tim and kawhi were the only ones that showed up in g7. this ain't tim's fault. manu was wearing a heat jersey underneath. if it wasn't for manu giving the heat free fast break passes we would've won that series in 5
wtf, manu had a good game 7... one of the few guys that did show up... 18/5 and the only guy along with Tim with a positive +/-... you wanna whine about game 6, go right ahead...
Gave the ball away and missed a wide open pass down the stretch for all the marbles...
Manu showed up through three or so in game 7, but those TO's just careless down the stretch killed usHe threw that one over his shoulder I will still remember in the 4th and I said game over
- Lead the team in assistsManu showed up through three or so in game 7, but those TO's just careless down the stretch killed us
- Only one more turnover than Tim
- Hit a crazy 3 pointer down the stretch to keep us in the game
Crying about Manu in game 7 is nuts. He doesn't put up those 18/5 and it's a blowout. The whole 'careless' stuff is baloney: Tony got locked down and completely erased by Lebron. Manu stepped up, attacked more, scored more and assisted more. Neal was MIA. Diaw posted a -18.
People like to focus on the negative and nit-pick on specific plays (understandable in the heat of the moment, seeing it's a Finals game 7), but looking objectively at the whole game he was superlative and one of 3 players that actually showed up and gave the Spurs a chance to win that game.
i'm not whining about game 6. but it didin't matter if manu had a good game 7 or good game 5. He still threw that series away with that acrobatic and missed fts. manu might as well been the second player ever to win the finals mvp from a losing team alongside jerry west
What kind of bull .......them fighting words tbh.
Mattered enough to post your whine about it, tbh. I'm gonna disagree about that assessment of the series too. There's plenty of blame to go around if you want to play the blame game. After all, ups, missed freebies and acrobatic included, we were 28 secs away from a championship. Manu wasn't the only one to miss a freebie down the stretch and he certainly wasn't the guy sitting TD when we needed a rebound. Would have we won the series if Manu played better? possibly. But that logic extends to a lot of players in the team on different games (Tiago, Neal, even Green and Tony in the last game if we gonna get picky).
But the blame game sucks and it's pretty stupid. I'm sure they all gave it the best shot, and came up short. What ifs and coulda, shoulda won't make an iota of difference right now.
He did give it his all in game 7, he was tired though late and body willing no more! He seriously did some stupid ass passes late in the 4th and you remember and I do, but I hardly blame him for that game 7 when Tony (He might have been hurt though or was and seriously slowed down), Green, Neal etc. don't show up at all! NONE! I will not blame game 7 on Manu, no way will I do that although he did some passes that looked like he was drunk out there and just handing the ball to them. I do not get into that +/- crap most of the time, meaningless state alot of times to me since it is who you are with on the floor and how they do as well.
I won't blame Manu for game 7, I will agree with you there. Some did not show up at all, period.
I don't want to turn this into a bash Manu thread but I just looked at the boxscore and he contributed 8 out of the team total of 13 turnovers for Game 6. Spurs were -21 when he was on the court.
Point blank we'll always pinpoint various specific plays in that final minute but like Timvp put it afterwards, if Manu is a DNP, Spurs win going away.
And If you can recall another player having an equally abysmal series clinching game I'll shake your hand.
He had 4 turnovers the entire game. I know they get magnified because of the stakes, and everyone keeps around the last few images. But the reality is that Tony had 5 in Game 2 (which we lost) and Tim had 4 in Game 3 (which we won by a blowout).
Game 6 was certainly an aberration for Manu with the turnover situation, but game 7 was within the normal parameters, and he dished up a team best 5 assists along with his 18 points.
Alongside Manu, Tim and Kawhi really worked the boards, and put up solid numbers. But after that, you have Tony with 10 pts, 4 assists on 25% shooting, and then it gets ugly.
Give some credit to Miami too, they played great defense. They adjusted to Green hitting from outside, and really fought. I still think it's a miracle they won that game 6, but like Pop once said, sometimes you need a little bit of luck too, and this time they definitely lucked out (or we didn't, however you want to put it).
And he put a +19 when he was on the court in Game 5, with 10 of the total 21 assists in that game... which we likely don't win if he is a DNP. You can play that game all day.
Sure, he sucked on Game 6. But by the numbers, he also was pretty good in game 7.
Overall though, he only had 1 good game and 1 great game for the series, and sure, you expect more from your third wheel.
Third wheel? By choice, Manu was the highest paid Spur last season.
I guess the last image you had is the one you think of, Manu was playing good until those bonehead turnovers late, as you said the stakes make it stick out more. I still wonder why this year at times he would just stumble and hand the ball to the other team like he was giving it to them? Thats not like Manu IMO, he was always wreckless but as most said his shots fell then and FT's and he forced more TO's so he made up for it more, this year with the falloff of some of those it was more glaring when he made a mistake. He did play pretty good in game 7 though until late in the game with some TO's. Tony played awful in game 7 no doubt, when you put a big man on him and on top of that his Hammy he is very ineffective as we have seen in the past.
Considering teams don't re-negotiate contracts every year, it should be fairly obvious that salary doesn't always match defined roles or production.
This has been Tony's team for the last few years, even if due to salary structures, he wasn't the highest paid player until now.
He had a poor season by his own standards, no doubt. What I noticed about him this past season is that he wouldn't shoot much at all. He finished a lot of games with maybe 5 or 6 shots total. Might be related to the transformation of his game to more of a creator, or it might be a lack of confidence in his shot. He also had trouble finishing at the rim, which in general was a novelty, seeing he always been one of the best finishers there. Hopefully, it was just an off-year. If not, he's only on a 2 year deal, so nothing to freak out about, IMO.
As far as Tony, lost in the game 6 debacle was that he shot 26% (6-23) in that game, and he followed it up with a 25% shooting in game 7, while averaging about 40+% shooting in the 5 games prior. But just like with Manu, I'm not going to throw him under the bus. He hit a great shot in Game 6, and he played as hard as he could. Miami is a solid defensive team, with a lot of talent, and it makes sense that eventually they'll erase certain players from the equation. The Spurs could overcome that with role players like Green hitting like crazy. And for Miami it's not much different. Chalmers was huge for them in Game 6 and Battier in Game 7.
Personally, what I found most discouraging is a guy like Splitter bringing so little to the table in that series. Here's a guy that was an integral part of the best Spurs lineup all season long, but could only play 4 minutes in game 7.
Yep, Splitter shows what I call that IT factor or lack of it by not showing up when you need him in the biggest games, some have it some do not. Either way the Spurs shot bad overall in games 6 and 7, fatigue and the Miami D probably had alot of do with it but they could have played alot better overall IMO in those two games. They still almost won it spite all we are talking! Thats a very good team we have. If Manu can find his shot more next year, Kawhi can continue to grow, Duncan can somehow put up numbers close to what he did this year, Tony stays healthy, Belli comes in and takes some of the load off the bench and Green continues to develop and as you said Splitter actually comes to play in games I think we have a good shot to go far and compete for a le again.
And he seemed to forget how to dribble until Game 4.
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