Grades: Spurs @ Suns - Mar. 27

[Blake]

Tim Duncan goes for 26 and 11, and you give him a C+??? Maybe we didn't watch the same game last night, but he played well and is the primary reason the Spurs won the game I watched last night.

Ditto

[Blake]

Patty MillsB+
It was solid debut for Patty Mills. Sometimes criticized for shooting too much, Mills instead focused on getting the Spurs into their offense quickly. His decision making was good and he was usually in the right spots when off the ball. Defensively, he let out his pent-up energy by harassing Steve Nash. Technically, Mills' defense wasn't very good but he was so active that it seemed to fluster Nash just a little bit.

I don't recall Mills ever touching the ball other than grabbing a rebound. Mills did a good job of staying out of the way on offense.

On defense, he got blown off of a pick bad enough to be left at the top off the key while Nash was already in the paint. I also thought it was painful to watch Brown pull a dribbling skills bit before blowing by him towards the rim.

C at best.

[spectator]

agree with the analysis on tim's D. however, he played the exact game last time vs. PHO - shot well, defended poorly, rebounded well. i saw both games and he was as much of a traffic cone in that one as he was in this one. sad, b/c timmy is my favorite player, but timmy should get more than a C+. IIRC, last time his grade was B+ or better.

[Solid D]

Thanks for the time spent doing these summaries timvp.

While the Spurs did play much better D in the 4th, the Spurs really capitalized on Steve Nash sitting during his last rest on the bench. The Suns led 81-80 when Steve went out and when Nash re-entered 6 minutes later, the Spurs had a 9 point lead. That proved too much to make up with the Spurs hitting their shots.

Patty Mills did his job but was much better in his defense than I thought he'd be. Sure, he got beat by Nash but so did Parker and Green. He played 40 defense like he's supposed to and he smartly overplayed the comfort side.

[Old School 44]

As always, thanks for the grades!

What impressed me, with the Spurs shooting so poorly from 3 and Shannon Brown going off, they still pulled out the W. Not to sound too overly optimistic, but even though this game was close, I never had any doubt the Spurs would win.

[ace3g]

Zach Lowe ‏ @ZachLowe_SI

Close

My god, some of the passes San Antonio pulled last night. Duncan-Blair high-lo early, ridiculous Manu no-look to Duncan late. Joy.

[DBMethos]

Zach Lowe ‏ @ZachLowe_SI

Close

My god, some of the passes San Antonio pulled last night. Duncan-Blair high-lo early, ridiculous Manu no-look to Duncan late. Joy.

I like Lowe. You can tell this guy really watches and enjoys the Spurs' style of play, rather than regurgitating the same old "Spurs are boring" mantra coupled with the begrudging "respect" for what the team is still able to accomplish.

[GSH]

Horry's clutchness was only about 1% of his value to the Spurs. Horry's defense, screen setting, passing, knowledge of where to be and his overall basketball IQ were only traits that were much, much more valuable. If Diaw plays like Horry but misses every clutch shot, he'd still be a huge asset.

Horry was also king of the long outlet pass. I used to love it when, after the other team had just scored, Horry would grab the ball, leap out the end line and send a perfect strike to the other end for an instant score. You can't get by with that on every possession, but every cheap bucket helps. And Horry was all about cheap buckets and extra possessions.

With what we've seen of Diaw's passing abilities, he might have that in him too. He's just getting his feet wet, so we haven't seen the best of him yet.

[slayermin]

Boris Diaw is my kind of player. He can do a little bit of eveything and it seems like he makes everyone better around him when he's on the court. I especially liked how he was banging on Robin Lopez last night.

[Cant_Be_Faded]

On Diaw: you warned us that we may hate him for his passiveness, but his value on defense and finding the open man are mad impressive.

I say screw any master plans and try to hold onto this guy.


I doubt we are able to hold onto him, which is sad, but on the flip side: his stats here will be so pedestrian the rest of the way, maybe that will reduce the money thrown at him and increase our chances of keeping him. Maybe.

