Reply With Quote
RJ has been rather disappointing so far. I know it is early and it is difficult for a "big piece" like RJ to find his niche on the team, but I hope he picks it up sooner than later and becomes a little more aggressive.
RJ has been rather disappointing so far. I know it is early and it is difficult for a "big piece" like RJ to find his niche on the team, but I hope he picks it up sooner than later and becomes a little more aggressive.
I thought it was interesting to see Pop use what looked a lot like a starting group (McDyess, Duncan, Jefferson, Ginobili, Parker) for a few solid minutes at the end of the first half this evening.
And while I'm tempering my expectations of Ratliff because I fear his fragility will make him fairly unreliable in the long term, he seemed to be very active and fairly effective defending the rim tonight.
You know, I felt the same way for a few seconds, then I realized that he's been in the league for awhile. I mean, it's preseason. People in the Army love to say "Train how you fight" but it never happens, because we all know it's training. Once the fight is on, it's the real deal and you don't have the complacency you did before. I can only assume that it's probably the same sort of situation. You can fake it all you want with simulations, but you really don't get "up" for practice, which this is.
OK...none of the Big 3 even played half of the game...seriously...let's just stop this "we had a chance" garbage...I mean come on...Keith freaking Bogans started the game.
Can someone post game thoughts if you went to the game tonight?
I was at the game. And the Spurs were just coasting. Greek team was no compe ion. Seriously, your team needs to get better. Be thankful you have Von Wafer and Childress or you'd really suck.
Saw KBPink in here earlier..guess he's not banned anymore...or maybe he's just unable to post.
The latter..
gotcha...thanks
Damn, these Game Blogs are like 'roids for your post count.
You know he's played a scrimmage and two preseason games, right? At least give him the first ten reg season games.
Ace you need to make a caption thread with this pic lol its great.
Who is 22?
Haislip
dat be haislip, no?
Updated.
Spurs reunite Big Three in 107-89 preseason win
By Paul J. Weber
There were two big debuts for San Antonio Spurs on Friday night: Tim Duncan’s knee brace, and their most overhauled roster in years.
Playing for the first time this preseason, Duncan scored 10 points in a 107-89 exhibition victory over the Greek club Olympiakos. He was sporting a bulky brace on his left knee, one the 33-year-old perennial All-Star said he’s picked out for the season.
Duncan is coming off a disappointing season in which his knees began wearing down well before the Spurs lost in the first round and made their earliest playoff exit since 2000. The Spurs are taking it easy with their franchise star, who took an extra month of rest this summer in hopes of staying healthier by spring.
Duncan wore the brace for about 16 minutes while shooting 2 of 4 from the field and grabbing five rebounds. He sat for the entire second half along with Tony Parker, who scored 12 points in his preseason debut.
“It feels pretty good,” Duncan said. “I’ve gone through four or five braces throughout the summer, trying to find the right one, the one that feels good, and that’s the one I came up with so far.”
Manu Ginobili added seven points as the Spurs reunited their Big Three on the court for the first time since Ginobili’s season-ending ankle injury last April.
Ginobili said he’s not satisfied with his game but knows he needs time. So does Duncan, he said.
“He’s a little out of rhythm, too, and not playing great,” Ginobili said. “But I think we’re very patient with him, of course. He needs time. He needs to play probably the same way I need to play. The only one really in basketball shape is Tony, because he played all summer long.”
Parker spent the offseason playing for the French national team. He gave the Spurs a brief scare when he sprained his ankle overseas, but the injury proved to be minor.
Ginobili, Parker and Duncan played with a batch of new faces. Richard Jefferson, the marquee addition for the Spurs in a busy offseason, scored four points. Antonio McDyess, who left Detroit for San Antonio as a free agent, had four points and five rebounds.
To make room for McDyess and Jefferson—along with veterans Theo Ratliff, Keith Bogans and rookie DeJuan Blair—the Spurs let go six players from last season’s team. All 18 players the Spurs have in camp played against Olympiakos.
George Hill led the Spurs with 15 points and Roger Mason(notes) added 10.
Sofoklis Schortsanitis, a giant 310-pounder from Greece, had 12 points for Olympiakos.
