El Conclusión: Portland Trail Blazers 111, San Antonio Spurs 95

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San Antonio Spurs 95 FinalRecap | Box Score 111 Portland Trail Blazers
Tim Duncan, PF 28 MIN | 9-12 FG | 2-2 FT | 8 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 20 PTS | -5 +/-
It’s truly becoming amazing how little support he’s getting. Duncan carried the Spurs once again, and nobody else pitched in.

Kawhi Leonard, SF 35 MIN | 5-13 FG | 3-3 FT | 8 REB | 3 AST | 4 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 14 PTS | -13 +/-
His jumper is really hurting him, to the point he’s hesitant to take it. Given this iteration of the Spurs, that simply cannot be the case. His defense was OK, as was his rebounding, but San Antonio needs more than that.

Aron Baynes, C 19 MIN | 3-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 6 PTS | -2 +/-
He had positive moments, as he does nearly every game. It’s just troubling that he continues to start ahead of Tiago Splitter. A solid game, but the Spurs need more than what he gives — nothing personal. Baynes played pretty well on both sides of the ball.

Tony Parker, PG 27 MIN | 1-8 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 4 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 4 TO | 2 PTS | -7 +/-
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen him so far off his game. To me, he looks normal defensively — like he’s moving around OK. I don’t know what the answer is here, but he needs to snap out of it. Fans are quick to say he “needs to sit,” but I have no idea if that’s true. Whatever it is he needs, I got nothing. He’s got 25 games to figure things out.

Danny Green, SG 32 MIN | 4-9 FG | 6-6 FT | 5 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 17 PTS | -5 +/-
Danny was fine. He’s another guy who hasn’t looked himself recently, either, though. But Green’s a guy who feeds off his teammates and lands those haymakers, and there hasn’t been much momentum to feed off of lately. Weird times.

Marco Belinelli, SF 21 MIN | 4-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 9 PTS | -8 +/-
Marco did what he normally does and took advantage of the shooting opportunities he got. But that’s basically all he did. When the Spurs are struggling this badly, even his efficient contributions matter little.

Boris Diaw, C 21 MIN | 2-11 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 4 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 5 PTS | -10 +/-
Another game of “What the F*** is Going on with Boris Diaw?” He’s become almost nonexistent as a threat to score, and because of that he’s been nothing more than a space-filler. He’s so much better than this.

Tiago Splitter, C 17 MIN | 3-4 FG | 0-0 FT | 4 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 0 TO | 6 PTS | -8 +/-
Continues to lose minutes to Baynes, and it looks like he’s going to have to work his ass off to change that. I’m not sure where the Splitter pick-and-roll has gone, but this dude seems so out of rhythm with the offense. With everything, really.

Patty Mills, PG 10 MIN | 4-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 10 PTS | -3 +/-
Didn’t even enter the game until late in the third and tried to give the Spurs a boost. Didn’t matter, but he seemed like San Antonio’s only threat to score in the fourth. I don’t blame those who think this guy needs to play more.

Cory Joseph, PG 12 MIN | 0-1 FG | 2-2 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 0 TO | 2 PTS | -5 +/-
It kind of sucks watching this guy lose minutes, but tonight did nothing to help him. Very little impact, offensively. He was at least working on defense.

Manu Ginobili, SG 13 MIN | 1-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 2 PTS | -12 +/-
A relative non-factor. It’s becoming an all-too-common theme, unfortunately. He just didn’t do anything.

Gregg Popovich
Being a coach seems so unappealing. Popovich is now in the stuck between a rock and a hard place: finding minutes for bench guys who are playing well and trying to help his stars (or Tony Parker, at least) find a rhythm. As usual, I don’t have any issues with how Popovich is coaching. I know people are going to yell about him not playing Mills enough, but those are the same people yelling that he didn’t play Joseph enough in games before. Sometimes it’s just a guessing game.