[crc21209]

Thanks as always for the grades timvp! Hopefully we see Blair's minutes slowly but surely dissapear and land in Diaw's lap. And Neal better get his act together as well, or he may end up losing his job...

[jiggy_55]

On Diaw: you warned us that we may hate him for his passiveness, but his value on defense and finding the open man are mad impressive.

I say screw any master plans and try to hold onto this guy.


I doubt we are able to hold onto him, which is sad, but on the flip side: his stats here will be so pedestrian the rest of the way, maybe that will reduce the money thrown at him and increase our chances of keeping him. Maybe.

Add that most will think he is extremely out of shape, and that he is best friends with Tony Parker and hey we have a chance at keeping him. He said he's really enjoying playing here.

[ajballer4]

Finally the king of +/- is dethroned

[TDMVPDPOY]

patty mills did nothing this game, and you give him a C?

C = average b4 u log any pt??

[YoMamaIsCallin]

I usually don't post on your grades because I usually find them pretty solid. But this time...

The key to the game was the Spurs defense in the 4th. This was led by Green defending Nash and Duncan underneath cleaning up the mess. Along with Parker's offense, that is what won the game. Bonner getting a key offensive rebound with under 2 minutes to go didn't hurt either.

And yet you give Green and Duncan bad grades? Especially after Tim carried them offensively in the first half?

I'll make my other comments based on this quote:

and pop deserves an F to be honest
i still dont understand on his insistence to go underneath screens
every team knows spurs do this and they just start jump shooting right away
nash abused them early on when parker kept going underneath the screen

Are ya kidding me? Pop has Nash's number and knows how to beat Nash's Suns. This has been proven over and over again. The formula is, let them run their pick and roll crap until the 4th, and just keep up with them scoring wise (which is not hard to do given their lack of defense). Then switch it up in the 4th, put your best defender with size on Nash, deny the pass to the screener, and make Nash try to score on his own. Usually he wilts.

This worked perfectly with the Nash/Amare combo. Gortat is good but he's no Amare, so it's even easier now. Remember how Amare would go off for 40 points but the Spurs would still beat the Suns? That's how it was done.

BTW this game would not have been close if Shannon Brown had not been out of this world hot on jump shots.

[Dex]

Danny Green D+
Offensively, Danny Green just didn't have it; he's proving to be the team's streakiest shooter. On defense, his man to begin the game was Shannon Brown ... and you just have to glance at Brown's stats to see how Green did there. In the fourth quarter, Pop went back to Green -- and Green actually helped out. His defense on Nash was part of the reason why the Suns scored only scored 17 points in the final period. That said, Green can't be a liability on both ends for a majority of the game and hope to hold onto his starting gig.

When the is Danny Green going to learn to go OVER screens?

I know, it can't always be done (especially if the screener sets it right), but he needs to learn to fight for early position or push his man out so he can get around the screen.

He goes under on like 95% of his screens, ends up getting brushed off, and recovers just in time to get a J popped right in his face. Shannon Brown was making a killing off of those screens last night, and it showed.

[acoelho1]

I was wrong about Diaw and he is much more physical than I remember him in Phoenix.

[arakkus]

Horry's clutchness was only about 1% of his value to the Spurs. Horry's defense, screen setting, passing, knowledge of where to be and his overall basketball IQ were only traits that were much, much more valuable. If Diaw plays like Horry but misses every clutch shot, he'd still be a huge asset.

Pop's Big 4 is a lock to be in the rotation (Duncan, Ginobili, Parker and Bonner). Then we know Jackson and Splitter will get some time. Eventually you gotta think Diaw takes Blair's minutes. Behind Parker, it'll either be Neal or Mills. Then there's room for another swingman, which will be Leonard, Green or Neal (if Neal isn't the backup PG).

My guess is the rotation will eventually look like:

C Duncan
PF Diaw
SF Leonard
SG/SF Jackson
PG Parker

C Splitter
PF Bonner
SG Ginobil
PG Neal



With Green used as depth at the wing and Mills used if Neal goes cold.

