So are the wings. It seems Leonard is beginning his downfall in minutes. Earlier it was just less Leonard and more Neal. Now JA made an appearence.
As the world turns….
Parker was awesome.
Duncan was awesome. The rest did him well.
JA took Lenard’s minutes. he almost didn’t play at all in the second half. 7:11 in total he played.
Joseph played within the game
Blair looked bad. Really ugly sometimes.
Bonner fits fine with Tiago/Duncan, depending on who else is on the floor.
Defense was good in moments, but not overall. Jack is really making the best of Gordon’s injury.
RJ looks to be getting his shot back. I think pop has realized he gassed him. He also had a key defensive play on Jack around 42 seconds, running back on defense and making him miss a layup. This is a different RJ….
our defense is incredibly awful. Neal, Bonner and Blair cant guard a chair, and sadly they are big part of our rotation. Tim cant move laterally, Parker has too big of a burden to carry offensively and our rooks are rooks, even if they show tremendous potential defensively
Tony’s never had the physical gifts to be a good defender and yeah Boner and Blair are equally bad in their own ways. Timmy five years ago could make up for any weaknesses in a frontcourt teammate and made people like Rasho and Nazr Mohammed look good… that time is behind us
He is. I mean he hustles hard and fights through screens decently but like stated earlier Tim made a lot of those guys in his prime look way better than they were defensively now that he has slowed down they are starting to look how they truly are.
I know were also counting on him for offense, but i thought he was known also for his D. he’s played some solid 1 on 1 D on some bigs before, im sure we can make him a better help defender.
blair is starting to frustrate me with his lack of d. his hustle factor is also regressed lately.
Tony is a decent to good defender. He is underrated on that end. But you cant ask much defense from him when he is carrying the team offensively withouth manu and TJ
True dat!!! He is still giving a great effort and he should be an all star for sure this season. He is carrying this team and needs to be given way more respect than people on here give him
He also played 35 plus minutes and took the most shots for our team in that game while turning the ball over twice and dishing out 9 assists.
Nash is hard as hell to guard because he rarely picks up his dribble when driving to the hoop. Nash played almost the same amount of minutes Tony did and actually shot a lot which is rare for him.
I’m not excusing his effort or lack there of in your point of view but he puts in a good effort most games and has been carrying the offensive load big time
I’m not necessarily saying he’s a bad defender, or that he doesn’t carry a big load on his shoulder right now. Just that he’s only an acceptable defender when he gives it his all, and he doesn’t do that lately. For plenty of reasons.
In Tony’s defense, he does look gassed at times. He’s not a great defender, but he plays Nash decent, in non-this season moments. Would I prefer Bowen on him? of course, but yeah…
that’s the point, we are basically asking him to do EVERYTHING offensively. He is saving his energies on defense. I usually hate when players do that, but have you seen our offense when parker is not dominating it?
Bonner tries to block out and use his body as much as he can. he also has pretty good fundamentals. The problem is Blair tries to use his athleticism too much and reach. He should just watch video upon video of chuck Hayes.
Fundamentally Bonner is a solid defender but his lack of length and athleticism hinders him from being better. While Blair reaches to much, rotates to fast and doesn’t fucking box out.
Everything you mentioned is the unadulterated truth!!! I agree with mikrobass3 about Jack hitting crazy shots but he got hot from shooting open ones first. Not to mention his team mates hitting open shots. It’s so sad to see the Spurs being so bad on defense
you’re completely right. we are setting up opponents for success with our defense. pop’s approach in the past has always been to take away the other team’s strength but he doesn’t have the horses to do that right now.
Wow, I’m shocked that Orlando didn’t take that NJ deal when they had a chance. They had their whole team of young guys/assets. Instead they would take this/ If they do, Otis Smith should be fired on the spot. Well, he should be fired at the end of the year regardless, but come on.
Lakers giving up Bynum would be better as well, if they can get a 3rd team to drop some more into the deal.
Maybe they aren’t sold on soft centers who shoot jumpers, don’t rebound well and doesn’t play defense. They have enough big guys who do all of the above already on there team. LOL. Lopez isn’t that decent at anything but scoring and he isn’t great enough at that to off set his liabilities.
Wow, they should have taken the NJ offer before Lopez went down this season. NJ was prepared ot give just about all their assets. Now they are settling for that load of crap? If you do trade with NY, you need to take some of their youth like Landry Fields.
Finally we see us some splitter duncan froncourt and it worked well I would say Duncan was shootng more jumpers when he and splitter were in and splitter got a 2 crucial rebound and made a hook shoot with timmy and him in the game, this team could be very good if duncan and splitter could play high low but I wouldnt mind timmy still taing over like he did tonghit
I was super happy to see Tiago and Timmy playing together at the end for defensive purposes. I thought they should’ve went to Tiago late in the game more because he had Carl Landry checking him and he could’ve gotten way easier looks on the box
Yup and the defense was better than what the box score would show during that duncan splitter stretch only 1 point in the paint I belive the jack reverse lay up and NO was just hitting shots at the shot clock or tough shtos
They can really play together. Hopefully we will se more of that in the future. Keep Tiago’s minutes up Popovich! He is young and rested, he can handle it.
I think he should handle the rotation the way he does but close out with Tiago/Duncan (depending on the team).
The more Duncan and Tiago can anchor the 1st/2nd unit/3rd variation teams, the better the defense stands to be more consistent throughout. Also without TJ or Manu, the second unit needs a go to guy and Tiago makes the most sense.
yeah I agree that one of Timmy and Tiago should be on the floor at all times. But if Timmeh plays 30 minutes and Tiago 35 or something like that, we could have both of them on the court for 15 minutes or more.
I’d like to keep Timmy to 27-28 minutes. I think Pop should try and ride Bonner/Tiago and Blair/Tiago a little bit more. Obviously, Bonner/Tiago makes more sense since Bonner can stretch the floor a bit more. or Tiago/leonard, since Leonard has a shot, sometimes…
The unit with Leonard probably needs Green to enhance the athleticism though. can’t run with Neal, unless you protect him with a lot of D.
