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I'm in a hurry so please excuse any typos.
Thanks.
Bye.
First of all, props to the Phoenix Suns for gutting out a nice victory. Even with Tony Parker sidelined you have to hand it to the Suns for finding a way to win late. Phoenix had some late offensive execution that gave them just enough to pull it out.
All things considered, I’m happy with the effort the Spurs gave. The physicality and energy levels were superb. Sure, the Spurs could have executed better at times on both ends of the court. Some players could have played better. However, overall it was a good ballgame out of San Antonio.
Honestly, I think it was more important to note how the Spurs and the Suns matched up with the changes the Suns made over the summer. Grant Hill was impressive for Phoenix. He gives them good diversity on offense and he’s a willing defender. That said, any thoughts of Brian Skinner being able to defend Tim Duncan one-on-one can be thrown out the window.
Do I think the Spurs would have won with Parker? I do. Without Parker, the Spurs had to work much harder than usual to score baskets against the Suns. With Parker in there, he can get easy buckets and he opens up room for others because the Suns have to pay so much attention to him.
Do I think not having Parker is a good excuse? I don’t. The Spurs lost. The Suns won. End of story.
-Tim Duncan answered any questions about whether or not he’s healthy. He finished with a season-high 36 points to go along with a season-high 17 rebounds. After missing four games due to injury, he looked sluggish in his first game back. This game Duncan looked very good. His post moves were impressive, as was his defense for the most part. The Suns’ strategy was to not double-team Duncan for much of the game and make him win it single-handedly. Duncan almost did so. I think the only thing that kept him from really have a monster game was fatigue in the second half. A 100% healthy and conditioned Duncan goes for 45 and 20 against the defense the Suns were throwing at him.
-Manu Ginobili is baffling me at this point. He looks like real Ginobili one second and then the next second you realize he’s still mired in a slump. For the third time in the last four games, he was last on the team in plus/minus at -13. Again, he was oftentimes hurting the Spurs more than he was helping. He hit only 6-of-19 shots from the field, including 1-of-6 from downtown. Ginobili also had a late turnover that sealed the victory for the Suns. All that being said, it’s hard to fault him too much. Unlike earlier games in his slump, the energy was there. He had some big plays throughout the game that helped the Spurs stay in it and almost pull out the win. I truthfully think that against the Suns, not having Parker out there hurts Ginobili the most. When Parker is healthy, the Suns have to account for him at all times. With Jacque Vaughn or even Brent Barry in there instead, the Suns can blitz Ginobili and then rotate to shooters much easier because there’s no one on the perimeter a threat to drive the ball to the basket. If you blitz Ginobili with a healthy Parker, all that happens is the ball gets swung to Parker and he drives in against a rotating defense for an easy layup. Not only that, Ginobili has to pick up extra defensive responsibilities with Parker out, which tires him out quicker. From what I saw, I think Ginobili is about to end this mini-slump and he’ll be back to his legendary ways once Parker returns.
-I don’t know if Bruce Bowen got faster or Steve Nash got slower but it seemed like Bowen was guarding Nash better than ever. He was always right up on him and wouldn’t give him an inch to breathe. He had a number of big plays on the defensive end, per usual. However, offensively he missed a big three late off of a nice pass by Ginobili.
-Michael Finley had an impressive outing for the most part. He hit 6-of-13 shots for 15 points in a shade under 40 minutes of action. I was most impressed by his physical play on the defensive end, specifically on the boards. His tough play down there was a big reason why the Spurs outrebounded the Suns 49-38. On the negative side, Finley had a bad pass to Duncan late and also had a missed assignment on transition defense.
-Jacque Vaughn played decently well. He had 14 points, four assists and two rebounds in 35 minutes of action. He hit 7-of-10 shots from the field, but I’d prefer to see him shoot a bit less. He hasn’t yet mastered the art of only shooting open shots. The concern is that even if Vaughn hits a shot in the first three quarters, he’s not a threat late in the game so him being or not being in rhythm isn’t of a major concern. I’d like to see him pass a bit more a shot a bit less, but it’s tough to complain about 70% shooting.
-Brent Barry gave good effort this game. He finished with five points, six rebounds and five assists in 32 minutes of action. For once, I thought he forced a couple shots where he could have taken his time and set his feet better. But overall, Barry played well enough for the Spurs to win despite his 2-of-6 shooting from the field.
