El Conclusión: Los Angeles Clippers 114, San Antonio Spurs 105,

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Los Angeles Clippers 114 FinalRecap | Box Score 105 San Antonio Spurs
Tim Duncan, PF 38 MIN | 8-13 FG | 6-10 FT | 14 REB | 3 AST | 2 STL | 3 BLK | 2 TO | 22 PTS | -8 +/-

One of the few Spurs players that showed up on a night where the rotation played as shallow as, well, as the Clippers’. Duncan had a great line, and even complaining about the free throw shooting feels a bit like splitting hairs. He played 38 minutes, too. At least the early game gives the team a little more opportunity for rest.

Kawhi Leonard, SF 40 MIN | 10-19 FG | 3-4 FT | 7 REB | 5 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 0 TO | 26 PTS | -3 +/-

Kawhi followed his career high with another great game. The difference between Game 3 and Game 4, though, was that on Sunday most of his help disappeared. With the Spurs down 14, Kawhi took two pull-up threes and hit both of them to make the final three minutes interesting. But the Spurs couldn’t capitalize. That was the story of the night.

Tiago Splitter, C 18 MIN | 0-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 0 PTS | -4 +/-

Wait, Tiago played? Huh.

Tony Parker, PG 29 MIN | 7-15 FG | 4-8 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 18 PTS | -1 +/-

If you had looked at the box score and seen Duncan, Leonard, and Parker with a combined 64 points, you’d have thought the Spurs had a great shot to pull it out. Parker had a great bounce back night after some duds in this series, and he was attacking and penetrating from the beginning. The big complaint would be the free throw shooting, which hurt the team late in the game. (Ignore the meager assist total. It’s not his fault half the team forgot how to shoot.)

Danny Green, SG 28 MIN | 0-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 0 PTS | -5 +/-

This had to be Danny Green’s worst game in a Spurs jersey. He was on fire in Game 3, and it seemed like that would continue, in line with his home shooting averages. But he came out flat, and he was just awful enough everywhere else – ball handling, passing, defense – to make his presence on the floor a big negative for the Spurs. I’d expect him to bounce back, if only because I can’t envision him playing any worse.

Marco Belinelli, SF 6 MIN | 0-2 FG | 3-3 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 3 PTS | -1 +/-

The team sorely needed a guy like Belinelli to come in and spark a run, but it also needed some stops. Belinelli’s skill set only lets him help in one of those areas, and he missed both of his field goal attempts in six minutes.

Boris Diaw, C 31 MIN | 4-7 FG | 2-2 FT | 7 REB | 3 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 10 PTS | -11 +/-

Diaw shot well and grabbed a decent amount of boards, but the Spurs gave up too much on defense with Diaw out there. Normally, he does a decent job of defending Blake, but he got crushed Sunday. The silver lining might be that Zach Harper (@talkhoops) inadvertently created his new nickname: The Tollbooth.

Patty Mills, PG 20 MIN | 4-10 FG | 4-4 FT | 3 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 14 PTS | -7 +/-

Patty Mills played very well for about 75% of his time on the court. The rest of it was punctuated by bad defense on Chris Paul (which, yeah it’s Chris Paul) and some bad long two attempts. Still, without his offense, this would have been a blowout at the half.

Manu Ginobili, SG 22 MIN | 3-6 FG | 3-4 FT | 3 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 3 TO | 10 PTS | -15 +/-

I thought Manu had a good game. A few years ago, these are the nights where he’d come through with a great game to help turn the game, but it’s obvious those days are behind him. He had the most turnovers on the team and made some bad fouls, but he still gave the Spurs a boost. He gets a pass tonight on this totally meaningless grade, thereby helping his season GPA that does not in fact exist.

Gregg Popovich

Popovich did a great job squeezing whatever he could out of the roster, but he’s not a miracle worker. The problems Sunday were legion, and Popovich can’t make anybody hit open shots.