Spurs hard work was leaving him to dominate the D-league or on the bench. Nothing he should be too grateful about. Despite his injuries, he wasted one or two years here.
That, but RJ also played a ton of minutes (which look like it hurt his shooting). Leonard’s shot will always keep him from getting key minutes when the team struggles for shots. I really think if Pop wants to go small put Leonard in place of Blair (I can dream).
Perhaps JA’s figured out a way to apologize to Pop and looks like JA is going to make Leonard work harder now.
He can’t shoot consistently enough. He also needs to work on getting around screens. He got burned early by the guards. That and he’s been played a lot of minutes.
Happy that Anderson was let out of the doghouse, if he had been in it. He didn’t do much but the team did while he was in, having a +13 in ten minutes. Now it’s up to him to earn minutes or others to lose minutes.
He missed his open 3 pointers pretty bad though. One was an airball and the other barely hit rim if I recall correctly. He was aggressive offensively but not out of control which was good
Seems like he had a shot blocked on a drive but stayed with it to put it back in. Drew a foul on another play for two free throws. I expect he might be thinking too much on some of his shots that by missing he might get pulled, and just needs to start getting into a rhythm. I think his minutes this game were mostly at SF, a bit hard to tell as both he and Green were playing together and seem so interchangeable as far as position goes.
Yeah maybe he is thinking too much out there. I mean can you blame the guy? You see other guys not hitting shots still getting run and when you don’t they pull you? I mean I would be thinking a lot also.
He played decent enough. Hopefully Pop rewards that with giving him some more time just to keep him confident. It would be nice for Pop to not overplay RJ and also give Leonard some time off. Pop needs to let them loose so they can play harder due to the competition at the wings.
He looked good if you think about how much he played and how little practices there are. I feel like with more time, he could get into a rhythm. Giving Green/RJ/Leonard some time off is useful. Well Leonard lost a lot these last few games. Neal too.
Howard is just so damn athletic and strong. I mean there aren’t many big guys who have the god given gifts he has and he has been getting by for years off of that alone.
DeJuan45 DeJuan Blair
I grew up a lot a whole lot!!!
8 minutes ago
DeJuan45 DeJuan Blair
"@khknowledge: @DeJuan45 that’s why someone should just do things for you just so they can see you happy" I kno it’s cool Im great Im happy
15 minutes ago
George_Hill3 INDIANA GEORGE HILL
@Bowen12 congrats big bro on your accomplishment
16 minutes ago
DeJuan45 DeJuan Blair
Great win go spurs go!
27 minutes ago
@Bowen12
Bruce Bowen
I’d like to thank Peter Holt, Pop, RC, and the Spurs Organization, The GREAT GROUP of guys that made this all possible.
8 hours ago via Echofon
What a crazy lockout year. With tonight’s win, we’re back on top in the Southwest, and #4 in the West again. If the playoffs started today, we’d play Utah.
This is why when people say “X team is in x place in the west” it doesn’t mean much since it can change a week from now drastically. GS is blowing out Memphis right now, for instance. Not the west, but Boston smashed Orlando….
The big difference is Al Jefferson and Millsap are not as athletic. They also don’t have Arhur and a PG. They are more youthful than anything.
They have Raja, but he’s not the same. Tony Allen is definitely a tougher matchup at this time. favors could and likely will be better than Arthur, but he’s not at the moment. He’s still learning how he fits. They also don’t have Battier.
Are we taking it without Manu and TJ playing? Any series is really unlucky without either of them. With a fully healthy Spurs team, they could take them in 5-6. Utah is very young. If Watson is going to continue to be their best PG and tey can’t get anything out of Harris, they are in trouble.
I honestly don’t think they’ll hold up through the whole season (at least at this point). I think they are just benefiting from the swings of the season.
His defense is exactly the same of last 2 seasons
His offense better
Im more worry about his Rebounds, last 2 seasons he average 12 rebs per 36 min, this season he average 9.7 per 36 min
Tiago Splitter had another strong game off the bench with 12 points and six rebounds. But his increasing playing time is coming at the expense of DeJuan Blair’s playing time. Blair logged only 8:56 in the second half — the fourth straight game where he has played less than 10 minutes after the break. It will be a test of Blair’s maturity to keep from falling into a funk with his lessening playing time. In the past, Blair’s conditioning deteriorated when he lost his spot in the playing rotation. His career with the Spurs could depend on him having a different attitude this time.
HOT: Hornets guard Jarrett Jack produced his fourth 20-point performances in his last six games, scoring 26 points. He also served as New Orleans’ best facilitator, dishing out nine assists while pulling down six rebounds. Jack was the Hornets’ go-to scorer in the final minutes, but he couldn’t get open to for the game’s final shot. Instead Carl Landry missed the rim entirely on his three-pointer at the buzzer.
QUOTABLE: “I just wanted to win on the road honestly. I don’t remember the road ever being this tough.” — Duncan, on the Spurs winning just their second game away from San Antonio this season, improving to 2-6 on the road. It was their first road win over a Western Conference foe in five tries.
Nice game tonight, very entertaining. Tony got career high in assists, and Tim looked 5 years younger. Our offense looks much better when Tony passes the ball. Tim and RJ started very well on the offensive end, and other guys joined the fun.
NBA should introduce challenge system, like other sports. What Okafor did against Splitter with 14 sec to play was pretty evident foul. It didn’t cost us the game at the end, but it could easily. Why the NBA doesn’t want to review this kind of calls is beyond me.
They feel like it would slow down the time. They should do it like the NFL. You lose a timeout if you challenge. That way no extra time is taken away from the game….I’m sure there’s an extra dollar cost to it that they don’t want to do, although it would help them clear up the “refs are against us” argument a little bit more.
