Wednesday, January 13th, 2010...8:42 am
A Quiet Night for DeJuan Blair
DeJuan Blair started for the Spurs last night against the Los Angeles Lakers. He finished it too. In between? Nada.
Blair played the first five minutes of the game before being substituted for Antonio McDyess. He didn’t step on the floor again until there were just a couple of minutes remaining in the fourth quarter and the final score was just a formality.
I made a little prediction pre-game that there was a chance that Blair wouldn’t play a lot against the Lakers. Coach Popovich tends to lean on older players more in big games, and I thought that Theo Ratliff might see more time as a result.
Ratliff played in the second quarter but only totaled four minutes for the game. Instead, the Spurs used a combination of Antonio McDyess and Richard Jefferson at the four position, with excellent results. Lakers starting power forward Lamar Odom scored just 10 points on 2-6 shooting and was practically a ghost for the majority of the game.
But back to Blair. With Coach Pop’s tendency to favor vets, and Blair’s propensity to get into foul trouble, I thought his minutes would be limited in this game. Seven minutes was more limited than I expected, though.
At 7-foot, 280 pounds, Andrew Bynum is simply too big for Blair to guard, even with Blair’s knack for playing bigger than he looks. And DeJuan’s inexperience at guarding more perimeter-oriented bigs like Odom and Ron Artest meant he could easily end up in foul trouble early in the game.
With those things going against him, Coach Pop probably felt more comfortable going with a veteran front court and resting Blair for tonight’s game against the youthful and energetic Oklahoma City Thunder. Given the final result, it’s hard to argue.
Jefferson and McDyess were fantastic on defense and George Hill and Manu Ginobili each spent time guarding Artest. Even Ratliff played a solid four-minute stretch for San Antonio. With a 20-point win over the best team in the NBA, there is no second guessing Blair’s extended time on the padded seats of the AT&T Center on Tuesday night.
It just wasn’t your game, rook.
11 Comments
January 13th, 2010 at 8:57 am
Good point about saving Blair for OKC. His energy will be needed. I also wondered if Pop chose to leave any potential Blair matchup advantages in his back pocket, since Gasol did not play on the other side. This way he got to see what Dyce and RJ did vs Odom (nice results) and will have more unknowns in his favor for future games vs LA.
January 13th, 2010 at 9:38 am
Odom seemed to be getting every rebound in the first 5 minutes against Blair. I wonder if Pop was going to limit Blair’s minutes to 15 or so anyway, but then saw that he was struggling and decided to pull him early.
January 13th, 2010 at 10:08 am
Yeah it wasn’t really just pop theorizing that Blair was overmatched, it looked that way early with the Lakers running out to a 10-4 or 12-4 lead or something. As physical as Blair plays, he just faces matchup problems against the Lakers. I think McDyess is definitely a better fit for these kinds of games.
Hopefully Blair can help us tonight; we always struggle against the Thunder, and on the road, on the second half of a back-to-back while we’re still assuredly feeling pretty pleased with ourselves, and the new revelation of Tony’s injury… this DEFINITELY has a letdown feel to it.
January 13th, 2010 at 10:12 am
We have all seen Pop play small ball. I wonder what Blair would look like at the three to match up agains stronger offensive guys like Ron Artest. Height and weight are the same, while Ron has a better outside game, I am sure that Blair could bully him around down low.
Another note: George Hill muscling the ball away from Artest; not once, not twice, but three times i saw him ripping it from the strongest man in the league.
You have to love tha hustle that Grizzly Blair, Cubits and Yawn bring to the table!
January 13th, 2010 at 10:56 am
Loving all this coverage the morning after a game. Thanks guys - best in the Truehoop Network.
January 13th, 2010 at 11:13 am
I’d like to see Pop give some playing time to Haislip on Durant. The guy’s intriguing; he’s a physical specimen in the Dwight Howard mold, athletic as hell, seems to have a damn good jump shot, even from beyond the arc, and appears to be cut from the Spurs’ attitude mold. Not sure how good his defense is, but Durant doesn’t drive that much, isn’t strong and relies on his jump shot and athleticism. It would be a good test, even for a quarter or so, that could reap dividends down the road against some of the other athletic talent we’ll be facing.
January 13th, 2010 at 11:55 am
I agree, I’d like to see Haislip get some playing time to see what he has. It seems to me, Haislip should get some of Bonner’s minutes since he’s next in line. Especially with the road trips and back to backs coming up, let’s use what we have to win games and not bench Duncan to start a game anymore. Use Duncan like Manu if need be, half a qtr at a time.
Anthony Tolliver got to play and proved he couldn’t. Haislip is 3 for 3 on 3 pt shots this season! Give a chance with all these road game back to backs.
Besides, I personally don’t think playing Jefferson at the 4 come playoff time will work. It’s great for the Suns, Knicks, Warriors of the world but playoff teams I doubt it.
January 13th, 2010 at 1:12 pm
let blair and mahinmi loose tonight. we need some of those young legs to carry us in a back to back. too bad we couldn’t get a stoppage of play to see Ian take the floor. that would have been icing on the cake.
please don’t trade this guy
January 13th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
I have to say thanks for adding two more talented writers to this site. I have been enjoying seeing a new article every time I come here!
I really like the current front line of Duncan, Blair, Jefferson, Bogans, and Parker.
January 13th, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Lamar Odom absolutely killed us when we lost that series 4-1 two years ago. Granted, this is thinking way too far ahead, but if we can keep him in check, we have a good shot at beating the Lakers in a 7-game series if we continue to improve defensively.
January 13th, 2010 at 8:19 pm
Wow!!! 28 pts, 21 rebs, and a handful of blocks tonight in just 31 minutes… Just in time to quell the ‘quiet night’ trend.
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