-Fabricio Oberto had his first quiet game in a while. He finished with only four points and five rebounds in 20 minutes. Coming into this game, he was shooting 68% from the field. In this game, he went only 2-for-5 from the court. On his time on the court, Oberto didn’t show enough to keep Pop from going with small ball for a good chunk of the game.
-Robert Horry had a nice hard foul against Nash but that was about it. In 13 minutes, his only stats of note were four rebounds and a steal. Since his extended layoff, Horry’s offense seems like it’s the last aspect of his game that hasn’t come around. Until he can show he can knock down shots, teams won’t guard him as tightly as they did in the past.
-Oddly enough, Matt Bonner led the Spurs in plus/minus at +7 despite only playing six minutes of action. While that’s a statistical fluke, Bonner didn’t do much overtly wrong during his time on the court.
-Ime Udoka and Darius Washington both got DNP-CD’s for this game. Udoka not playing isn’t much of a surprise. However, Washington not playing is a mild surprise. It’s been obvious that Pop doesn’t have much confidence in him yet but you’d think Pop would at least play him in the first half to get his feet wet. Pop must trust Washington less than we all realize. Francisco Elson also didn’t play due to an ankle injury. Elson might have been useful in this run-and-gun type setting.
-There were a number of areas you can question Pop’s coaching, but I don’t really disagree with much that he did. The Spurs played a lot of small ball but that didn’t seem to hurt as the Spurs outrebounded the Suns and held their offense in check for the most part. I thought he did a good job of holding back Duncan’s minutes as well as possible. Pop didn’t fall victim to trying to win the game and let Duncan re-injure himself. I do think that Pop should have played Ginobili less. Playing him a bit over 32 minutes in this situation is too much considering Ginobili has more responsibilities with Parker out and will get tired sooner. Playing Ginobili 27 or 28 minutes makes more sense to me. On a whole, I can’t be too disappointed with this game. The Suns didn’t show me anything that tells me they can’t be beaten in the playoffs. The Spurs played hard and just didn’t do enough at the end to win. Again, props to the Suns for a nice regular season win.
I'm in a hurry so please excuse any typos.
Thanks.
Bye.
As always, well done and very appreciated.
After games, especially losses, there's so much to try to make sense of coming out in bits and pieces all over the board.
Having your well thought out and well written thoughts is a way for me to gather and digest what I just saw.
I'm going to leave it to others to nit pick.
I thought the game was great, I thought Duncan was unreal. Absolutley amazing.
A win would have been the preferred outcome, but as you say, it wasn't a game to be too disappointed with.
Game thoughts:
The Spurs protest every call as if they weren't even on the floor when the whistle blew.
Aaaaaaannnnd d_s_f FINALLY figures out a way around being put on all-ignore.
The difference between the Spurs and the Suns is that the Spurs aren't on the floor when the whistle blows if they aren't supposed to be.
Forum thoughts:
Get the out of here because this is a Spurs website.
This game is dedicated to all people who thought that Timmy is past... I'm not sorry for this defeat. Thanks Tim!
I mentioned this in the game blog, but it seems appropriate to point out here as well. I thought the Suns made a decision to stay with the Spurs' shooters above the arc and to bring only sparse extra attention to Duncan. It does seem like a calculated gamble -- they realize that they have no chance to deal with Duncan, so they focused on denying open looks to "the other guys" and forced the Spurs to find offense in the mid-range. That's not to say that all of the Spurs' woes from behind the arc were attributable to the Suns defense; but I think it would be hard to deny that this was a new strategy for the Suns.
At that, I think it worked well tonight, but I'll be interested to see if they can stick with that an be effective with Parker on the floor. If that's their strategy, they'd better hope that they can find someone who can stay in front of Parker for 40 minutes and deny him any sort of penetration; if they're going to stick with shooters and bring token doubles at Timmy, that lane is going to be wide-open for Parker to do what he does better than any point in the NBA at the moment. It will also be interesting to see how long they can sustain that if Duncan's interior play can punish the Suns with fouls as well as points. I think when things matter most, the Spurs will exploit that strategy and I'm not sure what Phoenix does beyond that.
With that said, I thought the Spurs started to figure out ways to counter the Suns' defense late and finally got a few really good looks that they knocked out. Bowen's miss late was a killer, but it was a great look and one that he regularly hits.
I was pleased, generally, with the Spurs' defensive effort -- holding the Suns to 100 on a night where they shoot almost 30 free throws is a great job.
I didn't think that either team played particularly well, but the Suns did enough to get a win.
great post FWD
LOL @ Horry giving Nash a hard foul.
