Monroe: Foul-line failures foil Spurs' comeback

[Blackjack]

Foul-line failures foil Spurs' comeback
By Mike Monroe - Express-News


TORONTO — Few outside the Spurs' inner circle knew quite what to make Sunday of the unprecedented decision to sit team captain Tim Duncan, their leading scorer and rebounder, for the first 14 minutes of the Spurs' 91-86 loss to the Raptors at Air Canada Centre.

The exception: Toronto's starting point guard, Jarrett Jack, who played his first three NBA seasons in Portland. There, he said, he saw plenty of coach Gregg Popovich's deviations from basketball orthodoxy.

“Coach Popovich is kind of a quirky guy,” Jack said. “He might do things just because it's Tuesday.”

On this bone-chilling Sunday night in Canada, it was Jack who ultimately rendered Popovich's version of rope-a-dope a failed stratagem. His improbable 8-foot hook shot with 2:08 remaining, launched between Duncan and defensive ace Keith Bogans, blunted a spirited Spurs comeback effort and enabled the Raptors to hang on.

The Spurs had sliced Toronto's 15-point fourth-quarter lead to three, at 81-78, when Jack's make gave the Raptors the breathing room they needed to stave off panic.

The loss put a halt to the Spurs' five-game win streak and dropped their record to 20-12.

In the previous 928 regular season games Duncan played before Sunday, he had started all but one. Returning from a three-game injury absence on March 18, 2004, with the Spurs already 20 games over .500, Duncan came off the bench against the Timberwolves.

This time, there was no injury-related precaution. Rather, Popovich opted for a guarded approach to his 33-year-old star's long-term stamina.

“He's played a lot of minutes,” Popovich said. “He played more than we wanted last night (36:11, in a 97-86 victory over the Wizards). We wanted to have him in the fourth quarter rather than the first. Not too much happens in the first quarters of NBA games.”

With Duncan a restless witness, what happened in Sunday's first quarter was a late surge by the Raptors that produced a 27-19 lead by its conclusion.

Popovich started veterans Theo Ratliff and Antonio McDyess up front, with Richard Jefferson on the wing. Tony Parker and Bogans opened in the back court.

Duncan finally entered the game with 9:58 remaining in the second quarter and discovered he needed a few trips, and shots, to get in a rhythm. He missed his first three shots and never seemed to get comfortable at the offensive end. Though he finished with 22 points, he needed 22 shots to get them, missing 14 field-goal attempts and 4 of 9 free throws.

Parker was worse, missing 5 of 9 at the line, and the Spurs' 16-for-27 free-throwing ultimately proved their undoing.

“They made 24 of their 27, and we made 16,” Popovich said. “In a way, you can say that's the ballgame right there.”

The win was the Raptors' sixth in their last seven games, and the Spurs found them a much more focused foe than they were on Nov. 9, when the Spurs scored a season-high 131 points in a victory at the AT&T Center.

Raptors coach Jay Triano was among those slightly bemused by Popovich's decision to keep Duncan on the bench for the first 14:01 of the game.

“Different coaches, different reasons,” he said. “Whether they were thinking of limiting his minutes, in that the minutes at the beginning are sometimes not as valuable as they are late, or whether they were thinking maybe they could beat us without him, I really don't know.”

Jack knew.

“Coach Pop is just a quirky dude,” he said. “He might just start all big guys one game and not think anything of it. If you know Coach Pop, that's just the kind of dude he is.”

[TJastal]

“Different coaches, different reasons,” he said. “Whether they were thinking of limiting his minutes, in that the minutes at the beginning are sometimes not as valuable as they are late, or whether they were thinking maybe they could beat us without him, I really don't know.”

That makes sense. Give him more minutes in the 2nd half because as we all know 2nd half minutes hurt less.

Gimme a break. Pop thought this game would be a mail-in and anything could have been furthur from the truth. Just a stupid move by the coach, plain and simple. Raptors have won 5 of 6 and in the last spurs/raptors game I thought the referees in that game really were a huge factor in the outcome. Get another set of referees on a different day and obviously different result.

