15 Random thought 8 games into the 2013 Rodeo Road Trip

[Mugen]

Jack didn't seem too broken up about it during the game, constantly supporting his teammates, so I don't think it's a case of #1. If that were to be a case, then that'd be an absolute death knell to the Spurs' playoff chances. Jack is the only proven playoff performer outside of the Big 3.

All in all, a very enjoyable game last night. About as good a loss as you could have and I'll take tight playoff-style games like those over 20+ point Ws over teams like the Bobcats any day of the week.

[letmk]

As much as I'd like to trade Jack, he needs to play since he trade deadline has passed. As Timvp mentioned, we live in a LeBron/Durant NBA, you have to try your best to slow them down, at least on paper with Jack backing up Kawhi.

I like Green's aggressiveness with his penetration, but he needs to be really careful against the Heat (Of course, that's assuming the Spurs can go that far) as they have three quick hands in Chalmers, Wade and LeBron.

Also, in hindsight, I wonder if it would've been better if we switch Kawhi/Green on Jarrett Jack.

[superbigtime]

Reasonable. And that was my first reaction. But if Jack was being held out premeditatively, why not activate Baynes?

yeah, especially seeing how useless bonner was. woulda been nice to see Baynes. Lineups were scrambled. Also noteworthy is the crummy free throw shooting last night. Not awful, but it hurt the spurs than manu and tony and time missed so many. by the way, cute penguin pic.

[DesignatedT]

8. To stay in this game, the Spurs had to play really tough defense. In a way, tonight was a very successful defensive practice session. The Spurs had to tighten the screws in a boisterous environment and they almost won a game due solely to their defense.

9. It was also a positive to push Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. They needed to build up this type of compe ive sweat to get back in the groove. If we’re focusing on the playoffs -- and that should be the case -- we should hope for a lot more of these character-testing games. Racking up an insane number of wins would be fun but the Spurs will be better off if they get tested like this on a regular basis.

These are what came to my mind while falling asleep last night.

[TJastal]

I'll add my thoughts from attending the game at Oracle tonight.

1. Gary Neal is really, really ing awkward with the ball. I'm not sure it translates very well on TV at all, but watching him in person, he has absolutely no flow and no feel for handles, at least tonight he didn't. I cringed when he put the ball on the floor, I cringed when he shot, and I turned to the g/f and said, "Why is Neal on Curry?!?!" about 2 seconds before Curry drilled a shot in his face. All in all it was a terrible night for Neal, which is strange because he really acted like he wanted to be on the floor against the Clips.

2. Give lots of props to the Warriors for their stout post defense tonight. They were absolutely determined not to let our big men set up camp in the paint. They were incredibly determined to limit penetration, and it seemed like our guys were on tired legs tonight, so no one could hit consistently from outside except Green.

3. Speaking of Danny, he is really slick moving off the ball. He knows where the defense is looking and glides to a spot where no one else is, then all of a sudden they realize he's open for a 3. It was also a + to see him trying to create for himself tonight and somewhat succeeding.

4. Oracle is seriously deserving of the hype they get as a great arena. That place was ridiculously loud from opening introductions (which are done very nicely by the way) through overtime. The only lull was when the Spurs got up big. There were a couple of stragglers that somehow got to take 3 shots from the FT line, 3 point, and half court at the end of the 1st and 3rd quarters. The 1st quarter guys were pretty decent, but the 2nd pair airballed every shot, even the FTs, and the crowd booed them loudly. I have a theory that they only pick guys who suck at basketball for those things, because the 9 year olds they had playing 5 on 5 at halftime were better shooters than these dudes. There are also practically no bad seats at that arena. Good place to watch some ball.

5. Tiago took a pretty nasty hit (knee, I think) on his thigh early on in the game and I think it gimped him. He was limping really badly at first, and even if he wasn't limping long after that, he didn't seem aggressive from that point on. Not sure if they showed it on TV but it was really apparent in the crowd.

