While the Spurs certainly didn’t dominate the Clippers, it was nice to see the Big Three back together on the court again for the first time in nearly five weeks. Manu Ginobili returned from his finger injury and helped improve the Spurs’ record to 17-3 in games in which each member of the Big Three plays.
The offense for the Spurs was far from a thing of beauty. The ball movement was erratic and the shooting was poor. In fact, if the Spurs wouldn’t have gotten to the line 24 more times than the Clippers, they probably don’t win this game. The defense was sub par, as the Spurs allowed the Clippers to shoot 45.6% from the field while racking up 23 assists to only 11 turnovers.
Most likely, the problems on offense will be fixed as the team re-adjusts to having each member of the Big Three at its disposal. Five weeks is enough to rust even the most well oiled of machines.
-Tim Duncan again gave a really good effort. He missed a handful of shots he usually makes and had a few bad turnovers, but overall he played well. Duncan was ultra aggressive on the glass, finishing with a season-high 13 defensive rebounds. Offensively, Duncan had 17 points on 8-for-16 shooting from the floor. For the second straight game, his defense on the low block wasn’t very impressive. Chris Kaman repeatedly got good position on Duncan and was able to score. Late in the game, Duncan banged knees and was forced to leave the contest. Luckily, the injury isn’t considered serious.
-It was great to have Manu Ginobili back. And Ginobili didn’t waste anytime working his way back into the lineup, as he played like he was shot out of a cannon. Ginobili obviously had a lot of pent up energy he didn’t mind unleashing on the Clippers. He finished with 23 points, five rebounds, two assists, one steal and one emphatic blocked shot late in the game. Ginobili’s defense was relatively passive early on but as the game progressed, he upped his defensive intensity. By the end of the game, he was playing at a high level defensively. Offensively, Ginobili had great success when he penetrated to the basket. He finished well and drew a lot of contact, as evident by his 12-for-13 showing from the free throw line. Ginobili, with his finger and hand heavily wrapped, missed his first five jumpers. But then, in true Ginobili fashion, he nailed a backbreaking three-pointer to seal the victory. On the game, Ginobili led the Spurs in plus/minus with a +16.
-Tony Parker seemed much healthier this game. After struggling with an illness the last two contests, Parker had his legs against the Clippers and was able to explode to the rim. He finished with 26 points on 10-for-17 shooting, including a late three-pointer when the Spurs trailed the Clippers by a point. Defensively, Parker played a good game. He was active and played strong on that end of the court. The downside to his play in this contest was his passing. His passes were oftentimes too late or too early, which resulted in him only having two assists on the game. However, bad passing was a common theme in this game for the whole team.
-Bruce Bowen didn’t play too well. He was a bit too aggressive offensively and finished 1-for-8 from the floor. Bowen was able to get to the free throw line a season-high six times, knocking down four of the attempts. He’s now shooting a career-high 64.9% from the charity stripe. Defensively, Bowen did only a decent job of Corey Maggette. Bowen played 38 minutes, the fifth straight game he has played at least 34 minutes.
-Michael Finley struggled in his transition back to being an offensive afterthought. Following a stretch over the last five weeks as one of the main weapons, Finley got much fewer touches and hit only 1-of-10 shots from the floor. This game ended Finley’s ten game streak of scoring in double figures. The good news is Finley didn’t sulk – instead, he hit the boards. He finished with a season-high 11 rebounds, eight of which were in the first half.
-Robert Horry started yet again. After a very solid outing last game, Horry again struggled. He wasn’t moving too well and only hit 1-of-3 shots from the field. Horry also failed to grab a defensive rebound in his 21 minutes of playing time. The Spurs were a team-worst -7 with Horry on the court.
-Al Thornton owes Matt Bonner a Christmas card. Thornton, a rookie on the Clippers, scored a season-high 25 points the last time the two teams met up – with much of the damage coming against Bonner. In this game, Thornton again annihilated Bonner. He finished with 17 points, his second highest scoring output of his young career. To be fair to Bonner, Thornton is much more of a small forward than power forward and is a type of player Bonner rarely has to defend. Offensively, Bonner hit both of his two-point attempts and missed both of his three-point attempts. All in all, Bonner wasn’t horrible but this surely wasn’t a video tape to send back to New Hampshire.
-Even with Ginobili back in the lineup, Fabricio Oberto remained on the bench for the Spurs. In 13 minutes, Oberto was quiet as he finished with two points, two rebounds and an assist. Oberto’s lone basket came off of an assist from – you guessed it – his Argentine buddy. On the whole, Oberto continues to struggle with his play off the bench this season.
-Jacque Vaughn had another solid performance. Three points, three assists and no turnovers in 12 minutes is a very nice statline for Vaughn. His job became much easier with the return of Ginobili, who can shoulder almost all of the responsibility for creating offensive for the second unit.
-Ime Udoka got only 24 seconds in this game due to the return of Ginobili. Udoka had his shot to win consistent minutes when Ginobili was gone but failed to do so. He’ll have to wait until the next opportunity.
