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Nice effort, wrong box-score though
Game at a Glance
Facing a young Celtics team that was coming off of a blowout loss to Houston, the Spurs were noticeably spry to begin the game. After a long rest following the Utah game, it looked as if the time off allowed for renewed focus on defense and offensive execution for the Starting Five…it was short-lived. Once again, the bench unit was called on to gain separation, and once again they delivered.
Player & Coach Grades
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Tony Parker
From his first touch of the ball, Tony was looking to get the offense moving. After a few nice feeds to Timmy, and Tiago in the paint, Parker than switched to going to work on Avery Bradley with mixed results in the 1st quarter. After reentering the game in the 2nd quarter, TP found his groove. Whether he was running off of picks or slashing to the basket, Tony was too much for the Celtics’ lockdown defender to handle and it set the tone for the rest of the evening. On defense, the night was a mixed bag but after letting Bradley knocked down a few open jump shots in the first half, adjustments were made and it was smooth sailing after.
Final Grade: A
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Tim Duncan
The Big Fundamental opened the game with a thunderous dunk and a 4-0 run, and after that not too much else. For a minute there I let myself think “This is the night he breaks the slump” but it was wishful thinking. At this point, I’m beating a dead horse by talking about his struggles on both ends of the court. On defense, Tim contributed mightily to Jared Sullingers 19-17 game after letting Derrick Favors post a similar stat line. Noticeably frustrated by his struggles, and sporting a fresh black eye, Timmy plodded his way to another bad night while having trouble finishing at the rim and hitting open jump shots. The good news? His jump shots are now clanking off of the back of the rim now that his lift is a bit improved.
Final Grade: C-
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Tiago Splitter
Tiago Splitter posted yet another solid performance. The aspect of his game sticking out most to me right now is how confident he is in moving through the offense and finding the ball in the spots he wants it. Nice finishes around the basket, a few more excellent passes on the interior, and of course the wall he is throwing up in the paint when on defense.
Final Grade: A
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Kawhi Leonard
Kawhi Leonard may have stuffed the stat sheet, but he is still not playing his best basketball. Once again he came out lacking fire on the Defensive side of the ball, and found himself repeatedly one step behind Jeff Green. In the first half he had three chances to put the ball on the floor or handle it in the open court, and all three times ended in near turnovers as he almost traveled once, had to force up a bad shot on the other, and throw a desperation pass to get out of the last. For the first time in his young career, he was noticeably upset with the officiating and allowed it to show in his play. After Pop took him out and presumably chastised him, The Hand showed up in the 2nd half and destroyed the Celtics on offense with his 3pt stroke and penetration, and caused all kinds of havoc on defense with his long arms and hustle in the passing lanes. I suspect we'll see a consistent upswing in effort over the next week as the Spurs take on the rival Grizzlies and Thunder.
Final Grade: B
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Danny Green
Much like Kawhi, Danny Green had a largely uninspiring first half, only to come in and light it up in the 2nd half. Danny's 3's helped spark the run that put the game out of reach for Boston and had no hesitation when the ball found his hands. You'd like to see him hold the likes of Jordan Crawford to a few less points, but his offense made up for his shortcomings on D.
Final Grade: B-
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Manu Ginobili
Leading the 2nd unit in the fight to inject energy and effort into the game, Manu was the ultimate floor general. His two-man game with Boris Diaw is something to behold right now. I've been watching the Spurs for a long time, and I can't remember two guys with such a feel for one another that produced plays as exciting as these two have over the first couple of weeks to start to season. Manu also managed a couple of vintage finishes at the rim, one of which he went through 3 Celtic defenders and David Blained the ball around Jeff Green. His drives to the basket were going so well, that he only had to shoot one 3, and the way this season has gone from downtown for Manu, that was great to see.
