San Antonio Spurs

[tackielarla]

---

We're back at 2nd place boys.

Thank you Utah!

[menderouv]

next game would be atlanta

[tackielarla]

Given the scenario of no Manu Ginobili and a limited Tim Duncan, typically any win would be a good win. But I'm disappointed in the Spurs despite their 107-106 victory over the Warriors. A combination of careless coaching by Pop and listless defense by the Spurs almost resulted in an embarrassing loss. On pure luck, San Antonio was able to avoid a three-game losing streak.

My main beef is with Pop, but I'll get into that later. I also thought the players as a whole weren't nearly as focused as the should have been in this situation. It's as if the Spurs simply don't care about the standings, which I believe would be a costly mistake.

As for the Warriors, they gave a good fight. By next season, Nellie should be able to start getting wins out of his very talented roster. If even one of their big, young athletes such as Brandan Wright or Anthony Randolph develop into a consistent threat, there's enough surrounding talent to get Golden State back into the playoff picture by next year.

Overall, the Spurs should just be thankful they ended up with a W. However, if there isn't much improvement, tomorrow night against the Hawks isn't going to end so happily.

-Could Tim Duncan be on the road to recovery? We saw some of the first signs that he's feeling better in the game against the Warriors. In the fourth quarter, he had his first dominant stretch since he returned from the right quad tendonosis. He played tough and put the team on his back. Hopefully this was the break in his recovery we've been hoping to see out of #21.

-Tony Parker going for 30 points and 10 assists on only 20 field goal attempts is commendable. He once again illustrated a good balance between patience and attacking. When the Warriors started showing him extra attention, he made Golden State pay with the smart pass. His defense was mostly good but his intensity on that end waned at times. I also thought he got too loose with the ball during key moments of the game. That said, the Spurs obviously wouldn't have been anywhere near a victory without him.

-It was good to finally see Roger Mason, Jr. have a positive outing. The one asterisk on his performance is that it came against the pitiful pick-and-roll defense of the Warriors. Outside of Phoenix, there's probably not a team worse in the league at defending Mason's go-to play. His work at point guard still wasn't pretty and his defense was average at best. Good showing but considering the circumstances this game doesn't tell us much.

-Michael Finley played slightly better than he did last game against the Rockets but was still far from helpful. He passed up a number of shots offensively and wasn't doing nearly enough defensively to even out his production. Despite not showing anything, Pop once again went to him in the fourth. And not surprisingly, that coincided with when the Spurs almost coughed up the win.

-Matt Bonner finally shot with confidence again from beyond the arc. He took his time, had a smooth motion and held his release for the first time in weeks. Bonner also had another nice drive to the bucket for a deuce. Outside of his offensive output, Bonner did little else. His defense was below average and he only grabbed two boards in 22 minutes.

-Off the bench, Bowen provided solid energy on the defensive end. Though he had a couple of uncharacteristically bad decision on defense, his D overall was a bright spot. Offensively, Bowen forgot he was Bruce Bowen. He shot the ball too much and seemed to be playing in a hurry at that end.

-Ime Udoka was really good in some moments and a liability at other times. Though considering the lows we've seen from him this year, it was an above average performance. The best thing he had going the whole night was his activity. Udoka has gotten into a good groove and plays like he thinks he belongs on the court.

-Kurt Thomas missed two key free throws late in the fourth quarter that brought back memories of the Celtics game. Thankfully, the Warriors didn't cash in on the other end. Outside of those two misses, Thomas deserves props for pulling down more momentum-altering rebounds and playing good defense against players smaller and quicker.

-After the last two poor performances, it was good to see a bit of improvement out of Drew Gooden. His defense, though still bad, was better. And while he was still mostly getting in the way offensively, his six boards in nine minutes continue his very good rebounding rate in his stint in San Antonio. If he can learn enough on both ends to not be a liability, his big body and his rebounding should be an asset in the playoffs.

