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Great win...
Blair was key to the game:
34:45 min
14 pts
12 rb/(4 offensive)
3 ass
3 blks
1 steal
only 3 FOULS
3 TOs
if we can get anything close to that from him in the playoffs this team is almost impossible to beat.
Great win...
he's definitely playing better.
Tomorrow's LA/Boston game should be killer. LA will turn it up for Boston, and vice versa. Should be some badass playoff-type basketball.
I'm definitely rooting for LA. I want to have as much cushion for HCA throughout the playoffs as possible.
Of course it'd be nice if the game goes 10 OTs and a couple of guys pass out from exhaustion.... :-)
missed the game....was checkin scores on the phone....looks like neal had a bad shooting game and impressive stats from RJ, blair and hill......good win ......40-7....
looks like everyone is ready for the rodeo road trip.....
The more separation from LA, the better. I always root against them.
Some post-game quotes.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2011012924Spurs ground Rockets for 18th straight home win
By Paul J. Weber
The San Antonio Spurs are the NBA’s first team to 40 wins, and got there faster than the four-time champions ever have before.
Maybe three weeks on the road will make things more challenging.
Manu Ginobili scored 22 points and the Spurs hit 40 victories by winning their 18th in a row at home, beating the Houston Rockets 108-95 on Saturday night.
“I’m just speechless right now,” said Spurs center DeJuan Blair, who had 14 points and 12 rebounds. “Because it’s just such an honor to be on this team, on this quest for greatness, and we’ve just got to keep it going.”
Richard Jefferson added 18 points in what was San Antonio’s last game at the AT&T Center for three weeks. The Spurs (40-7) embark on their annual Rodeo Road Trip starting Tuesday, testing the NBA’s best record against nine straight road games.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has traditionally used the trip as a distraction-free chance to work out the kinks. But with the NBA’s best record, the Spurs have few obvious faults—and are so far ahead in the Southwest Division (9 games) that they could lose every game on the trip and still be at the top.
Luis Scola led the Rockets with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Houston trailed just 76-71 after the third quarter before being buried by a flurry of 3s, and finished the game looking winded a night after nearly overcoming a 25-point deficit in a loss to Dallas.
“They don’t beat themselves,” Rockets forward Shane Battier said. “We were right there with them for a half. We played pretty good basketball, then we had that lull where we couldn’t answer their 3s and their big shots that created separation.”
Houston has lost four of six.
Tim Duncan, in jeopardy of missing the All-Star game for the first time in his career, had 12 points and seven rebounds as every Spurs starter was in double figures. Fans didn’t vote in Duncan as an All-Star starter for the first time in 11 seasons, and he must wait this week to see whether coaches vote him in as a reserve.
Blair’s double-double was his eighth this season. Tony Parker added 17 points and George Hill had 14 as the Spurs moved two wins from tying the franchise record of 20 straight home wins, set during the 1989-90 season.
“You keep competing, executing and trying to improve,” Popovich said. “It doesn’t matter if you have the best record or the worst record.”
Kyle Lowry had 15 points for the Rockets. Houston’s road trip won’t get any easier: the Rockets head to Los Angeles on Tuesday to play the Lakers, then finish another back-to-back Wednesday at Utah.
Kevin Martin and Chuck Hayes added 10 apiece for Houston.
“We were in the game all they way into the third quarter. But they were too solid. They are too solid,” Scola said. “Most solid team in the NBA. They’re the best team in the NBA, period.”
The Spurs went 5-for-8 behind the 3-point line the fourth, including Ginobili sinking two with a close hand in his face both times.
Hill’s 3-pointer with 7:32 left capped a 7-0 Spurs run and stretched the lead to double-digits for good.
Three months into the season, the Spurs are already just 10 wins shy of matching their 50-win total from a season ago.
San Antonio’s road trip won’t be as grueling a gauntlet as years past, either: Only three of the nine games (Portland, the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago) are against teams with winning records before the Spurs return home Feb. 23 against Oklahoma City.
