Game Thoughts:
This game was pretty much over by the second quarter. I don't know if we are that good, or if the Nets are just bad... probably another fool's gold victory. I'm not ready to crown anyone in December. That being said, the Spurs came out and played their game, not worrying too much about their opponent's misfortunes. They plowed over Nets as expected and got their starters out quickly.
Offense:
I thought we were a little sloppy with the ball, but overall we moved the ball and found the open shooters. Once again, we had a well balanced attack with six different players scoring in double figures.
Defense:
There were a few times where we didn't close out fast enough on their shooters and allowed their bigs to run the floor in transition, but overall I thought we brought the energy and hustled and got after it. We held Deron Williams and Joe Johnson to nine points a piece.
Jeff Ayres:
Ayres probably played his best game as a Spur. He was active on the glass and on defense and didn't miss any easy buckets on offense. I think if he can consistently do this on a night to night basis, it could be huge for us. I think I see what Pop sees in him. He's long and athletic and can (better) match up with some of the more mobile bigs.
Tim Duncan:
His shots (namely, the top of the key jumper) have been off to start the season, but he's coming along nicely. He hit a few open jumpers tonight -- jumpers that were almost automatic last season. He needs to continue to hit these shots because defenders are giving it to him. His defense was solid as usual.
Tiago Splitter:
I thought Splitter played great defense tonight and was aggressive on offense and looked for his shot. I think some people are little over critical of him since he's not averaging like 18+ ppg (given the contract we gave him), but we don't need that from him. We need him to play defense and be active on the glass first. Any points we get from him are gravy.
Marco Belinelli -- Danny Green experiment:
Marco continues to fit in flawlessly in our system. He plays within the system so well and at the end of games, you're like "Oh wow, he had 18 points tonight?" (I know he only had 10 pts tonight, but just saying). I think his defense is underrated and that he's pretty active and gets after it. I didn't see anything glaring tonight (regarding his defense).
Green was quiet on offense tonight after putting up performances of 14 pts and 22 pts since his "demotion" to the bench. Defensively, I thought he played well tonight and shadowed his man. We can't count on him to score 15+ ppg every night, but that's not to say that his role isn't really important. Green is actually huge for us since he's our best perimeter defender after Kwahi. He's going to be the one guarding the point guards and shooting guards in crunch time.
I don't like having Green come off the bench for a number of reasons. First, he can't get his shot, so it's better to have him in the first unit where he will be able to get more open looks. We also need his defense out the gate on the other team's guards. We don't need anymore offensively fire power in the first unit. We need to get stronger defensively, and I think having Green in the lineup gives us the best balance.
No matter how off Green is (offensively), he should remain in the lineup for three reasons:
1) He's still our best defender after Kawhi and can effectively guard Stephen Curry, James Harden, and other athletic/scoring PG's and SG's
2) We don't need anymore scoring in the starting lineup (Green just needs to defend and stretch the defense on offense)
3) If we replace Marco with Green, Green basically becomes useless because he cannot offensively spark the 2nd unit/bench like Marco can
Bench:
We played 13 guys tonight. I don't know how many of these guys we're going to see in the postseason, but our bench has been huge for us these past few seasons (to make up for the decline of Duncan, Parker, and Manu).
I thought Mills chucked a bit, but he had open looks that he simply did not make. He's been huge for this year, and someone we could have used last year in the playoffs. Hopefully, he continues to get better and gets minutes in the playoffs. Manu continues to impress and isn't trying to do too much. Diaw is continues to be aggressive on offense. He continues to punish opponents down low and is shooting 52+%. I wouldn't mind seeing him get more touches. His resurgence (along with Manu's) will be the difference this year.
Last edited by mute; 01-01-2014 at 01:01 AM.
Thank you for the writeup! Marco looked better in the starting unit tonight. I believe Green will go back to the starting unit though. Pop was probably trying to bring some of the second units offense to the starting lineup. As Tim and Kawhi begin to hit their shots, he'll likely go back to Green.
Thank you!
I loved it tonight when Arron Baynes did his MJ impression. He took off from the foul line
and 2 steps later a thunder slam dunk......Tim can hit that 15-20 ft. jumper when he puts some
loft on the ball. He gets in a bad habit of line driving the ball and he misses more that way.
I think Green is slowly gaining his confidence back! Hes going to be huge again in the playoffs!
10 years later, and Timmy continues to on KG.
Duncan: 15 pts (7-11), 5 rbs, 1 ast, 1 stl (won by 21)
Garnett: 2 pts (0-5), 3 rbs, 1 ast (lost by 21)
Good grades tbh.
if only the FO wouldn't have wasted the MLE and brought in AK47
Man, Brooklyn looks really bad. I haven't seen much of them so far, but it seems like they're only going through the motions. Uninterested Basketball.
Easy win for us to end the year.
Yeah, I feel bad for the schmuck who will eventually be hired to go in and clean up the mess and the giant turd ball that Kidd is creating. And while it is easy to blame Kidd, it really falls on the owner. But oh well, the Nyets will generate lots of lottery picks for other teams over the next 5 years.
Didn't get to see this one but noticed kawhi only had 6. Anyone who watched it give a kawhi rundown?
Despite his health issues I still would like to have AK47 over here this season ...
Nice pic ! Thanks for sharing. Bonbon for AK tbh.
Sometimes players have a way of staying healthy when they are on a competing team.
The Nets had a serious edge with AK47. The owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, is a wealthy Russian and could promise him a lot of money outside of the NBA contract similar to the situation in Huston a few years ago where Yao got a ton of money off the books in China for endorsements and such.
And if the rumors are true about the connections to the Russian Mafia than AK47 might have had an added incentive to sign up or else.
Good, he is one of my most hated players of the last 10 years or so. I can't stand KG, especially when he got to Boston.10 years later, and Timmy continues to on KG.
Duncan: 15 pts (7-11), 5 rbs, 1 ast, 1 stl (won by 21)
Garnett: 2 pts (0-5), 3 rbs, 1 ast (lost by 21)
Garnett fell off the cliff hard.
Anyone notice TD conveniently looking away at the tip off so he didn't have to shake hands / fist bump with KG? As that SI article said, Duncan loathes the man...10 years later, and Timmy continues to on KG.
Duncan: 15 pts (7-11), 5 rbs, 1 ast, 1 stl (won by 21)
Garnett: 2 pts (0-5), 3 rbs, 1 ast (lost by 21)
Marco should continue to start unless we need Green to defend an elite guard. The starting unit needs another creator other than TP.
I wanted to see Thomas but good win convincingly. Splitter still sucks though. We can get same production out of Baynes what we get from Splitter. Baynes dunks like a man, blocks and has a ok jump shot.
If we could only see the production that he had last night against OKC, Portland, Indy etc. I'm hoping this older Tiago plays like a man against the clippers.
Wow great write-up. Thank you.
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