I agree with timvp that Blair's lack of rebounding is troubling...but he seems to be developing a post game and learning to use his body. He swished a jumper at the beginning of the game too.
His defense is still iffy though.
Danny has been sloppy, IMO. He mixed a lot of garbage with some good stuff. He's been fouling too much while reaching. He needs to slow down, know he's not going to get a block or a steal every possession and focus on the job at hand.
Kawhi also started slow but kept his composure and elevated his game.
If Pop wants the Spurs to be a good defensive team, he has to play the front court of Tim, Tiago and Kawhi together as much as he can. That can be a great defensive threesome up front. Combine them with Manu when he comes back and Tony, and those five can D up pretty well and have enough firepower on the other end to win games in the fourth quarter, although the offense will have to come a lot from in the paint because there won't be a whole lot of shooting with that quintet except for Gino.
Green had his good moments but, IMO, he had too many iffy moments for a player whose main focus should be not making mistakes. I think Green gets in trouble sometimes when he wants to make a play instead of taking what is given.
Off the top of my head, such plays include: 1) When he failed to box out Parsons and then overreacted and fouled Lowry. That was especially bad and deserving of the immediate hook because Neal made the same mistake in the first half. 2) I haven't watched the replay but there's no excuse for getting stuck under a pick and leaving Lowry wide open for three when the Spurs had a chance to put it away in regulation. Unless the tape shows something that made it 100% unavoidable, Green deserves blame for that. 3) When he didn't retreat to the right area in transition defense and then ended up having to foul Dragic in the fourth.
One of his first half three-pointers was almost a no-look shot. He caught the ball, looked to pass for a split second and then shot it. Not surprisingly, it was an airball. Another three he seemed to force it after not being ready to shoot when he caught it. And, if I'm remembering correctly, that one two-pointer he made was a throw-it-at-the-basket-and-hopes-it-goes-in shot.
I do agree that "bad shots" was a poor way to describe those shots though. They weren't bad shots as in he shouldn't have shot them ... it was more about the execution of the shots.
A few revelations: Pop is not afraid to use Tiago and Kawhi to finish close games. He is also open to go small, with Kawhi at the PF, at times we will see a line-up of Tony, Manu , RJ, Kawhi and Timmy late in the playoffs, and some occasions depending on match-ups yes Pop will use Tiago and Timmy together with Kawhi being the SF.. I'm all for this yehey !
BTW Blair is not finishing games for us. Tiago or Kawhi will be the Bigs who will finish.
It's obvious the guys Pop trust coming of the bench are: Tiago, Kawhi, Neal and Green. (special defense situations). Yeah Blair will start but he ain't finishing
Great post.
The question to ask now is what happens when Manu returns? We all know Manu finishes games alongside Timmy and TP. Who are the other two players?
I believe it's going to be a matter of match-ups, as you've pointed out.
I'm pretty damn excited that we have several options at the rotation. This team can compete defensively any given night, it's just a matter of time until that revelation is met.
when KL/TS can hit that FT freebies consistently they be closing out games
As always, your take is fair. The comments in the game thread weren't. I didn't have the first half recorded, so I'll take your word on the two shots. I remember the one he made, but didn't notice it being a prayer. Or the no-look 3, but I'm sure you're right.
As for the moving pick - Scola kept trying that same play, over and over. He drove R.J. back to the FT line on the other side of the court. And when he got Green, he used one outstretched arm to corral him. And when I watched in in super-slow, he took three steps (backwards) in driving Green back to the FT line. Green was successful in shrugging that same screen off every other time. But if you have a guy trying to do that, he's going to get you sooner or later. Once he had full body on Green, he just backed him away from Lowry. I don't think there's much Green could have done to stop that one. Either way, the people saying that Green left his man are full of crap.
On the missed box out - I was specifically watching them when the play happened. Green was guarding Parsons in the corner. I was impressed by the way he anticipated the shot, and put himself into perfect position for the rebound. He just forgot about Parsons, and he timed his charge perfectly and stole it from Green. No question he missed that one. But he doesn't make that mistake often. Mostly he does one of a job boxing out guys bigger than him, and holding good position. If our bigs and pseudo-bigs did it as well, we wouldn't give up so many second chance points. And if we're counting missed box-outs as major defensive gaffes, Pop would have half the team on the bench. But, yeah, that one was a legitimate blown play.
All in all, Lowry did a lot less damage to the Spurs when Green as on him, than when anyone else was on him. That's not shabby.
I can't wait to see the effect Thomas has when playing with Leonard. They know each others moves and it should be an even better defensive effort.
Just for the record, the Spurs are #7 in Defensive Rebound% (75.3).
Our defensive problem does not come from rebounding (5th worse opponent FG%, 4th worse eFG%).
But thanks for the breakdown of DG's game.
