Congrats to Danny Green and other statistical ponderings

[Russ]

I've repeatedly given Bonner credit for a really good first game of the playoffs. But should really ignore the fact that he was 2-for-7 in the other three games that series? And then should we ignore the fact that he was arguably the worst player on the team against the Clippers?

Bonner also had a good Game 1 last year vs. Memphis, hitting a couple of late threes that nearly pulled it out. Then he disappeared for the rest of the playoffs.

You almost get the feeling that the first game of the playoffs is a rite of passage for Bonner -- he's transitioning, shedding his skin from the regular season Bonner to the post-season Bonner.

[maverick1948]

"-Speaking of liabilities, it's amazing how Matt Bonner is the regular season king of plus/minus but gets exposed in the postseason like clockwork. It was obvious that Gary Neal sucked on defense versus the Clippers but the numbers say that Bonner was even worse. Much worse"

You take on this is silly. He played the first 50 games with a lot time with starters, now he is playing more with Neal and Splitter. We all know Bonner is not a favorite on Spurstalk but the man helped get us here, so stop running him down. He was not the reason for any run in this series.

[Venti Quattro]

So what's the O/U that someone from ESPN Insider is plagiarizing this article?

[Capt Bringdown]

-Speaking of liabilities, it's amazing how Matt Bonner is the regular season king of plus/minus but gets exposed in the postseason like clockwork.

Amazing that anyone would find this amazing. The jury came in on Bonner's playoff potential a long time ago.
Expecting anything other from him than failure is madness IMO.

[T Park]

Blake is 1000% right. I've never seen a bench player that plays so little get vilified so much. But hey, there's always someone that's gotta draw the ire.

[Blake]

Bonner Apologist suddenly changes course to argue 13 points and six rebounds to go along with one of his three clutch baskets of the season doesn't classify as a good game for Bonner.

So Bonner scoring ten points the entire series should be applauded but Bonner scoring 13 points in one game should be ignored because it doesn't fit in with the agenda at hand. Got it. Thanks.

You started with this:

-Speaking of liabilities, it's amazing how Matt Bonner is the regular season king of plus/minus but gets exposed in the postseason like clockwork.

You changed course praising his points and rebounds in that regular season Clipper game. I'm now asking what direction we are going as far as criteria goes.

I reaaaaaaaally want Bonner to succeed because the Spurs are basically unbeatable when he plays well. But to suggest that the first two series of the 2012 playoffs have done anything to change Bonner's reputation as a playoff choker would be disingenuous, tbh.

You gave Bonner 2 C and 2 B grades in the 4 games against the Jazz, giving him pretty high praise in game 4.

He was 5 for 10 from downtown for that series.

He plus/minused the out of them.....better than Duncan.

Did the Jazz expose Bonner or not?

[TD 21]

It's incredible how poorly Ginobili has played in the playoffs . . . and how easily they've gotten away with it. And its not like Parker has exactly played out of his mind either. Criticize the compe ion all you want, but if someone would have told you those two things a month ago, you probably would have still had them in the Conference Finals (once you knew the match-ups and health situations of one of the teams two best players), but not by way of going 8-0. I think this is more law of averages than anything with Ginobili. His shooting was off the charts in the regular season, so he was due for a tough shooting stretch. But still. I've never seen him so poor reflected via advance stats.

[Shabazz]

Why do you think Bonner is coming in as the back-up PF instead of Blair?

[tesseractive]

Why do you think Bonner is coming in as the back-up PF instead of Blair?

Because he (theoretically) stretches the defense and pulls a big out of the paint to create more of a lane for our guards to penetrate.

[T Park]

Because he's a better defender than Blair, has better height, and is a better offensive player.

Its not even close.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Bledsoe was the biggest influence from the Clipper bench because we had no-one on the court who could keep up with him. I'm a little surprised Pop didn't throw Mills at him occasionally.

Anyway, our bench has been so good all year that I'm sure they'll return to form in the coming series.

