Not normally the guy to run to Bonner's defense, but in all fairness that illegal screen was a god awful call. Westbrook pulled a CP3 flail.
It is SO fun to read these grades and not see Jefferson's name and his D-. Seriously, I was wanting to go home, kick my dog, and beat my kids, if I had some. Every game this season I have looked at Jefferson's minutes, then his grade, then imagined how we could have won with him in there.
Great write-up as always, agreed with all the grades. Loved Danny and Kawhi both brought it and showed they can ball. It's great that RJ is out of the way, he has not even scored one 20point game all season, compared to Green with 3 and Leonard who has 1 (albeit with the big 3 missing).. Green might be inconsistent but he puts in effort every night and is getting better every game I believe. He also shoots the 3 just as effectively as RJ does. Kawhi has been bringing it and is playing great D all season, while no longer hesitating on the offensive end. Both have bigger balls then RJ, and can put up points on the board when needed.
On to the Dallas game, would suck if Duncan is rested tonight against the Mavs. We have 3 days off after this before facing Minnesota on Wednesday, so they will have ample rest and practices with S-Jax. Could be another good game and statement to the league, while also flashing the Spurs at full strength with RJ out, and Manu + S-Jax in the lineup and hopefully Splitter is over his little stomach bug.
Exactly my thoughts. HCA against LAL is huge as they have been superb at Staples Center, while awful on the road.
Expect to see Timmy playing tonight. He did play 33 minutes, but on offense he didn't really play that hard, there were no typical inside passes to Tim. I'm sure he got more tired on D... Still, 25 minutes tonight would be nice to see. But with Pop I wouldn't be surprised if both Duncan and Parker won't play.
give green one off season to work on his stroke, he come back a more refine player
hopefully him and leonard works on their spacing allowed for players to work on them, working to play under/over the screen, they usually take too much gamble and try to beat them with their wingspan sometimes getting the better of them....
Last edited by TDMVPDPOY; 03-17-2012 at 06:43 AM.
Great win. Fun game to watch.
I watched the Cavs Thunder game yesterday, and predicted beforehand that the Spurs would score a ton of points. The Thunder aren't playing defense lately, hence their record. It's a quality win, but the Spurs caught them at a bad point. Not really a good measuring stick game.
Is OKC the new Phoenix? Do they just expect calls? That was not a badly officiated game, unless you count Tony Parker getting intentionally fouled at the end of the first half without a call.
Kawhi Leonard is special. I'm ready to use the B word to describe him.
Timmy's amazing. When he had that goofy turnover when the game got close, I was thinking "here we go again". That banker against Ibaka for the and-1 was a hall of fame move. Hope this Duncan is still around in June.
Bonner's performance is proof that you can't rely on +/- as a stat. After being great on both ends in the first few minutes, he then went on to make several stupid mistakes that actually made me shout at the TV. That re ed bank shot he attempted that almost hit the shot clock actually made Duncan yell at him. Bonner's continuing need to try to save fouls puzzles me. He knows he's going to get called for it, just go ahead and prevent the guy from scoring. I'm really hoping Bonner is the odd man out in the rotation with Jack on board. It's smallball every time he's on the floor anyway.
We should start calling Danny Green Dr Jeckyl. One of his personalities is showing up for the game. It might be appropriate to call the one that can play basketball Mr Hyde.
Gary Neal is not a point guard. I really like him, and he does more things good than bad. Asking him to run point is too much. Asking him to defend a position he's not familiar with is too much. Those burdens are going to catch up to him sooner or later. He's also a horrible defender. Watching him bite on the exact same Westbrook move twice in a row was embarrassing.
Nice win.
I like Pop's approach of trying to make Westbrook a jumpshooter for the game.
Westbrook is very talented, but lots of poor decisions, especially late. He seems to always want to take the "hero" shot. Very impatient IMO. I can see OKC trading him away if he continues this pattern.
Reading some of the national/okc news, you'd think the Spurs were just loaded with a veteran championship roster with tons of playoff experience. When's that myth going to end? Not counting Jack, there's only 3 guys with this kind of experience and one didn't even play last night.
Look at the roster.
Green 2 yr
Neal 1 yr
Leonard R
Anderson 1 yr
Blair 2 yr
Splitter 1 yr
Kudos to RC/Pop for rebuilding on the fly right in front of everyone.