6. Jarrett Jack.

7. I honestly felt good about this loss, or as good as you can. One of the toughest arenas to win in, on the 2nd night of a B2B at the tail end of a 9 game road trip, we couldn't get ANY shots to fall, and we still gritted out a very close game. Honestly sending it to overtime was out of determination alone.

8. Manu Ginobili is still fun as to watch in person. He is insanely crafty, and looks much, much faster than any other player on the court as far as his ability to change directions and make plays materialize out of nothing.

9. Timvp, I think Jax's lack of PT tonight probably has more to do with the stuff he's going through with his wife than Pop not wanting him on the floor. He's a guy who's good to play with a little fire/anger in him, and I'm betting there's not a lot of that to fuel him right now. Awful situation, and I wouldn't blame him if he wasn't ready to suit up for a while now, even if he did play last night.

10. Our interior defense is honestly amazing. Very reminiscent of the old days. The guys on our team, no matter who's on the floor (Neal aside), crash so hard to the paint whenever someone starts to take it up. The spacing might not come across when it's on TV, but in person, you get a feel for just how fast the Spurs close on players looking to score -- it's awesome.

11. Parker didn't look the same tonight. He didn't have the lift he normally does, and I honestly think he's just a bit wore down. Tonight wasn't a must win for us nearly as much as it was GSW. Probably my greatest regret from tonight was not seeing the MVParker that we have been over the past couple of months. Ah, well, c'est la vie.

12. Pop's rotations tonight were just... bizarre. I know he's tried some things, but at one point for a while in the 2nd quarter he had De Colo, Green, Bonner, Diaw, and Neal (or Kawhi?) on the court at the same time. There were absolutely no shot creators in that bunch and I have no idea what possessed him to run that lineup for as long as he did. At this point I have to wonder if he's just purposely restricting minutes on our starters to keep them as fresh as possible. Doesn't seem like winning tonight was that much of a priority, even though we had some serious lineups out there at the end. Maybe Pop was trying to give them different looks on offense, I can't honestly be sure.

13. Patty Mills got a loooooot of burn tonight. Not sure what his total minutes were, but I like seeing him on the floor. I keep thinking that with his at ude he can give us a scoring boost when we need a change of pace in the playoffs. I hope. Either way, every second he's on the floor he's working hard, and it's good to see.

14. Even though tonight was a loss, the Spurs are still a fun team to watch and cheer for. Duncan is just ing goofy whenever there's a timeout called unless the team is huddling -- he literally had to stalk the official with the gameball before the game started to get his pre-tip ball hug in. So hilarious. I love this team.

Thanks so much for this writeup. Great read.

[freetiago]

Popovich has given up on micromanaging his frontline
at first with the Splitter/Duncan combo he would do the 5-6 minute sub out with Tiago then play him with the bench
then slowly he started increasing the time they would play together and play Tiago less
now he just subs Duncan and Tiago out at the same time and for some reason he thinks holding Tiago out entire 2nd quarters is smart
Diaw/Turd frontline wont cut it

[Sean Cagney]

Getting beat by Scrubby Jack and Dejuan Lee hurts. If Neal is usurping Jackson's minutes you can get used to those untimely defensive collapses.

Yep, just like I said a few times to myself last night this is one of those nights where some random guy goes off on us like he is Jordan, this happens a few times a year. Jack and his career night, only would it happen against us lol. David Lee turns into Hakeem out there for a night as well, he is good but not that damn good.

[crellis]

1. Did Stephen Jackson fall out of the rotation? It looks like that may be the case. Tonight, Pop opted to play Neal at backup shooting guard. That domino forced Ginobili to shift to backup shooting guard and opened up backup point guard minutes for Pando De Milo. The odd man out in all that movement was Jackson

6. Jarrett Jack.

And this is why i keep coming back to Spurs Talk!!!

[Pauleta14]

TP needs to learn how to shoot three pointers. If teams pack the paint and he can't get a mid range jumper off, or get to the rim, then we are in trouble.

