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I wish you would go into more detail.Looks like Buck Harvey is out of a job!
Well San Antonio, I guess the Spurs weren’t meant to win their final 33 regular season games. Riding an 11-game winning streak, the Spurs were due to lay an egg and they did so Friday night in Denver. After playing well in the first half to build a 54-46 halftime lead, the Spurs had a horrible third quarter and were never able to make a run in the fourth. All told, the Nuggets came away with a 109-96 victory.
Props to the Nuggets for whipping up on the Spurs. The Allen Iverson and Carmelo Anthony combination is difficult to defend. Compared to their team last year, their role players are better and their offense seems to have more purpose. Even though they are on the outside of the playoff picture at the moment, I fully expect Denver to be in the playoffs.
While the Spurs offense was bad in the second half, it was their defense that was truly horrible. Allowing the Nuggets to shoot 54.1% for the game from the field is atrocious and not at all championship level basketball. The Spurs have been good defensively recently so hopefully this was just a hiccup on their way to perfection.
Part of me wants to say this was a good loss, but that’s not exactly the correct wording. I think it was more of an expected letdown. The Spurs had gotten sloppy during their winning streak and they were due for this type of beating. While the Spurs weren’t as good as the 11-game winning streak made them appear, they also aren’t as bad as they looked on Friday.
If the Spurs use this game as a learning experience and somewhat of a wakeup call, it could turn out to be beneficial over the course of the next two weeks. If they don’t, their reign on top half of the Western Conference standings will be short lived.
-Tim Duncan played well offensively against the Nuggets. He had 23 points on 8-for-11 shooting from the floor. His outside jumper was falling and he hit a number of tough shots around the basket. If anything, the Spurs didn’t give him the ball enough on that end of the court. Defensively, I wasn’t nearly as impressed. He fell asleep a couple times and gave up easy points. While he did finish with nine rebounds and four blocks, he didn’t have great energy defensively. He has actually been quite solid defensively for the last month or so but he didn’t bring that same level of execution against the Nuggets. His decisions on both ends of the court seemed to be a beat slow tonight.
-I thought Manu Ginobili played pretty damn well. He started the game and came out focused and giving great effort. In the first half, he was really good. The only thing that slowed him down was fouls. In the second half, he came off the bench (likely due to the foul trouble) and by the time he got on the court, the Spurs were spiraling down the drain. He tried to inject some life into the team but it was too late. His play in the second half wasn’t nearly as good as his first half play, but that was mostly as a result of poor team play. On the night in 28 minutes, Ginobili finished with 24 points, five assists, four rebounds and only one turnover, while shooting 9-for-17 from the floor. Can't fault Ginobili for this one.
-Tony Parker had a horrible night. He was passive and sloppy – about the worst possible combination for him. The good news is I don’t think it’s injury related. I think what happened is he started the game trying to be a distributor and then just never got into any sort of rhythm. I can somewhat understand his dilemma because he had Duncan on fire in the post and Michael Jordobili lighting it up from the inside. It was easier letting those two carry the load then to drive in and face the shotblockers the Nuggets have in the paint. On top of that, he seemed a bit fatigued on this second part of a back-to-back affair. Parker finished the night with four points, six assists and five turnovers on 2-for-7 shooting. Defensively, he wasn’t effective on Iverson – a guy who he defended very well last year in the playoffs. Hopefully Parker sucked for reasons not related to his ankle. The Spurs can’t afford for the ankle to be limiting Parker at this late point in the season.
-Along with Ginobili, I thought Bruce Bowen was the only Spur who came out with the appropriate energy. His defense on Anthony was great in the first half. He later switched off onto Iverson and did a great job on Iverson. The problem was that whichever of the two he wasn’t guarding would light up the Spurs. In 25 minutes, Bowen had 11 points, two rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block, while going 5-for-7 from the field. I was impressed by Bowen’s quickness when defending against Iverson. Even though he’s nearly 37-years-old, I have yet to observe his quick feet slowing down at all.
-Kurt Thomas started at center and played well. In the first half, Thomas was one of the key reasons the Spurs got off to a good start. He exited in the second half when the Spurs had a five point lead. By the time his name was called again, the Spurs were down 15. I don’t think that was a coincidence. Thomas was helping the Spurs do a good job on the boards against the physical and athletic Nuggets frontline. In the second half, with Thomas mostly watching from the bench, the Spurs managed only 13 total rebounds. On the night, Thomas had six points, six boards and two steals in 24 minutes.
