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Just in time, I was half-way through my cup of coffee.
In the latest installment of Spurs versus Lakers, the two teams had a compe ive -- if not aesthetically-pleasing -- affair. Thanks to a Danny Green three-pointer with less than ten seconds remaining in the contest, the Spurs were able to pull out an 84-82 victory
After Kobe Bryant scored the first basket of the game, the Spurs responded with ten consecutive points. The Lakers called a timeout and then proceeded to go on a 14-0 run of their own. San Antonio continued to struggle offensively for the duration of the first period and trailed 24-18 at the end of the quarter.
Early in the second, the Spurs were able to close the gap thanks to a strong defensive showing that allowed the Lakers to score only four points in the first five and a half minutes. From then until the end of the game, neither team was able to gain an advantage of more than five points.
With two minutes remaining in the game, Antawn Jamison hit a three-pointer to put the Lakers up by a point. Tim Duncan hit a jumper to put the Spurs back up, however Pau Gasol responded with two free throws and a jumper to lift the Lakers to a three-point advantage.
Needing a basket with under a minute remaining, Duncan again came through -- this time with a difficult runner in the lane. The Spurs got a stop on the other end to gain possession down by a point with less than 20 seconds remaining. That’s when Pop drew up a play that resulted in the game-winning three-pointer from Green. On the final play, Gasol missed a desperation three-pointer and Tiago Splitter pulled down the rebound (eventually) to secure the win.
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Tim Duncan
It was just another extremely strong performance from Tim Duncan. Although he started off slowly, Duncan’s 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists in the second half were gigantic. Defensively, he did very good work against Dwight Howard. He fought him for position all night long and was instrumental in the Lakers newest superstar bigman committing six turnovers. Duncan’s defensive rebounding was also huge, particularly in the second half. Offensively, in addition to the big shots he authored down the stretch, Duncan played a controlled, cerebral brand of basketball. Not only did he finish without a turnover, he didn’t have much trouble getting the shots he wanted against Los Angeles’ imposing front line. Passing was yet another strength of Duncan’s on this night. It remains exciting to watch Duncan play at such a high level.
Final Grade: 96
Season Average: 91.4
Adj. Average: 92.1
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Manu Ginobili
Manu Ginobili’s back flared up before the game and he had to convince Pop to let him play. In retrospect, he probably should have sat this one out. On offense, besides a transition layup and a few quality passes, Ginobili was a train wreck. His shooting stroke was awkward, his timing was off and his movements were ragged. However, there was a bright spot for Ginobili: defense. He competed his heart out when assigned to Bryant and actually did a fine job. The Argentinean was able to stay right with him and forced him to work for his points. Hopefully Ginobili’s better than expected defense is a sign that his back is on the mend and that his offensive woes are simply a matter of lacking rhythm.
Final Grade: 76
Season Average: 79.2
Adj. Average: 78.7
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Tony Parker
While far from a dominant showing, I thought Tony Parker did rather well. Defensively, he pressured the ball to take advantage of their lack of a true point guard (both Steve Nash and Steve Blake were out due to injury). His help-defense was also attentive. On offense, Parker took great care of the ball. After two straight games of excessive team turnovers, a healthy Parker was able to almost single-handedly solve that issue. Passing-wise, he was strong, particularly in pick-and-roll sets. And while his shooting percentage wasn’t anything to write home to Paris about, I thought that just about every shot he attempted was a good, clean look.
Final Grade: 88
Season Average: 84.0
Adj. Average: 85.5
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Kawhi Leonard
Coming out of the gates, I wasn’t too impressed with Kawhi Leonard. His offense was shaky, his defense was lukewarm and his play in transition left a lot to be desired. However, I was pleased by how his level of play increased as the game went along. By the fourth quarter, Leonard wasn’t bashful about trying to make an impact on each possession. Offensively, he connected on a pair of midrange jumpers that the Spurs desperately needed. Defensively, his off the ball help was really good and he pulled down a couple contested boards. In the final two minutes, he switched onto Bryant and was able hold him scoreless.
Final Grade: 85
Season Average: 83.3
Adj. Average: 83.6
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Danny Green
Danny Green deserves credit for knocking down the game-winner and for playing strong help-defense. It’s not easy to hit a pressure shot on the road and the Spurs probably lose if he misses -- so kudos to him. That said, I was displeased by the rest of Green’s game. His defense on Bryant was atrocious. Not only was he not showing enough grit or determination, his fundamentals were poor. Offensively, I wasn’t thrilled with his shot selection and he wasn’t shooting with his normal level of confidence. Again, props to Green for hitting that shot … but the Spurs need more from him.