-Pop didn’t really do much to win or lose this game. The Spurs had a late surge as the Big Three carried the team. The most notable part of Pop’s strategy is his current rotation in which it appears he’s trying to find a way to play both Horry and Bonner. Pop might be figuring out whether Horry has any gas left in his tank and whether Bonner is capable of playing important minutes in the playoffs. I fully expect Oberto to start before too long and definitely start once the playoffs arrive. Francisco Elson, on the other hand, might have played his way out of the rotation permanently.
If Duncan is healthy enough to play tomorrow against the Golden State Warriors, that should be a good test for this team. The Big Three will have to play much more cohesively to beat the Warriors, whose scrapping style forces opponents to pass the ball well to have a chance to win.
Thanks Timvp
I really enjoy reading your thoughts!
i dont know whats wrong with Oberto,
his level of energy is not the same as before,
hopefully with manu back he returns to be the same.
Do you think they will trade Elson?
i feel a little sorry for him, it seems he wont be back in the rotation any soon.
The story of this game - Big 3 play big while everyone else does jack.
Oberto is playing exactly how he played last December and January. There's nothing wrong with him except boredom.
nobody wants Elson i dont think
Checking timvp's game thoughts is becoming more crucial to me than checking the box score.
It looks like Elson will be the odd man out among the bigs come playoff time.
Why in was he attempting so many drives to the basket?!Bruce Bowen didn’t play too well. He was a bit too aggressive offensively and finished 1-for-8 from the floor. Bowen was able to get to the free throw line a season-high six times, knocking down four of the attempts.
Thanks dude!
Great as always LJ.
I really enjoyed the classic bigman matchup - two low post guys with great fundamentals, although Duncan's D, passing and smarts put him a class above Kaman. I thought both centres played well (Tim is a centre now, although he was a PF up until the last couple of years), and I yearn for those sort of tussles that harken back to the Golden Age of NBA centres in our era, the late 80s and 90s. Kaman is not a flash in the pan - he has found his game and will continue to command the post unless Brand's return chokes his development. If I were the Clippers, I would almost be looking to trade Brand, especially seeing as his contract expires after next (?) season.
The Spurs were patchy again at both ends, but looked much more in control than against that physical Denver team. We might want to think about trading Fran for a bruiser (Kevin Willis?) because Denver gave us trouble with that nasty front line... then again, maybe it was just no Manu.
Anyway, Big 3 are back, a win on the road, and an interesting game to come.
Thanks Timvp. This is the first thread I look for after a game. Cheers.
I'm very confused as to why Pop is starting Robert Horry instead of Oberto. I think this as really hurt Oberto's game. I could be wrong or thinking too much into it, but IMO its not good for Oberto.
Maybe Pop is trying to keep Oberto healthy to try and trade him to Miami for Shaq.
(sarcasm)
Pop wants to infuse some life into Horry by getting him some minutes early and with TD, and it has sort of worked. Horry's shot has started to come around a bit. I' thinking Pop might try more of Oberto with Manu to see if that is an effective combo.
Me too. I so look forward to the best analysis of the games from timvp. Thanks, man!Checking timvp's game thoughts is becoming more crucial to me than checking the box score.
As for yesterday's game, I was also glad to see the Big 3 back. It was obvious how valuable Manu is to our team while he was out and he came out and proved his worth, especially in the fourth quarter.
Seeing Duncan go aggressively to the boards was awesome. He can be really dominant down there. Thankfully, Finley followed his lead even though he struggled from the offensive end. I hope that the other bigs... Oberto, Horry, Bonner, and if he gets in the game, Elson, can step up their rebounding on both ends.
Tony did look a lot better after two slugglish games. We will really need his speed tonight against the Warriors.
As for Bowen, he has seemed to focus more on his offense lately, and in particular, driving into the lane as opposed to spotting up on the three point line. I don't mind his aggressiveness as long as it leads to points. But he should be option 4 or 5 when he is out there.
I really pray that we avoid anymore injuries to the big three. I know Duncan took a bad blow to the knee and that was a little scary. Hopefully, it doesn't slow him down too much. We need to rack up another win tonight to get some momentum going into the Detroit game on Thursday.
Why not assign Udoka to guard Al Thornton? MB was abused by Al Thornton and he was always few bodies away from the players he supposed to guard. Watching MB's defense is purely pathetic.
Response to your first point? Amen. Who needs box scores, ESPN, or Charles Barkley when we have timvp?Checking timvp's game thoughts is becoming more crucial to me than checking the box score.
It looks like Elson will be the odd man out among the bigs come playoff time.
Response to your second point? I think Elson will still get playing time when the matchups require it. Such as when we play Phoenix, Golden State, Portland, New Orleans. Fast, younger teams. We'll need his speed and length to some extent.
Against half-court teams, it'll be more Oberto. IMO
Last edited by peskypesky; 01-07-2008 at 09:20 PM.
yes. i was expecting to see Elson tonight too.
But then after a while the game became too close to use Elson in the rotation.
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