Thursday, November 19th, 2009...6:55 am
San Antonio 94, Dallas 99
So far as losses go, the Spurs played reasonably well in their OT defeat against the Mavericks.
For the second time this season, San Antonio held Dallas to a low shooting percentage: The Mavericks finished the game 40% from the field and 17.6% on triples. Their eFG% was 41.5, a full eight points below their season average. Typically, if the Spurs play that kind of defense, they win games.
But they didn’t win, and there are two obvious reasons why.
In the first place, San Antonio had no answer for Dirk Nowitzki, who, for his part, played the role of assassin in the 4th quarter and overtime. The Spurs chose to play him straight up for most of the game, and Nowitzki taunted them with a tremendous clutch performance shooting display. The good people from ESPN Stats and Information broke it down like this:
| Dirk Nowitzki FGM-A | |
| Matt Bonner | 6-11 |
| Antonio McDyess | 5-11 |
| Others/Unguarded | 4-7 |
Nowitzki shot 10-12 from the free throw line.
Those numbers aren’t encouraging, although Antonio McDyess played Nowitzki tighter than the cold 5-11 rendering would indicate.
It’s difficult to know if a different defensive strategy would have helped the Spurs. San Antonio was trailing by small margins for most of the game. If Popovich had doubled Nowitzki, one of Dallas’ three point shooters could have, theoretically, cashed in on an open look. You can’t fault Popovich for choosing to die by forcing contested mid range jumpers rather than giving up open three point attempts.
And the Spurs did double Nowitzki on a key final minute possession that resulted in a missed three point attempt by Jason Kidd. That is to say, this was not a case of coaching obstinacy. Popovich was simply allowing one kind of shot by preventing another.
Dirk Nowitzki won the battle on this occasion, but it doesn’t mean the Spurs should abandon their man-up defense of him.
The second major contributing factor to this defeat-the big, ugly, all on San Antonio factor-was turnovers. The Spurs had 18. Dallas had 5.
Some of this was plain sloppiness. And a bit more of it was Roger Mason Jr. forced into the role of point guard because of Tony Parker’s ankle injury and George Hill’s foul trouble. Manu Ginobili, the team’s best play maker, played only a few minutes in the first quarter before leaving with a groin strain. The Spurs’ offense was mostly Tim Duncan, who played brilliantly and essentially willed the team into overtime, and little else besides.
That’s my glass half-full take on the game. It doesn’t change the fact that San Antonio is 4-5 and off to something of a nightmare start.
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21 Comments
November 19th, 2009 at 7:22 am
Like you said Tim, this certainly isn’t the start any of us would have wanted.
I have no problem with Pop’s defensive philosophy about making Dirk beat them. The Spurs have been a team that rarely double teams, forcing an individual to work for their points against man-to-man D. But as we’ve discussed previously, I would have liked to see him mixing the defensive assignments up. Bonner was getting torched. I would have liked to see some RJ and maybe even Hairston on Dirk to see if they fared any better. Bonner wasn’t doing terribly, and he was playing really hard, but he just doesn’t have the athletic ability to guard someone as talented as Nowitzki.
November 19th, 2009 at 7:37 am
How worried is the Spurs fanbase with your inability to match up with athletic, perimeter oriented big men? I can’t see McDyess or Bonner effectively guarding Dirk, Odom, Aldridge, Amare or Okur in the playoffs.
November 19th, 2009 at 7:37 am
I didn’t see the game, but some things that jump out from the boxscore:
1. with TP out and Manu out for most of the game, RJ shot 5-11 for 13 pts and had 11 boards. This is a continuation of a trend.
2. RJ had 5 turnovers, more than twice as many as Mason. With this exception, the turnovers were very spread out across the team. Bonner had 2 in 25 minutes and, I’m guessing, relatively few touches and not much dribbling. Hairston and Blair each turned the ball over in six minutes of play, Manu in seven minutes.
3. Duncan took the most shots (22), George Hill the second most (15). They shot a combined 14/37, 38%. While our overall FG% isn’t bad and was better than Dallas’, I think the Spurs are still struggling on offense. No one on the team has been a consistent, dominant threat on offense throughout the season. I know we’re a team that shares the scoring load, but we still need someone who can take a lot of shots and be efficient on a reasonably consistent basis. In my opinion, Tony Parker needs to step into this role when he gets healthy. He might not be the leader of the team in general, but he should be our offensive “stud”, our clear first option.