Final Grade: 73
Season Average: 83.9
Adj. Average: 84.2
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Tiago Splitter
Getting the start next to Duncan in order to help deal with Howard and Gasol, Tiago Splitter had by far his best game of the season. The most extraordinary aspect was that he played a completely different role and did so without skipping a beat. His pick-and-roll sets were nowhere to be found and he was forced further out on the perimeter defensively. Instead of looking like a fish out of water, Splitter adapted and figured out how best to help. Offensively, he concentrated on crashing the glass and continuously searched for open space on the weak-side of the court. On defense, he guarded well outside of the paint but was still aware enough to help at the rim. Splitter also ran the court very well and his physicality was much, much improved. Let us hope this ends up being the turning point in Splitter’s season.
Final Grade: 95
Season Average: 79.2
Adj. Average: 80.5
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Stephen Jackson
It was a relatively quiet night for Stephen Jackson. He buried a pair of well-timed three-pointers and played some good defense, however his overall impact was minimal in his 23 minutes. He wasn’t making many plays and his energy wasn’t at its normal level. That said, he did well to avoid any mistakes and he added some toughness in the paint to help offset the Lakers size advantage.
Final Grade: 82
Season Average: 85.1
Adj. Average: 85.6
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Boris Diaw
Defensively, Boris Diaw was an asset off the bench for the Spurs. He played very strong post defense and his help was almost always on time. Unfortunately, that was about the extent of his usefulness. Diaw was silent on the boards and did next to nothing on offense. For someone who is shooting better than 60% from the field, it’d be nice if he thought about shooting more often. His all-world passing ability has also been missing in action as of late.
Final Grade: 73
Season Average: 81.0
Adj. Average: 82.9
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DeJuan Blair
Well, we can’t call DeJuan Blair timid. He seemed to be involved in just about every play during his 13 minutes. When watching the game live, I was underwhelmed by Blair’s performance. However, when viewing the tape, I noticed more small things he was doing correctly. His post defense was surprisingly stout and he worked non-stop to gain good position. Blair’s running of the court was also helpful. That said, it’s impossible to deny that he was mostly a ball of unbridled action. He needs to play smarter and under more control if he’s going to be a dependable part of this team.
Final Grade: 78
Season Average: 78.2
Adj. Average: 80.0
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Gary Neal
Playing only in the first half, Gary Neal wasn’t very good. He was forcing shots and failed to get the Spurs into their sets. Defensively, he was decent but wasn’t challenged. After lighting up the Blazers last game, Neal sliced open a finger on his shooting hand. Perhaps that had something to do with his struggles on this night.
Final Grade: 75
Season Average: 83.3
Adj. Average: 85.7
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Patrick Mills
Patrick Mills took over for Gary Neal in the second half and did well. His pressure defense was useful and his pushing of the pace helped the Spurs get some easy shots. It was great to see him shoot without hesitation and otherwise stick to his strengths offensively. Mills’ ability to go from 0 to 60 in the blink of an eye will allow him to be an intriguing option in Pop’s bag of tricks.
Final Grade: 85
Season Average: 80.2
Adj. Average: 79.6
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Pop
I was really impressed by how Pop coached this game. I loved not only that he started Splitter, but that he played him quality minutes and trusted him in the guts of the game. Benching Ginobili at the end turned out to be the right move, as was replacing Neal with Mills. Pop’s play for Green was genius. Switching Leonard onto Bryant at the end worked wonders. Oh, and I managed to not shed a tear regarding Matt Bonner’s DNP-CD.
Final Grade: 95
Season Average: 85.3
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Offense
How did the Spurs shoot 38.9% and only get to the free throw line 11 times yet still put up enough points to win? Turning the ball over only eight times was huge. Passing well (22 assists) and shooting a reasonable percentage on three-pointers (7-for-20 for 35%) also helped. Obviously, the Spurs will need to score better going forward but it was a good learning experience for the team to figure out how to put points on the board when nothing was going as planned.
Final Grade: 71
Season Average: 82.5
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Defense
Defensive rebounding remains extremely troubling and Bryant was on fire for the first 46 minutes … but everything else was strong. Outside of Bryant, the Lakers shot only 34.5% from the field and 25% on three-pointers. Holding the Lakers to 18 assists while forcing 17 turnovers also points to superlative D. And perhaps best of all, L.A. was able to score only 26 points in the paint. Against a team so tall and talented, that’s a spectacularly low number.
Final Grade: 95
Season Average: 83.3
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Overall
Great playoff-style win. Sure, there is a lot of cleaning up to do (for both teams) but the scrappiness was commendable and the Spurs were once again able to come up clutch in money time.
Final Grade: 89
Season Average: 83.5
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Just in time, I was half-way through my cup of coffee.
