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thanks for the great post.
This wasn’t how the so-called best first round series of all-time was supposed to play out. Fresh off of winning their first two games at home, the Spurs traveled to Phoenix and simply dominated the Suns. In what was likely San Antonio’s best game of the season, the Spurs controlled the action and cruised to a 115-99 victory.
The Suns didn’t play well but they also ran into a Spurs’ squad that was playing near flawless basketball. It reminded me what happened to the Spurs in 2001 when they ran into the Lakers. With the way the Spurs were playing in Game 3, no team in the NBA would have stood a chance. A lot of the focus after the game has been on what the Suns didn’t do, but Game 3 was more about what the Spurs did.
If you’re a Spurs fan, you can’t help but be excited after what you watched Friday night. Your cohesive, intelligent and strategic basketball team was on full display.
Even though this playoff run is still in its infancy, Spurs fans couldn’t have drawn up a better storyline through three games. Each member of the Big Three is playing great. The role players are fulfilling their roles. Pop is coaching a practically perfect series. So far, so good.
Overall, Game 3 was just a joy to watch. The Spurs executed fantastically in all aspects of the game. Great, great effort.
-Tim Duncan played a very good game. He made great decisions on nearly every possession of the game. He didn’t force the action at all and did a good job of being the vocal leader on each end of the court. Duncan finished with 23 points, ten rebounds and two assists in 37 minutes, while shooting 9-for-15 from the field. With the game plan working to perfection, the Spurs just needed Duncan to play the role of the ultimate role player – and he did just that. Obviously, he didn’t dominate like he did in Game 1 but the Spurs didn’t need it on this night.
-Manu Ginobili deserves huge props for his Game 3 performance. His contributions flew under the radar a bit but he played a great game. Considering he is currently battling an ankle and groin injury, he was darn near heroic in his effort. First and foremost, his defense was fantastic. He guarded everyone from Leandro Barbosa to Grant Hill to Boris Diaw and had success against each one. His defense against Diaw on the low block, specifically, was great, especially seeing how everyone else on the team has had moments of trouble guarding him down in the paint. Offensively, he picked his spots perfectly. Ginobili finished with 20 points and five rebounds, while shooting 7-for-11 from the field and 4-for-7 from beyond the three-point arc. Ginobili has been the chameleon superstar in this series. Whatever the Spurs have needed, whether it be a basket, a stop or a pass, Ginobili has transformed to fit the situation.
-Tony Parker wasn’t bad. The Belgian-born, French-raised point guard scored 41 points, handed out 12 assists, grabbed five rebounds and swiped two steals in a team-high 41 minutes. He was 17-for-26 from the field, which was especially impressive considering only two of his made baskets came at the rim. Parker came out of the gates in attack mode and didn’t let up. The Suns tried every conceivable defender on him and had no luck in slowing him down. When Parker keeps attacking throughout a game, like he did Friday night, he’s a very good player. His vast playoff experience was really evident in this game because he knew exactly how to respond to everything that was thrown at him. If I have to nitpick, I don’t think his defense was as good as it was in Game 2 – but it was still really good. Parker has kicked off the 2008 playoffs like he has something to prove. Hopefully he can continue to play at this level.
-I didn’t think Bruce Bowen played too well in the first two games of the series but he was dominant in Game 3. When I watched the game live, I thought he was good. But watching the game a second and third time, it became more and more apparent just how good Bowen played. He was the main reason why Steve Nash had a bad game (seven points and nine assists). Bowen continuously hounded Nash for every second he was on the court – no matter if Nash had the ball or was away from the action. Offensively, Bowen hit 2-of-3 shots from the field to score his first four points of the series.
-Michael Finley had a solid outing. He hit only 2-of-7 shots but I thought he took good shots and remained confident throughout his misses. Defensively, it was Finley’s best game of the series. On the night, he finished with seven points, two rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block in 29 minutes. Finley had better numbers in previous games but this was his best all-around showing from the beginning to the end of the contest.