Slowing down is a very lame argument. Restrict the number of challenges or do it at the expense of timeouts as you said. As for the cost, all those games are recorded anyway now, and they do have reviewing capabilities available. We see it all the time on TV, so there is no reason, why the refs cannot see the same thing. They review some things like out of bounds calls and flagrant calls. They just should give coaches an opportunity to challenge when the game is in balance and one bad call can change the outcome.
I’m not saying I agree with the slowdown, but that’s the main argument they go to from what read. I completely support replay. I think it works well in football and definitely has helped in these playoffs. Heck, the Giants are likely not going to the superbowl without replay.
I’d be happy with two challenges per game. And if you call it wrong, you lose a time out.
To be honest it looked like a clean block at game time speed and having challenges in a game that already bog’s down at the end in close games is just over kill. Die hard fans don’t mind but the causal fans would leave even quicker than a Derek Jeter marriage proposal.
No, it didn’t look like a clean block to me, and I don’t see why it is so important if some impatient fans would leave earlier. It would just mean less traffic after the end of the game. If time is such a big concern, the first thing to go should be overtimes for regular season games. If you restrict review time and do it at the expense of a timeout, you won’t lose much if anything. BUT you’ll have a chance to make it right more often. I am sure the refs would also make less bogus calls knowing that they can be challenged.
Two reasons why League doesn’t have a challenge/instant replay. (Though I am not necessarily against such a rule)
1. Because of the unofficial fact that they do makeup calls after making a bad call.
2. NBA officiating is rather subjective, things are not universal, a foul in one game would not be a foul in a different contest, etc. One call in a sport with so many possessions rarely affects the outcome of the game (as opposed to football)
One call in a sport with so many possessions rarely affects the outcome of the game (as opposed to football)
It even more rarely in tennis, but they introduced the challenge system and the game won because of that. I am not saying let us review every call, but having couple of challenges per game seems reasonable.
And this is why RJ’s shot has suffered. Pop has got to balance out, even his younger guys minutes, but RJ did good….
Most unsung: Richard Jefferson’s shooting touch returned after he hit for 14 points with four 3-pointers. And his defense on Trevor Ariza down the stretch helped him cool down the Hornets’ mosts athletic player as Jefferson played all but 53 seconds after halftime.
And this is why a lot of the negative plus/minus scores came about..
Bring on the bench: New Orleans jumped to an early 22-13 lead with 5:12 left in the first quarter before a hustling performance prompted by the San Antonio bench helped pull the Spurs back in the game. The inserion of Matt Bonner, Cory Joseph and Danny Green helped the Spurs regain the lead by the end of the quarter.
Player of the game I: Duncan had his best game this year, producing a season-high 28 points and a team-high seven rebounds. For good measure, he even threw in the game-winning shot.
Player of the game II: Tony Parker had a memorable night running the Spurs offense, scoring 20 points and dishing out a career-high 17 assists.
If not for Tiago’s missed dunk, he would have had 18.
Player of the game III: Chris Paul may be gone, but the Hornets look like they have a keeper at point guard in Jarrett Jack, who led them with 26 points and eight assists and also grabbed six rebounds. Jack scored 17 points in the second half as he directed the Hornets’ best offensive game of the season.
Good fantasy player pick up.
Stat of the game II: The Spurs’ 3-point shooting improved for the fourth consecutive game to 43.8 percent. The Spurs shot at least 43.8 percent in six of their first nine games this season, but had not reached that level since the loss at Oklahoma City in the ninth game of the season.
Some great team defense!
Weird stat of the game: New Orleans shot at least 50 percent in every quarter of the game. The Hornets became the first Spurs opponent to accomplish that feat this season.
Injuries: Manu Ginobili missed his 13th game (record 8-5) after undergoing surgery for a fractured fifth left metacarpal. T.J. Ford missed his eighth game (record 5-3) with a torn left hamstring. New Orleans guard Eric Gordon (bruised right knee) and guard Xavier Henry (resolving ankle sprain) both missed Monday’s game.
yay!
sleep research facility - January 23, 2012
yay yay!
mikrobass3 - January 23, 2012
they did it surf!
eastbaysd - January 23, 2012
they just had to make it “interesting” for us…
sleep research facility - January 23, 2012
totally
eastbaysd - January 23, 2012
First
hurts2bgood - January 23, 2012
ayi yi yiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
eastbaysd - January 23, 2012
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! Spurs win!
SinCitySpur - January 23, 2012
TIMMAY! (Also, I won.)
LatinD - January 23, 2012
barbacoa? beer? boobs? what you win?
mikrobass3 - January 23, 2012
i demand a recount!
sleep research facility - January 23, 2012
I demand a recount
hurts2bgood - January 23, 2012
hanging chad
eastbaysd - January 23, 2012
Let’s take it to the Supreme Court of Davidland.
LatinD - January 23, 2012
My lawyer will be in touch
hurts2bgood - January 23, 2012
“Take it, Right in the Nooch!”
In the 666 - January 23, 2012
nice
mikrobass3 - January 23, 2012
POW!!
Iullaby - January 23, 2012
Road win # 2!
Ed (dfjmed) - January 23, 2012
oh yeah! Go Spurs!
anirontag - January 23, 2012
didn’t notice, great plus!
4TimeChamps...and counting? - January 23, 2012
Barely breathing.
silverandblack_davis - January 23, 2012
Timmay <3
I’m so happy right now.
bombsaway - January 23, 2012
Yay!
day_late_friend - January 23, 2012
neat interview with parker postgame.
mikrobass3 - January 23, 2012
WIN!
Ayatollah - January 23, 2012
Let’s cheer on the W’s to victory against the Grizz, and maybe we end up back in 1st tonight?
Ed (dfjmed) - January 23, 2012
SPURS TO HORNETS!!