He should have developed a three point shot by now. Does TP have that bad of a feel for shooting that Chip doesn't think it's worth adding one to his arsenal?

Come on...

I mean we all hope to see Tony improve his 3pts shooting, but he already improved so many areas of his game for so many years!

I'm sure the more speed he'll lose, the more he'll shoot 3s and get better at it, but comme on, don't act like he's lasy or something...

He OBVIOUSLY didn't have the legs FROM THE START, but it showed mainly in the 2nd half.

THAT'S the reason why Klay Tompson looked like a DPOY.

Not Tony being unable to shoot 3s...

[roycrikside]

1. Did Stephen Jackson fall out of the rotation? It looks like that may be the case. Tonight, Pop opted to play Neal at backup shooting guard. That domino forced Ginobili to shift to backup shooting guard and opened up backup point guard minutes for Pando De Milo. The odd man out in all that movement was Jackson

Neal needs to be the guy dropped from the rotation, not Jackson. Get Neal out, let Manu get back to SG instead of SF and you can go into the playoffs with a 9 or 10-man rotation where everyone can play some semblance of defense. I really don't want to see Neal being the guy who has to guard a Bledsoe or whoever.

2. If No. 1 is indeed the case, I’m not sure how I feel. It’s tempting to blame Pop and say it was a bad decision since the Spurs lost … and, yeah, I’ll go ahead and say I disagree. Jackson has shot horribly. He looks slow out on the perimeter. That said, I think the Spurs need his size and strength. Plus: A) It’s not like Neal is shooting the lights out either B) Jackson seems like he might be the type of role player who will defrost once the end of April rolls around C) When Kevin Durant and LeBron James are between you and a championship, Jackson has to be an option that can be called upon. If you take him out of the rotation now, there’s an even smaller chance he can hang with either one of those guys when it’s do or die.

You mentioned this before in your latest player pairs, but for whatever reason Jackson's individual struggles haven't impacted the lineups as a whole. In fact, quite the opposite. He's usually fared well with most of our five-man units, and his offensive and defensive PPG per 100 possessions are strong, as is, obviously, his overall plus/minus.

3. Obviously No. 1 and No. 2 should be ignored if Jackson missed the game due to an injury. I haven’t heard anything yet but it’s possible he tweaked something in his return.

Yeah, that'd be nice, but Pop usually tells the media in shootarounds if someone is out or even doubtful, and like you mentioned, they'd have activated Baynes then.

4. I can’t believe that Pop put Neal on Stephen Curry in the fourth quarter. That was simply an idiotic coaching decision. The Spurs had done hard work to keep him quiet and Pop ruins it by putting his worst perimeter defender on him when the Spurs had a chance to put Golden State away? *slowly shakes head*

My theory: Pop isn't exactly bummed with this loss. You heard his ESPN interview, he doesn't want the team to have any super-long winning streaks because they get too much attention from the press and when you finally do lose one it's more deflating than a regular loss. I think Pop saw the schedule coming up and thought "Geez, if we don't drop this one, when the are we gonna lose the next one?" and used the game to experiment. I think he wants to see what he has in Neal and basically challenged him to D up Curry to see if he can rely on Neal in the playoffs. Obviously, Neal failed the test.

5. Give credit to Mark Jackson for going to midget ball and confusing the Spurs. Pop couldn’t figure out what he wanted to do. Should he go midget and match up? Should he go big and try to take advantage? Should he find the happy middle? Pop never settled on a solution.

The Duncan-Leonard-Green-Ginobili-Parker lineup is fine. It may well be our closing lineup in a lot of playoff games. The problem wasn't the personnel, but the execution. Parker was exhausted and flat and didn't have it and forced up too much crap instead of passing it. They also let Duncan play in the post with his back to the basket a lot more than usual because they thought he had the advantage on Lee. And ordinarily he would have, except he doesn't have his rhythm right now and he played last night. The ball movement in general was awful and they let the Warriors defense off the hook in that regard, made it very easy for them not having to defend the weak side. When the Spurs don't pass, their offense looks like a way less athletic version of the Kings, and that's not a good thing.

