18 Comments

• Chipp
  November 5th, 2009 at 11:08 pm

  Ouch.

  The Spurs looked sad tonight. No sense of urgency. I’m not understanding the 1 on 5 offensive thing Tony and Manu are running these days. They need to try an involve others.

  The starting group of Bonner, Finley, Duncan, Jefferson and Parker seems to have zero chemistry. Help defense and especially defensive rebounding is just sad. I know it’s only game four, but it seems like this team has no clue or direction.

  IMO, the only bright spots are Duncan and Blair. I also liked seeing Duncan, Ginobili, Parker, and Blair on the court together. Add RJ and that should be the best 5 to finish games.

  Keeping fingers crossed some miraculous change appears by tomorrow night!

• rene ibanez
  November 5th, 2009 at 11:16 pm

  They need fresh legs in the front court and shot blocking when Tim goes out. By the way, Tim looks lethargic,weaker and with little if any lift. Ginobli is not the same player and may not regain his old form. Parker is not consistently aggressive in his drives and may be fatigued from too much summer basketball. Blair is a wonderful rebounder but a liability on defense against other teams’s bigs. Bonner never performs well against elite teams, and can not defend. Isn’t Haislip a 3 pt shooter and. more athletic. Pop should give him a shot. Mahinmi, can run the floor, block some shots and inject some energy. Give him a shot as well. Ratliff is on the bench,, shot blocking would have been helpful tonight why wasn’t he used. The Spurs will not compete let alone win a championship without a change in strategy and in front court personnel. Only TD is indispensable.

• Tanjavur
  November 5th, 2009 at 11:21 pm

  Yes. That was disappointing. Just did not seem like the team had energy after a four day break.

  Maybe we have too deep a team, with all the rotations nobody seems to get into any rhythm. I’d like to see Pop start Blair instead of Bonner. Finley and RJ can spread the floor while Blair and TD protect and dominate the paint.

• Sauce
  November 6th, 2009 at 12:32 am

  Finley needs to be replaced by Mason…Bonner is okay for now in the starting lineup.

• JTC
  November 6th, 2009 at 7:03 am

  I’ll start off by saying this was very disappointing to watch. I have problems with just about every player.

  Tony Parker - while Tony is a great player, he is no point guard, he is a scoring guard at best, I really don’t believe he makes the team better, he really doesn’t have high number of assists throughout the season

  Bonner - oh boy, I really like the guy but he can’t play basketball, if he isn’t squared and alone, he can’t shoot anything and defensively…. who am I kidding, what defense…

  Timmy - I hate me for this, I love Timmy, but how can the Spurs keep saying he’s back in good shape and all, he looks very weak, has absolutely no lift and have seen no good signs of the old Timmy this season. He seems to flop all other the floor any times someone blocks him, and please… practice those free throws.

  Jefferson and McDyess - Wow, why are they so hesitant, McDyess used to play some ball up in Detroit and Jefferson while getting better, is still playing to his caliber.

  Manu - Man, did you turn that ball over last night, why do you wait for the defense to get set each time you get ball at the point. I know Manu needs more gym time, and hes ball handling skills will come back.

  Overall Team - the lack of energy and hustle really disgusted me, uncontested shots, Boozer would shoot and we would just let him, on the offensive side, man, we are just a bunch of static robots, we have 4 guys around the perimeter and Tony going at 5 guys, why don’t our players move through screens and pick and rolls, just really really sad, and the boards, man - Blair is the only one that can rebound.

  I don’t need any feedback, just getting this off my chest, I know is only game 4, like I’ve said before I don’t mind losing a game, but not even trying is not acceptable, look at the energy the Celtics play with, you can tell they are going for a Championship, I feel like we are just going with the motions. Deep bench, we have a bunch of players and maybe 3 can get their own shots.