NOTES: The Spurs recalled rookie swingman James Anderson before the game. The Spurs’ first-round pick hasn’t played since a stress fracture emerged in his right foot six games into the season. … Spurs F Matt Bonner missed his seventh straight game with a sore right knee.
San Antonio Spurs 108, Houston Rockets 95:
by Andrew A. McNeill
48 Minutes of
AT&T CENTER — Houston Rockets guard Kevin Martin is considered by some to be one of the most efficient scorers in the league. He started out Saturday night’s game against the Spurs proving those theories correct, scoring 10 points in the first quarter on 4-6 shooting.
Martin was 2-2 from the 3-point line and scored a pair of layups as the Rockets led 26-25 after one quarter.
By the time the Spurs had finished off the Rockets in a 108-95 win, Martin still had 10 points.
Keep reading →
Great win at home taking care of business. Let's get on the road!
The Rodeo Road Trip is perfect for this team right now.
RJ getting his three point stroke back. I hope he finishes the season strong.
martin got into foul trouble...
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursna...-be-this-good/Notes on a scorecard: Why the Spurs didn’t expect to be this good
Tim Griffin
..."Not even close. Usually in our good seasons we always kind of expect we are around the 70 percent, 72 percent, 65 percent,” Ginobili said. “Now, we are at 85 (percent.) It’s way more than anybody could have expected."
...“The funny thing is we are here, we’ve earned it and now we don’t want to disappoint anybody. We just want to keep doing it because we can,” Ginobili said. “We know we have a really tough stretch, a lot of games back to back with four in five nights soon. We know that we’ve earned what’s going on but we just have to want to keep going.”
Ditto. Only time I'd be rooting for LA. LA - 7 games back without head-to-head. BOS - only 4 games back with head-to-head.
“I’m just speechless right now,” said Spurs center DeJuan Blair, who had 14 points and 12 rebounds. “Because it’s just such an honor to be on this team, on this quest for greatness, and we’ve just got to keep it going.”
Media must be getting to Blair. It's stupid to be using the word "greatness" in regards to this team. HCA is the only plus - which is big especially with Hill's home vs away performances. It's the regular season - every playoff teams starts from 0-0 in the real season.
http://www.foxsportssouthwest.com/01...48&feedID=3799Fab Five: Spurs’ starters shine once again
By Mike Piellucci
FOXSportsSouthest.com
After Wednesday’s win over Utah, I attempted to delve into what exactly makes the Spurs the best team in the league.
While I explored a variety of reasons for why San Antonio is once again the class of the NBA, there was one area that I didn’t go fully in depth on that may is perhaps the greatest factor of all – the starting five.
That quintet made all the difference in Saturday’s 108-95 over the Rockets, propelling the Spurs to their 40th win of the season before the month of January is even out.
There are plenty of numbers that exemplify the argument that the lineup of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Richard Jefferson, DeJuan Blair, and Tim Duncan are among the sport’s premier units but the first place to start is with the seemingly insignificant number of one.
More specifically, the Spurs have fielded exactly one starting lineup all season, the only team able to make such a claim. Given the myriad of injuries that have alternately plagued Parker, Ginobili, and Duncan over the past several seasons, the Spurs hardly would have topped the list of prime suspects for the last lineup standing yet that’s been the case 47 games into the season while their compe ion has either struggled with injuries, ineffectiveness, or both.
Then there’s the eye-popping productivity. Entering Saturday, the Spurs’ starters have accounted for exactly two-thirds of the team’s points, 65% of its rebounds, and 75% of its assists.
All of that comes in a relatively-low 61% of the team’s minutes; not only are they proficient, they’re exceedingly efficient as well.
That’s a byproduct of continuity, sure, but also indicative of smart roster construction.
Name a desired quality and chances are that multiple Spurs starters possess it, whether it’s perimeter scoring or slashing (Parker, Ginobili, Jefferson); playmaking (Parker and Ginobili); three-point shooting (Ginobili and Jefferson); rebounding, post offense, and post defense (Duncan and Blair); or sheer athleticism (take your pick of Parker, Ginobili, Jefferson, or Blair).
