Reply With Quote
Biggest choke and it came from the people with championship experience.
Congrats on the win, tlong.
http://www.oregonlive.com/nba/index....ggling_co.html
Steve Novak's inbound pass with 0.9 seconds left gets by Manu Ginobili, setting the stage for the Blazers to pull off the victory.
Was San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich testy after his team’s 98-96 loss to the Trail Blazers at the Rose Garden on Friday?
His Spurs had the ball and a four-point lead with 40 seconds left when somehow, some way, the Blazers pulled out an improbable win. So it might have been predictable when a reporter asked him after the game what his emotions were, and he answered:
“That’s a silly question.”
San Antonio (57-15) still has the NBA’s best record by a wide margin, but was playing its second consecutive game without injured All-Star forward Tim Duncan. On Wednesday, they played a tight back-and-forth game at Denver before losing 115-112.
On Friday, the Spurs seemed to have control of the game in the fourth quarter, leading by as many as 10 points. After being burned by Blazers forward LaMarcus Aldridge for 40 points in Portland’s 99-86 home win on Feb. 1, San Antonio bottled up Aldridge, holding him to 14 points.
“I thought we did the best job we’ve done in while” on Aldridge, Popovich said. “I thought in general, our defense was pretty good.”
With the Spurs leading 93-90, Aldridge missed two free throws with 1:40 left. Manu Ginobili seemed to hit the clincher, a three-point shot with 1:21 left to put San Antonio up by six. Ginobili, the Spurs’ All-Star shooting guard, carried San Antonio with 21 points and seven assists.
“He’s somebody we always look to in those situations, and he had a great game,” Popovich said. “He just played his heart out.”
Although Andre Miller cut the lead to 96-92 with a layup, the Spurs seemed safe, even after Ginobili missed a three-point attempt with 49.9 seconds left. The Blazers’ Nicolas Batum missed his own three-point shot with 47.9 seconds left, and San Antonio seemed ready to put the win away as point guard Tony Parker dribbled the ball upcourt.
“The only time I thought it was almost over was when we got the stop with about 40 seconds to go,” Ginobili said. “That’s when I though, ‘OK, we have it.’”
But they didn’t. Miller stunned Parker near midcourt by stealing the ball from him and racing downcourt for a layin just ahead of two chasing Spurs players, cutting Portland’s deficit to two. Then, Ginobili had the ball stolen by Wesley Matthews, and after Matthews missed a layup attempt, Nicolas Batum got the rebound and was fouled with 0.9 seconds left. He made two free throws to tie the game at 96-96.
“Down the stretch is the most important time, and we turned it over twice in a row,” Popovich said. “With a four-point lead, and the ball, we turned it over. Then with a two-point lead, we turned it over. That was the ballgame.”
Not quite. After a timeout, the Spurs got the ball at midcourt, and Steve Novak attempted to throw an inbounds pass near the basket, but it went out of bounds without touching a Spurs player.
Popovich was asked about the play’s execution.
“Yeah, we wanted to throw it straight out of bounds without anybody touching it,” he said, before adding that the turnover was not Novak’s fault.
The Blazers then got their turn, and incredibly, scored as Andre Miller threw a perfect pass near the rim to Batum, who dunked for one of the most dramatic baskets the Rose Garden has ever seen.
“We said that we were going to switch everything, and there was never really a pick,” said Parker, who had 15 points but also committed eight turnovers. “It was just a great play from Portland.”
The loss gave San Antonio back-to-back losses for just the second time this season. The Spurs, who still have a five-game lead on the Lakers for the best record in the Western Conference, play at Memphis on Sunday before returning home to play the Blazers again Monday, with a chance to avenge a loss that could linger.
“One of the worst I’ve had in the NBA,” Ginobili said of the defeat. “Three turnovers in 40 seconds – crazy. And bad defense, too. We gave them two layups. Unacceptable.”
Biggest choke and it came from the people with championship experience.
Congrats on the win, tlong.
Here we go with your thread starts. Keep em coming.
lol spurs
Ahh, there's the old man....
What a ty situation for Novak. All he's done since he's got here is hit shots.
Switch everything! Genius. Absolutely genius.
in LaMarcus.
Decides to tank his point total when the proceeds go to Japan....
Well Manu was fouled..sumone grabbed his jersey as he was attempting to grab the pass..refs blew a travel on miller also..damn refs
The kid comes in and drops 19 (6 of 10, including 5 for 8 from downtown), follows up with 13 (5 for 6, 3 of 4 3pters), and is subsequently rewarded with a DNPCD.
Followed up by 1:27, no shots, but he's tasked with the most important inbound of the game.
Bizarre.
BTW, credit the Blazers for thoroughly out-coaching and out-performing us down the stretch. Must be a joyous win. Similarly to our last meeting in which Aldridge went ballistic. For the Blazers, the Spurs are a barrel of laughs. Send in the clowns!
The Novak subs ution is still very puzzling to me. What the was he trying to do there
Seriously...The Novak subs ution is still very puzzling to me. What the was he trying to do there
What do you hope to accomplish when you stick in a shooter with a piss poor assist average, terrible passing skills, who happened to not play the entire night - to make an inbound pass with .9 seconds left!?
Last edited by TimDunkem; 03-26-2011 at 02:29 AM.
Ummm yeah it wasn't Novak's fault. It was your ing fault Pop for designing the play to be inbounded by Steve Novak of all people!
Pop could see an obvious travel and the stupid ref could not when he had a clear view.
That's the damn game right there.
Spurs should have had the ball with 2 seconds left and a 2 point lead.
I expect an apology from Ms. Stern after the tape is reviewed in NY.
I've seen the Globetrotters get away with less than what Miller just did. Freakin joke. I can't sleep and I'm royally pissed.
Sadly, bad calls are a part of the game. Horrendous calls are also a part of the game.
True. I'm shocked they let that go when it was an obvious call.
David Stern gets angry when people question the integrity of the NBA.
Egregous errors like this one tonight keep the talk going.
I hope SA doesn't lose HCA now on the basis of crap like this. It reminds me when Duncan got suspended for running into a ref who got in the way, and the Timberwolves got the #1 seed that year as a result of the suspension costing SA a game (03-04 season)
Question.
Can you advance the ball on a turnover if no one touches the ball on the inbound?
Andre Miller had about 17 steps before he made that pass. Sure you don't lose b/c of like that but when it's blatantly obvious, you'd like something to be done about it at least.
Batum dunked it?
Nothin' worse than when Jim Dunan is injured.
Who gives a ... it is just a regular season game. You know we lost while having a double digit lead vs Houston a while back.... with one player scoring like 14 points in 30 secs.... We somehow won a championship. Jeez...it is a bad loss but nothing to lose sleep over.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
