Pounding The Rock

BI-Loosing :(

That number one pick doesn’t look so bad right about now

bj1der - January 10, 2012 reply

so what’s the excuse this time? oh wait, there is none.

bad defensive rotations

Well, it didn’t help that they lost Ford and depended on Neal at PG. He wasn’t horrid, but it wasn’t ideal. The best offense that came out of a lot of his plays was his own shot. he did get the ball to guys though. It’s just not the same as when it is Ford or Parker though.

But Turnovers in the 4th. They had 6/16 in the 4th. That was big.

Overall, though, it was a good loss. A few mistakes here and there, but a lot they could clean up. Yes, no loss is good, but this loss had some answers to it. OKC – you can’t really make them less athletic or shorten their arms.

:(

bigtee34 - January 10, 2012 reply

waaaaaaaaaaaah

Iullaby - January 10, 2012 reply

Much like last year we cant play defense

Kevin21 - January 10, 2012 reply

0-33 on the road here we go!!!

I don’t get it. Why wouldn’t you call a timeout? At least when it’s obvious that the play is broken with TP dribbling in the corner with 5 seconds left.

Fred Silva - January 10, 2012 reply

ikr

Pop wanted no overtime, he has to go drink

Honestly, that is a great answer. I would say this is it more than anything else.

day_late_friend - January 10, 2012 reply

yeah, don’t get it either.

Tony even hesitated at half court expecting Pop to signal a timeout. Instead, Pop waved him on to doom.

Fred Silva - January 10, 2012 reply

Spurs Yoda - January 10, 2012 via mobile reply

am too slefish to kill you…I have to kill myself

wow. Another loss at the road? What the hell happened? I missed the game… Was it that bad again?

Lucky you

I was looking at the Spurs’ side of the boxscore, and was thinking how the hell can we lose!? TD with a near triple double, TP scoring 22 at 50+% FG, RJ still shooting well..

Then look at free throws, and then Stephen Jackson

And turnovers.

how the hell can we shoot better at FG than FT?

you know defence? well, funny thing, the spurs don’t.

they keep forgetting it at the AT&T center?

Its this bad. Spurs shoot 60% and lose.

TOs

Good teams can win road games.

even bad teams win some road games

ouch

so this is the buck/s 1st road win. ha!

They do, but Bucks were at home and are tough there. Spurs have a history with the Bucks and it’s not that much winning. It’s gone down the wire consistently, even when the Spurs D was good.

I knew this was gonna be a bad game. . .

TX2NC - January 10, 2012 via Android app reply

I think I would have rather had Malcolm Thomas out there instead of Bonner tonight

bigtee34 - January 10, 2012 reply

agreed

Bushka - January 10, 2012 reply

He’ll get time against the Rockets. It’s pretty much a guarantee now that the Spurs all played a lot of minutes and Duncan, especially. Tiago sat out more than usual in expectation of the 2nd game.

Andrew Bogut plundering the San Antonio Defence

Bushka - January 10, 2012 reply

He just had to come back and play against us right? Sigh

May not waste time watching road games for a while.

TX2NC - January 10, 2012 via Android app reply

was thinking the same thing.

You’re probably right, especially since the next 2 road games are back-to-back at Miami and at Orlando.

Marky G - January 10, 2012 reply

is it my fault? i arrived when we were up around 2, then this shit happened.

it’s always your fault, TOR.

yeah, coz i took the last shot…

Lol

bj1der - January 10, 2012 reply

i knew it. i bloody knew it! you ARE jefferson.

gol

i think we just needed a korean comic

hell no

you take that back!

Never! it’s comedic genius!

then you must be rolling on the floor laughing over natgeo documentaries

the humor is pretty dry but they have their moments

Game tomorrow.

Houston again? I’m getting tired of them

we play houston 10 times this season?

before the allstar break

It’s at least a home game. The lesser players tend to show up on at home. Houston at least is traveling as well.

jax had 32 on us

bigtee34 - January 10, 2012 reply

Hat pisses me off. Are we really that bad of a decensive team to get lit up by stephen fucking jackson. The guy isnt athletic, and yet he still tore us up.

you can always get a new one.

day_late_friend - January 10, 2012 reply

Nice catch.