4. The Dallas starting frontcourt KILLED us: Dirk shot 15-29, Drew Gooden went 8-13.
5. We held Jason Terry to 13 pts on 4-19 shooting.
6. Mason is clearly completely and profoundly lost on offense. He shot 2-8 and, most problematically, 0-2 from 3. He’s shooting under 21% from 3 for the season.
7. Perhaps most worrying of all is the injuries. In the first nine games, how many have we played at even close to full health? If Manu and Tim are this fragile this early, how can they play over 70 more games at a high level and then go deep into the playoffs?
8. Continuing on 7, could the injuries be hurting morale? I’d like to see our big three play together, take over some games, show some will and some grit, and have everyone really buy into their leadership and get more determined and competitive. In the games I’ve watched, effort and hustle have been one of our weaknesses, from the top on down.
Time to panic?
November 19th, 2009 at 7:50 am
@Dallaslonghorn: I suspect that you already know it’s a major concern for the Spurs. They haven’t had that in the past, and squeaked by. But it’s getting more difficult to do these days. McDyess, fwiw, is the best option the Spurs have had against Dirk in years. And he’s not as bad an option as you’d think, but still not an ideal guard for face-up 4s.
November 19th, 2009 at 8:01 am
All the in-depth discussions about who should be playing and what Pop’s rotations should be are moot.
If our best players can not stay on the court and out of street clothes we will not win a championship.
The more I watch the Spurs, the more I wonder if we will EVER be healthy again.
I will now light myself on fire..
November 19th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Mason may have had only two turnovers, but he looked awful. Can’t remember him playing a worse game. He was playing point, but couldn’t initiate the offense-alot of dribbling to a bad spot on the court and getting trapped.
RJ had some bad turns too, but some of his were the result of getting into the paint and losing control. We can live with some of those. Mason had trouble getting the ball past the three-point arc.
November 19th, 2009 at 8:21 am
I actually thought Pop might go for the three at the end of regulation… but Gooden’s fouling out probably led Pop to try for OT.
Despite Nowitzki, despite the 18 turnovers… we still should have won the game. A missed layup at 2:34 of OT that would have given us a 4 pt lead… that instead started the downward spiral of pressing mistakes to end the game.
November 19th, 2009 at 8:23 am
I am usually the type that hits the panic button first. That said…I actually think that the last three games despite the two losses is an encouraging sign. Clearly our defense is getting better. The depth of this team is going to hurt us in the near term. Deep team means limited minutes and it is hard to get your rotations to flow together with limited minutes. I hate the fact that our core (TD, TP, Manu) appear fragile so early into the season…I am hoping this is a blessing in disguise as it will give the others more minutes to gel and understand the system. Until Manu gets better, I hope Hairston gets Manu’s minutes more than Mason does just because Hairston’s style of play is closer to Manu’s.
November 19th, 2009 at 8:25 am
I don’t know if any of you follow Hollinger’s power rankings on ESPN.com, but despite being 4-5, the Spurs are ranked 11th. This is largely because of their strength of schedule, .569. By contrast, the Cleveland Caviliers are ranked 12th and while being 8-4 have played a schedule of .402 opponents.
The Spurs have played tough competition with no consistency in the starting 5, multiple new players and injuries to each of their 3 main players. With Parker and Ginobili out, we basically only have one guard who can play the point and I thought Roger Mason Jr. was by far the worst Spur on the floor last night. He better put the ball in the hole or he will be traded by the All-Star break.
The key to the Spurs’ success is still and will continue to be this year, the health of Duncan, Parker and Ginobili.
November 19th, 2009 at 8:29 am
Nate McMillan once said of Manu: “He’s the kind of guy that, by age 50, won’t be able to walk.” I hope we are not seeing the first vestiges of that prediction.
November 19th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Defense forced Dirk into tough shots, he just made more last night than a week ago. It happens. Turnovers were the real problem. That and Kris Humphries shoving his way to 5 offensive boards.
Can we retire the “RJ’s troubles are all Tony Parker’s fault” theme? If you can’t beat Jason Kidd 1 on 1 you’ve got issues. 5 turnovers, including another killer late-game giveaway when masquerading as point guard. Just really out of sync. At least his defense and rebounding continues to improve.
Both team’s starters were negative on the +/-. Nice trick.
More good play from George but he has to be smarter about fouls when Tony’s hurt.