-Ime Udoka had his moments defensively but overall it was a major learning experience for him. He got careless with the basketball and then let his emotions get the best of him at a couple different points in the second half, which allowed the Nuggets blow the game wide open. Udoka finished with six points, three rebounds, two assists and four turnovers. He led the bench with 26 minutes played but Pop isn't going to keep playing him this much if he can’t keep his composure. When the going gets tough, Udoka has to realize that the Spurs win because they stay cool and keep pounding on the rock.
-Michael Finley's slump continues. This is now five games in a row that Finley has played sub par basketball. He was in a good groove for a while but he doesn’t seem comfortable in his role at the moment. Part of that is understandable because Pop hasn’t set his rotation yet and Finley’s minutes have been sporadic as of late. Even worse than Finley shooting (six points on 2-for-8 shooting) was his defense. He got absolutely touched by Anthony to start the third quarter. After Bowen held Anthony to 1-for-6 shooting in the first half, Anthony came out in the third with Finley guarding him and went 4-for-4 for nine points in the first three and a half minutes of the quarter. Anthony’s a good scorer but that’s horrible defense no matter how you slice it.
-Robert Horry is usually deadly in games at Denver but this wasn’t one of those games. While he had some good plays, those good plays were overshadowed by a flurry of bad plays. His effort was low – even using the Robert-Horry-Regular-Season scale. He finished with five points, two rebounds and two assists in 15 minutes. Horry is going to have up his effort level to at least average to warrant playing time now that Thomas has been added to the mix.
-Damon Stoudamire was the first point guard off the bench but he quickly made a case for Jacque Vaughn to enter the game. Stoudamire wasn’t doing anything of note offensively and defensively he was a liability. Ever since Pop told him to be more aggressive in terms of looking for his own shot, Stoudamire has struggled immensely. I’d so much prefer the playmaking version of Stoudamire we saw a couple weeks ago, but I guess that doesn’t fit Pop’s master plan.
-Jacque Vaughn played nine minutes. He missed two shots, had a turnover and a foul. That was the extent of his contributions on Friday night. That said, Vaughn is currently better than Stoudamire now that Pop has Stoudamire playing like a smaller, more unclutch version of Nick Van Exel.
-Fabricio Oberto played nine minutes. He missed a wide, wide, wide open layup that pretty much ended the game for the Spurs. The worst part was it came on an amazing pass by Ginobili. Argentina had to shed a tear after that blown connection.
-Matt Bonner played garbage minutes at the end of the game and actually played pretty good. He led a weird late game charge that got the game within striking distance with a couple of minutes left. If Bonner didn’t have four grizzled vets in front of him in the rotation, his recent play could have earned him an upgrade from Pop’s doghouse to Pop’s backyard.
-Pop’s coaching in the second half was pathetic. I could go on and on but I’ll at least try to hit the main points. First of all, why take Bowen off of Anthony when Bowen had shut Anthony down in the first half? Iverson had a lot of points at the half but the Spurs were slowly but surely guarding him better. Plus Iverson had x-rays at halftime on his finger. Did the Spurs not get the memo?
And if you are going to make that switch, don’t start Finley on him. Finley can buy some time on Anthony here or there but not when George Karl is making it a point to run the offense through Anthony. Finley probably has grill marks from how badly Anthony torched him to begin the third. If Pop insisted on starting the second half with Bowen on Iverson, he should have at least put Udoka on Anthony to give the Spurs a fighting chance.
I also don’t get why Pop trots Vaughn out into the game like he can slow down Iverson. How many times does Pop need to see Iverson destroy Vaughn before he realizes that Vaughn can’t guard Iverson? Iverson probably has more trouble scoring on stationary cones than he has scoring on Vaughn.
Why such few minutes for Thomas in the second half? Why ride Horry when he obviously doesn’t have any juice? I just don’t see any logical reasoning to some of these moves by Pop.
It was almost as if Pop was trying to lose the game. And well, knowing how much Pop hates extended winning streaks in the regular season, that may not be as farfetched as it appears at face value.
