Happy New Year £ers! I hope you had a good time last night and were safe and responsible.
Our beloved Spurs sure seemed to enjoy themselves on their win over a very flawed Jazz team, taking advantage of a franchise in transition and securing the W early, largely due to another fantastic performance by Manu Ginobili and scorching-hot 3-point shooting. It ended up being as much a one-sided affair as the score suggests.
The Spurs started out a little slow but were still able to get ahead on the 1st quarter by simply out-executing the Jazz in way to a 23-18 lead coming into the 2nd quarter. Then, Richard Jefferson scored a three to start the 2nd. Manu Ginobili saw it and said "well, that seems like fun". With back-to-back threes, a layup, another three and an assist to Bonner for yet another three, Manu single handedly made sure the Spurs were able to pull away by double digits.
After a mini-run by the Jazz that came with Tony Parker and Manu on the bench and reduced a 17 point lead to a 10 point lead, the Spurs backcourt stars checked back in and and got the offense going again. When the dust had settled, the Spurs had a healthy 15 point lead going into halftime.
In the 3rd quarter the difference in talent and chemistry between the two teams became evident: while the Spurs executed patiently and expertly on the half court, the Jazz resorted to a lot of one-on-one ball with bad results. The Spurs kept defending and rotating; the Jazz gave up on that end, unable to keep up with the Spurs' ball movement.
Everybody on a white jersey looked good in the 3rd, but the catalyst for the Spurs' run had to be DeJuan Blair. Our favorite tweeterer (is that even a word?) was energetic throughout the game and outplayed the Jazz reserve bigs, getting offensive boards and forcing fouls by being aggressive. The quarter ended with the Spurs ahead by 23 and the game was pretty much in the bag. Pop pulled the starters and the Spurs rode their big lead en route to a 104-89 win.
Some bulletpoint observations, because I'm lazy and frankly a little hangover.
It was Coach Pop's 800 career win. He became the 14th coach in league history to achieve it and ranks third among active coaches behind George Karl and Rick Adelman. Here's what he had to say, via ESPN:
"I don't feel as old as you look," Popovich said to one reporter when asked if reaching 800 wins equates to getting old. "Other than that, you get that number of wins, it does mean you've been hanging around for a while. And that you've got good staff and good players and a good management team. We've all achieved 800 wins, I haven't really."
RJ 3.0 is still hitting his shots and playing sound defense. Watching Josh Howard commit a flagrant foul on James Anderson out of frustration makes me even more glad that every free agent wing turned us down.
Speaking of Anderson, he seemed to struggle a little bit guarding Howard but keeps showing promise on both ends of the floor. 8 points 3 boards and 2 assists for him.
Kawhi Leonard finished with 7 points and 6 rebounds but also with a team worst -15 +/-. Make of that what you will. His shot continues to look alternatively great and awful.
Speaking of ugly shots, Tiago Splitter's jump hook still looks bad, but he managed to make a couple of them tonight. Progress.
The offense gets stagnated whenever both Parker and Ginobili are resting. TJ Ford is a good floor general, but the Spurs still count on their stars to create shots. Hopefully Anderson keeps developing his pick and roll game and is able to take on some of the playmaking duties.
The Spurs still have trouble boxing out (I'm looking at you DeJuan) and allowed 14 offensive boards.
No Spur played more than 30 minutes and the Spurs played 12 guys.
Three Stars
3 - Tony Parker. Tony had 14 points and 8 assists while shooting a very un-Spurs like 8-8 from the free throw line
2- DeJuan Blair. Blair is still a bad defensive player and a lazy defensive rebounder, but his contributions on offense are needed more than ever now that Timmy is struggling on that end. DeJuan stepped up and got 17 points and 10 rebounds (5 off) and got himself to the line 13 times. He was aggressive at the right times.
1- Manu Ginobili. Manu scored 23 points in 25 minutes on 9-10 shooting (5-6 from 3). Yes, you read that right.
Well, that's the hacky recap dujour. A blowout win after a bad loss to the Rockets was just what the team needed and they got it.
Next up, the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday. They gave us trouble last season and now have Ricky Rubio, JJ Barea, Derrick Williams and, most importantly, Rick Adelman. It should be good.
0 recs | 12 comments
Actually, Dejuan was pretty solid defensively last night. Millsap is a pretty solid PF and Blair completely outplayed him.
SpursfanSteve - January 1, 2012
Also, Blair worked the boards hard on both ends against the Jazz. I’m not saying that he had no lapses in that regard, just that I saw good effort from him throughout the game.
J.R. Wilco - January 2, 2012
First game I’ve had a chance to watch our guys this season. I don’t really take too much from it since Utah was obviously horrible, tired & fairly aimless. Manu, on the other hand, is still the best player in the world.
JonnyJam - January 1, 2012
Agreed. That’s part of the reason why I didn’t recap the details of the game. Their spacing was awful and their guard play atrocious. They looked lost rotating on D. This is the first Jazz game I’ve watched but they look like a mess to me. Their roster is completely umbalanced, too.
Edg5 - January 1, 2012
… but aside from all of that, they show great promise!
When Pop was asked to talk about the job the Utah staff has done in filling in after Sloan’s departure, he paused for about as long as I’ve ever seen him before answering. He must have been trying to think of something nice to say.
J.R. Wilco - January 2, 2012
You make a good point about the offense being stagnant when TP and Manu are on the bench. That’s unfortunately why Parker had to get back off the bench in the 4th quarter and come in for a few minutes. The offense went about 10 possessions of taking horrible shots and turning the ball over and the Jazz were cutting the lead. The game was never in doubt, but I’m sure Pop would have preferred to not need Tony back in the game.
Tiago looks more comfortable on the floor. In that 4th quarter, he and Blair basically took all of the shots. Not that they were good shots, but they were shots none the less….
GMac14 - January 1, 2012
I’d say most of them were pretty good. They both make really good decisions (Tiago moreso than Blair) when they get post position early. Utah was having to at least soft double both of them anytime they caught it down there.
SpursfanSteve - January 1, 2012
Good recap, Edg. Thanks for taking this on even though everyone was out partying and not minding the Spurs (the game thread was relatively tame) throughout the holidays.
silverandblack_davis - January 1, 2012
If only I were there in the game thread. I tried to be but I had to talk to my parents’ annoying friends. Their daughter goes to school with me and I can’t stand her.
KA1Z3R - January 1, 2012
Blair was very impressive, he completely dominated the game when playing with the reserves. Manu and Tony also dominated at will. The only position where Jazz seemed to have an advantage was at 3, where Howard looked aggressive.
Kondor - January 1, 2012
Yeah Howard was aggressive and he looked engaged. Different from how he used to look on the Mavs. That said, am glad he didn’t choose us.
LionZion - January 2, 2012
I always thought Howard could become a great player in a right environment. Hard to say whether he would fit in with the Spurs, but the potential is rather intriguing.
Kondor - January 2, 2012
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