Was that really Tim Duncan?

[will_spurs]

Seriously - how many bigs in the league right now could put up 17 rebounds on this Clippers' team - especially without it being some fluke night? How many 36 year-old bigs in the history of the game could have?

Duncan actually had the most rebounds by any player against the Clippers this season with 17. Next ones: Bynum with 16, Howard and Love with 14.

List of games with 17+ rebounds from 35+ year old player

That's 228 games (including last night's) only since the 85-86 season, and Dennis Rodman is the main culprit here. And yeah, Duncan is "only" 35.

BTW Marcus Camby is having amazing rebounding numbers this year for a 37y old with Portland. He already has 3 games with 20+ rebounds.

[shraediggz]

Why are people such nut hugging band wagoners?

The whole spurs team came out flat (hence the reason why we were down by 15 early in the game). The spurs found a way to rally, Duncan grabbed 17 rebounds, 6 of which were offensive boards. That's 6 extra possessions thanks to Duncan, I'll take that he only shot 5 of 14, two shots under 50%, when he gets us 6 extra possessions.

He might have been hesitant on a couple of possessions, but you've got to understand that the Clippers defenders were caving in on the paint and were doing so quickly. If you want to blame someone for Duncan's ineffectiveness on the low block, blame the floor spacing, they did hit 12 three's, but that hardly kept the clipps from collapsing or sending over help D'.

Duncan did hit a few spot ups with skip passes and such. The old man played well this game, like he has many times this season, I think he's a better player this year than he was last year. If Duncan was playing for any other team, he'd be riding a double double streak, playing 33-35 minutes a game, and putting up 18-20 and 10's.

What, did we expect him to be Tim Duncan-hall of fame level-until this guy turned 41? Look at Olajuwon's post prime career. Injury riddled and stuck playing for mediocre Houston and Toronto teams.

Duncan is doing fine. He's adapting and finding ways to stay efficient and not hurt this squad. And more importantly, he's staying healthy-and that should be our biggest concerned (at least until Duncan proves that he's no longer an NBA player, which is far from the case).

[Horse]

Duncan actually had the most rebounds by any player against the Clippers this season with 17. Next ones: Bynum with 16, Howard and Love with 14.

List of games with 17+ rebounds from 35+ year old player

That's 228 games (including last night's) only since the 85-86 season, and Dennis Rodman is the main culprit here. And yeah, Duncan is "only" 35.

BTW Marcus Camby is having amazing rebounding numbers this year for a 37y old with Portland. He already has 3 games with 20+ rebounds.

Did I mention marcus camby!

[K-State Spur]

He missed some easy shots, they brought some help and I also think he was tired. My real guess is that with Tim's smarts, the officiating crew & how things look, he was nervous about Paul's ability to flop and get a call.

This.

If Tim is already in scoring position with Paul guarding him, then it's a concern that he doesn't go up and try to score over him. But, if Tim tries to back Paul down to get to a spot where he's more comfortable, CP's going to try to take a bump in the chest and hit the deck to draw a whistle.

Manu's got nothing on Paul when it comes to flopping.

[Bill_Brasky]

Tim has struggled with the post up, but he's still a very smart player when he's mismatched. Just a few games ago(can't remember which one) he had a guard on him down low, and went right at him. The guard flopped and didn't get the call, so Tim got an and-1.

[FromWayDowntown]

I actually thought the play on the Neal shot was classic Tim Duncan. Even with Paul on him, he knows that help is coming as soon as he puts the ball down. Even in 2003, in that situation, Tim Duncan probably would have waited for the help to come as well and would have patiently found a teammate after the help arrived for an uncontested shot.

It's all contextual of course, but anyone who's watched this for very long has to know that with a small guard switched onto him, there's going to be a big coming as a help defender on the first move and that big (with the Neal shot, it was going to be Blake -- and was) will be in a pretty good position to contest a shot without fouling. Understanding that, it was a much, much, much better play for Tim to wait out the pressure and then find the open man than it would have been for him to try to bully Paul with Griffin playing free safety.

[GSH]

I actually thought the play on the Neal shot was classic Tim Duncan. Even with Paul on him, he knows that help is coming as soon as he puts the ball down. Even in 2003, in that situation, Tim Duncan probably would have waited for the help to come as well and would have patiently found a teammate after the help arrived for an uncontested shot.

It's all contextual of course, but anyone who's watched this for very long has to know that with a small guard switched onto him, there's going to be a big coming as a help defender on the first move and that big (with the Neal shot, it was going to be Blake -- and was) will be in a pretty good position to contest a shot without fouling. Understanding that, it was a much, much, much better play for Tim to wait out the pressure and then find the open man than it would have been for him to try to bully Paul with Griffin playing free safety.

Some good responses, including this one. Thanks. It's always nice to be able to talk basketball without the insults and and bizarre comments.

One thing is for certain - Tim would have had to make his move immediately. the help was nearby, and it did come. I was surprised he didn't make the instant move(s) but, I guess it's a lot easier to second guess from the comfort of my couch. I guess I'm still not convinced, but I see your side enough that I wouldn't argue over it.

BTW - when you talk about hero moments in that win, don't forget Tim's block on Griffin with 42 seconds in OT. (For those that didn't notice, that was one of a strong move by Duncan.) Yeah he got called for the foul, but he made Griffin earn it from the line, and he missed one of the two FT's. How different do you think the ending would have gone if it was a 2-point margin instead of 3?

[angelbelow]

I think Timmy was gassed.. think he ended up playing like 40+ minutes. Remember how he looked against Diop game 7 in 2006? And he was still arguably in his prime then too. DJ's length definitely bothered him too, but Jordan was benched for all of the 4th and most of OT per usual. That guy's b-ball IQ has always been suspect (but hes come along way since his rookie season.)

Speaking of hero moments: Bonner's 3 in OT was Normally I have 100% confidence that he'll miss that but for some reason everything just felt good. I remember telling my friends "I'm feeling Gary Neal" only to watch him botch the inbound pass seconds later. Since I'm from LA I was trashed pretty hard for the next few minutes lol. Luckily for me Gary Neal was indeed the hero of the game.

[howbouthemspurs]

I think timmy is doing fine .... He had a great game!