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