What makes them so tough to beat, then, is that there’s no way to take that lineup out of their element. They turn the game into a layup line or they can slow down the tempo, grind out possessions, and let Duncan and Blair clean up the glass, and are equally capable playing slash-and-kick or plotting a direct assault on the rim.
There’s no book on how to stop San Antonio’s lineup, other than fielding an opposing one with greater overall quality – an order of Mt. Everest-sized steepness.
Sans Yao Ming and with Aaron Brooks playing like a s of himself after returning from injury, Houston was unable to answer the bell.
The Rockets allowed San Antonio’s starters to outdo even themselves, putting on an offensive clinic that was as explosive as it was surgical.
With the bench in a malaise for most of the game, the starting five scored 63 of San Antonio’s 68 points en route to 83 of the team’s 108, or 77% overall. All five hit double figures by the third quarter and everyone but Duncan hit at least half their shots while Duncan, for his part, drilled a not-too-shabby 5 of his 11 attempts.
True to form, they also accounted for 23 of the team’s 32 rebounds – led by Blair’s 12 as part of his eighth double-double of the season – and 14 of its 22 assists.
Houston did its best to keep the game compe ive through the first half and even through parts of the third quarter, despite San Antonio not trailing at any point in the final two quarters. Almost-Spur Luis Scola, in particular, gave San Antonio fits by scoring 23 points to go with 10 rebounds and constantly forcing the issue on both sides of the ball.
But eventually, the Spurs proved to be too much, gradually putting the game out of reach with a 20-10 run in the first six minutes of the fourth quarter to widen the gap to 15.
The three-pointer, woefully off the mark throughout the first three quarters, finally began to drop as the Spurs connected on five of seven fourth-quarter treys.
The starters even got a bit of help, too, with George Hill scoring 10 of his 14 points in the final period in a better-late-than-never type of performance.
Ultimately, the team that was as many games above .500 going into the contest as Houston had total wins (22) did what was expected of them – impose their will and overwhelm.
"They don't beat themselves," Rockets forward Shane Battier said after the game. "We were right there with them for a half. We played pretty good basketball, then we had that lull where we couldn't answer their 3s and their big shots that created separation."
"We were in the game all they way into the third quarter. But they were too solid. They are too solid," Scola lamented.
"Most solid team in the NBA. They're the best team in the NBA, period."
Now, San Antonio will see if it can retain that crown as they embark on the dreaded Rodeo Road Trip that includes three straight weeks on the road and nine games away from the AT&T Center.
The upshot is that only three of those games come against teams with winning records, meaning that the team that has lost just one game all season to a sub-.500 opponent should be able to maintain their winning ways.
The downside? One of those three games against winning teams is a date with the Lakers at the Staples Center.
One safe bet; if nothing else, the starting five will be up to the task.
Good win...let's take the momentum into the RRT.
GO SPURS GO!!!!!
I think he was saying that the Spurs were about 22 games over .500, which was the same amount as the Rockets wins!
you mad?
I figure the Spurs staff will give Tiago one, uninjured off-season to improve his game to where he can be a serious contributor. It worked with RJ and that process is probably not finished, but of course RJ was a much larger investment.
Right now, I'd rather have Rasho than Tiago. Rasho was a better rebounder and was acknowledged by Tony and Manu as an excellent screener for holding open paths to the basket.
rasho the legend killer
his limited in what he can do just like oberto, but set plays they do it timely and properly
as for splitter, its frustrating to see him settin screens and runnin off b4 the ball handler could even use the screen, all it does is draw in his man to the dribbler and nothing else...
Two facts that are really impressive:
Spurs are the first team to reach 40 wins.
They've won 18 in a row at home.
WHOAAAA Bro, dont get mad!
Read the quote again cuz actually it was 23.
Last edited by LakerHater; 01-30-2011 at 05:39 PM.
Gui ude's only 15 years old, he gets a bit wound up sometimes
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