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Awesome thoughts
Great job
Thank you for the grades, but I agree with others here that Tony should have gotten a higher grade than he did. Credit Mavs' defense for executing their game plan and shutting down our three point shooters. TP kept the Spurs in the game in the first half almost single-handedly, both offensively and defensively. Criticizing him for taking a few plays to figure out what the defense was going to give the team before he starting carving them up was smart; it was not passive or poor playing.
For the game, Tim and Tony were the only team members who shot better than 50%. In the second half Tony was trying desperately to get others scoring, but the shots weren't falling for them.
Manu was 4-10 from the field for the game and Kawhi was 4 of 11. Tony was 9 of 16; Tim was 12 of 20.
Sometimes Tony is damned if he does and damned if he doesn't. If he is taking a lot of shots, he is 'Enrique', and if he is not, he is 'disappearing'.
He also played some great defense in this game.
We won despite not being able to hit open midrange jumpers. When Tony finally hit a big one he started this to self verbal tirade that to me, illustrated the frustration.
We all know Pop likes the 3, easy layup combo. Parker provided the easy layups first half. And provided Tim with layups. But honest to God we have to hit a few open midrange shots. Tim... You can't just live off Parker table settings, a few elbow jumpers would be great.
We shot very poorly. Even after Dallas got tired. Which played a huge role in that 4th quarter stretch of misses Dallas went through. The D was good, but Dallas certainly helped by wearing out.
Carter, Ellis and Dirk looked unusually slow during that period of time. Calderon probably should have played more. After missing some wide open jumpers Calderon got hot in the 3rd and then was forgotten when he missed one. Dirk 42 min.... 11 pts... Mostly off Boris if I recall.
This can't happen again
Marco 0-4 FGM-A, 0-2 3PM-A
Patty 1-4 FGM-A, 0-3 3PM-A
Green 0-2 FGM-A, 0-1 3PM-A
Kawhi 4-11 FGM-A, 0-3 3PM-A
Lol, the trend continues where Spurs are undefeated when Splitter scores at least 7 pts
Plus-minus is often deceiving and rarely indicative of player quality, but I thought the plus/minus numbers for the Spurs in Game 1 really told the tale and explain why Duncan's minutes were so relatively high -- without him in Game 1, the Spurs had no chance. Even before the big run at the end, the plus/minus column made it clear that the Spurs had any success against Dallas only when at least two of Duncan, Leonard, and Parker were on the floor.
I think their game plan was pretty obvious and I'm not sure who doesn't understand it. The only guy that should be really hurting from it is Danny Green. Marco, Patty, Manu, Kawhi, and Boris all have the ability to drive from a hard closeout at the three point line and finish around the rim. The only thing was all of them except Manu were completely out of sorts yesterday. Marco missed a couple of easy wide open looks, Patty just never found his timing on either side of the ball, and Boris could have busted the game open had he put his head down and looked to score instead of reverting to his old ways. If you think Marco, Patty, and Boris combine to hit 2 shots again in this series because of Dallas' gameplan then you're nuts.
Boris Diaw is the key here. I said it in one of my early Game Thoughts this year that an aggressive Boris Diaw in last years Finals would have been the difference in taking home the trophy, and I still believe that. He's going to be useless in this series if he doesn't start taking the ball into Dirk's chest and forcing him to play his shot rather than his pass. If Boris can get it going, suddenly Dirk needs help inside and then our shooters and cutters are open for Diaw to showcase those passing skills
Awesome, thanks for pointing this out sir
that got busted against the lakers breh
Spurs took what MAV defense gave them. MAVS have seen that the reason for Spurs' great record is the crisp passing, team work and contribution from the bench (everybody involved). They want Parker and Duncan to go iso and take everyone else out - hoping that either TP/TD will have a bad shooting day and/or wear down. They can't beat the whole team that we're used to so they pick their poison, which I believe is the right (only) strategy for them. They kept the game close the whole game but couldn't close. Seems like theirs is the opposite of Pop's where he says any body but Dirk beat us - dares them to shoot.