6. Big picture, this wasn’t a bad loss. You shoot poorly and Tony Parker runs out of gas in the third … the Spurs are going to lose most of the time in that scenario. A 6-2 Rodeo Road Trip is still a huge success. Finish it off against the Suns and there will be absolutely nothing to complain about. 7-2 would be outstanding.

The loss wasn't disappointing from a scoreline aspect, like if you just saw the score and didn't know any of the particulars, but it was still a letdown from the aspect that they blew a 12-point fourth quarter lead because the offense got so stagnant. I was also surprised that down 2 with seven seconds to go that Pop didn't just go for the win with a three a la Cleveland since it was plain that they wouldn't have any more juice left for OT. I guess the Warriors were expecting the Spurs to do that which is why Ginobili got such an easy layup, but still. Overall though, yes I'd have been absolutely thrilled with a 7-2 road trip and a healthy team coming home to San Antonio. I'd have been very happy with 6-3 in fact.

7. The Spurs are now 66-16 in the 82 regular season games since they traded away He Who Shall Not Be Named. Hopefully he enjoyed his giggles tonight. The Spurs have had plenty to smile about and I’ve enjoyed not having to watch him play basketball anymore.

Real impactful 6:28 of court time for HWSNBN. No FGA, 1 reb, 1 Ast. Totally worth the 10 mil he's getting as the 10th man for the 7th seed in the West.

8. To stay in this game, the Spurs had to play really tough defense. In a way, tonight was a very successful defensive practice session. The Spurs had to tighten the screws in a boisterous environment and they almost won a game due solely to their defense.

Their half court defense in particular, with Duncan and Splitter, is outstanding. The only time these guys ever get into trouble defensively is if they're playing small or they turn it over and give up easy ones.

9. It was also a positive to push Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. They needed to build up this type of compe ive sweat to get back in the groove. If we’re focusing on the playoffs -- and that should be the case -- we should hope for a lot more of these character-testing games. Racking up an insane number of wins would be fun but the Spurs will be better off if they get tested like this on a regular basis.

Couldn't agree more. Manu in particular needs minutes, and not just spectator minutes where he's twiddling his thumbs, waiting for passes from Parker that never come but actual minutes with the ball in his hands, where he has to make decisions. He forced up a few bad shots last night, but most of his threes were good looks and he has to get that touch back.

10. I’ll have to take the blame for the frigid shooting tonight. Taking the kids to see penguins a couple hours before the game probably wasn’t the best omen.

Oh barf, a "I'm a great parent" humblebrag.

11. Notice how I’m ready to snatch her up if the penguin turns around and goes wild animal.

See above.

12. Danny Green suddenly can finish at the rim. His off the dribble game is ugly but has been effective lately. Let’s hope these improvements are lasting and not a case of Green being on one of his good streaks. (Dr. Danny and Mr. Green? Nah, too forced.)

The better Green and Leonard shoot it from the corners, the more people will fly out at them. It's gonna be critical for both to pump fake and drive hard to the basket and finish in the playoffs.

13. The next six games are @PHX, vs. PHX, vs. SAC, vs. DET, vs. CHI and vs. POR. No back-to-backs. Again, finish this RRT off in style on Sunday and then things will really start to even out schedule-wise.

One would hope that six game stretch will be the final six games for Pop to experiment with lineups and combinations and that by the time it's over (with a 6-0 record, *cough*) that the Spurs will emerge with their playoff rotation going forward, including the goddamn backup PG (though it'll probably just be Manu and Neal).

