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GETTING Ime Udoka HAS MADE BOWEN PLAY OUT OF HIS MIND
HE WANTS TO REMAIN THE MAN
-Good win. The Lakers put up a fight for a while but then the Spurs kept executing on both ends of the court until they were able to pull away. The team showed nice depth and kept attacking. You, as a Spurs fan, have to be happy with how this team is playing this early in the season.
-I'm not sure what was wrong with Tim Duncan. Phil Jackson was collapsing everyone on him but Duncan doesn't respond to that type of defensive tactic with the type of outing he had tonight. Offensively, he was finishing soft around the rim and defensively he was a step slow. He had to be either sick, battling some sort of injury or his head was somewhere else. His production was lacking in too many aspects to be just an off game. That said, when Duncan has one of the worst games of his career and the Spurs roll to an easy victory against a Western Conference playoff team, you know the Spurs are playing pretty well.
-Manu Ginobili with another nice performance. He's playing so well that he can have a very good game like he did tonight and have it taken for granted. His effort and energy continue to be through the roof. Pop got on him a bit for a couple of defensive mistakes but other than that, Ginobili with another flawless game.
-Tony Parker played his best game of the season. The Lakers simply had no answer for the havoc Parker was creating out there on the court. With the Lakers packing the paint, Parker's penetration opened up the three-point shooters. He had nine assists and no turnovers until two turnovers late in the game when the contest was over. Defensively, he continued his domination of Derek Fisher, which goes back to last year's playoffs.
-Bruce Bowen had a vintage Bruce Bowen game. He came into this game with 20 points in his first seven games. This game, he puts the clamps on Kobe Bryant while scoring a season-high 23 points. Bowen comes into the game averaging less than three points, while Bryant comes in averaging over 30 points -- and Bowen outscores Kobe 23 to 18. That's just amazing. Bowen is off to the best start of his career defensively and this just adds to his resume. Duncan, Ginobili and Parker have all gotten a lot of press recently but it can be argued that Bowen is actually playing his role better than anyone is playing their role on the team. Every night he's shutting down the player he's assigned to and he's making it look easy. Hopefully he can keep it up and bring this level of defense when the playoffs begin.
-In the first quarter, Michael Finley was horrible. He just kept jacking up shot after shot. Eventually he got rolling and became halfway decent but he's going to have to become more consistent. His shooting percentage needs to get up around 42-44% or else he's going to be as much of a burden as he is a help for this team.
-Fabricio Oberto was sleepwalking through another game when he turned it on for a few possessions in the second half. He's proving himself to be basically the Argentine version of Robert Horry. As long as he keeps bringing it in games that matter then the Spurs can live with his listless play in other games.
-Francisco Elson had a bad outing. The only thing that saved it from being a horrible outing were his rebounds. Defensively he was embarrassingly slow on some rotations and at times he wasn't even running back hard on defense. Offensively he wasn't catching the ball and was more in the way than anything else. Like a lot of the role players this year, Elson has struggled with inconsistency. If he can find a steady level of solid play, he'd be a big asset. Right now, the Spurs don't really know what they are going to get out of him.
-It was good to see Matt Bonner back to playing better. And to anyone who doubts why the Spurs need a player of Bonner's skillset on the Spurs, all you have to do is look at the first half of this game. For the first quarter and the first four minutes of the second quarter, the Lakers were having great success in collapsing their defenders into the paint and disrupting the Spurs' offense. Duncan couldn't get going due to the traffic in his way and the Lakers were rotating early off of the centers to rotate to shooters. Enter Bonner into the game with eight minutes to go in the second quarter and the Spurs down by 1, 28-27. With Bonner's ability to hit the three from the power forward position, it totally changed what the Lakers could do defensively. They tried rotating off Bonner early to get to other shooters and Bonner nailed outside shots. When they stayed on Bonner, other shooters got open shots. When Bonner went off the court at the end of the second quarter, the Spurs had surged to a 54-38 lead. It's no mistake that while Bonner was out on the court and the Lakers off had to adjust, the Spurs went on a 27-10 run to end the half. Defensively, Bonner looked a bit better -- still bad, but better.
-Darius Washington had another solid showing, considering he's a 21-year-old rookie point guard. He made some mistake but overall, you have to be very happy with what he did. Washington continues to be fearless and he's shown ability in every aspect of his game. From shooting, to playmaking to rebounding -- he's been relatively impressive.
-It's safe to cancel (or at least postpone) Ian Mahinmi's enshrinement into the Hall of Fame. Pop put him in the game in the first half and in about 30 second, Mahinmi managed to mess up enough to be yanked right back out. First, Mahinmi didn't know the play that was called on the offensive end, which couldn't make Pop very happy. Then defensively, he let Andrew Bynum jump over him, grab the rebound and dunk it with a foul being called on Mahinmi. Pop saw enough and pulled him back out. In garbage time, Mahinmi continued his less than stellar play. To be fair, this type of play was expected out of Mahinmi. No one really expects him to be ready to compete at the NBA level right now ... but tonight confirmed that notion.
