Grades: Spurs @ Kings - Mar. 28

[100%duncan]

Great write up Timvp.

[DAF86]

^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.

I guess it was just a missperception. It just didn't feel like an "A-" game from Duncan to me, specially on the defensive end.

I should watch the game again but I can't, speaking of which, you know what a great addition to this board could be? a place or thread to upload all the Spurs games. I don't know if that can be made but it would be awesome.

[rjv]

Agree on that closing five. that's a solid five

[Borosai]

Bonner is like a generous, oversized leprechaun with a giant pot of plus-minus, which he shares with -- and takes back from -- his teammates.

In the end, it's his pot.

[loveforthegame]

loveforthegame - I felt the opposite about him defensively.

I didn't mean to make it sound like he's a good defender. He's not but he just has this energy, this constant movement that works. It's almost distracting but if he can use it to his advantage maybe that will be enough.

[The ADMIRAL 50]

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

Thanks for the quick reply to Darkwaters' great question;reading his post definitely piqued my interest as well.

I simply cannot be more of a fan of Kawhi right now. All season long he has found a way to help the team and the rate at which he just keeps getting better and better blows my mind. He's so level headed about it all too, its almost as if its certainly no surprise to him at all that he's succeeding so significantly. It really is scary to think about the type of player we may be in store for, but damn is it nice to have the Kawhi of here and now on this squad.

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.

thanks for the insight as to Mills' defensive potential. I haven't had a chance to see him much in the League, so its good to have a basis in mind in regards to what to expect. Honestly last night it was almost as if he was working on a blank slate for me, and thus the porous D really stood out. That said I didn't expect Mills to come in and be a stopper; I expected him to be a spark. From what I have seen so far it looks like Patty can thrive in that role if managed correctly.

[The ADMIRAL 50]

I didn't mean to make it sound like he's a good defender. He's not but he just has this energy, this constant movement that works. It's almost distracting but if he can use it to his advantage maybe that will be enough.

yea I definitely agree on that much; Patty brings energy on both ends.
Whatever defensive deficiencies I noticed certainly weren't due to a lack of effort.