1. Did Stephen Jackson fall out of the rotation? It looks like that may be the case. Tonight, Pop opted to play Neal at backup shooting guard. That domino forced Ginobili to shift to backup shooting guard and opened up backup point guard minutes for Pando De Milo. The odd man out in all that movement was Jackson
2. If No. 1 is indeed the case, I’m not sure how I feel. It’s tempting to blame Pop and say it was a bad decision since the Spurs lost … and, yeah, I’ll go ahead and say I disagree. Jackson has shot horribly. He looks slow out on the perimeter. That said, I think the Spurs need his size and strength. Plus: A) It’s not like Neal is shooting the lights out either B) Jackson seems like he might be the type of role player who will defrost once the end of April rolls around C) When Kevin Durant and LeBron James are between you and a championship, Jackson has to be an option that can be called upon. If you take him out of the rotation now, there’s an even smaller chance he can hang with either one of those guys when it’s do or die.
3. Obviously No. 1 and No. 2 should be ignored if Jackson missed the game due to an injury. I haven’t heard anything yet but it’s possible he tweaked something in his return.
4. I can’t believe that Pop put Neal on Stephen Curry in the fourth quarter. That was simply an idiotic coaching decision. The Spurs had done hard work to keep him quiet and Pop ruins it by putting his worst perimeter defender on him when the Spurs had a chance to put Golden State away? *slowly shakes head*
5. Give credit to Mark Jackson for going to midget ball and confusing the Spurs. Pop couldn’t figure out what he wanted to do. Should he go midget and match up? Should he go big and try to take advantage? Should he find the happy middle? Pop never settled on a solution.
6. Big picture, this wasn’t a bad loss. You shoot poorly and Tony Parker runs out of gas in the third … the Spurs are going to lose most of the time in that scenario. A 6-2 Rodeo Road Trip is still a huge success. Finish it off against the Suns and there will be absolutely nothing to complain about. 7-2 would be outstanding.
7. The Spurs are now 66-16 in the 82 regular season games since they traded away He Who Shall Not Be Named. Hopefully he enjoyed his giggles tonight. The Spurs have had plenty to smile about and I’ve enjoyed not having to watch him play basketball anymore.
8. To stay in this game, the Spurs had to play really tough defense. In a way, tonight was a very successful defensive practice session. The Spurs had to tighten the screws in a boisterous environment and they almost won a game due solely to their defense.
9. It was also a positive to push Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. They needed to build up this type of compe ive sweat to get back in the groove. If we’re focusing on the playoffs -- and that should be the case -- we should hope for a lot more of these character-testing games. Racking up an insane number of wins would be fun but the Spurs will be better off if they get tested like this on a regular basis.
10. I’ll have to take the blame for the frigid shooting tonight. Taking the kids to see penguins a couple hours before the game probably wasn’t the best omen.
11. Notice how I’m ready to snatch her up if the penguin turns around and goes wild animal.
12. Danny Green suddenly can finish at the rim. His off the dribble game is ugly but has been effective lately. Let’s hope these improvements are lasting and not a case of Green being on one of his good streaks. (Dr. Danny and Mr. Green? Nah, too forced.)
13. The next six games are @PHX, vs. PHX, vs. SAC, vs. DET, vs. CHI and vs. POR. No back-to-backs. Again, finish this RRT off in style on Sunday and then things will really start to even out schedule-wise.
14. You almost need a Ph.D. to be a Spurs fan right now since there’s always a new injury concern that pops up just about every day. Parker got kneed a couple times tonight. Was that why he prematurely ran out of gas? If so, will he be 100% by Sunday? Duncan is looking pretty good but I won’t be able to exhale following his ACL scare until he puts together one of his vintage performances. Ginobili’s hamstring is a constant worry. If he snags it again, we’re all in trouble. Leonard’s knee obviously isn’t healing adequately. I guess we gotta just hope he learns to play with the pain. Green, Splitter and Bonner all came up hobbling at some point tonight. Jackson’s finger is still technically broken (not to mention his family issue). Neal is attempting (key word being “attempting”) to play through a calf injury. Blair’s knees have degenerated before our very eyes. , even Pop’s voice has been weaker than usual since he missed those games due to illness. (Wow, I didn’t really realize how true the first sentence of this paragraph was until I typed out the subsequent sentences. It’s crazy how the Spurs have a new niggle every day yet a team like the Thunder never have to deal with any type of injury.)
15. Enjoy these days. We’re witnessing the good ol’ days right now.
I really, really hope #1 isnt true. The Spurs need Jack, even if he is cold right now. They need his size and toughness out there more than anything. If anything, I think Pop didnt play him tonight because Jack did miss a bit of time due to a family matter and I don't think Pop wanted to push him TOO hard as soon as he came back...
Reasonable. And that was my first reaction. But if Jack was being held out premeditatively, why not activate Baynes?
