Coming into the game against the Celtics, I thought Boston had the clear advantage over the Spurs. The new-look Celtics wanted to prove they’re for real and what better way to do so than beat the reigning NBA champs in a nationally televised game? Not to mention the fact that the Spurs always seem to play lethargically in early games.
Even though I thought a win was a long shot going into the game, the way it played out was frustrating. The Spurs played poorly on both ends of the court. Specifically, the offensive execution and the defensive energy were pathetic. With a slightly better showing, the Spurs could have won the game. Instead, they lost 98-90 to the Celtics, who improved to 16-0 against Western Conference teams.
A lot of credit goes to the Celtics who proved they were legit championship contenders. Their defensive play was extremely impressive. They were not only extremely active but they were great at rotating. It’s no surprise that they are statistically ranked as the best defensive team in the league. They are playing defense in each game with playoff-like intensity. Offensively, with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen on the court, they don’t have much trouble getting good looks.
What’s scary for the Spurs is the Celtics looked very good and it was without both Kevin Garnett and their starting center Kendrick Perkins. The Spurs, who were once again without Tony Parker and Brent Barry, do not match up against Boston well at all. Next to the Dallas Mavericks, the Celtics are perhaps the worst matchup in the league for the Spurs.
Overall, even though the Spurs struggled, they had a chance to win the game. If a late game Michael Finley three-pointer didn’t rattle out, the game would have been tied and the Spurs would have had a great shot to pull out the victory. However, the ball rattled out and the Celtics earned their win.
-Although Tim Duncan’s stats look good, I wasn’t happy with how he played. Going against a team whose tallest player was the 6-foot-9 Brian Scalabrine, Duncan should have dominated. Instead, he let the smaller players of the Celtics push him around. He wasn’t fighting for position and when he did get the ball, Duncan didn’t use his size to his advantage. It was surprising because Duncan usually destroys short defenders. This game, however, was different. Whether it was Glen Davis or Leon Powe, Duncan simply didn’t have the type of game the Spurs needed. He finished with 22 points, 14 rebounds, six assists and two blocks, while hitting half of his 20 field goal attempts. Like I said, the stats look good. But in this situation, the Spurs needed Duncan to take more advantage of the mismatches.
-Like Duncan, Manu Ginobili appeared to have a good game if you look at the stats. He totaled 21 points, four rebounds, four assists, two steals and a blocked shot, while shooting 7-for-15 from the field. In reality, Ginobili had a poor outing. Defensively, he was a disaster for the Spurs. To begin the game, Ginobili was assigned to Pierce. Pierce responded by scoring 13 points in the first five minutes and twenty seconds of the game. Pop then put Ginobili on Rajon Rondo and Rondo went Jason Kidd against the Spurs – finishing with five points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds. When the Celtics put together their team this summer, I was worried because I didn’t see a player in their starting lineup that Ginobili could guard. My fears were verified quickly after the game began. Ginobili, who isn’t a very good one-on-one defender against big time scorers or players he has to chase around screens, just doesn’t matchup well with any of the starting Celtics. The worst part is Doc Rivers and the Celtics know this. Whoever Ginobili was guarding became option number one for the Celtics. Offensively, Ginobili was draining his three-pointers but otherwise he was relatively quiet. He was 2-for-4 on two-pointers and had a team-high six turnovers. The Spurs have now lost five straight games in which Ginobili has scored more than 20 points.
-Bruce Bowen had one of his worst games I’ve seen him play as a Spur. It’s like he missed the flight to Boston. In 31 minutes, he hit 1-of-4 three-pointers and had three fouls. That’s all he did. No rebounds, assists, steals or blocks. Most damning, Bowen’s defensive effort was very poor. I’ve rarely seen him have such little impact defensively. In his defense, by the time he was switched off onto Pierce full time, Pierce was already scorching. Although, Bowen’s defense even prior to the switch was sub par. This performance is especially disappointing because of how Bowen dominated the last ten minutes of the victory against the Knicks on Friday.
-In a somewhat surprising change, Jacque Vaughn was back in the starting lineup. The energy was there from Vaughn, but the execution was lacking. He had eight points on 2-for-6 shooting and did little else in his 25 minutes of action. His effort against Allen defensively was high but Allen had too much size on him. It’s difficult to get too angry with Vaughn now because it’s obvious what you can and can’t do. He can’t score consistently and he can’t make plays for others consistently, however he gives consistent effort.
-Fabricio Oberto was another major problem as far as not taking advantage of the lack of size on the court for the Celtics. Oberto had shorter defenders on him all day long and he failed to take advantage. He finished with four points, four rebounds and three assists in 20 minutes of play. If Oberto would have played as well as he played in the last three games, the Spurs likely could have pulled out a victory. Instead, he too got pushed around and Pop had to look elsewhere for production.
