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Nice thoughts. Fortunately for the good guys TP isn't heavily relied on for defense. Many good signs. Go Spurs Go!!!
Status of the team
In the middle of a 4game winning streak in a 6 game homestand, the Spurs looked good going into this game. Now granted the Bulls was missing 3 key players, and that the winning streak is composed of bad teams I don't think it's any sign of false hope or fool's gold. This team, when on is on. It's just a matter of getting there, and this current streak is more than a step towards the right direction. We saw how in their best form, it doesn't matter who they face, if they win it's because of them(2014), if they lose basically it's because of themselves also (2013).
Now back to the game:
Tim Duncan: C-
Although getting a decent +/- of +7, Timmy looked more of a liability this game. He was slow on defense except for some instances where he challenged the drives well, he was trying to force up shots in the low-post and in the mid-range which gave us a bad start in the 3rd. Overall, this wasn't just the game for Tim. Also first time in his career without getting a FG, yikes.
Kawhi Leonard:B+
I would've given Kawhi an A but there were around 2-3 times where he could've gone for the drive when he was up against a big but instead chose to shoot 3's which resulted in 0-4 from downtown. But in every other aspect, Kawhi shined. Giving us 20 pts 8 rebs, 3 steals that all lead to fastbreaks and most importantly the constant pressure he throws at the opponent and the energy that he brings to the team. As the season goes by, Kawhi keeps on improving and solidifying his spot as the team's best player.
Tony Parker:B+
Same for Kawhi, I would've given Tony an A but because of one aspect of the game, I chose not to. TP played poorly at the defensive end, started with Brooks and then Brooks went off thus forcing Pop to put danny on him. And then on the third before his amazing 15 pts straight, he was also getting burned in defense. But other than that, Tony was perfect in this game. Like I said, the highlight was that 3rd quarter of his, carrying the offense when no one could hit anything. Also hitting key shots in the 4th that finally put the game to rest. What I also liked was that Tony was showing signs of being able to drive at will to the paint. When he does that instead of chucking up inefficient long 2s then we're going to have a good night. 32 pts on 13-19? Not bad at all.
Manu Ginobili:B+
Manu was the 6th man Manu that he was like last season. When he came in the offense just looked better 16 points (+14), but not only that, he tied Kawhi with the most steals in the game in 3. It's impossible to put into words the impact that this guy brings, from orchestrating the 2nd unit's offense, getting steals, and just being pesky overall, all that in just 25 minutes of play.
Tiago Splitter:B
It was a weird game for Tiago, he played well on defense, played ok in offense but only got 22 mins of play. The bright side is he's continuing on being his old self, like many of us have said many times before, Tiago makes or breaks our defense. It's in him whether our D is elite and when he is off, then it's a free 2pts every time for the penetration.
Boris Diaw:C
Boris made the most out of his 5 minutes of playing time with his excellent passing and vision. Unfortunately, after he fouled twice in like 1 min in the first quarter, he was put in Pop's doghouse for the rest of the game.
Danny Green:B+
The other half of wingstop. 2 steals, 3/6 from 3's, 50% from the field, 11 points. I'm so glad Danny got out of his slump already. Just his defense alone brings so much value to the team but if you add his great 3pt shooting on top of that, then things will open up so much for the other guys. And besides, Danny is a player that plays up to his confidence, so shooting nights like this will only help our cause.
Patty Mills:A
The only A for the game. Patty was amazing in only 16 mins of play, he managed to score 15 pts shooting 6/9 from the field and 75% from 3. He was the usual spark-plug, energy guy that the opposing team always hates. And he hit that big 3 in the 4th which imho, was the "GTFO" sign to the Bulls.
Marco Belinelli:C
Marco didn't really give anything of significance despite having relatively a lot of minutes compared to the other guys who made more impact. Got lost on D even against that scrub rookie mcdermott, and only converted 1 out of 3 3ptrs.
Bonner, Cojo,Ayres: INC
They didn't matter. Although Bonner played significant minutes(in the 1st to 2nd quarter) he didn't do anything that helped us. Seriously, the dude is so bad right now. I feel bad for Cojo, he's a great guy and a decent PG but when Tp and Patty play like that there's no place for him. And UH HUH!
