Don't forget Anderson! He'll be back soon.
Some post-game quotes here.
San Antonio Spurs 100, Detroit Pistons 89: No one knows what makes the Spurs so good
by Timothy Varner
48 Minutes of
Palace of Auburn Hills — Another night, another ho-hum victory for the San Antonio Spurs. The Spurs might become the first team in NBA history to accidentally back their way into 65 wins.
Through three quarters the Spurs and Pistons played themselves to a push. The Palace was half-empty and each team had all the spunk of a cat beneath the wheels of an 18-wheel haul. The game simply lacked energy, save for the occasional Will Bynum highlight. The most fascinating part of the game—at least from my position behind the Pistons’ bench—was the crowds insistence to yell “Rip Hamilton” in the direction of Pistons coach John Kuester.
“Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiipppp!”
“HamILton! HamILton! HamILton!”
And so on.
48 uninterrupited minutes of and so on.
Keep reading →
Some post-game quotes.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2011020808Spurs hold off Pistons 100-89
By Noah Trister
After yet another victory—by double digits, no less—San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich insisted his team isn’t ready for the playoffs.
“There are teams playing better than we are,” Popovich said. “Just because we have the best record doesn’t mean we have the best team. To be that we have to be better defensively.”
Tony Parker had 19 points and seven assists, and the Spurs did take a small step toward becoming a tougher defensive team in the second half of a 100-89 victory over the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night. The Pistons scored only 15 points in the third quarter and never led in the fourth.
DeJuan Blair added 18 points and 12 rebounds for San Antonio, which improved its NBA-best record to 43-8. Manu Ginobili scored 13 points for the Spurs, and Tim Duncan contributed 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Will Bynum scored 12 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter for Detroit (19-33). The Pistons kept it close in the third quarter despite shooting 7 of 22 in the period, but San Antonio calmly held them at bay in the fourth.
Bynum made a dunk and a 15-footer to pull the Pistons within two at 80-78 with 6:37 remaining in the game, but Ginobili and Matt Bonner made back-to-back 3-pointers. Bonner returned after missing 10 games with a right knee injury and scored 10 points—eight of them in the fourth.
Another 3-pointer by Ginobili made it 89-80.
“It’s tough to beat that team, because they play so well together,” Bynum said. “They are always moving the ball, and they make shots. You can’t make any mistakes against them.”
San Antonio had set a record for the franchise’s best 50-game start, but the Spurs struggled to pull away from the Pistons. They were ahead 52-51 at halftime, but the lead didn’t reach double figures until the final minute.
In a matchup of promising young big men who used to play at Big East schools, Pittsburgh’s Blair got the better of Georgetown’s Greg Monroe, but not by much. Monroe had 14 points and 13 rebounds for the Pistons.
Blair’s double-double was his second in a row and seventh since Jan. 1.
“He knows his role, hits the boards hard and has a great touch inside,” Popovich said. “He plays the game to win, he’s a really compe ive young man, and he did a good job.”
Richard Jefferson scored 11 points for the Spurs, whose balance proved to be too much for Detroit. All five starters scored in double figures for San Antonio, which became only the fourth opponent to score 100 points in Detroit’s last 14 games.
“We did a good job of sharing the ball tonight,” said Parker, who scored 11 points in the first quarter without missing a shot.
One game after returning from an extended benching, Detroit’s Richard Hamilton sat out Tuesday night’s matchup because of a sore right groin. Hamilton scored 15 points in 20 minutes Saturday at Milwaukee, his first action since Jan. 10 after he was benched and even deactivated for Friday night’s home game against New Jersey.
“I think last game I kind of tweaked it,” Hamilton said. “I think one of the reasons, certain preparation before the game and stuff I’ve been doing for years, getting myself ready for the game, I didn’t get an opportunity to do it because I didn’t know that, one, I was going to be active, and two, that I was going to play.”
A few players returned from injuries Tuesday. In addition to Bonner, Detroit guard Rodney Stuckey returned after missing five games with a right shoulder injury. Stuckey didn’t start but finished with 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting.
Detroit’s Jason Maxiell, who has been bothered by a back problem, scored two points in his first appearance in four games. It was the first time Maxiell played more than a minute since Jan. 22.
Notes: Detroit plays at Cleveland on Wednesday night, with the Cavaliers trying to snap their record streak of 25 losses. Bynum was asked afterward about the possibility of being the team that finally loses to Cleveland. “We won’t be,” he said. “We’ll be ready. That’s why we get paid.” … San Antonio signed F Steve Novak to a 10-day contract before the game. Popovich said Novak’s job is to shoot when he goes into the game. Novak played 45 seconds on Tuesday, which was enough time for him to make a 3-pointer. … San Antonio shot 53 percent but turned the ball over 14 times. Parker alone had six turnovers, as many as the entire Detroit team. … Platinum Equity chairman Tom Gores, who has expressed an interest in buying the Pistons, was at the game.
Good stuff.
I've always been a fan of Dice and his game, and used to dread that jumper as well as the solid defensive help he'd usually provide on Duncan when he was with the Pistons.
But now that he's a Spur and I've been more exposed to him as a person and citizen, this guy has become one of my favorite players.
Definitely needs a ring in his case.
http://www.detroitbadboys.com/2011/2...100-pistons-89Executed to death: Spurs 100, Pistons 89
The prospective best man, Tom Gores, was in the house, and the Pistons played surprisingly well, but the San Antonio Spurs were 42-8 coming into the game for a reason. As our Pistons jockey George Blaha put it so profoundly, "this team executes you to DEATH." The Pistons eugoogly must have been read at halftime.