Jackson hasn't played in a couple weeks, I suspect him sitting was purely because the dudes almost 35 and it's a back to back. Taking as little as 2 weeks off will probably have had a big effect on his conditioning
Good question. My first thought would be why activate Baynes when you know (Thinking like Pop) that you're in love with Stretch 4 Bonner and you're not going to put Baynes in the game anyway...
It's called being old vs being young.
It was good to see Splitter actually back some one down in the post and score. Thought Pop went a little too much to Duncan in the post at the end of the game. That's hard when it's a back to back and he's played a lot of minutes today. Ah well, the silver lining (for me) is that GSW doesn't drop even further to raise LAL's chances of making the playoffs. I don't think Pop wants a long win streak going into the playoffs. He likes periodic loses so he can yell and bring them back to earth.
I'll add my thoughts from attending the game at Oracle tonight.
1. Gary Neal is really, really ing awkward with the ball. I'm not sure it translates very well on TV at all, but watching him in person, he has absolutely no flow and no feel for handles, at least tonight he didn't. I cringed when he put the ball on the floor, I cringed when he shot, and I turned to the g/f and said, "Why is Neal on Curry?!?!" about 2 seconds before Curry drilled a shot in his face. All in all it was a terrible night for Neal, which is strange because he really acted like he wanted to be on the floor against the Clips.
2. Give lots of props to the Warriors for their stout post defense tonight. They were absolutely determined not to let our big men set up camp in the paint. They were incredibly determined to limit penetration, and it seemed like our guys were on tired legs tonight, so no one could hit consistently from outside except Green.
3. Speaking of Danny, he is really slick moving off the ball. He knows where the defense is looking and glides to a spot where no one else is, then all of a sudden they realize he's open for a 3. It was also a + to see him trying to create for himself tonight and somewhat succeeding.
4. Oracle is seriously deserving of the hype they get as a great arena. That place was ridiculously loud from opening introductions (which are done very nicely by the way) through overtime. The only lull was when the Spurs got up big. There were a couple of stragglers that somehow got to take 3 shots from the FT line, 3 point, and half court at the end of the 1st and 3rd quarters. The 1st quarter guys were pretty decent, but the 2nd pair airballed every shot, even the FTs, and the crowd booed them loudly.
5. Tiago took a pretty nasty hit (knee, I think) on his thigh early on in the game and I think it gimped him. He was limping really badly at first, and even if he wasn't limping long after that, he didn't seem aggressive from that point on. Not sure if they showed it on TV but it was really apparent in the crowd.
6. Jarrett Jack.
7. I honestly felt good about this loss, or as good as you can. One of the toughest arenas to win in, on the 2nd night of a B2B at the tail end of a 9 game road trip, we couldn't get ANY shots to fall, and we still gritted out a very close game. Honestly sending it to overtime was out of determination alone.
8. Manu Ginobili is still fun as to watch in person. He is insanely crafty, and looks much, much faster than any other player on the court as far as his ability to change directions and make plays materialize out of nothing.
9. Timvp, I think Jax's lack of PT tonight probably has more to do with the stuff he's going through with his wife than Pop not wanting him on the floor. He's a guy who's good to play with a little fire/anger in him, and I'm betting there's not a lot of that to fuel him right now. Awful situation, and I wouldn't blame him if he wasn't ready to suit up for a while now, even if he did play last night.
10. Our interior defense is honestly amazing. Very reminiscent of the old days. The guys on our team, no matter who's on the floor (Neal aside), crash so hard to the paint whenever someone starts to take it up. The spacing might not come across when it's on TV, but in person, you get a feel for just how fast the Spurs close on players looking to score -- it's awesome.
11. Parker didn't look the same tonight. He didn't have the lift he normally does, and I honestly think he's just a bit wore down. Tonight wasn't a must win for us nearly as much as it was GSW. Probably my greatest regret from tonight was not seeing the MVParker that we have been over the past couple of months. Ah, well, c'est la vie.
12. Pop's rotations tonight were just... bizarre. I know he's tried some things, but at one point for a while in the 2nd quarter he had De Colo, Green, Bonner, Diaw, and Neal (or Kawhi?) on the court at the same time. There were absolutely no shot creators in that bunch and I have no idea what possessed him to run that lineup for as long as he did. At this point I have to wonder if he's just purposely restricting minutes on our starters to keep them as fresh as possible. Doesn't seem like winning tonight was that much of a priority, even though we had some serious lineups out there at the end. Maybe Pop was trying to give them different looks on offense, I can't honestly be sure.
13. Patty Mills got a loooooot of burn tonight. Not sure what his total minutes were, but I like seeing him on the floor. I keep thinking that with his at ude he can give us a scoring boost when we need a change of pace in the playoffs. I hope. Either way, every second he's on the floor he's working hard, and it's good to see.