Final Grade: B+
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Boris Diaw
The rise of Boris Diaw continues. There isn't much more you can say about his game right now that hasn't been said over the last couple of weeks. He continues to pound the ball inside on smaller defenders, and put on a Mimi-Hakeem show when a bigger guy is hounding him in the post. His shot is on from every spot of the floor, and his work with Ginobili is worth the price of admission...or League Pass, whichever. Boris was a little loose with the ball, but overall he was solid once again. If Tim Duncan isn't able to find his groove by April (I'm 50/50 on this) I am all for moving Boris into the starting lineup and seeing how things work out.
Final Grade: B+
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Marco Belinelli
Marco didn't get a ton of run last night, but in his 17 minutes he managed to produce a quick 9 points on 4-7 shooting. He is almost perfect this year when shooting after coming off of a screen, and you can almost guarantee the ball is dropping before it leaves his hand.
Final Grade: A
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Patrick Mills
Patty has been much better in directing his energy on both ends of the floor this year, but last night not so much. He checked into the game at a point when the Celtics defense was being gashed by the Spurs passing and penetration, and bailed the Celtic D out with forced jump shots from the outside, and early in the clock. He pestered the Celtics with his defense, but found himself lost on a few possessions and didn't contribute much on either end of the floor, other than a couple of missed corner 3s. He'll bounce back
Final Grade: C-
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Jeff Ayres
In limited action, Jef Ayres checked in and got to work contesting shots. In 8 minutes, he was able to force 3 Boston misses at the hoop and one very ugly jumper from the wing. He's made one shot from outside of 5 feet this year, and looking at his shooting form, I have no hope for that to improve this year.
Final Grade: C+
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Matt Bonner
The Red Mamba returned to action and looked surprisingly spry running around the floor. His rhythm was a little off from deep, but he did make his last attempt. Going forward, he is more than likely to take the majority of Ayres' minutes.
Final Grade: INC
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The Garbage Time Team
I was going to delete this section since only Cory Joseph got any action, and it was for only 1 minute. Cory Joseph changed my mind with his play during that one minute. Whether he is trying to impress Pop or rack up some numbers in the box score, the results have been comical this year. Joseph entered the game with time winding down and managed to fall down again going to the bucket, and almost cause a backcourt violation when he inexplicable refused to pass the ball to three wide open teammates. Let us pray that Mills is able to stay healthy for the full year.
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Pop
Pop seems to have come to the realization that to this point in the season, yanking the starters is the only way to bring life to the offense. He wasted no time getting the bench unit into the game when things started to bog down and stagnate with the first team in, and once again the bench came through with a great performance. I never thought I would say it, but I was glad Matt Bonner was able to log some minutes and improve the spacing on the floor once Ayres went to the bench.
Final Grade: A
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Offense
After a troublesome 1st quarter, the team found its rhythm and began to pick apart the inexperienced Celtics with crisp passing and excellent drives to the hoop. Splitter, Diaw, Parker and Ginobili made their living in the paint last night, and it paid off in the 2nd half with the team catching fire from deep and burying the Celtics with a barrage from beyond the arc led by Danny Green. Duncan had another horrendous night from the field, but it appears he is tinkering with his jump shot and release point, hopefully it begins to pay off and the team can really hit their stride to open games.
Final Grade: B-
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Defense
After a Utah game that saw the Jazz front line keep things close because of their work inside, the Celtics used Jared Sullinger to attack Tim Duncan and keep the game close in the first half. When Spurs defenders attempted to help Duncan out, they were punished by Avery Bradley, Jordan Crawford, and Jeff Green draining open shots and keeping the Celtics in it until the half. Once play resumed in the 3rd quarter, Leonard and Green came out of the locker room determined to make the Celtics work and effort paid off. Leonard's active hands were contagious and the Spurs forced the Celtics into 17 turnovers on the night, most of which resulted in easy fast break points and another game decided well before the final buzzer sounded. The Spurs, especially Tim Duncan, will get a bigger challenge inside when they face Marc Gasol and Randolph in the next game.
Final Grade: B
I'm going to miss the next couple of games since I will be out of town, so I hope somebody else can throw something together so I don't miss out on too much!
