San Antonio Spurs

[jungie]

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nindot inyo game ugma guyz... maayo unta naa c duncan

[seepshank]

spurs yaw nalang... pahuway na wui...

[Archer sensAtion]

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Thank you


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[aykiman]

nice game bai tackie..hehehe..

kasab-i na si parker sa iyang 4 missed FT..hehehe..

[tackielarla]

Ok na. Eva already "punished" Tony.

[tackielarla]

Another game, another depressing finish for the Spurs. Up by six points with three and a half minutes remaining the game, the Spurs proceeded to have multiple defensive breakdowns that led to a 87-85 loss.

The Rockets deserve a lot of credit for the win. Defensively, they were solid the entire ballgame. On offense, Houston took advantage of every Spurs error down the stretch. Ron Artest and Yao Ming both played very well, while Luis Scola was the best player on the court. If they continue to gain cohesiveness, the Rockets could very well advance past the first round of the playoffs.

As for the Spurs, with this loss they have basically given back the cushion they had in the Western Conference. Not long ago, the Spurs appeared capable of coasting to the second seed. Now they find themselves in a dog fight for homecourt advantage in the first round.

-Tim Duncan scored more than 20 points for the first time in more than a month. However, his scoring total is a bit deceptive because a lot of his points came on wide open jumpers that the Rockets were daring him to take. His lack of rebounding even though he didn't spend much time against Yao is a scary sign regarding the status of his health. It will be one and done in the playoffs if the Spurs enter the postseason with Duncan playing at this level.

-Tony Parker had a decent game. He had the Rockets sending reinforcements from all over the court whenever he had the ball. As a result, he was able to tie his season-high in assists. Shooting-wise, his percentage wasn't where it needed to be and he missed a relatively easy shot late in the game that would have put the Spurs in the lead. It should be noted that Parker was forced to play 22 of the 24 minutes in the second half due to the travesty that is the backup point guard position at the moment.

-Roger Mason, Jr. once again underwhelmed. His play as the backup point is getting difficult to watch. Teams are forcing him to drive when he does a pick-and-roll and Mason isn't able to make the opposition pay by either scoring at the rim or finding open shooters. When he was at shooting guard he played somewhat better but the Rockets once again did a good job of denying him open looks.

-Kurt Thomas started at center and did a very fine job. His defense against Yao was about as good as possible and he also rebounded at both ends of the court. Two of his four points came at a key moment in the fourth quarter off of an offensive board. On this night, the Spurs probably would have been smart to feed Thomas for his jumper more often, especially considering that the Rockets were offering that scenario every time up the court.

-Michael Finley had one of his patented ghost games. He helped out a little bit on the glass but he was otherwise useless. He shot only once in his 25 minutes and was the worst defender the Spurs put on Artest. Amazingly, Finley was once again granted more fourth quarter minutes.

-Ime Udoka had undoubtedly his best game of the season. His 16 points were a huge reason why the Spurs even stayed in the game. He defended Artest well and his overall energy, hustle and toughness gave San Antonio a fighting chance. If the Spurs happen to face the Rockets in the playoffs, Udoka would play a big role in that series because he's a perfect match for the personnel and style of play of Houston.

-Matt Bonner got utterly dominated in the first half by Scola. It got embarrassing at times. Bonner thankfully played better in the second half but his two rebounds in the game were pathetic considering that Scola pulled down 17 boards. All in all, Bonner has been a shadow of his former self since the signing of Gooden. And it's not like the original image was a world beater . . .

-Bruce Bowen once again showed that he can still help the team on the defensive end. Going up against Artest, a player who he has historically had problems against, Bowen gave tremendous effort and actually did a very good job. Looking back on it, Bowen shouldn't have been held out of the game in the first half by the coaching staff.

-George Hill had his worst game in a long while. He played with no confidence offensively and his hesitency played a part in the Spurs losing their momentum. On defense, he was decent but not the terror we've seen in recent weeks. Not surprisingly, Pop didn't put him back into the contest in the second half.

-Drew Gooden played seven minutes in the first half and once again hurt more than he helped. He is showing flashes of what he can ultimately be in the Spurs system but he's definitely still in the transition phase. Hopefully he gets over this hump and starts contributing to victories sooner rather than later.