Three Things We Saw

  1. The Spurs will end the Rodeo Road Trip with a losing record for the first time ever. Fans have begun closing the book. I’m not going there yet.
  2. This whole rut is so strange — nothing is working with this team right now. Everything appears out of sync, some players are clearly hesitant to shoot, and all of it is leading to unsettled defense. It’s startling.
  3. Tony Parker has to get right. It kind of feels like the rest of the roster depends on it.
  4. Funny thing is, I thought the Spurs actually played OK tonight.
  • Robb

    Start Mills!

  • Graham

    I guess at this point we hunker down and pray we are still in the 8 seed after the dust settles?

  • Ginobili137

    It does seem unlikely that the team can get it together an win a championship at this point, but it also seemed unlikely that we would suddenly turn to crap at the end of last year, but that happened.

    I just think Tony and Manu need to play better. And look, they might just not have it in them, maybe they are just too old. But if they can’t get it together, this team just can’t win the championship. Parker is only 32, which isn’t even old, but he looks really old out there, and I don’t think it has to do with the injury.

    Manu has had occasional great games, but in my opinion isn’t being aggressive enough scoring-wise. I don’t think he deserved an F tonight, he hardly got any opportunities, but he definitely was poor. This season, he keeps passing up shots from floater range that he could take to make dangerous passes that frequently end up as turnovers. I don’t know if he is being told by Pop to shoot less or something, but I think he needs to shoot more, especially when in the paint. As I said earlier, maybe he is just too old and the shots won’t fall, but I think it’s worth a try.

    Literally the only Spur playing well this season is Duncan, which is absolutely mind boggling.

  • Spurs fan in Australia

    I only got to catch the 4th quarter, what I want to know is what the Spurs did differently in the 2nd quarter to get back in the game?

    Other than that, it sucks to watch the Spurs play like this when every one knows they can play better. On the bright side, there IS alot of improvement and we still get to watch Tim Duncan.

  • GillyTooTall

    This is the end, my only friend, the end…..

  • GlassofOrangeJuice

    3 things I got from tonights loss:
    1. We are not winning 50+ games this season (goodbye streak)
    2. I think its time to bench parker and start mills (at this point I think pop should give it a try)
    3. Pop….needs…to….shave….that….beard! (Its bad luck!)

  • GlassofOrangeJuice

    I know, you’d think he’d be playing the worst given his age. Just shows what an all time great he is

  • Gabbo

    The most telling point was when ESPN showed the sequence of all of TP’s shots. Everything was tentative and hesitant. It was like he had no confidence in anything going down at all. He missed a layup in the first quarter and you could almost see him deflate like ‘it’s gonna be another one of those nights.’

    But if TP can’t penetrate and be a scoring threat, the entire offense grinds to a halt.

    I was all for bringing the band back together. But I don’t think anybody predicted significant drops in play from everybody but CoJo and Baynes.

    I know it’s an easy cliche take…but this is where you’d hope Leonard would have morphed into the new alpha dog the Spurs need him to be. While he doesn’t have the handle or shot to create or be a consistent scorer, they need his energy and confidence to propel the team. But he seems hesitant for big stretches as well.

    As Spurs fans we have been playing with ‘house money’ for awhile. So while it’s frustrating, I still keep it all in perspective and enjoy the ride.

  • TD BestEVER

    There’s no point and torpedoing the entire season on one players mental struggles….PG is our deepest position and if you take TP 27 minutes and Split them between Mills and CJ I promise we end up much better off last night if not winning. And for the life of me can we not find a way to feed the HOT hand more….. Why not have TD shoot 10 or 15 of those mid range jumpers(LA from Portland does and they look just fine)….if he has it going just milk him and stop playing the system when its clearly broken at this point.

    If TP is struggling the way he dominates the ball this system doesn’t work!!!! He has to be made to give it up and go spot up or if not just needs to be sat down until he can. We have plenty of people getting in the paint these days. Heck even Green is getting into the paint and to the rim these days. KL, Manu, CJ, Marco all can get to the rim and have this year. Maybe not like TP can when he is on but TP hasn’t been on for more than a game here or there in I don’t know how long.

