Grades: Spurs @ Thunder - Game 4

[SA210]

Matt Bonner Inc.
Let's just say the Incomplete is being generous. When Matt Bonner entered the game, he immediately destroyed the team's momentum. Among his lowlights during his two minutes of play: an ugly pull-up jumper off of a pump fake that he never attempts, poor transition defense that resulted in a dunk, losing his man in a halfcourt set that resulted in a dunk, and failing to box out that resulted in a tip-in. It's been painfully obvious for years that Bonner lacks the intestinal for ude to thrive in tense situations. Hopefully, Game 4 was the nail in the coffin for any stragglers who were left unconvinced ... Pop included.

Pop C-
First of all, playing Bonner was a mistake. Bonner is totally overwhelmed by the moment. With as well as Blair played, in hindsight Pop probably should have used him beginning in Game 3. I would also like to see better plays called when the bench unit is in the game. There has to be something in Pop's bag of tricks that is able to take advantage of a defense that is switching everything. Leonard also deserved more minutes and, perhaps most blatantly of all, Ginobili needs to play more than 25 minutes. That's an absurdly low number of minutes with so much on the line. Defensively, the Spurs have been horrible this series and Pop deserves a portion of that blame. On paper, Pop's defensive scheming was supposed to help the Spurs overcome the Thunder's brigade of talent. Thus far, that hasn't been the case. I don't think it's hyperbolic to suggest that Game 5 is the most important game of Pop's career, especially because he doesn't have a superstar version of Duncan to fall back on. Pop needs to make a number of difficult decisions regarding the rotation, continue to adjust the offensive sets to account for how OKC is defending, and figure out a defensive gameplan that gives the Spurs a fighting chance. Pop, the time is now to show why you are a future Hall of Famer.

Believe.

-Blake

[Ditty]

Still upset how Spurs didn't double team Durant after about the 3rd made basket, and let someone else kill us. I'm being really positive for game 5, if we bring the effort, and be aggressive we can take these guys. Hopefully tomorrows crowd will beyond loud for our boys in black.

[Arc]

We're gonna need more nasty from everyone if we want to win this.

[Soul_Patch]

Bonner is just completely worthless. It was dead obvious when he came in because everything just started to fall to pieces, and we never recovered. My wife was yelling at the TV to get Bonner out of the game.

I am not sure why he gets so much consideration from Pop, but I really hope he is done with Bonner at this point. I'd rather play 4 v 5 than a 5 v 5 with Bonner in the game.

[maverick1948]

not many comments on this thread so I will add one.

Pop said it best when asked about how the Thunder were beating the Spurs. He said they were playing 4 quarters while the Spurs were playing 3. Taking off the 2nd quarter in both games.

In those 2 2nd quarter we were out scored by 27 points combined. We lost the 2 games by a combined 26. Not a bad thing to watch in tonights game.

[Legacy]

Thanks again for your time and write-up, timvp.