Reply With Quote
good writeup. Thanks
Overview:
The Spurs came into this game having won four straight, while Portland had just broken a four-game losing streak. Both teams were missing their best players. Despite what some ST threads say, the Spurs were much better able to handle their absence thanks for a pretty even effort.
But it wasn’t pretty starting out. The Spurs got down in the first due to horrible rim-protection leaving perimeter players out to dry and a pretty terrible whistle. On offense, they weren’t able to establish LMA and Pau against a small-ball lineup due to aggressive doubling and digging by the Blazers. Portland, for all of their terrible play, is the closest analogue to Golden State in the league in terms of match-ups. Coming back is awesome, but if the Spurs bigs can’t do a better job imposing their wills, they won’t be able to affect the paint like they need to to give the Spurs a chance to win.
Grades:
STARTERS MIN FG 3PT FT OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF +/- PTS L. AldridgePF 29 2-3 0-0 4-4 1 5 6 1 0 1 3 3 +9 8 P. GasolC 23 4-11 0-0 2-2 2 5 7 3 1 0 1 2 +9 10 T. ParkerPG 22 7-15 1-1 3-5 0 2 2 5 0 0 0 0 -8 18 D. GreenSG 31 6-9 6-8 0-0 0 2 2 1 0 1 3 3 +11 18 K. AndersonSG 28 2-6 0-2 0-0 2 6 8 1 1 1 0 1 +6 4 BENCH MIN FG 3PT FT OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF +/- PTS D. LeePF 16 4-4 0-0 0-0 2 2 4 1 1 0 3 0 +14 8 D. BertansSF 2 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 -2 0 D. DedmonC 13 1-1 0-0 1-2 2 6 8 1 0 0 1 3 -9 3 D. MurrayPG 6 1-4 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 -7 2 P. MillsPG 22 3-4 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 4 2 0 2 3 +27 6 J. SimmonsSG 30 5-12 2-4 7-8 1 2 3 2 0 2 1 2 +23 19 M. GinobiliSG 17 4-8 2-5 4-4 1 6 7 2 0 0 2 1 +7 14 TEAM 39-78 11-22 21-25 11 37 48 22 7 5 16 18 11
LaMarcus Aldridge – C: It’s really hard to excuse his inability to handle a double-team. He’s not Kawhi. Being a focal point of an offense isn’t new to him. He scored well when he was actually able to go one-on-one. But it ended up getting him benched that he wasn’t decisive enough with the ball. It doesn’t help, either, that he didn’t do anything to make up for his lack of scoring. His D was mostly pretty awful, and he didn’t rebound like he should have against Portland’s front line. Just forgettable, due mainly to other guys getting the win.
Kyle Anderson – B: His D is real. His O is real…ly shaky. Dude used his length very well to play passing lanes and to contest shots, which is something that the stats seem to underestimate. I love his rebounding. He can definitely board well enough for a full-time PF. If he could have made some more shots, he would have be in A range easily. Glad to see that rim bend down to help Kyle dunk.
Pau Gasol – C-plus: I didn’t love it tonight. He was somewhat pressured in the post, but he also missed a number of short shots with little pressure. That and horrible D really sunk him. Good passing and decent rebounding saved his grade. Pau can play much better.
Tony Parker – B-plus: Dude stepped up when the team needed him to. I don’t like his midrange shots, and he took too many, which hurt the Spurs early. But a Tony that gets into the paint is such a huge asset to this team, that not even his shills can articulate it enough. Gotta hope he can have some of that in the playoffs. Just gotta. Could do without the bad D on CJ, though.
Danny Green – A-minus: The TOs and first-quarter D on Crabbe kept him from an A-plus. We know Danny still has another gear. It was nice to see Green more aggressive on offense. He was the minutes leader, and I was happy to see Pop keep him in. Danny didn’t let Portland’s bush-league tactics faze him, and that’s when you know he’s feeling it. He could have scored in the high 20s had the team started looking for him more.
David Lee – B: He was also bad at contesting shots, and those TOs were annoying. But everything else was really nice. His ability to exploit bad defenders in the post is surprisingly and depressingly unique among Spurs bigs, and if the Spurs are to be GS in the WCF, it will involve David neutralizing attempts at small-ball. Can he be Diaw 2.0.1? Hopefully. His ability to score off put-backs is also pretty necessary, given that LMA struggles with tip-ins and Dedmon struggles to score if in general.