-Pop made a few questionable decisions. Going with Finley again in the fourth quarter isn't something I can agree with. Not giving Parker anything close to sufficient rest in the second half was yet another weird wrinkle to his rotation. The backup point guard position is now in shambles ever since he started tinkering with it. That said, it's not like Pop has a lot of cards to play with at this point. One could argue that he's doing his best to try to massage victories out of his short-handed unit.

The Spurs now must have the game against the Warriors on Tuesday to stop the bleeding.

Believe.

[tackielarla]

1. y-LA Lakers
2. Houston
3. San Antonio
4. Denver
5. New Orleans
6. Portland
7. Utah
8. Dallas

Di na Utah amo atubangon.

[kamikaze426]

1 LA Lakers
2 Houston
3 San Antonio

[tackielarla]

Spurs suffer late-game letdown
Jeff McDonald

From Luis Scola’s perspective, there were two key turns of events in the waning moments Sunday afternoon. Only one surprised him.

“I saw the ball coming toward me,” he said, “and I saw that the basket was open.”

That the ball was headed to Scola with the game on the line wasn’t unexpected. On this day, he had been Houston’s leading scorer not named Ron Artest.

That the basket was so wide open? Against the Spurs? In crunch time of a need-to-win game in March?

Scola couldn’t have been more surprised had he woken up Sunday morning in a Spurs uniform.

Taking advantage of the Spurs’ late defensive lapse, Scola slipped in for a layup off a feed from Yao Ming with 11.2 seconds to go, providing the Rockets’ go-ahead points in an 87-85 victory at the AT&T Center.

“We had some defensive breakdowns at the end of the game,” guard Roger Mason Jr. said. “We know that’s where the game is won.”

Or, more often for the Spurs lately, where it is lost.

It was the Spurs’ third loss in four games to come down to a final possession, a stretch of crunch-time anti-heroics that has evicted them from first place in the Southwest Division for the first time since Jan. 6.

Houston (47-25) takes over pole position, moving a half-game ahead in both the divisional chase and the race for the Western Conference’s second seed.

The Spurs (45-24), who led 79-72 with 5:58 to play Sunday, had two chances to re-take a lead in the final seconds. With the Spurs behind 86-85, Tony Parker missed a running jumper. Scola rebounded and was purposefully fouled with 0.3 seconds left.

After making the first free throw, Scola tried to intentionally miss the second to allow time to run out.

Instead, Scola accidentally sunk the free throw, eliciting a groan from the Houston bench. Let the record show it was the second straight game at the AT&T Center in which a team bemoaned its fate at the foul line.

Scola finished with 19 points and 17 rebounds, trailing only Ron Artest (23 points) for the team lead.

Down to a last shot, the Spurs’ Matt Bonner got an unfettered look at a 3-pointer from the top of the arc. It hit the back of the rim.

“I thought it was in,” Bonner said. “Anyone who has ever shot a basketball knows that feeling. A shot leaves your hand and you think, ‘It’s in, it’s in.’ And then it doesn’t go in.”

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich couldn’t complain about his team’s final shot. Their best long-ball shooter trying a potential game-winning 3-pointer is as good as it gets.

Instead, Popovich could and did grumble about the end-game defensive hiccups that made a Hail Mary at the horn necessary.

“We made three defensive errors down the stretch that really cost us,” he said. “Just bad execution the last three possessions was the ball game.”

Popovich declined to name the party responsible for Scola’s go-ahead layup, but as the teams exited the floor, there was a clue. Popovich was last seen barking at Tim Duncan.

After the game, Duncan fessed up.

“It was my fault,” said Duncan, who did contribute 23 points for his first 20-point game since Feb. 17. “(Yao) popped to the top. I didn’t see anybody rotating to him, so I tried to kind of half-rotate to him. I thought he was shooting the ball, so I turned the block out.

“(The pass) went right by my head.”

Duncan had reason to be looking elsewhere. Asked after the game how many times Yao had hit Scola for such a layup, Houston coach Rick Adelman chuckled.

“Twice,” he said. “That’s about it.”

The other had come seconds earlier, when Yao first found Scola to give the Rockets a short-lived 84-83 lead.

The Spurs got a second surprise a few moments later, after Parker answered with a go-ahead layup of his own.

Then, Yao and Scola hooked up for an encore. This one would give way to permanent shock, and ultimate defeat.

“It’s a huge loss, especially with the race as close as it is,” Duncan said. “We came in here knowing the importance of this game. Just wish it could have bounced the other way.”

[doydi]

a fan here hehehe