anyone else think this was a "good" loss?

[Rick Von Braun]

The West is too tight for "good" losses, IMO. But I don't think Pop hated losing that much.

Pop thinks losses are the only way he can get a grip on the team... I think this is a bad coaching philosophy.

He did a horrible coaching job last night... so horrible that one has to think he did it on purpose. He put Finley on Melo at the beginning of the 3rd, benched Manu and later put Vaughn on Iverson. Are you ing kidding me?!?! Start Manu and put him on Iverson, leave Bowen on Melo and tell TP to be aggressive. Not precisely rocket science. [For those justifying Pop with Manu's 3 fouls... hint.. hint... Melo also had 3 fouls].

The loss was no good. It was expected, but this is not a good loss.

Giving up on the game with 6 minutes to play in the fourth down 15 is also chicken . "I'll show a lesson to the team by benching Bowen, Duncan, Manu and Parker." or "I've given up on them, let's cut the losses early." BS.

Ride the ing horses, replace Udoka with Thomas and/or Bonner, and leave TP, Manu, Bowen, TD, Thomas until the 3 minutes mark to see if they cut the difference. In three minutes they could have cut the lead to 7 and you have a ball game. If not, you replace them, but at least you give it a try. He did it on purpose so he can ride them for the Suns' game and get "control" of the team.

[cash459]

the Spurs fell apart in the second half.

And can someone plese tell me where TP was throughout the whole game!?

[remingtonbo2001]

Personally, I'd rather have the 2 or 3 seed than the 1 seed.

[slayermin]

No shame losing in Denver on a back to back. But damn, I wanted this win.

I would say it's a typical "spurs loss."

[Holt's Cat]

Did Pop use Thomas too little in this game? When he was on the court with TD and Manu the Spurs controlled the game and built leads.

[SequSpur]

Pop thinks losses are the only way he can get a grip on the team... I think this is a bad coaching philosophy.

He did a horrible coaching job last night... so horrible that one has to think he did it on purpose. He put Finley on Melo at the beginning of the 3rd, benched Manu and later put Vaughn on Iverson. Are you ing kidding me?!?! Start Manu and put him on Iverson, leave Bowen on Melo and tell TP to be aggressive. Not precisely rocket science. [For those justifying Pop with Manu's 3 fouls... hint.. hint... Melo also had 3 fouls].

The loss was no good. It was expected, but this is not a good loss.

Giving up on the game with 6 minutes to play in the fourth down 15 is also chicken . "I'll show a lesson to the team by benching Bowen, Duncan, Manu and Parker." or "I've given up on them, let's cut the losses early." BS.

Ride the ing horses, replace Udoka with Thomas and/or Bonner, and leave TP, Manu, Bowen, TD, Thomas until the 3 minutes mark to see if they cut the difference. In three minutes they could have cut the lead to 7 and you have a ball game. If not, you replace them, but at least you give it a try. He did it on purpose so he can ride them for the Suns' game and get "control" of the team.

Sup Rick! How ya been? Good take.

[nfg3]

Can't win them all and frankly we were due. And that was one of the weakest 11 game winning streaks I've ever seen. Hopefully from the film session and team discussion things will get better. Losing games here and there don't bother me all that much but not learning or improving from them do. The rotation needs to be established so everyone will know what is expected from them every game. And that will probably take the return of Barry for that to happen, though. I know Pop has been experimenting with the tlineup - trying to integrate Damon and now KT into the team - but I believe we are entering the home stretch where order and consistently are a must.

I'm a little concerned about Horry. Even for him he's way off and just doesn't seem to be into the game at times. He's so inconsistent that it's painful to watch. I hope I'm wrong but so far it seems that he stayed one year too long. Maybe he'll come together come playoff time but...???

I believe that the Spurs will get this done but as a fan I will have to go thru the all the little tweaks neccessary to make that happen. I feel like I'm twisting in the wind at times.

[WalterBenitez]

Where was Parker?

He stayed in the hotel with Mrs Parker

[Manudona]

The things I saw from tonight's game that led to this ty game were:

1. Pop ED up big time by starting Finley instead of Ginobili in the 2nd half! WTF?! Ginobili was hot, I know he had 3 fouls but Manu, for the most part is a smart player and would've avoid the 4th. Finley went on to get lit up 4 or 5 possesions in a row by Melo which ED UP THE WHOLE GAME FROM THERE. Parker on AI on Bowen on Melo was working, why it up? You couldve let AI get his and take Melo outta the game, instead, they both ed us.

3. Tony having an off night in every way. TO's, missed shots, not driving/being aggressive.

I think those two points are contradictory, you need to make up your mind. Either Tony was having an off night in every way or he was having at least a good defensive game working on AI, I think the former is more accurate thou

[smeagol]

Pop thinks losses are the only way he can get a grip on the team... I think this is a bad coaching philosophy.

He did a horrible coaching job last night... so horrible that one has to think he did it on purpose. He put Finley on Melo at the beginning of the 3rd, benched Manu and later put Vaughn on Iverson. Are you ing kidding me?!?! Start Manu and put him on Iverson, leave Bowen on Melo and tell TP to be aggressive. Not precisely rocket science. [For those justifying Pop with Manu's 3 fouls... hint.. hint... Melo also had 3 fouls].

The loss was no good. It was expected, but this is not a good loss.

Giving up on the game with 6 minutes to play in the fourth down 15 is also chicken . "I'll show a lesson to the team by benching Bowen, Duncan, Manu and Parker." or "I've given up on them, let's cut the losses early." BS.

Ride the ing horses, replace Udoka with Thomas and/or Bonner, and leave TP, Manu, Bowen, TD, Thomas until the 3 minutes mark to see if they cut the difference. In three minutes they could have cut the lead to 7 and you have a ball game. If not, you replace them, but at least you give it a try. He did it on purpose so he can ride them for the Suns' game and get "control" of the team.

I cannot agree with you more. Pop wanted this loss.

[xamila rey]

after following the spurs for a while
anyone can tell that Pop wanted this lost for the way that he coached the second half of the game.

[Brutalis]

I kind of think of this loss like accidentally crapping your pants. I mean, it was good to get the doo doo out of your system, cause you're gonna have to do that at some point...but let's face it, there's poop in your shorts now.

[Brutalis]

the Spurs fell apart in the second half.

And can someone plese tell me where TP was throughout the whole game!?

When TP is off it looks like you just woke up, ran from lions, right into a bear, while falling in a snake pit. It's just really ugly and painful to watch.

[Brutalis]

after following the spurs for a while
anyone can tell that Pop wanted this lost for the way that he coached the second half of the game.

True... Pop used the reserves and they did to me a very decent job against Mavs starters ending the game. Maybe just a couple calls a different way, and a couple in and outs go in and they brought us back, then I bet Pop would have put in Tim or Manu.

[CaptainLate]

You can't win every game and this one was kinda logical to lose (b2b on the road)....Spurs will have 5 games against teams with >.600 record in the next 6 games. The last game of this stretch will be Spurs' 11th game in 17 days.

To with the NBA and Stern for sked all these damn b2b games. Doesn't that idiot know you put out an inferior product making great teams so they lose vs. inferior crap...Or is that the point?