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nice as always.
Damn the Spurs could have easiley mailed it in through out the whole game. But they didn't. They fought for this win.
I won’t lie, I didn’t think the Spurs had much of a chance to beat the Utah Jazz. The Jazz are a rugged, mean team that I thought could really take advantage of the Spurs being minus Tim Duncan. And in the beginning of the game, it looked as if the Jazz were going to roll right over the Spurs.
But then a funny thing happened on the way to the Spurs’ first home loss of the year … they fought back, showed championship level heart and pulled out a very nice victory. I’m much more impressed with this win than I am the win against the Dallas Mavericks. While the Mavs are more of a rival, they also don’t play well against small ball lineups, as the Golden State Warriors showed the world last year. With the Spurs not having Duncan, it was going to be a lot of small ball and I thought the Spurs would have a shot to pull it out.
However, the Jazz destroy small ball. It’s suicide to go small against them because they’ll just beat you up, dominate you on the boards and win going away. For proof, just look at what they did against the Warriors in the playoffs last year. But this Spurs team found a way to pull out an improbable victory just on guts and guile alone.
As far as the Jazz are concerned, I’m impressed. That team is going to be good for a long time if they stay healthy. Ronnie Brewer makes them a much tougher matchup for the Spurs because you have to account for him all over the court, which wasn’t something true with Derek Fisher. Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer are highly skilled players who play really hard. Jerry Sloan, if he isn’t the best coach in the league, is definitely in the top five. I’d go as far as to say that the Jazz should be classified right up there with the Spurs, Mavs and Phoenix Suns.
-Manu Ginobili has had a lot of good games this year but this showing I think topped them all. Last game against the Mavs was flashier and he had some made for TV highlights during that game. But this game, Ginobili just willed the Spurs to victory. I love how he’s relentlessly driving the ball to the basket when in doubt. In past years, he might put up a jumper, but not this season. Unless you back off him, he’s going to take it to the hole and he’s going to make you stop him. That makes him almost impossible to guard because he can then use his step back three-pointer move much more effectively. His 37 points on offense were nice but what I really loved was his defense. This was by far his best defensive game of the season. His help defense and overall awareness on that end of the court was as good as I’ve ever seen out of him. How many times did he come over to disrupt a play? It seemed like practically every possession in the fourth quarter. Props to Pop for putting him on a non-offensive threat like Andrei Kirilenko and letting Ginobili roam. The Jazz shot north of 54% for the game but that would have been much higher if Ginobili wasn’t playing like a combination of Ronnie Lott and a tiger looking to swoop in on an unsuspecting antelope. *takes cold shower* [/endrant]
-For a lot of the game, Tony Parker was playing poorly. His defense early on was pretty pathetic and his offense was forced. To me, it looks like his ankle or calf or whatever is wrong with him was really limiting his movement. He didn’t have his usual blazing speed and his quickness was more ordinary. That said, I really liked how he battled through the adversity. Instead of folding tent he got angry and ended up hitting the last two field goals the Spurs made as a team. Those were championship worthy shots right there. It’s easy to knock down shots late when you are rolling all game. It’s a different animal to knock down shots when you couldn’t do anything right for the first three and a half quarters of the game.
-Bruce Bowen didn’t play as much as he usually does (only 24 minutes) but he was important to the victory. When Williams was lighting up Parker early on, Bowen switched onto him and put out the fire. Williams never really got it going against after Bowen harassed him. Pop made the right call in limiting Bowen’s minutes because the Spurs were in desperate need of offense, but Bowen did his part while he was in the game.
-Fabricio Oberto has played really well for a while now. He’s getting close to solidifying his spot as the fifth best player on the team. Coming off the bench for the first time this season, Oberto had four points, 12 rebounds, three assists and two steals while also leading the team in plus/minus at +12. Oberto’s smart, solid play is a very underrated aspect for this team. He’s quickly becoming a vital cog to the Spurs machine. In this game, his rebounding in the first half kept the Spurs close and then he had the game clinching play late when he drew an offensive foul on Boozer. Major props to Oberto for not only this game, but the last two to three weeks where he’s played exceptionally well.
-For the second straight game, Michael Finley played a huge role in the Spurs being able to pull out a victory. He scored 15 points in 29 minutes, while connecting on 5-of-8 shots from the floor including 4-of-7 from beyond the three-point arc. Also, for the second straight game, his rebounds (5) were vital. Hopefully he can continue this play because the Spurs are much better when Finley is on.
-I’ve been hard on Matt Bonner for about the last month but he came through today with an important outing. In 33 minutes, he scored 13 points and had four rebounds. While he played far from perfect, the Spurs desperately needed him to avoid resorting to small ball. Bonner played well enough to warrant a place on the court and ended up making a couple of big plays. His jumper was the bucket that gave the Spurs the lead for the first time in the fourth quarter. I do have to point out that Bonner let Mehmet Okur take him off the dribble not once but twice. I’ve never seen Okur take anyone off the dribble in his life. Obviously, Bonner still has a ways to go defensively but he came up with some big plays during this game and played perhaps his best game of the year.
-Francisco Elson started at center … and that turned out to be the most notable thing he did all night. Two points and two rebounds in 17 minutes of clueless play isn’t what the Spurs wanted to see out of Elson when the team desperately needed him to play well in Duncan’s absence. Outside of his block against the Mavs, he’s been stunningly poor as of late. His entire game seems to have regressed quite drastically. I would bash his defense but to call what he was doing “defense” would be too kind. Let’s just say his non-offense was very poor.