The coaching staff needs to rethink trying to improve Bonner's game. It's obvious that someone has been trying to teach him that learning to drive to the hoop will improve his game. It might work with another player but he has no handle at all.
Trying to teach him to dribble and move with the ball is like trying to teach an elephant to dance. In the end, you don't really have a dancing elephant, just an animal trying to mimic a human art form.
It's painful to watch him give up a decent look at a 3pt shot and take off on a dribble. You can almost see him mentally gear up and then go galllumphing down the lane with an awkward high dribble and absolutely no chance to succeed most of the time. He tried it three times last night and looked foolish.
Go back to what you do best, Red Rocket and we'll all breathe easier.
Here's an interesting fact. Add up all the NBA experience of 8 players on our roster and Tim Duncan by himself has more!
Green 2 yr
Neal 1 yr
Leonard R
Anderson 1 yr
Blair 2 yr
Splitter 1 yr
Dawson R
Joseph R
If Tim is getting an A for this game, Tony deserves at least an A for essentially keeping his cool while being mugged repeatedly by the Thunder and getting NO calls for it. I really believe that Spurs fans underestimate how much guts it takes for one of the smallest guys on the court to keep running into the paint again and again and getting beat up when the biggest guys on court (Tim, I'm talking to you) are out on the elbow not even giving him a block to protect him. Not only does he get in there, but as opposed to most point guards in the league, he scores most of his points in the paint.
Agreed. Not to mention we don't play again till Wednesday. I don't see Pop resting anyone. But I can be 100% wrong lol.
Westbrook is a Spreewell waiting to happen.
Loved Green/Leonard last night. They showed grit and the ability to perform in a playoff type atmosphere.
That said, Matt Bonner absolutely looked terrified when a little bit of pressure was applied from the Thunder. Two of his miscues: turnover later in the 3rd and a running bank shot that didnt hit anything led to two Thunder runs. He left Royal Ivey open for 3s on a couple of occasions even though his help defense in the paint is laughable at best. One of those open 3s was a potential game tying 3 pointer from Ivey that could have vaulted the Thunder to victory. He is an absolute liability on both ends of the court as soon as halftime is over.
Once again, this is expected from a proven choker and born loser. The fact that he got such heavy mins in the 4th even tho Pop could have easily gone to small ball with Neal or JA is absolutely perplexing.
When the Thunder went to small ball, Pop countered with mentally small ball. If the Spurs manage to bring in Diaw, then i have no doubt that the best thing that could happen to this team is a Bonner injury right before the playoffs. As long as he's healthy, Pop has shown a willingness to play him ahead of clutch guys like Neal/Leonard/Green/Tiago. The only way that doesnt happen is if Pop doesn't have that option.
he certainly was unable to guard Westbrook
The Neal PG experiment is going to fail sooner than later, and sadly it'll be too late.
Hey but Neal makes jumpshots and has an awesome nickname so screw getting another pointguard!
I like that Pop gave Leonard, Green and JA (and sat Neal) a lot of run last night. It was the right call against a young, athletic team like OKC. It baffles me though that he had Bonner in so much in the 4th when Blair had such a great game. I guess we'll see the other players tonight since DAL is old and slow in comparision to OKC.
SA matchup up well with OKC. I'm hoping for LAL, DAL, MEM and OKC on the other half away from SA with OKC coming through to meet SA in the WCF (getting ahead of myself, aren't I?)
This game more than anything proved Blair is a bench big.
He DOMINATED the lesser bigs of the Thunder but when the Thunder ratcheted up the D just a hair he panicked.
As usual TIMVP with the goods I agree 100%. Hopefully this was a break out game for Anderson. I would like to see him get more minutes but that is not likely to happen.
JA finally played composed, solid bball. he looked to schizo out there earlier in the season always trying to force the issue.
Solid win without 2 big pieces away from home.
hopefully this game will jump start the 2nd half of pre season until the real season starts
Yeah run Duncan with bad knees into the ground!!!!
And isn't this the first time that the young'uns played really well on the road - not just at home?
Enjoy it while it lasts. Soon you will be lamenting the name 'Stephen Jackson' instead.
This is why Pop has screwed the pooch in not developing the Tiago/Tim tandem up to this point.. it will be absolutely necessary for playoff basketball and he has avoided it like the plague for two years.
Only mentally deficient people like you would.
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