Dewayne Dedmon – C-plus: Hard to hate on a perfect FG% and eight boards in 13 minutes. But his D was horrible tonight, and that’s what he’s judged by. I don’t like that his IQ is seeming to atrophy from the beginning of the year. He hasn’t been all that great at contesting shots recently, and he’s been even worse at avoiding stupid fouls. Get it together, Dewayne. The team will need you.
Patty Mills – B-minus: Can’t give him too high of a grade with him not even attempting a three. He showed he can do some other things if he’s not scoring, and that’s really nice. He led the team in plus-minus due in large part to him not forcing anything, moving the ball and pressuring opposing guards. He can’t have this offensive production every game. But he contributed.
Manu Ginobili – A-minus: Half man and half u, the dude continues to impress with his ability to hit timely threes. I really like his energy level right now. He made some stupid passes, but on the whole, it was a pretty heady game. He was in the right spots to get boards and took open shots when the rest of the team was overthinking things. For just a 17-minute outing, the results were pretty remarkable.
Jonathon Simmons – A-minus: He deserved a high grade for being the high scorer. Him deciding to take and make open threes definitely helps raise that grade further. I honestly don’t remember his blocks, and I don’t want to rewatch the game to find them right now. But I thought his D was pretty lackluster. He had a hard time containing penetration. But his main match-up shot 27 percent, so I don’t think I can ding him too much on that end. Great game, Jonnie.
Davis Bertans – INC: Missed his only three attempt but got a steal. Just garbage time.
DeJounte Murray – INC: Might have played enough minutes to get a grade, but I don’t think he deserves to be evaluated for that first stint. That unit was horrible. Still needs to work on his body so he can finish better at the rim. But his length is such an asset when guarding on the ball. Dude could be Livingston 2.0 with his ability to shut down opposing points off the bench. Hopefully, his offense develops differently than Shaun’s did, though.
Pop – C: Honestly thought this was a below-par effort by Pop. His lineup changes were terrible. All the team needed to do was settle into the game, which is what they did once Pop let the regular rotation play out. I hated most of his timeouts, especially the one that came after the Spurs regain momentum. Pop really wanted to call it when Portland had closed the gap to one, but the Spurs ended up scoring on three-straight possessions before some non-CJ player made a long-two. I just didn’t think he pushed the right buttons. The team got it together though, to #EndsJustifyMeans ?
Last edited by Chinook; 12-31-2016 at 12:03 AM.
Thanks
What were Portland's antics with Green? Looked like he was playing around with Ed Davis IMO..
They had one of their players (I think Leonard but that could just be me profiling) stand up and yell in Danny's ear when he was shooting corner-threes on their side. Should totally be against the rules.Thanks
What were Portland's antics with Green? Looked like he was playing around with Ed Davis IMO..
Good write-up
Actually thought Simmons was great on defense. Like you said, he defended Turner really well and was pretty active on that end playing the passing lanes.
Brilliant writeup. Agreed on almost everything, except I probably would cut Pop some slack...it was tough finding a decent rotation when you rely on your bigs to perform..but when Gasol and Aldridge are awful, it becomes reven tricker.
These writeups are getting more and more elaborate...I did one at the start of the season and realized how much time consuming it is so I gave up on the next two.
Great writeup. The Gamegrade quality this year is infinitley better than that of that TIMVP...never liked his understanding lf the game.
Strong write-up! The double team on LA definitely kept him in check, but I'm thankful for an "even" effort and our much better energy in the second half.
It was a great game.... very unusual game but still very exciting!!!
Thanks for the reviews! I agreed with everything....
Game review: A+
Thanks for the grades, and for getting them out so quickly.
The Spurs gave up 32 in the first quarter. But after that, they allowed the Blazers 20, 21, and 21. Somebody had to have played some defense. It's easy to lose sight of that, when they start out so bad - the whole rest of the game you groan every time the other team scores.
You mentioned LMA struggling with tip-ins, and I don't disagree. But last year, he was picking up a lot of his points on those. I even remember people discussing how Pop was letting him hang around on the offensive glass, when he normally insists that guys get back on defense. I don't know why he's not getting those as much this year, but it's not a life long condition.
