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I can't say I'm sorry I missed this game. It sounded dreadful.
Thanks for the game thoughts, timvp
That one wasn’t fun to watch. It probably was less fun to play – for the Spurs at least. The New Orleans Hornets demolished the Spurs 100-75 and looked like the superior team. The Spurs kept it close for part of the game but the Hornets thoroughly dominated the second half and danced their way to victory.
Hopefully the Spurs can avoid the Hornets in the playoffs. Besides being a damn good team, New Orleans is just a horrible matchup for San Antonio. They’re like a better version of the 2006 Dallas Mavericks. Paul is playing as well as any point guard has played in the last 20 years. David West is starting to turn into a Dirk Nowtizki-level problem for the Spurs. Tyson Chandler has the exact attributes that bother Duncan (long, athletic and active). Peja Stojakovic is deadly against any Spurs defender not named Bruce. And I won't even talk about notorious Spurs killer Bonzi Wells.
While the offense for the Spurs was ugly on Wednesday night, it was their defense which let the team down the most. The Hornets shot a blistering 58.7% from the field, as they got any shot they wanted all night long. It was like an open bar on Bourbon Street – with the Spurs footing the bill, of course. Paul orchestrated the offense beautifully and the Spurs had to basically rely on luck for the Hornets not to score on every trip up the court.
As a team, the Spurs shot 42.9% from the field. However, take out the production from the Big Three and that number plummets to 22.9%. As a team, the Spurs were 2-of-18 from beyond the three-point line. Subtract Tony Parker’s shooting and the team was 0-for-15 from downtown. You know it’s a poor all-around game when those numbers look so pathetic yet weren’t actually the worst part of the game for the Spurs.
Overall, it’s tough to say much other than the Hornets are the better team at this point in the season. New Orleans has now handed San Antonio its two worst losses of the season. The Spurs aren’t playing anything close to championship level basketball at this point and with games against the three hottest teams in the Eastern Conference coming up on their schedule, it could get uglier before the Spurs are able to regroup.
-Offensively, I thought Tim Duncan played very well. The Hornets were focusing in on him yet Duncan responded with impressive shot after impressive shot. He finished with 24 points, 11 rebounds, three assists and no turnovers, while connecting on 10-of-16 shots from the field. Defensively, his pick-and-roll defense was atrocious. Paul abused his fellow Wake Forest product repeatedly and Duncan was often left out of place. Duncan’s individual defense actually wasn’t that bad but it was overshadowed by his pitiful showing in the pick-and-rolls. The positive you can take away for Duncan is that he played as well offensively as he has since the game against the Mavericks a couple weeks ago.
-Manu Ginobili is running on fumes at this point. He has short spurts of energy but overall it’s obvious that he just doesn’t have the legs right now. All those minutes from the last month are now coming back to haunt. Ginobili asked out of the game early in the fourth quarter, which is a rather scary sign for Spurs fans. Being the compe or that Ginobili is, he wouldn’t ask out of a game unless he just physically couldn’t play any longer. Needless to say, hopefully Ginobili can refuel at some point over the next five weeks before the playoffs start. While he was on the court against the Hornets, Ginobili was decent. He finished with 11 points, four assists, three rebounds and three steals in 31 minutes. Ginobili didn’t get the ball as much as usual but then again, he didn’t appear to have the gas to do much more than he did. Defensively is where his lack of energy showed up the most as Ginobili wasn’t nearly as active as he usually is on that end of the court.
-The Hornets were daring Tony Parker to carry the Spurs offensively and Parker did a decent job of doing just that. He competed offensively and along with Duncan helped keep the Spurs in the game by scoring early and often. Parker finished with 24 points, four assists and one turnover, while shooting 10-for-16 from the field and 2-for-3 from beyond the arc. Parker looked healthy for the most part, which is one of the few positives to take out of this game. His free throw shooting (2-for-8) was simply embarrassing. Defensively, while it was part of the game plan to force Paul to shoot, Parker played very softly. He displayed absolutely no fire or urgency – even with Paul destroying the Spurs almost every trip up the court.
