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That's a 2.27 GPA (excluding bonner...). Pretty sad.
The Spurs entered Game 4 with the goal of taking a commanding 3-1 lead in the 2012 Western Conference Finals. It didn't happen. The Thunder played just too well and the Spurs were powerless to stop their offensive onslaught. Although San Antonio kept fighting, OKC never relinquished and won by a final score of 109-103 to knot the series.
To begin the game, the Spurs were strong. The starters built the lead to as large as eight points, however the advantage was lost soon after the bench entered the mix. By the end of the first quarter, the score was 26-26.
For the second consecutive game, San Antonio collapsed in the second quarter. In Game 3, the Thunder won the period 32-17. Saturday night, OKC's second quarter advantage was 29-17. Compared to the rest of the game, the Spurs energy and execution in that period were severely lacking.
In the third quarter, the Spurs weren't having much success cutting into the deficit. Enter DeJuan Blair. Blair's activity level and physicality seemed to spark the Spurs. Over the next four minutes, San Antonio went on a 16-5 run to get within two points.
Unfortunately, the Thunder immediately responded with an 11-5 run over the next three minutes. The Spurs eventually fought back and got within four points, 86-82, with 6:54 remaining. Then Kevin Durant caught fire. The Thunder's superstar scored 16 points in the next five minutes and the Spurs were powerless to keep up.
While it was disappointing the Spurs lost their second straight game, the Thunder deserve a heaping amount of credit. There's not a team in the NBA that could have defeated Oklahoma City on Saturday night. In addition to Durant's Vesuvian fourth quarter, the Thunder's bigmen (Serge Ibaka, Kendrick Perkins and Nick Collison) shooting 22-for-25 from the field made life impossible for the Spurs.
With Game 5 in San Antonio, the Spurs obviously still have hope in this series. That said, it's undeniable that the Thunder have a healthy amount of momentum and have figured out strategies that are working on both ends of the court. To win two more games against this great Oklahoma City squad, it's going to take a monstrous effort. That challenge begins Monday evening.
Tim Duncan C-
To begin Game 4, Tim Duncan looked bad. Really bad. His offensive struggles from the first three games continued and his defense was in shambles. Duncan appeared to lack confidence and his movements were stiff and slow. As the game progressed, he got better -- particularly on the offensive end. After starting just 2-for-7 from the field, Duncan hit seven of his final ten attempts. During that closing stretch, his decision was quicker and he seemed to be moving better. Defensively, Duncan also got better as the game went along, however the improvements were slight. He started challenging shots in the paint better and ventured out on the perimeter to get a hand up on jumpers. But it was too little, too late on that end of the court. For San Antonio to win this series, the Spurs need Duncan to up his level of play and perform with more consistency. Additionally, when he's not rolling scoring-wise, the Spurs need Duncan to be willing to take a backseat on offense while still being a presence on defense.
Manu Ginobili D+
Before missing a desperation three-pointer near the end of the game, Manu Ginobili had scored 13 points on only six shots. That, however, was about the extent of the good news regarding Ginobili's performance on this night. He registered six of the team's ten turnovers and was held without an assist through the first three quarters. With the Thunder switching pick-and-rolls involving Ginobili, he responded by playing too passively. The Spurs simply can't succeed if Ginobili isn't making plays for others and is rarely looking for his own shot. Defensively, he was subpar. Ginobili's individual defense was decent at times but he made no impact away from the ball and was held without a rebound. Going forward, Ginobili has to make the Thunder pay for their defensive gimmicks. If he doesn't, the Spurs have virtually no chance of winning two more games.
Tony Parker D+
Following a masterful Game 2, Tony Parker went out on the road and laid a pair of eggs. On Saturday night, his offense left a lot to be desired. Parker missed shots he usually connects on and he allowed those failures to impact his overall aggressiveness. When it came to creating plays for others, Parker was a shadow of his usual self. The Thunder were defending him well but he has to play with more determination and keep probing until he finds the crack. Parker oftentimes talks about being in attack-mode but that was certainly not the case in Game 4. Instead, he was preoccupied by not making mistakes instead of actually making plays. Defensively, I thought Parker did relatively well. When he was on Russell Westbrook, the Thunder's star point guard was silent. In other matchups, Parker was usually effective. In Game 5, the Spurs need Parker to get back to using his speed to his advantage. San Antonio is deadly when Parker is creating fast break opportunities and getting the Spurs into their early-offense sets. That didn't happen enough on the road.
