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Nice write up, I was just happy to see Pop put in Splitter for the OT period after staying with Bonner for much too long.
By the AS Break, I hope to see Blair coming off the bench.
A day after a deflating loss in Milwaukee, the Spurs were back to the grind. The Rockets came to town with their hardhats on and the two Texas teams played a physical game that featured numerous runs both ways. After the smoke cleared, the Spurs were able to celebrate a hard-fought 101-95 overtime victory.
I thought it was a really good win by the Spurs. Early on, the defense was terrible. Thankfully, San Antonio steadily improved on that end. Following halftime, the Spurs were playing some of their best defense of the season. On offense, the Big Two did the heavy lifting.
As for the Rockets, I'm impressed with the overall talent on their roster. While they lack high-end talent, their roster is packed with players with good potential. This year, I expect Houston to be able to fight for a playoff spot.
Looking forward, the Spurs get a day off before taking on an impressive Trail Blazers squad on Friday.
Tim Duncan A-
On the second day of a back-to-back with the Rockets pounding away at him, Tim Duncan played really well. Going 38 minutes for the second straight game, Duncan was able to keep his legs and show good mobility throughout. Offensively, he had perhaps his best night of the season on the low block. His passing was great again. On defense, Duncan was really active. Not only was he defending the rim, he stepped away and played solid defense on Luis Scola. Overall, to see Duncan play this well given the draining cir stances bodes well for the rest of the season.
Tony Parker A
Tony Parker was finally able to put it all together for a vintage performance. After a slow start, Parker put his foot on the gas and ran around the Rockets. His penetration keyed the offense; without that, the Spurs wouldn't have cracked 70 points. He scored, created for teammates and was able to limit his turnovers despite the Rockets concentrating their efforts on his every move. Defensively, Parker was very good -- especially in the third quarter. If he can play like this more often, the Spurs will be difficult to beat.
Richard Jefferson C
In overtime, Richard Jefferson hit a monstrous three-pointer. His play the rest of the night, however, was very much lacking. His defense was somewhere between below average and bad. On offense, his predictably one-dimensional ways were of little to no help. With Manu Ginobili sidelined, the Spurs need Jefferson to shoulder more of the load -- not simply blend in.
Kawhi Leonard A
I'm trying to not get too excited about this rookie but Kawhi Leonard is making that difficult. After a slow start, I thought his defense was tremendous. In crunch time, he was blanketing Martin. In fact, Martin was held scoreless in the fourth quarter and overtime. Leonard also made a number of plays when rotating on defense. Oh, and he continues to do great work on the boards. Offensively, things can still be shaky at times but Leonard is finding his niche. Let's hope he keeps getting minutes and just keeps improving by the hour -- like he's seemingly doing now.
DeJuan Blair C+
DeJuan Blair got lit up by Luis Scola to begin the game, although that's hardly a surprise. Of much bigger concern is the fact that Blair is suddenly an extremely poor defensive rebounder. Without rebounding, Blair isn't an NBA level player ... so that's a pretty big deal. Offensively, Blair was good. He picked his spots well and his efficiency on that end has been stellar of late.
Tiago Splitter B+
In spurts, Tiago Splitter was a beast tonight. He hasn't yet put it all together but the potential is obvious. Offensively, I liked what he did. Splitter kept things simple and played to his strengths. On defense, he was very good at patrolling the paint and protecting the rim. However, his post defense was really bad most of the night. That said, I see no reason why he shouldn't be playing closer to 30 minutes a night.
Matt Bonner C+
Defensively, Matt Bonner had a few good moments but it was mostly more of the same. And by same, I mean mistakes in team defense, slow rotations and softness in the paint. Offensively, he was decent but again tried to do too much.
Gary Neal C-
The first game of Gary Neal as the backup point guard wasn't very pretty. He was extremely shot happy -- to put it nicely -- and that doesn't really work from a point guard with limited court vision. At the very least, he needs to look to get the team into the motion sets instead of spending possessions searching out pull-up jumpers. Defensively, I thought he was really bad. On a bad defensive team, Neal has been the worst defender. (I'll give him a bit of the break due to the appendectomy but that excuse doesn't have an infinite shelf life.)