    And if you want to stay with Parker, you have to bring Manu into the starting line up for better ball movement, Either him or Diaw, because our ball movement right not to start the 1st and 3rd quarters is killing us. We are digging deeper and deeper hole that we can get out of later

  • brunostrange

    I don’t think starting Mills (as some commenters suggest) is the way to go. I love Patty’s game, but he is not an offensive creator. That’s simply not the skill-set he brings to the team. He can definitely score, he can be a tenacious defender, and the level of energy he brings to the team is unmatched. But he’s not the guy to lead the offense.

    I’d be supportive of giving CoJo way more minutes. He’s not nearly the offensive threat that “good TP” is, but he gets to the paint, which I think is key. Or hell, maybe start Manu, and bring TP off the bench?

    To be honest, though, I think these are just band-aids. This team is put together in a way where the offense runs through Parker and what he brings to the table. There really isn’t a cog you can simply substitute for him (Manu may have been, but he too is having a poor season, and is clearly on his last legs). Popovich is right when he says that this team has no chance to do anything in the post-season if TP isn’t playing well.

    BTW, what is up with the defense? Awful over the past four games. It’s like SA is playing defense in slow motion for long stretches of the game.

  • Ginobili137

    I’m not sure but I don’t think the Spurs’ defense has been much different than it was last year. I think the main problem is that the Spurs have been missing a lot of shots and are turning it over a ton, so they can’t set up their half court defense.

    I agree with you that there aren’t really any substitutions Pop can make that make much sense. I think we’re just going to have to hope that the playoffs put some youth into Tony and Manu’s legs. At the moment, they just don’t seem to have the speed/energy required to get into the paint consistently.

  • Derek

    These must be rough times, because I see a wide range of opinions, and now I’m going to add my own:
    I think that Parker needs to continue to start until he finds “it.” As much as we need offense from ANYONE to win a freaking game right now, we need the amalgam of Tony’s skills to go deep this season (and that’s what the Spurs are chasing these days-deep playoff runs and rings). I don’t think Tony’s going to recover his confidence on the bench.
    As for everyone else not named Tim, they need to get their junk together too. I don’t know if they need to go bowling or what, but something needs to happen.
    And here’s where I alienate myself from the 48MoH group-I think Pop needs a kick in the pants as much as anyone. I’m not saying it’s his fault that no one is shooting as well as last year, not his fault that Boris and Tiago appear to be dogging it a little, but he’s been soft-spoken and babying this squad for a while now (since mid-January?), and it’s not working.
    He needed to light into someone when that 2nd quarter run came to an end…no, it’s not “fair” after they dug themselves out of that huge hole so quickly, but there needed to be some expectation that the Spurs keep their foot on the Blazers’ throats and just leave a trail of destruction. I’m all for you lowering his A+ grades, or giving him an incomplete until he lights a fire under these guys.

  • Jordan Hedge

    While
    the concern (and mostly criticism) with and for Tony Parker is merited, he is
    not the only reason the team is struggling.
    Yes, he is not playing as well as last year. And yes, it is hurting the team. But if the Spurs had the TP of last year,
    this team would still be struggling.

    As detailed on this site, and
    other places, guys across the board are having poor years. Basically everyone is shooting
    significantly worse from 3 point territory, and a large majority of those
    shots are still coming on wide-open looks.
    Without the ability to knock down those shots, teams are packing the
    paint even more and playing passing lanes more, making it harder for guys
    like Ginobili, Parker, and Leonard to drive the paint and score. Guys are missing easy layups, and a lot of
    times guys are really out of place on offense so the spacing suffers. And it seems like every game all those
    things just snowball and keep dragging guys’ confidence down.

    If this was all mental, I
    would feel better about guys figuring it out, but Parker’s comment about not
    feeling great, along with some of their recent struggles on defense make me
    wonder if guys are just tired and beat up and don’t have the energy any more. I guess time will tell.

  • brunostrange

    I suppose you’re right about the missed shots creating the defensive woes. It’s just that they’ve looked so bad on defense the past few games…

  • Filemon

    Guys, lets just enjoy Tim Duncan.

