Going into this series against the Suns, their explosiveness and depth appeared to be their two biggest assets. In Game 3, the Suns proved that to be true. Already up 2-0, the Suns battled back from an early deficit and then pounded the Spurs in money time.
The Spurs went up 39-21 with a Tony Parker layup with eight and a half minutes remaining in the first half. Unfortunately, that's when the wheels started to fall off. Parker missed four free throws in a row and the Spurs didn't make another field goal until the three minute mark of the quarter. By halftime, the Suns were within six points -- 50-44.
In the third quarter, the Spurs once again pushed their lead ... only to see the Suns fight back once again. Leading by as many as eight points in period, the Spurs witnessed the Suns catch fire from beyond the arc and make it a 72-71 game heading into the final stanza.
Spurs fans will have nightmares of the fourth quarter for a long time to come. Going against the Big 3 of the Spurs, Slovenian point guard Goran Dragic simply exploded -- scoring 23 points in the final 12 minutes. Add in timely points by Leandro Barbosa and the Spurs just didn't have a chance. San Antonio's offense sputtered and the defense looked clueless. The Suns starters didn't have to lift a finger as their bench demolished the Spurs and took a 3-0 lead in the series with a 110-96 victory.
-Tim Duncan did a lot of good in this game. He hit 5-of-9 shots from the field, grabbed 13 rebounds, blocked three shots and didn't have a turnover in 37 minutes of work. His defense was as good as could have been expected and he took advantage of his touches. That said, the fatal flaw of his outing was his free throw shooting. He was 5-for-12 from the line and his misses seemed to demoralize both himself and his team. After shooting 72.5% from the line in the regular season, he has hit less than half of his freebies in the postseason. I usually don't harp on missed free throws but his misses really seemed to hurt everyone's aggressiveness. Even with the misses at the line, it would have been a good idea to give Duncan more touches. He was producing well in all areas -- except for one.
-Manu Ginobili came to play and carried the team for a large stretch of the game. He finished with 27 points and five assists on 10-for-17 shooting from the field and 4-for-9 shooting on three-pointers. Ginobili had a few mistakes when rotating defensively but his three steals made up for his errors. On offense, I thought he could have been even more aggressive and he was a bit sloppy (five turnovers). All in all, however, Ginobili wasn't the problem. He played well enough for the Spurs to win.
-Starting for the first time since breaking his hand, Tony Parker disappointed. He was 5-for-17 from the field and 0-for-4 from the line. Parker's play really fell off after two hard falls to the ground in the second quarter. He missed four free throws in a row and then never got into a rhythm again. Defensively, he did good work against Nash but he was one of the players scorched by Dragic in the fourth. When switched onto bigger players, Parker did a good job fighting for post position. Overall, the Spurs didn't get the play they needed from Parker. His reinsertion into the starting lineup was failure.
-The Spurs have survived the passive version Richard Jefferson. Tonight, they couldn't survive the aggressive yet struggling version of Richard Jefferson. He was 1-for-9 from the field and finished with four points and six rebounds in 29 minutes. Once again, his inability to shoot from the outside killed San Antonio's offensive spacing. Mix in some hesitancy out of Jefferson on the offensive end and it was ugly to watch. Defensively, while his rebounding was good, Jefferson made a number of mistakes in transition and rotating.
-George Hill came off the bench -- and didn't respond well to the move. In 37 minutes, he was 1-for-7 from the floor. He did a good job of getting to the line (6-of-7) but was bad in every other aspect. He had one assist, no rebounds and was very bad on the defensive end. In fact, the Suns seem to be attacking Hill on the defensive end no matter who he is guarding. I don't know if Hill lost confidence after being sent to the bench or was rattled by a flagrant foul but there was something extremely wrong with his play tonight.