-Robert Horry is back with a vengeance. He ain’t messin’ around out there. You gotta love how he’s yelling at teammates and bringing playoff like intensity to a game in December. While he still has a lot of rust to shake off, I saw a lot of encouraging signs. He is crafty as ever and he knows exactly where to be on the court. He seems into things more than usual, which should bode well for the rest of the season. Especially once he gets in shape.
-Jacque Vaughn had another solid game. He took and made a couple of long jumpers that helped keep the Spurs within striking distance. With Parker hobbled and in foul trouble, he was the steadying hand that the Spurs need him to be when he’s out there.
-Brent Barry had his second straight very poor showing. I don’t know if he’s just not able to play the scrappy, all heart type game the Spurs used to win the last two contests, or whether he just really depends on Duncan. Whatever the case may be he’s been drastically less effective the last couple of games.
-This was one of Pop’s better coaching games of the year. He realized that small ball would get destroyed so he stayed away from it. He also realized that in the Mavs game, Ginobili got too tired. By bringing Ginobili off the bench, that forces Pop to somewhat limit his minutes. Otherwise, it’d be too hard to play Ginobili less than 40 minutes. I’m still trying to figure out what the exact reason was for Oberto to come off the bench. My guess is that the coaching staff thought Bonner was a better matchup for Okur on the perimeter than either Elson or Oberto would have been. While the Jazz shot the lights out, most of that was just great execution and the Spurs not having Duncan. Pop made some subtle defensive switches here and there to help slow down the Jazz just enough. Overall, I thought this was the best win of the season. I know it’s only early December and none of these games truly mean anything but it’s impossible to ignore the determination and will to win the Spurs have shown in the last two games.
Damn the Spurs could have easiley mailed it in through out the whole game. But they didn't. They fought for this win.
You gotta practice what you preach man! BELIEVE. I believe the Spurs can and will beat anybody on any given night, regardless of the situation.
Great win by the Spurs. I really expected them to lose this game, because of all that effort in taking it to the Mavs. They did it again.
I like how Tony didn't give up, even though he was out of it. (I think he got mad at the end of third at himself mostly. )
It was hard to complain about any of the Spurs tonight, because we got a hard fought win.
His block on Boozer was insane!This was by far his best defensive game of the season. His help defense and overall awareness on that end of the court was as good as I’ve ever seen out of him.
It's called depth...just because Pop doesn't play a guy as many minutes doesn't mean he thinks they played poorly...this is a deep team with a deep bench and obviously Pop wanted to stay big against the huge ass Jazz frontline....probably for the rebounding.
Besides...if Finley's hitting shots, you know Pop is going to play him over Barry...it doesn't matter what Barry does.
Barry didn't play bad tonight...in fact he was scrapping and sticking his nose in there on D...Pop just wanted to play big...and Finley was hitting his shots.
Plus...Manu's getting more minutes with Duncan out.
The scary thing out of all is this is that we're off to a franchise best 17-3 start......and our defense isn't even half of what it should be right now.
Saying Barry is dependent on Duncan is without a doubt the worst take you have ever had on this board...ever watch him play before he came to the Spurs? He was better.
And no, I'm not going to get into another Barry argument. If you want to make excuses for his poor play over the last two games, go ahead but I'm not going to argue back.
If Barry accidentally scored the winning basket for the other team you'd find a way to twist it around and somehow blame it on Pop, Finley, AJ or all three.
Let's be real.
Sticks and stones may break my bones but name calling doesn't keep that take from being your worst.
I agree.
You're right....Barry couldn't hit the side of a barn tonight
True because Barry without Duncan had all that team success. I mean I can't count how many big games he won before he played with Duncan.
Because there weren't any.
Barry post
It's gonna be nice to have 3 days off for Tony and Manu!
Yeah, I'm not sure if Tony's problem is ankle/calf or both, but he needs the rest. And obviously Manu does too after playing big minutes, playing so hard, and taking such shots to the head/body.
Nice for them, torture for us
Steve Smith was better before he came to the Spurs, too.
Ron Mercer averaged 20 ppg in Chicago.
His numbers were better...I don't care if he lost every game he played, his numbers were substantially better. Duncan doesn't improve his game...
He lead the NBA in 3 shooting...before he was a Spur. He shot over 50% from the field twice...before he was a Spur.
And if these last two games are your definition of a big game you just owned yourself...because he hit a game winner against us(and Tim Duncan) in Drob's last season.
The point is...he didn't play bad tonight...it had absolutely nothing to do with his limited PT.
You can make an argument he played bad in the Dallas game...but I thought all you cared about was if he was passing up shots? He didn't do that against Dallas.
I'm just glad I finally got to watch a Spurs game from start to finish this season.
I couldn't stop yelling at Elson to ROTATE, though.
as was michael finley
and nick van exel
and hedo got better after he left the spurs
we need a new coach!
You forgot about the dunk contest.
The game will be on ESPN 12AM PST again. For those who missed it or didn't get it to really watch it (like me).
You're right...those guys weren't dependent on Duncan either, in fact, they sucked once on Duncan's team...thanks for the assist
To say the Duncan makes Barry better on THIS SPURS TEAM doesn't have anything to do with what Barry has done in his life. It's just a note that maybe Barry plays better on this particular Spurs team with Timmy on the floor than without Timmy on the floor.
I don't know why you get so butt hurt ever time someone even remotely bashes Barry. It's a freaky phenomenon.
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