4TimeChamps...and counting? - January 23, 2012
a very bad, very very bad man…
sleep research facility - January 23, 2012
23 minutes for Splitter, mostly good results. Big man rotation changing
greyberger - January 23, 2012
let’s hope so.
mikrobass3 - January 23, 2012
+1 million
4TimeChamps...and counting? - January 23, 2012
I hope so
Chilai - January 23, 2012
Meh, he needs 30 minutes imo
spursfan87 - January 23, 2012 via mobile
so he’s starting by march, yes?
mikrobass3 - January 23, 2012
JES!
eastbaysd - January 23, 2012
I hope he starts in the next game
spursfan87 - January 23, 2012 via mobile
this!
Chilai - January 23, 2012
So are the wings. It seems Leonard is beginning his downfall in minutes. Earlier it was just less Leonard and more Neal. Now JA made an appearence.
As the world turns….
grego21 - January 23, 2012
Timmeh playing like the old TD in this one… That day off really did a lot for him!
anirontag - January 23, 2012
2 days off
mikrobass3 - January 23, 2012
more days off for Timmy, maybe?
4TimeChamps...and counting? - January 23, 2012
Omg. We won a basketball game.
Who made the game winner, Timmy? With slow internet + box score watching… I missed it.
M3D1T8R - January 23, 2012 via mobile
Timmeh with a hook!
anirontag - January 23, 2012
28 points for Teemah. Some kinda nice.
eastbaysd - January 23, 2012
Road game….
grego21 - January 23, 2012
Omg. We won a basketball game.
Who made the game winner, Timmy? With slow internet + box score watching… I missed it.
M3D1T8R - January 23, 2012 via mobile
duncan made a nearly impossible long running hook shot to seal it.
mikrobass3 - January 23, 2012
yep, timmeh made a tough tough tough shot over Okafor. Looked like the Timmeh of the ol days
Chilai - January 23, 2012
still had his legs
eastbaysd - January 23, 2012
Awesome! Thx. I guessed it would be him the way his numbers were going. Dang, puts a smile on my face. Wish I could’ve seen it.
M3D1T8R - January 23, 2012 via mobile
Is it just me or has Blair been extremely ineffective in the last two games?
mission20 - January 23, 2012
Blair is either great or a big pile of crap depending on the matchup
Chilai - January 23, 2012
Big/athletic guys kill Blair. Utah has bigs, but they are bigger/stocky/not quick. Clippers play no D.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
-15 tonight and -12 last game
greyberger - January 23, 2012
ouch.
sleep research facility - January 23, 2012
He’s an all about matchups type of player. As situational as Bonner.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
But he’s doing fine on twitter!
spursfan87 - January 23, 2012 via mobile
smh
eastbaysd - January 23, 2012
people still follow him?
sleep research facility - January 23, 2012
I do when I want my timeline totally jacked.
eastbaysd - January 23, 2012
The one area he dominates consistently.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
Ha!
Ayatollah - January 23, 2012
I got 12.
eastbaysd - January 23, 2012
jes you did…
In the 666 - January 23, 2012
I need a recap!!! I hate missing games
But Spurs Win!!!
::inserts chuck norris approved gif::
spursfan87 - January 23, 2012 via mobile
Parker was awesome.
Duncan was awesome. The rest did him well.
JA took Lenard’s minutes. he almost didn’t play at all in the second half. 7:11 in total he played.
Joseph played within the game
Blair looked bad. Really ugly sometimes.
Bonner fits fine with Tiago/Duncan, depending on who else is on the floor.
Defense was good in moments, but not overall. Jack is really making the best of Gordon’s injury.
RJ looks to be getting his shot back. I think pop has realized he gassed him. He also had a key defensive play on Jack around 42 seconds, running back on defense and making him miss a layup. This is a different RJ….
grego21 - January 23, 2012
Thank goodness I thought we were headed for playoffs RJ the rest of the way.
silverandblack_davis - January 23, 2012
Nope. I have an article I’ve half written on my observations. Maybe it’ll finally come out….
:)
grego21 - January 23, 2012
C’mon, man. Priorities :P
silverandblack_davis - January 24, 2012
I actually had notes on it to write it before RJ went on his 50%+ streak. It keeps changing. :)
grego21 - January 24, 2012
Anderson also played decent. he looked like he hadn’t played in a while, but he was active and tried.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
What's up with the D?
I saw that we were the first team to allow NO to score 100. i saw blair let landry score on him a few times
forrestgump52 - January 24, 2012
And that is why he only played something like 8-9 minutes in the second half.
grego21 - January 24, 2012
The defense was awful!!!!! That team was one of only two teams to not score over 100 in a game and we gave them there best offensive outing!
I’m glad we won but sad by the way we had to win
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
you are right. still, jack hit some crazy shots tonight.
mikrobass3 - January 23, 2012
Green covered parker a lot in the 4th. So yeah…
grego21 - January 23, 2012
our defense is incredibly awful. Neal, Bonner and Blair cant guard a chair, and sadly they are big part of our rotation. Tim cant move laterally, Parker has too big of a burden to carry offensively and our rooks are rooks, even if they show tremendous potential defensively
Chilai - January 23, 2012
Tony’s never had the physical gifts to be a good defender and yeah Boner and Blair are equally bad in their own ways. Timmy five years ago could make up for any weaknesses in a frontcourt teammate and made people like Rasho and Nazr Mohammed look good… that time is behind us
greyberger - January 23, 2012
I think TP is under appreciated on D…
In the 666 - January 23, 2012
He is. I mean he hustles hard and fights through screens decently but like stated earlier Tim made a lot of those guys in his prime look way better than they were defensively now that he has slowed down they are starting to look how they truly are.
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
Tony isn’t awful but he isn’t great at defense either. We need some kind of help big time on defense.
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
Tiago.
