Entries from December 2009

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

Miami Heat 78, San Antonio Spurs 108: The Early Edition

The Spurs celebrated the arrival of a new year by putting on what may have been their most dominant performance of the season, defeating the Heat by 30 points. I’ve got a little celebrating to do myself but I wanted to make a few quick observations. I’ll be back tomorrow morning (or, depending on the [...]

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

The Ball Tells the Truth: An Interview with Chip Engelland

Spurs Assistant Coach Chip Engelland is widely credited with being the technical mastermind behind the improvement that we’ve seen in Tony Parker’s mid-range jumper. Reportedly he’s also spent time working with George Hill and DeJuan Blair on their shooting (I say “reportedly” because Chip will not discuss any of the specific players he is working [...]

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

Minnesota Timberwolves 99, San Antonio Spurs 117

The storylines that defined tonight’s victory over the Timberwolves are self-evident. Manu Ginobili’s craftiness and intensity poured forth in torrential proportions. Richard Jefferson played with a swagger and physicality which, were this not the present, would appear anachronistic to the Duncan era. And, if Roger Mason had not already driven the final nail into the [...]

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

San Antonio Spurs 95, New York Knicks 88

NBA As they used to say in New York on Saturday nights, “I’ve given you a topic. Talk amongst yourselves.”

Sunday, December 27th, 2009

San Antonio Spurs 112, Milwaukee Bucks 97

NBA

Friday, December 25th, 2009

Merry Christmas

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

To Foul or Not to Foul: Down Two, 27 Seconds Left

With 27 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Portland inbounded the ball, nursing a lead that had narrowed to two after a layup by Tim Duncan. With just over 3 seconds separating the game clock and the shot clock, the Spurs chose to apply on-the-ball pressure and hopefully force the turnover or, at the very [...]

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Portland Trail Blazers 98, San Antonio Spurs 94

The air of optimism I had begun to breathe was sucked from the room this evening when the Spurs fell to the woefully undermanned Blazers 98-94. There’s always a temptation to point to a few particulars and excuse the loss: We took 21 three-pointers, only six of which went through the net even though the [...]

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Christmas Wish: Play Ian Mahinmi

Okay. This one has taken me by surprise. When the Spurs declined Ian Mahinmi’s contract option, I didn’t expect it to mean he wouldn’t play. You know, as in not at all. Zero minutes through 25 games.

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Advanced Box Scores

You may know Joseph Treutlein from his work at DraftExpress. A few months ago he launched a must-bookmark site called Hoopdata.com. Hoopdata is a treasure trove of statistical riches. Click the link, check it out. After the launch of Hoopdata, Treutlein reached out to a few bloggers, myself included, for feedback and suggestions for his [...]

Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009

Other People: Arnovitz on Kaman and the Spurs D

Via Clipperblog: The book being drafted by most of the league on Chris Kaman instructs teams to swarm the Clippers’ big man with double-teams when he catches the ball at 15 feet. But Spurs coach Gregg Popovich’s reading list is self-authored and it reads something like this: “We’re the San Antonio Spurs. We deploy a [...]

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Los Angeles Clippers 87, San Antonio Spurs 103: the Early Edition

There are lots of positives to take away from tonight’s victory over the Los Angeles Clippers: the continued excellency of Tim Duncan; Tony Parker’s reignited aggressiveness; and what you might generally refer to as 48 minutes of sustained focus on both ends of the floor. But for me the story of the game is the [...]

Monday, December 21st, 2009

Clippers at Spurs Liveblog

I’ll be hanging around ESPN’s nightly live chat throughout the game as well as haunting the old twitter page from time to time. Stop by either if you have a chance, or leave your thoughts about the game in the comments section. Go Spurs.

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

Read Between the Lines

Above is the play-by-play for the final ten seconds of last night’s game against the Indiana Pacers. Hidden inside this very standard and typically unhelpful form of score-keeping is a wealth of information about what has been going right and wrong for the Spurs this season.

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

Indiana Pacers 99, San Antonio Spurs 100

Well, that was far more stressful than I had anticipated. In a game that Gregg Popovich described as an “ugly win,” the Spurs defeated the Pacers on a go-ahead dunk from Tim Duncan with four seconds left. After an excellent 1st quarter that ended with a Matt Bonner and Manu Ginobili led run, the team [...]