Quick Grades: Spurs @ Knicks - Jan. 3

[timvp]

Tim Duncan B-
Compared to others, actually played decently well. Interior D was solid but help defense wasn’t sharp.

Manu Ginobili D
A train wreck in his opening stint. Eventually got slightly better but D was poor and O was very ragged.

Tony Parker C+
Stats look acceptable but lacked precision when running the show. Struggled to penetrate. D was iffy.

Kawhi Leonard C
Commendable effort against Melo but results were mixed. Too aggressive on O, especially from downtown.

Danny Green C+
Didn’t shoot it as straight as normal but his O was acceptable. He had moments on D but was subpar overall.

Tiago Splitter C-
D was great early but fell off a cliff as game progressed. Offensively, he struggled versus NY’s size.

Boris Diaw C+
Too passive with his shooting. Somewhat sloppy with his passes. D in the interior wasn’t strong.

Stephen Jackson Inc.
Got hurt by a waitress not paying attention.

Gary Neal D+
Struggled handling the ball. Struggled passing it. Struggled shooting. Struggled defending. Out of sync.

Matt Bonner D-
Picked a bad time to not be able to hit a shot. Weakside zoning on D was laughably bad.

Patrick Mills B
Hustled on the boards. Played tough defense on switches. Ran the court hard but little production on O.

Nando De Colo Inc.
Hit a few jumpers in garbage time.

Pop C
Was probably too aggressive with gameplan for Melo. Should he have rested Big 3? I don't know.

[Boomersgold]

Thanks for the grades! How much of Neal's poor showing can be attributed to his strained calf?

[RD2191]

i don't understand how a team can play so bad, i mean yes maybe they were tired but damn the whole freekin team sucked. you would think at least a couple of players would play well enough to avoid a blowout. smh

[Darius McCrary]

I love how our team predictably collectively plays like crap when we allforesee fatigue as a factor.

[BillMc]

LJ, a bit off your grades topic (and thanks for them by the way), but do you think Blair is done not even getting a few garbage time minutes? It seemed Pop didn't want to waste the time even letting him "practice" when the game was lost...

Sad. For all his much discussed weaknesses, he has a real enthuisiaim for the game, and it's a real shame if he's on his way out of the NBA.

[raybies]

Four games in five nights sandwiching new years. Big three didn't play much. Basically a modified rest.

Anyone worried about this game...

[Paranoid Pop]

Tim and TP were only minus 2, confirms to me that there's a real problem with the second unit...

Tiago with 3 rebounds in 27 minutes...

We shot even more 3s than the Knicks, which is the typical sign that Pop panicked and got desesperate. He never goes big to try to get more rebounds, he always goes smaller and have his players shoot 3s every possession...

Let's get a 3rd big big, doesn't matter if it cost Sjax, not like he's helping that much and let's figure out the guard rotation and the team may end up being a true contender.

[Paranoid Pop]

Also how can Pop have a better grade than Manu and Neal when he sets them up to fail by playing them together?

[HI-FI]

i caught the second half, things seemed to get worse when i started watching. I can't stand Friendkiller on the Knicks but he has making us look bad out there.

it was hilarious to see Parker and Bonner in playoff mode though. We definitely need some rest. Some athleticism wouldn't hurt either tbh.

[Jumi]

We lost. On to the next one!!!

[TDMVPDPOY]

didnt check carmelos FGA, but keepin him under his ppg avg was good...

too bad the others scored at will on the spurs when it was 8 on 5 for the night

[TD 21]

The game plan on Anthony was horrible. It's the same one they started with against him in the last meeting and it hurt them then, too. They paid him too much respect (why not at least see if Leonard/Jackson can do a reasonable job straight up before resorting to that?) and all of the mad scrambling/rotating only further sapped the energy (especially the guy coming over from the opposite corner to double on the baseline, which was often Parker) of an already tired team.

Something's up with Blair. Even though they're clearly done with him, to not play him in a blowout doesn't make sense. Could this be a sign that they're closing in on a trade? I doubt it, but you never know.

[Johnny RIngo]

i don't understand how a team can play so bad, i mean yes maybe they were tired but damn the whole freekin team sucked. you would think at least a couple of players would play well enough to avoid a blowout. smh

Parker couldn't even get by Prigs tonight. He was definitely tired. And when Ginobili plays horrible, the entire bench falls apart. Same thing happened with the Clippers games.

[ElNono]

Manu was bad tonight, no spinning det one... to compound the problem, he had to guard JR Smith who's an athletic freak and can shoot lights out.

Making Prigioni, a borderline NBA player, look like Jason Kidd in his prime was unexpected though.

[timvp]

Thanks for the grades! How much of Neal's poor showing can be attributed to his strained calf?

He didn't appear to be injured. The issue seemed more to be him having no rhythm. It's been a loooong time since Neal played PG against a pressure defense.

I love how our team predictably collectively plays like crap when we allforesee fatigue as a factor.

Yeah, a win tonight would have been the best win of the season since it would have been so unforeseen. I thought a split on this road trip was a good outcome so I'm satisfied with how it played out, tbh.

