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Good work, sir...
Nice write up.
And the links!
Good work, sir...
Htf. Patty Mills let Matthew Belladonna break him down about 3 times in the second half. So embarrassing
F minus and F minus for the season. Mills' days are numbered he's good for one three a game now. and 3 ppg on 30% shooting. Woof
I don't think Patty is going anywhere, he's the glue guy.
However, teams are going to exploit that hole in his defense. I would plug it with a healthy dose of Simmons.
This writeup is reminiscent of the ones that caused me to become a daily lurker way back in 04. I especially liked the quarter by quarter recap at the beginning and then highlights from around the league at the end.......seriously???? Great stuff, you outdid yourself or this one! Kudos
Manu and TD both deserve B's.
Otherwise, I'm fine with this. Aldridge better show up vs. Golden state...or what use is he if he folds in big games?
Cry Havoc what an entertaining and informative review. You've set the bar extremely high. Thank you.
I agree with you that Manu and TD. However, maybe the Op has a different curve.
I keep saying that Aldridge needs to show up against stiffer compe ion. What good is he if he only scores in the regular season against non-playoff teams?
Nice breakdown. Thanks for the writeup
When I found this board the post game grades were the thing that made me stay and I must admit this is one of the best I have ever seen. This is some of the highest praise I can offer because I loved the old game grades. Great to see ST rising up to new heights as the Spurs themselves seem to be doing. Great job CH! Go Spurs Go, keep the home winning steak alive and break the Dubs home winning streak on the 25th.
Aldridge may have deserved a D; but I like that he wasn't forcing it and taking the team out of the game.
Nice reading cry !
Great write up! One of the best regular season games I have seen.
I understand some of the low grades for Tim and Aldridge, but those guys made big plays down the stretch, so I'd bump each of them up a grade.
Thanks for the kind words, everyone.
I think it's pretty humorous to see that there are people who think I should have scored a particular player higher, and then a few posts down they said I was too generous in my grades. Hopefully that means I found the sweet spot.
Regarding Bobo/Patty, I will say that I was intentionally being a bit generous due to the fact that they never really had a chance to be in rhythm because they didn't play much.
Duncan and LMA both had reduced grades because neither picked up the other's offensive slack. That won't fly in the playoffs.
Really quite an amazing win though, all things considered. We were down by 15 to a great, if not elite team, 3 of our starters and several of our bench players did not provide much offense, and we still took over in the 4th and won relatively comfortably, as we were up by double digits for some time in the 4th and led by 8 and 7 really late in the game. A couple of late shots by the Cavs made this look like more of a nail biter than it was.
This team has not one but two entirely separate gears for their defense. The first is where they are simply consistent and opportunistic and take advantage of any mistake you make. That is the gear they use a lot and the players are talented enough that it alone is enough to supply elite defense for the entire 48.
The tallest gear is where they completely rip the gameplan out of your hands and force mistakes all over the court. LeBron might have scored 22 last night but I've never seen him work that hard, nor have I seen another player in the NBA who can do what Kawhi does to all-world players (currently). Bowen was a container on defense. He could seal you up and make it difficult to get good shots. Kawhi is a destroyer, he dictates to the offensive player what they will do, both before and after they catch the ball. That kind of ability is usually reserved for all-time greats of the sport, and is exceptionally rare for a non-big. I can only name a few that could do that on defense who were not over 6'8". Jordan, Scottie, and Payton are the only ones that really jump out at me (too young to remember Moncrief but I know he deserves some considerations), and if you want to include non-center bigs the list only expands a bit -- Rodman, Duncan obviously, and maybe LeBron (when he was locked in for a short while, definitely not career). Really good signs for the Spurs moving forward considering Leonard is just 24.
And let's be clear what I'm saying here. After the 1st quarter, that was championship level defense from the Spurs. Full stop. Yes, there were errors made here and there, but overall that is the kind of play that will give any team problems, even the Dubs. I can only imagine Curry trying to get free with Green and Leonard hounding him over PnRs. I don't think Curry is fast enough to beat the length we have if we're locked in... although that shot is so, so fast to go up.
Last edited by Cry Havoc; 01-15-2016 at 12:43 PM.
As bad as that game looked for the Spurs, and as loudly as people screamed about their terrible play:
The Spurs outplayed the best team in the East, and the Best player in the game in nearly every stat.
Total Rebounds
Offensive Rebounds
Turnovers
Fast Break Points
Points in the Paint
Assists
Steals
Turnovers
Blocked Shots
Personal fouls committed
They tied the Cavs in Defensive Rebounds, and had an insignificant deficit in FG% (38-82 Spurs vs 38-83 Cavs).
Bottom line, even after that disastrous start, the Spurs outplayed the Cavs top to bottom. The only two areas that the Cavs were better were 3P% and FTA - the Cavs went to the line 22 times, compared to 11 for the Spurs, even though Cleveland committed significantly more fouls. Danny shot the 3 badly, Tony was worse, and Manu was worse than that. That needs to improve.
The rest of the effort just said that Cleveland is a pretty damn good team, but the Spurs are better.
Really good post.