I know were also counting on him for offense, but i thought he was known also for his D. he’s played some solid 1 on 1 D on some bigs before, im sure we can make him a better help defender.
blair is starting to frustrate me with his lack of d. his hustle factor is also regressed lately.
forrestgump52 - January 24, 2012
agreed.
mikrobass3 - January 23, 2012
Tony is a decent to good defender. He is underrated on that end. But you cant ask much defense from him when he is carrying the team offensively withouth manu and TJ
Chilai - January 23, 2012
True dat!!! He is still giving a great effort and he should be an all star for sure this season. He is carrying this team and needs to be given way more respect than people on here give him
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
I watched Tony defend Nash the other day, live. It was embarrassingly bad. He didn’t even try.
LatinD - January 23, 2012
He also played 35 plus minutes and took the most shots for our team in that game while turning the ball over twice and dishing out 9 assists.
Nash is hard as hell to guard because he rarely picks up his dribble when driving to the hoop. Nash played almost the same amount of minutes Tony did and actually shot a lot which is rare for him.
I’m not excusing his effort or lack there of in your point of view but he puts in a good effort most games and has been carrying the offensive load big time
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
I’m not necessarily saying he’s a bad defender, or that he doesn’t carry a big load on his shoulder right now. Just that he’s only an acceptable defender when he gives it his all, and he doesn’t do that lately. For plenty of reasons.
LatinD - January 23, 2012
In Tony’s defense, he does look gassed at times. He’s not a great defender, but he plays Nash decent, in non-this season moments. Would I prefer Bowen on him? of course, but yeah…
grego21 - January 23, 2012
that’s the point, we are basically asking him to do EVERYTHING offensively. He is saving his energies on defense. I usually hate when players do that, but have you seen our offense when parker is not dominating it?
Chilai - January 23, 2012
Or when he’s out for 5 minutes!!!
CJ actually played decent in this last game though, although Pop picked a good time to run him in the 1st half.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
can we please avoid the CJ abbreviation? I get confused with CJ Miles and CJ Watson. We need a nickname for Cory
Chilai - January 23, 2012
I’m lazy to type. That’s why i use JA too. :)
For you, I’ll try to use Cory…
grego21 - January 23, 2012
Cory Higgins? Corey Brewer? So freaking confusing …
Kondor - January 25, 2012
Who the hell cares about C.J. Miles, you know who he talking about. LOL
gunnin' gervin - January 24, 2012
+1 Though a nickname is always a good idea. Let us call him Jos or Jocy.
Kondor - January 25, 2012
CJ actually played decent in this last game though
What did they run? I would assume they would try to feed tiago inside
forrestgump52 - January 24, 2012
I agree with you guys. I was just sayin’. :)
LatinD - January 23, 2012
Bonner tries to block out and use his body as much as he can. he also has pretty good fundamentals. The problem is Blair tries to use his athleticism too much and reach. He should just watch video upon video of chuck Hayes.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
Exactly
Fundamentally Bonner is a solid defender but his lack of length and athleticism hinders him from being better. While Blair reaches to much, rotates to fast and doesn’t fucking box out.
gunnin' gervin - January 24, 2012
Everything you mentioned is the unadulterated truth!!! I agree with mikrobass3 about Jack hitting crazy shots but he got hot from shooting open ones first. Not to mention his team mates hitting open shots. It’s so sad to see the Spurs being so bad on defense
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
you’re completely right. we are setting up opponents for success with our defense. pop’s approach in the past has always been to take away the other team’s strength but he doesn’t have the horses to do that right now.
mikrobass3 - January 23, 2012
He burned Green though. It’s not like he abused Parker, as much. Although Pop played Neal a few times and he got stuck on jack.
That said, once Jack was going off from the start, he never relented.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
*Green in the 4th.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
He killed everybody who checked him and it started due to piss poor team defense
gunnin' gervin - January 24, 2012
As much as Bonner is not close to a “good” defender, he did ok. the team really didn’t lose as much with him, but they did with Blair.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
Missing practice is hurting the Spurs D, especially with all these young guys.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
They had good moments of D, when they needed it. overall, they did really bad when Blair was in as seen by his +/-.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
It was painful to watch but we saw some new stuff.Pop still has some tricks up his sleeve for us.
TX2NC - January 23, 2012
pop definitely tried some new rotations tonight.
mikrobass3 - January 23, 2012
Leonard is going to see less time. Maybe Anderson will see time again.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
I loved that “other” last play, for Splitter… that was just a great defensive play. it sucked.
In the 666 - January 23, 2012
tell us what you really think
eastbaysd - January 23, 2012
effdanooch
;)
In the 666 - January 23, 2012
agreeder
eastbaysd - January 23, 2012
alright, time to turn the airconditioning on….
sleep research facility - January 23, 2012
been on all day down here…
mikrobass3 - January 23, 2012
you’re hot?
eastbaysd - January 23, 2012
twss
In the 666 - January 23, 2012
i have nothing to add to this exchange.
sleep research facility - January 23, 2012
like a pimp
eastbaysd - January 23, 2012
The Magic with more turnovers (23) then field goals made (16), on the way to a 56-87 loss to the Celtics.
anirontag - January 23, 2012
2nd road win!!!!!! wohoo!
rank - January 23, 2012
Holy crap!! Anderson played? It must be a mistake on the box score
spursfan87 - January 23, 2012 via mobile
10 whole minutes! What happened to Kawhi???
eastbaysd - January 23, 2012
not sure but he was in on last possession
hurts2bgood - January 23, 2012
belinelli lit him up a bit in the first quarter, so pop didn’t bring him back.
sleep research facility - January 23, 2012
has trouble when his man goes through screens.
anirontag - January 23, 2012
This is where he has gotten caught up. The scouting reports have been made. With no practices, hard to develp this skill set.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
Without a good jump shot, he becomes a liability at times. Honestly, if Pop wants him in there, he should steal Blair’s minutes.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
He played the pivotal defensive role on the last play of the game in fact
greyberger - January 23, 2012
Finally he got a chance
spursfan87 - January 23, 2012 via mobile
And for the most part, he did pretty well with it.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
watching Dal-Phx. Dal up 81-70 with no Dirk
hurts2bgood - January 23, 2012
Dirk sucks, they should trade him for a 6’10 red head 3 point killer or a rebounding machine with no acls
spursfan87 - January 23, 2012 via mobile
lol
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
who can deflect passes with his back too!
anirontag - January 23, 2012
Defensive play of the game right there. That was awesome.
