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Duncan doesn't think they have to get used to each other.
Looking to avenge an embarrassing loss against the Lakers a week ago, the Spurs were able to do just that in Los Angeles on Tuesday night. With the Big 3 leading the way, the Spurs ran away with a 112-91 victory.
After Matt Barnes hit a layup to give the Lakers a two-point lead with 5:41 remaining in the first half, San Antonio's romp commenced. In the next four minutes, the Spurs went on an 18-0 run in which Tony Parker scored or assisted on 11 of the points. From then on, the Spurs never led by less than 14 points.
The Spurs have to be ecstatic with this win. That loss a week ago was demoralizing, even for a team that knows not to put too much value in regular season results. To come out tonight and totally annihilate the Lakers showed a lot of heart and can't help but make this team feel even better about their chances going forward.
Tim Duncan A
To begin the game, Tim Duncan looked slow and less athletic than usual. However, after his first lackluster stint, Duncan played a smart, physical, determined brand of basketball. Offensively, he did a great job of mixing up his outside jumpers and his forays to the hoop. By the end of the game, the Lakers had no idea what Duncan was going to do when he got the ball. Defensively, he progressively got better guarding Andrew Bynum. Early on, he was getting buried behind the Lakers center and had no hope of altering his shots. But after Duncan started fronting and half-fronting Bynum, San Antonio's defense improved drastically. In the last three games, Duncan has posted an astonishingly high plus/minus of +77 in a total of only 70 minutes.
Manu Ginobili A-
It was a great effort by Manu Ginobili tonight. His ferociousness was contagious in many aspects of the game. On offense, he attacked the rim extremely hard and was able to finish amongst the trees. He also passed the ball well and cut out the needlessly risky passes that had been creeping into his repertoire recently. My only critique of his offensive game was his overreliance on step-back three-pointers when isolated against a slower defender. On defense, he hurt the Spurs by roaming off of his man a bit too freely but his crashing of the defensive glass was another aspect that was definitely contagious.
Tony Parker A+
It's not hyperbole to say this was one of Tony Parker's best regular season games of his career. After his terrible showing last outing against the Lakers, Parker's epic manhandling of L.A. was a beautiful work of art. From the opening tip, Parker was on a mission and remained in attack-mode for all 31 of his minutes. No matter what the Lakers did -- go under screens, go over screens, switch screens, trap screens -- Parker had the answer. His outside shot was dropping, which made him even deadlier than usual off the dribble. When he wasn't scoring himself, his ability to create shots for teammates was at an elite level. Parker's pace and overall conducting of the offense was virtually perfect. While his turnovers stand out on the boxscore, they were nearly all a result of his relentless attacking, so the miscues were easy to live with. Defensively, I thought Parker did really good work on Ramon Sessions by applying pressure and limiting any open spaces. All in all, this is the version of Parker the Spurs need to thrive in the postseason. Obviously, he doesn't have to play this well every game but this type of unflinching doggedness can make these Spurs a legit championship contender.
Danny Green A-
Danny Green played his role. Defensively, he took advantage of going against a non-scorer in Devin Ebanks by constantly dropping into the paint to offer very good help. When there was a scramble underneath the rim, it was oftentimes Green emerging with a loose ball, deflecting a pass, blocking a shot or otherwise helping the Spurs overcome the size disadvantage. On offense, he didn't try to do too much; Green simply took what was given to him. And while he's been a streaky three-point shooter all year, this current hot streak has been going on for so long that it almost doesn't qualify as a streak any longer.
Kawhi Leonard C-
Perhaps the only player who didn't shine tonight was Kawhi Leonard. The rookie never really made an impact on either end. Defensively, Metta World Peace out-muscled him a few times and Leonard in general was slower to the ball than usual. Offensively, though he hit a timely three-pointer, the rest of the time Leonard was either a liability or a non-factor.