Lol

and Pop didnt tried Green on him

Green saw a small sliver of time. So did JA. Leonard got the bulk of the minutes though. He got to see Sjax up close and personal. He won some of the battles, but obviously lost more than won.

I think we will be fine to be honest though. We are shooting great and we actually have the players to be better defensively. So once Pop gets a line up he likes we should get things going

+Leonard’s growth is the best thing from the game. He had a solid road trip. His best game keeps being the most recent one. RJ/KL at the SF is a nice tandem this season. They’ll be pretty damn good by the end of the season
+Duncan and Parker shot well.
+Blair had his most balanced/under control game.
+Neal at least looks to be rounding out his offense once again.

matt bonner=bucks’ player of the game :)

Starscream210 - January 10, 2012 via mobile reply

We are going to miss TJ

So true

and manu

tjs out?

yup, hamstring injury

let’s feed him some ham to strengthen his hamstrings

hamon de bola

strain? day-to-day?

dont know yet, but by the way he went out and his history with injuries I expect him to miss some games

two is some.

no news yet?

A few games. Probably 2-4 would be a safe estimate without knowing more info. It definitely hurt the team with his loss.

Cory Joseph anyone?

If Ford missing 4+, I think they call him back. It really depends how bad it is.

And they start falling like flies. Many more injuries to this team and we are looking at the Lottery which wouldn’t be all that bad with the Spurs Lottery luck. Would it not piss off a lot of folks if the Spurs were to draw Numero Uno again!!!

FoldCatOne - January 10, 2012 reply

A lot of teams are losing guys. Eric Maynor just torn his ACL.

Grizz lost Arhur for the full season. Randolph is out most of the season.

Spurs will be there at the end.

Eric Maynor just torn his ACL.

That’s why we draft players without ACLs.

GOL

Ayatollah - January 11, 2012 reply

and i woke up so early in the morning for this.

okay, i woke up at 1030.

I’m thrilled with the result. Kawhi had a great game and that’s all I’m looking at right now. Now I’m off to do some research on this Thomas guy. Later people.

bj1der - January 10, 2012 reply

2 straight good games from Kawhi, but Spurs lost those

Yes, but it was a solid performance. There were other good individual performances.

we wasted Kawhi’s good performance

day_late_friend - January 10, 2012 reply

Duncan had another efficient game too.

but at 35 minutes with another game tomorrow, things aren’t looking good.

Luckily, they are playing at home. That always helps the younger players. And, the older guys can go home quickly after.

It’s better to be coming home on a back-to-back than going out of town.

Well they never had a chance of winning the OKC game. So good performance or not, he did some of that damage in their garbage time.

Bucks game was a real game. He made contributions in the 4th. He was their leading scorer with 9 pts.

i guess it could be worse. we could be washington fans………….oh they won today. of course.

were they on the road? prolly were

Home against Toronto.

Marky G - January 10, 2012 reply

i miss the days when i just look at the spurs schedule, and tell myself, win-win-sure win-win-ot win-loss-win-loss-win-win-win.

now i dont even look at the schedule anymore. i just wait for the heartache to come. damn lockout.

and then, we found ways to turn those losses into wins

I tuned in late, TJ got injured? WTF?

so far tonight, every team I wanted to lose, won. The lakers is my last hope of going to bed happy.

I blame Jumbacos.

hey davis, ive a question for you.

Sure. What is it?

non-spurs tho. werent you with pse? you a stock broker? you know one? im looking for one..

Still am, but I work for the exchange itself. Sure I’ll send you a contact.

you have my email right?

The yahoo one with the self-serving name? :P

haha yeah

Gotcha. Send you one in a bit.

thanks!

Are you shorting Spurs stock?

Hipuks - January 10, 2012 reply

Did we really just let the Milwaukee Bucks light us up for 106 points? A team thats averaging 91.6 pts/game this season.

it really did happen

Bucks versus Spurs is a weird one. It doesn’t follow the rules. Until recently, they lost most of their Milwaukee games, and this was with Bowen

Watching Pop’s post game press conference, I thought his head was gonna expload until someone brought up Kawai and I could hear the anger subside….