-Kurt Thomas got the start at center and played very good. Early in the game, his one-on-one defense in the low block set the tone for the Spurs. The intensity and toughness he brought to the game was also impressive. Thomas finished with nine points and five rebounds in 23 minutes. He played like he wanted to show the Suns how wrong they were to trade him in the offseason. For at least the rest of this series, Thomas makes sense as a starter because of the physical presence he brings to the table.
-Fabricio Oberto came off the bench and produced. During the regular season, Oberto almost always played poorly in games he came off the bench. With that in mind, it was good to see him actively competing in a bench role. He finished with six points, five rebounds, three assists and a blocked shot in 25 minutes. Defensively, Oberto made some mistakes but overall he was good enough. The Suns are a tough matchup for him but he’s finding ways to survive defensively and thrive offensively.
-Ime Udoka is still struggling with his outside jumper but every other aspect of his game was good in Game 3. His defense was solid and his offensive decision-making was much improved. In 14 minutes, Udoka had two points, three rebounds, one assist and one blocked shot. Since his poor Game 1, Udoka has slowly gotten better and better. However, it’d be nice to see him hit a three-pointer. Udoka is 0-for-7 in the playoffs from beyond the arc, which is worrisome considering he was 10-for-18 on threes in his final four regular season games.
-Brent Barry hit a key three-pointer and competed nicely throughout the game. Although, for the first time in the playoffs, Barry seemed a bit rusty. He wasn’t holding his ground when trying to draw charges and fumbled away a few balls. That said, it’s hard to complain about what Barry has been able to bring to the team after missing so much time at the end of the regular season. In eight minutes, Barry finished with three points and a steal.
-Jacque Vaughn had a really nice pass at the end of the first quarter that led to a three-point play by Thomas. Other than that play, Vaughn wasn’t too impressive. His defense against Barbosa was abysmal and he single-handedly let the Brazilian regain his confidence and offensive flow. Vaughn will likely help at some point in the playoffs but I continue to doubt it’ll be against the Suns.
-Robert Horry got some playing time to Hack-a-Shaq. Pop putting Horry on the court to foul the Suns was subtle comedy at its finest. Damon Stoudamire played the final minute and threw a pass that almost landed in Tucson.
-Pop coached another masterful game. His Hack-a-Shaq strategy worked again. Moving Thomas into the starting lineup worked perfectly. The offensive and defensive game plans were genius.
The only decision I had a problem with was playing Vaughn and putting him on Barbosa. For some unknown reason, Pop views Vaughn as a defensive stopper. In the playoffs last year and so far this year, Vaughn has shown nothing that indicates he’s even an above average defender. Vaughn tries hard but everyone tries hard in the playoffs. He loses that effort edge once the playoffs begin.
Honestly though, Pop has coached perhaps his finest playoff series to date. He’s pushed a lot of buttons and has had an extremely high success rate. Like a lot of the players, hopefully Pop can continue to make the correct decisions going forward in the playoffs.
The bottomline is the Spurs are now up 3-0 and can put the Suns out of their misery on Sunday. With Ginobili, Parker and others banged up, it’s imperative to end this series as fast as possible. In 2005, the Spurs had the Suns down 3-0 and then laid an egg in Game 4. That can’t happen here. Come out with the same energy and smarts and set the Suns.
Believe.
Last edited by timvp; 04-26-2008 at 09:27 PM.
thanks for the great post.
Great recap, I was expecting ... let me paraphrase it.
we play great, but TP was fantastic!!!! amazing and whatever you can say to give props to him, TP made a strong statement and has shown he can carried this team in hard moments.
Tim and Manu made their part, I liked Bowen and Kurt Tomas, the rest here and there, Finley, even Oberto catch a ball a made a layup, JV contribute making the haka ... so nothing to complain
Once Tony Parker got up off of them, Phoenix should have went into the kitchen and got Tony Parker a beer and made him a sandwich.
