Fool's gold win?

[ElNono]

First off, I'll take any win, and I thought Tony legitimately dominated like we've not seen him dominate in a while, and thoroughly outplayed Westbrook.

But, I thought this win was a lot like a bunch of fool's gold wins last season. Scorching hot from 3, and the defense fairly iffy except for the 3rd quarter.

The good news is that this season we've been able to win without the hot hand. But is this the kind of shooting night we need to have to beat a top team?

[Spursfanfromafar]

A win is a win. A win without Manu is a "great" win. A win without Manu against the team that has best record in the NBA is a "golden great" win. Lets not mince words!

I thought the Spurs played with a lot of heart and a lot of scrambling defense to keep OKC's offense at bay. Tim Duncan and Splitter were pretty good in the paint and Leonard didn't give a quarter either. Green was mistake prone, Parker was special, and Jefferson wasn't too bad either.

I won't go as far as to call this "fool's good".

[Amuseddaysleeper]

I see where you're coming from.

It just feels like until the Spurs can consistently play lockdown D, it's hard not to get flashbacks from last year with how the style of play.


Still, they've been playing better now than any other point of the season.

They should have some nice confidence heading into the RRT.

[++SaiNt TiAg0++]

wow great point
i did have a moment where i thought.. wait how in the are we winning while matt is out there F%$^ing 40 minutes ?>??????!!! and tiago isnt scoring ... and this thread answers my question but yea the things that are different are this year while me and you continue to hate bonner were at least seeing splitter out there and this 2nd game i thought kawaii made another vital step and bag of tricks to store in the old memory bank.. i think those two variables justify it being more of a real win than the bonner win

[++SaiNt TiAg0++]

oh and lets not forget a win "that buys us time" until we are at full strength with manu and every one knows their role. i think we have a way better shot at winning a le than last year.

[ElNono]

The hot shooting was basically on the Thunder for giving us a ton of wide-open shots, IMO... we didn't make many of the contested ones (e.g. in the second half).

Well, shooting 50+% from 3 point land, even if wide-open is indeed a rarity.
This team has been shooting 38.5% from outside up to this game.

[ElNono]

I'm not attempting to minimize the win, or the fact it was achieved without Manu out there (or the incredible night Tony had). Just gathering some opinions as to whether this is a win to really get super-excited about, considering the fluke 3 point shooting.

[ducks]

dude get a life
the three spurs made in the first half were wide open

[Amuseddaysleeper]

The Spurs have always been wonky with their 3 point shooting though. They are just so up and down with it. Feels like they'll go through a stretch like tonight, where they will go something like 12/23 one game, then 9/16 from 3 point land the next.

But then they go through brutal 3 point stretches where they go 3/11 and then 2/15 or something silly.

Just how it is.

[Cant_Be_Faded]

Even if the Spurs had not been hot from 3 (despite that being a prime facet of our team winning games for well over a year now) and even if we had lost this game, I would not have felt too bad about it.

Splitter, Green, Leonard... even Bonner and Jefferson were all getting their hands on loose balls, forcing turnovers, committing smart fouls.

This was a great case of a smart Spurs team pouncing on a tired, y Thunders squad.

Pure and simple.

[jjktkk]

First off, I'll take any win, and I thought Tony legitimately dominated like we've not seen him dominate in a while, and thoroughly outplayed Westbrook.

But, I thought this win was a lot like a bunch of fool's gold wins last season. Scorching hot from 3, and the defense fairly iffy except for the 3rd quarter.

The good news is that this season we've been able to win without the hot hand. But is this the kind of shooting night we need to have to beat a top team?

It is and isn't. Obviously the Spurs cannot rely soley on 3s in the playoffs. The difference from last years squad and this years, is the defensive presence of Splitter, Leonard, and to a lesser extent, Green.

[mercos]

This win was real gold. The hot shooting from downtown can account for the wide margin of victory, but the Spurs picked the Thunder apart any which way you slice it. We missed several wide open shots (especially when Tony was about to get the team assist record) that could have made the blowout even worse. I really liked our defensive effort tonight against one of the highest scoring teams in the league. We were active, and Leonard did a very nice job on Durant. The Spurs have the Thunder's number, but we are also playing pretty well right now. Great win before the RRT.

[Paranoid Pop]

Tiago and Tim got rejected a lot at the rim, that's what it is, we had to win by using the mismatch of our 3pt shooters against their not very good 3pt defense.

But isn't every win at home fool's gold? Why start this thread tonight?

[Paranoid Pop]

I'm not attempting to minimize the win, or the fact it was achieved without Manu out there (or the incredible night Tony had). Just gathering some opinions as to whether this is a win to really get super-excited about, considering the fluke 3 point shooting.

[dbestpro]

Fool's gold thread.
Solid win at home without Manu and a backup PG. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Spursfan092120]

We got a lot of open shots, yes..but I don't think it's as much about OKC's bad defense as it was about our ball movement. I haven't seen us move the ball this well all season..that's what got us the open shots.You get those wide open shots and it's just like a shootaround.

[DeadlyDynasty]

Yes. Yes it was.

[Spursfan092120]

fluke 3 point shooting.

not a fluke when the team normally shoots well from behind the arc.

[mystargtr34]

This sounds like trolling/butt hurt on my part.. but any win that Tiago plays less minutes than Blair and Bonner is a fools gold win. Bonner and Blair playing 40+ minutes in the playoffs isng going to cut it... against any opponent.

[spurs4real]

First off, I'll take any win, and I thought Tony legitimately dominated like we've not seen him dominate in a while, and thoroughly outplayed Westbrook.

But, I thought this win was a lot like a bunch of fool's gold wins last season. Scorching hot from 3, and the defense fairly iffy except for the 3rd quarter.

The good news is that this season we've been able to win without the hot hand. But is this the kind of shooting night we need to have to beat a top team?

Not fools gold at all my friend. Just like some teams give us fits, we are one of those teams to OKC. And thats a good thing.

[jermaine]

Plain an simple. Tony had a video game night, an everyone followed suit. With the defense of Leonard, durrant couldn't find a good good rhythm. Therefore, the thunder couldn't get it rolling. Westbrook was being westbrook, tryna force things an hurting his team like always. An Harden was the only consist player on their team. So things just fell our way like it would for anyone on any other giving night.

[acoelho1]

Spurs fans.. always glass half empty.

[GSH]

I was thinking about sitting down and starting a similar thread. The Spurs got outscored 46 to 30 in the paint. And of the 30 points the Spurs did score in the paint, I wouldn't be surprised if 24 of them were by Parker. Duncan was 5-16, and generally no threat in the paint unless Parker sucked everyone to him, and he found Duncal alone underneath. Blair was 1-3, and even Splitter was 1-5. We got owned in the middle, for the most part. Although I have to say that Duncan's 15 boards were a bigger factor than anyone has mentioned.

If Kawhi hadn't hit those early 3's, and Ibaka hadn't picked up 2 quick fouls, that's a different ballgame. It didn't hurt that Parker had zero turnovers, and the team only had 10 for the night. It was a great win, but one that would be hard to reproduce enough times to win a 7 game series. Especially if 4 of the 7 games are on the road.

[gospursgojas]

The term Fools gold is way overused here.

[DeadlyDynasty]

Good to see some realism in this thread. Looks like ya'll have learned a thing or two from last year.