-Michael Finley was the only Spur who brought his A game to Boston. Not only was his shot falling, but he was also playing relatively good defense. Without Finley, the Spurs wouldn’t have been anywhere close to winning. In 32 minutes, Finley finished with 19 points, four rebounds and two assists, while connecting on 8-of-13 shots from the field. He had a look at a late game three-pointer that could have tied the game. Unlike the shot against the Knicks, this one rattled out.
-Like many others, Ime Udoka’s defense wasn’t up to par. When he was put on Pierce, Pierce had no trouble either scoring or drawing a foul. In 24 minutes, Udoka had five points and six rebounds before fouling out. One aspect of Udoka’s game that doesn’t bode well for the playoffs is clutch shooting. In tight games late in the fourth quarter, Udoka is shooting less than 30% on the season. Udoka against the Celtics missed a wide open three-pointer late that could have changed the momentum.
-Damon Stoudamire came off the bench for the first time as a Spur and responded with a poor showing. In 23 minutes, he had eight points, three assists and two rebounds, while shooting 3-for-11 from the field. Stoudamire missed his share of wide open looks from beyond the arc as he finished just 1-for-6 on three-pointers. Defensively, he got lit up by Eddie House and whoever else he was assigned to defend. The problem with Stoudamire’s defense is more his lack of size than his lack of understanding of the concepts.
-Robert Horry played seven minutes in the first half but didn’t get any meaningful minutes in the second half. Horry was actually effective while he was on the court, finishing with four rebounds and two assists. With Pop going to small ball in the second half, Horry’s minutes in the rotation were taken by smaller players.
-If possible, it appears that Francisco Elson and Matt Bonner have ventured deeper into Pop’s doghouse. Elson usually gets a look when the Spurs are struggling on the boards. He got zero minutes on Sunday even though the Spurs were outrebounded 46-37. Bonner usually gets minutes when the Spurs were as flat as they were on Sunday. He got zero minutes on Sunday. I thought Pop should have played Bonner ... if only for comedic purposes. With Scalabrine playing 16 minutes for the Celtics, Bonner could have gone against his evil twin brother who not only look like him but also plays like him – if you take away Bonner’s shooting ability, rebounding ability, basketball playing ability and made him slower and more awkward.
-Pop made a whole lot of questionable coaching decision today. I’m not even sure where to start. I guess first of all, I don’t agree with starting Vaughn over Stoudamire. Even when Stoudamire is missing his shots, he’s a much better playmaker and his ability to stretch the floor is needed to keep players away from Duncan and Ginobili. Vaughn is best as a spark plug off the bench who can muck up the game until the starters return. By starting Vaughn, the offense was mucked up for the starters and then the Celtics bench was able to take advantage of Stoudamire’s defense without Duncan behind him.
I’m also not sure in what universe Pop thinks starting Ginobili on Pierce is a good move. Not only is Ginobili unable to defend Pierce, Ginobili even trying to defend Pierce wastes precious energy for Ginobili. If Pop wanted to put Ginobili on a scorer, at least put him on Allen and hope Allen misses shots.
I thought Pop also should have put Ginobili in positions to where he could be the playmaker. With Parker out, Ginobili has to pick up the playmaking slack or else the role players will struggle as they did today. With both Ginobili and Duncan concentrating on scoring, the Spurs become too easy to defend with Parker out.
40 minutes for Duncan and 38 minutes for Ginobili is just too much. I know the Spurs need their two best players in the game but Pop has to find ways to rest his stars. It's hard enough making a late game push but to make a late game push with exhausted players is much tougher.
As far as the small ball lineups, I didn’t have a huge problem with that strategy. The Celtics were playing with a bunch of midgets on the court and if the Duncan and Oberto combination wasn’t going to take advantage of the situation, Pop had to look for other options. It also gave the Spurs a better chance to defend Pierce and Allen because the team can switch defensively easier with their small ball lineup on the court.
This would have been a really, really nice win. Instead, it turned out to be a disappointing loss. Without Garnett and Parker in the game, you can’t really use this game to predict how the two teams will matchup. That said, there appeared to be several mismatches in favor of the Celtics. Hopefully those mismatches could be overcome with better defensive energy, execution and game planning if these two teams face off in more important games at some point in the future.
The bottomline is the Spurs lost a very winnable game. The Spurs also had a few flaws exposed. But with a 4-3 record on the Rodeo Road Trip, the Spurs have two more games to make this a successful trip. At the least, the Spurs need to win one of the last two games. Monday the Spurs take on the Raptors and will be looking to avenge a blowout loss at home they suffered earlier this season.
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