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Nice job on the game thoughts, I didn't get to watch tonight so it was nice to read.
Filling in for the inimitable timvp, who is temporarily Out-of-Office, here are Friday night's game thoughts.
No John Wall, No Nene, No Emeka Okafor, No Trevor Ariza, No Jannero Pargo and No Manu Ginobili.
On the night assistant coach Don Newman returned to San Antonio for the first time since joining the Washington Wizards’ staff, the Spurs found themselves struggling to keep up. Fielding a group of names sounding more like an accounting firm than an NBA starting 5; Barron, Booker, Webster, Beal and Price took it right to San Antonio, leading by as much as 13 in the first half. After scoring the first 2 points of the game, the Spurs struggled mightily against Washington’s active defense. In fact, the Spurs weren’t able to regain the lead until almost midway through the 3rd quarter. If not for a strong showing by Tim Duncan, an aggressive Tony Parker and the active, physical play of Stephen Jackson, the Spurs would have had a difficult time winning their “tune-up” before the season opens next week in New Orleans. Fortunately, the Spurs cranked up their defensive intensity, played strong transition D and outscored the Wizards 26-2 in fast break points and got a nice, albeit late, showing from Tiago Splitter and Patty Mills to send the AT&T crowd home happy with a 100-85 win.
Observations and impressions (In order of number of minutes played)
Kawhi Leonard
Kawhi Leonard played a strong game defensively. He ardently chased and stayed in front of his man while occasionally helping with aggressive traps on the ball. Sometimes he helped too aggressively and was caught by the officals. Offensively, Leonard is still struggling with his shot. It took him 7 1/2 minutes before he scored his first points, struggling to dribble against a tight defender. He over-passed on 2 occasions resulting in shot clock violations. Finally, Kawhi found his way by rebounding, hustling for several loose balls and running the floor. Once, while running the wing in transition, Kawhi was on the receiving end of a nice alley-oop but the timing was off slightly. It resulted in a lay-in on what could have been a major flush. At this juncture, it appears that Leonard focused so much on ball-handling and upscaling his role that he's lost a bit of his shooting touch. Rx: 1 week of Chip to get Cow-eye silky smoove from the corner again.
Tony Parker
Tony started out awkwardly but while he never found his shooting stroke, it was his relentless drives to the basket and constant pushing the ball in transition that invigorated the Spurs' offense. Tony's defense was okay but has been far better. He wasn't asked to pressure the ball full court and he was guarding AJ Price but AJ did managed to score, particularly from the outside. TP played all but one minute of the 1st quarter, which is the normal in-season subs ution pattern by Pop. Although Tony wasn't really displaying his 2-way prowess, it was good to see him get lots of extended minutes and make stuff happen by his tempo and initiative.
Tim Duncan
Tim started the game making Earl Barron look like Dwight Howard... at both ends of the court. Actually, Earl was awesome. (Where has THIS Earl Barron been? Don Newman must have lit a fire under him.) So finally, Tim got going and started to dominate the boards, efforting 13 rebounds for the game. He found his shooting touch from the outside and ended up tied for scoring honors with 16 points. He began to look like the Tim Duncan of old when Pop started pointing four fingers toward the court from the sideline. When Timmy wasn't posting up and outworking his defender, he was blocking and altering shots. The official scorekeeper saw two blocked shots...I counted three, for sure. This guy is clearly the captain of this ship and he's ready for Halloween night against the Hornets.
Stephen Jackson
For this game, Jack was Manu. In Manu-like fashion, Jack was first off the bench coming in for Danny Green at the midway point of the 1st and 3rd quarters. Although he replaced the 2-guard on offense when he subbed-in, Jack took the opposing SF while Kawhi covered SG Bradley Beal. The most impressive part of Stephen's game Friday was his strong, physical drives to the hoop. One particular play exemplified his style when he took the ball on the right wing and bulldozed his way through and over Cartier Martin for the basket. His 8 points in each half came at times that ignited strong runs by the Spurs. Defensively, Jackson was smart and tough. He made two steals and poked the ball away another time to start and finish a fast break. When the Spurs went small on a couple of occasions, Stephen showed his versatility by moving over to 4. Jack's team-leading 16 points really helped the Spurs and none of those points were quiet ones.
Boris Diaw
Although Boris started the game and played 22 minutes, his defense was lackluster and his rebounding was almost non-existent. He struggled guarding Trevor Booker and he struggled boxing out. Boris should just put this game out of his mind...save one play. That one play was when he & fellow compatriot Tony Parker switched roles as TP rebounded and Boris beat everyone down court to lead 61-59.