Tiago Splitter B
With the season 90% over, Pop finally thought it was a good idea to try out Tiago Splitter next to Tim Duncan. Offensively, it wasn't a smashing success. The chemistry (or lack thereof) between Splitter and Duncan was an issue early. If it wasn't for Parker's ability to create for himself, things would have looked even uglier. That said, Splitter's inclusion in the starting lineup definitely helped on the defensive end. His size negated a lot of what killed the Spurs last time and his ability to box out made a world of difference. Even though this alignment wasn't a huge hit tonight, starting Splitter and Duncan is the obvious answer if the Spurs have to face the Lakers in the playoffs.
Stephen Jackson B+
Yes, Stephen Jackson remains unable to hit from three-point land. But other than that, I was pretty darn happy with what I saw out of Jackson tonight. Defensively, other than a couple of poorly timed gambles, he was very stout. Jackson's physicality seemed to bother World Peace; it's great to have a perimeter player on the team so willing to throw his body around in the paint. On offense, Jackson realized his outside shot wasn't falling so he instead attacked the rim -- both with the ball and off the ball.
Matt Bonner A-
Although he was at a size and strength disadvantage, Matt Bonner was able to play well. In fact, I thought this was one of his better games of the season. While the stats don't look overly impressive, his compe iveness was much higher than we usually see and he even thrived in tight quarters and pressure situations. Defensively, he did a great job of not fouling yet making it difficult for the Lakers bigs to score. Bonner rebounded very well, especially in traffic. In addition to knocking down a couple shots, I liked Bonner's crispness on offense. There was none of that hesitancy that he usually pops up against the better teams in the league.
Boris Diaw B+
Like Bonner, Boris Diaw's stats look rather plain but he too did really good work. On offense, his decision-making in terms of when to pass and when to shoot was better than normal. Diaw's quick moves to the basket opened up opportunities for everyone else on the court. Defensively, he was very physical on the low block and was surprisingly good when defending Pau Gasol. One area where Diaw needs work is playing defense without fouling. He picked up a couple more needless fouls tonight and had a few other reckless swipes and nudges that don't fit San Antonio's gameplan of keeping opponents off the charity stripe.
Gary Neal A-
Everyone knows Gary Neal isn't a true point guard. But if he can play like he did tonight more often, he could be an incredibly valuable piece of the puzzle in the playoffs. I really liked how he played on both ends. Offensively, he played to his strengths and kept it simple. When Neal was asked to create, he looked to score himself and only passed if the Lakers brought help. It's not exactly a complicated scheme but it works well when Neal is running the show since he's such a talented scorer. Defensively, he was much better than usual. I liked his closeouts and he was usually able to keep his man in front of him.
Pop B+
Pop made a great decision by playing the Big 3 and using this as an opportunity to build confidence. As it played out, things literally couldn't have gone much better. As the Spurs fly to Sacramento to complete the back-to-back-to-back set, the players have to be thrilled with what they were able to accomplish tonight. Rotations-wise, I can't complain. Keeping DeJuan Blair on the bench was the right move; the Lakers are just an impossible matchup for him. The only reason I'm not giving him a higher grade is because it's irritating that Pop wasted so much of the season not building the chemistry between Duncan and Splitter when it was obvious that the Spurs would need that tandem once games really began to matter. That shortsightedness has limited this team's ceiling, quite honestly. But that said, let's hope that Pop keeps giving the Duncan and Splitter duo chances so they can learn how to coexist.
Duncan doesn't think they have to get used to each other.
Thanks for these
This is the 10 man rotation that I've been wanting to see. Glad Pop played them against a team we might face in the playoffs.
Perfect rotations. Leaving Blair on the bench. Mixing things up. For once, I have nothing to say about Pop. And it feels good. Real good.
Something interesting though is that the Duncan-Splitter line-up might not have been as bad offensively as it looked due to Splitter not having a good offensive game/their lack of chemistry.
