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Accidently posted when I wasnt done. Sorry.
Thought I would try to look a little more into what was going on in the 3 games these two teams played this year.
GAME #1-------------
Game one was played early in the seaon with some interesting details. The Spurs were without Manu and were 7-3 entering this game in OKC. The Spurs Starters were...
Jefferson
Duncan
Blair
Neal
Parker
Some might be surprised it was Neal starting and not Green at this point, but like you, I forgot too. Some interesting notes for this game were that OKC was on a back to back to back with the Spurs as thier 3rd game. They won them all. This game was close at half (6 points), but OKC blew us out the building in the 3rd qtr, scoring 37-21 to take us out of game. both teams emptied their benches for the final quarter.
NOTES:[/B] No spur Starter played more then 28 min (Neal). Bright Spots for the Spurs was Neal shooting 7-12 for 18 pts. Leonard also played a team high 34 min off the bench with 10 rebounds and 13 points. Players like James Anderson, TJ FORD and I. Doigu played at least 12-17 min each in this lop sided game.
Spur Stats: The Spurs shot 41.7% for this game and 58% from 3 point land on 7-12 shooting. They also shot 19 for 25 from the foul line while getting 42 rebounds and 20 assists and 11 turnovers.
OKC Stats: OKC shot a great 50% from the field and 7-19 (37%) from 3 point land. They also shot 25-29 (86%) from the freethrow line. Other stats included 48 rebounds, 25 assists, 10 steals , 14 turnovers and 8 blocked shots.
NOTES: durant was still the high scored with 21 points while Harded had 20 off the bench. Nick collison also has 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Thunder.
QUOTABLE II: "They played very well and they kicked our butts in the third quarter. They did a great job."
--Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich
QUOTABLE III: "We weren't concerned with the three games (in three nights) we were concerned about each game on each night."
-- Brooks
QUOTABLE IV: "You just have to think about the next one. There are so many games and you cannot worry about one loss too long. It happens. We just have to focus on the next game."
--Spurs guard Parker
What I take from this game? OKC made us look pretty bad, but It looked liked the Spurs were still feeling out how their roster was setting up. Neal starting, Manu out, not to mention we have 3 new starters now from this game. Still have to give OKC credit here, they blew us out, but noting like the core we have now.
Game #2 (Feb 2nd)
Spurs 107 OKC 96
----------------------------
The Spurs were on the last home game before the Annual road trip and TP was playing to beat the all time assist record of Avery Johnson. The Starters this game was....
Jefferson
Duncan
Blair
Leonard
Parker
Leonard cracks the rotation here for the first t imewith Manu still out and Pop Still felling out the players he has. TP scores 42 points this game and TD scores 12 points and 15 rebounds. The Spurs were an NBA best 13-1 at home,( but we were horrid on the road) to this point. The THunder was 18-5 and had only lost the 3rd time in 16 games. This was also the first game of a 5 game roads trip for OKC. Durant also only played 4 min in the 4th Quarter.
Notes: The Spurs shot only 42% while OKC shot 46.8 %. Over all stats across the board were fairly even, with the only stat that popped out was the spurs shooting 52% fomr 3 point land, shooting 12-23. Nick collison, who had a double double the first game, has zero pount and 4 rebounds. Perkins was held to zero points and 3 rebounds.
Stats: Both Teams seemed like they played an over all good game, but the hot 3 point shooting and less production from the players other then Durant, Westbrook and Harden seemed to hurt the Thunder. Leonards Defense was a HUGE Factor.
QUOTABLE: "Pop got onto to (Parker) about trying to score the ball, that we needed it tonight. He stepped up and he did just that. Once he got rolling he just kind of took over the game. It was great. He came to me and said he wanted me to hit the next shot (to break the assist record). After I hit it I realized why. It was great."
-- Tim Duncan, who has been a teammate of both Avery Johnson and Parker
QUOTABLE II: "I thought Tony Parker had his way with us. It's all about stopping the basketball, and we didn't do a very good job of that. That was as aggressive as I've seen (Parker) in a long time -- 29 shots; he's usually not that aggressive. He's not an old guy. He's a young, good player."
-- Thunder coach Scott Brooks
TURNING POINT: San Antonio led by two points 4:45 into the second quarter when the Spurs got on one of their rolls from the 3-point line. San Antonio went 4-of-4 from past the arc the rest of the half with four different players accounting for the barrage (Danny Green, Leonard, Matt Bonner and then Richard Jefferson) and took a 57-47 lead into the locker room. The Thunder trimmed that lead to less than double digits just three times after that and trailed by as many as 24.
THE STAT: Durant lined up across Leonard and must have been watering at the mouth at the prospect of a rookie guarding him. Durant fired up eight shots in the first quarter, but just 11 after that. His 22 points was his lowest output since a 20-pointer six games back while playing only 29 minutes in a blowout victory over Detroit.
What can We take from this game??
Seems Leonard can keep up with Durant a bit or at least cause him trouble. pops rotation seems alot more like now with exception on no Manu, no Jackson and no Diaw. This game was a good test for how the spurs were at this point in the season.