Anyways, the bottomline is the Spurs don’t have much time to dwell on this loss. They laid their egg. Hopefully they got it out of their system and the Spurs won't lay any siblings in the upcoming week. Pop now has the team’s attention again. The Shaq Suns await the Spurs for a Sunday afternoon showdown in Phoenix. Even though the Suns can’t seem to buy a win right now, that team and that fan base would like nothing better than to beat the Spurs to make them feel good about themselves. Pop will need to have his crew prepared to go get that road win.
Believe.
Last edited by timvp; 03-08-2008 at 06:39 AM.
I wish you would go into more detail.
Great write-up.I also don’t get why Pop trots Vaughn out into the game like he can slow down Iverson. How many times does Pop need to see Iverson destroy Vaughn before he realizes that Vaughn can’t guard Iverson? Iverson probably has more trouble scoring on stationary cones than he has scoring on Vaughn.
Pop has Stoudamire playing like a smaller, more unclutch version of Nick Van Exel.
I take it JV isn't high on your list, funny stuff
I think you hit the spot on most of these assessments. I didnt get to see the game, (was dealing poker), but what i did see was a little wierd. Correct me if im wrong, but did pop bench tony, manu and tim in the 4th??? i looked up to see a denver 10 point lead in the early 4th and saw all 3 on the bench? what did i miss?
Looking as stat only, I was scared to see TOny parkers numbers, 1st thing i thought was the injury. lets hope it isnt.
when i saw a 49% shooting for Spurs, i was like, how did they lose this? then i saw what Denver shot. by looking at all the stats, maybe it wasnt all bad. I see that the shot a ton more freethrows then us. I jsut want to know if Manu and
Tim was getting the same calls Carmello and Iverson was .were they??
Tim 33 min, TP and Parker 28, what gives? i understand resting players, but i think they were still in this game and had chances. Carmello and
Iverson were like 44 and 39 min a piece. I k inda think they deserved at least anohter 4-5 min a piece unless they all just quit playing or something.
Anyone else believe horry has already retired and just milking it this year?I really want to say, "just what till the playoffs", but the more i see him, the more worried I get.
Bottom line,,,,THE NUGGETS wanted this game more.
I taped the game, but I think I'll pass on watching.
When I saw the ST Forum comments about poor officiating, I noticed that Bavetta was in Denver. Big shock! That old fart needs to go to the nursing home.
It may be just me, but I am sick and tired of the crowd in Denver booing Gino every time he touches the ball. Three years ago, just because a couple of sportswriters get George Karl to say something stupid (which George is prone to do) about Manu "...setting the game basketball back years" and the Denver columnists (drunk Woody Paige and brain dead Mark Kisla) pick up on that. Now Ginobili is some kind of bad person or dirty player? Stupid.
Denver tried very hard to sign Manu back in 2004 when he was a free agent and lost out. Those knuckleheads have been whining up there ever since.
spurs lost the game at the beginning of the third when ime had to start because bowen had 3 fouls. that allowed anthony, who until that time, was being bottled up by bowen. manu also sitting at the start of the third didn't help coz finley was not shooting well. had finley and ime played up to par, we would be looking at a different outcome. still, playing the nuggets in denver is never easy. they feed off the crowd.
i really liked the defense the spurs put up on the nuggets, especially on melo, in the first half. if it wasn't bowen putting the handcuffs on him, it was duncan stuffing the ball away.
Okey, I got up at 01:30 am (ARG's time) to watch this game, later seen this collapse around 04:00 am and I can't believe that.
This was really disaponting, and watching how a team could collapse, wow amazing happens even POP throwing the towel so early in my IMHO.
Oberto had an open and easy shot an he missed, Mike playing cracked or sth, too many turnovers, not sure if TP were well he loocked slow.
Just dissapointing, what else could I say .. .Oh yeah, I am working very sleepy.
PS:
1. Thanks for the recap TIMVP, you didn't point out how POP sucked.
2. Najera played really well, I can't believe that guy step up only with us.
Seems like Pop was looking for some answers, that's why diferent lineups 1st - 2nd half. I just can assume that.
Now I wonder how the tired spurs will play against Denver on a b2b on Monday
Thursday or Sunday?
timvp must be sick
Didn't exactly happen that way . . .
Nah, there wasn't much to fix in the first half. The second half lineup change was due to Manu's foul trouble. Didn't work, though.
Thanks.
