You need to look beyond made shots

[DAF86]

...To be really honest.

Yeah, making shots would be nice and will be needed at some point but I can't believe how you guys are throwing Tony and Manu under the bus after this game when they were the main factors for making the offense work in this game. Don't put all your focus on seeing if the basketball gets through the hoop, try to pay attention also if they're making the right plays, taking the right shots, making the right passes in conclusion to try to pay attention and see if they're making things happen.

-Tony had 13 pts and 8 assists, that accounts for at least 29 pts (considering all of his assists were for two pointers which I doubt)
-Manu had 5 pts and 11 assists, that accounts for at least 27 pts (actually more 'cause I remember at least three Manu assists that ended in three pointers)

If you add that up Tony and Manu accounted for about 60 pts (give and take without the three points counted and the assist from Tony to Manu and visceversa) of the Spurs 94, that's around 2/3 of the Spurs pts coming from the players that "sucked ass" according to most folks here. Not bad, imho.

And this without counting the defense (pretty damn awesome from both) and other things (Manu: 6 rbds, 2 stls - Tony: 3 rbds).

They may have not played a great game, they may not even played an average one for them but make no mistake, they played a pretty solid game that helped the Spurs get to the WCF.

[SanDiegoSpursFan]

I agree that Manu was great.

[Obstructed_View]

27 assists on 33 field goals makes the Spurs pretty tough to beat.

[Poolboy5623]

I haven't seen a defensive performance like that in awhile...and they can play better. I think it will be of major relief, not to have to chase those two guards around anymore...conleys good but steph is a different animal. Should be an interesting series. But this game was won with D.

[jesterbobman]

Basic analysis is that they played well but shot badly. Shooting badly matters, but they did contribute.

[Paulie]

Defense, rebound and ball movement. Do that and we will be fine

[DAF86]

To further expand my point here are the +/- for the Spurs in this series:

Manu +50
Boris +33
Leonard +32
Splitter +6
Tony +2
Duncan -11
Green -30

Manu is at his usual God levels with +50 (I haven't checked but if he doesn't lead the entire playoffs in this stat he's second behind Lebron), going by the comments of most of the posters in here you would think that Manu was a total disaster and that Pop should have limited his minutes to 15 per game but for those of us who have been paying attention we know that Manu actually played quite well and that despite his struggles shooting the ball the offense always worked better the minute he got to the floor.

So to sum up: Look beyond made shots, Manu good, your perception bad, I rock, you. Good bye.

P/S: Danny Green at -30, that's a surprise, tbh.

[Obstructed_View]

P/S: Danny Green at -30, that's a surprise, tbh.

Not really. It is, however, proof that plus minus has little to do with how much a player contributes.

[Spur|n|Austin]

To further expand my point here are the +/- for the Spurs in this series:

Manu +50
Boris +33
Leonard +32
Splitter +6
Tony +2
Duncan -11
Green -30

Manu is at his usual God levels with +50 (I haven't checked but if he doesn't lead the entire playoffs in this stat he's second behind Lebron), going by the comments of most of the posters in here you would think that Manu was a total disaster and that Pop should have limited his minutes to 15 per game but for those of us who have been paying attention we know that Manu actually played quite well and that despite his struggles shooting the ball the offense always worked better the minute he got to the floor.

So to sum up: Look beyond made shots, Manu good, your perception bad, I rock, you. Good bye.

P/S: Danny Green at -30, that's a surprise, tbh.

That's why the +/- is still a little questionable to me, it seems to still have holes in the formula, imo.

[Keepin' it real]

I have to look beyond made shots? Here's what I think about that:

[boutons_deux]

27 assists on 33 field goals makes the Spurs pretty tough to beat.

for the playoffs, Spurs average 23.0 AST for 39.2 FG per game.

vs playoiff Grizz 19.5 AST for 34.2 FG



season split vs Spurs:

Griz 17.5 AST for 35.3 FG




split vs Grizz:

Spurs 25 AST for 38 FG

season record: 2 - 2, with each team 1-1 home and 1-1 away.

Gonna be a GREAT series.

[EVAY]

So Tony and Manu accounted for about 70% of the Spurs' assists last night.

That is a good perspective to keep in mind. I personally thought that Tony had perhaps the worst game of his career last night, but you have just made reconsider.

The only time I was honestly afraid we were actually going to lose was when neither Tony nor Manu was on the floor at one point in the 4th. It wasn't for very long, but we quickly gave up 5 or so points and were scoreless at our end, before Pop subs uted Manu for Neal.