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Try an F for Dejuan.
Through three quarters, the Spurs and the Hornets couldn't have played a closer ballgame; neither team led by more than four points at any moment. With New Orleans shooting well and the Spurs discombobulated, San Antonio was actually fortunate to remain within striking distance.
Finally, in the fourth quarter, the Spurs were able to distance themselves from the worst team in the Western Conference. A 14-2 run in less than four and half minutes gave the Spurs a 12-point lead. That cushion allowed the home team to cruise to a W.
The defense wasn't a strength until the middle of the fourth quarter. Then, with Tim Duncan and Tiago Splitter patrolling the paint, the Spurs held the Hornets scoreless for a four-minute stretch. Who would have guessed that having the team's too best bigmen play at the same time would have positive results? Shocking, I know.
Tim Duncan A
Playing for the fourth time in five days, Tim Duncan's minutes were limited. His production, however, was not. Looking extremely spry, especially given the cir stances, Duncan again had a throwback performance. He scored in the paint, used powerful moves to get to the free throw line and mixed in a couple outside jumpers. Defensively, Duncan was extremely solid; his movement and awareness level never waned. Add in a very strong night on the boards and the Spurs couldn't have expected much more out of their true centerpiece.
Tony Parker B
In the first half, Tony Parker was really bad. He was a mess on offense and even worse on defense. He oscillated between sleepwalking and being way too aggressive. The third quarter was better but it wasn't until the final period that Parker finally exploded. In the beginning of the fourth, he scored or assisted on five field goals in less than two and a half minutes to single-handedly ignite an 11-2 run that grew the lead to 12 points. Parker was marvelous in that stretch and played much, much better D in the second half, but it's tough to completely forget that train wreck of the first two quarters.
Richard Jefferson C
Richard Jefferson celebrated Groundhog Day with another identical outing. He was aggressive with his outside shot but lackadaisical on defense, not a presence on the boards, didn't provide any energy … stop me if you've read this before. At this point, we know what Jefferson is going to bring to the table. Unfortunately, it's not much.
DeJuan Blair C-
Earlier in the season, DeJuan Blair was one of the best finishers in the league. He was getting a lot of looks in the paint and scoring at a high rate. These days, that's simply not the case. Blair isn't creating quality looks for himself and he's compounding the issue be forcing shots. As a result, he's hit just one-third of his shots over the last five games and is scoring only 3.6 points in 18.4 minutes per game. Surprisingly, he's been able to salvage some of his value by playing really hard on defense, but Blair just isn't worthy of playing time unless he's an asset on the offensive end.
Gary Neal B-
Getting the start in place of Kawhi Leonard, Gary Neal was saddled with foul trouble for most of the night. When he got to play, he wasn't bad -- but he wasn't very good either. His shot selection was questionable and he missed wide open teammates a number of times. Defensively, aside from the fouls, Neal was good. Now that he's in shape, he's much improved on that end of the court. He's sacrificing his body and grabbing contested boards, which tells you he's feeling a lot better after that preseason appendectomy.
Danny Green B-
Danny Green had another up-and-down affair. Offensively, he missed a few wide open looks, but made up for it by getting to the charity stripe. Green's ability to penetrate off the dribble and either shoot at the rim or find an open man seems to be improving. Defensively, I wasn't overly impressed with his play … until the fourth quarter, that is. In the fourth, Green was all over the place and was one reason why the Hornets scored only 13 points in the final quarter.
Tiago Splitter A-
With Duncan playing limited minutes, that opened up more playing time for Tiago Splitter and the backup center didn't disappoint. He once again was very efficient on the offensive end. His combination of patience, strength and touch around the rim is extraordinary right now. And when he's in a pick-and-roll with Parker, it seems like it's an automatic two points one way or another. Defensively, Splitter was really good; whether it was protecting the rim or venturing out on the perimeter to contest a jumper. With the Spurs playing such good defense down the stretch when Splitter joined Duncan on the court, let's hope the coaching staff will want to see more of that.
Matt Bonner D
Last game, I applauded Pop for playing Matt Bonner extended minutes. Tonight, I'm wondering how Bonner managed to play 23 minutes without Pop blowing a gasket. He wasn't good in any area. He was making mistakes by the bushel on defense and was weak on the glass. Offensively, he was a tad too aggressive, especially since he wasn't shooting straight. (I took timvp jr to his first game tonight and his favorite player is Bonner, so he was happy with the amount of playing time for the Red Rocket. But sometimes he got confused and cheered for Splitter thinking that it was Bonner. That got me thinking, perhaps the same thing happens to Pop sometimes ... which could explain his nonsensical bigman rotations so far this year.)
