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The Spurs sucked today, no fire, crappy defense. WTF, it's a W.
Did it seem like the Spurs really had to try very much? Not consistently.
Denver got plenty of dunks is what I noticed. Our strategy seemed to be "stop Mello and they will fall apart"...which is what happened.
Our tight perimeter d seemed to continually open up their post offense. I have never seen the spurs give up so many easy post plays.
The only reason we won was because we got to the line alot more than they did. Manu and Parker did a great job of attacking the basket and drawing fouls.
Horry's play was also excellent, and Bowen provided unusually good offense.
This win seemed too easy. Yet Denver got within 5 more at least 3 times in the 2nd half. For some reason I knew the Spurs had it.
Spurs record when they lead at the half; 22-2! >90%
When we trail at the half ; 2-4. 30%
Makes you pretty comfortable if you see the Spurs winning at the half, right?
Remember when Utah had lost something ridiculous like 1 game at home all season? I'm wondering how many we lose at home this year...5? We could lose 2-3 more at the rate we are going...
The Spurs sucked today, no fire, crappy defense. WTF, it's a W.
This game reminded me alot of Houston, it was a game that they should have pulled away, but let the Nuggets in it every quarter. I HATE EARL BOYKINS, he always plays a good game against the Spurs.
When BOYKINS went to the bench, Denver stop pushing the ball to the basket.
Boykins and Dermarr Johnson and KMart played great. They really kept the Nuggets in the game. Once Melo came back in for Johnson, Bowen did his thing and Melo couldn't hit much of anything. All Melo could do today was rebound.
The Spurs bench, stat-wise, was non-existent, excepting Robert Horry. Was this true watching the game?
Our bench didn't produce much outside of Horry, true. However, they didn't really need to since our starters were scoring at will.
We shot .50% for the game!
That says alot.
Damn, we shot .50% and won? That's gotta be a record! How many shots did we take?
"Our bench didn't produce much outside of Horry"
Because the bench didn't play much, it was too close a game. The starters should have put this game away by mid 3rd quarter, , if by the half.
Denver really hit the boards and outrebounded the Spurs. They forced a lot of shots late in the shot clock.
cool, we're back up to ".800" again.
next goal: take over 1st place in NBA from PHX by end of Jan. HCA all the way!!
Funny stat ... Bowen had more points in the fourth quarter than 'Melo did for the game.
Pop wasn't very pleased with this win at all. He said the only players that have been focused and giving their all on both ends of the court lately are Bowen and Horry.
Duncan is stinking the joint up.
I thought Ginobili, outside a dumb pass or 2 played a good ball game.
Duncan was double and triple teamed you blind .
The Spurs won. Period.
Sometimes he was, and sometimes he had guys like Nene and Camb one on one and settled for jumpers you short blind .Duncan was double and triple teamed you blind .
And why was Rasho pulled out of the game for the whole fourth? I thought surely he had 4 or 5 fouls, but no, he only had 3 for the game. He was pulling down a lot of rebounds for us (11? I think) and blocked a couple shots (2).
Since I was sitting half court and you were at an angle with your ferris wheel in the way, perhaps you weren't paying attention.
Denver collapsed on Tim EVERY ING POSSESSION UNLESS IT WAS A FAST BREAK YOU BLIND PAYING LATE MOTHER ER.
I think because Rasho's shot was not falling and the Nuggets were sagging 4 to the lane. Nuggets got called for defensive 3 seconds twice and could have been called for many more. Horry provided better spacing since he was a scoring option, and he was able to move the defense.
Their D looked like a zone, and it was a matchup zone sometimes, but more often than not, their men stayed with the cutters but just sagged and then closed out fast when outside shots were taken. It looked sort of like the D the Lakers and Sonics played on the Spurs in the days before zones were allowed.
Do you all even watch a game? Rasho made numerous mistakes and the coaches looked at each other and said WTF? Then Pop looked at Horry and said get his ass out of there. All of them were shaking their heads. This happened at least 3 times today.
I thought the Spurs played a good game except for a sluggish 3rd quarter. Melo was completely neutralized, and TP, Manu, and Bowen provided the offense while Denver's defense completely focused on TD.
What I thought sucked the most was the ABC play-by-play.
Even though they won I thought the Spurs played very sloppy today. They let the subpar Nuggets hang around way to long. The Spurs have won the last two games mainly with their offense rather than their defense which is very unusual. I can understand why Pop isn't pleased with most of our team right now. We're not playing Spurs defense.
The Nuggets got numerous dunks and layups on us and the Spurs don't generally give up a lot of uncontested baskets. Indiana shot 50% against us and Denver shot 45%. Our offense right now is impressive but just because we're surging offensively doesn't mean we should move away from what wins championships. Defense.
Thanks, this is exactly what I was (trying) to point up.
Didn't get to watch the game but it sounds to me like the Spurs half-assed it to a win, which is a luxury very few teams have.
Try not to overanalyse these games because the spurs knew they didn't have to play their A game to pull this out, they will adjust accordingly.
I've been impressed with Robert Horry lately. Usually he just comes out lazically and does his thing, but the last couple of games he seems inspired.
Yeah, Horry's rejuvenated, which is good for the Spurs and bad for the rest of the league. There's a reason the last 6 out of 7 NBA championship teams have had Kerr or Horry on them. He could be one of the Spurs' X factors come playoff time.
Spurs weren't THAT sloppy - the big 3 had 59 points and Duncan blocked 5 shots. Rasho had 11 rebounds and Bowen scored 17. But it's true, their D was not quite as crisp as it usually is.
We never play Spurs defense in the first half of the season...and unfortunately that usually goes hand in hand with no offense and a lackluster first half...this year we have an offense, even when we don't have a defense, and because of that we are off to the best start in team history.
That nasty offense is why we are so much better this early, this season.
Meanwhile, we are still #1 in PPG allowed, FG% allowed and assists allowed...we gave up a whopping 44% shooting and 90 points today...it's not like we don't do that even when our D is locked in 100%. Giving up 85 PPG, 4 points fewer than any other team in the NBA, in a year when scoring is up...isn't exactly slacking on D.
Winning with offense is an option we haven't had in past years that we do have now, as our record shows. Offense isn't evil..having it is a good thing, and the D will continue to be the best in the NBA...the only difference is that we now win games that would have been losses if our D was off...
The best team in Spurs history to this point in the season.
Last edited by whottt; 01-09-2005 at 02:39 AM.
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