Breakdown of the Spurs road woes.

[Chieflion]

The Spurs are 7-9 in their 16 road games played. A good road team generally plays well in the playoffs. Teams that are only good at home struggle in the playoffs because of the pressure and lose a series. I believe that this current Spurs team has little confidence and they are not mentally prepared for road games. Here are some statistics to show that the team does not play well on the road, but is good at home. I am going to focus on the rotation players who have played in more than half of the team' games home/away and players who are usually rotation players. (12 minutes a game at least, 1 quarter to be exact) Do not add the total minutes together, on account of the injuries. However, not everything is conclusive by stats so open your eyes and watch the games whether you agree or disagree with me. I will seperate the stats into the two different posts, as it is very long. Bear with me please.

Stats at home per game
Tim Duncan: 18.9 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 0.71 steals, 1.76 blocks, 2 turnovers, AFG% 57.9%. 31.2 minutes played.

Tony Parker: 17.6 points, 2.6 rebounds, 6.6 assists, 0.55 steals, 0.2 blocks, 2.9 turnovers, AFG% 50.4%. 32.0 minutes played.

Manu Ginobili: 14.6 points, 3.0 rebounds, 4.3 assists, 1.58 steals, 0.47 blocks, 1.9 turnovers, AFG% 52.9%. 25.9 minutes played.

Richard Jefferson: 14.0 points, 3.7 assists, 2.6 assists, 0.61 steals, 0.26 blocks, 1.6 turnovers, AFG% 53.7%. 31.3 minutes played.

George Hill: 10.6 points, 2.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 1.04 steals, 0.26 blocks, 0.9 turnovers, AFG% 52.8%. 24.6 minutes played.

Matt Bonner: 8.9 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 0.2 steals, 0.27 blocks, 0.7 turnovers, AFG% 65.3%. 20.3 minutes played.

Roger Mason: 7.8 points, 2.0 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 0.32 steals, 0.18 blocks, 0.8 turnovers, AFG% 56.0%. 18.9 minutes played.

DeJuan Blair: 6.3 points, 5.1 rebounds, 0.7 assists, 0.26 steals, 0.43 blocks, 0.6 turnovers, AFG% 55.0%. 16.1 minutes played.

Keith Bogans: 5.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 0.78 steals, 0.13 blocks, 0.6 turnovers, AFG% 59.9%. 20.7 minutes played.

Antonio McDyess: 5.1 points, 5.8 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 0.68 steals, 0.41 blocks, 1.0 turnovers, AFG% 49.5%. 20.5 minutes played.

Michael Finley: 5.0 points, 1.8 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.42 steals, 0.25 blocks, 0.5 turnovers, AFG% 51.9%. 16.7 minutes played.

[Chieflion]

Stats on the road per game

Tim Duncan: 21.4 points, 10.5 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 0.33 steals, 2.13 blocks, 2.0 turnovers, AFG% 52.6%. 33.3 minutes played.

Tony Parker: 15.1 points, 2.3 rebounds, 4.6 assists, 0.33 steals, 0.13 blocks, 3.0 turnovers, AFG% 47.9%. 31.5 minutes played.

Manu Ginobili: 9.9 points, 3.6 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1.13 steals, 0.27 blocks, 1.4 turnovers, AFG% 41.3%. 25.7 minutes played.

Richard Jefferson: 10.9 points, 3.9 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 0.69 steals, 0.44 blocks, 1.3 turnovers, AFG% 48.6%. 30.8 minutes played.

DeJuan Blair: 8.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, 0.8 assists, 0.81 steals, 0.75 blocks, 1.3 turnovers, AFG% 58.7%. 18.8 minutes played.

Roger Mason: 8.3 points, 2.4 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 0.44 steals, 0.06 blocks, 1.0 turnovers, AFG% 51.7%. 22.4 minutes played.

George Hill: 8.0 points, 1.9 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 0.75 steals, 0.31 blocks, 1.3 turnovers, AFG% 48.1%. 23.9 minutes played.

Matt Bonner: 7.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 0.11 steals, 0.22 blocks, 0.8 turnovers, AFG% 58.7%. 19.7 minutes played.

Antonio McDyess: 6.0 points, 4.9 rebounds, 0.7 assists, 0.47 steals, 0.33 blocks, 0.9 turnovers, AFG% 50%. 19.6 minutes played.

Keith Bogans: 4.5 points, 2.7 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.8 steals, 0.13 blocks, 0.9 turnovers, AFG% 45.7%. 21.0 minutes played.