  • Ray Briggs II

    Lets not pretend that a loss in Portland is a bad loss. It’s a tough place to play, just like Golden State and LA. But the team just doesn’t seem to have ANY rhythm on offense. I am not for starting Patty but I am for giving him more time. I also think Tiago’s demotion makes little sense. I assumed it was so he and Manu could play more together but that hardly seems to be working out. I think he should be moved back to the starting lineup.
    But everything is dependent on Parker. He has to get back to who he is. To often last night he was backing out of the lane instead of challenging the big men in the paint. I don’t think Mills or Joseph can lead this team to a playoff series win, at least not yet.

  • John T

    Totally agree, I am just treating this season as a bonus and trying to take in as much of Duncan and Manu on the court as possible. I remember feeling like the era was over after the wcf loss to Lakers in 2008 and the loss too Memphis in 2011 so to be at this point is incredible. I just don’t have it in me to be critical.

    Besides the Spurs were like 2-10 in their last 12 games in Portland which makes that dominating semifinal win last year all the more amazing. Now if you want to know what annoys me it’s the train wreck of a season Rick Barnes is conducting in Austin.

  • thedrwolff5

    Bill Simmons made a great point. Tony parker…at 32…has played 1000 games and 200 playoff games…that list is SMAAAAALLLL. Now throw in the Euro ball…Which France won by the way and he was MVP just 2 years ago. He led or was in the top 5 in POINTS IN THE PAINT year after year. Now realize how many times he gets hammered, at his size, and ends up on the deck. every season. Maybe, just maybe, we saw a herculean effort the last 3 seasons from Tony. The psychological energy alone to do that for 300 NBA games and a euro championship Much less the physical energy. Remember EVERY TEAMS DEFENSE WAS SET UP TO STOP HIM FROM DOING JUST THAT. This is the NBA boys and being off 10% puts 20 other guys in your face drooling and ripping the title from your grasp with no mercy. He’s tired, a new DAD, newly married, The title chase for Timmy, the Euro championship for his country…He did it all in 2 years…unfortunately the movie credits don’t roll while you are carried off to Valhalla. The world goes on. It’s not physical. He’s moving fine. It’s mental. It’s rubbing off on the team and THOSE GUYS need to get over it. Tim is playing AWESOME. Draining 3’s and suddenly hitting every open 18 footer he gets. Danny showed a little life last night. Kawhi…the kid gloves are OFF. 4 steals and a block great D. Use that body and GET TO THE FREAKING LINE if your j is off. DO IT! Boris. Stop the step back fadeaway from 12 feet like you hate contact more then RONDO and GET TO THE FREAKING LINE off the block. Tim…LUV LUV LUV that you are hitting that 18 footer at the best clip EVER…but…GET BACK ON THE BLOCK AND GET TO THE FREAKING LINE. Manu…37 year old Manu…EVERYONE KNOWS YOU ARE PASSING…you’ve got to actually make a few shots first to establish the threat that you CAN ACTUALLY SCORE 20 tonight FIRST…THEN start the no looks/behind the backs/nutmegs. NOBODY except CORY FREAKING JOSEPH takes it to the hole with attitude. NO ONE…NOBODY. We miss so many shots and it turns into a defensive scramble where they MAKE and set up THEIR defense. IT’s FREAKING KILLING US. from Manu missing free throws to Tony not penetrating to Boris being afraid to be an inside scorer to Kawhi suddenly Clanking bricks galore…Kawhi needs to get angry. WHEN IS SOMEONE ON THIS TEAM OTHER THEN 38 year old SHAMAN TIMMAY GOING TO STAND UP AND say F FREAKIN U!!! WE ARE THE CHAMPS AND WE ARE NOT JUST GIVING THIS TO YOU. Will someone get a raging T even and get tossed. ANYONE. Bellinelli??? has to stand up and SMACK curry for a staredown dis. MARCO??? I don’t care about winning a title or 50 games or even making the playoffs. I care that in ONE basketball game. a simple Basketball game. The one we are playing right now…we get some attitude and swagger. Tim Duncan is the greatest icey basketball robot this league has ever seen and probably will see. The team is gentlemanly and family and close knit. It has his persona. Someone needs to be Fire and Rage. That was Kawhi games 3-5. It HAS to come from Kawhi. It just has to.

