Grades: Spurs vs. Kings - Jan. 20

[SenorSpur]

Oh and a gigantic F for ghe little girl who said the coyote was her favorite player.

But a gigantic A+ for Kimberly Crawford for gracing the screen with her mere presence in interviewing the little girl. She's making me forget all about Cynthia Lee.

[Obstructed_View]

Joseph was atrocious, however, I was kind of expecting to do better as the game progresses, similar pattern to his previous games, but that never happened.

This is what I wondered about. I could understand if you said he was invisible, but in what way was he atrocious? He only played six minutes in one appearance and really didn't touch the ball or run the offense or impact the game positively or negatively, so I don't see how one can expect him to improve. He turned the ball over first thing and then didn't turn it over anymore. That's more of an improvement than Parker made in his first six minutes of the game.

The job of the backup point guard is to not lose the game. There's no way anyone can point to Joseph as the reason the Spurs got so badly outscored when he came into the game.

[angelbelow]

This is what I wondered about. I could understand if you said he was invisible, but in what way was he atrocious? He only played six minutes in one appearance and really didn't touch the ball or run the offense or impact the game positively or negatively, so I don't see how one can expect him to improve. He turned the ball over first thing and then didn't turn it over anymore. That's more of an improvement than Parker made in his first six minutes of the game.

The job of the backup point guard is to not lose the game. There's no way anyone can point to Joseph as the reason the Spurs got so badly outscored when he came into the game.

You can be nitpicky with my choice of words (afterall this is a causal forum where exaggeration is encouraged)but my point is that he didn't help. He missed his own shot by a wide margin and turned the ball over on his very first play. Invisible is definitely the more appropriate term.

Parker makes an impact just by being on the floor. Hes someone you have to keep your eye one from an opponents perspective. Hes capable of scoring in bunches and is a proven offensive threat. Its truly parker was bad to start the game but hes not exactly the type of player to remain that way.

And I was simply saying that in Cory's previous games; he would make more of an impact in the 2nd half. I was hoping to see that here but that never happened. (perhaps this is poor wording but it just means Pop never put him back in/he never got the opportunity to do so.)

[chazley]

Wow you guys are completely clueless. Bonner has deserved everything people have said about him this season, but to put this game on him is bull . He played well tonight. Hit a huge three for us. Rebounded really well. After he missed that wide open three in the fourth, he had a beautiful drive to the basket that we rarely see from him - you could tell he was pissed and I loved seeing him drive towards the basket with authority. He was on the court with Tiago for almost the entire fourth quarter, and he fits well with Splitter. Tiago had a ton of room to operate, but our entire team just pretended like he wasn't there and decided to take jump shots. I still think 20 minutes is too much time for Bonner to be on the court, but I love what he brings in a limited amount of minutes. He had a +11 tonight, and it wasn't a fluke.

This loss goes on Pop. Duncan only played 25 minutes tonight.. if he plays 28 we win. This extreme minute-coddling has to stop. No reason Duncan should play 25 minutes in a game with no foul trouble in a very close game. I don't give a if it's a back to back.

And come on Danny Green. At least hit the rim bro.

[TJastal]

Wow you guys are completely clueless. Bonner has deserved everything people have said about him this season, but to put this game on him is bull . He played well tonight. Hit a huge three for us. Rebounded really well. After he missed that wide open three in the fourth, he had a beautiful drive to the basket that we rarely see from him - you could tell he was pissed and I loved seeing him drive towards the basket with authority. He was on the court with Tiago for almost the entire fourth quarter, and he fits well with Splitter. Tiago had a ton of room to operate, but our entire team just pretended like he wasn't there and decided to take jump shots. I still think 20 minutes is too much time for Bonner to be on the court, but I love what he brings in a limited amount of minutes. He had a +11 tonight, and it wasn't a fluke.

This loss goes on Pop. Duncan only played 25 minutes tonight.. if he plays 28 we win. This extreme minute-coddling has to stop. No reason Duncan should play 25 minutes in a game with no foul trouble in a very close game. I don't give a if it's a back to back.

And come on Danny Green. At least hit the rim bro.

Who pinned this loss on Bonner? I only see a few lackluster comments throughout the thread regarding Matty but nothing suggesting he caused the loss.

[analyzed]

This one is on Pop, for failing to use go to TD and Tiago , we were up by 6 with 3 to go, and we ended up taking horrible possesions, plus defensivly the match-ups did'nt work Green on Evans and Neal and bonner on who ever.
TD and Kawhi would should have been on the court at least for defense

[silverblk mystix]

"You guys missed it. I give myself an -A+- simply because we almost beat a tough Sacramento team. Did you see when Tiago had his man pinned under the basket and I called a timeout? ...I kill me!" Did you see when Tiago thought he could dominate after making a nice move on Cousins and I refused to call a play for him? ...I'm loving this season."