-Bruce Bowen’s offense was a big part of the problem for the Spurs in terms of scoring the ball. The Hornets weren’t paying much attention to him and Bowen responded by knocking down only one of his five field goal attempts. The Spurs needed Bowen to knock down a few more of those shots to help space the court. Defensively, Bowen was the only Spur who showed up tonight. He defended Stojakovic a majority of the game and Stojakovic failed to even score a point with Bowen guarding him. However, it was Bowen’s defense against Paul that was probably the highlight of the game for the Spurs. Bowen harassed Paul and infuriated the third-year point guard repeatedly. Bowen single-handedly showed more fight defensively than the rest of the team combined. Bowen on Paul is a strategy that Pop will have to use if the Spurs and Hornets do meet in the playoffs.
-Kurt Thomas had a few good defensive possessions against West but West ended up getting the upper hand by the end of the night. Thomas was saddled with foul trouble for much of the game and overall he had a sub par performance. In 22 minutes, Thomas had two points, five rebounds and three turnovers, while hitting 1-of-3 shots from the field. This was the first game in which Thomas was matched up against a perimeter oriented bigman and the results are mostly mixed. West adjusted well and by the end of the night seemed to have figured out Thomas.
-Robert Horry led the bench in minutes played with 18. He didn’t have a good game at all but comparatively speaking, Horry was in the same boat heading down the same river as virtually everyone else on the team. He had four points, one rebound, three steals and no paddles, while going 2-for-6 from the field. A couple weeks ago, it appeared that Horry had begun to find his rhythm. That rhythm is once again eluding him.
-As the season has gotten more serious, I’m losing confidence in Ime Udoka more and more by the game. The thing I’m most disappointed with is his tendency to lose composure. When things start to go bad, Udoka has recently made things spiral out of control. He’ll force a shot or turn the ball over at the most inopportune times. It’s likely due to Udoka still learning the ins and outs of Spurs Basketball but he really needs to improve in this area for the Spurs to be able to trust him in the playoffs. On the night, Udoka had two points and a steal in 17 minutes of action.
-Michael Finley began the night by hitting his first attempt from the field. It was down hill from there. Finley missed his final five field goal attempts and had another very poor game. His offense is bad. His defense is worse. Not that long ago, Finley was playing well and supplying consistent scoring on a nightly basis. Now he’s hurting the team much more than he’s helping. Somewhere Mark Cuban is happily writing a check.
-As bad as everyone else was, Fabricio Oberto might have been the worst of the bunch. His effort defensively was an abomination. He turned Melvin Ely into Wilt Chamberlain with cornrows the few times he tried to defend him. Oberto against West? Ha. I can live with players hitting tough shots but Oberto let his man go wherever they wanted. I’ve seen traffic cones give more effort than Oberto gave tonight.
-Daque Vaudamire again played backup point guard tonight. Pop may want to play Jamon Staughn a bit more because Daque Vaudamire sucked.
-Pop deserves a good portion of the blame tonight. The Spurs beat the Hornets the last time the two teams played because they surprised the Hornets with a gimmick defense that forced Paul to look to shoot more than he usually does. Pop trotted out the same gimmick defense to begin the game as if Paul hadn’t spent the whole day focused on how to shove that look down the Spurs throats.
With Paul and the Hornets, you have to keep them guessing or else your defense will be demolished. If I were Pop, I would have started off with regular defensive sets and then save any gimmicks for later in the game. Maybe throw a few zones early at the Hornets to keep them off balance. The Spurs played predictably and the Hornets were ready to make the Spurs pay.
Pop also deserves blame for Ginobili running out of gas. If Ginobili isn’t able to find his energy before the playoffs begin, the downfall of the 2007-08 Spurs will be traced back to when Pop foolishly overworked Ginobili in the middle of the season.
Offensively, there wasn’t much Pop could have done. Pop had a pretty good jumper in his day but he couldn’t go out there and shoot for the team. The Spurs going 0-for-15 on three-pointers (outside of Parker) was the main reason why the offense struggled. The Big Three actually played well enough offensively for the Spurs to win – or at least make it a ballgame.