Kawhi had a great offensive game but was playing with his hands down to much against Jackson on defense. Jackson was drilling jumpers on him because of that

They were smart. I think the regular reporters always have a “good story” to bring up when they think they’ll lose Pop.

Josh Guyer (completely deck) - January 10, 2012 reply

Coach Pop, “Worst defensive team we’ve ever had. We’ve got a long way to go.”

So damn true

It really is true. And we arent going to get a break tomorrow against Houston.

theyre off a b2b too

Yeah but so are the Spurs, and they play like shit on back to backs.

dont worry, yao will be tired as hell. oh wait…

At home, it’s easier to win a game tired, than on the road. The young guys will get lots of time, and young guys do well at home.

hope they feel like shit

I liked when he corrected the reporter who said “you guys have lost a couple on the road -”
“we’ve lost every road game”

but whos counting?

not motivational rhetoric for once.

Sadly, the turnovers in the 4th were a big reason why the defense was bad.

He said that about the last two Spurs teams, equal parts meaning it and also to fire them up. Unfortunately, he may actually mean it about this particular team.

alamobro - January 11, 2012 reply

This team is stronger on the wings. Obviously, if Neal is going to get time over Green and Anderson, then it becomes somewhat null, but the possibility exists.

The problem is Duncan is going to be more limited depending on games. He also managed Tiago’s minutes in this game. Otherwise, he’d like have seen more time if there wasn’t a game tomorrow.

ha! he thinks we’re a defensive team.

the little o - January 11, 2012 reply

Tony was the leader in assist to turnover ratio before this game. Crazy shit

meanwhile vc had 11 pts 5 ast 3 stl 3 reb and +33

just saying

and who would you want to trade for him?

no one in particular.

ahuh.

heh

You talking about Vince Carter? If so, what the hell that gotta do with our Spurs?! LOL. The last thing we need is his old non defense playing ass

against the friggin’ pistons

If there was ever a team that fell hard from grace, they definitely are at the top of that list. And how do you re-sign Prince?! seriously?!

Few years ago their FO looked like a team of geniuses, now they look like NY Friggin’ Knicks under Isiah.

But they made moves even during that time which could be considered head scratchers. Yes, Darko, was a decent risk and it made sense from potential. Although, looking bad, they did need more at forward, even with Prince.

why did Bonner play more minutes than Tiago this game?

to guarantee the loss

lol

LOL

I guess so

Saving Tiago for game 2, especially since Duncan played 30+.

l

we have to win road games so we’ll not be a road team come playoff time

so we shot 60%, every starter was in double digits, no one was in foul trouble, we break the 100 pt barrier, and a reserve played superb, yet we lose the fking game?

we need manu back bad

We need defense back badly.

This. We also need some semblance of defense. Stephen fucking Jackson lit us up for 32 points

well it happens. an opposing player has a good game, but we still usually find a way to win. this game, we did not

why do they always have their good game against the spurs?

ask that pre a few years back, the answer would be because teams and players like to get up and play real good against top teams.

this year, its just bad defense.

they don’t. observer bias.

Am bias too but right now…………..am disgruntle

what i mean is, you see jackson lighting us up for 32 points, but you don’t see him doing that against other teams because you don’t watch the bucks. he’s still a decent player, he’s going to score 25+ on occasion, but you don’t see it happen UNLESS he does it against the spurs. so there is an element of observation bias – you see guys score against the spurs because you watch the spurs. those guys are also occasionally scoring against other teams as well. its not like every game someone is setting a career high against us.

Bah, logic. I say everybody just steps their game up when they face the Spurs. That, or we suck so bad at defense we make other players look like all-stars.

we suck on defense, point, blank period. We give up a lot of open shots from deep because our wings rotate too slow or incorrectly.

Not really bias if you think about it. Look back at the games we lost, and see that the teams show well above their normal percentage than they usually do. For example Wesley Johnson went almost perfect from the field against us. Houston lit us up, and so did OKC.

there’s still an element of observation bias though. wesley johnson will quite probably shoot like that again (more than once!) this season, but you won’t see it.

people aren’t rational when it comes to sport, especially when their team loses.