Danny Green C+
Mysteriously, Danny Green's defense has regressed mightily since his breakout game against the Nuggets. I don't know if it's a case of a player falling back down to earth or just a rough stretch -- I guess we'll have to wait and see. Tonight, his defense was again underwhelming. Offensively, he took a few bad shots and demonstrated little touch around the rim.
James Anderson Inc.
After Green made a pair of mistakes on the defensive end, Pop pulled him and inserted James Anderson. The results weren't good. While he made a play on the defensive end, his offense is ugly right now. Anderson's biggest problem is he really struggles to dribble the basketball. With space, he has good moves and decent court vision. But when defended tightly, he's a turnover and a fastbreak layup the other way waiting to happen.
Pop B
Starting Leonard and playing him big minutes paid off handsomely. Playing Duncan and Parker so many minutes on a back-to-back was questionable, but it ended up being the right call. I would have liked to have seen Jefferson and Bonner play less and Splitter play more but overall Pop's rotation was solid. What I really liked was Pop yelling at his troops after early defensive breakdowns. By the fourth and overtime, the intensity on that end was as high as it's been all season.
Last edited by timvp; 01-12-2012 at 12:35 AM.
Nice write up, I was just happy to see Pop put in Splitter for the OT period after staying with Bonner for much too long.
By the AS Break, I hope to see Blair coming off the bench.
Thanks for the write-up timvp!
time for parker to roll out the a gradeds
no tj no manu no problem tp says
hopefully he is starting to feel better
thanks
regarding Splitter, did you mean no reason he should NOT be playing 30 min. a night?
Good catch. Thanks.
DG got better as the game went on. He wasn't filling up the basket but he played some decent D and made some nice plays down the stretch, especially in OT with the block on Lowry(?). To me, he's clearly the choice for the back-up SG spot, and Anderson will just have to wait another year to prove himself. It really does suck considering how well he started his rookie campaign.
Good grades, love timvp threadsIt was a vintage Parker night, looks like I'll be shutting up about his "decline"...at least for a little while
Dude's still a beast
Good to see the Parker/Duncan duo being effective again.
That OT was worrisome and too close for comfort. Another close game for the Spurs and that first quarter was infuriating as Scola looked like an Argentian Kevin McHale out there...after that the Spurs became more compe ive defensively
Leonard puts up a quiet yet profound impact, and his good statsheet numbers don't show off his defense. As long as he keeps his arms up and leaves the gambling to guys like Green and Blair then he'll stay out of the doghouse.. Gotta love Leonard. Even with Ginobil and Ford injured, trading Hill for Leonard still looks like a great move
It's all about energy and intensity. When the spurs are active and engaged the level of play is noticeably better.
Thanks! It's unfortunate JA has been such a disappointment so far. On the other hand Leonard has been fun to watch develop.
I guess I'll take the heat, but I didn't think we played that well. Houston right now is last in the West, we played at home and we didn't close a game that had no business getting to OT.
Frankly, I understand it's hard to win as it is without Manu, but this team struggles mightily when we don't hit 3s, and we've been shooting ~30% from downtown the last two games.
I thought the defense was only there for some stretches and we again went through really pitiful defensive batches during the game.
The flipside obviously is the win and I also liked Leonard a lot. Again, exceeding expectations for a rook after a shaky start. He now has guarded Durant, SJax and Kevin Martin the last 3 games, and I think he has been serviceable.
There's still a load of work to do on the defensive end though.
I almost had an orgasm when I saw Timmay and Splitter playing in OT together.
It's hard not to be excited about Leonard. On paper hes the super young, super athletic, defensive-minded, thick and strong small forward this board has been salivating over for years. And through 10 games he looks as good as advertised.
sure does
kl is growing game by game. hopefully his youth and energy prevent him from hitting the rookie wall. i would love to see him play this hard the entire season.
