Grades: Spurs @ Kings - Mar. 28

[sananspursfan21]

players going under screens led to another scrub getting his career night
pop cant ever get an A as long as he keeps allowing this

spurs will either play martin/lowry or lawson/afflalo in the first round if they hold onto 2nd seed
mostly quick guards who get to the basket
if spurs let them get hot from midrange well be seeing a first round exit again

Shut up and enjoy the victory. Sa has proven they can play defense, but they are human and tired. You try doing what they did and playing 05 detroit basketball

[lefty]

I knew Kawhi would be a nice addition, but I didnt think he was gonna be this good, and this early


Damn.

[Darkwaters]

timvp,

A while ago I remember conversations about how badly Leonard bogged down the offense. Sure, his defense was great, but his offense was putrid.

Since then his numbers have gotten much better and hes scoring consistently. Does his rise in personal scoring correspond to a team-wide improvement while hes on the court also?

[foodie2]

I hope Mills turns into the Spurs JJ Barrea just someone speedy who can give you points in different ways, and tough defense.

But without Barrea's assholery.

[The ADMIRAL 50]

Pop A+
Five wins in six nights. Six wins in eight nights. That's all that can be said about Pop right now. In each game, he had a different set of players available to play. (Even against the Kings, the coaching staff had predetermined that Matt Bonner wasn't going to play more than a couple minutes.) Pop made it look easy but to work in three new players while the pieces to the puzzle constantly changed required quite a bit of high-level coaching. I thought he made a mistake by going back to Neal in the second half, yet Pop was absolutely right. Plus, I loved the closing quintet of Duncan, Leonard, Jackson, Ginobili and Parker. I hope we see a lot more of that.

Man did I ever get pumped watching that line up out there. LOVE IT. The comment I made to my buddies too was, how jacked can Kawhi be (internally, of course) to be out there in crunch time with those four players? As a rookie to be shown that sort of trust and continue to deliver...damn I'm just so in love with this kid. (requisite internet forum disclaimer: no ).

Patty Mills B+
Following Neal's disastrous first stint as backup point guard, Pop switched to Patty Mills in the second quarter. Mills didn't disappoint. He has never been afraid to shoot and his first shot as a Spur resulted in a made three-point field goal. He followed that up with a long two-pointer and a layup -- all in a span of three and a half minutes. So far, Mills is as quick as advertised and his outside jumper looks very smooth. Even though he's short, he has a quick release so he should be able to get it off consistently. And while I haven't seen any ball-handling issues, Mills' court vision does appear to be limited. All told, I'm happy with what I've seen out of him.

Mills is quick. He's sorta spastic but in a good way. He was the only one who was sticking with Thomas too. His shot looks sweet.

TIMVP - I was surprised you gave Patty such a high grade and failed to say anything about his defense
loveforthegame - I felt the opposite about him defensively.

I like what I have seen from Patty so far, and last night he looked very solid offensively, but I must have been watching a different game when it comes to his on the ball defense. The second round rook Thomas (which is an unfair, though honest, description tbh) was beating Mills to the rim EVERY TIME. Mills made one nice play where after having been beat he poked the ball out and it went out off of Thomas' leg, but otherwise he was getting torn up. Even on that play he let him get all the way to the rim. Mills was very active and was playing hard on that end, but I saw Thomas get around him multiple times. It was almost as though Mills was too jacked up: simple crossovers were all that was needed to get him out of position, he seemed to over react to Thomas' every move. He really struggled getting around picks as well.

All in all I like the Mills addition already. Last night was a very small sample size, and Thomas, like Mills, is a very quick player, but if his on the ball defense continues to be as bad as it was last night I dont see him getting any playoff minutes from Pop. Definitely something I'll be keeping an eye on going forward, I already am pulling for this guy to succeed so I'll definitely give him the chance to at least get settled.

[roycrikside]

Obviously the defense was poor, but there were so many positives in this game compared to the negatives, only an idiot would complain about it.

1. Splitter came back.
2. Manu played a back-to-back and not only survived it but was at his best in the 4th.
3. Mills got some run and wasn't tentative (though I wish he passed more).
4. Neal broke out of his slump in the 4th.
5. A monster game for Kawhi, at both ends, against rookie drafted ahead of him.
6. Tim holding his own and then some against Cousins, who's been beasting.
7. Parker showing his court vision has developed to the point where he's not just a drive-and-kick point guard.
8. Everyone coming out of the game healthy.
9. 6th straight win, sweeping 6 games in 8 nights.
10. No such thing as a bad road win.

[MmP]

Duncan had a couple of lapses that were head shaking on defense, i wouldn't give him an A at all

[Morg1411]

Obviously the defense was poor, but there were so many positives in this game compared to the negatives, only an idiot would complain about it.

1. Splitter came back.
2. Manu played a back-to-back and not only survived it but was at his best in the 4th.
3. Mills got some run and wasn't tentative (though I wish he passed more).
4. Neal broke out of his slump in the 4th.
5. A monster game for Kawhi, at both ends, against rookie drafted ahead of him.
6. Tim holding his own and then some against Cousins, who's been beasting.
7. Parker showing his court vision has developed to the point where he's not just a drive-and-kick point guard.
8. Everyone coming out of the game healthy.
9. 6th straight win, sweeping 6 games in 8 nights.
10. No such thing as a bad road win.

