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You lied to me, LJ.
Tim Duncan
Duncan's stats look nice (29 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks) but he wasn't nearly as effective as he was in Game 1. The main problem is that he wasn't quarterbacking nearly as well from the low block. Part of the issue was that the Suns weren't sending double teams right away and that made it tougher to pass. Duncan's defense also wasn't where it needs to be. It was a good effort but the faults were magnified by his teammates not showing up.
Grade: B
Manu Ginobili
Ginobili has to start scoring for the Spurs, especially in a series against the Suns. Rebounds, assists, steals and everything else is fine, but the Spurs offense needs some punch from their regular season leader in points per minute. He shot 3-for-9 from the field and didn't get to the free throw line. Something needs to change because the Spurs won't win this series if Ginobili is only hitting a third of his shots.
Grade: C
Tony Parker
As good and as aggressive as he was in Game 1, he came out the opposite in Game 2. He had no aggressiveness about himself whatsoever and seemed not ready to play. I'm not sure what the issue was but it was night and day. Parker has to be aggressive in this series and look to score. Doing so will open things up for his teammates. It was just a bad game overall from the Spurs point guard.
Grade: D
Bruce Bowen
Bowen's offense was clicking, but he hasn't been able to make his mark on this series at the defensive end of the court. He hasn't shown to be able to do anything special against Nash. And unlike Game 1, Bowen wasn't a factor on the glass. Bowen has to bring more than just corner three-pointers to the table. And the coaching staff has to figure out quickly whether Bowen on Nash accomplishes anything.
Grade: C
Francisco Elson
Elson, like usual, was a bag of mystery. He had a few good moments, but at other times had some big mistakes. His missed dunk hurt the Spurs and he had a couple poor defensive possessions against Stoudemire. The Spurs need more out of their starting center.
Grade: C
Michael Finley
Finley's back tightened up before the game but he ended up playing decently well. Not comparable to his last few playoff games, but he was adequate. He finished with 11 points and hit half of his three-pointers. His defense needs to picked up a notch and a couple more rebounds wouldn't hurt.
Grade: C+
Brent Barry
Barry has gotten a pass so far in the playoffs, but the Spurs needed him this game and he delivered a donut. Zero points in 15 minutes wasn't exactly what the coaching staff had in mind when they inserted him into the lineup. He doesn't do enough defensively to warrant staying on the court if he's not going produce offensively.
Grade: D+
Fabricio Oberto
Oberto started off strong but then his play got progressively worse. By the end of the game, the bad far outweighed the good. His defense, rebounding and passing weren't good when the Spurs were trying to make their run. The Spurs need him to play much better and more consistently in every facet.
Grade: C-
Robert Horry
Horry didn't seem to have the energy that he had in other games. However, it would have been nice to see a little more of him. He was a +4 when he was on the court, so a couple more minutes probably wouldn't have hurt. But he seemed a step slow compared to other nights.
Grade: C
Jacque Vaughn
Vaughn had a better game than he had in Game 1, but he was still pretty horrible. He missed all three of his shots, didn't score and handed out only one assists. As has been the case all playoffs, he gets himself in trouble when he tries to do too much. And it doesn't help his cause that the Suns double team off of him the moment he enters the game.
Grade: C
Pop
The Spurs just didn't look like they wanted it enough. With a win, the Spurs could have essentially ended the series. Instead, San Antonio came out flat and almost seemed to be disinterested and satisfied with the split. The blame for that has to start with the head coach. Pop failed to make much of an adjustment to Kurt Thomas being inserted into the starting lineup. Also, putting Bowen on Nash doesn't seem to be paying many dividends at the moment -- instead it appears to be freeing Raja Bell up to score more with a smaller player on him. Additionally, if Vaughn isn't going to be able to knock down a shot, playing Ginobili or Barry at backup point has to be considered.
Grade: D+
You lied to me, LJ.
Even though we allowed less points in game 2, the defense was more pathetic.
Team played like they were happy to get game 1.
Timvp - what's your analysis of Kurt Thomas' defense of Tim one on one? Was Duncan just being outmuscled, fouled, or outplayed?
What do the Spurs do if the Suns are able to guard him straight up with Thomas?
Duncan did make a few baskets on him, but they seemed very low probability. However, earlier in the game he seemed much more comfortable.
Your take?
I think we lost because the Suns learned how to play playoff D. I expect the Spurs to adjust and not take them so lightly next game. And they did take them lightly this game.
well TD did shoot for 12-20 but then again he was hittin some crazy shots in the third qtr.
LJ. you HAVE to give Elson an F. the only thing he did right all night was that block before halftime. His missed dunk led to a 3 point play at the other end of the court. I also though Duncan deserved an A-, he was insane in that third quarter and arguably had the best quarter for any player in this entire playoffs (though I think Baron Davis's 2nd quarter against Utah the other night warranta a mention)
Barry was useless, and you need to be harsher on manu. enough is enough, dude is struggling and needs to be called out for it.
By the way, Parker said he bruised his elbow after that Barbosa undercut, and that it was effecting his shot the rest of th enight but he simply didn't bring it tonight.
Anyways, it is always a pleasure to read these things, and we still got the split at the end of the day, now let's hope we protect our own homecourt in games 3 and 4
Lose the series.