Pop:B
I like how Pop managed the minutes only Kawhi had high mins with 39 but let's face it, he needs that, he's only 23. Besides some ty line-ups that he was either forced to or was just ing around with, he had a stable game overall.
Spurs looking good, Raptors and Cleveland would be good games to test our strength against the East's good teams. And oh, we're the 6th seed now. Coming for that ass tbh.
Nice thoughts. Fortunately for the good guys TP isn't heavily relied on for defense. Many good signs. Go Spurs Go!!!
ASCENDING: Spurs
Awesome bud.Status of the team
In the middle of a 4game winning streak in a 6 game homestand, the Spurs looked good going into this game. Now granted the Bulls was missing 3 key players, and that the winning streak is composed of bad teams I don't think it's any sign of false hope or fool's gold. This team, when on is on. It's just a matter of getting there, and this current streak is more than a step towards the right direction. We saw how in their best form, it doesn't matter who they face, if they win it's because of them(2014), if they lose basically it's because of themselves also (2013).
Now back to the game:
Tim Duncan: C-
Although getting a decent +/- of +7, Timmy looked more of a liability this game. He was slow on defense except for some instances where he challenged the drives well, he was trying to force up shots in the low-post and in the mid-range which gave us a bad start in the 3rd. Overall, this wasn't just the game for Tim. Also first time in his career without getting a FG, yikes.
Kawhi Leonard:B+
I would've given Kawhi an A but there were around 2-3 times where he could've gone for the drive when he was up against a big but instead chose to shoot 3's which resulted in 0-4 from downtown. But in every other aspect, Kawhi shined. Giving us 20 pts 8 rebs, 3 steals that all lead to fastbreaks and most importantly the constant pressure he throws at the opponent and the energy that he brings to the team. As the season goes by, Kawhi keeps on improving and solidifying his spot as the team's best player.
Tony Parker:B+
Same for Kawhi, I would've given Tony an A but because of one aspect of the game, I chose not to. TP played poorly at the defensive end, started with Brooks and then Brooks went off thus forcing Pop to put danny on him. And then on the third before his amazing 15 pts straight, he was also getting burned in defense. But other than that, Tony was perfect in this game. Like I said, the highlight was that 3rd quarter of his, carrying the offense when no one could hit anything. Also hitting key shots in the 4th that finally put the game to rest. What I also liked was that Tony was showing signs of being able to drive at will to the paint. When he does that instead of chucking up inefficient long 2s then we're going to have a good night. 32 pts on 13-19? Not bad at all.
Manu Ginobili:B+
Manu was the 6th man Manu that he was like last season. When he came in the offense just looked better 16 points (+14), but not only that, he tied Kawhi with the most steals in the game in 3. It's impossible to put into words the impact that this guy brings, from orchestrating the 2nd unit's offense, getting steals, and just being pesky overall, all that in just 25 minutes of play.
Tiago Splitter:B
It was a weird game for Tiago, he played well on defense, played ok in offense but only got 22 mins of play. The bright side is he's continuing on being his old self, like many of us have said many times before, Tiago makes or breaks our defense. It's in him whether our D is elite and when he is off, then it's a free 2pts every time for the penetration.
Boris Diaw:C
Boris made the most out of his 5 minutes of playing time with his excellent passing and vision. Unfortunately, after he fouled twice in like 1 min in the first quarter, he was put in Pop's doghouse for the rest of the game.
Danny Green:B+
The other half of wingstop. 2 steals, 3/6 from 3's, 50% from the field, 11 points. I'm so glad Danny got out of his slump already. Just his defense alone brings so much value to the team but if you add his great 3pt shooting on top of that, then things will open up so much for the other guys. And besides, Danny is a player that plays up to his confidence, so shooting nights like this will only help our cause.
Patty Mills:A
The only A for the game. Patty was amazing in only 16 mins of play, he managed to score 15 pts shooting 6/9 from the field and 75% from 3. He was the usual spark-plug, energy guy that the opposing team always hates. And he hit that big 3 in the 4th which imho, was the "GTFO" sign to the Bulls.
Marco Belinelli:C
Marco didn't really give anything of significance despite having relatively a lot of minutes compared to the other guys who made more impact. Got lost on D even against that scrub rookie mcdermott, and only converted 1 out of 3 3ptrs.