-I can't fault Antonio McDyess' effort. In 29 minutes, he had 12 points, ten rebounds, two assists and two blocks while shooting 6-for-11 from the field. McDyess came out early and his outside jumper got the Spurs off to a good start. I liked the defense he played and his rebounding allowed the Spurs to out-rebound the Suns 43-37. McDyess did miss a few open jumpers and made a few other bad decisions on passes but I can't be angry with the production the Spurs got out of him.
-This time, it wasn't Matt Bonner's fault. His shooting in the first half was a big reason why the Spurs built their 18-point lead. He finished with 11 points on 4-for-6 shooting from the field, including 3-of-4 from deep. Defensively, he moved his feet well and was decisive with rotations. The one glaring negative is he had only one rebound in 19 minutes of play. But when Bonner hits four shots in one game after hitting five shots in the previous eight playoff games, you can't get picky.
-In the first half, DeJuan Blair played very well. He was rebounding, scoring and just playing with smarts on both ends of the court. The second half was a different story. When switched off onto smaller players on the defensive end, Blair got lit up. He just couldn't handle what was asked of him; guarding small guards out on the perimeter isn't where Blair makes his living. On the night, Blair finished with six points, six rebounds and a blocked shot in 11 minutes.
-I'm still shaking my head over the gimmick defense Pop went with in this game. To defend Phoenix's countless pick-and-rolls, Pop decided the Spurs should switch on all picks. The results were disastrous. The strategy forced Duncan and Blair to spend way too much time defending point guards. Once those guards got into the paint, the Spurs were forced to collapse -- which resulted in the Suns going 15-for-26 on three-pointers. When the Suns weren't hitting open threes, they were beating the bigs to the rim for easy looks. It might have been a decent gimmick to give the Suns a different look for a few minutes ... but for an entire game? Very questionable decision and it blew up in Pop's face. And while I was a proponent of putting Parker back into the starting lineup, that decision also backfired. I thought Pop had coached very well in the playoffs up until this game. He tried to get tricky and now the Spurs are staring into the abyss that is a 3-0 impossibility.
tp is having x-rays on elbow
he was never right after the fall missing 0-4 free throws
spurs mentally caved in with the missed free throws
DUNCAN MENTALLY CAVED IN this loss is on HIM
his missing free throws is ALL MENTALLY
he makes the first few in a game he is great that night
tp is having x-rays on elbow
he was never right after the fall missing 0-4 free throws
spurs mentally caved in with the missed free throws
DUNCAN MENTALLY CAVED IN this loss is on HIM
his missing free throws is ALL MENTALLY
he makes the first few in a game he is great that night
He need x-rays in his balls.
duncan jefferson hill had no balls tonight
I honestly don't understand why Pop didn't vary his defense strategy on pick&roll, I think he did very good job in 2008 against Suns and Hornets, he was using mutiple strategies to guard Chris Paul and Nash. But this time, I'd say Pop is not being Pop. I don't think Dragic and Nash are better than Paul and a younger Nash...
Pop could toss Bowen at Nash or Paul. Or even guys like Dragic that went on a hot streak. That 2008 Bowen, declining and all, played a whole better defense than what Hill has been playing this series.
I've personally moved on from losing Bruce, but that's your answer really...
A side note: I can understand Hill struggling in his first full action in the playoffs given the magnitude of each series and what was asked/expected of him given how he finished the regular season (he'll improve as time goes on), but what was RJ's excuse? He was missing easy conversions and FG opportunities left and right and shortarming gimme's at that. He's been there before but couldn't get up for this series and has been inconsistent at best, especially given that he was brought to SA primarily for his offense.
Spurs suck spurs suck spurs suck spurs suck spurs suck spurs suck spurs suck spurs suck spurs suck spurs suck spurs suck and spurs such hahahahahaah your team and fans are such garbage viva los lakers woot
Thanks for the writeup LJ. I thought we were going to switch our strategy and sag and stay on the shooters and allow Amarč to have a field day inside, but no. We dared them to beat us from outside and they delivered. They just really tear us apart tonight.
