Initial Reaction: Spurs @ Thunder - Mar. 16

[brettn]

Sorry, Timberwolves tommorow is NOT a must win. If there is a "must" win at this point in the season it's the rockets on sunday to put us in position to have the potential tiebreaker over them come the end of the season.

Spurs simply played piss poor tonight, even the best teams in the league have nights like these. Half of our remaining games are still against teams with a sub 500 record. No reason to hit the panic button.

[Oh, Gee!!]

No reason to hit the panic button.

I'll panic if the spurs slip out of the top 4 and start the PO's on the road. They're to old for that ish.

[brettn]

I'll panic if the spurs slip out of the top 4 and start the PO's on the road. They're to old for that ish.

Fair enough. But with 16 games left in the season and a fairly manageable schedule you might be jumping a little ahead of yourself.

[SenorSpur]

He hasn't shown any reason for his minutes not to continue to rise. He'll make defensive mistakes but he could potentially help out offensively and rebounding-wise enough to make up for any miscues.

Pop has to make a decision on how he wants to rotate the bigs. Personally, I think he might as well start Gooden next to Duncan and then go with either Bonner or Thomas depending on the matchup.

+1

I agree. The only possible downside to this decision could be the affect it would have on Bonner. His slight downward spiral since the Gooden acquisition has been noticeable. If he is removed as a starter, I could see him allowing it to affect his overall play. He's not shown the ability to overcome such decisions.

In the end though, I"d say F it. Gooden is way too talented to let rot on the bench.

[timvp]

I thought you were a big advocator of Gooden not starting with Timmy, since they both prefer the low block for O? Maybe I am remembering incorrectly. But I do support KT starting, he's been the most consistently good Spur over the 09 part of the season, outside of Tony.

No, I've been on the Start Gooden bandwagon since the signing. If you have Gooden on your team, you might as well get the most production out of him as possible before the game gets tight at the end. The best way to do that is to start him.

Additionally, Duncan would be able to cover some of his defensive mistakes, while Gooden will take some of the rebounding burden and allow Duncan to go for more blocks.

Going with a four-man bigman rotation has never really worked out well for the Spurs. It's basically splitting the minute pie into too many pieces. The rotation becomes a lot simpler if Pop starts Duncan and Gooden and then selects either Thomas or Bonner as the backup depending on the matchups and the needs.

[timvp]

Whats going on, Mase not getting shots up, Gooden only playing 15mpg while Bonner remains the laughing stock, TD again playing like a role player. This is a bad lose, we need to be putting some games between us and the 3 seed so we can take a couple games off come playoff time. Mason needs to get more shots, Bonner needs to find the end of the bench and guard it with his life!

Bonner was one of the better players for the Spurs tonight . . .

[MaNu4Tres]

Going with a four-man bigman rotation has never really worked out well for the Spurs. It's basically splitting the minute pie into too many pieces. The rotation becomes a lot simpler if Pop starts Duncan and Gooden and then selects either Thomas or Bonner as the backup depending on the matchups and the needs.

I agree. It's funny how people want to nitpick and over exaggerate on Gooden's defensive mistakes when Mason probably makes more and other players make just as many. Yeah Gooden might be late on a rotation or two, for the most part hes played decently defensively. Plus, I rather have someone out who isn't a liability on defense physically like Bonner is as Rasheed Wallace pointed out on Johnny Ludden's recent column.

Anyway I'm all in favor of a three big man rotation. Starting Gooden next to Tim with Kurt and bonner off the bench given the matchup will probably give us our best chance to win.

[SenorSpur]

Tim wasn't doubled in the normal way but once he made his move, there was a convergence of hands. Timmy has been holding the ball too low on his moves. He knows better.

The 17-2 run in the second quarter was horrible basketball by the Spurs. Missed layups, sloppy ball-handling, poor choices on passes, to go with good old poor 3-point shooting. It was the worst exhibit of professional basketball I've seen by a "playoff" team this year.

I'm going to say this again and again. I want every Spur guard, especially TP, to cease making that dropoff pass to Tim or any other big, as they drive the lane. It's obvious that teams have scouted this and everytime one of the guards executes such a pass, the opposition usually picks it off or knocks it away. It's a careless, lazy, ill-advised pass that's usually left at the feet of the big, who can't react fast enough to retrieve it. I'm sick of seeing it.

[MaNu4Tres]

I'm going to say this again and again. I want every Spur guard, especially TP, to cease making that dropoff pass to Tim or any other big, as they drive the lane. It's obvious that teams have scouted this and everytime one of the guards executes such a pass, the opposition usually picks it off or knocks it away. It's a careless, lazy, ill-advised pass that's usually left at the feet of the big, who can't react fast enough to retrieve it. I'm sick of seeing it.

I've noticed this too.

+10103212

[Manufan909]

No, I've been on the Start Gooden bandwagon since the signing. If you have Gooden on your team, you might as well get the most production out of him as possible before the game gets tight at the end. The best way to do that is to start him.

Additionally, Duncan would be able to cover some of his defensive mistakes, while Gooden will take some of the rebounding burden and allow Duncan to go for more blocks.

Going with a four-man bigman rotation has never really worked out well for the Spurs. It's basically splitting the minute pie into too many pieces. The rotation becomes a lot simpler if Pop starts Duncan and Gooden and then selects either Thomas or Bonner as the backup depending on the matchups and the needs.

Eh, whatevz. As long as Timmy averages 30 over these last few games, and Gooden averages over 25 min, I'm happy. And KT should start getting close to Bonners minutes, if at all possible.