[Spursmania]

Foul-line failures foil Spurs' comeback
By Mike Monroe - Express-News

Raptors coach Jay Triano was among those slightly bemused by Popovich's decision to keep Duncan on the bench for the first 14:01 of the game.

“Different coaches, different reasons,” he said. “Whether they were thinking of limiting his minutes, in that the minutes at the beginning are sometimes not as valuable as they are late, or whether they were thinking maybe they could beat us without him, I really don't know.”

This.

And, it was a big fail on Pop's part. Still love the guy, but what was he thinking? We could have gained some good ground last night in the standings and Duncan played anyway. So, it was all for nought.

[dbestpro]

New line for Pop losing his mind.

"It must be Tuesday."

[rascal]

Why does Toronto always play home games on Sundays? I didn't look at the schedule but it seems that way.

[ffadicted]

I agree with Pop taking a chance of not playing Duncan. They were without Turkoglu, and pop couldn't have known every single spur outside of parker wouldn't show.

[Supergirl]

“They made 24 of their 27, and we made 16,” Popovich said. “In a way, you can say that's the ballgame right there.”

indeed. it's not the first time Spurs have lost a game because of poor FT shooting. it won't be the last. Duncan is actually shooting FTs better this season than ever before in his career.

[rascal]

I don't agree with Pop sitting Duncan to start the game. It set the tone for failure as the team saw this and did not put out a top effort to start the game, then had to try to get out of the hole.

If you want to give Duncan some more rest you sit him at other points during the game but not to start off.

[DesignatedT]

i dont know the exact story or reasoning behind pop sitting duncan, but IMO last nights game was the first time TD looked tired out there on the court. all night he was coming up short on shots including the free throws to keep us in it. not sure if that was a lack of rhythm or what, but he didnt look himself

[Bender]

was Tim maybe under the weather... cold, flu symptoms or whatever?

maybe manu gave him his cold germs

[sanman53]

Been a different reaction if the Spurs would have won.

This was the whole reason we got the new guys this season so Duncan wouldnt have to play long minutes during the season. Good try by Pop.

[TJastal]

Been a different reaction if the Spurs would have won.

This was the whole reason we got the new guys this season so Duncan wouldnt have to play long minutes during the season. Good try by Pop.

Pop still needs to use good judgement in putting these new guys out on the floor. Just because he feels like giving Duncan a night off doesn't mean he can just throw any combination of bigs out there and expect good results.

And to counter your argument, Duncan really hasn't been playing long minutes. He's had maybe 1 or 2 games where he was around 40 minutes. The rest have anywhere from 25-35. That's really low minutes for a superstar. So he's not "playing long minutes" as you seem to be contending.

As for the trio Mcdyess, Ratliff and Blair, Blair has looked the best so far in the starting lineup so why did Pop not keep him there? It makes little sense. And Blair is the only 1 of the 3 with a low post game. So you would think if he's going to start either Ratliff or McDyess then he would put Blair in there so there wouldn't be two inexperienced bigs trying to run the high pick and roll at the same time. But that's exactly what Pop figured would work the best.

And that's not even saying anything about the small ball option he could have employed. With Bargnani out there on the perimeter, the spurs could have easily used Jefferson as a small "4" with any of Blair, McDyess, or Ratliff.

[Agloco]

This.

And, it was a big fail on Pop's part. Still love the guy, but what was he thinking? We could have gained some good ground last night in the standings and Duncan played anyway. So, it was all for nought.

So Pop failed because he expected his team to beat the Raptors without Tim?

[raspsa]

Why do fans presume to know all factors that goes into Coach Pop's coaching decisions. No one except maybe the coaching staff is really privy to his thought process.. its 100% his prerogative. He doesn't appear to be an impulsive person, he strikes me as someone who makes very deliberate plans and decisions w/c is probably not surprising considering his background.
Sure, maybe the outcome won't be what he expected and not to fans' liking but he's not just throwing combinations out there for the heck of it w/o any rationale in his mind. That would be reckless and that just isn't Pop.