Parker, Jefferson and Hill combine to go 7-for-33. That can't be understated as a reason why the Spurs lost. But the gimmick defense and missed free throws were right up there.
This was the type of game I've been worrying about from the Suns. I knew they were going to win at least one game based on their deadly three-point shooting ... but I was hoping those wins would be at home. To get that type of shooting on the road is really impressive.
The Spurs starters were still playing while the Suns starters except for Hill (and later Nash) were lounging. Who would expect to see a line up with Tim, Tony, and Manu looking so helpless against Dragic, Barbosa, Dudley, and Frye! I give Gentry credit. The bench was not good in the first half, but he gave them another chance in the late third and fourth quarter and they rose to the occasion.
To Hill's defense- I think in some ways he has been set up for failure by how Pop has used him. How does he expect Hill to cover Richardson?
The Suns have scored 110 or more in all three games!!
should hill guard grant hill instead? Or maybe Steve Nash!! Oh yeah that worked like a dream?!!!
stick to rooting for white guys and hating black people ploto.
The Spurs are just working with limited tools trying to contain a much deeper team. Legs run out and when a team is running 10 deep you can make more shots for a longer period of time because you're not nearly as fatigued. And forget about just one game, what about by this point in the season? How many more minutes have some of the Spurs played compared to some of the Suns?
The Suns are simply a much better team right now. This is truly a role reversal between what the teams were in years past.
So where was that confidence from? Spurs' poor defense?I knew they were going to win at least one game based on their deadly three-point shooting ... but I was hoping those wins would be at home. To get that type of shooting on the road is really impressive.
I reckon Suns was playing like practice, because in the case, the shooting percentage will be at a high level regardless of whether playing on road or at home.
Anyone remembers the time where the Spurs were a mentally tough team that never really beats themselves?
Who would have thought that switching on every pick-n-roll would backfire so badly? Since it worked so well during the fourth quarter of the previous two games......
(This is directed at Pop's coaching, not your astute commenting, Timvp.)
Pop went with a stupid gameplan and it cost them the game. Why didn't he tell Parker and Hill to fight through some of those screens? Pop is a great head coach, but his strategies against this current Phoenix team have sucked. Oh, and Amar'e hasn't had one great game, yet his team is destroying our team.
Last edited by J_Paco; 05-08-2010 at 01:03 AM.
yes.. and clearly not the outfit I saw out there today...
and this doens't mean im jumping off the bandwagon by any means
timvp, what are your thoughts on the starting lineup?
I don't want to get into a complete dissertation of my thoughts on it (again) but tonight looked awfully similar to what we saw in the regular season with this group: a flash of brilliance and a whole bunch of WTF.
Tony's fall could've very well been the reason for the extreme falloff but, then again, it looked awfully familiar.
Injury, or is it just a square peg in a round hole of a lineup (for whatever reason)?
The comparison of the Suns to the 2003 Spurs was a good one. Dragic tonight was like Jackson/Kerr exploding out of nowhere.
I've never seen Tim vanish like this before. This is like watching a relative slip and break their hip...or something. We're not as young as we used to be.
Great win by the Suns. As sad as it is to see the Spurs fall, I respect the Suns unlike the Mavs or the Lakers.
That's classic. The CoT was all over Manu's ass after Game 2 saying a broken nose is no excuse for poor play (in a game Ginobili had 11 assists mind you) and now they make excuses for Tony because he fell. What a bunch of phonies.
Just deal with it. Your boy played like ASS.
Duncan missing free throws is troubling, but I think he had like 1 or 2 post-ups for the entire 2nd half..ridiculous..
on a separate note...
Our guards, with the exception of Manu played like .
Hill and Parker just couldn't get it done..
Suns won that game.
As for game 4. I just don't care anymore.
But hey, if the suns win I will congratulate them.... The prize?
You get the Lakers!! Good luck with that.
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