This x1000

Fantastic win. I wasn't sold on Leonard early in the season, but the kid is turning into a bonafide badass. And it was terrific watching Tim's showdown with Cousins.

[Spurs Brazil]

I love to see Leonard play. The kid gets better every game. He does a little of everything and plays with great energy.

Huge props to Spurs Front Office. First they trade for Leonard and that's a HUGE steal. And then traded Jefferson to open more minutes to him. This kid is special

[skin]

Solid grades as usual. Thanks!

[doldrums]

players going under screens led to another scrub getting his career night
pop cant ever get an A as long as he keeps allowing this

spurs will either play martin/lowry or lawson/afflalo in the first round if they hold onto 2nd seed
mostly quick guards who get to the basket
if spurs let them get hot from midrange well be seeing a first round exit again

Lowry is out for the year with a bacterial infection

[letmk]

I don't think Mills defense against Thomas is any worse than Tony's. Granted, not any better either. Thomas is just having a career night.

Like Shannon Brown the other night, I don't blame it totally on Green. It's relevant to our defense, but it's also closely related to the player's shooting touch.

On the contrary, our defense has no answer for Nash's PnR or last night's Jason Thompson or Cousins' low post move, that's a much bigger problem which might doom us while facing Thunder or Lakers.

[G-Nob]

finally you got

+1

[Obstructed_View]

wtf?

Popsucker I assume.

[Blake]

Popsucker I assume.

Wtf?

[TDMVPDPOY]

whats teh difference of not being afraid to shoot, a chucker...whether its contested or uncontested shots?

[DAF86]

Duncan A-? to me he looked too bad on defense to deserve that grade. Maybe I should watch the game again but to me it looked like everytime a player went at him (not only Cousins) that player scored.

[Chomag]

Bonner had 0 stats and 0 minutes yet still got a +3 for +/-

My god, how does that man do it!

[rasho8]

Finally you got

Shut the up you gray name piece of .

Now go kill yourself.

[ManuTastic]

Finally you got

Nice gra ude, buttmunch.

[timvp]

timvp,

A while ago I remember conversations about how badly Leonard bogged down the offense. Sure, his defense was great, but his offense was putrid.

Since then his numbers have gotten much better and hes scoring consistently. Does his rise in personal scoring correspond to a team-wide improvement while hes on the court also?

Good question and the good news is that Leonard no longer bogs down the offense.

In the first 23 games of the season, the Spurs averaged only 100.8 points per 100 possessions that Leonard was on the court -- which was the lowest mark on the entire team.

Since then, the Spurs are averaging 112.6 points per 100 possessions that Leonard is on the court. Only Ginobili, Splitter and Bonner have better marks.

Fantastic in-season improvement for a rookie

[timvp]

Duncan A-? to me he looked too bad on defense to deserve that grade. Maybe I should watch the game again but to me it looked like everytime a player went at him (not only Cousins) that player scored.

Almost all of Duncan's defensive work came against DeMarcus Cousins.

When Duncan was out of the game, Cousins was 4-for-6 from the field and 3-for-4 at the line.

When Duncan was in the game, Cousins was 7-for-18 from the field, didn't get to the line and had four of his five turnovers.

Damn, Duncan was even more dominant than I thought against Cousins.

[timvp]

Mills was very active and was playing hard on that end, but I saw Thomas get around him multiple times. It was almost as though Mills was too jacked up: simple crossovers were all that was needed to get him out of position, he seemed to over react to Thomas' every move. He really struggled getting around picks as well.

Good observations

Mills wasn't good defensively last night and I probably should have mentioned that. However, I have very low expectations for him on the defensive end. He was horrible defensively while with the Blazers and it'll probably stay that way for the time being. Like you said, Mills was extra jumpy on defense from being fired up so I didn't really take anything away from his performance last night on that end.

The bad part of the Mills signing is he is one of the few guards in the league who are worse than Neal on defense. Let's hope that changes once he settles down and the coaches work with him a bit ... but I think his ceiling is low on that end.

[DAF86]

Almost all of Duncan's defensive work came against DeMarcus Cousins.

When Duncan was out of the game, Cousins was 4-for-6 from the field and 3-for-4 at the line.

When Duncan was in the game, Cousins was 7-for-18 from the field, didn't get to the line and had four of his five turnovers.

Damn, Duncan was even more dominant than I thought against Cousins.

I remember Cousins missed a lot of open jumpers from the top of the key when guarded by Duncan but when he went at Tim he scored.

Either way, I was talking about when Kings guards attacked the rim and Duncan was waiting there or in pick and roll situations. I remember getting frustrated at some offensive boards he allowed to the Kings too.

[timvp]

^Cousins missed a number of shots in the paint against Duncan. And while he wasn't great defensively, he was pretty darn good compared to everyone else.

The Kings scored 97 points per 48 minutes while Duncan was on the court and 135 points per 48 minutes while Duncan was on the bench. Comparatively, Duncan was Bill Russell last night, tbh.