About the Scola "moving screen", it is something he does since he his in the NBA. I wonder why he is never called.
Thanks for taking the time to write these grades and assessments, timvp! You mentioned Tiago's post defense. I believe that when you factor-in the really nice job he did on Scola in the OT period, it's difficult not to praise him. Pop went "Big", Splitter for Green, for the entire OT and that proved to be a key strategy. Now, if the Rockets had executed a little better when it had mis-matches, going Big might have hurt in other areas but Splitter defended Luis admirably.
I agree that this was one of RJ's forgettable defensive games. Two miscues at the end could have cost the Spurs: not fouling before lowry hit the 3 (It might have been nice to have had Dalembert at the FT line instead) and basically forcing TP to switch to Parsons in the Side-OB play. Houston got the wonderful mis-match even though Parsons missed the leaning layup.
As a side note, I was also glad to see Houston slow the pace on offense (they were gassed). It kept them from pushing the pace, which might have hurt the Spurs at the end...including a wonderful mis-match Martin had on Duncan on the wing, Martin deferring to the strategy to pass the ball to the top to Lowry to set up the offense.
It was good to see Duncan moving this well on the second night of a B2B. True, he was tired at the end of the game, but that's to be expected - and it didn't prevent him from running the floor and playing hard.
Leonard was burned pretty bad a couple of times by Martin early in the game, but he adapted and got much better at defending him later on. That's a good sign, because I think it also shows his basketball IQ. The same can be said for his offense: he usually doesn't try to do too much or to take shots he is not comfortable with. Also, it is nice to have a good rebounder now that Blair seems to have forgotten how to do that.
Neal looked pretty lost as a PG, but we should at least give him a couple of games before a final verdict. He is also the worst defender on the Spurs right now. Let's hope it's mostly due to him not having regained full strenght yet after the injury, as timvp indicated.
It's great that RJ continues to light it up from downtown, but a drive to the rim here and there and a bit more intensity and effort on the defensive end would even be better.
TP was just great.
Looks OK on paper, but teams would just collapse and clog the paint, which won't leave enough room for Manu or Tony to penetrate, neither for Timmy to try a low post move. None of them are great mid-range shooters.
Kawhi will need to start hitting the corner three at 40%. I'm sure it's in his TODO list, knowing Pop.
...or in the situation last night, RJ was in the front court with Timmy and Tiago, while Kawhi was in the back court.
So we are now where we were last year minus Antonio McDyess. People are wanting Blair to come off the bench, want RJ to get less minutes even though he's been the Spurs best player thus far, and wanting basically people who aren't playing to play. It's a case of the grass being greener.
Regardless who plays, people are going to want others to play instead. Had RJ gotten the ball sometime in the last 10 minutes of the game, he might have done something. Sure Parker was doing ok, but he was ignoring his shooters and playing one on 4 ball. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but last night should never have gone to OT.
Neal certainly isn't bashful about getting his shots up, is he?I'm not quite ready to go that far. I'd give Neal a few more games. It can't be easy to suddenly become a point guard. At least he didn't turn the ball over. That in itself is pretty impressive for a guy making the switch to that position ... even though he didn't turn the ball over because he was busy shooting it.
I'm sure it's a quality that has endeared himself to Pop.
Me too, but I also worry how Leonard will react if his good friend Thomas is cut.
It worked okay with the twin towers and a bunch of saavy old swingmen like Kersey and Ellie.
Anyway, this team seems to find ways to score no matter what -- it's the defense that this lineup might establish to set the tempo early in games.
Neal is not more of a backup PG than RMJ was and it destroyed RMJ. The way Anderson is palying I would noty be opposed to giving some minutes to Joseph (Anderson minutes to Neal) or siging an interim back up PG (Ahearns) until TJ or Manu is back.
seriously NEAL shouldnt be doing PG duties, even though he sometimes over dribbles to create for himself to move in closer for the midrange jumper...
other then that he doesnt do anything a pg does....
Something that I find so obvious in this game: Spurs were tired. They were often late on transition defense, screens and pick and rolls. When you look at the schedule, it isn't a surprise. It was Spurs 6th game in 8 days and a back to back with a big travel. Considering that, it's a very good win and it's hard to complain about Spurs not playing well.
Blair and RJ looked the most tired. Their transition defense was dismal. IMO, Blair recent struggles could be explained by a lack of energy. Hopefully Blair can refill his tank soon. Being energetic and active is crucial for Blair to overcome his size issue.
The defense in the first quarter was awful. In addition of being tired, Spurs were lazy. Instead of playing some sounded defense, they took the easy road by making gambles. Almost all of these gambles failed.
Parker deserves a D. Parker's mind is still stuck in 07.
One thing I don't get about this box score.
Why is Blair just listed as a "Forward" . . .
But Bonner is listed as a "Power Forward?"
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