RE: Teams not guarding Horry...
That's exactly what you want...that's when Horry is at his deadliest, he's made a career out of sucking until teams think he's scrub and then not sucking in the decisive moments.
Horry is definitely at his best clutch wise when he appears to be sucking...
Timmy plays very well against lesser compe ion. You put any quality defender on him and he wilts like a flower. Luckily there is Parker and Ginobli to pick up the slack when that happens.
The old fool should retire
Bravo.Complete agreement.
And I totally salute TimVP for recognizing that Parker being out hurts Manu. I was thinking that to myself earlier tonight.
I dunno...I was not impressed defensively.
Wide open men all over the court. Usually because someone had to double off of Finley's or Barry's men. Barry, Finley, and Horry seemed to get beaten all night, demanding rotations...and the Suns capitalized on them. We never could get a stop, and that's not usually what I expect from the Spurs. If the Suns would have hit more of their wide open stuff, the score could have been a lot different.
Then again, if we could have hit more of ours...
The low (relatively) scoring game seemed to come from the pace of the game, not so much from the defense the Spurs were playing, imho.
That said. Duncan...wow!
Ginobli looks weak to me. Like his legs are not strong right now. He's not finishing well, and his shot is short. That usually means his legs ain't doing the job for him. I agree with Tim...sometimes I was wishing he was off the court instead of on it. Not too worried tho, it's Ginobli after all
Why wasn't Oberto out there more? Seems like he missed the entire 3rd quarter.
Vaughn did ok tonite. Pretty much on par with what I expected from him.
Ginobli, Horry, Finley and Barrry tho...
Still, we had a chance to win it at the end...without Parker. Not burning my t-shirts yet.
I am not disappointed at all. This game was winnable.
The play of Michael Finley impressed me. He wants another ring. I thought he played tough low post defense tonight.
Great game thoughts as always, timvp.
TD played great, solid games on rebounds and scoring; another pure Star night, what else?
Manu was Manu in those days when you don't understand wtf he's doing, bad selections, not calm, Manu need a change.
Finley, I'd go with him last nite, he was doing great calls and good shots.
Bruce was good for me.
blah... blah ... blah ...
I do miss the little french, anybody else?
Couple of uncharacteristic mistakes and turnovers --or good Sun's defense since I was just listening on radio--in the last minutes probably cost us the game.
As a fan you want to see good close games that seesaw back and forth all night. You can't complain if you lose some of them. You just want to win more than the other guys.
I couldn't agree more.
It's hardly surprising? when Timmy returns with 36points 17rebounds, we should expect Oberto go back to his normal production. Not all nights Fab had 16rebounds or 21 points.This isn't his role in the team and he knows that.
It was a great game and the Suns took it down the stretch.
I woke up just for the ending of this game. And damnit we needed a stop right there. Esp. Tim missed the rebound he shuld taken.
They could realy stop Nash penetrating on the baseline and dishing the ball to Amare.
That all plus Bowen miss, Ginos turnover, Hill's cold blood, TP's absence made me say: !
I hate losing but then again - that was not a bad loss. Although I would prefer to lose like this on the road and 'keep home clean'.
The rematch time will be on the last day of January, till then I think Timmy and Tony will be on their normal game-action-speed.
I see JV has been reading ST. I noticed he didn't try dribbling so much last night. Good improvement there.
The missed three by Bruce.. Actually I thought he shot way too soon in the scheme of things. Even if he hits, there is still almost 10 seconds left for the Suns to score. Would have prefered they move it around for a few more seconds, and maybe get a drive to the basket, with the clock running down to zero.
Certainly we missed TP last night. With him on the floor it's an entirely different game. I think there is little doubt Spurs win with TP playing.
Tim Duncan....well, it was one of those monsterous nights, but it also shows the Suns have no, and I mean no defense for him. They better pray they don't meet the Spurs in the playoffs.
WTF happened to our three point shooting? It was god awful last night, especially for a team that is hitting 40% from the arc. No threes = a Suns win.
Even though they won, I don't think the Suns come away from this game with any confindence the can handle a Spurs team at full strength.
And the refs....Guess they were getting even with Horry for Nash last night. At least on a couple of occasions they made bad calls on him. And the one Fin got called for after being bowled over on the steal, was downright disgusting. At least twice Nash traveled, but was bailed out by a foul. Game certainly could have been called better.
But at least the media in Phoenix can have a field day today. Suns get Revenge.
at least glad this guy played great. i'm glad for that.
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