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AJ owned Duncan
Spurs' Duncan falls for Johnson's verbal deke
Web Posted: 01/06/2007 12:31 AM CST
Mike Monroe
Express-News
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/b...n.3623105.html
Tim Duncan heard the voice, screaming demands during his first four seasons with the Spurs.
There is no mistaking Avery Johnson's high-pitched, nasal intonation and his New Orleans accent, and Duncan grew accustomed to following Johnson's commands when the two were teammates on the Spurs.
Now the coach of the Dallas Mavericks, Johnson used that familiar voice on Friday to confuse the Spurs' All-Star power forward in the fourth quarter of the Mavericks' 90-85 victory.
As the Spurs ran their offense in front of the Mavericks' bench in the second half, Duncan was well within earshot of Johnson's unique inflection. So the Mavericks coach instructed his defenders to double-team Duncan every time he caught the ball in the low post.
Turns out it was a ploy, a wrinkle that perhaps only Johnson could have executed against his old teammate. Johnson had privately ordered his defenders not to follow his directive.
Johnson had set up the tactic by aggressively double-teaming Duncan nearly every time he caught the ball in the post in the first three quarters. Duncan grew wary of the double teams and did a good job of finding open teammates.
"They came (at me) just about every time in the beginning," Duncan said. "In the fourth quarter, Avery just stood over there on the bench and yelled like they were coming, but they didn't."
It was a masterful mind game won by his old teammate, and it rankled Duncan to admit it.
"A very bad (mind game)," Duncan said, "but yeah."
The Mavericks held the Spurs scoreless for 4:59 in the fourth period, squandering an opportunity to extend the 76-73 lead Manu Ginobili gave them with an end-to-end drive that resulted in a three-point play 8:37 remaining.
Their next score came on Ginobili's 3-pointer with 3:38 to play, and Duncan owned up to his role in the critical stretch.
"Honestly, I'll take full and total blame for that situation right there," Duncan said. "It was just bad reason my part.
"(The Mavericks) were half-and-half (on defense). They weren't double-teaming. They weren't doing anything, and I wasn't drawing anybody to me and wasn't taking the shots when they were there. Just bad reads on my part."
Duncan always is candid when he makes mistakes, often more critical of himself than need be. He seemed angrier with himself for falling for Johnson's mind game than for allowing the Mavericks seven offensive rebounds in the second half, most of them critical to Dallas' comeback.
Those offensive rebounds, Duncan said, were by happenstance, rather than lack of effort or execution by the Spurs. The most critical was Jason Terry's grab of Dirk Nowitzki's air ball on a 3-point attempt. Terry flipped it in the basket just before the 24-second shot clock expired.
"Yeah," Duncan said on his way out the door of the Spurs' locker room. "That's great offensive rebounding.
"It just happened," Duncan said of the Mavericks' 41-33 edge in rebounding. "I can't say one thing or the other. I can't say they were just legitimately pounding the offensive glass. I think they got a couple bounces and were in the right place at the right time. That's not taking anything away from what they did. It's just how it went."
AJ owned Duncan
AJ has turned into Phil Jackson.
Not good for the Spurs' chances.
You guys gotta admit, that's pretty ing brilliant.
i heard about this...c'mon tim.
if no one is coming, then don't worry about it.
As long as Tim learns from it....
Naw, Phil would've saved it for the playoffs.
That's some cheap @ss sh!t right there. That's really...I don't know what that is but it sure as isn't basketball. AJ!
Wow.
That's kind of embarassing.
Still, better now than in the playoffs... [/eternal optimism]
Is it just me....or did Duncan also have a Brain-fart on a throw-in for the mavs. I was watching the game on the local station...so we could barley see it. It was a questionable out-of-bounds call where Deveon, Duncan, and some other Spur went for the ball.
The ball went out of bounds, and Duncan proceeded to plead the case for "Spurs Ball" and then started talking/laughing with George before the Mavs in-bounded the ball for a Terry (?) 2 or 3.....
Can anyone confirm this?
This did happen, and it was Dirk. Tim realized he was supposed to be playing basketball rather than in, and ran over to try and guard Dirk, but it was too late.