I complained about Timmy going 35 minutes in the previous back-to-back. So last night he plays 41? Ugh.
Bonner kept them in the game in the first half. 9 points in only 4 attempts, 7 boards and good defense on Dirk. Not so much in the 2nd.
Pop should have given Humphries a dose of Dejuan Blair.
November 19th, 2009 at 8:44 am
I wished I could say that the end of the Duncan era will be same as the end of David Robinson era, but that’s a lie. David could still play, Timmy sad to say has no lift in him anymore, his vertical nowadays is about 5 inches. I do think we should have doubled Dirk, at least after the first dribble. The Mavs were hurt also and we let their best scorer take the shots. We need to move the ball better, this hand to Duncan and let him work does not work. Look at the double pick and rolls between Dirk and Terry which we defended horribly. Manu just can’t stay healthy apparently!! This is a big problem, we lose a lot of athleticism without him. RJ still looks scared, but I feel like hes being told not to score, to share the ball more and more, I don’t know about that, I think RJ likes to share but I think he should be a scorer primarily. Bonner shot the ball well and defended as well as he could, but man, stop with the dribbling, go get another sandwich. Jazz tonight, I don’t even want to watch!!!, hey is a home game, maybe we can win after all!!!
November 19th, 2009 at 9:11 am
I saw this on Ball Don’t Lie a couple of weeks ago.
http://www.supersonicsoul.com/uploaded_images/nba-champs-701863.jpg
Not sure if it’s a sign of things to come (outlying circumstances and all that). I just wash I could watch my Spurs be healthy. Unfortunately, it’s part of the game.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:23 am
Any shot that Mahinmi or Haislip will be activated at some point so we can get a good look at them? Just seems pointless to have them sitting when we clearly could use some front court help. Ratliff hasn’t given us much, and what would it have hurt to put Mahinmi or Haislip on Dirk last night for a few minutes? He was scoring on everybody else, so why not see what else we have.
Glad to see that Hairston did get some minutes in the 4th last night. Thought he looked solid. Or as solid as anybody else. And I found it a little disconcerting that Blair saw so few of minutes. He’s supposed to be our energy guy and our “secret weapon” off the bench and he did little to nothing early on, then didn’t see the floor until the game was over. I’m as high as anyone on him, but if he can’t match up with Kris Humphries, that doesn’t bode well for the rest of the season.
One more thought, I know we’ve all commented and lamented at the depth of our roster, but last night’s game goes to show that unless we have someone who can distribute the ball (Tony or Manu), the offense is stagnant and runs through Timmy. Only RJ can create his own shot, while everyone else stands around waiting for their shot. And I’ve noticed in most games this year, our opponents are not doubling Tim, therefore our shooters aren’t getting open looks like last year, which is leading to a lower 3 pt %. And again, without Tony or Manu to create, the shooters don’t have the easy looks they had before.
November 19th, 2009 at 9:43 am
I still think the Spurs are struggling on defense and offense. I want to see more of RJ, I know we’re a team that shares the scoring load very well, but we still need someone who can make shots and be efficient on a reasonably consistent scoring basic. Manu, Parker, Duncan, RJ, I my opinion they are insuperable, but they needs to step into each role when they gets healthier, that’s on offense, but the story change on defense!!!
Hey…!Sorry, if i sound crazy on this one guys…!
We need help on defense now…! we also need a excellent defender that can guard a”Go guy”of any team.
“I remember how excellent was Bruce Bowen, on Kobe, Lebron, Carmelo, even Dirk.”
I have to say, Pop’s defensive philosophy is great! but if we add to the mix’s a player like Bruce Bowen, i think we can make stops any time again.
I know, Bruce is a little old,but i see him better fit in my opinion right now for what we need, good shooter and a great defender.
“Guys the name for the answer for Dirk is easy: Bruce Bowen.”
Will Bruce Bowen the old guy dress again the spurs jersey?
November 19th, 2009 at 10:35 am
I was actually encouraged by last night’s game. As discombobulated as we looked on offense, it looks like we’re starting to gel a little bit on defense. McDyess certainly looks far more comfortable out there.
I also liked how well Hairston played. Hopefully he showed Pop enough that he can get a little more playing time. With Manu and Tony both likely on the inactive list tonight, he should get some opportunities.
I’d also, as someone else mentioned earlier, like to see Mahinmi get a little burn as well. It doesn’t have to be much, but let’s see if he can be in position defensively, and see if his offensive numbers from the Toros will translate over as well.