Do they have Nyquil in poland?timvp must be sick
Oh, well...the Spurs had an 8-point lead and the momentum going into the 3rd, and Pop's lineup changes let the Nuggets get right back into the game...the Spurs were on their way to a 12-14 point win, and they blew it...or rather, POP blew it...lesson learned, hopefully...you pull that in the playoffs, and you'll be going fishing...
I don't watch the Spurs every game but I catch as many as I can. And, but what's up with Tim Duncan's defense this year. I mean, he still gets his usual rebounds and blocks on most nights, but I've noticed a lot more interior scoring on him from both bigs and perimeter guys on drives. I mean, the other week, I couldn't believe my eyes when Brandon Bass started scoring at will on him. Is it regular season malaise? Is it his the entire team just not doing a good job at team defense? What's up with Timmy this season?
Udoka hurt the Spurs last night. I think timvp is right that he needs to use it as a learning experience, because he sure did have some pretty bad turnovers that helped turn the game around. Also, I saw Bruce lose it a little bit at least for him. When he gets called for bodying up fouls, his defensive approach really changes.
And, while Duncan was pretty efficient last night, I don't know if I've seen a tougher defensive job on Duncan in a long time than the one Najera did on him. He kept trying to front and when Duncan tried to seal, Najera just kept on moving around not giving Duncan his body to seal. He kept pushing him out of the mid post but not with actual pushing, but by not giving his body to lean on. I thought that was great denial defense.
Oh, and I love watching Ginobili and Iverson. I wrote in the game thread how they are two of my favorite players to watch, and I don't know which plays harder.
Fun game to watch. Good to know the Spurs are a little human. Not that anything's guaranteed, but also selfishly, I don't want the Spurs to get a better record than the Pistons... just in case.
My game thought: never ever have a small position lineup of Vaughn, Bowen, Finley out there again together. One passer who can't shoot, and two shooters who can neither pass or handle the ball is a disaster, offensively.
I don't think they do.
I may check in Germany or in Russia if you would like, just give me a minute ...
33-16 denver adventage on FT, I haven't seen the game but it looks like Nuggs were more active penetrating
btw. I'm sick also, well at the end of this illness. Hopefully it won't return cause I got to work.
PS. Get well LJ and put up some vbooks, I can bet you will feel better after doing this
I was wondering the exact same thing. Personally, I think Coach Pop is still tinking with his rotations and with what players should play together. Our best lineup in the first half was Duncan, Thomas, Bowen, Udoka, and Parker. He could of easily started the 3rd quarter with Udoka starting because he did a good job frustrating Carmelo. Obviously, as with other questionable problems, I think Pop was looking more into improving than winning this game. There no way in a playoff game that Horry, Thomas, Oberto, Vaughn, Stoudemire, Finley, Udoka and soon to be Barry play during critical parts of the game. He will need to shorten those rotations by 3 or 4. Now who Pop will take minutes away will be a tough situation. Could you imagine if Pop puts Finley in the doghouse, for example?
The lack of respect Duncan seems to be getting from the refs is starting to become really worrysome.
It was a back to back, late game in high al ude. What did you guys expect?
Besides the switch from Anthony to Iverson, everything that happened wasn't anything outta the norm. We could even say the lack of oxygen going to Pop's brain caused him to make such an adjustment.
timvp--no mention of how duncan always plays extra lazy in mile high al ude???
come on.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who hated Pop's coaching last night. I didn't like that he threw in the towel with 6 minutes left. To me, a game in March in the midst of a nine-team Playoff race is not the time to be sending a message to your vets. With the right combination of players (which I don't know if we ever had on the floor in the 2nd half) against the Nuggets' defense, that deficit could have been overcome.
But we had to lose some time, and at least this way Phoenix is one game closer to missing the Playoffs...
I understand Pop throwing the towel in to send a message to the players. It should motivate them and piss them off to have to sit on the bench and stew about things. I don't like it but I understand it.
I don't understand Pop's decision to start Finley on Melo. He should have kept Bowen on Melo and put Finley on Iverson (who was already going off) or Carter or whatever other player was out there if he was set on starting Finley.
I won't lie. I fell asleep 2 minutes into the 4th. Sucks that i missed Boner's charge.
I had nightmares about Eduardo Najera. I hope he never plays like that against us again. I wish someone would have laid him out with an elbow or something.
oberto sucked, udoka sucked, vaughn sucked. when those three were in together in the third quarter is when the nuggets took over. what a horrible lineup.
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