El Conclusion: Manu powers Spurs to Messina’s first win

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Indiana Pacers 100 FinalRecap | Box Score 106 San Antonio Spurs
Tim Duncan, PF 33 MIN | 7-10 FG | 3-6 FT | 6 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 2 BLK | 2 TO | 17 PTS | +16 Solid all night. My only complaint, and this one is going to come for a lot of Spurs this game, but the defensive rebounding was less than ideal. Other wise, he scored pretty much whenever he needed to, defended and ran the floor well.

Boris Diaw, PF 33 MIN | 1-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 4 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 2 PTS | +9 Am I allowed to say he took a night off? I’m saying he took a night off.

Kawhi Leonard, SF 36 MIN | 8-12 FG | 3-6 FT | 13 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 21 PTS | +7 Awesome as awesome can be. He was all over the place on defense, got the offense going early, stepped it up in the second half, had a couple of big highlight plays. Just stellar.

Tony Parker, PG 36 MIN | 8-16 FG | 4-6 FT | 4 REB | 6 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 21 PTS | +1 This was absolutely going to be a B and then bam, he reeled off six straight points and tossed in some assists to help the Spurs stay in the game when things ran the risk of getting out of control.

Danny Green, SG 29 MIN | 1-4 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 3 AST | 1 STL | 3 BLK | 1 TO | 2 PTS | +8 This comes from Keith Mullett on Twitter: “Danny gets a B. Shot wasn’t there but his blocks and attitude helped them fight through this one.” I agree with what Keith said, except I thought his defense deserved more than a B.

Aron Baynes, PF 15 MIN | 4-4 FG | 1-2 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 9 PTS | -10 From Joe Schlmoe: “Good energy, boards, points, no big mistakes.” Agreed, foul trouble wasn’t awesome, but he is playing more minutes than he’s used to.

Matt Bonner, PF 14 MIN | 0-2 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | -1 Can’t knock the hustle.

Marco Belinelli, SG 17 MIN | 2-5 FG | 2-2 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 6 PTS | -1 Eh, he was fine. Not a lot to see here.

Manu Ginobili, SG 26 MIN | 10-18 FG | 6-7 FT | 3 REB | 4 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 3 TO | 28 PTS | +1 He was everywhere, especially in the 2nd half. The shot making, that ridiculous jumping skip pass to Baynes. He was a dunk on Bosh away from it being the most fun Manu we’ve seen in like 3 years.

Gregg Popovich
We couldn’t code in a Messina headshot here, but he didn’t get T’d up once. RIDICULOUS! Just kidding, nice game for Messina. Seemed to handle the rotations well, etc.

Five Things We Saw

  1. Really, really sluggish game. The Express News’ Jeff McDonald nailed it when he said the Spurs were in a bit of a haze for much of the first half. Stupid turnovers, getting out hustled on the glass. I expect a much better effort from the jump against the Kings Friday night.
  2. Recently, I received some comments about Tim Duncan getting beat on defense during various games (most notably the Cleveland game when Anderson Varejao went off). Thing about Duncan right now is he is playing exceptional defense but the Spurs don’t have any other rim protection in their line up with Splitter out. He may not get a lot of blocks, but Splitter’s rim protection was key for the Spurs last season. Also, tough to harp on Duncan too much about the Varejao thing, that will some times happen when you’re trying to bottle up a LeBron pick and roll.
  3. It’s games like this where I tend to overreact to Kawhi and Danny Green foul trouble and worry about not having a third wing capable of defending in space. The defense was really bad when neither Kawhi or Green were out there against the Pacers starters and I’m talking about the Pacers starters. But good wing defenders aren’t super easy to come by and the Spurs as a whole aren’t usually the most foul happy bunch.
  4. Fitting that in Ettore Messina’s first NBA head coaching game, Manu Ginobili, who played for Messina in Italy, led the Spurs to victory in the second half. By the way, Gregg Popovich’s procedure is being called minor but they didn’t say when he’d return to the bench.
  5. Next up the Sacramento Kings come to town. That’s Friday night at 7:30 from the AT&T Center. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
  • mac

    There are some folks who question that Ginobili is an NBA Hall-of-Fame player (if there were such a thing). It’s obvious that those folks haven’t really watched the Spurs closely over the last 12 years, and only look at his stats. Manu is not only a Basketball HOFer, he is — and has always been — an elite NBA shooting guard. ELITE. He showed us once again tonight how a legendary gamer gets it done.

  • Governmentname

    KJ McDaniel would be have been a perfect back-up for Kawhi/Danny & could have been had in the 2nd rd of last year’s draft but supposedly Kyle was a better fit. I was hoping that RC would at least trade a future 2nd rd draft (Sixers just want to tank this year) for KJ but he ended up resigning Daye!

  • Steve Tallent

    Poor Messina gets an F. Or was that an oversight?

  • td4life

    Actually he gave Pop the F. (I don’t get it either).

  • Carlo Duroni

    Agree. Said folks are those who usually judge a defender by the no. of blocks and an attacker by the PPG alone.
    Pretty sure Manu doesn’t give a s… about being deemed a HOF or not.

  • C

    Should be la conclusión

  • Tim in Surrey

    They can sign him as a free agent this summer. McDaniel’s agent got low-balled by the 76ers so he arranged a one-year only contract. So KJ McD will be a completely unrestricted free agent this summer.