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= why we are losing against +.500 teams.
Once-boring Spurs scoring
By Jeff McDonald - Express-News
There was a time, not long ago, when a game involving the Spurs was likely to bring a scowl to the face of opposing coaches and TV executives alike.
The Spurs were a ratings-killing, opponent-suffocating, basket-denying, championship-winning machine. They were boring and brutal, taking a gleeful pleasure in strangling the concept of offensive basketball back to the Stone Age — or at least to the days of Dr. Naismith's peach basket.
But that was all so last decade.
Heading into tonight's showdown with Southwest Division-leading Dallas, the suddenly fun-and-gun Spurs are averaging 102 points per game, up nearly five from last season. Given that the team is still coached by Gregg Popovich, and not Doug Moe or Mike D'Antoni, that number might as well be 202.
“They've been scoring all year,” Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. “They've added some weapons.”
In 13-plus seasons under Popovich, the Spurs routinely won les while averaging in the mid-90s. The 2007 championship team averaged 98.5, tops for a Popovich squad.
In 1999, when the Spurs won their first championship, they did so while averaging 92.8 points — nearly 10 points less than this season so far.
Popovich wryly notes the Spurs still won't be easily confused with the Phoenix Suns. Yet with each triple-digit outing — there were eight in a row during December — his team is inflicting more and more damage to its reputation as the league bore.
“They got guys who can put the ball in the basket,” Dallas' Jason Kidd said. “Pop knows how to make adjustments with the pieces of the puzzle he has, and he has guys who can score.”
The Mavericks, in a way, are partially to blame for the Spurs' against-type turn as a scoring juggernaut. It was the Spurs' lack of “firepower,” to use Popovich's word, in last year's first-round series that begat their offseason offensive upgrade.
The arrival of Richard Jefferson — and, to a lesser extent, Antonio McDyess — as well as the return of a healthy Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan has helped the Spurs restock their offensive arsenal.
Part of the Spurs' scoring surge can be attributed to personnel. Part of it is pacing.
Popovich has experimented with smaller lineups, which tends to put more scorers on the floor at one time, and has encouraged his guards to push the tempo in search of fast-break chances.
“Pop is always on us about moving the ball, hitting the first open man,” said Jefferson, who scored a season-high 29 in a victory over Dallas in November. “We have so many different scorers, there's no need to really keep searching for your shot.”
The Spurs have seven players averaging at least 7.8 points and four averaging in double figures — a list topped by Duncan's 19.8. They are third in the league in both field-goal percentage (48.7) and 3-point percentage (39.4).
That said, there are times Popovich wishes his team were a bit less Must-See TV and bit more, well, boring.
He began the season with the express goal of again turning the Spurs into the defensive menace they once were. Though they've improved considerably in nearly every defensive category since November, the Spurs aren't quite there yet.
“I just think about defense, because we're boring,” Popovich said. “Whatever happens on the other end is fine.”
There will be nights when simply scoring points won't be enough. Tonight is likely to be one of them.
Led by Dirk Nowitzki, the NBA's eighth-leading scorer, Dallas, too, averages in triple digits (100.7 points per game) and has twice managed to hold the Spurs under the century mark.
“They're an offensive-minded team, so if you're not getting stops, you're in trouble,” Spurs guard Keith Bogans said. “You can't run up and down with them. You've got to stop them on defense.”
Of course, this decade, teams might say the same about Bogans' team.
SCORING AVERAGES
The Spurs enter tonight’s game against Dallas averaging 102 points per game, by far their most in the defense-dominated Gregg Popovich era. Here are the team’s scoring averages in 13 seasons under Popovich:
Season Avg. Record
1996-97 90.5 20-62*
1997-98 92.5 56-26
1998-99 92.8 37-13
1999-00 96.2 53-29
2000-01 96.2 58-24
2001-02 96.7 58-24
2002-03 95.8 60-22
2003-04 91.5 57-25
2004-05 96.2 59-23
2005-06 95.6 63-19
2006-07 98.5 58-24
2007-08 95.4 56-26
2008-09 97.0 54-28
2009-10 102.1 21-12
* — Popovich took over for Bob Hill 18 games into the season.
= why we are losing against +.500 teams.
I'd rather be boring and dirty TBH..
Again, I will say if Pop STILL believes and wants to preach defense, he must commit toward getting better defenders on the floor and on the roster. It simply makes no sense expecting good defensive effort from poor defenders.
Scoring more equals why we're losing to +500 teams? No.
+1
and the Spurs were never boring for us. McDonald being unintentionally lame
and whats the average on points allowed. nothing else matters
Tonights game will be a barometer on how far the SPURS have come thus far this season..
i expect it to be a good game. I dont think were at Lakers level yet but give us some time shortly after the ALL-STAR break and i think well be right there... If you have noticed the standings the last month and a half spurs steadily have been moving up.....
Spurs are a very good offensive team statistically, but when you watch the games it does not appear that way. They still struggle and go through droughts, but then you look at the metrics and they jump off of the page. Very strange.
I completely agree. When I watch the games it really doesn't appear that way and then I see the stats and I'm floored.
Sometimes when I watch them, and I see them hesitating, and no one wanting to shoot and they just pass the ball to TD with not much time left, it reminds me of the SA teams of old. So, they definitely still go through their droughts.
But according to those stats they are on fire which is amazing to me.
A question I ask myself often about this year's team: what is their iden y? It isn't a lockdown defensive team. It's not a run and gun team. The only defining characteristic seems to be their depth. Does that translate to a championship when they're playing against excellent 8 man rotations in the playoffs?
WTF all the time that the decade ended - people are re ed or what?
s yeah. I loved that iden y.
Nah, I think there's obvious improvement offensively. There are definitely droughts but I think that can be said for just about every team...seeing the Spurs score 50+ or sometimes even 60+ at halftime on such a regular basis or have 75+ heading into the 4th quarter is something we definitely werent accustomed to. Spurs have more offensive weapons than theyve ever had and its showing.
Let me clarify a little. What I meant was that when you watch the game you can see the point totals, but you don't really every get the feeling that "this is a dominant offensive team". Their games don't have that feel to them.
Some of Pop's comments when they made the Jefferson deal referred to RJ's defensive abilities that Pop had observed when RJ came into the league but that had been overshadowed by the way his team had made his offense the focal point of his game in later years.
I think Pop envisioned a scorer who would revert to a defensive stopper. So far it hasn't happened whether due to aging or lack of defensive habits.
You can say the same for the Celtics and Lakers too.... but of course their defense is a bit better than SA...
No, when you watch the Lakers you are memorized by their offense.
League rules have changed dramatically in favor of scoring and against defense, since 1996. Scoring is up across the NBA, naturally.
You must only watch 1st & 4th quarters. Their bench is pretty bad offensively
No. I watch many of their complete games. What does their bench have to do with it? They are an offensive juggernaut with the best scorer on the planet on their team.
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