Kawhi Leonard A-
This kid continues to show he has the heart of a champion. On the offensive end, Kawhi Leonard was fantastic. Amazingly, he just raises his level of play when the pressure of the game escalates. In the second half, he was making moves and scoring in ways we haven't seen all season. Considering he's a 20-year-old rookie, I can't even describe how stunning it is to watch him perform best when the chips are down. Defensively, he did very good work on Kevin Durant through three and a half quarters. Leonard was on Durant during much of his explosion in the last half of the fourth quarter, though I'm not sure any defender on the planet could have stopped Durant at that point. The Spurs tried various ways to stop Durant during that stretch and they were all unsuccessful, so I can't blame Leonard too much. Plus, not only did Leonard lead the team in rebounding, he again was one of the few perimeter players who showed toughness by throwing his body around in the paint. All in all, it was a very good performance by the rookie; let's hope he has a couple more of these left in him.
Boris Diaw C+
The Thunder have decided to ignore Boris Diaw on the offensive end. When he's beyond the three-point line, there's nary an Oklahoman in sight a majority of the time. In Game 4, Diaw adjusted to that strategy by shooting more often. But, truth be told, the Frenchman still has a ton of room to get more aggressive. Whenever he's open beyond the three-point arc, Diaw needs to fire away. Otherwise, it'll be difficult to even classify Diaw as an asset on the offensive end. With the Thunder closing out soft on him, he's not finding nearly as many passing lanes as usual, which further limits his effectiveness. Defensively, Diaw didn't contribute many positives. He spent time on Serge Ibaka ... and that obviously wasn't time well spent. Diaw's help defense was also nothing to write home about. With a few tweaks, he can be very helpful in this series. But, as it stands, Diaw is a net negative.
Danny Green D+
Danny Green was perhaps the streakiest shooter in the NBA this season. Unfortunately, his cold streak in the WCF extended another game. Before hitting a meaningless three-pointer at the buzzer, Green was 3-for-20 on threes in this series. Those misses from deep overshadow everything else about his game. The Spurs rely on Green to space the court for the starters. Without that, it's going to be rough sledding. Green added a couple baskets from two-point range and his passing was solid but, again, it's all about three-pointers with him. Defensively, Green was actually quite good. He spent a lot of time on Russell Westbrook and did a much better job of staying in front of him compared to Game 3. If Green can regain his stroke, his defense could keep him on the court for big minutes. But that's a rather large If right now.
Stephen Jackson B+
Stephen Jackson has picked a great time to play his best basketball of the season. In the two road games, he scored 27 points on 10-for-13 shooting from the field. The Spurs value Jackson for his toughness and ability to rise to the occasion -- and those traits were glowing on Saturday night. Offensively, in addition to his scoring, he played with patience and dished off a few quality passes. But defensively, he didn't have nearly as much success. Jackson's couldn't slow Durant and also struggled with foul trouble throughout. And considering he was playing power forward for a period of time, Jackson needed to do a better job on the boards.
Gary Neal B
Gary Neal played a very Gary Neal-ish game. Scoring-wise, he was productive. He made key shots when the Spurs were desperate. But when it came to ballhandling and passing, Neal was deficient. Defensively, he got roasted on a number of occasions. That said, I was actually surprised by how well he did on some possessions. For example, Neal actually defended James Harden a handful of times without getting totally murdered. That's a start, I guess. In the remaining games of this series, Pop needs to find a way to get Neal's scoring into the game while camouflaging the negatives he brings to the court. Undoubtedly a difficult task but it'd be worth it to try to solve that puzzle.
DeJuan Blair A-
Playing his first meaningful minutes in a long, long time, DeJuan Blair played about as well as could have been reasonably expected. When he entered the game, he immediately ran a pick-and-roll with more gusto than we had witnessed all night. His toughness and willingness to bang finally put the Spurs in the driver's seat for a time and allowed San Antonio to make a run. Not known as a defender, Blair actually made a few plays on that end as well. I'm not completely sure that he earned a spot in the rotation going forward but Blair at the very least proved he's not awed by the situation and is willing to fight for his team.
