San Antonio Spurs

[o_bama]

---

dako na ang labaw my noy idol is shakin right now...

[MalditohoN]

the mavs are now ahead by 9 points late in the 3rd period. another slump by the spurs! i know they will come back early in the 4th.

[istoryansucks]

Guys,no need to be rattle.spurs is known for that,they will come up big in the 4th quarter with duncan and parker.

[o_bama]

nice game, spurs by 1 naka apas pa gyd mga hinampak..

[o_bama]

DAUg na,Daug na, Daug Na mavs...PIlde na , Pilde na Pilde na ang team sa akong Noy idol...

[neoraising]

gamay ra kaaug contribution ang Spurs bench..lupigon ra cla ni Jason Terry..

[aykiman]

Hala ka diha. sad.hehehehe.

[tackielarla]

That wasn't a fun way to start the playoffs. The Mavericks overcame an early deficit to pound the Spurs in their own building. Scoring 60 points in the second half and 87 points in the final three quarters, Dallas was able to post a resounding 105-97 victory over San Antonio.

Things are already starting to look bleak for the Spurs. Despite hitting 11 of their first 12 three-point attempts and getting a good performance out of Tim Duncan, they weren't very close to winning the game. The main problem was obviously their defense. The Mavs shot 53.8% from the floor and simply carved up the Spurs' defense with their penetration.

Dallas obviously deserves a whole lot of credit. They got incredible bench play from Brandon Bass in the first half and J.J. Barea in the second half. Josh Howard continues to be a player the Spurs simply cannot get a handle on. Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Terry didn't dominate but they played well enough. And Erick Dampier played extremely well on both ends of the court.

It's difficult to digest this loss right away. The Spurs shot well, Duncan played well, Nowitzki and Terry were held in check, Nowitzki battled foul trouble and yet the Mavs comfortably won.

Thankfully, the Spurs have a history of being able to bounce back. They came back to win championships in 2003, 2005 and 2007 after losing the first game of the playoffs. They beat the Mavs in 2003 after losing the first game of the series. But the Spurs need a lot more than historical precedence to get the job done.

-Tim Duncan played about as well as could be expected. His offense carried the team when the scoring had stagnated. Despite only getting one free throw on 24 field goal attempts, he kept at it and tried to will his team to victory. Defensively, he was actually pretty good even with the chaos created by Dallas' penetration. He could have done more on the glass and he didn't protect the rim as well as possible, but this was about as much as the Spurs could have hoped to get out of Duncan.

-Tony Parker simply did not play at the superstar level like the Spurs needed out of him. He had a rough patch early, then got it going for a stretch in the middle of the game but ultimately fizzled down the stretch. By the beginning of the fourth, he looked exhausted. Defensively, he started the ballgame off well but then got destroyed by Barea in the second half. Bottomline is that Barea outplays Parker for half the game, the Spurs simply won't be able to beat the Mavs.

-Roger Mason, Jr. had a decent game. He shot the ball well from behind the arc, hitting 4-of-5 to begin the game. His three-pointer to begin the fourth seemed like it could have been a momentum changing shot. Defensively, Mason was acceptable when he wasn't asked to defend someone who mattered. But when he tried to defend Terry, Howard or Barea, his inability to get around a screen was blatantly on display. I also wasn't too happy with his hustle to loose balls, particularly rebounds in the fourth quarter. Not a horrible beginning for Mason but far from spectacular.

-You can't blame this game on Michael Finley's shooting. He was 5-for-5 from beyond the three-point arc. He also grabbed four rebounds to go along with his 19 points. At the onset of the game, I thought his defense was good. But then Howard just started destroying him. Finley spaced him to give him open looks and Howard was able to knock down shots and also get to the rim. When Howard really got rolling, Finley was basically helpless.

-A lot of Spurs fans saw this coming from a mile away. Matt Bonner's introduction to playoff basketball was a disaster. He played 18 minutes, didn't grab a single defensive rebound and his only real meaningful stat (a steal) was negated (when he immediately threw the ball away). I thought his defense against Nowitzki was decent but he has to produce better than he did tonight in other areas to merit playing time. Going without a defensive board and missing your only shot (an ill-advised shot at that) is unacceptable no matter how you look at it.

-Bruce Bowen might have been the brightest spot for the Spurs. After being locked in the freezer for most of the season, Pop quickly figured out he needed to defrost him if the Spurs were going to have any shot. Bowen played very good defense against Terry, drew a few offensive fouls and hit the only shot he attempted. He was by far the best defender on the court for the Spurs and for San Antonio to win, it's going to require a healthy serving of Bowen.

-Drew Gooden played pretty well in the first half. He was very aggressive looking for his own shot and quickly put eight point on the board. Surprisingly enough, I also thought his defense was okay. His D wasn't good but it also wasn't too much of a liability. Where Gooden didn't help was going 18 minutes without a defensive board. Four offensive boards is good work but he has to be part of the solution on the defensive glass, not part of the problem.

-I wasn't impressed with Kurt Thomas. He's had a few of these clunkers coming down the stretch where he just isn't doing much of anything well. He didn't rebound well, he missed the two shots he took and his overall energy level just wasn't high enough. I'm not sure if his gas tank is empty or what but the Spurs need the Thomas of a few weeks ago who was a very good player.

-Ime Udoka didn't play very well. He came into the game early and within one minute, he proved that he's too slow to defend Terry. Udoka was yet another Spur who didn't do anything on the defensive glass. His best minutes came late in the game when it was all but decided.

-Pop had a number of questionable decisions, many of which have their roots in his decisions going back to the regular season. First of all, it's already obvious that Pop didn't play Bowen enough during the regular season. His plan of sending Bowen to an early retirement backfired when it was clear that Bowen is still very much needed. Secondly, not having a backup point guard solution has to be part of the reason why Parker had nothing left down the stretch. The Spurs couldn't afford to give Parker his normal rest and the result was a tired floor leader. Thirdly, I thought he should have pulled the plug on Bonner earlier. Bonner obviously wasn't ready for this stage and he wasn't helping at all.

As bad as things may seem, I'm nowhere near ready to concede this series. The most important development is that Duncan appears to be pretty darn healthy. If Parker can bounce back with better play (he's started the playoffs with a dud many times in his career ... only to respond positively) and the rotation can tighten up a bit, the Spurs can get right back in this series.

Gotta get Game 2, though.

Believe.

[tackielarla]

Yeah, we lost.

But I can count on the fact that Bass and Damp only had those "once in a blue moon" monster games. This is far from over folks.

And yes, I want Bowen to kick the crap out of that little (censored) Barea all over the floor on Game 2.

Spurs in 5!

[tackielarla]

DAUg na,Daug na, Daug Na mavs...PIlde na , Pilde na Pilde na ang team sa akong Noy idol...