Grades: Spurs @ Blazers - Feb. 21

[Capt Bringdown]

Shocking how bad the decision to sign RJ turned about to be. What a waste.

[mountainballer]

Pop: A+

a good coach needs to react, when he sees that his (star) players are weary. Pop knows Tim and Tony long and well enough to be able to judge their condition.
with two core player already out with injuries, he needs to be careful about the players health even more.

props to Pop to make a clear cut decision before the game. other coaches might have played them for some minutes to see how they do and how the game develops and then trow in the towel. a better coach just keeps the fighter out of the ring, if he feels the fighter isn't 100% fit.
I also think that it much less hurts the players confidence to call it a loss before the game and play it like a pre season game. it's even a bit like a statement. look, we can afford to drop games. can you?

Lol at all the morons on this board going crazy about this decission. same guys would bash Pop even more, if Tim or Tony get hurt in such a game, or, if the game is lost despite playing Tim and Tony, they would call him incompetent for NOT resting them.

[Old School 44]

Cory Joseph C
C is for see, as in what could the Spurs have seen in Cory Joseph to use a first round pick on him? I'm not quite ready to give up on him but it's a bit troubling that he doesn't appear to have anything resembling an above average NBA talent. Joseph isn't a good athlete. He's not fast. He doesn't have great vision. He's not a supreme ballhandler. He doesn't play great defense. He's not extraordinarily long. He doesn't have natural scoring instincts. He gets little elevation on his jumper, which is shot with a slow release and little rotation on the basketball. I asked a Spurs scout earlier this season what they saw in Joseph and the scout told me that they really liked his leadership abilities and that he had the mental makeup of a successful point guard. That's nice and all but I'd feel better about his long-term prognosis if he showed some sort of potential on the court.

CJ's a "Friend/Family" signing. RC's personal connections with the Longhorns got the better of him with this signing.

I agree with Pop resting Tony and Tim. I rather Portland get this hollow victory rather than have Tim and Tony run themselves ragged on the second night of a tough, travelling, back to back, only to still lose. No need to give the struggling Blazers any additional confidence.

[foodie2]

I'm fine with Pop resting his stars. Duncan just played 38 minutes against a very physical team. Asking him to travel and play the next night against a team that likes to get up and down the court with wiry athletes is asking for trouble. And without Duncan, Ginobili and Splitter, there's no way you run Parker out there. He probably could have kept it close but the reward didn't outweigh the risk. Parker has hit the floor a lot recently, even for his standards. He's played 122 minutes in his last three games and has gone to the free throw line 33 times. Going forward, there isn't even another back-to-back until March 17th, so it's not like Pop is suddenly going to start surrendering left and right. Coming into this season, we all knew Pop was going to be conservative with minutes in this condensed schedule. This was just an extreme, yet necessary, example.

This. I just got up and read the butthurt threads about Pop and it made me laugh. Good grief--it's one game. And if we don't get the #1 seed in the west, we've seen that it makes absolutely zero difference.

[Xevious]

I feel sorry for the Portland fans who actually paid to go to this game.

[TJastal]

CJ's a "Friend/Family" signing. RC's personal connections with the Longhorns got the better of him with this signing.

I agree with Pop resting Tony and Tim. I rather Portland get this hollow victory rather than have Tim and Tony run themselves ragged on the second night of a tough, travelling, back to back, only to still lose. No need to give the struggling Blazers any additional confidence.

I hate to break it to you, but Pop just gave the blazers all the confidence they could ever hope for, both starter and bench alike, the whole damn team basically got a shot of juice lol....

[polandprzem]

[TJastal]

I feel sorry for the Portland fans who actually paid to go to this game.

Don't forget about those spurs fans in the Portland area who also paid to see this abortion of a game; they got screwed even worse since the spurs won't be coming back unless it's for a playoff matchup. I can just imagine some poor kid who was looking forward to this game for weeks in his brand new Duncan/Parker jearsy that he just got for his/her birthday. He/she gets to the game and finds a guy named Eric Dawson is playing in Duncan's place. Kid was probably broken hearted.

[Stringer_Bell]

It's official...Kawhi Leonard is the SF we have all been looking for.

Getting kind of existential here, but...watching Kawhi play is fun because it looks like most of the game he's playing is only happening in his head. Like he's playing a game all to himself and the other players just happen to be on the court. Dunno if that makes sense, but if it does, then it's easy to recognize how much of a badass he is. He's a baller.