[Russ]

Personally, I think he might as well start Gooden next to Duncan and then go with either Bonner or Thomas depending on the matchup.

And get ready for the Lakers . . .

[024]

things are looking pretty grim for the spurs. with manu expected to be out another week or two, there is a lot of work ahead. the role players tonight were completely out of sync and the spurs have not yet figured out a rotation. hill and mason rotating the backup point and ominous minutes allocated to udoka over bowen has me worried. when ginobili comes back, popovich will again have to juggle around the rotation to see who would fit best together. not a good sign when the role players are already lacking cohesion.

[SenorSpur]

Going with a four-man bigman rotation has never really worked out well for the Spurs. It's basically splitting the minute pie into too many pieces. The rotation becomes a lot simpler if Pop starts Duncan and Gooden and then selects either Thomas or Bonner as the backup depending on the matchups and the needs.

Bonner could be used when Pop needs to open up the floor and during situations where the opposition presents a smaller, less physical 4-man. KT can be used more against bigger lineups and physical, low-post 4s and 5s. Of course, neither of these two are a good option against the Fakers.

[Josepatches_]

Unless you are fine with the team tumbling down the standings.

We are not ready for the playoffs.
With TD in his actual condition we don't have any chance to win so I don't care about the final standings.I would like TD could rest all he need even if he can't play more time this season.

We can play better than yesterday but far away to be a tle contender if our franchise player isn't healthy.And It seems that he didn't improve since he come back

[Josepatches_]

I'll panic if the spurs slip out of the top 4 and start the PO's on the road. They're to old for that ish.

Panic!
If we aren't enough good we don't have to worry about final standings.We are going to lose even if we are 2nd.

[DBMethos]

Udoka is a marginal NBA player at best. As long as he keeps getting minutes over Bowen ( , even Hairston...put him out there and let him make something happen), the team will suffer.

[Bukefal]

Tim duncan is not in his form, sometimes it even looks like he is so fed up to play. Tony parker is working his ass off, he carries the whole team and is non stop in action, he cant do that the whole game. being the driving force for a whole team is very hard, he gets tired. damnnnnnn manuuuu please come back!!!

The last few games, tony begins a fast offensive but then he passes the ball to tim or others and the attack is lost. tony should just attack himself and make lay ups after lay ups, like he did some weeks ago. they are losing so much chances

[benefactor]

This is a bad loss on a lot of levels and it boils down to a complete loss of focus after we felt like we could dominate them in the first quarter. Tony's turnovers and ball hogging, Tim's inability to play through the double teams like he normally does, Finley with too many minutes, other players not playing enough...there is more than enough blame to go around.

The fact is that given our current situation we CANNOT afford to drop games like this. Our compe ion is nipping at our heels and losing games we should win handily only does them favors. This being the front end of a back to back only compounds things. Losing tonight would make the margin for error even more razor thin.

[Ice009]

Definitely. We can't afford to lose to these teams. We are only a few games behind the crowded 3rd seed. We need home advantage and the Spurs have got to win these type of games. The room for errors and losses is shrinking.

It's OK. I only said it because I've been saying for the last month or so that we can't go throwing away games and now that Timvp said it everyone will start paying more attention. Maybe I should have put a behind it.

[urunobili]

i still can't get over the fact that Pop is inactivating Malik Hairston... he proved to be a WAY better one on one defender than any of other wings not called Bowen on a good night even better than Hill on many games... Still... Pop needs to check if Ime will be able to do jack ... well get the memo once and for all... with the athletic young teams Udoka is a non factor... is Malik's playing time not his

[ploto]

Going with a four-man bigman rotation has never really worked out well for the Spurs. It's basically splitting the minute pie into too many pieces.

But it keeps happening and I bet it will continue.

[angel_luv]

Losing to the Thunder is so lame.

That game should have been an automatic win.
When I got home from work, I didn't even bother to check the score- just went to bed satisfied with the safe assumption ( harumph!) that they'd won.

[jman3000]

I can't stand Tony trying to be a one man show anymore. Yeah yeah he got hot there with his jumpers for a bit... but all that did was make him believe that he should shoot whatever the he wanted... no matter how ill advised. After his little hot streak, he missed a 3 pointer (which I never like him taking, even if he makes them), a fading 20 footer, and airballed a floater if my memory served me correctly. All 3 shots were taken early in the shot clock and the Thunder were able to push the ball up on an unset Spurs defense.

I know Manu is out and Tony needs to take more shots... but jesus he's not doing it the right way. it even seems to me that his assists are almost accidental. he'll drive, get airborne, get stuck, his pants, then fling it to a corner or make a horrible pass in traffic to whomever is in the paint whether it be friend or foe, about 25% of the time the pass to the corner will be too strong and end up in the 8th row. The rest of the time it works pretty well beause it results in an open 3 pointer... but Tony almost never has the intention of setting teammates up unless it is on accident or if it's a cupcake pass.

im glad i got that out.

[xtremesteven33]

If Tony had made it we would be talking about how hes the best PG today.....calm down



anywho,

I wonder when Pops gonna change the lineup. Im assuming when Manu comes back but i still believe that Bonner should be talken out immediatley. Last year Pop changed the lineup permenantly when we faced the Celtics last year at home. I wonder if do the same thing this year????

[Bukefal]

He is not trying to be the one man show, he is forced to do so, cause he is the driving force in this team, everyone else plays like , especially tim. And with manu out, all the action comes to tony. but he isnt a god either, he gets tired, what do you expect when you carry the whole team a game long?