Four Things We Saw

  1. Hack-a-Jordan made another appearance, and once again, the results were mixed at best. Late in the first half, it seemed like nobody on the team could hear Pop calling for the hack, so they didn’t get to do it on multiple possessions. And when they did do it late in the second half, the Spurs actually got Doc Rivers to sit DeAndre but they couldn’t capitalize and gave up a 6-0 run while he sat. YUCK.
  2. Just FYI, if Boris Diaw ever alley oops I’m trademarking “Blob City.”
  3. I want to say Danny Green has a better game on Tuesday, but he shoots much worse on the road than he does at home. It’s going to be interesting to see how he responds to what had to be one of the worst performances of his career.
  4. The Spurs are 0-1 when Austin Rivers opens the Necronomicon. I don’t even know what to say about what I saw except there’s no way that happens again… right? RIGHT?!
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  • Dan

    Ok, I see your point. It may be that I am very frustrated after last game and knowing we might be seeing the lasts games of Gino and It hearts that the lasts comments about him be negatives.
    But again, you are right and I didn’t mean to be disrespectful.
    Regards and VAMOS LOS SPURS CARAJO!!!!

  • TD BestEVER

    Dude you realize every Spurs players shoots tons of FT’s. You also realize Chip England our shot Dr. work with all Spurs on their shooting. We Marvel at how well he has done with Kawhi 3 ball but fail to realize he is working with everyone on shooting. But its a simple fact that our most fouled players shoot somewhere 75%-79% range. And have for several years now. That’s not gonna change in a close game because we as fans want it to. We just have to be smarter and not give CP 10FT’s on mostly non shooting fouls

  • DorieStreet

    Dan: I did not feel any disrespect from you. I just thought you felt that Spurs fans were being disrespectful to Manu. They were just adding their observations about the loss yesterday. Some felt to need to point out our favs here and there, along with the overall team effort. Tony got called out; so did Danny, Tiago, Marco, Boris, Patty—even a little to Tim and Pop.
    To let you know I feel about Manu..
    Find another player who has accomplished as much as he has across all levels of basketball— a champion /MVP/ recognition & status in European, FIBA, , Olympic, and NBA competition—the latter in a role beneath what he should have been with the Spurs-especially after the 2005 title. (IMO, I thought Pop & RC were too lazy. They wanted to stick with Manu coming off the bench to be the leader/spark of the bench/rotation squad—-instead of really making an effort to find a player who might could fill Manu’s role while he ascended to a starting role along side of Tim and Tony.)
    I would like nothing better for the Spurs to forge through and reach the Finals -and have #20 in the Silver & Black be the impetus for getting Title No. 6-and joining his three other teammates in being awarded the Finals MVP Trophy. That would be the sweetest icing on his delicious basketball cake. I’m rooting just as much with you for that to happen.
    GO MANU!-& GO SPURS GO!!!!!!

  • DJ

    When we played the Rockets, I remember him missing a ton of his free throws. But I also remember the fact that during our hacking we didn’t make any progress in upping/gaining the lead, which goes back to my point about us not scoring well when we hack.

  • SpurredOn

    The right decision does not always get the desired results: it was still the correct strategy. Fouling Jordan (the first of which was not intentional) caused the Clippers to have three consecutive scoreless possessions. In a game where they shot over 53%, that’s success. On how many other occasions did LA goes three consecutive possessions without scoring?

  • PatrickChewing

    So based on your statement the hacking strategy didn’t come into play until the 3rd of those consecutive possessions (1st was a shooting foul, 2nd was a Clippers turnover). So the hacking only got the Spurs 1 scoreless possession, followed by 6 consecutive possessions where the Clippers scored…further solidifying that hacking DJ didn’t “work” or help the Spurs.

    I think our difference of opinion again is over the definition of success. How is it the right strategy if you score less points that your opponent over the time that it was implemented in?

    The answer is 4; 4 other times the Clips went scoreless on 3 or more consecutive possessions in the game.

  • SpurredOn

    I believe the final two fouls were the hacking variety. He was 0/6 on FTs. That’s three possessions. You’re saying that when they didn’t hack Jordan, LA scored on six consecutive possessions. I think you would agree that holding a team scoreless for three consecutive possessions is more successful than allowing them to score on six consecutive.

    As for why the Spurs scored less over that period of time? They missed open shots. As they did all game. Thus they were outscored by 9 for a game where hacking Jordan rarely came into play. They lost because their offense was undisciplined at times and shot poorly for stretches. That took place all game. It had nothing to do with fouling Jordan.

  • PatrickChewing

    Right so if hacking DJ didn’t result in a win, was it effective? Or is it unnecessary, hasn’t resulted in a positive advantage in any of the 4 playoff games so far, and more cowardly than just playing the game the way it was intended to be played.

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