The refs were making some very uncommon travelling/carrying/double-dribble calls to start the game. Sean commented that it's something a lot of coaches and GM's around the league have been bugging the league to call. The fact that they called so many in one quarter makes me think the league is back up to its old tricks, with the "advisories" to referees. The Spurs weren't doing anything different than all the rest of the teams in the league do every game. Whatever the reason, the zebras came to work looking for those, and it uglied up the first quarter terribly. But if the refs want to call it that tight against all the teams, every game? I'm all for it. Just so long as they are consistent.
LMA didn't see the double coming in time on a number of occasions. But it's also the responsibility of teammates to move and give him someplace to pass. Some of those times, they left him hanging. It's also worth remembering that in the second half, he (and the team) did handle those double teams well at times. And that, I think, forced Portland to stop bringing the hard double as often.
Even when Simmons isn't finishing as well, his aggressiveness keeps pressure on the opposing defense. Pop had some really positive things to say about him in the post-game. I know people get frustrated with him. But pay attention when Pop talks about a player that way. I don't think he's in danger of losing any minutes, and I don't think he's going to disappear come playoff time, unless he really regresses from where he is right now.
I didn't see the Blazers' bench doing that to Danny, but I believe you. I'm not going to dredge through the rules this late, but I'm pretty sure it is illegal as , if that's what they were doing. The way Danny shot, Pop might want to encourage other teams to do it.
I definitely saw it too, well at least on Danny's last 3-pointer as I didn't watch the whole game. Danny laughed it off and gave a look to the Blazers bench
Obligatory Highlights:
For GSH , check the 6:40 mark. When Green is about to shoot, it looks like the Portland bench is celebrating. But they're actually yelling in his ear, which is why he starts laughing as he walks away. That's the most pronounced example, but they did that on prior shots from that area as well. Sean commented at least twice and didn't seem to think it was a big deal. But it seemed very amateurish to me.
Pretty standard practice in the NBA. Even coaches do it.
Spolestra is notorious at shouting at opposing shooters..
I do not understand why/how pop lets Anderson log 28 min 4pts 8reb...
Meanwhile Bertans rots on the bench and prob would of doubled the stats Panderson tallied..
Enjoy the new matt bonner everyone.
Bertans tried to show he OG latvian style including through media .
Enjoing this place called the doghouse.
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL SPURS FANS!!!!!!!
Love you all guys! Thanks for being a part of my life!
(I always visit this spurstalk website when doing my internet.) And Ive learned a lot from all of you!
MABUHAY (Long Live)!
-----------------------------------------------------------
For our beloved SAN ANTONIO SPURS!
MAY YOU WIN THE NBA LE AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooo!
To all Spurstalk Fans:
SPURSTALK FANS ======= Best sports fans in all the world!
https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...r+celtic+woman
https://www.youtube.com/results?sear...r+celtic+woman
Parker trying to play heroball at the start with Kawhi out and leading the team to a double digit deficit; par for the course.
Yeah, that's what he's doing. (I said I believed you.) Danny did the best thing he could possibly do, which is to knock down the shot. Smirking at the guys was just a little bonus.
Turns out, what the guy did there isn't against the rules. (I thought it was, too.) Here is the rule interpretation that deals specifically with it, and it's not a violation:
366. Player A1 attempts a 3-point field goal directly in front of Team B’s bench. As he is in the act of shooting, bench Player B10 jumps straight up and yells “miss it.” Is there a penalty? No. There is no penalty for standing up, yelling, stomping or clapping as long as they do not break the plane of the sideline, run/charge towards a shooter or wave/throw a prop. For purposes of this rule, the sideline extends (imaginary) past the baseline. RULE 12A - SECTION V - a[/I]
Last edited by GSH; 12-31-2016 at 12:25 PM.
Thanks for the writeup and organizing grades, Chinook!
That's the same crap the OKC bench did to Stephen Jackson in 2012, (assistant coaches as well) and Jack got t'ed up for freaking looking at them, not saying a word.
Still annoyed about that officiating lol
Glad Green burned them last night
Parker doesn't deserve to be .333 of a grade away from Fathead tbh
18 & 5 in 22 minutes >>> 4 & 1 in 28 minutes
and 2 of those 4 points came from a great Parker pass
Thanks for the great write up though
Celtics during the Doc era used to throw towels & pull off other shenanigans. It was pretty standard in the 90s, tbh.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