Tiago Splitter C-
I've been extremely high on Tiago Splitter all season but this is a horrible time to be showing off a fatal flaw. And I'm not even talking about his free throw shooting. Once the Thunder decided to switch pick-and-rolls, they stumbled upon something disturbing: Splitter hasn't shown any ability to score when guards defend him on the low block. For a highly-touted bigman, that is quite troubling. Not only is he failing to score, he's not even proving capable of using his strength to gain good post position. After trying and failing on a few possessions, Pop went a different direction and gave Splitter's second half minutes to Blair. Let us hope to all that is holy in the basketball world that Splitter can turn it around in Game 5. He's too important to this team to be totally neutered by something as mundane as a pick-and-roll switch.
Matt Bonner Inc.
Let's just say the Incomplete is being generous. When Matt Bonner entered the game, he immediately destroyed the team's momentum. Among his lowlights during his two minutes of play: an ugly pull-up jumper off of a pump fake that he never attempts, poor transition defense that resulted in a dunk, losing his man in a halfcourt set that resulted in a dunk, and failing to box out that resulted in a tip-in. It's been painfully obvious for years that Bonner lacks the intestinal for ude to thrive in tense situations. Hopefully, Game 4 was the nail in the coffin for any stragglers who were left unconvinced ... Pop included.
Pop C-
First of all, playing Bonner was a mistake. Bonner is totally overwhelmed by the moment. With as well as Blair played, in hindsight Pop probably should have used him beginning in Game 3. I would also like to see better plays called when the bench unit is in the game. There has to be something in Pop's bag of tricks that is able to take advantage of a defense that is switching everything. Leonard also deserved more minutes and, perhaps most blatantly of all, Ginobili needs to play more than 25 minutes. That's an absurdly low number of minutes with so much on the line. Defensively, the Spurs have been horrible this series and Pop deserves a portion of that blame. On paper, Pop's defensive scheming was supposed to help the Spurs overcome the Thunder's brigade of talent. Thus far, that hasn't been the case. I don't think it's hyperbolic to suggest that Game 5 is the most important game of Pop's career, especially because he doesn't have a superstar version of Duncan to fall back on. Pop needs to make a number of difficult decisions regarding the rotation, continue to adjust the offensive sets to account for how OKC is defending, and figure out a defensive gameplan that gives the Spurs a fighting chance. Pop, the time is now to show why you are a future Hall of Famer.
Believe.
That's a 2.27 GPA (excluding bonner...). Pretty sad.
Thanks Mr. T.
Finally. Thanks.
Wow. That seems a bit harsh, especially for Neal, Diaw and Ginobli. You seem to overlook that OKC has some players that are pretty GOOD, and contributed to the struggles some Spurs had.
Bonner's nutsack is Incomplete.
Thanks for the grades. They seem pretty dead on, though you were indeed very generous to Bonner. Possibly because an F wouldn't have been low enough. Perhaps a Z would do it.
Blair deserves to see some minutes
Only my only gripe with the recap was Ginobili's minutes. He was bad, so we should expect his minutes to be regulated.
Cannot think of a more feast/famine player in the league.
Seems that when you consider the game was away and the spurs were in striking distance late and durant went into god mode to win it, i dont know that such a low average is completely warranted. If durant does not run away with it and the thunder bigmen dont make some fluke outside shots spurs are right there and maybe win.
That said lots to improve on.
No more Bonner
More Blair
Pop had a horrible last 2 games..
Manu was horrible last night. I would have gave him an F. He was a walking turn over machine that was passive..
Two As, 2 Bs and a bunch of Cs and Ds.
It almost looks like the Spurs had a bad game.
Unfortunately, given the cir stances, I am afraid some of Cs are Bs, and some of the Bs are As.
Unless OKC comes down to earth, we will erroneously see more Cs and Ds.
thanks LJ... hoping for B+ or better across the board for Game 5...
Great write up as always BTW...
On one hand it seems like a lot of OKC role players keeping having uncharacteristic career nights. While that could be a fluke, I'm giving them credit for showing maturation and intense desire to be champions. They're stepping up.
Many Spurs have not been stepping up. We can't win if 2/3 of the Big 3 play like crap on a given night. Credit the OKC defense to a degree, but the Spurs players have to adapt.