For the Splitter fans, if only the Spurs played the Lakers 82 times a season...
Great writeup, thanks timvp.
-Great to see Tiago break out of his slump
-The Matt Bonner experiment seems to have finally ended
-IMO, Dwight is a much easier matchup for Tim than Bynum. D12 doesn't have as much length to bother Tim defensively and is much more limited in terms of post moves and a midrange J.
-That said, hes a much better PnR defender and is going to pose problems for Tony & Manu should they meet in the playoffs.
Fatherhood is slowing Larry down
the 2 3pts basket from jax, were out of situations where the clock was running down and no ball movement...he nailed them with a hand in his face in those type of situations....
Who's Larry?Fatherhood is slowing Larry down
Danny Green may not be completely dead to me after all. I am beginning to think I misjudged him a little in the sting from the OKC loss. Here's to hoping.
Thanks Tim.
Any gifs from this game?
Thanks timvp
Nice to see Tiago with a strong game and even better see Bonner with a DNP
These guys have played clutch in just about every game. have we even seen a blowout in our favor yet?
I like the renewed emphasis on defense so far this season. The Spurs' opponents have been playing terribly and while part of that can be attributed to the start of the season, the Spurs defense gets some credit. I really hope they keep it up because without change, the Spurs are just the same team as last year but a year older and a step slower.
Also encouraging to see Splitter and Duncan plus the rebounding SFs hold their own against the Laker's monster frontcourt. Duncan's play against Howard seems to give the most hope. Howard is about 2 inches shorter than Bynum, 20 pounds lighter, and has a smaller wingspan than Bynum. The Lakers wrecking the Spurs on the boards is nothing new so a relatively even exchange last night can be seen as a victory.
Only thing that bothers me is that Parker didn't dominate against the Lakers. He traditionally plays best against them and even had a slow and old Artest on him. He should have had a much better game offensively instead of just an average game.
D.Green gets the tough task of guarding Kobe, scores 11 points and outrebounds Kawhi (or Jack, Diaw, and Blair combined), 0 TO's, gets 3 steals and hits the gamewinning shot, and gets a lower grade than Blair, Ginobili, & Neal. Not saying he had a great or even a good game, but that's outright bull .
Every player's grade is based upon his own personal potential. It's not a universally-applicable flat numerical rate.
So Manu plays objectively worse, gets a higher grade, meaning he has lower potential than Green? huh
I like the addition of season average grades
Oh, and Green looks like the Joker in that picture
To be honest, I'm also quite befuddled by the bias against Green (or maybe, LJ just has very high expectation on him?).
Even without the game-winning shot, his two literal steal steals (not lucky ones at all) from Lakers players' defense rebound in the 4th quarter gives him a B+. While watching the game live, I found that those steals really frustrated the Lakers and prevented them getting into offense flow.
I agree. I love the write up and would only object to DGs grade. Should have been a B for the steals and last shot alone.
Tbh, I'm not sure how someone can overlook how horrible Green's defense was on Kobe. He basically gave Kobe a green light to do whatever he wanted. Green's not a great defender but he should do a lot better than give Kobe a five foot buffer at all times. It was literally the worst I've seen the Spurs defend Kobe since 2001. At least Antonio Daniels in 2002 put up a fight. And that's not even discussing how horrible Green was at getting around screens. When Kobe had the ball and a screen arrived, Green might as well have been invisible.
Green's shot was huge and he had some good defensive plays away from his man ... but the vast majority of the time he was on the court, he was a liability.
Still doesn't explain how he can end up with a lower grade than a player with higher overall expectations who shouldn't even have been on the floor...
Yeah no disrespect but I find timvp's grades to be meaningless. His writeups, however, are always accurate and a great read especially if you didn't get a chance to watch the game.
DB needs to play more like he did last night, wreckless and with a lot of energy.
In the first half, I thought the combination of Duncan and Tony being bothered by LA's length under the basket and the team as a whole relying too much on three pointers (the two are connected, of course) was a problem for the Spurs. But eventually, they found a better rhythm offensively and in the end were able to pull out a win.
I liked that Pop trusted Splitter to start in this one and that he stayed with him the whole game. Very good game from Tiago. And I agree with those who say that Danny doesn't deserve too much praise aside from his game winning basket - Kobe just got what he wanted against Green all night long.
Manu was bad aside from his defensive attention to stay with Kobe, but hopefully, it was just him playing when he should have sat out the game.
A) Ginobili was questionable and cleared to play only minutes before the game.
B) Ginobili has obviously been slowed by injury and isn't capable of reaching his normal expectations.
C) Ginobili, despite being hurt, played much better defense than Green.
D) Green has been playing well enough than going 4-for-12 with horrible D shouldn't elicit praise, tbh.
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