Cory Joseph C
Parker was playing so poorly early in the game that there wasn't much of a drop off when Cory Joseph subbed in for him. That, though, is about as much of a compliment as I can give Joseph. He was more assertive than usual and wasn't bad on defense, however Joseph is still extremely green. He's played enough that you would hope he'd start flashing true NBA potential, but I haven't seen it yet.
Kawhi Leonard C
Kawhi Leonard played 12 minutes off the bench and other than making his only field goal attempt, Leonard didn't make a mark in the stat sheet. No rebounds, assists, steals, fouls … nothing. As you might imagine, he was very passive during his minutes and blended in on both ends of the court. Why was Leonard benched? My guess is that it was solely due to matchups. The Hornets don't have a perimeter scorer of note, so his defense wasn't needed. In fact, Leonard didn't start the second half the last time these two teams played. With Kevin Durant coming to town on Saturday, we'll quickly learn if this was a one time adjustment or if Pop is going with Neal as the starter until Manu Ginobili returns.
Pop B
I obviously liked that Pop played Splitter good minutes and paired him with Duncan down the stretch. Honestly, I couldn't figure out why he wasn't doing it earlier, especially since none of the Hornets bigmen are overly quick. I also liked that Pop went with Green again in the fourth quarter instead of turning to Jefferson. As long as starting Neal was simply to suit New Orleans' personnel, I'm fine with that lineup switch. On the other hand, I thought Bonner played too much and I would have preferred to see James Anderson given another shot rather than go with Joseph. And while hindsight points to Pop being right about playing Duncan, I thought tonight was the perfect opportunity to sit him. The fourth game in the five nights against perhaps the worst team in the entire NBA? That sounds like the perfect scenario to rest Duncan to me.
Try an F for Dejuan.
It was either play Bonner or Blair cause Pop was content on letting Tim rest
Another good write-up, timvp! Bonner should get a C imo; it's good to see him play aggressive, and it's not his fault Pop plays him more than he should be played. Joseph honestly had a somewhat decent game. Sure, he made mistakes, but we all know he isn't NBA-ready yet, and he's giving signs that he may eventually get there. Heard in some interview that the line-up change was just for this game, so Kawhi should be starting against OKC. Lastly, no chance in the Hornets are the worst team in the NBA; So many of their losses have been close. They're not even the worst team in the West tbh.
Heresy!
Who will stretch the floor?
thanks for the writeup, LJ
Thanks for the writeup! After reading about the terrifying sickness you went through, it sure makes me happy to hear you getting to take your son to a game!
Great Writeup, LJ.
Although I disagree a little bit about the assessment of the Hornets. Record wise, they are among the bottom 2-3 teams, but their point-differential is not bad at all (sure, it's compared to their atrocious record). At -5.5, there are 6 teams with worse point-differential than them, and with considerably quite large margin. They are in many games until the last few minutes when they have no all-star thus no go-to guy. This includes the lat game against us.
More importantly, from the games I watched them play, at least up until now, they are still playing hard and try to win despite the frustration of losing, unlike teams like Detroit, Charlotte and Washington (especially before the fire of Saunders). Williams is doing a decent job there considering the Paul trade and the injury to Gordon, supposedly their best player.
Anyway, back to Spurs, I suspect the reason that Pop didn't give Tim a night off is partly because Tim seems to have better legs recently --- better performance accordingly --- than last time he got rested, and partly because no BIG man from the Hornets who can bang Tim hard.
Thanks Tim.
Is there a website you can recommend for tracking minutes played with X and Y player. For example, how many total minutes have Tiago and Tony been on the floor together the past 4 games.
Parker and Splitters PnR results are definitely eye opening. This was especially true before the game last week against Dallas. However since then, Tiago has mostly been playing with the back court of Green or/and Neal. So re-occurring theme, or complaint, from the fans have been a lack of touches for Splitter. This is definitely because of the lack of playing time with Parker and being teamed with Neal(Green, Joseph) who likes to initiate motion offense.
The interesting part is that James Anderson is probably the best play maker out of the Neal, Green and Joseph. If only Anderson was the shooter he was before he got hurt last year. Maybe hes more of a scorer who needs the ball rather than a stand still shooter..
