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timvp's swag just got snatched..
I haven’t seen a game thoughts thread on here in a while, so I decided to put in some time to write down some thoughts of mine after I was pumped that the Spurs played some good defense for the first time this season.
I don’t know if you guys care what I think but I think it’s fun for me to write about the Spurs on occasion anyway, so here goes:
Manu Ginobili
29:29 minutes, 13 points, 5 assists, 4 rebounds (2 offesnive), 1 steal,
1 blocked shot, 4 turnovers
5-for-13 from the field, 3-for-8 on three-pointers
Offense: Manu Ginobili had a somewhat ho-hum night in my eyes. He’s still not all there offensively, and now that he’s coming off of a hot shooting night, he opted to lay back and shoot threes more than maintain aggression. The positive to take away from his offense however, was that there were a couple of spurts in the game where Ginobili hit a few shots in a row and it opened up passing lanes where he got others involved and was running the show offensively. Those couple points in the game where Manu was making good decisions were really when the Spurs were at their best offensively, and consequently the biggest one was when the Spurs built their lead at the end of the 2nd quarter. The negative side of the coin was that he tried to force things too much and went for the home run when we just needed to keep getting open looks. This resulted in his 4 turnovers.
Defense: Ginobili played solid team defense and was a big part of a swarming Spurs team that hustled on the defensive end. There weren’t many standout defensive plays that I really remember from the game other than his block on Barrea, but I don’t remember Ginobili getting beat or really being out of position. He also had a couple key rebounds at critical points in the game (2 of his rebounds were offensive).
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Richard Jefferson
40:49 minutes, 29 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists
3 steals, 1 block, 4 turnovers
11-for-23 from the field, 2-for-5 on three-pointers, 5-for-10 at the line
Offense: RJ is really starting to show some comfort in the Spurs offense the last two games. Granted, the offense is different when Tony Parker and Tim Duncan are out, as Richard gets many more plays ran for him rather than having to play off of others, but he has done a good job of creating for himself and got other people involved tonight too. Really, RJ was the only Spur who consistently attacked the basket tonight. Though his extensive minutes seemed to take its toll towards the end of the game, when he looked a bit tired and turned the ball over after getting into the lane, he was willing to attack more than any other Spur, and this was key to the Spurs winning tonight. By being a bigger part of the offense, RJ’s jump shot seems to be gaining confidence as well. Now if he could shoot 80% from the free throw line like he’s supposed to, it would help out…
Defense: though I haven’t been overly impressed with RJ’s one-on-one defense as he is the one that’s slated to defend the opposing teams best perimeter players, in my opinion his team defense is a bigger concern to me, and tonight, the Spurs hustle on that end of the court was contagious. My point is that I don’t credit RJ for “locking down” Josh Howard and forcing him into a 2-11 night, but I was impressed with his hustle and energy on defense nonetheless. On the other hand, as either Eliott or Land pointed out, RJ’s aggression on the offensive end of the court could have worn down Howard and factored into his invisibility on the offensive end.
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Michael Finley
6:49 minutes, 0 points, 1 rebound
0-for-1 from the field
Has Pop finally listened to the laments of Spurstalk posters? Finley not only came off the bench, but he played less than 7 minutes and only took 1 shot. Coincidence that the Spurs had their best defensive effort of the season? You tell me…
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Matt Bonner
28:09 minutes, 11 points, 9 rebounds (3 offensive)
3-for-7 from the field, 3-for-5 on three-pointers
Offense: Phew, the Spurs were in desperate need of some offense at the end of the game when they were in the midst of a 4+ minute drought and the Mavericks were closing in when Bonner nailed a 3 from the wing. While I’m not particularly happy that the Spurs continued to chuck up threes when they were missing them for 4 minutes straight, but I guess I gotta give props to Bonner for nailing it. I should add that the Mavericks were baiting the Spurs into taking threes, but I’d still like somebody to drive into the lane and at least get some free throws like we’d been able to do earlier in the game…Other than his threes, Bonner missed the rest of his shots despite his vaunted improve dribble-drive game, but his threes were timely and he was the best from deep tonight for the Spurs.
Defense: While Bonner never impresses me on this side of the court, he did a decent job of staying in front of Dirk, even though he wasn’t strong enough to keep him from backing into the paint and scoring. Bonner spent more time on Dampier than Dirk though, which brings me to his rebounding stats. I’ve noticed an improvement in Mattie in going after loose balls. 9 rebounds is respectable, and three offensive boards is great. I can’t remember him going after offensive boards like he did today last season, and though I didn’t specifically notice how much of this was due to Bonner, Dampier only had 4 rebounds a night after pulling in 20. Let’s hope he continues to hustle for rebounds as long as he’s continuing to be a big part of the rotation (tonight he had to be with Duncan out).