Let's take a look:

Fisher vs Neal/Mills
Harden vs Manu
Cook vs Jax
Collison vs Bonner/Grizz
Mohammed vs Splitter

I'll take our bench over theirs any day of the week. Harden and Collison are their two best bench players, and we match up on them pretty well. The weak points in our rotation are Neal's awful D, which Fisher is unlikely to exploit given that he's virtually a corpse, and the Grizz-Bonner chimera, although we're likely to see very little of them unless foul trouble is a factor.

I think we'll see our bench vastly outplay OKC's, except in those periods when Harden becomes unstoppable. The Harden-Collison pnr is the key to their bench, just as Manu-Splitter pnr is important to ours. However, we can also expect strong contributions from Neal and Jax, while anything they get from the rest of their bench is definitely an unexpected bonus for them.

[TJastal]

That he's still shooting 44% from downtown with all his hesitation and poor shot mechanics should tell you just how wide open he's been most of the playoffs so far.

Now can you imagine what's going to happen if the spurs are to get into a hotly contested series with oodles of pressure like say, the WCF?

I hope I'm wrong here, but history does have a way of repeating..

Pop should just keep Bonner on a short leash against the thunder. I'd even roll the dice on Blair given his historical success against that team.

Bonner exceeded my expectations against a bad matchup in the Clippers.

I'm confused by the "frustrated he won't shoot, hate when he's in the game cause he can't make a shot" crowd

Or it could say his shot selection is good.

Your being wrong has a way of repeating.

My theory here is that you are talking out of your sphincter.

cuck crew

binomial distribution

[Blake]

cuck crew

binomial distribution

still talking out of your sphincter

[TJastal]

still talking out of your sphincter

Yah, Bonner's been a real factor in this series.. NOT. Try to do us a favor and stay up to date on current events, cuckoldboy.

[Blake]

NOT.

TJastal using bads from 1992 is so good.

[Bill_Brasky]

Ummm Bonner clearly was the reason that the Thunder sparked a second quarter run the other night and he is clearly not fast enough to be worth a on defense(namely transition, which they try to score on every time he clanks a 3).

Add in his incredibly slow release and he's ing useless against a fast team. Shouldn't get even one more minute.

[Spur|n|Austin]

Ummm Bonner clearly was the reason that the Thunder sparked a second quarter run the other night and he is clearly not fast enough to be worth a on defense(namely transition, which they try to score on every time he clanks a 3).

Add in his incredibly slow release and he's ing useless against a fast team. Shouldn't get even one more minute.

This. The Thunder smell blood every single time he steps onto the court. Pop HAS to see this!

[Goran Dragic]

I can't decide who's dumber, the people who hyper-criticize Popovich's decisions, or the people who dismiss any blame thrown at Bonner. I think two things are pretty clear:

1) Popovich has gotten more out of this team than any other coach would and is maybe the best coach in the NBA but definitely top 3.

2) Matt Bonner has been extremely detrimental to San Antonio while he's been on the court in this series, and it was definitely a mistake for Popovich to play him so much in game 3.

[Blake]

Ummm Bonner clearly was the reason that the Thunder sparked a second quarter run the other night and he is clearly not fast enough to be worth a on defense(namely transition, which they try to score on every time he clanks a 3).

Add in his incredibly slow release and he's ing useless against a fast team. Shouldn't get even one more minute.

I can't decide who's dumber, the people who hyper-criticize Popovich's decisions, or the people who dismiss any blame thrown at Bonner. I think two things are pretty clear:

1) Popovich has gotten more out of this team than any other coach would and is maybe the best coach in the NBA but definitely top 3.

2) Matt Bonner has been extremely detrimental to San Antonio while he's been on the court in this series, and it was definitely a mistake for Popovich to play him so much in game 3.

Has anyone disagreed with these sentiments?

[Goran Dragic]

Has anyone disagreed with these sentiments?

T-Park seems to disagree with the one about Bonner, and Mustang Sally the one about Popovich.

[Blake]

T-Park seems to disagree with the one about Bonner, and Mustang Sally the one about Popovich.

Mustang Sally thinks there are two different Pops.

He thinks winning Pop is awesome and has done everything Sally has told him to.

He thinks losing Pop is a head.