Last edited by TacoCabanaFajitas; 11-21-2013 at 01:09 PM.
Nice effort, wrong box-score though
Good catch, fixed
Vesely looks awful for those wanting him in the off-season. He's like their Ayres but is making twice as much a Jeff is.
Didn't watch the game but his line is awful indeed. That said he claimed a while ago that he basically was scared to go the line which may up his whole game (which was exactly Splitter's problem not so long ago and he was much older and paid 4+M)... He looked great at Eurobasket.
Last edited by Baam; 11-14-2013 at 01:05 PM.
Thanks, man!
Also Vesely is an expiring right now since they didn't pick up his option which is nice while the Spurs are paying Ayers the next two years...
didn't even watch. knew the outcome.. btw, i just whipped a friend of mine's ass with the spurs when he had the wizards last night too. if i were duncan, i would have retired after game 7. i know deep down he is pissed at the coaching job of popovich. don't want to change the subject of the thread, but that's what i would have done. i would have just left and changed my numbers refusing to speak to him ever again.
Meh I'm not sure it's mental but that would be the best case scenario, sadly I think he may really be losing a step, he's getting super old, his season last year was pretty much historical and a miracle...
The thing is Jan has no perimeter skills, so he has to play the five, but he's either too weak or has too poor of technique to play their. He desperately needs a solid bigs coach. There's no question Ayres is the better NBA player and is much more worth three and a half million over two seasons than Jan is worth that over one.
nice one...if you can put something like that together every game, I'm fine with timvp enjoying life for a while.
That was the second game of the season Vesely got any minutes (and the other one he got 2min), not sure why he got so much run all of a sudden but I wouldn't read too much into that one game when Ayers missed 4 dunk in the previous game... Their career numbers are similar but one is older with shot knees tbh... The other has shown flashes of being a good player when not playing with the Wizards (pretty much like McGee and Blatche)...
thanks Taco!
good write-up, much appreciated
Nice to see them stomping teams without even playing that well. I'm really curious to see them play better teams but I believe we're as good as anyone right now. And Marco could be the key to #5.
I thought the previous grades were a little lofty and these seem a bit harsh, but overall A for effort and entertainment. I may not agree, but I like the reasoning to explain the grade.
Thanks!
What the happened to CoJo? I love that Mills has taken the decision out of Pop's hands, but CoJo really has been struggling.
Thanks for the grades. Good takes all around. Indeed Parker sucked, although his scoring helped at times, but it was far from what we can reasonably expect from him.
Duncan's shooting is a real concern. You could hear in the announcers voices (especially Sean's) that they really wanted him to make them, and sounded deflated when he didn't ("oh no...").
Splitter's night can be summed up in 2 actions: a dunk to get started, then a huge block on Wall (or was is somebody else?). Anyway that block was huge and nasty.
Ayres definitely played better than in the previous games. He was a lot more assertive, didn't botch his dunks, rebounded, passed. If only he could just provide that, the Spurs would feel better about their big man rotation. And I could swear I saw him assist on at least 2 plays. Similarly I could swear De Colo had 3 dishes. Weird.
I think the Starters more than earned the low grades, if the Wizards were playing well and clawing their way in the game based off solid D and great offense ok no big deal. But to give up a 19 point lead because you're making wild passes and putting in poor effort is a shame for guys that have been in the league so long.
Thanks for the writeup, appreciated by all of us who cannot watch the games
Thank you Mr. Fajita!
Wow, this was a thread about the Washington game. You are one scary maniac man.
Great review sir! Thanks.
If Timmy is still struggling with his shot by game 25, I'll be worried tbh. But until then, I'll just assume he's exerting minimal effort in an attempt to preserve himself for the end of the regular season and the buildup to the playoffs
Those sig pictures are awesome.
If it was poor effort I don't think he would be looking so good on Defense. Right now it just looks like his feet are glued to the floor and he's having trouble unsticking them when he moves. Really weird to see, hopefully you're right
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