El Conclusión: San Antonio Spurs 109, Dallas Mavericks 100

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San Antonio Spurs 109 Final
Recap | Box Score		 100 Dallas Mavericks
Tim Duncan, PF 39 MIN | 7-12 FG | 6-9 FT | 15 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 3 TO | 20 PTS | -4

Duncan played 39 minutes after scaring the crap out of everyone. Honestly, when that right knee buckled, every part of my body from the neck down jumped into my throat. I was literally a walking, talking humpty-dumpty. Hopefully he’s OK, but I’m still holding my breath for any tests he’s sure to undergo upon his return to San Antonio. As for his night, Timmy was very good, as usual, against the Mavs.

Kawhi Leonard, SF 37 MIN | 5-14 FG | 4-5 FT | 16 REB | 5 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 16 PTS | +10

Kawhi was simply a monster in his 37 minutes. He’s a vacuum cleaner on the boards and on 50-50 balls, and tonight he just terrorized Dallas. The shots weren’t falling very easily, but he hit a late dagger from the corner that really secured the win. The Spurs are ramping up his minutes for the playoffs, and tonight was an example of his impact when he stays on the court for long stretches. Would’ve been an A+ if not for the poor shooting.
Tiago Splitter, C 28 MIN | 6-10 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 12 PTS | +39

Tiago didn’t have great numbers, but he had a huge impact tonight. Again, his value is so often overlooked, but he was great defensively and took advantage of his opportunities on the offensive end. I mean, he was +39 in this game!
Patty Mills, PG 36 MIN | 9-25 FG | 2-2 FT | 2 REB | 6 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 26 PTS | +26

Patty was just letting it freaking fly tonight, just how he, you, me and they like it. I mean, 25 shots. Haha. #PattyMillsShotCount broke in this one.
Danny Green, SG 22 MIN | 5-9 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 15 PTS | +13

Caught fire early on, faded a bit, then came back on late. Typical IcyHot game. I love those transition threes, by the way, and I love even more that Pop has given him the … *ahem* … GREEN light on them.
Boris Diaw, PF 20 MIN | 0-3 FG | 0-0 FT | 3 REB | 0 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 0 PTS | -15

Bobo continues a fairly lengthy stretch of slippage… not sure what the issue is, but his scoring and efficiency has dropped, though it’s kind of been overlooked. He was one reason the Spurs had seemed to make a step from last season. He had one really fun pass though.
Austin Daye, SF 1 MIN | 0-0 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | 0

He played. So…
Jeff Ayres, C 1 MIN | 0-0 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | 0

He played?
Cory Joseph, PG 8 MIN | 0-0 FG | 3-4 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 3 PTS | -15

Not a great vote of confidence for Cory that Pop decided to go with a no-point-guard lineup in the second half when Patty was off the floor. But Joseph did not play well.
Manu Ginobili, SG 29 MIN | 4-8 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 7 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 5 TO | 10 PTS | -6

Recovered from a really bad first half with a really nice second half. Good to see him back after getting a little nicked up against the Wolves. He was running the offense beautifully after the break, especially during those stretches as primary point guard.
Marco Belinelli, SG 20 MIN | 2-7 FG | 2-2 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 7 PTS | -3

Eh… hit some important shots, but in general was a bit off.
Gregg Popovich

I liked the decision to go away from Joseph as the backup point guard in the second half, and I liked making Patty the starter to keep that lineup going with a score-first ‘one.’

One Thing We Saw

  1. More thoughts in the recap. Stay tuned.
  • td4life

    Even before tonight, I felt strongly that Mills’ minutes should go up in the post season. 26 on 25 isn’t great, but he drains threes and makes plays when the Spurs really need some cold-blooded scoring (as he did tonight in the second quarter, and to help swing the game in the third). And the way Tony has been playing lately (not to mention the way he gets locked up by the Sefolosha and the like during the payoffs), I really hope Pop trusts Patty with a big role on many a night. If nothing else, it should help Tony stay fresh for the end of close games. I just genuinely believe in number 8.
    Meanwhile, Marco and (especially) Boris need to get their winter mojo back. They aren’t giving us nearly enough of late. But Leonard, oh my! Two of the last three games, he’s playing like a bonafide star and could definitely swing the post season for San Antonio as an x-factor extraordinaire. So good.

  • td4life

    I kind of hope we draw PHX in round one. We’ve basically owned Dallas and Memphis, and playing the Suns should gives a little more challenge to test us for the series that will follow. Also, the Suns are fun to watch and should give the Spurs higher ratings, drawing in a larger national audience (not enough people realize how awesome these Spurs are, so the more the merrier!). That said, I’d also like to wrap up the regular season tomorrow with our home court-clenching win and rest some guys in the last two, so whatevers.

  • spurs10

    Well I don’t much care about the ratings, but I do want the team playing with dogged focus and cold bloodedness throughout the playoffs. This is our year!

  • Governmentname

    Marco is in a shooting funk which seems to be affecting his overall game but Manu seems to know it & keeps feeding him the ball so he could shooting himself out of it. Boris more so than anything seems to have lost the focus/drive he had for the first 5 months…..maybe he’s just bored & is Robert Horry’ing it until the post-season. As far as Patty………he could play a JJ Barea type role if given the opportunity come playoff time.

  • John M. Perkins

    Rasho Nesterovic 17 April 2006 home against the Jazz +41
    Tim Duncan 24 February 2007 home against the Supersonics +40
    Tiago Splitter 10 April 2014 at Mavericks +39

    So, since calculated, highest Spurs plus minus in an away game, 3rd highest in any game.

  • RawJa

    Take a half point away from Timmy and add it to Tiago’s score. When he was in the game, the offense hummed and the defense got stops consistently. It wasn’t a fluke that he was +39. When Tim went out in the first quarter, we went on a run. Not a coincidence.