If our 3 ball was falling last night, we would have taken a pretty solid lead in the 2nd and never relinquished it. Shooting 5-17 from downtown against an elite team is a death sentence. If that was the Dubs line, they would have been rolled by the Cavs. But the Spurs not only won, you got the feeling that they knew it was over midway through the 3rd. We took the momentum in the 2nd and just assumed control of the game. Super impressive considering the shooting. Warriors fans here in the Bay have to be very, very concerned about this Spurs team.
Cry it'd be great if you could do game grades constantly,at least come playoffs time
Yes, it would be. Unfortunately it's quite time consuming.
Yeah I know and I understand that...I appreciate the effort you put into it anyway,I really enjoy reading these everytime you put them on here
Nice job on the grades! Some cool photos on those profiles!
Timmy's late bank shot was clutch, and combined with the D he displayed all night I might have bumped him up into solid B range. Green wasn't as horrible his grade read...true he can't hit a shot, but he was decent on D. I wonder how Green would play coming in with the second unit...I wonder if Pop will begin to tinker a bit should DG not get his offensive game in gear soon.
There seems to some some sort of belief that LMA folds in big games, couldn't be further from the truth. Cavs made it a game plan to double him, as you can see in the second half when he got Kawhi an open 3, and they stuck with him on Pick and pops. By doing that, Tony went to the rack at will.
He's stepped up huge against other playoff teams we'll most likely see. And without him this team isn't where it's at.
26pts, 13reb vs Clippers
24pts, 9reb, 2stl vs Rockets
Indeed, I initially had Green at a D+, and then I remembered his disastrous first quarter. I love DG but I admit to being a little impatient with him right now. And I take his good defense for granted at this point.Nice job on the grades! Some cool photos on those profiles!
Timmy's late bank shot was clutch, and combined with the D he displayed all night I might have bumped him up into solid B range. Green wasn't as horrible his grade read...true he can't hit a shot, but he was decent on D. I wonder how Green would play coming in with the second unit...I wonder if Pop will begin to tinker a bit should DG not get his offensive game in gear soon.
With Duncan, his grade was more related to not truly asserting himself. I watched him get pushed out of the lane a lot -- not exactly what should happen against a combo of Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love. 2003 Duncan would have scored 45 points on 25 shots on those guys.
good write-up, Havoc. Appreciate your time and effort.
Did you notice that Pop put Simmons in at the close of the game and took Green out when Cleveland was at FT line. I don't ever remember Pop having that much confidence in a rookie against that kind of compe ion in a close game. I supposed it was because he's quicker, more agile and can sky higher when you need a rebound if one comes off, but still it said something about Green and Simmons to me.
As much wondrous stuff as Kawhi can do, he really isn't a good ball handler in traffic IMO. Most of his TOs (4) came from mishandling the ball and one really bad pass down the stretch. I think he's yet to understand how the other teams will collapse on him and double him when he tries to go into the paint from outside. He's no Parker or Manu on the dribble. But he can do so much already with his post up and outside shots. I'm confident he'll learn to pick his spots better.
I mentioned this in the game thread, and I hate to repeat, but I don't want anyone calling me a Danny-hater. I was at the first pre-season game he played in, and I was a supporter from the beginning. The roster was pretty full, and I didn't know if he would get a shot, but I hoped that he would. I've been a supporter ever since.Nice job on the grades! Some cool photos on those profiles!
Timmy's late bank shot was clutch, and combined with the D he displayed all night I might have bumped him up into solid B range. Green wasn't as horrible his grade read...true he can't hit a shot, but he was decent on D. I wonder how Green would play coming in with the second unit...I wonder if Pop will begin to tinker a bit should DG not get his offensive game in gear soon.
But now, not only is he shooting poorly, he's getting hesitant. They always talk about a "shooter's mentality", and a lot of that is always believing that the next shot is going to fall. I can't see inside his head, but he sure looks like he doesn't believe that anymore. He's passing up shots, and only taking them when it looks like he doesn't have any choice. Add to that the fact that he almost never misses after the play has been blown dead, and it sure looks like it's his head that is broken, not his stroke. The stroke is a lot easier to fix.
Worse, it's starting to look like he's getting hesitant on the defensive end. I hate to make those kinds of judgments based on a few plays, but that's what it looks like. And it's easy to see how a guy who is second guessing himself on one end could start doing it on the other.
I'm sure Pop is on top of it a lot more than any of us could be. Coming out of halftime last night, Pop came out with a play designed to get Danny an open 3-pointer. I thought it was good for Pop to try and show some confidence in Danny. He pulled it down and went in for a mid-range jumper instead, which he tanked. Duncan got the rebound, fed it back to Danny at the 3P line, and he bricked that one, too. I don't know what it would do to Danny's confidence to be taken out of the starting lineup, but it seems like that part, at least, couldn't get much worse.
There's no doubt that Danny would be a defensive terror against second team players. But in general, you have to think that it's the opponents' starting lineups that are doing the most damage. Simmons has proven that he belongs in the NBA now, but he's still inexperienced. I have to wonder if Pop would start Manu for a game, just to get a feel for things, because Manu has seen just about everything.
I'm usually against screwing with chemistry, and this Spurs team definitely has that. I think Pop may give Danny "a night off" like other players, and experiment. But I don't see him making a change unless he thinks that it would take some pressure off Danny and give him a chance to get some confidence back.
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