The bottomline is the Spurs are in trouble. There is time to turn it around but March is typically the month the Spurs start putting the final pieces on their playoff cake. Instead, the Spurs need to go back and start their baking from scratch. Can the Spurs turn this ship around in time?
They have to. It starts Friday in Detroit.
Believe.
I can't say I'm sorry I missed this game. It sounded dreadful.
Thanks for the game thoughts, timvp
Every word the truth. And your funniest effort yet.
What will happen next? I have no idea. But I am leaving the Manumaniac quote as my sig because a lot of people could be jumping off cliffs during the next 10 games unless something changes drastically.
Wasn't it just a week ago that Oberto did a fantastic job on West?
In any case....Thomas and Stoudamire don't appear to be doing much for this club yet.
Great recap. Thanks. That's one of my biggest concerns with Manu. He's been playing huge minutes for a while now and even though he's doing well with them he's been getting pretty banged up (like the hip injury he went out with the other night) in just the last few games. I just hope he can stay healthy for the playoffs.
True, but as you also mentioned earlier in the season, Pop put alot of minutes on Manu and Tim out of desperation. You could argue both sides...Overplay the horses, suffer late in the season when trying to get ready for the playoffs. Make minutes the priority, even if it costs you a couple of losses... you could play yourself out of the playoff mix altogether. There is no room to give up games. It's just that tight. Pop more than anyone understands the balance- he has been forced to go with the the live for today mentality, and just hope everything works out at the end.
So true.
And Manu looked like Manu from 2006. I don't know what it is, but something was not right with him last night. I hope he is able to recharge his batteries, because it is not going to get any easier.
Manu needs to play 20-25 minutes MAX.....were gonna have to suffer with Udoka and Finleys playing right now while Manus battery gets recharged.
I firmly believe that the Spurs had thier worst game last night and the Hornets had an UNBELIEVABLE game last night....i dont think this reflects anything worse that we didnt know already about the Spurs flaws.
-theyre aging
-manus tired
-udoka sucks
but i know theyll pick it up.....and im not just saying that. Theyre champions. theyve been thru these slumps before....
"Dont ever underestimate the heart of a champion"
I agree.
Spurs @Hornets (Oberto as starter)
game 1 West 15 points 4 rebounds
Oberto 13 points 4 rebounds
game 3 West 16 points 6 rebounds
Oberto 8 points 9 rebounds
Spurs@Hornets (Oberto coming off the bench)
game 2-4 West 29 points 10 rebounds
Oberto 0 points 3 rebounds
Oberto against West is a good machup for him while he as starter.
Coming off the bench, his confidence isn't on the stratosphere right now.
We have too many players that are LIABILITIES on both ends of the court.
I can live with Bruce's streaky (at best) offense, because he's such a good dender, but these players are liabilities on both ends of the floor:
Finley
Udoka
Horry
Vaughn (good defense at times)
Stoudemire (yikes, WTF did we get a tier van Exel?)
It's sad that we have to rely on KT for a reliable mid-range jumper.
This bench is pretty sad folks.
i have been ing about minutes since the very beginning of the season.. we all know he didn;t play for argentina this summer.. but i think Pop abused on that issue way too much... scary loss... but somehow i have the feeling that if we meet this team on the playoffs.. West won;t be as effective and Bowen will be on Paul's head all the time... Peja will have to beat us out of the court...
I think the Metaphor Police just put out an APB.There is time to turn it around but March is typically the month the Spurs start putting the final pieces on their playoff cake. Instead, the Spurs need to go back and start their baking from scratch. Can the Spurs turn this ship around in time?
I agree about Manu need to rest. Maybe Finley'll improve in the starting line up and Manu could rest more
Didn't get to watch this game b/c I went to bed at 7:30 but Horry is taking Bonner's minutes and doing with them.
No biggie though, it's only March.
Great Recap again Timvp
If Spurs had played like this when Brent mading his decision, even worse than suns in a spurs fan's view
We are in trouble, but not that bad.
Give more time to Bonner and forget Horry...
The Spurs have always had someone to compliment the Big 3.
Well the Big 3 scored 59 pionts and shot 59% last night.