I was over on the Laker forum and while they were admitting that this was a much better defensive frontcourt than the one with Blair (obviously), they were expecting it to be a bad offensive one (weren't we all). But during the game one of their posters said at one point that Splitter's pick and roll was messing up their defensive coverages. The comment was made fairly early in the game too.
Of course, we know the rest of what happened, but that's something to think about with the two-big line-up at least.
And also, the big 3 played awesome. Thanks Timvp.
You better watch the game next time
PaTTy will be angry for being omitted.
I bet you had a grand time writing that
Well done!
Thanks for the grades, timvp. I have to disagree with this though:
This just has no bearing on reality. Splitter struggled to start the game, was pulled within the first 5 minutes. Then TD got raked across the eyes, Splitter came in for the rest of the period and played the best ball he has played all season. His second stint, with TD on the bench, was awesome. That's not to say that correlation is causation, but the TD/Split combo was not the highlight of the night. It was Split getting a chance to prove himself, and he played like a madman scrambling for loose balls and doing things that don't show up in the stat sheet when he was replacing TD, not working with him.The only reason I'm not giving him a higher grade is because it's irritating that Pop wasted so much of the season not building the chemistry between Duncan and Splitter when it was obvious that the Spurs would need that tandem once games really began to matter. That shortsightedness has limited this team's ceiling, quite honestly. But that said, let's hope that Pop keeps giving the Duncan and Splitter duo chances so they can learn how to coexist.
We finally see the best defensive frontcourt start. Splitter doesn't need a 20-10 game to make it a success. He just needs to take up space and prevent the Lakers from grabbing all the rebounds.
team definitely played motivated tonight
boris had a really nice move on gasol in the low block that i had no idea how he got up
and bonner introduced his one dribble pullup
his penetration is useless i dont know why he waited so long to add this to his game
if he does this more he can actually be some kind of factor in the playoffs
I have to say it was refreshing to see Splitter start finally, and to see Blair benched. Now let's hope we don't see much more from Blair the rest of the way, Splitter or Diaw need to start. For s sake even let Bonner start over Blair. Unfortunately, I don't see it that way and you can expect Blair to start tomorrow against SAC with Duncan rested.
Also, we didn't see much of Splitter and Duncan together btw other than that first quarter.. Otherwise they still never played together but it was refreshing that Pop recognized the mismatch and finally did something about it.. In the playoffs, this should definitely be used against LAL if we meet.
Can't argue with the results. The best thing about this game was that the Spurs won it while playing the right way.
Friday is going to be a battle.... Spurs still need to keep that embarassing loss to the Lakers firmly in mind come friday.... I fear that if we get out of hand again for the Lakers that Bynum, or maybe even Blake, will do something stupid and really hurt one of our guys out of frustration.
blake was already getting quite chippy with Manu towards the end there and Bynum was visibly livid in the post game interview.
Thanks for the grades. Great win tonight! Some thoughts:
-Thought starting Splitter was odd and risky. Would have caused a lot of problems if we came out flat offensive and the Lakers came out blazing. Luckily the defense was pretty good to start the game. Our bench completely destroyed theirs, which is how we should have won a week ago tbh. Getting Neal back also proved to be helpful, that guy is a baller.
-Parker and Ginobili came out the way we expected them to.
-Starting Diaw is the clear choice and I'm not sure if there is anyone (nasf, gnsf) left who would be against it.
-I don't expect Pop to play much of Tiago and Timmy going forward. Disappointing but I'm not sure if there's enough time to oil the machine at this point. Also, If Pop really wanted to get another look, he could have easily subbed Tiago in for Boris halfway through the 3rd. The Spurs already had a commanding lead and Boris was looking a bit tired. Instead he went with Bonner, not a complaint, just saying that he could have tried it again here.
-Told my friends that Bonner looked extra sharp on the glass tonight. He even tied his season high of two offensive rebounds. Not joking either, hes averaging by far his lowest ORB total. So the two that he got tonight supports the theory that Bonner not only came to play, but wasn't going to fold.