LMFAO!!!!!!
so Manu gets a better grade than Tony?!??
wtf SpursTalk...
The French flag sort of makes it hard to take you seriously
Fine job. Looking forward to your Game 2 thoughts.
Thanks Taco, your grades are always enjoyable to read, and pretty much spot on. If I didn't know any better, I'd figure you were really timvp posting under another account.
Sorry but I have to disagree with your assessment of the Big 3's effort (and even Tiago).
If anybody kept the Spurs afloat it was Parker in the first half. Carlisle admitted his strategy was to prevent the Spurs from scoring 3s, which worked, but Parker made him pay for it by relentlessly attacking the paint. Parker built the Spurs lead to +12, and as soon as he was on the bench the lead quickly disappeared. He came back at the end of the 2nd to yet again keep the game close. If not for Parker the Spurs would have been down by 10+ at the half.
Then Manu ran the show in the 3rd and the Spurs stalled, but he had 2 threes that were much needed. Parker then had a huge assist to Splitter (from memory) followed by 2 quick baskets at the end of the 4th, when Manu had 2 turnovers, including one pass directly into the stands.
The fact that the Mavs bench scored twice as many points as the Spurs bench is somewhat worrisome. Hopefully it was only a fluke.
Duncan and Tiago were great. Tiago wasn't looking for his own shot, but scored back-to-back baskets in the 4th to help cut Dallas lead. He was huge in this game.
The grades make it hard to take you seriously. Carlisle forced Parker to beat them and he did especially in the first half. IOW, Parker carried us.
Manu was able to generate open shots but Boris, Belli and to a lesser extent Mills missed them. Green was tentative too when Manu played with the starters for that stretch in the second half. Carlisle was sitting guys on the perimeter but we did get open looks even early on.
If you're mad because Tony got a B for overdribbling and being unable to get the team started in the first quarter as the PG, awesome. Cry about it and write something better
So you think it's fine that he passed the ball from his position 3 feet from the hoop, to a teammate covered on the perimeters with less than 5 seconds on the shot clock? I know Dalembert, Dirk, and Wright are quite the defensive stalwarts, but Jesus...I would rather him get the ball up from 3 ft then throw it to an out of rhythm Danny Green, Belinelli, and Mills
I was on my phone didn't have time to argue...
Forget about my flag, I've critizise Tony and I'm not a Manu hater...
Just look at the stats, the cluch shots...
I'm not saying Manu was crap, he kept us in the game at time... the same way Tony closed it for us.
But Tony scored more, more efficiently, had less TO and was clutch! (He built the lead and closed the game. Not enough?)
I'm not saying you're a tp hater or manu homer (despite your name, see? as stupid as the flag thing), just that maybe you (like many others on this board) have a pb analysing TP's performances for whatever reasons...
But he's right. Enrique should get a B+ at a minimum, probably more like an A- or A. Timmy also should be an A or A+, tbh. Manu as a B+ is probably fine.
As I said before, overall I did like your grades, though, tbh.
Last edited by superjames1992; 04-21-2014 at 08:29 PM.
I've been extremely critical of Parker all season, but I'm not sure how anybody can blame him for anything in yesterday's game..
You can't just magically "get your teammates involved" when the opposing coach's strategy is to sit on the shooters and force the high-usage players to beat you..forcing passes to covered teammates is often just as bad as poor shot selection, tbh(Cory Joseph always does this, and Boris also does it frequently)..
I agree with freetiago's take(per par), but I disagree that the role players didn't get looks..Diaw, Belli and Mills all got a few good looks that they failed to convert IMO, and Leonard missed a few good looks that he usually makes, too..
You kill the guy's grade for the first quarter?If you're mad because Tony got a B for overdribbling and being unable to get the team started in the first quarter as the PG, awesome. Cry about it and write something better
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