14. You almost need a Ph.D. to be a Spurs fan right now since there’s always a new injury concern that pops up just about every day. Parker got kneed a couple times tonight. Was that why he prematurely ran out of gas? If so, will he be 100% by Sunday? Duncan is looking pretty good but I won’t be able to exhale following his ACL scare until he puts together one of his vintage performances. Ginobili’s hamstring is a constant worry. If he snags it again, we’re all in trouble. Leonard’s knee obviously isn’t healing adequately. I guess we gotta just hope he learns to play with the pain. Green, Splitter and Bonner all came up hobbling at some point tonight. Jackson’s finger is still technically broken (not to mention his family issue). Neal is attempting (key word being “attempting”) to play through a calf injury. Blair’s knees have degenerated before our very eyes. , even Pop’s voice has been weaker than usual since he missed those games due to illness. (Wow, I didn’t really realize how true the first sentence of this paragraph was until I typed out the subsequent sentences. It’s crazy how the Spurs have a new niggle every day yet a team like the Thunder never have to deal with any type of injury.)

Rooting for this team is terrifying. It's like rooting for an NFL team with three franchise QBs, where you know on any one play they can get hurt and the season is over. The Thunder, on the other hand, are aliens. They play 48 minutes and don't even sweat. I can't stand it. People talk about how our bench got outplayed so badly in the playoffs against them, but don't mention that the Thunder's "bench" still featured Kevin Durant. It'd be nice (and I think it's theoretically possible) for Pop to always have 2 of the big 3 on the floor in the playoffs, but I know he won't. I swear to god though if he ever does that with 0 of the big 3 out there, I'm gonna go insane.

15. Enjoy these days. We’re witnessing the good ol’ days right now.

I'll believe that if they're lifting the LOB at the end.

[timvp]

Great stuff, Cry Havoc and roycrikside





P.S.

I don't understand how that would be a humblebrag. Tbh, it was "lets see if the wife still reads the stuff I write" bait. So far, no bite

[Chinook]

Leonard needs more post-ups. I get that he's a wing in the NBA, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't take advantage of his time as a big. I saw him play in the post a little last night before I turned the game off, and I like what I saw. Let's hope he keeps working at it. An NBA-caliber post game is an asset no matter what position you play. I also want to see him as a screener more often. Green sets screens a lot, but Leonard's larger body should allow him to be more effective. We already know Kawhi can cut, so it seems like he could be a good roll man with practice.

As far as Green goes, I don't think this new part of his game is temporary. Don't get me wrong, he'll probably be streaky in his drives just like he's streaky in everything else, but we've already seen what that looks like. In the last few games before the All-Star break, Green's turnover numbers started rising. This was because he was trying to drive but kept having it stolen from him and because his passes weren't reaching their targets in the right places. I said back then that him learning how to make those plays would be helpful. While I don't think we can count on seeing Green do this every night just yet, I think we're starting to see the potential of the Spurs starting unit with a play-making Green.

I really wish Green could learn how to finish with contact, though.

[xellos88330]

I was hoping to actually see Baynes in the GSW game with some decent minutes. He probably could have helped keep Lee and Landry from bullying the Spurs in the paint and getting rebounds/tips.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Good thread.

Predictable loss in b2b on 8th game of RRT against a good team after pummelling an excellent team.

Nothing to worry about except the Neal on Curry decision in the 4th Q by Pop (I mean, WTF???).

[Ice009]

No player is perfect. , if TP could shoot threes, he'd be the most unstoppable guard in the league.

He NEEDS the 3 point shot to open up the game for him, then and only then, will he be able to take it up to the next level and stay there. He can still be stopped without it.

Chip is supposedly one of the best shooting coaches going around, and I think it's almost bordering on negligent that he hasn't developed at least some kind of semi-consistent 3 point shot with TP. Hasn't he been with the team since 2006? That is a long darn time to be working on a PG's shooting and still not have a decent 3 point shot. That is the missing element to TP completely opening up his game. What the are they paying Chip for?

[pad300]

If thought 1) is true, holy did we make a hash of this trade deadline. However, I think that our FO is more competent than that...So I expect that Jack will be back.