Wes johnson is a good shooter and Jackson is a good scorer so I agree with you about the observational bias statement. But our defense isn’t good and that is the reason people play so well against us

Actually i take that back Wes johnson isn’t all that great of a shooter. I was thinking about Wes Matthews. LMAO

oh don’t get me wrong – our defence is absolute rubbish right now, and that’s a major contributing factor.

Yeah I get you. The thing is i check other teams box scores and see how thry did, and then I remember how they did against the Spurs and Im stuck there cussing the box score because of course they are playing worse than when they played the Spurs.

You know how we win? By getting a stop defensively. When we won championships we were a great defensive team. We played Run and Gun ball last year and look where it got us. A first round exit. We just gotta get better on defensive rotations. I truly think we have the players to be a solid defensive team and once Pop figures out the line up he likes we will be better

getting one or two practices would be helpful

So true

the boxscore is misleading…

This!

Reply fail

Monroe_SA Look for Cory Joseph call-up from Toros very soon; as careful as #RealCoachPop is with injuries, he’s not going to rush T.J. Ford

we could do worse than cory joseph, but TJ was playing really well

Yeah TJ was playing good

Another young guys opportunity. It can’t be all that bad, especially since they are back at home.

Sign Jerells!

Parker was fouled on the second last play… We all knew it was going to be along short season once Manu went out… GO SPURS GO!

TdotSpursfan - January 10, 2012 reply

What goes around comes around? They’re saying Manu traveled when he hit that game winner a season ago.

Whos saying that?

Mostly Bucks fans, and Bogut had a tweet about it. I think the blog publishing those Have Ball, Will Travel posts also looked at it.

Ah ok.

and the conclusion of that blog was that he didn’t.

Yep, so I’m mostly talking about Bucks fans.

Josh Guyer (completely deck) - January 10, 2012 reply

Pop on final possession, “They worked hard to try and get something, I let them down at the end of the game.”

did he address the lack of timeout? or was that his response for it?

i believe we had a game end like that in the playoffs last year.

Yeah. Game 4, I guess.

Ayatollah - January 11, 2012 reply

Good thing to own up, at least.

this

In the 666 - January 10, 2012 reply

:(

Iullaby - January 10, 2012 reply

damn this lack of training camp

Leonard played solid defense but he has got to learn to keep his hands up. Against Durant he was always there in his face when he shot his jumpers but because he had his hands down trying to get steals he would get a pull up"J" in the eye.

Jackson pretty much did the same thing to the young guy tonight. The beauty of Leonard is he still barely gets beat but against good to great scorers he has to learn to keep his hands up

KaWhy is slowly but surely winning me over…
keep proving me wrong kid!

In the 666 - January 10, 2012 reply

He was the Spurs leading scorer in the 4th period. Made some nice shots.

Didn’t watch the game – how come Danny Green barely got any run? Seems like he could have possibly helped to try and slow down Jackson.

danbar - January 10, 2012 reply

Leonard ate up most of the additional minutes. It was split between RJ and Leonard. Neal started out as a 2 but was adopted as the 1 once Ford went out. If CJ doesn’t hit up SA next game, Neal will likely start out as the backup PG. This will free up some time for Green/Anderson.

In the 666 - January 10, 2012 reply

lakers lose please

cuentaluis1 - January 10, 2012 reply

Not gonna happen for a little longer now. The teams they are playing are too lame.

LA might be helped by the ~~steroid~~ painkiller injections Kobe is having.

TDzilla! - January 11, 2012 reply

Lakers always have a field day against the Suns and Jazz.

Not worth wasting too much energy or minutes on. Otherwise, you didn’t beat them efficiently.

right now what’s worse, the perimeter defense or the inside defense? cause i notice that pop always has duncan in with blair and then splitter in with bonner. it’s rare that splitter and duncan are on the floor together, they are way better at protecting the paint then blair or sigh matt bonner

Starscream210 - January 10, 2012 via mobile reply

perimeter d. record shooting nights for whoever plays us.

Injuries to Manu, and now Ford

this is our worst loss today. TJ started to play well, and he is a very good fit for the team. hopefully, he’ll be back soon.

Hopefully if he is out a while, at least Joseph gets to play. He had potential. He won’t make the team move the same, but at least it keeps the ball out of Neal’s hands as the backup PG.