Game #3 March 16th, spurs 114 OKC 105
The Spurs had won 10 out of 11 games on the road at this point in the season. the Spurs led by as many as 27 points in OKC, but OKC stormed back to make it a game, but couldnt not make the complete comeback. Many players played great tonight with TD getting 16 pts and 19 rebounds, while TP had 25 pts and 7 assts. Blair and Green chipped in with 22 and 21 points a piece for SA. The Starters for this game was....
Leonard
Duncan
Blair
Green
Parker
Ill assume That Jefferson was hurt or this game was before the trade because I dont see Jackson or Diaw in the Box score,( same with Jefferson). Seems by this time Green Cracked the rotation and was basically securing his spot as the off gaurd. 3 games and 3 different starting lineups makes this very interesting. We havent even Added the Big trade yet and look dominate in this game.
Notes:
THE STAT: The Spurs dominated the game inside outscoring the Thunder 54-36 in the paint. OKC was outrebounded 49-37, 15 of those Spurs rebounds were on the offensive end providing them with a whopping 24 second chance points.
Once again Durant Westbrook and Harding all had good games, but had little help from the rest of the team.
Oklahoma City rallied to cut the lead down to just two in the fourth quarter behind a 36 point night from point guard Russell Westbrook and 25 from Kevin Durant. Sixth man James Harden added 19 and Serge Ibaka had 12 points, 12 rebounds and six blocks. The Thunder's lead over the Spurs in Western Conference shrinks now to just three games.
QUOTABLE: "We had a great night. Oklahoma City had a tough start. They missed some easy shots inside and couldn't get a jumper to fall so we were able to get a lead. I thought a lot of guys played well. The whole starting group played well tonight."
-- Spurs coach Gregg Popovich
QUOTABLE II: "Down 27 points you can't expect to come back but our guys nearly did. We should never have been down by that many. Our guys never gave up we cut it to two but Green hit a couple of big shots and made plays that were huge for them."
-- Thunder coach Scott Brooks
QUOTABLE IV: "We assumed they were going to make their run, we were a little tired and they got it closer than we may have wanted it to get but great composure by our squad not to lose it."
-- Spurs forward Tim Duncan
stats:
The Spurs shot 51.7 % this game while OKC shot 44.3%. The Spurs shot 9-19 from 3 point land 47%, but a lousy 60% from the free throw line 15-25. The Spurs also out rebounded the Thunder by 12... 49-37. Perkins was held scoreless again with collison only Scoring 2 points. The Spurs also closed the lead in the Western conference to 3 games with this win.
So what can we take away from this information??
OKC still hasnt seen Boris, Jackson and Manu in action, while OKC basically has the same team. In the Spurs wins, it seems that Durant, Westbrook and Harding all got their points, but had little to no help from the others. The spurs on the other hand seemed to have different players stepping up for each game.
Final thought
After Going over this information, I believe the only WAY OKC wins is if San Antonio has a horrid shooting night. TD and TP will get thiers and the same for Westbrook Durant and Harding, but it seems from these games that the Spurs have the better depth and the surprise of throwing 3 new pieces into the mix in Manu ,Boris and Jackson. Wont be easy, but the stats say alot.
SPURS STARTERS NOW
Diaw
Duncan
Leonard
Green
Parker.
Last edited by YODA; 05-24-2012 at 12:10 AM.
Accidently posted when I wasnt done. Sorry.
Thanks for the breakdown, YODA.
Im not the best writter, but It was fun pulling out all that information.
Thanks Yoda, Spurs got this
Thankfs for the writeup YODA, awesome stuff.
lol Richard Jefferson lol
I will resist the urge to become overconfident, and I strongly encourage everyone else to do so.
Nicely done, YODA
Harding? Is this a joke? Or is that some nickname to make fun of him or something?
Looks like a typo to me, dip .
I just re-watched the two Spurs win... The 3s are going to be there, we're gonna have to knock them down. Besides Kawhi doing a good job on KD, Green really did well against Harden. I suspect Blair might see some minutes with the bench instead of Bonner. Matty is a nice guy, but the Thunder bigs don't around. It was fairly common to see Matt getting pushed around and manhandled by Collison and Nazr. I'm think Diaw will be much harder to get bullied. I also think Jack can be huge if he can knock down that 3 ball and keep them honest. No more quick guards from the bench to chase around here.
I don't see the reason for writing dip , it was a normal question considering he wrote "Harding" about 3 or 4 times.
get a life.
Thanks for the write-up!
I believe the 3rd game between SA / OKC was the game before Dallas where Jackson made his debut.
Indeed it was. Spurs definitely are a more dangerous team than the one that faced the Thunder in the regular season. Winning 2 of 3 without Diaw/Jackson and before Leonard took over Jefferson's spot is a damn good feeling.
Thought this was hilarious. sorry for the bad grammar and spelling. I think I went with Harden a few times wrong. Give me a break. UTSA grad...hehe
Thanks for the write-up!
I dont think proper names work with spell check. hehe
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