Danny Green
Danny played 20 minutes, stayed in front of his man, made a couple of nice passes and contributed 10 points to the Spurs cause. He struggled from the arc (1 of 5) but he did not play tentatively and his transition D and recognition was good. When he was on the floor while Gary Neal played lead-guard, it became downright ugly. That had mostly to do with a bad mix of players but Danny is at his best when Tony or Manu run the point and he can spot-up for drive-and-kicks, skips or extra passes to him in the corner.
Gary Neal
Yuk. Gary reported into the game for Tony with 1 minute remaining in the 1st quarter and proceded to bog everything down. He couldn't hit much from the outside, he couldn't enter the offense when he got ball pressure and he got stuck with Blair and Bonner on the floor at the same time. Neal, Green, Jack, Blair and Bonner. Pop, how could you? Anyway, Gary did manage to get fouled on a 3-point attempt and he played remarkably good defense until the 4th quarter.
Gary's reaction to ball pressure may have just restricted him to 2-guard energy scoring status.
Matt Bonner
Sheesh. "Matt the Mannequin".
Webster's Dictionary says it best:
man·ne·quin
noun
1.
a styled and three-dimensional representation of the human form used in window displays, as of clothing; dummy.
Tiago Splitter
Tiago finally entered Friday night's affair at the start of the 4th quarter. He immediately inspired Matt the Mannequin to effort an offensive rebound (his first). Splitter then proceeded to dominate the boards, set his usual array of slick picks, and he artistically rolled or re-posted front or back, as needed. He played a more physical brand of basketball in this, the 2012 version of Tiago. I like this version a lot. Of course, Tiago was going against scrubs but he was a nice influence on the flow of the game. He even made a steal and made 3 of 4 FTs. Nice stroke, Tiago!
Patty Mills
He pushed the tempo, created activity and lose balls, he scored on the run, off 1 foot, with 1 hand, 2 hands, from the arc and even from 16 feet along the baseline and slightly behind the basket. Patty is a bona fide point-a-minute man and he should steal several of Gary Neal's minutes this season.
DeJuan Blair
Although DeJuan seems to have worked on his mid-range jumper, he has de-emphasized just about everything else. He was sloppy, he got dominated on the boards and he's forgotten how to box out. This man has lost his way. "Tiago! Get in there for Blair!"
Nando de Colo
What can you learn in less than 5 minutes... as fans are starting to say their goodbyes to the people next to them? Nando did make one nice penetration resulting in an easy Splitter score. It will be difficult for Nando to find minutes in the rotation, except in cases of injuries or early foul trouble as a wing.
Cory Joseph
Cory was fortunate to get to play Friday. He will be fortunate to suit up next week. It's tough to show what you can do in clean up minutes. He mustered an assist, a dash of nice on-ball defense, and 1 missed shot.
Josh Powell It was nice while it lasted Josh. You had some nice moments in Silver and Black but it's tough when you're in at mop-up time with a pink slip taped to your locker. Keep working on your game for when it counts, Josh! You can put food on your table in Europe to be sure.
Manu Ginobili
Back Spasms - DNP (His back probably seized-up just from trying to support Manu's intensity)
Pop
Getting everyone into their exact time slots (Jack=Manu for this game). The positive in this game for Gregg was moving Timmy around from high to low with a nice dose of old-school 4-down for flavor. The minus was that abortion of a lineup with Blair and Bonner in the front court and Neal running the show. Quite frankly, there isn't an emoticon that adequately expresses that lineup, Pop. If it wasn't pre-season, even the 2-year old that won the dancing contest on the JumboTron would expect an apology from you.
Enjoy your weekend, everyone!
Last edited by Solid D; 10-27-2012 at 04:09 AM.
Nice job on the game thoughts, I didn't get to watch tonight so it was nice to read.
Thanks for the write-up, Solid D!
I agree that this second-quarter lineup with Bonner, Blair, Green and Neal was an abomination. Lovecraft would probably have used an ac ulation of words like "hideous", "blasphemous" and the like to describe it.
Also, Diaw repeatedly slowed down possessions by simply refusing to take a shot. I liked Jackson's and Leonard's aggressiveness in going to the basket, though.
Thanks for the write-up. Wasn't able to see the game. I'm looking forward to the opener vs NOH.
Thanks for the game thoughts Solid D. Time Warner failed to show it for me.
In brief spurts of watching, Kawhi seems too involved in the offense, and he's often doing things that make him seem uncomfortable. This seems like an intentional plan to improve him though, using the regular season to improve and get used to new skills/jobs so that the team is more dangerous in the playoffs, even if that's not the optimal strategy for winning any singular game.
