timvp you are the man. good writeup.
I knew spurs were gonna lose after first couple of minutes of 1st quarter. the loss does not hurt but the fact that we lost 1st place in the west does. now I really want Spurs to beat Suns. they better. if they lose to Suns I think we might be in a little trouble.
About the minutes.....
I'm sure Pop would rather lose a regular season game to Denver (a team we always beat in the post season). Than try to give Phoenix any hope that they can beat us. Remember that Sunday's game is in the after noon - kryptonite for the Spurs legs.
-Pop’s coaching in the second half was pathetic. I could go on and on but I’ll at least try to hit the main points. First of all, why take Bowen off of Anthony when Bowen had shut Anthony down in the first half? Iverson had a lot of points at the half but the Spurs were slowly but surely guarding him better. Plus Iverson had x-rays at halftime on his finger. Did the Spurs not get the memo?
And if you are going to make that switch, don’t start Finley on him. Finley can buy some time on Anthony here or there but not when George Karl is making it a point to run the offense through Anthony. Finley probably has grill marks from how badly Anthony torched him to begin the third. If Pop insisted on starting the second half with Bowen on Iverson, he should have at least put Udoka on Anthony to give the Spurs a fighting chance.
I also don’t get why Pop trots Vaughn out into the game like he can slow down Iverson. How many times does Pop need to see Iverson destroy Vaughn before he realizes that Vaughn can’t guard Iverson? Iverson probably has more trouble scoring on stationary cones than he has scoring on Vaughn.
Why such few minutes for Thomas in the second half? Why ride Horry when he obviously doesn’t have any juice? I just don’t see any logical reasoning to some of these moves by Pop.
It was almost as if Pop was trying to lose the game. And well, knowing how much Pop hates extended winning streaks in the regular season, that may not be as farfetched as it appears at face value.
IN A! lol.
So which team do you think will lose their spot on the playoffs?
I tivo'ed the game and I fell asleep at halftime. At about 3:00 am I watched the 2nd half. The two halves were two completely different games.
Great analysis, but I think you have to give props to the Nuggets for the adjustments they made in the 2nd half. They played OUTSTANDING defense and came out with much more energy than the Spurs, especially Najera. That guy was a beast.
Also, they made the spurs work extremely hard to get the ball to Tim and when Tim did get the ball, he was immediately harrassed by a pesky double-team.
In the 2nd half, many of the Spurs looked too hesitant to take their own shot. When they can't get the ball to Tim and Manu is taking a rest, the Spurs' offense really gets bogged down.
The Nuggets look to be a dangerous team if they get into the playoffs.
Kurt Thomas.
As always, a great analysis by Timvp.
Tony did look horrible. One thing I noticed right before he went on the DL was that he wasn't quick on defense, almost sluggish. Then there also wasn't any explosiveness to his game on the offensive end. I saw that again a little last night and it worried me. His feet weren't quick...at all. I'm hoping it was fatigue and not an ankle that's starting to feel sore again.
The other big point was Pop's coaching. His second half rotations were terrible. I kept waiting for Thomas to play and Horry to get the hook and it never happened (until it was pointless). I thought Bonner might have actually earned a few minutes after his nice showing the night before, and the fact that Oberto and Horry were stinking it up, but that didn't happen either. But Pulling Bowen off of Carmelo really had me shaking my head. Pop really did look like he was trying to tank the game with some of those decisions he was making.
I am just pissed at the lack of Kurt Thomas in the second half.
He was the perfect player to go up against Denver's frontline
losing sucks, but a win in phoenix would make up for this.
+1 I'm surprised KT didn't get more minutes...the Spurs were doing well with him in there...hopefully Pop gets the message...
Finley's defense in the third was really horrible. We let Carmelo get on a roll and we never responded.
I agree that shoot first Damon is not ideal. Looking back, it seems that Pop tries to force many of the backup point guards into this gunner role (which is crazy because we already have a much better scorer in Tony. A passing backup seems like a more obvious choice, especially someone who can pass to Manu and spot up.)
Van Exel and Beno both seemed to jack up shots as soon as they got into games. I guess this is called being "aggressive." It's funny to me how we have such a team first approach to the game, but for certain players they are expected to perform a role outside the system and basically look for their shot and play one on one. And this is what is asked of them. I realize we get into scoring droughts all the time, but one on one play by our worst players seems wrong on an obvious level.
The Spurs were down 9 with 3 minutes left and it was scrub time LMAO WTF was Pop thinking?
Yeah it was. The starters weren't playing good enough to win.
Or would you advocate playing the Big 3 over 40 mins on the second night of a back to back?
Conspiracy theory : After the Crawford debacle, do you think there was some sort of unspoken code, or order the refs enacted against the Spurs, in a clandestine meeting before, the start of the 2007-2008 season?
The lack of respect seems to trickle down against Tim , Manu and Tony, and extend towards the others like KT. More hacks, less calls???
I'm sure Manu should be averaging 3 + FT's, but neither Tim and Manu get the beneficial star treatment as much as the other guys do.
I think the lack of respect TD gets from the refs has more to do with his whining from over the years.
Granted, he's toned it down a bit, and lots of players whine in the NBA, I do think it all has been catching up with him and the refs.
yeah, but he's been whining for 9 years straight, but this year is the only year where his trips to the line are significantly down.
I'm pretty sure, even though it sounds funny, refs really got pissed off one of their brethren almost lost his job. Timmy's been getting abused lately, and no calls.
puh ing lease.I think the lack of respect TD gets from the refs has more to do with his whining from over the years.
The players threw in the towel a LOT sooner than Pop did. He has to manage the minutes over this brutal stretch of March. No sense in burning up rotational player minutes when they didn't seem to GAF, and we have another B2B Sunday and Monday, and a total of four more left this month. I'd say cutting this turd of an effort loose was a good choice.
There shouldn't be any vendetta against Tim. Crawford was the one that ed up, not Tim. You don't give someone a technical for laughing-that is the most bogus bull ever. This isn't a dictatorship, the players can laugh if they want while they are on the ing bench. I could understand if Tim was using profanity, but you don't T someone up for laughing. If you don't want them laughing, don't call bull calls and try to take over a game with your officiating. This is a player's league, not an official's league, and referees like Crawford and Bavetta don't ing understand that.
As Just-Ice or M.C. Shan would say, "this was not a good game by the Spurs."
Nah, I would never think that.
Shoog stop being so closed minded and expand your horizons.
If Rasheed can get T'd up for smiling and staring, then Tim Duncan can get T'd up for laughing. Heck, Duncan should get a technical foul and a fine every time he claps like a re .
Can't Timmy' play politics to appease the refs.
I thought there was a shot of Tim and Joey Crawford trading laughs during one of his first games with teh Spurs since returning to the job.
They need to stop blackballing Timmy before the playoffs start.
Always a great ending timvp.
True that Finley letting Melo go wild was the key to the 3rd quarter waxing. I was screaming to put Bowen or at least Udoka on him. Nice job Pop.
Tony played like azz, but aside from that and the above Denver just had it going on last night and we were on the 2nd half of a b-2-b, etc, etc. Honestly I can't be too disappointed in this loss. Denver has good personnel and they all showed up to play, and we were due for a loss. Pretty simple.
On a playoff note, when does Houston ever start to lose???
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