-Ime Udoka continued his up-and-down play. One moment you wonder why he's on the team, the next moment you wonder why he's not getting more playing time. He's been very streaky as of late but tonight he seemed to be better defensively in terms of knowing the team defensive rules. It was also very interesting to see that when Jackson put Lamar Odom at the power forward position, Pop responded with a lineup of Parker, Ginobili, Bowen, Udoka and Duncan. That's a lineup was hoping to see coming into the season and it looked pretty good out there. If the Spurs can rebound out of that lineup, it'd be useful against teams who go small like Phoenix and sometimes Dallas.
-It was good to see Brent Barry back out there. It'll be interesting to see whether Pop places him back into the rotation once he's completely healthy or if Pop is going to use this opportunity to give Udoka more of a chance.
-I though Pop coached a good game. Putting Bonner in the game in the second quarter when the Lakers were collapsing defensively was a good move. It looks like he's starting to scale down the minutes back to what we'd expect coming into the regular season. With a back-to-back versus the Dallas Mavericks and Houston Rockets coming up, this'll be the time to see how good this Spurs team is at the moment.
GETTING Ime Udoka HAS MADE BOWEN PLAY OUT OF HIS MIND
HE WANTS TO REMAIN THE MAN
I disagree.
Gotta love the "Ime Udoka" copy and paste to make sure to spell it right
If Bruce continues playing defense like this, he should hopefully get the DPOY award.... Finally!
.. I just realized how privileged I am to just read TiMVP's after-games thoughts without watching the games myself.. I am not sure others feel the same too..
Kudos to TiMVP!!
This assumes anyone is paying attention. They aren't.
That's right
Great job by Bruce.
I'm just disappointed in Timmy.
Based on where Washington was this time last year and his age... he played outstanding. He kept up enough to allow Parker to get rest and the double digit lead never wavered with him running the show. Showed nice shooting touch and an ability to penetrate. Once he refines his raw talents he'll be a damn good player.
Tim is sleepwalking because he knows he can with this team and not really sacrifice wins. It looked like something else was up with him tonight, but you can tell he's going through the motions and watching the TP and Manu show.
I am disappointed in the sheer number of weak ass attempts he threw at the basket that got swatted away. Once or maybe twice I could understand, but it happened at least 4 times.
Having been in Japan and Southeast Asia since October and unable to see any games, timvp's well-written entries have been a godsend for this displaced Spurs' fan.
I'll continue to make his excellent player analysis and insightful game recaps my principal source for all things Spurs until I get back late this year.
Thanks! or as they say in Japan, "Arigato Gozaimasu!" and in the Philippines, "Salamat!"
Last edited by drmvp; 11-14-2007 at 01:54 AM.
Salamat.Having been in Japan and Southeast Asia since October and unable to see any games, timvp's well-written entries have been a godsend for this displaced Spurs' fan.
I'll continue to make his excellent player analysis and insightful game recaps my principal source for all things Spurs until I get back late this year.
Thanks! or as they say in Japan, "Arigato Gozaimasu!" and in the Philippines, "Salamut!"
LJ, if you're going to make a troll to pat yourself on the back, at least change more than just the first two letters of your regular screen name.Having been in Japan and Southeast Asia since October and unable to see any games, timvp's well-written entries have been a godsend for this displaced Spurs' fan.
I'll continue to make his excellent player analysis and insightful game recaps my principal source for all things Spurs until I get back late this year.
Thanks! or as they say in Japan, "Arigato Gozaimasu!" and in the Philippines, "Salamat!"
Thanks, noted and corrected.Salamat.
First, I don't post much since I'm quite busy, but that doesn't make me a troll.
Second, I assure you that I am not timvp.
Third, the reason I chose my screen name is (a) I have a Ph.D. (hence, the "dr") and (b) the Spurs have a few regular season and finals MVP type players (Tim, Manu, and Tony). It's just a coincidence that my name is similar to timvp's.
BTW, If he were really trolling to compliment himself, as you suggest, don't you think he'd be smart enough to create a very dissimilar screen name from his own? I do. Besides, I'm sure he'd never do anything as silly as your accusation. Surely you've come to know and respect timvp as a poster par excellence more than your assertion suggests.
I really hope your whole series of posts on this topic were in jest. Sometimes it's hard to tell in cyberspace.
Allow me just to reiterate: I happen to be a fan of timvp's writing and I appreciate his effort in keeping people like me informed while we're abroad. I think he deserves a little well-deserved praise. There's nothing more to it than that.
ShoogarBear was just kidding, but I don't blame you; internet sarcasm is pretty hard to detect when dealing with a pro.
tim duncan
I think I'll jump on the Mavs wagon if Duncan has another bad game like this.
LOL, Selamat means congratulation in Indonesian language, while Terima Kasih means thank you.Salamat.
Copy that. I don't get to see many games living in Thailand, but timvp's writeups really give insight to game action and what's going on with the team.
Well done!
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