Reply With Quote
thanks
Spurs were without their 6th man in Manu, and without their starting bigman in Splitter; no problem.
Although the good guys won by 18, this was no blowout until more than half way through the last period; the game was very much up in the air at the half and up until the 4th. Thus, this game was encouraging to me more because we had such even contributions, and because the team fought through losing on so many fronts, and yet still managed the victory (more on that below). I should add that Green sprained his finger and did not play after the half (scoreless at that point, you should note). Hopefully Manu is not out too long, or we will need Green to suck it up.
In the end, although the offensive inep ude of the timberwolves had a lot to do with this victory, I will take it.
Offense:
Spurs had 30 assists without Manu (10 for TONY!) which is damn good by any measure. Spurs shot over 50% for the game, and spread the offense around with 6 players in double digits. Spurs scored the right way: in the paint (46), in transition (12) and from 3pters 9-13, 27pts. Leading scorer was Leonard a very efficient 8-11 for 17?! If you will remember, I asked that Leonard score at least 15 from here on out: ask and ye shall receive.
Parker (14), Duncan (15), Beli (13), and Patty (10) are all depended on to score at least what they contributed.
The big surprise of the night was clearly Bonner: 5-10, 4-5 from 3, for 14 points. Free bonner! No, just kidding, keep him on the bench. Surprise number 2 was Ayres: 4-7, and 7 rebounds in 20 minutes? Thank you, I will take that every night.
Defense:
The numbers look good at first glance: Minny scored 86 points on 35% shooting. We held Love to 3-14 shooting. However, that may be deceiving.
At the half, the Spurs were shooting about 58%, and the timberwolves were shooting below 40%, but the spurs only led by 4 points. The reason?
Keys at the Half:
Four things stood out at the half:
1) Offensive rebounds: Minny had 9 offensive rebounds at the half. They finished with 16. That translated into more possessions...
2) Turnovers: Spurs had 11, minny had 5. Finished the game with 20 turnovers, to their 10. Another 10 possessions....
3) Free throws: Minny had 9 ft made, spurs 6. To finish the game, Spurs made 11 fts and Minny made 15.
4) No one could defend Pekovic: I believe he had 16 at the half, and was scoring and rebounding at will. He finished with 22 on 10-15 shooting, so his slowed scoring helped a lot.
Keys for the game:
So, although the spurs kept the wolves from shooting well, they fouled more than they got fouled, and they gave minny plenty of extra chances to shoot. Not sure if I count that as good defense.
Really, the only way the Spurs were winning this game was to shoot their way out of it: shoot, and shoot well, to overcome turnovers, offensive rebounds, and a free throw disparity. The spurs continued to shoot well in the 2nd half, and did it particularly well from 3pt land. Game over. Next.
Last edited by spursfaninla; 01-12-2014 at 10:11 PM.
thanks
What the is up with TP's turnovers? I've never seen him this loose with the ball.
Yes, I agree with almost everything. In other news, it looks like Green is being phased out of the rotation. Probably an underrated move by Pop. He's been a complete atrocity when on the floor.
Careless TO's maybe, but his turnover rate is very similar to last years.
Hasn't been that similar. I think outside of the 2009 season, it's his worst AST/TO ratio in like 6 years.
What makes you say that?
He'a averaging the same amount of TO per game as last season... his assists are down tough...
Yup - which is why I mentioned the AST/TO ratio. The turnovers look worse because of the lack of assists. He's normally much more careful with the ball and makes way more good decisions than bad.
FWIW, basketball-reference has a breakdown of the turnovers by type (bad pass, offensive foul, etc), but unfortunately it's not updated with this season stats (yet)...
Green hurt his hand fwiw. He's the backup SF in the full rotation tbqh.
hand injury. it's the only reason why Cojo got so much playing time in the 2nd half
Was he another casualty of war or out for precautionary measures? And why was Baynes used so little with Pek abusing in the low post? Is Baynes really that bad?
he's got a sprained finger or something. he's not making the trip to NO. and who knows about Baynes; maybe he plays too physical and smart for Pop.
TD defended Pek... Baynes didn't play much because Bonner had the 3 ball going (or apparently that was the rationale)
Pisses the out of me that Baynes doesn't get any pt.
Hey man it's POP...... He has his faves for better or for worse for some reason.
Thanks for the thoughts.
the issue is not on the tov but on the apg. regarding tov per game he is on his average of 2,5. I don't see the he is much more careful with the ball.
Thanks spursfaninla !
One could think the time of the bigs -who just plants himself on the blocks and has nothing but power- are gone, but then you see Pekovic (not rebounding well not defending well not passing well) and realize that these guys still exist and they're still effective.
However, IMO a strong center presence isn't the way to beat us right now (e.g. Lin, Harden Parsons hurt Spurs more than Howard last games)
Thanks for the game notes spursfaninla.
It's a lot of fun to watch Leonard when he's in attack mode like that. Here's to a stronger second half of the season for him, we're gonna need it
nicely done.
I don't the Spurs kept Wolves from shooting well, eg Love, they just had a horrible shooting night, 35% vs their average 43%. Wolves missed a ton of OPEN jumpers
thanks again, pretty cool how I saw you demanding 15/8 I believe it was from kawhi last time you did game notes and he produced. Thought about that during the game when he hit the 17 point mark.
Really? I didn't realize that...I thought his turnovers were way higher than last season...never occurred to me that they were the same level. Wow.
Assists are down for several reasons: 1) Tim's slow start, 2) Green's slow start, 3) Leonard's slow start. Mostly Tim's though, since the first thing in the offensive sequence is the pass to Tim.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