-I'm actually a big fan of Kobe. This may sound weird but the Lakers are probably my 2nd favorite team. But that's kind of by default - I don't follow them any where as close as the Spurs. Also, they're the local team, so its been easy for me to follow them through-out the years.
Steve Kerr hit many nails on the head tonight and one of them was that the Lakers need Kobe. Hes the only player with any resemblance of leadership left and hes the least likely player to fold when things get tough. Mentally, we pretty much traded places with the Lakers from last week. I thought one of the main reasons why we were so effective against Bynum and Gasol was that the Lakers have 0 perimeter presence. Kobe/Gasol pick and roll is pretty potent and we've yet to see anything resembling it. It was also obvious that they had no compe ive drive especially with their two bigs (or leaders) folding the game. Gasol in particular was charming soft while Bynum is too immature to stay focused. Artest did his best to be aggressive and physical but Jackson, as always, played some solid defense.
Last edited by angelbelow; 04-18-2012 at 03:02 AM.
That's not Tiago's real grade, that's just you being super happy that he got to start, he couldn't make a FT to save his life, was more foul happy than Boris, threw a wild behind the back pass to Nicholson and managed to end up -8 in a blow-out win. Stats don't tell the whole story but the expectations for Tiago can't low enough that he deserves a B for this showing imo.
In terms of big men rotation, I would replace Blair with Diaw and keep the same Bonner for Diaw, then Splitter for Tim routine.
I think your totally wrong given the cir stances.... Splitter hasnt played significant minutes alongside Duncan for his whole tenure here... expecting him to come out and ball alongside Duncan right away is expecting way too much.That's not Tiago's real grade, that's just you being super happy that he got to start, he couldn't make a FT to save his life, was more foul happy than Boris, threw a wild behind the back pass to Nicholson and managed to end up -8 in a blow-out win
when you look at it in that context, they did pretty well together. Sure its 1 game, but Bynum only had like what? 2 rebounds in the first quarter? I'd say it was pretty effective considering the last game we played against them.
Thanks for the grades, timvp.
This was such a great game to watch, and prayerfully Pops will continue to be somewhat open-minded in the future, and not so set in his ways. I will continue to pray for miracles for him and this wonderful Spurs team I love so much.
... STRIVE FOR FIVE, Oh yeah ...
Thanks for the writeup Tim.
c'mon, I am still laughing about your post in the game thread being angry about missing the game ...
Exactly. The pullup jumpshot can help him since he's a good shooter.
yeah!
There is an easy explanation. Tiago had 3 fouls.
Pop wants one of Tiago and Duncan on the court. Both start. Then Tiago goes to the bench so he returns when Duncan sits.
But in the 3rd quarter with 3 fouls Pop had to wait to play Tiago or we could be playing without true bigs when Duncan rest. so he can't play both together
Tiago came in for TD with 1:30 minutes left in the 3rd so if he picks the 4th it wouldn't be a big problem.
I think TD came in too early in the 4th when the game was nearly over but surely he's not going to play today. In the other hand Splitter played a 20min back to back games and he should play today and friday so it was a smart move.
Last edited by Josepatches_; 04-18-2012 at 03:56 AM.
The game was already out of reach, the 4th foul wouldn't have mattered. And if Splitter really did pick up another 4th in the 3rd, he doesn't necessarily have to sit. Good opportunity for him to learn how to play with fouls. Unless he straight up fouls out in the 3rd, he can still play the 4th quarter with foul trouble and spell Duncan some minutes. If the Lakers happen to go on a run in the 4th, the Spurs would counter with Duncan, not a Tiago.
I see what you're saying though and I don't completely disagree. But keeping in theme with what you're saying, Tiago and Tim could have seen some 4th quarter action as well. Because that didn't happen, I don't expect Pop to play Duncan and Splitter together that much.
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