Obviously we need to make adjustments. And obviously we need to win the next game. I expect our role players to do better and home and we have a much better chance of winning the next game.
However, I feel that Pop needs to make adjustments that will benefit the team not for just the next home game but for the next game in OKC, and to me that is trickier. In other words, in regards to his rotation, does he start cutting players out...or does he give them another chance since they'll be playing at home next game? My best guess is to cut the middle - if the under performing role players can't even step it up for the next home game, then there's no way you rely on them for game 6. This means cutting Bonner out, reducing Splitter if need be, increasing Blair, and increasing Leonard. But no matter what changes Pop makes: the Big 3 have to step up.
Euro/Euro-league players just lack an edge that is needed in the NBA. It has never been about skill or athleticism. Manu is an exception. Manu always had it. Dirk was young and eventually got it. Marc Gasol has it. There may be one or two more I'm not thinking of. But all of the others just lack an intensity and aggressiveness that is needed in the NBA. (Don't consider Tony "Euro")
Tiago appears destined to fall into that category. He is 27 years old--not young at all. Maybe being around a guy like Jax can teach him that toughness, but right now he is absolutely S-O-F-T mentally and will be nothing more than a bench player until he gets it. And when you are facing an incredibly aggressive team like OKC, you cannot have that hesitation.
Last edited by SpursFaninMS; 06-03-2012 at 05:08 PM.
This is the ing problem. You can't expect role players to carry a team. When all three of the star players struggle, that's ing . If any ONE of them had a solid game, we win. Only when all three struggle are we ed.
To be fair, it's really more like 2.5 because Duncan had a good second half. But still, all three should be able to play decently for the whole game. They're future hall of famers, and this is the playoffs. ing give us a break.
You know, it's for that reason that I'm still confident in the Spurs winning this series. Do you REALLY expect our stars to continue to struggle? If so, then wow, that's just sad. But I don't.
You just said Ginobili had a game, but he deserved more minutes...Why?...perhaps most blatantly of all, Ginobili needs to play more than 25 minutes. That's an absurdly low number of minutes with so much on the line.
Another thing: the Spurs should not let OKC throw off their whole 10-man rotation. Like it or not, Splitter was an integral part of the Spurs' success this year. The coaches can't lose faith in him so quickly that they take him out of the rotation. He needs 30+ minutes a game.
Bonner...okay, maybe he should be removed from the rotation. BUT it's completely unfair to expect him to play well in 2 minutes. Either play him a lot, or don't play him at all. He's not an instant-production player off the bench. He needs time to get comfortable.
Look at the distribution of minutes for our players. It's completely different from what it used to be. I think the starters played TOO many minutes if anything, and the bench isn't playing enough. The Spurs kick ass when they have 8 or 9 guys all playing together efficiently. We don't succeed with a 6-man rotation, plus scrub minutes for a few people. That throws off everything.
Last edited by Arcadian; 06-03-2012 at 05:14 PM.
25 is not young at all?
Haha...I meant for an NBA player. (I'm 25 so it better be young in general)25 is not young at all?
He's actually 27 though--so my bad there. I was thinking he is my age.
That's what you call fighting? If not for a three-point barrage, they've have at minimum lost by a comfortable margin.
With Game 5 in San Antonio, the Spurs obviously still have hope in this series. That said, it's undeniable that the Thunder have a healthy amount of momentum and have figured out strategies that are working on both ends of the court. To win two more games against this great Oklahoma City squad, it's going to take a monstrous effort. That challenge begins Monday evening.
So when I (essentially( say this, only in no uncertain terms, I'm fair-weather and all of the other names you and your merry band of idiots called me, but when you do, you're none of those things?Kawhi Leonard A-
This kid continues to show he has the heart of a champion. On the offensive end, Kawhi Leonard was fantastic. Amazingly, he just raises his level of play when the pressure of the game escalates. In the second half, he was making moves and scoring in ways we haven't seen all season. Considering he's a 20-year-old rookie, I can't even describe how stunning it is to watch him perform best when the chips are down. Defensively, he did very good work on Kevin Durant through three and a half quarters. Leonard was on Durant during much of his explosion in the last half of the fourth quarter, though I'm not sure any defender on the planet could have stopped Durant at that point. The Spurs tried various ways to stop Durant during that stretch and they were all unsuccessful, so I can't blame Leonard too much. Plus, not only did Leonard lead the team in rebounding, he again was one of the few perimeter players who showed toughness by throwing his body around in the paint. All in all, it was a very good performance by the rookie; let's hope he has a couple more of these left in him.
