Entries from February 2009

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

The Notebook: Preaching to the Choir

As the comments have made clear, I don’t need to explain to any of you why last night’s blowout loss to the Cavaliers was such a pleasure to watch. Having racked up wins against LA, Boston and Cleveland would have been a nice little achievement, but I would be lying if I said I thought [...]

Saturday, February 28th, 2009

Letting the Kids Play

When was the last time you saw an attempted alley-oop during a Spurs game? Pops Mensah-Bonsu Malik Hairston (HT: ChampionSpellor2, whoever you are, thanks for getting this up on YouTube so quickly. And thanks to Bruno for bringing it to my attention.)

Friday, February 27th, 2009

All in the Family: The Cleveland Cavaliers

Tim and I oftentimes talk about the broader Spurs family. Kevin Pritchard. P.J. Carlesimo. Steve Kerr. Well beloved members of the Spurs community can be found on the coaching staffs and in the front offices of teams all over the league. Cleveland is no exception. In fact Mike Brown and Danny Ferry may have created [...]

Friday, February 27th, 2009

On Johnny “Red” Kerr

I would be remiss not to take a moment to reflect on the career of Johnny “Red” Kerr. I grew up in the Midwest. My love for basketball began without allegiance to a particular player or team. I simply loved the sport. That love was inspired by more than watching Jordan paint his masterpiece, although [...]

Friday, February 27th, 2009

Bigger than the Big 3

Mike Monroe has written an Express-News piece that warrants a quick comment. The column concludes with these words: Don’t look now, but the Spurs’ defense is beginning to draw less and less ire from Popovich. The Spurs, who are on a four-game winning streak, have held three consecutive opponents to less than 40 percent shooting. [...]

Friday, February 27th, 2009

Other People: Draft Express on Splitter

The good folks at DX are peerless. They’ve recently posted on Tiago Splitter’s development as a player. And they have a sleek new interface. You should visit the new site, if for no other reason than to read more of this: Obviously a high-level rotation player and likely starter whenever he decides to step foot [...]

Friday, February 27th, 2009

A Short History of the World with LJ and Kori Ellis

If you have ever taken the time to sift through our comments, or leave one yourself, you know that Spurs fans are a dedicated and intelligent lot. They know their stuff. In fact, if basketball fans can be broken into class (I foresee a Rob Mahoney chart in our future), Spurs fans are something akin [...]

Thursday, February 26th, 2009

Returning to Form?

San Antonio’s defense has not been the same this season. But things are looking up, even without TD and Manu in the lineup. After last night’s victory against Portland, Jeff McDonald recorded this quote from Coach Popovich: The last four games, we’ve been the defensive team we’ve been in the past…If we can continue that, [...]

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

The Notebook: Spurs-Blazers, 2/25/09

After yesterday’s victory over the Mavericks, I mostly chose to ignore the achievements of Tony Parker and instead focus on the collective performance of the rest of our roster. But, after having one of the most impressive 2 game stretches of his career, I think Mr. Parker deserves to be addressed more directly. The last [...]

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

Playing the Austin Lottery

As Graydon mentioned in today’s Notebook, the Spurs have signed Pops Mensah-Bonsu to a 10-Day contract. What follows is possibly the most ink ever spilled over a D-League call up. But I’m up to the task. If one counts Ian Mahinmi (time served), Pops Mensah-Bonsu will become the 3rd Toro on San Antonio’s current bench. [...]

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

Falling in with the Tired Old Nags

Several weeks back, I wrote a piece called Gagging the Tired Old Nag. It was short and to the point. The average age of the last 5 NBA champion rosters is 28.9. At the time of writing, the average age of the Spurs roster stood at 29.6. I thought it sounded really smart to kill [...]

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009

Other People: John Hollinger

From today’s PER Diem: Tony Parker 66, Dallas 54. It’s amazing but true — while he was on the floor, one player accounted for more points than the entire opposing team. Parker did it last night in San Antonio’s 93-76 win over Dallas. He had 37 points and 12 assists, plus five of his dimes [...]

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

The Notebook: Spurs-Mavs, 2/24/09

For most media outlets, the story of this evening’s 93-76 victory over the Mavericks will be the inspired offensive play of Tony Parker. He ended the game with 37 points, 18 of which came in the first quarter (during which I believe he missed only a single shot). His 12 assists weren’t an insignificant contribution [...]

Tuesday, February 24th, 2009

Reflections on a Rival: The Dallas Mavericks

I was sitting on a couch in “the SoCos,” a housing complex at Vassar College, with my friends Erik and Eric, neither of whom are big basketball fans. They seemed a bit startled by the levels of my emotion: Make no mistake, I’ve always been an excitable guy but in this instance I seemed unexpectedly [...]

Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

Toros Watch: Pops Throws Up a 39/18

The trade market has morphed into the buyout market. These Toros Watch posts may have seemed superfluous until now, but here’s where paying attention matters. The Spurs have until March 1 to sign a player to fill out their roster. Players waived by March 1 retain their playoff eligibility if signed by another team after [...]