El Conclusión: San Antonio Spurs 92, Los Angeles Clippers 107

by

San Antonio Spurs 92 FinalRecap | Box Score 107 Los Angeles Clippers
Tim Duncan, PF 30 MIN | 4-10 FG | 3-5 FT | 11 REB | 4 AST | 1 STL | 2 BLK | 1 TO | 11 PTS | 0 +/-

The shooting isn’t great – it wasn’t for anybody in a black jersey tonight – but Duncan’s defense was one of the few things that really helped the Spurs keep it close. You know, for like the five minutes it was close. When he sat, the Spurs gave up big runs. But as good as he was on that end tonight, the Spurs will need him to make some layups if they want to have a shot at winning this series.

Kawhi Leonard, SF 33 MIN | 7-12 FG | 3-6 FT | 6 REB | 3 AST | 4 STL | 0 BLK | 4 TO | 18 PTS | -21 +/-

Like the last game of the regular season, Kawhi was quiet out of the gate but started to heat up as the game continued. It was pretty cool to see him commanding double teams, and the efficient shooting was nice. HOWEVER, he missed half his free throws. Yuck.

Tiago Splitter, C 10 MIN | 2-5 FG | 0-2 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 4 PTS | -10 +/-

Splitter had a surprisingly decent line in just ten minutes (ugly missed free throws notwithstanding). Spurs fans should be praying he sees more time Wednesday night, as Baynes got roasted.

Tony Parker, PG 29 MIN | 4-11 FG | 2-2 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 10 PTS | -12 +/-

Tony Parker played great – for about ten minutes. To be fair, he did get a bit banged up in the first quarter, tweaking his left ankle and getting a knee to the thigh from Chris Paul. But his shooting was off for most of the night. Credit the Clippers defense for most of that, but I’d still expect a bigger game from him Wednesday night.

Danny Green, SG 22 MIN | 2-11 FG | 1-2 FT | 3 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 6 PTS | -9 +/-

On the road, Danny Green shoots more than ten percent WORSE on three-pointers, so perhaps an off night was to be expected. Him shooting under twenty percent from the floor, though, was a surprise. Green is so important to the Spurs’ offense, so missing six threes and one of his free throws hurt.

Marco Belinelli, SF 19 MIN | 4-7 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 11 PTS | +5 +/-

Feels like the Spurs wasted one of the few Playoff Marco games tonight. Belinelli hitting some threes is one of the main reasons Doc Rivers had to keep his starters in the game late.

Aron Baynes, C 20 MIN | 2-7 FG | 1-1 FT | 5 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 5 PTS | -15 +/-

Here lies Aron Baynes, whose pride took a fatal hit after being thrown to the floor by Matt Barnes. He was buried in a very public ceremony at Blake Griffin’s house.

Matt Bonner, C 4 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | +2 +/-

I’m giving Matt an A+ because I’m pretty sure those tights were pleated.

Boris Diaw, C 28 MIN | 2-12 FG | 1-2 FT | 6 REB | 5 AST | 0 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 5 PTS | -9 +/-

“Aggressive Bobo” is only a good thing when he hits, like, *at least* fifteen percent of his attempts. The guy had more shots come back up than a computer science major at Spring Break.

Patty Mills, PG 11 MIN | 3-5 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 9 PTS | +15 +/-

If there was a silver lining to this game it had to be that Patty Mills found his stroke. We’ve been through this before, only to see his shot elude him. Fingers crossed this thing lasts for the duration of the series.

Cory Joseph, PG 12 MIN | 1-2 FG | 1-2 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 3 PTS | -18 +/-

Joseph was quiet tonight, and while that is to be expected on the offensive end, it shouldn’t happen on the defensive end. Regular season CoJo was a real thing, but tonight you really saw why an efficiently scoring Patty Mills will always be the Spurs’ first choice for backup point guard.

Manu Ginobili, SG 19 MIN | 3-10 FG | 2-4 FT | 7 REB | 6 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 10 PTS | -5 +/-

Manu hit some big shots tonight, but he missed too many for that to really matter. It’s a pity, too, because he grabbed a ton of boards and moved the offense well. I can’t imagine he’d go 50% from the line again, but you never know.