• Jking000
  November 6th, 2009 at 7:06 am

  Easy does it. Yes, the team is lacking chemistry (especially defensively) but isn’t that to be expected 4 games into the season after the biggest roster overhaul in the last decade? The Spurs have a very complicated system and I would expect it to take time for this team to gel. It’s typical of the Pop to experiment with all sorts of roster ideas throughout the season. I certainly never expected to see the Blair, Jefferson, Mason, Ginobili, Parker/Hill combo to get as much time as we’ve seen it get this year, did you? I would expect to see all sorts of different lineups but I have faith in Pop to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

  Duncan is going to look a little slower (although I would argue he really hasn’t) by design. It’s been well publicized that he limited his offseason workouts in hopes of gaining strength through the season and peak it at the end. Ginobili is typically a streaky player, and he has shown flashes of his old self. The true worth of Ginobili is during clutch time, and if he is able to go 100% late in the year, I know he’ll come though. The all year wear and tear on Parker is the only real concern I have as well. I guess my point is it’s early, relax.

• Jking000
  November 6th, 2009 at 7:17 am

  JTC, I know you said you didn’t want any feedback but I really feel I must come to the defense of Tony Parker. I agree that he is more of a scorer than a distributor but that is what we ask of him. This season he is shooting over 50%, his turnover rate is down by .5, and granted he is averaging about 1 less assist, a lot of players aren’t hitting their shots or in the right rotation, which is to be expected this early. And although I don’t always trust these stats, Duncan is 9th in efficiency and Parker is respectable.

• JTC
  November 6th, 2009 at 7:25 am

  lol, thanks for the encouraging words. I really just want to see them try and sometimes I feel like they don’t want it enough. I want to see that they want to win. So far I’ve failed to see the hunger!!! I’m hoping a better night tonight.

  Regardless of the chemistry and and all the new players, you have to admit that the Spurs play at home with a higher sense of urgency, I want to see this on the road as well, I want to see them try and then I can say, we lost, but we played a hell of a game, and we did not do that in either of our losses. I have faith believe me, I remember last year we started 0-3 and we won the southwest division, I just don’t like to see my Spurs going down without a fight .

  Thanks guys for helping me relax, and I look forward to tonight’s game.

• Jordan
  November 6th, 2009 at 8:36 am

  Honestly, while I’m feeling horribly about these losses, I feel like there are some good things about it.

  This is the training camp/exhibition season for the Spurs. With Duncan and Manu not allowed to start their conditioning till later this year, they won’t be where they should be till December.

  Also, I wonder if the rotation is killing us. I don’t remember if someone else already posted this, but one of the reasons McDyess could be struggling is that he’s getting what seems like 5 minutes a game. No one can find a rhythm when they’re getting 5-10 minutes less then they’re used too.

  I trust Pop to figure it out, which means I need to curb my enthusiasm (and not get down every time they lose to “lesser” teams) until we find our rhythm as a team. I just wish it wasn’t so painful.

• lvmainman
  November 6th, 2009 at 9:27 am

  The more I watch the Spurs, the more I regret Rasho Nesterovic wasn’t signed as a free agent. I’d much rather have his defense and rebounding, than Bonner’s ….?? Last night was atrocious.

  McDyess got used by Okur. Hill got abused by Williams and Price. Jefferson got abused by Mathews. Ginobili got abused by Mathews.

  Where is the defense? Why didn’t Ratliff play at all? Will we beat a playoff caliber team on the road this year?

  Can’t wait to watch the demolition at Portland.

• lvmainman
  November 6th, 2009 at 9:27 am

  We should’ve resigned Bowen over Bogans as well.

• Mike M.
  November 6th, 2009 at 9:32 am

  Hey Guys,

  I am Spurs fan here in NY, and I remember thinking the same thing about the Yankees. They lost and lost, then would win a bit, but then it all finally clicked. So I am not too worried! I think by the end of the season we will be clicking and hopefully peaking… It’s not how you start the season, but how you finish it. I would rather get our loses now, and find the way out of them. I think it will help the character of our team. They are the professionals, they know what their doing!