Bonner, Cojo,Ayres: INC
They didn't matter. Although Bonner played significant minutes(in the 1st to 2nd quarter) he didn't do anything that helped us. Seriously, the dude is so bad right now. I feel bad for Cojo, he's a great guy and a decent PG but when Tp and Patty play like that there's no place for him. And UH HUH!
Pop:B
I like how Pop managed the minutes only Kawhi had high mins with 39 but let's face it, he needs that, he's only 23. Besides some ty line-ups that he was either forced to or was just ing around with, he had a stable game overall.
Spurs looking good, Raptors and Cleveland would be good games to test our strength against the East's good teams. And oh, we're the 6th seed now. Coming for that ass tbh.
Kawhi was such a presence all game defensively and it was so good to see TP look more like a high-end NBA player again.
I'm loving the wins, the cohesion taking place and getting ready for the playoffs!
BTW...thanks OP
I understand not wanting to give Gino an A, so it doesn't appear like he played better than other players, but this is what an A game from Gino looks like in this day and age. That's close to his ceiling these days, which is still very productive.
Solid grades overall.
Thanks 100%duncan!
Good win and great grades.
Thank you! Great read.
Really bummed I missed this game. Damn daylight savings time.
Thanks for the grades.
Thanks for the post...really tough to see how Parker doesn't get an A here...he had 2 big steals on defense (only 1 less than Kawhi & Manu), and had the best offensive game of the year for any Spur. Just not real sure how he gets the same exact grade as Ginobili & Danny Green and only slightly better than Splitter. Furthermore, how does Tim stay in the C range with arguably the worst offensive game of his entire career? Just feels like there might need to be a little more separation when we're talking about the best offensive game of the season and the worst offensive game of an 18-year career.
Edit: Didn't even see that Patty got a better grade than Parker...ok I was trying to take it easy, but come on man. Let's be real here. We're talking about a 32/4/2/2 game being worse than a 15/1/0/1 game? The downplaying of what Parker does for this team is unreal. The guy ran off 15 straight points for the Spurs when the Bulls got as close as they had for most of the game in the third. Parker ran off Mills' whole night of production in a few minutes.
Last edited by SASdynasty!; 03-08-2015 at 11:44 PM.
Great energy from everyone in this game - especially for an afternoon game where they're usually lethargic. Lets keep the win streak going.
Raptors and Cavs will be a further test to see if we're really rounding into form or just beating up on bad/wounded teams.
Btw, anyone know the name of the song they played at the end of the Sprint half-time report?
You read my mind
I said my defense for the tp grade already, he was getting lost against brooks in the 1st and third quarters. I'm also grading it based on my view on their personal standards, patty played like the patty of game 5 in the finals.
Good thoughts from you though, discussion and criticism are good things.
Ok, if the grades represent how they played relative to their personal standards, that makes sense. So in other words, Mills getting an A doesn't mean he did more for the team than Parker, he just played closer to his full potential than Parker did to his?
Playing to his full potential and giving a lot to the team. Big 3's from him especially the one to put away the game.
To be fair with tony he played more mins so obviously je was bound to make more mistakes like getting lost on defense. Patty on the other hand in his limited mins wasnt a liability in defense and shot very well in the field.
you Forgot Baynes.... Didn't get to watch much of the game... From the little I did see b- fairly effective on defense not much on offense other than screens.
Oh yah. I'd give him a C+. He got schooled by Pau all game.
Seemed effective on Noah... Didn't see him on gasol much but only really caught the last 12 minutes of the game after work. Considering gasol is an all star averaging over 18 ppg and more since rose went down most second string bigs will be schooled.
Not going to quibble between a b- and c+ through.
I am a Mills fan but to give him more than Parker is ridiculous. Mills certainly did what he is paid to do - energise the team; demoralize the opponent. But his success largely depends on Parker causing defence problems so that Mills gets space. Spurs prospects depend on Parker's game. Pop knows that ; so does Parker who depends like most players on being confident. The best aspect of this game is that Tony might regain his confidence and finally beat off the effects of playing injured.
Mills doesn't even play with Parker together
Nice work. Thanks breh.
Welcome everyone. Would be nice if we can do this every game, a lot of brilliant minds in here tbh
Nice reading, thanks.
Thanks
Game grades? Brings back memories.
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