[xmas1997]

this game and the next 3 games are all winnable, i dunno wtf pop is doing...

CIA Pop positioning the team for the lottery this year?

[TJastal]

"You guys missed it. I give myself an -A+- simply because we almost beat a tough Sacramento team. Did you see when Tiago had his man pinned under the basket and I called a timeout? ...I kill me!" Did you see when Tiago thought he could dominate after making a nice move on Cousins and I refused to call a play for him? ...I'm loving this season."

Heh. If that's all true Pop better pull his head out of his ass and soon. This ain't gonna be like last season when the spurs could have coasted the last 20 games and rested every starter and still ended up a top 3 seed.

[venitian navigator]

One thing for sure is that in our first "road trip" we spent a lot of energies...
Imho in games like this one, I mean at home and against a winnable team under 50 %, we should try to start from the beginning the most rested, young and unexperienced players, risking to lose maiybe the game at the cost of giving them the chance to make some noise...giving our "old men" some mopre rest for the following back to back game on the road.
There are players like Anderson that need an injection oif confidence, that could come in any time giving a decent amount of playing time and the shoots finally falling...
There are players like Joseph and Thomas that young, full of energies and need to be put in a situation where they have a chance to just show something new...that in the course oif the season could be highly beneficial for the team.

If there is a season where young and unexperienced guys must been enabled to make experience, and I mean having more than 15/20minutes in certain games (and even more if, playing, they show they deserve more), is this one, with a bunch of games all in a row...

It makes no sense to let the young guys sitting on the bench...

That said, we still are a big short...and I don't understand why the F.O. is doing nothing in that regard.

Bonner and Blair are both a so strong defensive liability that should be considered at the same level of the new (or semi new) guys....means they don't deserve guaranteed minutes if they don't show playing that they are gonna earn them.

One big that can run, block shots and be, all in all, a decent defensive presence is badly needed and could easily be one that take at least a small amount of toijme out of our only bighs that, 'cause of age or "fragility", needs to measure their minutes and preserve their energies for the (eventual) play off time, at least in the "regular" games of a so condensed season.

[Nathan89]

"You guys missed it. I give myself an -A+- simply because we almost beat a tough Sacramento team. Did you see when Tiago had his man pinned under the basket and I called a timeout? ...I kill me!" Did you see when Tiago thought he could dominate after making a nice move on Cousins and I refused to call a play for him? ...I'm loving this season."

Yes, I saw all of that.

Pop

[dbestpro]

Someone needs to explain to me what Joseph did that was so terrible other than to be on the floor when nobody could play defense, grab a rebound or hit a shot.

He couldn't pass the ball, picked up his dribble, couldn't hit a shot, couldn't play defense and was piss poor holding the popcorn.

[dbestpro]

Before Bonner hit the three he O for 3 with 2 rebounds for the whole game. Bonner, Blair, RJ, and Joseph are not providing this team with what it needs in the minutes they play. If you can't score than you have to play hard. These players simply take too many plays off night end and night out. I think we can accept failure for many reasons, but lack of effort or lack of brain cells are not two of them.

[quentin_compson]

When there was a timeout being called after Green's dunk in the first quarter, I seriously thought for a moment that it was Pop who took it in order to explain to Danny what he thinks of guys who dunk.

[ManuTastic]

In hindsight, Pop probably should have put Duncan back into the game to close it out. It would have been nice to have let Duncan rest most of the fourth and then go for another win tomorrow night, but that gamble didn't pay off. If Pop isn't going to trust Joseph, he really needs to go out and sign another point guard. Running Parker into the ground isn't the answer.

Good writeup as usual. I wholly agree with these last two points. At the end, I almost thought Pop was playing Splitter too long as a giant F-you to all the calls for more Splitter PT. He's not that much of an a-hole, is he?
And we desperately need SOMEONE to run point when Parker sits. Sign someone. Really, anyone at this point. Without Ford, when Parker sits we look like a JV team.

[wildbill2u]

A terrible shooting night like this one usually means that the players are tired and don't have their legs under them. I don't think the players on any team really have rounded into game shape physically yet. The lack of pre-season conditionaing and camp is beginning to show. TP was sharp early because he played in Eurpope, but maybe is burning down some now because of it.

I suspect we'll see more of this. Since we have turned into a jump shooting 3pt team --and have some age on our best players--the effects of the compressed schedule will hit the Spurs more than some teams.