Duncan has to destroy single coverage to where the Suns have to double him. If he doesn't, the Spurs will struggle too much to score. Luckily, Duncan has had some dominant stretches this year so I have faith in him.
But this is the worst possible situation the Spurs could find themselves in against the Suns. If the Spurs lost a shootout, that'd be fine because the Spurs' defense will always be there at the end of the day.
But losing because the Suns locked you down is a bad sign because you can't stop the Suns from scoring. They are good enough offensively that they'll get their 100 points no matter how well you play them.
Props to D'Antoni for playing Thomas. That move just changed the entire outlook of the series. The Spurs went from a likely 4 or 5 game series to an all out war.
I think the grades are too generous, down the line. Maybe Tim's is fair. Pop deserves an F- and this is the worst game Tony played for us in a long, long time. He had no idea what he was doing and it was a piss poor job of leading the team.
Unfortunately it seems that if Tony doesn't have it going Pop is just going to call 4 down every time. That's not how we did things in '05.
Did I make it up or did Duncan's production come to a screeching halt around mid third quarter?
I loved the 1-2 quarter retro display and the numbers to match, but the Spurs needed 50 from him tonight. No one but Bruce was even a bright spot.
Who was the last team to throw single teams at Duncan? Duncan with one defender > any other offensive option.
It seems the loss is more due to a lack of effort rather than the Suns's adjustments e.g. putting K Thomas on TD.
The Spurs usually responds to a playoff loss (including a blowout) with a better game. Every player needs to step up.
Which I hope for in Game 3 (and other upcoming games) will amount to victories.
I think the 3rd quarter showed that they don't give a how many points Tim scores. Even if he's hot as he's only going to get 2 at a time, sometimes even less if they foul him and he misses FTs. If Tim is the only guy scoring it means we're not hitting 3s, we're not getting the other guys involved, and as I've said a 100 times, stagnant offense leads to stagnant defense. If guys don't have the feel for the ball in their hands, their play will get lazier and less energetic on defense too. This was the '01 Spurs I saw out there today and I ing hated it.
"Who was the last team to throw single teams at Duncan?"
Malone in the 04 playoffs?
Why Tim always goes middle when the drop-step is there I will never know, but that's what he does. He hit some amazing shots tonight. IMHO he was the only one who turned up.
Timvp nailed it with that comment, minus the word "almost".San Antonio came out flat and almost seemed to be disinterested and satisfied with the split.
Is it time to start Manu (to see if he can produce something, anything offensively), switch Bowen to Marion and Parker to Nash (he did very well against AI), and forget Vaughn altogether? I'd start out game 3 with the same rotation, and if it's not working try some new things in the second half.
They do care how hot he is, but if Duncan is going to let himself get guarded by Thomas then the Suns have no reason to double team him.
We had this exact same philosophy with Amare in '05. Score 50 points we don't care cos nobody else is getting .
The '99 Knicks. Worked out great for them.
If Duncan is schooling whoever is guarding him one on one every play and gets 40+, the Suns are in trouble. They will be forced to double. But if Duncan can't score and passes to a bad shot or misses himself, that just fuels the Phoenix break.
Why be forced to double? He scored 15 in the 3rd and we didn't make up a single point on them. If he has it every single possession, eventually he'll fatigue, plus our defense will suffer from lack of energy/focus.
Duncan is no different than our other players, he has to score in the flow of the offense, he can't BE the entire offense.
On that, during the Nuggets series and game 1 Duncan got a lot of layups off Parker/Ginobili penetration-and-dumps. Tonight he didn't have one, he had to make it all happen himself. That is a problem.
We largely gave up on penetration tonight and it hurt us gravely.
I would really like to know why Ginobili won't go right, because I know he can, he used to do it (in his heyday, c2005) about 20% of the time (these days <1%!). Also, he was hot in March, his stroke looked beautiful and he hit something like 46% of his 3s... wtf happened???
Too many minuses for all players today. It was a TEAM LOSS.
We desperately need Manu to be a leading scorer in these games, because he's the BENCH production.
Tony seemed completely off today. I think this was the second worst playoff performance I've seen out of the Spurs so far. Stagnated offense. Lazy hustle after one Phoenix score. At least one or two player on the floor played without heart.
And now there's about 4 DAYS to sit on this Spurs loss.
Agreed. In the first half, how many broken plays did you count? And I mean broken before they started, not broken down by good D. I counted 5. Now that is very unSpurslike.
They'll be a different team in game 3.
His confidence is shot and he's putting extra pressure on himself knowing if he doesn't make the next shot he won't get another one for 5 minutes. He just has to catch the ball and go to the hole immediately, don't wait for screens, don't wait for the offense to set up, nothing. Just go.
'eh, he just needs to get laid.
If single-teaming Duncan is the answer to beating the Spurs, why does no team do it?
The answer is that Duncan can beat you by himself. Sure, the Spurs will need offense from other players, which is why Parker has to be aggressive. If Parker can get out and run and get baskets for himself and others on the break, the Spurs can go to Duncan in the half court set.
No team has ever beaten the Spurs by single-teaming Duncan all game. There's a reason for that.
You don't go away from it "to get others involved". You get easy baskets in early offense or on fast breaks. Eventually, if Duncan dominates single-teams like he usually does, the Suns will be forced to change their defense.
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