Neal is probably better at this point. Joseph needs to learn how to play before he gets to play.

It’s probably a wash. Too much Neal, means lots of lack of D. That is hurting the Spurs a tad.

The problem with Neal, is he’s there to score too. It’s a really difficult balance that Parker has finally gotten to after all those years.

Neal is clearly not TJ as a passer. Nor is he Manu. With those two guys out he is just our 2nd best option at PG by default. I didn’t see anything from Joseph though telling me that he belongs to the NBA. NBDL may be better fit for him at this point of his career.

As we’ve seen from lack of backup PG all these years, non-PGs in limited minutes works, but over long periods of games, it doesn’t. A change is good. I’m not saying, strip Neal of all his minutes, but Joseph gives them another mix.

It’s like the SF position. It’s mostly covered by RJ/Leonard. They both bring a little bit different so Pop has some options. And since they are different, Pop can bring RJ back and slide him in at the 2.

Spurs need a little bit of unpredictability. That’s where Manu always had a curveball.

Controlled unpredictability is key for the Spurs. That’s where Blair’s can be good and bad. When it’s under control, he does well, but when it’s bad, it’s not as good.

This game was a good example of that balance where he had control. It was one of his best games of the season. Maybe not super numbers, but he was in control and played within the flow of the game.

You make a lot of good points. I just not sure that we are at the point where we would like to develop Joseph at the expense of the team play. May be it’s better to give Agent 0 a ten-day contract, he would certainly give us a different look.

Gil is too much of a ball stopper. If you go 10-day, take someone who isn’t afraid to pass the ball.

Joseph would get time, at least in my idea. Obviously, if he’s just going to sit, then yes, there is no point in bringing him up.

I hope, FO follows Joseph’s development and has better idea, whether he is ready to get minutes. Meanwhile, it would be nice if we could bring in some stopgap veteran for 10 days. I don’t know who is available, but somebody might. Tinsley may be? Jason Williams?

Either way, Neal shouldn’t start any longer if he’s taking on main duties, at least tomorrow (since it is short notice).

Green or KA should start with RJ. Or if Pop wants to go crazy, RJ/Leonard. Then at least the starting unit’s D would improve once again.

Probably it’s time for Neo to get his chance.

It might be Kawhi/RJ too since they started the 2nd half. Worked well, although would weaken the bench.

we also had that guy QWin, whatever happened to him?

Spurs brought in better talent. Ford and Joseph made him not needed, at least at the time. Although, I guess with the lockout, he probably went overseas.

Of course, TJ was an upgrade at PG, so we could afford to bring in a long shot like Joseph. But right now we could use a serviceable third-string PG, like QWin.

So I miss a game and we lose a road game again. I guess I must starting watching road games this season for us to win. I blame myself for the Spurs Woes.

Heman - January 11, 2012 reply

I missed 3 of the 4 losses. I only watched the loss against OKC. By now I’m convinced my eyeballs have healing powers and the guys can actually hear me when I scream “close out on shooters!” at my computer screen.

Edg5 - January 11, 2012 reply

You can throw out the Houston game though. 4th game in 5th night was a guaranteed win unless Houston found a way. Dallas loss to the Spurs was nearly guaranteed with their 6th game in 8 nights.

Twolves hit everything from 3pt land. You don’t often to 78.6% (11 of 14) from behind the arc and lose. And not all of those were open!

OKC at this point, is just way better. They were too long for everyone. This is the game where Manu could make a difference in making it a game.

Bucks game was a loss with mistakes. This could have been fixed with more time. This game is just a matter of removing some mistakes, bad turnovers. Manu would erase some of that, but the game was winnable. Houston was not. Twolves was a statistical anomaly . OKC is one of the top teams in the league, even without Maynor.

Ws won against Miami.

boomshakalaka

Go Dubs!

TDzilla! - January 11, 2012 reply

I don’t understand where the Dubs nickname comes from

Every time someone says Dub, I think of the University of Washington.

I think, it comes from W. University of Washington doesn’t play in the NBA.

I know. But UW fans say “UDub”.

Who cares about those poor bastards? I never have seen a UW fan in my life. If you won’t tell me, I wouldn’t know that they even exist. You have quite elaborate signature by the way.