[MmP]

Richard Jefferson situation is increidible. Seeing old game from him in NJ makes you really wonder what happened to the guy. Is it the wrong sistem? Is he at a low confidence level? How can any player go from good to absolute scrub?

[Bruno]

I've a mixed feeling about resting Tim and Tony for this game. They surely have played a lot lately but Spurs will have soon a long home stand with no b2b. Playing them and resting them were both legit choices. At least, it didn't happens at home in front of a lot of Spurs fans.

The last game of the RRT is winnable. Both Nuggets and Spurs have injuries trouble but Spurs should be way more flesh. Nuggets have a complicate b2b with a game @Clippers today and only 22h30 between tipoffs. If Spurs win this game, Pop will surely be reassured that he made the good choice against Portland.

[TDMVPDPOY]

we got 2 of canadas finest talents on the team who are bonafide scrubs

blair is the biggest ballhog on the team and a scrub who seems to not jump for anything besides his own circus shots, this guy is like rj, wtf happen to these idiots...ur supposeed to get better after pops 2yr tuition, but they got worster each season

[jag]

Kawhi F. Baby - The F is for Future

[acoelho1]

I only saw the 1st half but I loved what I saw from KL. Wallace was trying to bullying him down low and KL showed his toughness and I loved it when he ripped the ball from Wallace as he was trying to post him. This guy is going to be one of a defensive players. Only 20 yrs old and his ceiling looks above Bowen in terms of defense.

[TJastal]

I only saw the 1st half but I loved what I saw from KL. Wallace was trying to bullying him down low and KL showed his toughness and I loved it when he ripped the ball from Wallace as he was trying to post him. This guy is going to be one of a defensive players. Only 20 yrs old and his ceiling looks above Bowen in terms of defense.

TBH

The one play that stands out to me (between these two) was Wallace bullying Leonard out of the way for an offensive put back (1st half I believe). Don't know if he just caught Leonard napping but it was a bit disturbing to watch.

[TDMVPDPOY]

green, kl > ja+rj+cj

2 these guys know what they are doing when there shots aint falling, attack the rim

as for the other 3 guys usually are explosive can beat there man of the dribble, but they dont attack the rim

[TDMVPDPOY]

TBH

The one play that stands out to me (between these two) was Wallace bullying Leonard out of the way for an offensive put back (1st half I believe). Don't know if he just caught Leonard napping but it was a bit disturbing to watch.

funni thing was he didnt show any form of emotions on his face this game not gettin rattled in mental mind games....looks like another timrobot

[SpurNation]

Point being Leonard, a rookie, only 20, being able to produce the positives he produced against top talent. Of course as a rookie he probably will be outplayed by a top rated "experienced" player the majority of the time.

Amazing how people like to use the "look at what an experienced player did to a rookie" statement.

[peacemaker885]

“That’s what’s going to happen if you want to put some money in the bank for later.” - Pop on resting Tim and Tony.

“One loss isn’t going to do anything to us so we’re just going to keep moving on,” - Kawhi Leonard

Thanks TimVP for always giving us the best after game grades and observations. Pop did the right decision.

[SpurYank]

There were more pluses than minuses in Pop's decision, even all the way up here on the east coast. Games in Utah, Portland, and Denver don't come on until late at night. Since I watch all the Sours game, it means going to bed way after midnight. Getting up at 5 a.m. 3 out of 5 workdays takes its toll. I was sound asleep before the first quarter ended.

Good move, Pop.

[CGD]

I really do think rj plays like he knows he's going to get amnestied this summer. His mind is already on possible new destinations.

[DPG21920]

People acting like it was some clear cut decision are the ones that make little sense to me. Sure, some fans go overboard with the stupid threads, but it wasn't some "duh that was easy" decision. These guys resting have been babied all year with minutes, Tim in particular. They aren't very far ahead of the Mavs despite an 11 game win streak. There is a ton of home games and rest coming up with the all-star break. It was not a clear cut decision and not a consistent one like when Pop apparently tried to push for the top record last season and Gino got hurt right before the playoffs.

The entire point is that it should have never come to the point where you are purposely throwing games mid-season. Sure, given the reality the Spurs have the only big 3 in the league that can't average more than 35 minutes per game without completely breaking down, I agree with Pops decision, but it should never have gotten to this point.

[Muser]

Kawhi is damn exciting, 20/10/5 against some decent defensive players.

[Muser]

Spurs need to beat Denver now though or this was completely pointless.

[Brazil]

Why Matt played only 6 minutes ? he needed to be rested too ?