SleepCrack - January 23, 2012 via mobile
More Dwight Howard news: Magic inquire about trading Dwight to NY for Stoudewhiner & Tyson Chandler.
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/knicks/post/_/id/10220/sas-magic-inquire-about-dwight-to-knicks
Marky G - January 23, 2012
would they consider Bonner and Blair?
hurts2bgood - January 23, 2012
is howard smart enough to play for pop?
mikrobass3 - January 23, 2012
wow. talk about a lowball.
mikrobass3 - January 23, 2012
Knicks should do that trade yesterday.
Tim C. - January 23, 2012
With Tyson Chandler having just signed as a free agent, is he eligible to be traded at this point?
Alamo - January 23, 2012
next month I think.
Tim C. - January 23, 2012
Wow, I’m shocked that Orlando didn’t take that NJ deal when they had a chance. They had their whole team of young guys/assets. Instead they would take this/ If they do, Otis Smith should be fired on the spot. Well, he should be fired at the end of the year regardless, but come on.
Lakers giving up Bynum would be better as well, if they can get a 3rd team to drop some more into the deal.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
Maybe they aren’t sold on soft centers who shoot jumpers, don’t rebound well and doesn’t play defense. They have enough big guys who do all of the above already on there team. LOL. Lopez isn’t that decent at anything but scoring and he isn’t great enough at that to off set his liabilities.
gunnin' gervin - January 24, 2012
It was just Lopez though. It was the full set of assets that NJ had.
grego21 - January 25, 2012
Howard should pray D’Antoni is included in that deal if it ever happens.
TD21 - January 23, 2012
Wow, they should have taken the NJ offer before Lopez went down this season. NJ was prepared ot give just about all their assets. Now they are settling for that load of crap? If you do trade with NY, you need to take some of their youth like Landry Fields.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
This season, any road win is a good win. I hope you all have a good one fellow £ers!
TD21 - January 23, 2012
all the starters ended up with a – even Timmy and Tony.
TX2NC - January 23, 2012
Finally we see us some splitter duncan froncourt and it worked well I would say Duncan was shootng more jumpers when he and splitter were in and splitter got a 2 crucial rebound and made a hook shoot with timmy and him in the game, this team could be very good if duncan and splitter could play high low but I wouldnt mind timmy still taing over like he did tonghit
Manu-20 - January 23, 2012
A Beautiful sight
I was super happy to see Tiago and Timmy playing together at the end for defensive purposes. I thought they should’ve went to Tiago late in the game more because he had Carl Landry checking him and he could’ve gotten way easier looks on the box
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
Yup and the defense was better than what the box score would show during that duncan splitter stretch only 1 point in the paint I belive the jack reverse lay up and NO was just hitting shots at the shot clock or tough shtos
Manu-20 - January 23, 2012
Hopefully he plays those two more together. Not to mention giving Tiago the ball on offense more when he has obvious mismatches
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
Hopefully he plays those two more together.
2 7footers players together???? reminds me of a pair…
forrestgump52 - January 24, 2012
Timmy was feeling it, so they went that way, but I agree with going to Tiago more, especially with Carl on him.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
They can really play together. Hopefully we will se more of that in the future. Keep Tiago’s minutes up Popovich! He is young and rested, he can handle it.
Chilai - January 23, 2012
I think he should handle the rotation the way he does but close out with Tiago/Duncan (depending on the team).
The more Duncan and Tiago can anchor the 1st/2nd unit/3rd variation teams, the better the defense stands to be more consistent throughout. Also without TJ or Manu, the second unit needs a go to guy and Tiago makes the most sense.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
yeah I agree that one of Timmy and Tiago should be on the floor at all times. But if Timmeh plays 30 minutes and Tiago 35 or something like that, we could have both of them on the court for 15 minutes or more.
Chilai - January 23, 2012
I’d like to keep Timmy to 27-28 minutes. I think Pop should try and ride Bonner/Tiago and Blair/Tiago a little bit more. Obviously, Bonner/Tiago makes more sense since Bonner can stretch the floor a bit more. or Tiago/leonard, since Leonard has a shot, sometimes…
The unit with Leonard probably needs Green to enhance the athleticism though. can’t run with Neal, unless you protect him with a lot of D.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
gotta lay my child down… brb
In the 666 - January 23, 2012
Ian playing quality minutes in Dal and looking good.
hurts2bgood - January 23, 2012
He has been getting a lot of minutes and scoring a little bit also
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
15pts, 8bds, 3 blks 22mins
hurts2bgood - January 23, 2012
He has played well there which sucks because he stayed hurt or hacking with us.
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
Dal enjoying the benefits to Spurs hard work
hurts2bgood - January 23, 2012
Yeah they are
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
Pacers enjoying the benefits to spurs hard work … but its ok
cuentaluis1 - January 23, 2012
true also
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
Spurs hard work was leaving him to dominate the D-league or on the bench. Nothing he should be too grateful about. Despite his injuries, he wasted one or two years here.
biolb - January 24, 2012
His injuries wasted nearly 2 years of his young career and development as well.
grego21 - January 24, 2012
Seemed like when Ian signed last year with Dallas he had a chance to get some playing time. Then they traded Dampier for Chandler and Ajinca.
Alamo - January 23, 2012
Kawhi rebounds are important
He just play 7 minutes and we lose the battle of rebounds by 13
cuentaluis1 - January 23, 2012
Looks that Pop finally found out that he was a rookie
spursfan87 - January 23, 2012 via mobile
Maybe he just wanted to rest him due to the guy playing so many minutes the last 5 games
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
That, but RJ also played a ton of minutes (which look like it hurt his shooting). Leonard’s shot will always keep him from getting key minutes when the team struggles for shots. I really think if Pop wants to go small put Leonard in place of Blair (I can dream).
