Wednesday, March 25th, 2009...11:10 am
Other People: Kelly Dwyer
From his always excellent Behind the Box Score:
Bruce Bowen makes it so Stephen Jackson has to look both ways before crossing the street after pulling in the rebound, so Ellis doesn’t get the ball (at the opposite three-point line) until there are 3.9 seconds left on the clock. Now, 1.6 seconds (the difference between the rebound and Ellis getting the ball) doesn’t seem like a ton, but in the NBA these things tend to happen pretty quickly. Much quicker than that.
And while Ellis is more than capable of dashing through three and four defenders on his way to the front of the rim from the opposite three-point line in 3.9 seconds, Tony Parker made sure he wasn’t getting a damn thing. Good thing, because Ellis had been killing Parker all game (we should probably mention that Parker was killing Ellis all game, as well), and he was probably pretty sick of it.
So Parker moves his feet, running backwards, side-to-side, arms to his side, knowing where the help was … it was brilliant. I’ve watched and re-watched it over and over this morning. Ellis ends up having to take a 37-footer, a shot usually reserved for .3 seconds on the clock, with 1.7 seconds on the clock, missing as you’d expect.
And this isn’t on Ellis. Parker funneled him into a situation where he had Bowen clamping down from behind on his strong hand, and Tim Duncan poised and ready right at the three point line should Ellis decide to try one more dribble to his left.
It was a horrible result, but it was probably the best option. And while they might gos out in the second round this year, these Spurs are amazing. At the worst of pressure points, they keep it together. They know EXACTLY what to do.
2 Comments
March 25th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Hmmm, Groundhog Day much? It’s times like this, when our backs are against the wall, things are looking as bleak as they have looked in a decade, and big questions need to be answered with less than a dozen games to go, that I really appreciate how much this team means to me. My demeanor will literally reflect the win-loss record of the rest of the season. Oh, the goosebumps of anticipation…
March 25th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
ThatBigGuy, I know how you feel. I am good husband/father/employee/friend when the Spurs when. Don’t talk to me if they lose. I wonder if the Spurs know that my whole marriage is tied to whether or not they win and how romantic I am.
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