Game Thoughts: Spurs vs. Knicks Jan. 4

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

One comment - let's not get too high on Demarr. His lateral quickness is horrific, and that's probably why he hasn't stuck at the NBA level. Bonner looks like a good defender next to him.

Can anyone tell me what the Spurs' defensive stats looked like this time last season? I'm getting worried that this team isn't finding it's defensive character at all. Then again, it is January, and they usually don't find the real D until March.

[Solid D]

Excellent game assessment, timvp. I went to the game and I'll just add that the 1st quarter the Spurs ball movement was in slow motion. I was surprised the Spurs had 5 assists in that quarter. They were not very aggressive and settled for running high screen/rolls without penetrating....shooting jumpers fairly late in the shot clock. Almost half of the assists came on 3-pointers. To be exact, 11 assists on threes, 13 on 2-pointers. That's a bit askew and supports the argument that the Spurs were settling for outside shots where there was less confrontation.

Matt Bonner was active but he does a poor job of boxing out. He does well when he can run in from the sides/wings to save possessions with tip-outs on hustle plays. Where he gets hurt is on his interior defense and box-outs, frequently getting caught too far under the basket. He needs to develop the art of taking a charge. He's got Manu, Fab and Bruce around to teach him so he should take advantage of the opportunity and learn how to draw the calls.

Summary: Since the Spurs were satisfied with walking the ball up most of the time, the half-court screen and rescreen offense allowed for a close game. There wasn't much early offense from either team. The Spurs were fortunate to keep this one from slipping away like the Denver game. They were one Oberto good acting job and one Michael Finley clean, pure 3-point swish away from allowing the Knicks to reach in and grab a win.

[timvp]

Excellent game assessment, timvp. I went to the game and I'll just add that the 1st quarter the Spurs ball movement was in slow motion. I was surprised the Spurs had 5 assists in that quarter. They were not very aggressive and settled for running high screen/rolls without penetrating....shooting jumpers fairly late in the shot clock. Almost half of the assists came on 3-pointers. To be exact, 11 assists on threes, 13 on 2-pointers. That's a bit askew and supports the argument that the Spurs were settling for outside shots where there was less confrontation.

Matt Bonner was active but he does a poor job of boxing out. He does well when he can run in from the sides/wings to save possessions with tip-outs on hustle plays. Where he gets hurt is on his interior defense and box-outs, frequently getting caught too far under the basket. He needs to develop the art of taking a charge. He's got Manu, Fab and Bruce around to teach him so he should take advantage of the opportunity and learn how to draw the calls.

Summary: Since the Spurs were satisfied with walking the ball up most of the time, the half-court screen and rescreen offense allowed for a close game. There wasn't much early offense from either team. The Spurs were fortunate to keep this one from slipping away like the Denver game. They were one Oberto good acting job and one Michael Finley clean, pure 3-point swish away from allowing the Knicks to reach in and grab a win.

Good post.

Hopefully the Solid D vacation from SpursTalk is over.

[Harry Callahan]

I was in the nosebleed seats Friday, and I have never seen a bigger bunch of Rock Pounding ballhogs than I saw with the NYK. They very well may have had more raw physical ability on the floor than the Spurs last night, but it was almost a joke watching Crawford and "Starberry" take turns playing "Look at Me Go One on Five". No ball movement, no teamwork, sickening.

That roster has the higher payroll in basketball. And of course, when it comes down to Nut Cutting time, the Knicks miss a couple of shots, and the Spurs pull it out even when the "AndOne" guys from the Knicks make a high percentage of shots most of the evening.

[SAGambler]

I completely disagree. I've noted in recent games that Bonner had improved his defense but his D against the Knicks was some of his worst of the season. He wasn't rotating to the right spots a lot of the time. He was also getting physically manhandled, which is uncharacteristic. His defense against the Nuggets was much, much better ... other than the last play when he left Kenyon Martin open to give the Nuggets the lead.

If you don't want to believe me that Bonner's defense sucked against the Knicks, believe the numbers.

Of the players who played at least 20 minutes last night, here is how many points the team gave up per 48 minutes while the player was on the court:

Robert Horry - 67.9
Tim Duncan - 80.4
Tony Parker - 86.3
Bruce Bowen - 88.4
Michael Finley - 92.9
Matt Bonner - 114.2

That's just sickening numbers. The Spurs gave up about 1 more point per minute with Bonner on the court compared to Horry.

If you want to look at it another way, in the 24 minutes Bonner played the Knicks scored 57 points. In the 24 minutes Bonner didn't play the Knicks scored 36 points.

Again, Bonner's numbers looked pretty good but his defense took a big step backwards.

Let me guess. Bonner was on the floor and Horry was on the bench when Crawford went off on his "Can't miss" shooting streak. Dude was hot. You can't put that on Bonner.

[m33p0]

Let me guess. Bonner was on the floor and Horry was on the bench when Crawford went off on his "Can't miss" shooting streak. Dude was hot. You can't put that on Bonner.

its one of quirkiness of the lenovo stat. whether or not he was directly responsible for crawford is irrelevant so long as he was part of the crew that was on the floor at that time.

[timvp]

Let me guess. Bonner was on the floor and Horry was on the bench when Crawford went off on his "Can't miss" shooting streak. Dude was hot. You can't put that on Bonner.

Bonner was on the court for part of that streak. However, that was actually one of his better stretches of the night defensively for the Spurs when Bonner was in the game. They only gave up about 2 points per minute, rather than the 2.5 they gave up the rest of the time.

[one4all]

If you want to watch it, http://cid-efe6cb399da6329b.spaces.live.com/