OMG! Thats exactly the starting roster/rotation I wanted for the playoffs With Green/Blair used for energy and/or certain matchups. Its amazing to me how good Diaw fits despite looking like he has been living at a Krispy Kreme for the past 6 months. Such an upgrade defensively and good decision making and we have yet to take advantage of his 3 point shooting.

However, with so few games left is Pop really going to move the starting power forward and make him 5th big guy....I have my doubts. I'm thinking odd man out on might Diaw or worse Tiago....

[timvp]

The key to the game was the Spurs defense in the 4th. This was led by Green defending Nash and Duncan underneath cleaning up the mess. Along with Parker's offense, that is what won the game.

The defense was key but you are misremembering Duncan and Green's involvement. While I gave Green credit for his D against Nash in the fourth, the truth is Green wasn't put on Nash until after the Spurs were already up by nine points. He didn't make enough of an impact to overcome his otherwise poor game.

Duncan entered the game, the Suns miss a pair of outside jumpers and the Spurs are up by nine points. The Spurs then get a pair of steals on the next two possessions and they're up by 12. I don't see how Duncan had too much of an impact on defense during that stretch. Yes, his defense in the fourth was his best of the game but that's saying much since he didn't play defense in the first three quarters.

On defense, he got blown off of a pick bad enough to be left at the top off the key while Nash was already in the paint. I also thought it was painful to watch Brown pull a dribbling skills bit before blowing by him towards the rim.

C at best.

Mills isn't a very good defender. Last night was about as good as it gets for him on that end of the court.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

However, with so few games left is Pop really going to move the starting power forward and make him 5th big guy....I have my doubts. I'm thinking odd man out on might Diaw or worse Tiago....

No way, odd man out will definitely be Blair, no question.

[Mugen]

Agree, the best we can expect out of Patty from a defensive standpoint is to be "pesky".

I thought Pop's rotations were a bit shaky in the second half especially for the extended run in the 3rd where he sat TP for Patty.

It ended up being a good move since TP dominated from the start of the 4th but i'd rather Pop bring in TP around the 8 min. mark and let him finish the game rather than start the 4th and have to come out for a breather in between.

[freetiago]

lol at pop having nashes number
your comparing possibly the greatest spurs championship team assembled vs a young unproven up and coming suns team

and pop definitely had nashs # in 2010 playoffs
he just let them do the pick and roll thingy til he decided he would take them seriously right

spurs have to mixup screens to at least keep them guessing
easiest way to lose is to tell your opponent exactly what youll do everytime
its the reason why brown went off
and the only reason most teams have chances of keeping up with the spurs
mo williams not dropping 30 vs spurs = spurs win
jarret jack not dropping 30 = spurs blowout instead of possible upset at the end
shannon brown cooling off gave spurs the win
nashes pick and roll still worked til the very end
they just blew some very easy baskets like wide open layups

[therealtruth]

Horry was also king of the long outlet pass. I used to love it when, after the other team had just scored, Horry would grab the ball, leap out the end line and send a perfect strike to the other end for an instant score. You can't get by with that on every possession, but every cheap bucket helps. And Horry was all about cheap buckets and extra possessions.

Horry was also good at reading the body language of the opponents to figure out what they were going to do. For instance he used to be good at stealing inbound passes that way.

Are ya kidding me? Pop has Nash's number and knows how to beat Nash's Suns. This has been proven over and over again. The formula is, let them run their pick and roll crap until the 4th, and just keep up with them scoring wise (which is not hard to do given their lack of defense). Then switch it up in the 4th, put your best defender with size on Nash, deny the pass to the screener, and make Nash try to score on his own. Usually he wilts.

He sure had Nash's number in the 2010 playoffs when the Spurs got swept by Nash using that same strategy. One of the strategies he's used in the past was when he used to put Bowen on Nash to frustrate him. Bowen was long enough to make his passes more difficult and keep him uncomfortable.

[callo1]

Mills looked solid, I was impressed by his play. While he did nothing exceptional, he didn't look lost, and was under control...his quickness was evident, especially on defense.

The team as a whole played garbage defense until they needed to. It was like they turned on the switch

[jjktkk]

Thanks for the writeup Tim.