Great write up as usual, timvp.
To sum up what TImVP posted, Tony Parker went hillbilly apecrap on Phoenix
Thanks timvp. Your thoughts are great, and as always your humor is appreciated. In a loss, your ability to blend in humor helps keep things in perspective. In a win like this one, it's just fun. The Spurs were incredible, and so are your recaps.
timvp - how did you feel about the defense in the second half? I felt like it was completely on point in the first quarter, good in the second quarter, but faltered some in the second half. I know I (and others) were watching with baited breath, wondering if/when the collapse might happen and the defense seemed more porous then I would desire. But looking back, I don't know if it really was, or if I was just nervous and that amplified my perceptions of the events.
Thanks Timvp.
This time the recap was a bit late.^^;;
Good post, I was waiting for it for a long time as I was refreshing the main page every 5 minutes!
I think that TP deserves more props, but hopefully you were just being sarcastic.
Tony's performance last night was a thing of absolute beauty! Every shot he took went in. It was akin to Manu's performance in the regular season. Shot, after shot, after shot kept raining down on a Suns team that look perplexed. Not only this, but he did it with a confidence that I don't think I've ever seen in him. I think he no longer just thinks he's great, he KNOWS he is. That three pointer was just beautiful to watch, mainly because at the time, it was the only shot he hadn't yet made
Masterful performance by Parker!
Game 3 Recap:
Pick and Roll
+
Tony Parker
+
Hack a shaq
+
D'Antoni coaching the Suns
+
Suns defense
=
Spurs kicked azz
The defense throughout the game was solid. The Suns are just a great offensive team. The Spurs try to force them to shoot midrange jumpers and even then, the Suns will hit a healthy percentage of those shots. The key is to keep the Suns away from three-pointers and easy shots at the basket. In the second half, the Suns only shot three from downtown, IIRC. They got some shots at the basket but overall it's tough to ask for much more.
But yeah, giving up 99 points and 50% shooting wouldn't be classified as good defense against any other team in the league. Against the Suns, especially at Phoenix, that's a job well done defensively.
TP should be getting more consideration on your recap! lol thanks timvp
Game thoughts are here!!!!
I loved it when Pop made the decision to put Horry of all people in the game for some Hack-A-Shaq... that tickled me quite a bit. I had a post before the game somewhere wanting to see exactly that.
The Suns have been the only team over the last 3 years to consistently shoot well against us no matter how good of defense we play. I think the defense has been great this entire series, we've made the Suns solely a jumpshooting team. Even Shaq has shot a lot of his hook shots outside of the paint (he's made a lot of them, too).
Thanks timvp!
I like how the Spurs notch it up and fake out defenders. They've done that cause Tony and sometimes Timmy shoot long jumpers making the Suns work harder covering every scoring option. To me that makes the Suns nervous too and makes them want to play one on one.
The Spurs have the great ability to not get rattled.
The Suns have a very shallow pool of coping with pressure. It shows every time Pop tweaks the defensive schemes and especially the way the dribbler goes side to side and bounce passes the ball back to the man he just got the ball from, thenBasket. The Suns never caught on to that, it was a good little tactic that made for a lot of points, especially when Timmy was out for a while with fouls.
TimVP slipped in how he watches the games afew times...this explains why it might take a day or two for him to get these out...the attention to detail he uses in these is worth the wait.
Dude, you are building such a following with these that you guys should build a subscription for it. This would be the first one that I would actually pay to read.
Yeah it's annoying.
Kurt Thomas got the start at center and played very good
Gee I wonder who called for that before the series started.
Yeah it's annoying.
Damn...if it's the perfect analysis he's looking for, why not just come right out and ask me my opinion?
I thought we played really well and played better than the Suns for game 3. If we play like that in game 4, we'll seep them.
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