KT efforts since the ASG break, if he keeps on playing that way for the POs, our frontcourt will look damn well : tim, gooden, Kurt and bonner with Oberto in back up.
timvp thanks for your reaction comments...
Farmar is the fast PG creator the Lakers have off the bench... do you think Hill minutes in a potential series against the Flakes would be based on that match up?
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