Josh Childress scored 15 points for Olympiakos, which lured the former Atlanta Hawks star with a three-year, $20 million deal last year. Starting his second season in Greece, Childress was 6 of 12 from the field and had seven rebounds.
The Hawks will again retain the NBA rights to Childress after next season, and Childress has said he was open to a return to Atlanta where he played four seasons.
Olympiakos will play a final exhibition against an NBA team on Monday at Cleveland.
Look up the word Hyperbole ( not that I expect you to understand the meaning). Duncan was fine.
Olympiacos falls short in San Antonio
A porous defense in the first quarter sentenced Olympiacos Piraeus to game-long deficits and an eventual 107-89 defeat at the hands of the host San Antonio Spurs on Friday in the Euroleague American Tour '09. Playing their first game ever in the U.S. after a 10-hour flight that landed a day-and-a-half earlier, the Reds rallied from 21 points behind to close within 91-83 midway through the final quarter, but ran out of steam right there. Olympiacos never led in the game. San Antonio scored 39 points and led by 18 after one quarter, by which time the Spurs had attempted 14 free throws, the Olympiacos total at the end of the game. After that, the game was played even. George Hill led San Antonio with 17 points. Tony Parker scored 12, Tim Duncan and Roger Mason 10 each in limited minutes. For Olympiacos, Sofoklis Schortsanitis put up 16 points in 19 minutes. Josh Childress followed with 15 points and 9 rebounds, while Von Wafter scored 10. Olympiacos plays its second and last game of the Euroleague American Tour '09 in Cleveland against the Cavaliers on Monday night.
Parker made two layups in an opening 11-2 run that San Antonio used to good effect thereafter. Parker and Duncan put on a show then as San Antonio poured on the points to lead by 29-9. Only Schortsianitis and Milos Teodosic had scored for Olympiacos until then, but soon Childress and Ioannis Bourousis cut the difference to 29-15. San Antonio responded with the next 7 points on the way to a 39-21 lead after 12 minutes.San Antonio's lead dwindled without being threatened as Yotam Halperin, Nikola Vujcic, Wafer and Theo Papaloukas joined the Olympiacos scorers in the second quarter to pull the Reds within 45-30. A quick 9-3 burst in which Michael Finley scored 7 points not only restored the San Antonio lead, but marked its high point of the game, 54-33. Olympiacos could only trade points from then until the first half ended 66-46.
Olympiacos made its best run of the game to open the third quarter, and then used it to stay in shouting distance until near the finish. The Reds went inside to Schortsanitis, who responded with a layup and a pair of three-point plays. Wafer and Linas Kleiza added their own baskets for a 2-12 second-half blast-off that got the damage down to just 10 points, at 68-58. The visitors kept knocking at the door to a single-digit deficit, but Hill emerged to lead the San Antonio reserves, who held steady despite Childress and Wafer keeping Olympiacos as close as 75-64. San Antonio finished the quarter with a 9-2 run, however, pushing the difference to 17 points again, 83-66, after 36 minutes.
Olympiacos kept chipping away behind Schortsianitis and youngster Kostas Papanikolaou, who had five points in a row early in the fourth quarter. Finally, for the first time since the game's opening minutes, a triple from downtown by Patrick Beverley lowered the deficit to single digits at 89-80. Another long-range bomb, this one by Childress, had the Reds as close as 8 points to the lead, 91-83, with 6 minutes, 37 seconds left to play. That's when Roger Mason, a former Olympiacos player himself, showed up to halt the Reds' rally with 8 points in 2 minutes. He lifted San Antonio's advantage to 16 points, 101-85, with under 4 minutes left, not enough time for a comeback. Tiredness was apparent again in the Reds down the stretch as San Antonio finished off a clear victory before its home fans.
We are pleased to play such games," Olympiacos forward Panagiotis Vasilopoulos said. "We are pleased that we can keep pace against such teams. And it can work even more, but we must be very serious in preparing ourselves to do our jobs well when the hard, official games come."
Hill and Parker played very well and also Duncan was good. It's my opinion but you have 3-4 perfect players(Duncan-Parker-Hill-Ginobili) and all other are overrated.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