After comparing the home/away stats, one realises that only two players stepped their game up away from home, away from their comfort zone. They are Tim Duncan and DeJuan Blair. AFG% measures shooting percentage on field goal attempts, like effective feld goal percentage. Contrary to popular belief, Parker, Jefferson and Ginobili play lesser minutes on the road than at home. Are the Spurs that bad of a road team? Our road record indicates the Spurs are a sub .500 team away from home. Pop has pulled out the soft card. On the road, you can't afford to be soft. This may be the weakest minded Spurs team in recent memory. Will they pick things up, or will they struggle through the season with the losses?

[Sean Cagney]

So like I thought Duncan is the only one who shows on the road!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some idiot last night on the board telling me Tim doesn't care anymore and is there to collect a check, I blasted him last night on the chat. He is the only one who comes to play on the road, period.

[alchemist]

Bobcats/Memphis/New Orleans are literally the hottest home teams right now. Bad time to play these guys in so little time. The road record is poor but I honestly haven't seen these guys get rattled by the opposing crowd which is important to note. With so many road games left they're bound to pick up some steam with a bounce here and there.

[blkroadrunners]

Seems that Manu is the one who's really trying to find his game on the road particularly from a scoring standpoint. For the past few years, he's been one of the Spurs top go-to guys in the clutch.

W/ all these numbers pointed out, I'm really impressed how DeJuan Blair carries himself on the road. Usually, rookies have a tough time playing on the road than at home more so than vets. Granted that 28 & 21 game against OKC has really bumped his stats, but overall it's great to see him perform at a high level wherever he's at.

[Libri]

It looks like there is a 10/11 point drop between Tony, Manu, and Richard.

[superjames1992]

One thing all the Manu haters need to consider is that while he's only shooting around 40% from the field, a lot of these are three pointers. The EFG % is the best stat to use because it takes into effect three pointers. Using this method, you can see that Manu really isn't shooting as bad as his 41% from the floor appears.

[greyforest]

Contrary to popular belief, Parker, Jefferson and Ginobili play lesser minutes on the road than at home. Are the Spurs that bad of a road team? Our road record indicates the Spurs are a sub .500 team away from home. Pop has pulled out the soft card. On the road, you can't afford to be soft. This may be the weakest minded Spurs team in recent memory. Will they pick things up, or will they struggle through the season with the losses?

This makes sense. Look at the absurd disparity when comparing home win/loss record to away win/loss record of these 13 teams (43% of the NBA):

Denver 18-3 8-11
Home: 85.7% wins
Away: 42.1% wins


San Antonio 17-6 7-9
Home: 73.9% wins
Away: 43.8% wins


Phoenix 15-4 9-13
Home: 78.9% wins
Away: 40.9% wins


Utah 16-6 7-12
Home: 72.7% wins
Away: 36.8% wins


Houston 12-5 10-13
Home: 70.6% wins
Away: 43.5% wins


Memphis 14-5 7-13
Home: 73.7% wins
Away: 35.0% wins


New Orleans 15-3 6-15
Home: 83.3%
Away: 28.6%
^especially bad

etc, etc

L.A. Clippers 12-9 5-13
Sacramento 12-9 3-15
Milwaukee 11-7 5-15
Chicago 14-7 4-13
Charlotte 16-4 3-15
Toronto 13-6 8-14



Anyway the point is that lots of these teams have a 2-fold (or in the Hornet's case almost 3-fold) greater chance of winning games on their home courts as compared to on the road. I speculate this is due to ticket sales, and fans being more likely to return if their team wins. I also speculate the referees are the modus operandi of the league in creating this profitable disparity.

Speculation aside, whatever the cause, Pop assuredly realizes that on average, home games for the Spurs are 1.68 times more likely to be won than road games. Combine this with Pop's love of resting the playoff squad, and it starts to make sense. Play star players in games that are more likely to be won, and gravy train this regular season until April, just like every year.

[BuzzerBeater]

Seems that Manu is the one who's really trying to find his game on the road particularly from a scoring standpoint. For the past few years, he's been one of the Spurs top go-to guys in the clutch.

W/ all these numbers pointed out, I'm really impressed how DeJuan Blair carries himself on the road. Usually, rookies have a tough time playing on the road than at home more so than vets. Granted that 28 & 21 game against OKC has really bumped his stats, but overall it's great to see him perform at a high level wherever he's at.

What a break for shooter's confidence levels knowing Blair will park himself under the basket to most likely snag their missed shots. Hopefully that aspect will show up soon.

[boutons_deux]

Only 3 WC teams have .500+ road records, and one of them is in 9th place.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/standi...Type=standings

RR correlates very well with a team's playoff chances. eg, Jazz have had pretty good overall records, but almost never have good RR.

Spurs' RR locates them with rest of WC mediocre dreck.