  • TD BestEVER

    I think people are getting TP confused with other top assist men in th NBA!!!!! He only got 5.7 assist last year and 4.8 in the playoffs…… So of the 25 we averaged last year replacing fine 5 isn’t the end of the world!! Now the 17 points might be a bit harder to replace but maybe we make it up with better defense from the pg position band other guys need to just score a little more..TD has it in him and I think Mills can get a few extra buckets

  • brunostrange

    I don’t think it’s about assists, though. It’s about getting the offense going. TP penetrates, draws two defenders, kicks it out to Green, who kicks it to Diaw, who kicks it to Kawhi. No assist for TP, but it starts because of his penetration. I don’t want to put it all on TP, because other guys need to make their shots, but when the engine that powers the offense is sputtering, everything else sputters as well.

    I’m also puzzled as to why Popovich insists on starting two bigs. It’s clear that it’s clogging the paint, making it even more difficult for Parker (or whoever) to drive inside. I’d much rather see Bonner or Diaw starting alongside Tim, creating more spacing. I dunno, maybe it’s something I’m not seeing…

  • whitegluejacky

    We are yelling about BOTH Mills AND CoJo not playing enough, by eliminating Parker’s minutes.

  • thedrwolff5

    They Made shots and Portland missed. Simple, simple simple. Making shots means you set up D making it harder for them to score…and it snowballs. Except…that’s what everyone is doing to us this year. we miss and they get higher % shots while we scramble. They make and set up D. This doesn’t effect other teams NEARLY as much because they have ISO players and guys that score outside of the scheme Aldridge/lilliard, CP3/Jamaal Crawford, Monta Ellis/Dirk…the list goes on. We don’t. Other then Tim, Tony, or Manu We don’t have ISO people and Tony is Broken while Manu is 37 1/2 and Tim is not an ISO player 10 times a game anymore. POP tried to push that to Kawhi and will continue to do so because we don’t have anyone else. It has to be him. He drove baseline on an ISO last night and he had the angle to draw the hard foul and go flailing out of bounds…he pulled back instead. Kawhi has got to be our ISO guy now and it’s time to step in there and sink or swim. Keep shooting it Kawhi.

  • whitegluejacky

    Let me make it clear:

    We are yelling about BOTH Mills AND CoJo not playing enough. To improve, Parker’s minutes need to be greatly reduced.

  • Dapimp Ofdayear

    To be fair to Pop, you don’t know if he is “lighting in someone” behind closed doors, so you can’t necessarily say he hasn’t done it.

  • Dapimp Ofdayear

    Some of Parker’s fatigue may be mental, but he seems physically off as well. If it were just mental, he would still be able to beat guys off the dribble at least.

  • TD BestEVER

    Yeah his agressiveness is what we miss most but just look back to the games he and KL both missed we may have been loosing but we were competitive at least….

    Look at those back to back triple OT loses…..we had guys like Kyle Anderson starting and only scoring 5 points in 47 total minutes….
    At center we had Diaw and Bonner who combined for 43 minutes and only 3 points….

    Those were triple OT…..we should be better with those guys back but we are not…..I think sitting Parker means other guys know they will have to step up…..we did it for 12 or 13 games with both guys out and I’m sure we can do it again

  • merkin

    It seems like they’re switching way too much, which leads to a whole lotta breakdowns.

  • merkin

    A microcosm of the Spurs season: the Spurs had it down to 9 in the 4th when Timmy kicked it out to Kawhi for a wide open 3 . . . He missed, Portland came down and made its three and the rest was academic. Any sign of momentum this season, whether in the game or by the game, has been squelched by missed shots and compounded by missed defensive assignments.

  • James Archetype

    The simple fix is to start Manu over Tony. Let Tony fight with Mills/Joseph in the back court, when the reserves come in. No more lulls in starter scoring or creativity. And put Splitter back in the starting lineup, PLEASE! We need that length!

  • Suave Groove

    GAME DAY!
    GO! SPURS! GO!