-George Hill played in the first half but never got on track. Shortly after checking in, Hill turned it over, missed a shot and committed a couple of bad fouls. The good news is that Hill's problems came out of aggression rather than being too passive. Usually it's the opposite.

-Jacque Vaughn even got some action tonight at the end of the third quarter. As can be expected with Vaughn, he appeared to be in very good shape and his energy was contagious in his short time on the hardwood.

-Pop had countless coaching moves that I disagreed with. His rotation was lunacy at its finest. It was literally like he had a hat with every player's name in it and he would just randomly pick names out of the hat to form his lineup. Neither rhyme nor reason were with Pop on this night. Here are some problems I had with his coaching:

1) Mason goes off for 17 in the first half after getting off to a hot start at shooting guard and using that momentum to score off of pick-and-rolls when it was his time to play point guard. So what does Pop do in the second half? He brings Mason off the bench. He runs almost no plays for him in the second half and when it's time for Parker to rest, he puts Vaughn on the court instead of playing Mason at point. Oh, but come the fourth quarter, he suddenly expects Mason to be able to run the show to begin the stanza.

2) The Spurs are rolling late with Duncan and Thomas beating up the Warriors. Instead of doing something silly like try to win the game, he puts Finley in for Thomas. Not surprisingly, the Warriors then go on a 6-0 run to take the lead with under a half a minute remaining.

3) All year Pop has been begging Hill to be aggressive. He even stated that he's fine with Hill making mistakes as long as he's aggressive. Hill enters the game and plays aggressive basketball. After a few mistakes, the rookie is sent to the bench, never to be seen again.

4) If you are going to go with Vaughn as the backup point guard in the second half, just go ahead and follow through with that plan. Pop putting in Vaughn for two minutes and then seemingly changing his mind made little sense.

5) I actually liked the strategy of sitting Duncan all but five minutes in the first half. Pop was obviously trying to see if he could get an easy win while keeping Duncan in his back pocket. But to actually succeed in that plan, Pop has to use a rotation that would actually allow his team to gain some sort of cohesion and try to build a lead. For some reason, Pop was trying to win easily to rest Duncan but at the same time he junked his rotation. The result was Duncan being forced to come back into the game in the fourth and put even more wear and tear on his body.

Bottomline is that Pop obviously doesn't care much if the Spurs win. The Spurs winning or losing is secondary to his tinkering at the moment. Hopefully he knows what he's doing and the experimenting is about to come to an end because right now it is maddening to watch.

Rant Over.

[tackielarla]

Manu is playing tomorrow! Finally; after 19 games since the All-Star break! Whew!

[depechebox]

hey, naay nasaag na laker fans diri ai.

watch out lang pag mag meet ang spurs ug lakers. remember last playoff. hapit na mapildi ang lakers. banga lang ang ref kay wala nitawag foul kay fisher.

di na mahitabo karon. spurs will have their own sweet revenge.

hahaha kanus an man tawn ko na laker fan. Spurs man gani ko laban last year..

but with manu playing hurt last year, na apiktohan gyud ang Spurs.. mao na ako point

gahi gyud ang lakers karon.

[lunateec22]

Sagdi lang kay murag gipapahuway pa nila si Manu karon nya haruson na nila ug daug ang Western Conference for an NBA FINALS matchup vs. the Atlanta Hawks.

[tackielarla]

^ Wakokokocoke.

They're playing today. Bago lang nag sugod. Go Spurs!

[MalditohoN]

although every key players are playing now, it doesn't mean that they are now in full force. the coaching staff would definitely give manu or any injured players, just its minimum playing time. so that the injury could heal during the playoffs...

[tackielarla]

although every key players are playing now, it doesn't mean that they are now in full force.

Well, technically, they're not in full force. Duncan is sitting this one out.

[menderouv]

wala nag dua duncan ron. gi mens balik.hehe

popovich put him on rest for another game