Props on a great write-up! Solid D FTW!
Thanks for the write-up, Solid D!
I really hope never try the Blair-Bonner-Neal lineup again.
The perfect scenario to start the season would be a 3 men rotation TD-Diaw-Tiago and Mills at backup PG, but I doubt it will happen
Thanks, Solid D. I really dig the ordering by minutes played, as well as an infusion of comedic styling.
Nice job
Bonner part is hilarious
You should do this more, Solid D.
With the way Manu's injuries are already starting to pile up even before the season begins they should give a lot of his minutes during the season this year to Nando to allow him to get some good playing time to develop.
Great job, Solid D. Thanks a bunch.
Mattequin Bonner
(But that Bonner, Blair and Neal lineup isn't anything to anything to laugh about. Neither is Splitter getting knocked out of the rotation)
Thanks Solid D
solid analysis imho
loved the matt bonner part
Thanks solid. Whats mos mind boggling to me is the fact that pop doesnt like tiago, appearantly giving up on h for his lack of toughness yet he doesnt give that oportunity to Curry
growing pains are to be expected with Kawhi, and don't freak if this continues in the regular season. when you see the team wants to increase a player's role of offense, it usually leads to stuff like this. especially since kawhi doesn't have a scoring background. on san diego state he was a defensive minded player that would cut to the basket and just crash the boards for putbacks, and now the team is asking him to do more ball handling and take more initiative. its obviously tough, but he certainly has the physical attributes to eventually succeed and we all know he'll put the work in. give him time. pop is usually modest about players. in recent years the only young guns pop raved about were george hill and kawhi.
Can Sequ do the next game thoughts?
Sorry, he already wrote them. lol
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/show...69#post6160869
I'm willing to give Kawhi time. But I'm talking like, 1-2 more years time.
He was overhyped as a savior, plain and simple. He struggles with the simplest fundamentals of offensive positioning, not to mention shot selection. Forget about the fast break, he's horrible in transition. These are not things a 21 year old kid can figure out in just a few months of regular season ball. However I still think he can improve on his clip from last year as a role player. Play better defense, get more boards, hit more 3's- he's way capable of. But a part of a potential "Big 4" he will not be. Not until next year anyways.
Denial post: He can still be a huge scorer for us, but Pop needs to draw up plays. He looked great in summer league because of his ability to take advantage of mismatches. Call his number for a switch play, have him go one on one with a smaller or slower guy. Acquire higher ppg and efficiency. It'll make up for Kawhi's inability to get in good position to score.
Why does Pop get a pass for treatment of Splitter? It's ridiculous.
Spurs defense appears dead. Let's hope pop has not abandoned that side of the ball for good.
Solid writeup, thanks!
Well, Kawhi is getting more adjusted. I hope he can keep up the good amount of rebounds. At least Kawhi isn't letting his shooting in the pre-season get to him.
The Bonner part was funny. Also, I liked the way Jackson played tonight and apparently Josh Powell doesn't need to put food on his own table, according to Jackson, Powell just shows up to his house and eats all of his food then leaves.
Good write-up Solid D.
Solid game thoughts Solid D, thanks! The only part I didn't completely agree was about Diaw. I thought he looked good out there, despite his lack of rebounds. He looked like he had pretty good lateral movement and good court vision. He looks like he's worked on his conditioning pretty seriously.
Nice post, Solid D.
Aside of the horrible lineup with Neal at PG and the Bonner/Blair frontcourt, the defense in the first half was too awful. Instead of playing a fundamentally sound defense, Spurs defense was lazy an very naive. The consistently swarmed into the ballhandler even when there were no risks and they got beaten by some passes because they weren't at all some kind of defensive rotations to cover. Being aggressive defensively on the ball is fine but Spurs had to do it way more smartly. If an incomplete Wizards team can pick apart that kind of defense, it will be a disaster when Spurs will face good teams with better ball movement.
For the rest:
- Even if Kawhi is in a shooting slump, he should continue taking good open shots instead of passing them like it it yesterday. He won't break his slump by stoping to shoot.
- Mills at PG >>> Neal at PG.
- Bonner scoreless in preseason in 44 minutes played. WoW.
- Blair seemed to be focused on being in shape and hitting midrange jumpers but he neglects all the res of the game.
- Splitter is having a good end of preseason. I damn hope he isn't in Pop doghouse.
- Parker seems to get his legs/rythm back but he still need to find his jumpshot.
Spurs and Pop needs to figure a lot of things if they want to start the season well. I think Spurs had a bad preseason. The only significant bright spot was Duncan looking awesome. Aside of him, Joseph and De Colo had a good training camp given the expectations about them before it.
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