Pop C-
First of all, playing Bonner was a mistake. Bonner is totally overwhelmed by the moment. With as well as Blair played, in hindsight Pop probably should have used him beginning in Game 3. I would also like to see better plays called when the bench unit is in the game. There has to be something in Pop's bag of tricks that is able to take advantage of a defense that is switching everything. Leonard also deserved more minutes and, perhaps most blatantly of all, Ginobili needs to play more than 25 minutes. That's an absurdly low number of minutes with so much on the line. Defensively, the Spurs have been horrible this series and Pop deserves a portion of that blame. On paper, Pop's defensive scheming was supposed to help the Spurs overcome the Thunder's brigade of talent. Thus far, that hasn't been the case. I don't think it's hyperbolic to suggest that Game 5 is the most important game of Pop's career, especially because he doesn't have a superstar version of Duncan to fall back on. Pop needs to make a number of difficult decisions regarding the rotation, continue to adjust the offensive sets to account for how OKC is defending, and figure out a defensive gameplan that gives the Spurs a fighting chance. Pop, the time is now to show why you are a future Hall of Famer.
Nice grades...Pop needs to keep Bonner out completely in game five and see how the Spurs do without him.
Duncan's screens on pick and rolls have been awful. Might as well be an iso with him limiting where the ballhandler can go.
While i agree for the overall game GNob needs to step it up, the last 3:30 of the 3rd he was in Clutch Game Changer Manu mode and i felt the momentum was stopped by a burn call.
70-59 OKC
3:32 makes jumper
1:44 gets Derek Swisher rung up for a foul. (Damn near impossible as that little ____ is still receiving bogus calls.) Must be in return for his services rendered on refs in his WWE years.
Makes both free throws.
1:15 makes a three pointer. 73-71 OKC
:58 Durant gets a Kobe call vs Jax for two fts.75-71
:01 After faking out Sefelosha at the FT line, GNob puts the ball on the floor and begins another nutty Manu Drive. Sef reaches across Manus body and clearly hacks him. Not hard, but clearly a foul. No whistle. GNob continues to ball it towards the hoop. Collision is out of position as GNob starts airborne. So Collison does the Electric Slide and basically takes an on purpose foul in order to stop GNobs impending layup. Tweet! Charging call on GNob. Super bogus. Camera pans to Collison who has a hand-in-cookie-jar just got away with it look.
To me that layup continues to add fuel to the comeback going into the 4th.
Instead of 75-73 OKla with Spurs hammering at the door it was a Lakerlike bail job for the Okies going into the final break.
Just sayin, GNob had a very good stretch. Otherwise i agree and his turnovers are hairpulling.
Pop needs to adjust more quickly & aggressively and not just blame losses on turnovers (game 3) or OKC's bigs going off (game 4). The tentative play of Parker probably is in reaction to the turnovers from the previous game. Manu is just too careless with the ball and Duncan needs to stop hesitating and let it fly. There was one play where Manu was wide open at the 3pt line and TD forced it into the middle. The big 3 must show up for game 5 or it'll probably be a backdoor sweep. What's with Pop calling time-out when SAS was on their scoring spurt? Roll with the team that's in a groove and let OKC waste one of their time-out to stop the momentum.
Bench Bonner for the rest of the season - this series is not for the faint of heart.
Insert Blair in the starting lineup - at least he plays with heart. Have TD shoot jumpers from the top of the key or post moves on the left side of the court so he can go to his right hand away from the interior defense. Move Diaw to play with Splitter.
OKC is making giant strides - learning to play under pressure and getting valuable experience. This series would be more lopsided for OKC if Brooks had played Thabo more and Fisher less. The commentator's comments on Perkins probably fired him up. I hate how they have all this "free advice" for Brooks but none for Pop. It's play harder and hope the role players play better at home. Doesn't Neal play better on the road?
OKC has a high ceiling and bright future - they'll dominate the West for the next decade if they keep their core together.
I'm not too optimistic about the series. Spurs have done nothing to stop OKC and OKC has completely taken TP out of his game.
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