As for the comments on Mason, I think we’re being a little unfair to him. As last year showed, when Pop tries to bludgeon a square peg into a round hole and make him play point guard, bad things happen. He’s a catch-and-shoot guy, plain and simple. If you let him do that, he’ll earn his money. If he has to create off the dribble, we’ll get performances like we’ve seen so far.
Also, echoing Greg’s point earlier, there seems to be a lot of standing around, waiting for something to happen. The problem is that a lot of our offense is predicated on drawing a double-team, either through penetration, or through Tim in the low post. That’s fine and all if it can happen, but it’s not. Instead, everybody is single-covered and the opportunities aren’t there. On the times when we have gotten people moving, we’ve been able to make things happen.
One thought on this. Could the reduced playbook be more of a hinderance than a help? Instead of just having the new guys scrambling, trying to learn and remember all the plays, you’ve got the older guys who know the full system feeling handicapped because sets they’re used to running are no longer available. So, the old-timers end up thinking (”Ooh! This would be effective, but we took it out. What about option 2? Nope. Not there either. Okay, we do have option 3. Guess it’ll have to do.”) instead of just running things that they know instinctively.
November 19th, 2009 at 10:43 am
Has anyone else noticed Richard Jefferson’s early season, late-game propensity for turnovers? I don’t know if it’s just start-of-the-season clumsiness or a discomfort with the tension of the final minutes of tight games, but in both the OKC and 2nd Dallas game, his hurried, stumbly errors in the final minutes/seconds had a direct impact on the unfortunate outcomes.
Maybe he’s just forgotten what it’s like to be under the bright lights after several years in the NBA shadows. But the one word that I would NOT use to describe him so far this season: clutch.
November 19th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Spurs fans should not hit the panic button yet. First off, no one plays a full 82 games unless your name is Kobe Bean Bryant. Everyone else has 10-20 games or so during the regular season that they miss. This is because the regular season is a LONG one. So Manu is hurt for 1-2 games, so Tony has a sprained ankle, etc. It is not the end of the world. What should really concern you guys on the health front is Duncan and his knees. That is a permanent issue and could cause the end of the [spur's] world.
That said, you shouldn’t really be concerned about health right now. We will see what happens at the end of the year. You may have everyone healthy at that time.
Regarding your team, I think you guys need to completely throw away the notion that Mcdyess/Ratliff will give you anything. Mcdyess is a disaster and so is Ratliff. Blair is playing fantastic ball on the other hand. Why not give the young Blair more time? If the Spurs are going to win a championship, it is not going to be because Mcdyess/Ratliff did anything. It is going to be because some young guns finally came through, young guys like Blair and even the much over-exaggerated George Hill.
Regarding RJ, we’ve gone over this before. He is NOT Duncan. He is NOT a 1st option! He is a 1st option on a horrible team. RJ is a volume shooter who is incredibly inefficient. An average basketball player with a big name. If you are expecting much from him, you will be sorely disappointed.
The KEY is getting great play from your young guns like Bliar/Hill, getting great play from role players like Bonner. Bonner is so much better than you guys give him credit for. Remember, it is not what HE does, but what he allows other Spurs to do. When Bonner plays the 4, the floor is spread out to its fullest. This allows for Parker/Ginobli to do their thing, which is drive the lanes. It is a very simple concept, but Bonner should get MORE time on the floor.
Oh yeah, and Parker/Duncan/Manu will need to be healthy and playing their hearts out if the Spurs have any chance to win a ring.
November 19th, 2009 at 3:06 pm
I think if the Spurs are .500 by their rodeo road trip it would be fine. The Spurs almost always start slow…Pop is still playing with his rotations. Settle down people it will be alright.
Anyone think it would be a good idea to rest Ginobili for the next couple of months, limit Duncan and Parker to less than 30 mins a game, let Jefferson, McDyess, Blair, etc gel with each other and shoot for the 7th or 8th seed instead of going for 2nd or 3rd and limping to the finish?
November 19th, 2009 at 3:25 pm
i am worried with certain peoples minutes and get caught up being angry at certain players, but it really just comes down to being healthy and like someone just said this is the start of the season and were breaking down for some reason. i hope this is our injury period for the rest of the year, you never know
November 19th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
The Spurs had a great run in the third quarter. It all started with the defence and their offence flowed from that very nicely.
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