LJ, a bit off your grades topic (and thanks for them by the way), but do you think Blair is done not even getting a few garbage time minutes?

Yeah, that's really weird. I didn't notice until after the game but Blair not getting garbage time? And Diaw pressed into garbage time duty? That is weird. It could theoretically point to a trade or a buyout or something like that. However, the more likely explanation is the doctors didn't want him to play. He's obviously at about 30-40% physically right now.

[Dr. Robert Lee]

i don't understand how a team can play so bad, i mean yes maybe they were tired but damn the whole freekin team sucked. you would think at least a couple of players would play well enough to avoid a blowout. smh

The good news is that we were still in the game, despite the trainwreck unfolding out on court.

[TMTTRIO]

I don't know why Pop expects Manu to continue to carry the bench without one of the other Big 2 out there. He can't anymore on a consistent basis and just can't produce like he used to without turning the ball over a thousand times.

[timvp]

Also how can Pop have a better grade than Manu and Neal when he sets them up to fail by playing them together?

Manu and Neal were a great combination last year in the regular season and earlier this season.

Making Prigioni, a borderline NBA player, look like Jason Kidd in his prime was unexpected though.

There was some massive scouting failures. The Spurs were sending traps at Prigioni and collapsing the defense on his drives. I don't know WTF they were thinking. He's not a good finisher -- even on the international level -- and you always play him to pass. When the Spurs collapsed off of Novak for the fifth time to contain his drive, I was hoping whoever drew up this scouting report got fired, tbh.

[TDMVPDPOY]

manu was just being manu tonight this season...his being very consistent these days not showing up

[Richie]

The game plan on Anthony was horrible. It's the same one they started with against him in the last meeting and it hurt them then, too. They paid him too much respect (why not at least see if Leonard/Jackson can do a reasonable job straight up before resorting to that?) and all of the mad scrambling/rotating only further sapped the energy (especially the guy coming over from the opposite corner to double on the baseline, which was often Parker) of an already tired team.

Something's up with Blair. Even though they're clearly done with him, to not play him in a blowout doesn't make sense. Could this be a sign that they're closing in on a trade? I doubt it, but you never know.

Thought we played Melo pretty well tbh, he only had 13 at half time.

We were still in the game when Duncan and Tony sat in the 3rd, only down 7. We lost it with a 10-0 run in the first 96 seconds of the 4th.

I don't consider it a coincidence that the run happened with Bonner on the floor and Green at the 3 guarding Melo. The bench really missed Jacksons D

[timvp]

The game plan on Anthony was horrible. It's the same one they started with against him in the last meeting and it hurt them then, too. They paid him too much respect (why not at least see if Leonard/Jackson can do a reasonable job straight up before resorting to that?) and all of the mad scrambling/rotating only further sapped the energy (especially the guy coming over from the opposite corner to double on the baseline, which was often Parker) of an already tired team.

Agreed. Melo is good but they were treating him like he was LeBron on steroids. Play him straight up and then adjust if he's hot. I can see a different strategy if the Knicks started him at PF but he was at SF ... so just treat him like any other SF. No need to double-team him on the catch from the first possession of the game.

A part of me thinks Pop was just having the team work on their rotations. Doubling Melo and then rotating to cover their deadly three-point shooters is a of a drill. It makes little sense if you're trying to actually trying to win the game, though.

[ElNono]

There was some massive scouting failures. The Spurs were sending traps at Prigioni and collapsing the defense on his drives. I don't know WTF they were thinking. He's not a good finisher -- even on the international level -- and you always play him to pass. When the Spurs collapsed off of Novak for the fifth time to contain his drive, I was hoping whoever drew up this scouting report got fired, tbh.

Agreed. I was pointing that out in the game thread. Those back to back inbound steals on Neal that broke the game wide open are textbook Prigioni steals.

[Paranoid Pop]

Thought we played Melo pretty well tbh, he only had 13 at half time.

We were still in the game when Duncan and Tony sat in the 3rd, only down 7. We lost it with a 10-0 run in the first 96 seconds of the 4th.

I don't consider it a coincidence that the run happened with Bonner on the floor and Green at the 3 guarding Melo. The bench really missed Jacksons D

Well said, Pop is so dumb for playing Green at the 3 over and over again when it's an utter failure every single time...

[freetiago]

not worried about the knicks
spurs havent played an eastern team with anythign resembling a fair schedule
miami was the 4th in 5 nights
new york was tonight
and the other meeting was a home game sandwiched inbetween a huge western road trip and a small eastern road trip

one thing though that new york did that stopped the spurs
switch pick and rolls
hit mid range shots
sound familiar....

[Paranoid Pop]

Agreed. Melo is good but they were treating him like he was LeBron on steroids. Play him straight up and then adjust if he's hot. I can see a different strategy if the Knicks started him at PF but he was at SF ... so just treat him like any other SF. No need to double-team him on the catch from the first possession of the game.

A part of me thinks Pop was just having the team work on their rotations. Doubling Melo and then rotating to cover their deadly three-point shooters is a of a drill. It makes little sense if you're trying to actually trying to win the game, though.

Like your optimism...