Perhaps JA’s figured out a way to apologize to Pop and looks like JA is going to make Leonard work harder now.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
Yes, that does factor in probably because he’s playing more like a rookie now with the ups and downs.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
He can’t shoot consistently enough. He also needs to work on getting around screens. He got burned early by the guards. That and he’s been played a lot of minutes.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
Timmy circa ’05! What a thing of beauty! And, what a welcome surprise. Good night, all!
roni_g - January 23, 2012 via mobile
nite yall
TX2NC - January 23, 2012
night night
eastbaysd - January 23, 2012
Thanks for the barbecue chat too!
TX2NC - January 23, 2012
In Post Poll: W's and Grizz about to start. Who ya got?
Ed (dfjmed) - January 23, 2012
warriors
hurts2bgood - January 23, 2012
Warriors
hurts2bgood - January 23, 2012
Happy that Anderson was let out of the doghouse, if he had been in it. He didn’t do much but the team did while he was in, having a +13 in ten minutes. Now it’s up to him to earn minutes or others to lose minutes.
Alamo - January 23, 2012
Anderson played and I missed it? How did he look on defense?
CapHill - January 23, 2012 via Android app
ok
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
Great defense on the inbounder on the last play of the game though.
SleepCrack - January 23, 2012 via mobile
He missed his open 3 pointers pretty bad though. One was an airball and the other barely hit rim if I recall correctly. He was aggressive offensively but not out of control which was good
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
Seems like he had a shot blocked on a drive but stayed with it to put it back in. Drew a foul on another play for two free throws. I expect he might be thinking too much on some of his shots that by missing he might get pulled, and just needs to start getting into a rhythm. I think his minutes this game were mostly at SF, a bit hard to tell as both he and Green were playing together and seem so interchangeable as far as position goes.
Alamo - January 23, 2012
Yeah maybe he is thinking too much out there. I mean can you blame the guy? You see other guys not hitting shots still getting run and when you don’t they pull you? I mean I would be thinking a lot also.
gunnin' gervin - January 23, 2012
He played decent enough. Hopefully Pop rewards that with giving him some more time just to keep him confident. It would be nice for Pop to not overplay RJ and also give Leonard some time off. Pop needs to let them loose so they can play harder due to the competition at the wings.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
He looked good if you think about how much he played and how little practices there are. I feel like with more time, he could get into a rhythm. Giving Green/RJ/Leonard some time off is useful. Well Leonard lost a lot these last few games. Neal too.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
well gn all
hurts2bgood - January 23, 2012
Is it me or are there no great big men in the league(Howard’s good but not great).
Kevin21 - January 23, 2012
What type of big man are you considering? Do 4’s count? Aldridge is pretty damn good.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
I am with Sir Charles when he says that Bynum is good, but Howard is great
Kondor - January 24, 2012
Howard is just so damn athletic and strong. I mean there aren’t many big guys who have the god given gifts he has and he has been getting by for years off of that alone.
gunnin' gervin - January 24, 2012
He worked on his body more than Shaq though.
Kondor - January 25, 2012
I’m out!…
In the 666 - January 23, 2012
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eGJOqMHsDI
sleep research facility - January 23, 2012
Ed (dfjmed) - January 23, 2012
Ed (dfjmed) - January 23, 2012
“Tim Duncan” trending on Twitter!!! GSG!!!!!
p2cat - January 23, 2012 via mobile
Sorry i missed the game thread, but i DID get to see that shot at the end!!!!! Yeah Timmy!
Trey Felder - January 23, 2012
What a crazy lockout year. With tonight’s win, we’re back on top in the Southwest, and #4 in the West again. If the playoffs started today, we’d play Utah.
Ed (dfjmed) - January 23, 2012
This is why when people say “X team is in x place in the west” it doesn’t mean much since it can change a week from now drastically. GS is blowing out Memphis right now, for instance. Not the west, but Boston smashed Orlando….
grego21 - January 23, 2012
Yep. We’ve just gotta stay afloat. Keep winning.
Ed (dfjmed) - January 23, 2012
Utah is very similar to Memphis so please no……. even if their perimeter players arent even half of what the grizzlies had last season.
Chilai - January 23, 2012
The big difference is Al Jefferson and Millsap are not as athletic. They also don’t have Arhur and a PG. They are more youthful than anything.
They have Raja, but he’s not the same. Tony Allen is definitely a tougher matchup at this time. favors could and likely will be better than Arthur, but he’s not at the moment. He’s still learning how he fits. They also don’t have Battier.
Oh and Earl Watson is their best PG.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
Just for grins, as it stands now, how do you think a Jazz-Spurs 7 game series would end?
Ed (dfjmed) - January 23, 2012
Are we taking it without Manu and TJ playing? Any series is really unlucky without either of them. With a fully healthy Spurs team, they could take them in 5-6. Utah is very young. If Watson is going to continue to be their best PG and tey can’t get anything out of Harris, they are in trouble.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
Yea, God willing, we have Manu and TJ back by the playoffs. I think 5-6 is a good guess. We’ll need them. And that elusive big.
Ed (dfjmed) - January 23, 2012
They still foul a lot, so if the Spurs have their full unit, Manu and parker should be at the line a decent amount.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
I think in all seriousness we could take them out in 4 or 5 games with ease. They dont have much outside their frontcourt.
Chilai - January 24, 2012
I honestly don’t think they’ll hold up through the whole season (at least at this point). I think they are just benefiting from the swings of the season.
grego21 - January 24, 2012
Oh, and Blair is actually a positive against their bigs, at least Big Al and Milsap.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
I think that the combo of Zbo and Marc are better than Al jefferson and Milsap
cuentaluis1 - January 23, 2012
hahah, I forgot to mention Marc. Yeah…. They are way better.
grego21 - January 23, 2012
W’s have let Memphis right back into this.
