Summer League Game Blog: Spurs vs. Hornets - 7/12/09 3PM CT

[Bruno]

Pounding The Rock has made an interview with Ian:
http://www.poundingtherock.com/2009/...-summer-league

[Spurs_9_20_21]

Damn, Blair/Hill look nice.

yeah! blair=mr.double double
hill=someone gimme a nickname for hill.

[Russ]

Pounding The Rock has made an interview with Ian:
http://www.poundingtherock.com/2009/...-summer-league

Someone needs to a counter for the word "cool" said by the interviewer the way they did with AI and the word "practice."

[Darkwaters]

Nice find Bruno.

What stuck out to me most from the interview was Mahinmi saying he was talking to the national team to try and play with them. Interesting.

[Darkwaters]

Someone needs to a counter for the word "cool" said by the interviewer the way they did with AI and the word "practice."

[marcflynn2009]

hey where can i watch the next game??

[Spursmania]

"We're talking about practice, man"

[Russ]

This one has the actual counter:

[peskypesky]

scroll down for his comments on the Spurs

http://twitter.com/coachthorpe

sweet

[Gutter92]

Guys I just got back, can sum1 fill me in on what happened at the game? I don't wanna read all 39 pages.

[urunobili]

He is in love with Hill though...

[Mhak]

dam. i totally missed the game.... Do any of you guys have a link for replay for this game. Base on all your comments makes me want to kick my arze for missing it.

[oligarchy]

That's David Thorpe:

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/...er-League.html

[kbrury]

Hill-Awesome
Hairston-On fire in the 2nd half
Blair-Beast
Gist-Bad
Mahinmi-not good, but first game in a year.
McClinton-Bad


or....thanks to HH

Some thoughts..

George Hill..just dominated the game from start to finish..his shot looks a lot better..his athleticism and length is going to make him a special player..another thing I love about him is that he has a role player mentality all the time, even today, where he was clearly the #1 option/star player..he goes after loose balls all the time..

His defense is already good at the NBA-level, which is really what separates him from a lot of young PGs in the NBA right now..this will also allow him to play at the 2 with Tony, which could be huge for us..

DeJuan Blair..great game, couldn't have expected more..his rebounding truly is elite..his knees looked fine..he looked like a seasoned veteran playing against rookies..he had 1 bad move, where he beat his defender but decided to add another move, leading to his attempt being blocked..other than that, he showed very good touch at the basket..

His defensive awareness needs work, but that's expected for a rookie, especially since none of these guys have played together before..

Malik Hairston..he did what most of us expected..his shooting looks better, his defense was solid from start to finish, he's explosive at the basket..he needs to work on his ball-handling, but that isn't going to be a problem, since he's going to be a role player..

Ian Mahinmi..mixed results..his potential is pretty obvious, especially offensively..he has a very polished offensive game for a young project player IMO..his energy was a lot better than last year, but he still needs a lot more to be a rotation player for us this year..I won't judge him too much though, since it's his first NBA game since the injury..

James Gist..he didn't impress me in this game..he had a good move and a couple of strong finishes to the basket, but he looked over matched physically against the other big men..

Jack McClinton..he looked better in the 2nd half, but he didn't look good overall..I didn't like his shot selection on his few shots, and didn't like his energy overall, although it was noticeably better in the 2nd half..

[urunobili]

Guys I just got back, can sum1 fill me in on what happened at the game? I don't wanna read all 39 pages.

timvp will have thoughts of the game shortly... be patient...

[kbrury]

he gave Hill some love on Espnews.

[AFBlue]

Nice find Bruno.

What stuck out to me most from the interview was Mahinmi saying he was talking to the national team to try and play with them. Interesting.

What stuck out to me was the part about only being allowed to play with the d-league affiliate for two years...I thought it was three years?

The reason I find it interesting is, the Spurs might not get a good enough indication as to whether he's ready to contribute with just 5 summer league games and a few pre-season games...he may actually benefit from some time at the beginning of the season in Austin.


Anyone have clarification?

[ace3g]

Blair is going to have fun when we play the Grizzlies in the Summer League, Thabeet is sporting this stupid mohawk (watching the Grizz/Thunder game)

by the way Sam Young scored the first 6 points for the the Grizzlies, including this sick pump fake step forward move, which I think was the one people have been talking about. My friend had a move like that, and everyone that he traveled, but his foot stays on the ground.

[Cloud786]

Anyone know if there is a way I can watch this game somehow right now?

[SonOfAGun]

Blair is going to have fun when we play the Grizzlies in the Summer League, Thabeet is sporting this stupid mohawk (watching the Grizz/Thunder game)

haha yeah, I hope its these same commentators because they are all over thabeet

[DMX7]

Anyone know if there is a way I can watch this game somehow right now?

If you buy the $15 pass, then it should be available in the archive section.

[timvp]

What stuck out to me was the part about only being allowed to play with the d-league affiliate for two years...I thought it was three years?

The reason I find it interesting is, the Spurs might not get a good enough indication as to whether he's ready to contribute with just 5 summer league games and a few pre-season games...he may actually benefit from some time at the beginning of the season in Austin.


Anyone have clarification?

Mahinmi is ineligible for Austin. It's two years in the NBA and those two years are up.

[Spurs Brazil]

[Behrooz24]

scroll down for his comments on the Spurs

http://twitter.com/coachthorpe

sweet

DeJuan Blair. 1 minute. 3 boards.

[Spurs Brazil]

Spurs Drop Hornets to Open Summer League Play


LAS VEGAS, July 12 – The third day of the 2009 NBA Summer League presented by EA SPORTS opened with the San Antonio Spurs hosting the New Orleans Hornets at COX Pavilion on the campus of University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

In a tightly contested fourth quarter, Malik Hairston sealed the Spurs 92-86 victory with a three-pointer with 18 seconds left in the game. Trailing by two heading into the fourth quarter the Spurs led by as many as six in a quarter that featured seven lead changes and six ties.

George Hill tallied a game high 25 points for the Spurs while Malike Hairston tallied 16 points. The Hornets were led by Marcus Thornton with 22 points while Darren Collison chipped in 19.

“My coaches and teammates told me to just play my game, and that’s what I did,” said Hill on today’s performance.

The Hornets led by as many as nine in the opening half of play and led by two at the half.

The Spurs third quarter attack was led by Hairston who scored 13 points and led San Antonio to a five point lead in the third early in the quarter. The Hornets finished the quarter strong and maintained their two point lead heading into the final period.

Both teams shot well from the charity stripe, the Spurs connecting on 33 for 36 from the line while the Hornets connected on 19 for 20.

Both teams return to the hardwood on Tuesday, the Hornets hosting the Los Angeles Clippers at 7:30 p.m. while the Spurs host the Nuggets at 7 p.m.

http://www.nba.com/spurs/gameday/090712.html