Despite the qualms of some, who derided the Spurs, at the time, for parting with Hill.Good grades, love timvp threads
Good to see the Parker/Duncan duo being effective again.
That OT was worrisome and too close for comfort. Another close game for the Spurs and that first quarter was infuriating as Scola looked like an Argentian Kevin McHale out there...after that the Spurs became more compe ive defensively
Leonard puts up a quiet yet profound impact, and his good statsheet numbers don't show off his defense. As long as he keeps his arms up and leaves the gambling to guys like Green and Blair then he'll stay out of the doghouse.. Gotta love Leonard. Even with Ginobil and Ford injured, trading Hill for Leonard still looks like a great move
All of which is why I believe that forcing Neal to play backup PG is not the answer. As I stated in another thread, Neal just doesn't have the instincts and mentality. He's a shooter and no amount of coaching is going to change that.
I know Pop is in a pinch, but if I were him, I'd just take my chances with Cory Joseph. Despite his relative inexperience, he makes far more sense as the primary backup PG, than Neal ever could.
Thanks, captain
The Rockets hit 12 of their first 16 shots. The rest of the way, they shot 36.3% from the floor. I'll obviously take that despite some lapses here and there.
But I do agree with you that the Spurs didn't really play that well. There was nothing tonight that proved that the Spurs are more of a contender or anything. But, honestly, any win right now is a good win. I can't get too picky with style points ... especially when the defense actually showed signs of life.
I'm not quite ready to go that far. I'd give Neal a few more games. It can't be easy to suddenly become a point guard. At least he didn't turn the ball over. That in itself is pretty impressive for a guy making the switch to that position ... even though he didn't turn the ball over because he was busy shooting it
One nice thing about Neal at point guard is it makes Parker seem like Magic Johnson by comparison. It takes the defense a couple possessions to adjust back to defending a point guard who will pass.
it's good to finally get some defensive presence back on the team, someone to energize the team defensively. green did it for two games and now leonard plus splitter can do it as well. the spurs have been missing that intensity since 2009 when bowen could no longer perform at a high level.
since then, the spurs had to look to mason, jefferson, and bogans to man the perimeter while bonner anchors the paint. hill had his good stretches but couldn't really guard the bigger guards and SF's in the league. finally, the spurs are at least gathering the tools to build a stronger defensive team.
Glad Timmy is back.
As a fan, I'll take being over .500 with Manu down... and definitely there will be growing pains... I agree the Spurs should lose some dead weight and play Splitter more... he's young... there's no reason not to
I don't get the point of the early deficits. Pop should start Splitter and stop spotting the other team 10 points. He's a smart player. His offense will come around in time.
Sorry, Timvp. I got tired of people blasting Green in the game thread for things that didn't happen. I only recorded the second half, but I just finished going through it and isolating every play that remotely included Green. His play just wasn't that bad - really not bad at all. (The truth is, he did several things to help save that game at the end.) And he did a of a lot better job on Lowry than anyone else tonight. I'm going to put it into another thread, because it's bulky, and because people need to look at facts instead of just bashing a player because everyone else is.
As for him taking "a few bad shots"? He put the ball up 5 times. Three were wide open 3-pointers... shots he was absolutely supposed to take. He made one, and the other two were barely off. (2-3 threes and he's a hero, 1-3 and he's a goat?) One shot was a jumper, that he made. The fifth was the last shot of regulation. I've watched it more than a dozen times, full speed and slow motion. IF that play was supposed to go to Tim, then Tim waited too long to make his move off of Jefferson's screen - which also kept him from getting clear of Kevin Martin. If Green had tried to dump that ball to Tim, there is a huge chance that Martin would have gotten a hand on it and/or the shot would have been too late. The timing on the play was off. Green got a clean look in the paint, and just clanked the back iron. It wasn't a bad shot, and it wasn't his fault.
If you have the game recorded, take another look. Even that play where Lowry got off the open 3-pointer wasn't what most people thought it was.
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