48MoH: Sacramento Kings 106, San Antonio Spurs 118

[Blackjack]

Sacramento Kings 106, San Antonio Spurs 118
by Timothy Varner


The Spurs beat the Kings last night in a game punctuated by San Antonio dunks. It’s not often that a Spurs scribe can write those words, so I’m getting them in while I can.

Sacramento played the Spurs tight, but the Spurs more or less controlled the game from the start. It was, I suppose, a comfortable win, despite a late 4th quarter run by Sacramento. (The Kings, for what it’s worth, have five good young players in Tyreke Evans, Omri Casspi, Jason Thompson, Donte Greene and Spencer Hawes. If you didn’t know, now you do. They’re fun to watch.)

This game should come as a welcome relief for Spurs fans as the team finally got a solid performance from each of the Big Four in the span of the same 48 minutes. Richard Jefferson came out swinging from the opening bell, and the team fed off of his early aggression. He scored 3 of 4 of the Spurs’ opening baskets, two of which were dunks off Tony Parker assists.

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[mountainballer]

The Spurs have shown that they can beat middle of the pack and bottom feeder teams. But they’ve yet to show they can beat the league’s best teams. In order to do that, they need to play consistently dominant defense. And they need Richard Jefferson and Manu Ginobili to play, well, like they did last night.

this win really wasn't something to overreact about, just because the big 4 scored a bit. yes, the Kings are better than last season, but jesus....never ever should they get 106 points on the Spurs court. not to forget they even didn't make half of their FTs! I can't rave about some nice offensive moments, when in fact the defense is still 3 levels below what the Spurs would need as a minimum standard to be somehow successful in the long run.
honestly, I would love to interchange this dunks from RJ and Manu anytime for an ugly 85-75 win, when the other team is limited to 40 and 30%.
the problem of the Spurs really are not how many alley oops they deliver per game.
as long as they can't improve the defense significantly, they will be a .500 team. that's the awful truth.

[quentin_compson]

honestly, I would love to interchange this dunks from RJ and Manu anytime for an ugly 85-75 win, when the other team is limited to 40 and 30%.

I don't know. Getting those guys going offensively is surely giving them confidence, and RJ especially seems to play better D if he is more active on the other end.

I agree that this win was nothing to rave about. But it was just important to win this game to end the three-game skid.