The Spurs hit six threes in the final quarter (five assisted) and held the Pistons to 38 points in the second half to stave off a valiant effort by a 19-win Pistons team that trailed by just one at the half. The Spurs are good. But they played similarly well all game (53% shooting with eight turnovers in the first half vs. 55% shooting with six turnovers in the second half). That means they clamped down on defense in the second half and/or the Pistons' game plan changed for the worst.
And I think in the third quarter the Pistons did get away from what made them so successful in the first half against the best team in the NBA -- assisted buckets and not settling for bad jumpers. In the first half they took just 10 jumpers from 18 feet and beyond (and only made two). They also had nine assists, of which six resulted in layups. They matched that first half total of ill-advised jumpers -- and then some -- in the third quarter alone, settling for 14 jumpers of 18 feet and beyond (and only made three). They recorded just three assists in the quarter, none of which were layups. That's a major reason why they shot 7-22 (32%), incredibly lucky the Spurs only increased the lead to five going into the fourth.
In the final quarter, it was all Will Bynum (and a little Austin Daye) for the Pistons -- they scored 19 of the Pistons 23 points. Bynum scored 12 points on seven shots, which was efficient and fun, but i-Bynum mode doesn't win many games. He was Bynumite for the most part, but that won't fly against one of the premiere teams in the league. (Lost in his welcomed effort, were his two forced, missed shots at the end of the third, and a bad turnover, bad shooting foul on Tony Parker late, and wildly missed layup all in the fourth).
Greg Monroe was the Pistons best overall player, dropping in 14 points and grabbing 13 rebounds -- a game high. But guess what? He took ONE shot in the second half after scoring 12 points on 4-8 shooting in the first half. ONE freaking shot. He made it, it was a layup, but that's all the Pistons could draw up for him in his nearly 18 minutes of court time in the second half?
The Spurs are, well, the Spurs, but the Pistons didn't give themselves a full 48-minute chance in this one. Maybe I should only credit Popovich for making the right adjustments at half time, but the Pistons were running a different style in the second half, as has been the case for most of the season. Thus, I'm not willing to give all the credit to Pop tonight. He deserves a lot of it, the Spurs are a great team, but the Pistons are a terribly inconsistent team, and it unsettles my stomach.
Star-divide
* Manu freaking Ginobili still haunts the Pistons, specifically in the 4th quarter when he hit two dagger threes in the face of Charlie Villanueva. Wait, why in the Ginobili was CV31 guarding him?!?
* Pistons were 3-11 from downtown while the Spurs were an unbelievable 10-18. Again, 6 of those came in the 4th quarter.
* Stuckey returned from his shoulder injury and scored 10 points off the bench on 4-12 shooting (3 assists and 2 turnovers). He missed two layups in the 4th quarter.
* Tayshaun Prince took roughly 15 terrible shots tonight; he made 5 of them.
* T-Mac was 3-10 shooting, had 3 assists, 1 turnover, and 3 steals.
* Antonio McDyess's last game EVAH at The Palace was one to remember -- he had six points (on four shots) and seven rebounds in 21 minutes. Go get that ring, man.
* That one guy who may or may not be a product of the Spurs' system and technically could be on the Pistons had 18 points and 12 rebounds in 29 minutes.
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursna...tes-in-return/Bonner contributes in return
Jeff McDonald
..."It’s a threshold thing,” Bonner said. “I’ve just got to play through the pain. It’s not fun, but that’s what I’m trying to do.”
..."Matty came in firing,” Popovich said. “That’s his job. I thought he gave us a lot for the first game back.”
Blair goes to the bucket
http://www.nba.com/video/games/pisto...s=iref:nbahpt2
Highlights
http://www.nba.com/video/games/pisto...s=iref:nbahpt2
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursna...tuesday-night/Notes on a scorecard: Why the 3-ball saved the Spurs at Detroit
Posted on February 9, 2011 at 12:22 am by Tim Griffin
Matt Bonner wasted little time in his return after a 10-game absence, sinking two 3-pointers en route to a 10-point effort in the Spurs' triumph over Detroit.
The Spurs came into the Tuesday’s game ranking tied for second in the NBA in 3-point shooting, hitting 39.2 percent from the beyond the arc.
But the return of Matt Bonner helped the Spurs improve that in their strongest outside shooting effort in nearly a month in their 100-88 victory at Detroit.
The Spurs finished by hitting 10-of-18 from 3-point territory. It was their third best 3-point shooting effort of the season, topped only by the 63.2 percent against Orlando on Nov. 22 and 61.1 percent against the Los Angeles Clippers on Nov. 10.
The big effort was racheted up by Bonner, who played his first game since Jan. 14. Bonner came off the bench to hit two big 3-pointers help kick-start the Spurs’ strong finish. San Antonio finished the second half by hitting 7-of -10 of its 3-pointers, including 6-of-9 in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
“Matty came in firing,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “That’s his job to knock down shots. He played a smart brand of ball and gave us a lot in his first game back.”
Last edited by awktalk; 02-09-2011 at 02:14 AM.
Don't post entire mysa articles or blogs.
Not really much of highlights.
Solid game by Blair. Pop's patience in Blair all season long is paying off.
That's going on my sig.
Pistons fans think highly of former Pistons forward Antonio McDyess. So does Ben Wallace.
After practice Monday, Wallace spoke highly of McDyess, who returned to The Palace with the Spurs.
“McDyess is a great guy,” Wallace said. “A great guy to be around. A fun guy. He can talk and communicate with anybody. If you find somebody around the league that says they don’t like McDyess, then I’ve got a problem with them.”
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