14. Even though tonight was a loss, the Spurs are still a fun team to watch and cheer for. Duncan is just ing goofy whenever there's a timeout called unless the team is huddling -- he literally had to stalk the official with the gameball before the game started to get his pre-tip ball hug in.
Mills could be an X-factor in the playoffs, though I bet he's going to be called upon for towel waves more.
And great loss tbh, this and the Rockets win at Brooklyn = Lakers forever 9th.
Thanks for the thoughts timvp and Havoc.
Agree with pretty much everything.
I can't remember the last time Neal had a good game, but I like how Danny seems to have expanded his game a little over the past few games.
Agreed. He's no longer just a catch and shoot guy - his dribbling may be awkward but it seems like he can create for himself.
Popey lookalike...
I wondered if sitting Stephen last night was just a combination of things (b-2-b after time away for an older player, primarily) including a concern that he would get a hostile reaction for the Oracle crowd at a time when he's still putting the pieces back together emotionally. Pop isn't usually a sap like that, but it would make some sense to protect Stephen from that right now, particularly in a game that looked to be a tough one to win going in.
Good point imo. I don't know about the class level of the Warriors fans, but it would be easy for Jax to interpret hostility personally, as in regards to his recent tragedy as opposed to his acrimonious exit from the franchise a few years back.
On the post game interview, Tony was asked why he scored so little in the 4th quarter and he said that besides the Warriors packing the paint (or because of it, perhaps), Pop was calling a lot of plays for Tim and Manu. Tony only took two shots (and missed) in the entire quarter.
This is not a big deal loss due to fatigue and b2b and all that. Most everyone who was predicting any potential losses on the RR trip had written this in as a potential loss.
Having said that, it is important to learn from this...take away the road trip and b2b fatigue, the fact of the matter is that Tony is by far this team's MVP, and when a team can take the ball out of his hands and we have to rely on anyone else ( Tim, Manu, anyone) to bring us home for the win, it doesn't happen.
Final thought...even Pop said in the post game interview that 'at times we got a little bit stubborn'...a quote that I thought was classic Pop. He could learn from tonight as well. Of course, knowing that you are stubborn and changing your stubborn behavior are different things, I realize...
TP needs to learn how to shoot three pointers. If teams pack the paint and he can't get a mid range jumper off, or get to the rim, then we are in trouble.
He should have developed a three point shot by now. Does TP have that bad of a feel for shooting that Chip doesn't think it's worth adding one to his arsenal?
That is all I could think ever time he hit a big shot and ran back up the court scrunching his face to the side, almost closing one eye. Looked just like popeye.Popey lookalike...
Getting beat by Scrubby Jack and Dejuan Lee hurts. If Neal is usurping Jackson's minutes you can get used to those untimely defensive collapses.
Regarding Jax's emotional state: All you have to do is look at the Clippers post game video. He says that being back with the team and playing was good therapy for him. Of course he could have changed his mind and talked to Pop about it.
But I think it has more to do with age and conditioning after being out for a few days against a b-2-b at this point. "Size and strength" don't help if you're not mobile enough to defend against younger, physically fit players. A rock has size and strength but can't defend the paint or the perimeter.
As far as shooting goes, he's never been a good % shooter, but the last three years he's averaged only .376 on FGs and less than .29% on 3s.
I don't question his heart, but a tough street at ude only carries you so far in this league when the so-so physical skills have eroded.
I just think that spurs lack of any post up player other then Duncan has been exposed a little. In playoff mode when things get ugly it's golden to have some players that can pound it in.
For the most part I think spurs are a good enough team to compensate for this, but it still makes me uncomfortable going into the playoffs like this.
No player is perfect. , if TP could shoot threes, he'd be the most unstoppable guard in the league.
The last time I made this face I threw a roid!
Pop's got to figure out his rotations. He can't keep doing this in the playoffs. In the playoffs the only time you want to change your rotations should be situational like foul trouble or a specific matchup. You could argue his bizarre rotations in game 5 of the WCF cost us the game.
Yeah, the De Colo-Neal-Green-Diaw-Bonner lineup isn't working for me.
In that radio interview at the All-Star game, Pop said he hated the 20 games win streak last season and sometimes considered ways to break it. Between Neal on Curry and trying to run the exact same play that forced OT, I almost think Pop was happy with this loss.
Pop has sat or reduced Jack minutes depending on the matchups... last playoffs in the 2nd round against the Clippers, a young run & gun team (back then), Jack didn't see that many minutes. I think it's the same reason Mills (a more energetic guy) got the minutes over NDC at the end there.
Yet, Jackson went back to his usual minutes against OKC (or more, he was actually one guy that was hot from downtown). I wouldn't worry about Jack. His contract was absolute trade bait, and the reason they didn't move him means they still think he's an important piece (IMO).
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