The rest of the team scored 16 pionts and shot 22% last night.
You can't win a le coming out of the West if your bench and or secondary players don't produce. period.
I think it's unfair to blame Popovich for overusing Manu the last few months, he has had to in order to stay compe ive and try to win "must win" games. It's not like sitting him out a game or 2 doesn't matter. This year in the West, every game is a crucial to just stay in the playoff hunt. Had he used Manu sparingly during the stretch without Parker, we would be playing for the 7th or 8th seed instead of trying to hold into 1st...
That's what it comes down to. A Prayer. BEIEVE we can win another championship despite what the facts about this season tell you. The Spurs haven't played well against teams that are over .500. And God knows there are a ton of them in the West this year.
A New Orleans coach said at halftime that the Spurs were an old team and their strategy was to run them off the court with they young legs of the NO players. Did it work?
Yes it did. Gotta have legs to shoot jumpers. The old vets (Horry Stoudamireare, Finley,) simply aren't cutting it. And it's gonna get worse with the schedule the Spurs are playing.
So we're gonna make the playoffs, but this year we probably won't have a confidence building surge at the end.
For the playoffs, the Spurs are going to have to BELIEVE their veterans can step up in playoff series---not believing in their eroding skills, but simply because they've been there before and can handle the pressure better than some of the younger teams. It worked last year, but those young teams keep getting more experienced and are confident they can beat us.
Ironically, this may be our last best chance at a championship for a while.
Because we've sold our future by bringing in more old players like Udoka and Thomas, and Stoudamire to add to old players like Horry, Finley, Bowen, Vaughn, and Oberto. And we're praying for the return of another old guy, Barry to liven the group up.
Think about it. Outside of Bonner, we have virtually NO players with a little experience who are ready to step in when the mass exodus to Great Memories Retirement Village occurs.
So fans better BELIEVE things will get better next year with the addition of some younger players. We need some good free agents with a couple of years experience and rookies who can pick up the NBA game fast. That's where my prayers are going. BELIEVE.
Last edited by wildbill2u; 03-13-2008 at 09:08 AM. Reason: forgot Barry
That was indeed the issue. If the Spurs had kept languishing in February, right now they'd be fighting to stay out of the lottery.
As it is now, they are six games in the loss column out of the lottery, so there's a little breathing room unless Phoenix, Dallas, Golden State, and Denver all get so hot that 53-29 becomes the threshold to make the playoffs.
If Manu Ginobili is too gassed to be Manu Ginobili in the postseason, then the Spurs have no chance.
Pop also deserves blame for Ginobili running out of gas. If Ginobili isn’t able to find his energy before the playoffs begin, the downfall of the 2007-08 Spurs will be traced back to when Pop foolishly overworked Ginobili in the middle of the season.
this is what was bad with barry getting hute
and ime still learning the system
So what's the exact date that Barry can be back?
The Spurs were tired.
Hornets had 3 days of rest, Spurs only 1 before that game.
Spurs played 2 very tough games on a back to back before that game.
That explain a lot.
Except Parker, Spurs were 0-15 at 3pts.
With a record of 5-15, a "normal" shooting % for the spurs (33%), that's 15 more points for the spurs and we're still in that game.
Besides, the Hornets played a great game with big intensity. They're not going to shoot at 59% in a 7 games serie.
Damon Stoudamire and Robert Horry are playing against the Spurs.
Vaughn is a better defender than Damon AND shoot better TOO !!!
Robert Horry has nothing left in the tank. Pop need to accept it and Robert too.
Manu is human finally and need a little rest... i am not worry about him, he will be huge in the playoffs.
Michael Finley & Ime Udoka... I don't know what to think.
This season is really tough this year and the age of spurs players is a problem. The schedule is crazy and i don't know how Pop is going to do to give some rest to his players...
In april, maybe we'll need to give up some places in standings.
A rested team is more important than HCA.
Believe.
"Daque Vaudamire" sounds like a badass name.
I think this year Robert Horry will become the 2006 version of NVE: a player that is well beyond his peak, but one that Pop keeps playing above the younger counterpart in hopes that his higher IQ will give the team an edge.
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