When I first glanced at the le of the thread, I thought it was going to be about that play where Tim didn't pick up Dirk because he was jawing with Devean. Having the article be about AJ psyching out Tim instead doesn't make me feel any better.
30 years -about time to learn some basketball
That might be the stupidest post ever.30 years -about time to learn some basketball
Damn, brilliant move by AJ. Yeah, he should have saved it for the playoffs but ing brilliant.
That is very brilliant. Very smart on AJs part.
Might?
But come on. I've got admitt it was good idea by AJ.
Gotcha Tim!
I would care less if TD was smarter then that. (which he is)
I don't think Tim is any better at in-game adjustments than Pop.
And it's pretty much the same old ty, blatantly obvious, predictable errors from Tim over and over and over. Repeating over and over isn't a sign of intelligence. It's stupidity.
Dribbling/spinning into paint traffic, esp like waiting and waiting for the double or sagger, THEN dribble. Tim stripped, crawling on the floor like a 7th grader trying to get the ball back. Dirk reaching over and in to strip Tim in crunch time last night epitomizes Dirk's superiority and dominance over Tim. Tim is getting worse, and Dirk is getting better.
Killing the offense by holding the ball, Sean Elliot's repeated lament.
Holding the ball then shooting the bank shot, as if holding the ball tricked the defender into thinking Tim had dozens of options. He doesn't, he holds the ball, the defense sets up, then 99% of the time he shoots the bank shot, which now almost always misses. Forget the bank shot. It's dead and buried.
Tim is simply playing less and less effectively, and shows no signs of improvement, or playing smart, or adjusting to his increased slowness and decreasing bag of tricks and shots.
Total inconsistency on FTs, from FT to FT. One FT bounces back from the front rim, next FT next nothing but net. He IS consistent in shooting the FT too weak (dies off the front of the rim) and way too flat and hard (which requires a perfect shot). When he gets his legs and body under the shot, he get both more arc/softness (wider margin of error) and more power/distance (get the ing ball over the ing rim). Chip has done NOTHING for Tim. Tim has absolutely no feel for FTs, after shooting 1000s and 1000s in practice and games. Tim misses 7 FT of Spurs 10 missed FTs, Spurs lose by 5. An anti-MVP night.
And Tim isn't rotating, defending, anticipating in interior defense. Very slow and passive.
We've heard Pop say "Tim figures these things out by himself", but Tim isn't figuring out . "Hands off" won't work, Pop. Pop has a huge challenge to confront himself and Tim, figure out how to "manage a declining star", to energize their symbiosis that have given both of them fantastic NBA careers.
Everbody needs to forget about everything Tim has been and done in the past.
None of it is worth now. 7 RBs in 39 mins @ATT against Spurs' mortal rival. Out-rebounded by Dirk and Josh. Matched by Diop in half the minutes. No, Tim, NOT bad bounces. Horrible game from Tim.
==========
oh yeah, 11 pts, 10 RB, 3 AST from Bruce/Robert/Beno/Michael in 89 minutes.
We keep waiting for the Spurs to start clicking. I'm beginning to think this year, what we see is what we got.
Well yes. I remember last year the same situation. The spurs will start clicking on the rodeo trip,after rodeo trip etc.
But they didn't start clicking, the excuse was the injuries which is about right. No excuses this year unless you want to blame the ball.
Good post btw boutons_
Exactly
Too bad Pop can't do a little self-reflection of his own. Maybe his subs ution patterns wouldn't suck so bad and he wouldn't be so stuck on posting up Finley when others are playing well.
That's exactly what I was thinking. He should have saved that for when the game really mattered.
i don't know what to make of this. our best player getting pysched out by someone that's not even playing the game. wtf is that??? isn't he supposed to have mental toughness and want to win at all costs. we continue to be ing aggressive whether the double come or not. read what's happening on the court and respond to that. tim the pysch major got psyched out... ing classic. this team may as well get their fishing rods ready because it's going to be a short post season. for him to even admit that to the press is even worse...any oppposing coach may do this now.
There is no ing excuse for a veteran All star and Top Fifty Player of All Time not reading the coverage and going after his defender.
Especially if the defender is Dirk--their prmier player.
Tim is mailing it in against good teams and fattening his stats on bums.
dang that's harsh...but brilliant
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