[TDMVPDPOY]

the problem is fkn pop never puts our strongest team out on the court to close the quarters....

[Josepatches_]

Remember when people here said Splitter has no offensive game..lol

He's no a young TD but he can score in the low post.

He had off nights like everybody but you can't judge him when he was playing a few minutes. And of course we can't say now that we have to run the offense through him because he had 2 good games in a row.

Here in Spain where we knew Splitter very well people couldn't understand why he didn't play more minutes last year. This year I only hope he can show everybody how good he is .

[SpurNation]

Great writeup.

Regarding Splitter, for the life of me, I don't understand why his teammates don't feed him in the post, when he has it rolling against his opponent. Sean Elliott has harped on this repeatedly on the broadcasts and he's absolutely right. Everyone knows this team has become to reliant on outside shots, which makes it even more appalling that Splitter isn't getting the touches. They need as many easy baskets as they can possibly amass. It's a damn shame and I just wonder why the Pop doesn't address the situation?

My sentiments exactly regarding feeding Tiago more.

What is the most glaring though in this game they lost (and the one's they've won) is the points in the paint other teams bigs AND perimeter players are racking up against the Spurs.

They are ranked 22nd in the league allowing points in the paint. 19th in overall defense. And a dismal next to last in the league at allowing points in away games at 105. Only Charollete is worst on the road.

They are ranked 5th best in the league at scoring though...so...offense isn't the issue.

What to do about their extremely poor post interior defense? I have no clue or if it's even feasible to fix this year if there were an answer.

[acoelho1]

30 mins for RJ is a joke. He is such a weak minded player when his J is not falling. Did you see him pass up a wide open 3 pointer. Everyone was bricking it tonight and Pop should have given Anderson a chance. Although his play has been subpar, I rather play him over RJ any day.

Also, Splitter continues to impress. I used think that he was limited in a lot of ways but seeing the shot blocking and the strong post moves, I think we may have found our big. Unfortunately, Pop continues to play turd ball with Bonner/Blair. It will be our undoing just like last year. In looking at the roster, I think we have enough pieces to contend once Manu comes back but it will depend on who gets the most mins.

[EVAY]

Parker played 44 minutes in the Orlando game and 40 minutes in the Sacramento game. He scored 25 points against Orlando and 24 against Sacramento, with 8 or so assists against Orlando and I don't remember how many against Sacramento, but I know it is hard to pick up assists when no one is making buckets.

I think TP is tired. He has essentially carried the team since Manu has been out, and the fact that he once again has virtually zero backup without TJ Ford in the game means he is about all there is.

It is no surprise that he looks tired and his play is not as consistent as one would like it to be, but if it weren't for him, this team wouldn't be 10-6. More like the reverse.

Blame? Look to Pop. There is no excuse for his player management.

[TJastal]

Parker played 44 minutes in the Orlando game and 40 minutes in the Sacramento game. He scored 25 points against Orlando and 24 against Sacramento, with 8 or so assists against Orlando and I don't remember how many against Sacramento, but I know it is hard to pick up assists when no one is making buckets.

I think TP is tired. He has essentially carried the team since Manu has been out, and the fact that he once again has virtually zero backup without TJ Ford in the game means he is about all there is.

It is no surprise that he looks tired and his play is not as consistent as one would like it to be, but if it weren't for him, this team wouldn't be 10-6. More like the reverse.

Blame? Look to Pop. There is no excuse for his player management.

I bet folks won't admit it, but they are having second thoughts about that KL for Hill swap and wishing for Hill back. You could always count on Hill to be healthy and ready to step in for either Parker or Parker's backup. With the emergence of Green as a potential RJ backup the spurs would have been covered at every position and not in the current bind they find themselves in.

[wildbill2u]

I bet folks won't admit it, but they are having second thoughts about that KL for Hill swap and wishing for Hill back. You could always count on Hill to be healthy and ready to step in for either Parker or Parker's backup. With the emergence of Green as a potential RJ backup the spurs would have been covered at every position and not in the current bind they find themselves in.

Second guessing injuries isn't very good analysis. Hill could have been injured as well.

It's bad luck that they got a backup PG who went down. Their 3rd option (Neal) isn't very good as a PG and their 4th option they called up (Joseph) isn't ready for the big show. If anything, they should have brought up the PG from the Toros, Justin Dentmon.

[urunobili]

up 4 with a minute and 30 seconds left Pop decided to stick with that Defenseless lineup... that's a D on the coach TBH

[loveforthegame]

I like that play by Green at the end. It's just unfortunate that he missed. It would be nice to have someone who can get to the basket like that other than Parker and Ginobli.