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Antonio McDyess and Keith Bogans
Dice
29:45 minutes, 9 points,
9 rebounds, 3 steals
1 assist, 2 TO
4-for-10 from the field
Bogans
33:52 minutes, 13 points
3 rebounds, 1 steals
2 assist, 1 block, 1 TO
5-for-8 from the field, 3-for-6 from 3
I’m grouping these two together because I want to praise them for one thing: defense. On the defensive side of the court, they were the biggest reason why the Mavericks didn’t get easy looks. After being ecstatic that the Spurs added Dice in the offseason, I’ve been perplexed at his lack of defense early on in the season. Sure, everyone’s been saying he takes a while to get into mid-season form, but the fundamentals of his defense were off. He was gambling at times when it was a bad decision, and when he held his ground he was getting blown by like a traffic cone at times. I was certain Dice was a solid post defender, but I hadn’t seen any flashes until last game against the raptors. Sure, Dice still made mistakes gambling a couple times against the Raptors, but I began to see him make better choices and have some good post defense at times. Tonight, it finally seemed to all come together. He still gambled a few times, but he gambled when he was in position to gamble, and it resulted in 3 steals and very active defense that kept the Mavs guessing. Now Keith Bogans: man, he was everywhere. When I first saw him reject Marion for a second I thought it was Ratliff. He got up fast! The steal he had off of a missed free throw made me laugh so hard that my roommate had to come see. He was hustling, and while I credit the interior defense turnaround mostly to Dice, I credit the perimeter turnaround mostly to Bogans. Offensively what Bogans was able to add on tonight was gravy, I’d be happy with 5 points a game from him if he can continue to hustle on defense. Dice’s offense is still getting there…
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Roger Mason, Jr.
16:59 minutes, 3 points, 4 assists, 1 TO
1-for-7 from the field, 1-for-6 on three-pointers
It was another slump night for Mason. I hope he gets his confidence back soon, because I like him as a rotation player over Finley any day. On defense, he didn’t have any spectacular plays, though I felt he was robbed by getting a foul called on him when I thought he got a jump ball against Terry. I do think there’s been improvement from last year in Mason’s defense, and tonight, everyone was hustling, so nobody looked that bad…
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George Hill
33:06 minutes, 11 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assist
1 steal, 1 block
4-for-9 from the field, 2-for-4 from 3
Hill had a solid outing and is continuing to hit the corner three which is all-important in the Spurs system. He didn’t impress that much offensively as he didn’t slash to the basket all that much, but he had 0 turnovers, which was a very good sign. Defensively, he did a great job on Barea and the Mavs guards, though I still think he could fight through screens better at times. Same old story here, as the perimeter defenders all contributed to solid defense tonight.
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DeJuan Blair
20:20 minutes, 3 points, 6 rebounds, 1 block
1-for-2 from the field
Blair didn’t have as dominating a game as the Blair faithful may have liked, but he contributed on the boards, and had an emphatic block on Dirk. He didn’t have to do much one-on-one guarding as any post play was thrown into Dirk, and Blair rarely defended him. Nothing much to write about his offense….
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Gregg Popovich
Pop made a change to the line up, and the Spurs delivered the best defensive performance of the season. I felt like for the first time, Pop had very well-chosen subs ions and line ups, and didn’t experiment with small ball in a game in which rebounding was important: good call. Michael Finley played limited minutes Pop, and Bonner still produced off of the bench. Maybe he’s beginning to see the picture clearer….
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Closing thoughts:
Good, gritty win by the Spurs, although they lapsed for almost 5 minutes there in the 4th quarter. I was impressed by the defense, and the offense was executed fairly well, as Mavs were allowing wide open perimeter shots that the Spurs weren’t knocking down regularly. In other words, Spurs often made the right decision, but weren’t rewarded in points. In the rebounding department, the Spurs still allowed too many offensive rebounds, but they got back at the Mavericks by pulling in offensive rebounds themselves. Though the rebounding battle was tied 47 to 47, I see improvement from previous games in that area. Hopefully RJ can continue to be aggressive with Tony and Tim back, and we can play more defensively tonight as opposed to our lack of defense up to this point….
Last edited by mazerrackham; 11-12-2009 at 01:34 AM.
timvp's swag just got snatched..
didn't see him post the thoughts for the last two games so I swooped in
combo breaker
timvp is buzy celebrating with his wife over the win...
i can hear them going hard at it all the way down here.....
nice, thanks for taking the time to write this. wonderful read.
The enemy's gate is down.
Niiice job. Some very solid takes.
I'm sure Timvp doesn't mind since he hasn't done grading the past few games.
probably my favorite book :-D
thanks for that read mate
Indeed. Better Pop picture, worse Blair picture, and worse game thoughts. Still a bajillion times better than I could've done, as well as a great read. Consider props duly dispensed.
My only thought after the game was... How the ?
Seriously, Dallas?
Seriously?
This new Spurs team is just that good.
do we really need to rank and compare even the game thoughts from posters ?
but you're right, great read.
Thanks dude.
That was a good read.
You made a game thoughts?
Now you gonna get banned as soon as timvp gets back
Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Lu ck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_
Thanks for takin`the time to do those! Good read
thanks for the sum up!
Great read. Thanks for taking the time .
Good job Maz, your opinions are worthy (if we cant get TIMVP to post.)
Good work, mazer.
Good work. My comments are:
re "chucking up 3s": Like it or not this is what the Spurs do...take the open 3. I said "open". In this league you gotta do that. 3-point shooters should make open 3s in the 40-50% range. This translates to a 60-70% rate on 2-pointers in terms of scoring. It is not a shot that you can pass up, it's gold. It's the best scoring opportunity in the game.
re Ginobili not looking for his shot: to me this is the big difference between Manu and Dirk in this game. They were both the obvious go-to guys in the 4th. Dirk just hogged the ball and went one-on-one. Manu played team ball, passed and cut, and took the shot when it was open.
excellent recap, thanks for doing it.
It's beneficial to the team that duncan & parker are out a few games, allows others to step up their games and get increased playing time.
It was pretty much the Spurs' bench beating the Mavs...
Nice recap. Can't wait to watch the game on League Pass DVR (my Internet wasn't working last night).
Add an asterisk to Ginobili's performance not being aggressive enough. Apparently, his hamstring tightened up on him during the game, so he tried to just manage and distribute. No sense in injuring himself when everyone else is playing well.
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