Ed (dfjmed) - January 23, 2012
Mamma there goes that team
grego21 - January 23, 2012
I wonder how much he’s getting paid. I bet they got him on the cheap, because of his lack of experience.
Ed (dfjmed) - January 23, 2012
Regarding Blair… ouch.. but true.
Read more: http://www.48minutesofhell.com/el-conclusion-san-antonio-spurs-104-new-orleans-hornets-102#ixzz1kLqlJphQ
grego21 - January 23, 2012
sad but true
Chilai - January 24, 2012
His defense is exactly the same of last 2 seasons
His offense better
Im more worry about his Rebounds, last 2 seasons he average 12 rebs per 36 min, this season he average 9.7 per 36 min
cuentaluis1 - January 24, 2012
It depends, on offense. when he plays within the offense, it’s good. When he tries to post, not so pretty.
grego21 - January 24, 2012
Do we know when TJ is set to come back?
Heman - January 23, 2012
Grizz winning….come on!
Ed (dfjmed) - January 23, 2012
Warriors lose. Prediction…Mark Jackson gets the axe after the season.
Ed (dfjmed) - January 23, 2012
In all fairness, I’d give him at least one more season.
grego21 - January 24, 2012
I agree. They are actually playing a little better defensively like he said he was going to try and get them to do.
gunnin' gervin - January 24, 2012
And that Grizz win bumps us back into 2nd place in the Southwest, 6th in the West. Thanks W’s. Gnite PTR!
Ed (dfjmed) - January 23, 2012
per MySa
grego21 - January 24, 2012
Interesting. Blair has to step up though. Tiago is on the rise and Blair has a big question mark over his head.
There is no way Pop would put Blair in at crunch time over Tiago.
Spurs Yoda - January 24, 2012
Blair didn’t see a lot of crunch time even before Tiago, but now tiago is seizing an opportunity.
grego21 - January 24, 2012
Good defense, at least when they needed it.
Per NBA.com
grego21 - January 24, 2012
The Hornets (and their fans) are probably pretty tired of losing by 2 to the Texas teams by now.
Only_A_Lad - January 24, 2012
Nice game tonight, very entertaining. Tony got career high in assists, and Tim looked 5 years younger. Our offense looks much better when Tony passes the ball. Tim and RJ started very well on the offensive end, and other guys joined the fun.
Kondor - January 24, 2012
I thought RJ’s defensive play at the end was the best thing he did all game. his offense was nice to see coming around too.
grego21 - January 24, 2012
RJ and TD was pretty much all the offense we had in the 1st Q. It allowed us to stay in the game after pretty bad start.
Kondor - January 24, 2012
I think they had the first 14 points of the game. Definitely doesn’t disagree with you on that point though. Parker had 6 assists in that.
grego21 - January 24, 2012
I think, it was 19 points before anyone else chipped in (TD 11 + RJ 8).
Kondor - January 24, 2012
NBA should introduce challenge system, like other sports. What Okafor did against Splitter with 14 sec to play was pretty evident foul. It didn’t cost us the game at the end, but it could easily. Why the NBA doesn’t want to review this kind of calls is beyond me.
Kondor - January 24, 2012
They feel like it would slow down the time. They should do it like the NFL. You lose a timeout if you challenge. That way no extra time is taken away from the game….I’m sure there’s an extra dollar cost to it that they don’t want to do, although it would help them clear up the “refs are against us” argument a little bit more.
grego21 - January 24, 2012
Slowing down is a very lame argument. Restrict the number of challenges or do it at the expense of timeouts as you said. As for the cost, all those games are recorded anyway now, and they do have reviewing capabilities available. We see it all the time on TV, so there is no reason, why the refs cannot see the same thing. They review some things like out of bounds calls and flagrant calls. They just should give coaches an opportunity to challenge when the game is in balance and one bad call can change the outcome.
Kondor - January 24, 2012
I’m not saying I agree with the slowdown, but that’s the main argument they go to from what read. I completely support replay. I think it works well in football and definitely has helped in these playoffs. Heck, the Giants are likely not going to the superbowl without replay.
I’d be happy with two challenges per game. And if you call it wrong, you lose a time out.
grego21 - January 24, 2012
To be honest it looked like a clean block at game time speed and having challenges in a game that already bog’s down at the end in close games is just over kill. Die hard fans don’t mind but the causal fans would leave even quicker than a Derek Jeter marriage proposal.
gunnin' gervin - January 24, 2012
No, it didn’t look like a clean block to me, and I don’t see why it is so important if some impatient fans would leave earlier. It would just mean less traffic after the end of the game. If time is such a big concern, the first thing to go should be overtimes for regular season games. If you restrict review time and do it at the expense of a timeout, you won’t lose much if anything. BUT you’ll have a chance to make it right more often. I am sure the refs would also make less bogus calls knowing that they can be challenged.
Kondor - January 25, 2012
Two reasons why League doesn’t have a challenge/instant replay. (Though I am not necessarily against such a rule)
1. Because of the unofficial fact that they do makeup calls after making a bad call.
2. NBA officiating is rather subjective, things are not universal, a foul in one game would not be a foul in a different contest, etc. One call in a sport with so many possessions rarely affects the outcome of the game (as opposed to football)
alamobro - January 24, 2012
It even more rarely in tennis, but they introduced the challenge system and the game won because of that. I am not saying let us review every call, but having couple of challenges per game seems reasonable.
Kondor - January 25, 2012
From MySA
And this is why RJ’s shot has suffered. Pop has got to balance out, even his younger guys minutes, but RJ did good….
And this is why a lot of the negative plus/minus scores came about..
If not for Tiago’s missed dunk, he would have had 18.
Good fantasy player pick up.
Some great team defense!
grego21 - January 24, 2012
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