I would have been in favor of giving five of Bonner's minutes to Splitter and about three to Blair.
Joseph is difficult to grade because his ceiling right now is a poor man's Jacque Vaughn, so it can be tough figuring out if he's playing to expectations or not. I look at how he runs the show more than anything right now because he's shown that any personal production is a bonus.
Fair points and I considered that but Jarrett Jack has been by far their best player. With him out and Kaman sent home, no one on their team averages more than 11.7 points per game. The Hornets we saw tonight would have trouble beating any team, mostly because they just don't have anyone who can score.
The Spurs gave up only 81 points tonight but I would say it was a below average defensive performance all things considered. And that tells you just how bad N.O.'s offense is. A good defensive team should hold these Hornets to about 70 points.
I noticed Kawhi choosing to go away from Splitter as well on a couple of possessions. I think it was early in the shot clock, but Splitter had good positioning and Kawhi passed it back to the top of the key.
I don't know if this is by design or what. But it sure does seem like even with the PT Splitter gets, the team isn't giving him a full chance to contribute.
Not I know of. NBA.com's plus/minus page shows how much Splitter and Parker have played together this season and in the last ten games but those are the only available time frames.
By the way, since we are speaking about it, Splitter and Parker have played together 129:48 minutes in the last ten games. During that time, the Spurs are averaging 102.8 points per 48 minutes. That's pretty darn impressive considering that the Spurs as a team are averaging less than 94 points per 48 minutes during that span.
there is way too many scrubs on this team...currently theres 4 scrubs if you can identify them, good for you
We sucked on defense for 3 quarters, no doubt about it. I also thought our offense was really discombobulated (again) for a good portion of the game. We really need to stop with the flex-all-the-time BS, especially when Tony sits down.
We need to mix up more pick and roll and inside-out game, and frankly, with Tiago out there, I can't figure out why the coaches don't stress that out more. Let's hope that when TJ Ford comes back we go more often to that.
Anderson, Blair, Boner, Joseph
replace joseph for RJ...that guy has no business being on the court or anywhere near a basketball with all his talent plays like a guy gettin his pushed back in against players with lesser talent then him abusing him
Splitter and Bonner come in 2nd overall for the season. While I don't put a lot of emphasis on the +/- stat, its easy to see why this combo works.
Bonner does a good job spreading the floor for Tiago to work. Tiago is also great at finding players from the post. Splitter has provided Bonner with at least 1 open 3pointer the past 5 games or so. However, its not a coincidence that Bonner, Splitter and Green's +/- are basically top 3 in different combinations. This is the unit that's been wrecking havoc and leading the comebacks lately. In addition, they also lead the team when all games are considered.
Parker and Splitter are two of our more reliable scorers and have developed nice synergy when on the court together. Defensively, fans are constantly craving a Duncan and Splitter duet but it looks like the Parker and Splitter combo has proven to be extremely potent on offense and should receive some attention as well.
As I am currently not watching Spurs games, until Mr. Ginobili comes back, I rely on your analysis, which I really appreciate.
In the sake of saving your time, may I suggest that on this particular guy, you just copy and paste any of the previous grades, rotate the - + around that C, while throwing in randomly words like "relying on jumpshots", "passive defense", "lack of energy" and "absence from the boards".
I'm going to go out on a limb here then and recommend a Parker/Splitter/Duncan troika.
Crazy, I know. But I think it might work.
RJ strength isn't being a good role player. His strength is being fed the ball and finishing. I think the Spurs need to let him bring the ball down a couple of times just to keep him involved. They've got to make sure they find him on fastbreaks.
When Manu comes back you'll be able to plug anybody in for the fifth player and still have a pretty good lineup.
The lack of variety in the offense really hurt the Spurs against the Grizzlies. The Grizzlies were basically able to sit on the same plays because it was the same thing everytime. I don't think anyone in that series was good at running the pick and roll.
His find of Splitter on the baseline for the foul-and-won in the Mavs game was a thing of beauty.
Jefferson WAS a finisher..
He has lost athleticism, but more importantly, he has lost any will to attack the basket..even when the ball is in his possession, he chooses to take jump shots, as opposed to attacking the rim..of all SFs playing 20+ minutes a game, Jefferson shoots the least FGAs in the paint..
A change in philosophy would demonstrate minimal change IMO..this is simply Richard Jefferson, as a Spur, it's permanent..there have been many instances where this type of athletic decline has occurred, and it won't be the last..
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