• SpursfanSteve
  November 6th, 2009 at 10:03 am

  i missed the first quarter, but caught the rest of the game. It seemed to me like our most productive lineups were Duncan, Blair, RJ, Manu, Parker, and Blair, Bonner, Mason, Manu, Hill/Parker.

  The common denominator is Blair, and i hope he gets into the starting lineup soon. From what i saw, he did not make many mistakes, and i’m pretty sure he ended with a double double again (although the last two boards were late, the Jazz starters were still in. To me, thats not garbage time.)

  McDyess has looked slow and kind of confused so far. I dont know if he needs more minutes or just more time to learn the system, but to me he hasnt earned as much time as Blair has.

  If Finley keeps getting this many minutes, i’m going to pull my hair out. I would love to see Hairston, or more of Mason (who played well last night and has improved his D.) Or, hell, I’d even rather see us trot out Parker/Hill/Manu at once.

  I know it is still early and Pop is experimenting. I just wish we were still able to keep it close.

• ThatBigGuy
  November 6th, 2009 at 10:08 am

  Goodness, it’s only game 4 of an 82 game season! We have half a roster of new players! Let it ride, folks!

  Besides, we always do this until we kick it up a notch during the Rodeo Road Trip.

  Lethargy seems to be the name of the game in this thread. Players are lethargic for 2 reasons: physical exhaustion or being out of shape. Pretty much the entire roster is out of shape, and on purpose. Lighten up people. We’re going to be meshing in February with well rested guys while the other teams will be working their asses off struggling to claim best record. Kobe is already averaging more minutes than he has in 4 seasons.

  It’s a marathon, folks, not a sprint.

• Sean C
  November 6th, 2009 at 11:16 am

  All I can say is that if you take the top 16 teams in the league, Michael Finley & Matt Bonner don’t sniff the starting line-ups.

  Thank God we don’t play LA until January. It would not be pretty. I think Dallas will give us everything we can handle in the next couple of weeks.

  Red flag: Our defense is atrocious. This worries me… isn’t defense about effort?

  If I get the same feelings after a game in February, we will have to make a move. But who could we get?

• Vic De Zen
  November 6th, 2009 at 12:06 pm

  Did you guys not see a slow start coming? Honestly, it’s what the Spurs do. Don’t worry, it’s early. They’re playing at about 50-60% of what we’ll see in a couple of months, methinks. The talent is there, the system is there, the coach is there. They haven’t gelled yet and they’re not healthy (especially Tim and Manu), so give them time. What matters is how they’re playing when they head into the playoffs.

• SpursfanSteve
  November 6th, 2009 at 12:08 pm

  Sean, i doubt you’ll be getting the same feeling after a game in 3 weeks, much less february. it is way, way too early to start talking about moves. Not every top 16 runs a system like we do that would use Bonner and Finley’s talents. As much as we all hate on Fin’s D, he had a pretty sweet block last night and although 1 on 1 his D isnt very good, his team D is still above average in my opinion.

  Every elite team has someone on it that when you look you think “he shouldnt be there”. The lakers have Derek Fisher, who is definitely a below average player at this point. If you put him on any other team, he likely would be at best a 6th or 7th man. But he knows the Laker’s system. Bonner and Finley are the same for us.

• Sean C
  November 6th, 2009 at 3:08 pm

  I appreciate the response Steve, but Fisher is the 5th wheel on a starting line-up that will look like this very soon: Bynum, Gasol, Artest, Bryant..

  Fisher has repeatedly made clutch shots, played strong D and helped put the Lakers into the NBA finals on several occasions. Even if he has lost a step, Fish is in a league above Bonner and Finley.

  The only thing Boner and Finley can do is hit 3’s. That’s it! If they are not hitting 3’s we’re screwed.

  I digress.

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