Gregg Popovich

There were a few weird lineups tonight, and you could tell Pop was trying to uncover something that worked. But on a night where nobody could hit a damn thing, it’s hard to argue with a little experimentation. Still, it felt like he waited too long to get somebody besides Tony Parker on Chris Paul. I wouldn’t be surprised if Kawhi or Danny started on him Wednesday night.

Three Things We Saw

  1. I’m not sure you could watch that game and think there were major adjustments for the Spurs to make, on the offensive end, anyway. The Spurs missed a hilarious amount of layups and a depressing amount of free throws. Some nights, they can get away with that. But they can’t against the Clippers.
  2. For all the easy explanations for the Spurs’ performance on the offensive end, there were some troubling developments on the defensive end. Baynes got murdered, and while Splitter would obviously help, the Spurs were hurt even more by allowing the Clippers to shoot so many three-pointers. Expect them to address (or at least attempt to address) this by Wednesday night.
  3. This is going to be a really fun series, friends. Enjoy it.
  • Air Bonner

    This is a bad matchup for the spurs. There’s no good match for kawhi on the defensive end and as a result his offense is harder to jump start. I’m worried. Also I wish somebody would punch Matt Barnes in the face.

  • Bussman

    Manu a D+???

    Hey, the guy missed some shots, but hit a couple of important ones and leads the teams in AST and is second in RBS under 20’…

    That’s a 18,7 / 13,1 / 11,2 / 3,7 per 36 minutes.

  • junierizzle

    I think Kawhi on JJ. Redick was working, Clippers always try and get him going first. I’d rather have him lock up Redick. Leonard’s D is pretty much rendered obsolete against CP and Crawford - they can just screen him out like they did. Kawhi on CP in late game situations makes more sense if it’s close.

    Offensively they need to figure something out when they double Kawhi, yeah it’s nice to see but the Spurs offense came to a grinding hault when that happened. More Patty and Marco.

    Good news is Spurs can’t play any worse.

  • Graham

    Clippers had a great game and we were playing like absolute hot garbage, yet we hung around for about 42 minutes or so of the game. Let’s hope if we get those shots to fall game 2 turns out different.

  • Dapimp Ofdayear

    What did the Spurs take away from the Clips tonight? Nothing. CP3 got his, so did Blake, and DeAndre was a beast when he wasn’t shooting free throws. Crawford and Redick hit a few jump shots as well. The Spurs are going to have to take away something from what the Clips like to do in Game 2 to win.

  • Ginobili137

    yeah, I thought he was pretty good. 3/10 doesn’t sound good but at least a couple of the misses were end of quarter/shot clock heaves. I say B-

  • camnpat

    It is annoying to hear sport commentators praise Barnes because “it is great to have a guy who does the dirty work”. There is a difference between doing the “dirty work” of being a contact player on defense, and not minding getting bruised, and being just a piece of s@#t who tries to hurt people on purpose. Barnes knew they were out of bounds well before he threw Baynes into the crowd. At that point point he was just trying to hurt or injure Baynes disguised as fighting for the ball.

  • Ginobili137

    People are overreacting a bit. The clippers shot over 50% from 3 and we couldn’t hit open shots or free throws. Perhaps that happens again, but at most in 1 or 2 more games. There are some problems, though. We need Tiago, Baynes has always had trouble with his defensive positioning and he will continue to get roasted by Griffin, that isn’t going to change just from watching some film. Unfortunately, I highly doubt Tiago is going to get healthy any time soon. Also, the Paul Parker matchup isn’t even close to a wash, despite what most commentators say. But I think we can still win this series with Blake and Paul going off, just can’t let their other players be successful on offense. Those 2 guys can’t beat us alone.

  • lvmainman

    Why is Pop so stubborn? Clearly, Parker always sucks when Pop doesn’t start a spread 4 against a team with a shot-blocker like Jordan. Start Diaw and have Splitter/Bonner or Baynes/Bonner be the backup bigs.

    Why isn’t Kawhi on Paul for the entire game as if he were Lebron? Go under the screens to keep Paul out of the paint. Make him shoot over the top of the screen. Don’t help off of Griffin and don’t switch. Parker can guard Barnes with ease by standing in the corner with him.

  • hoopsaf

    Tony, Danny, Boris, Baynes, Manu took 51 shots together and made 13 (25%).
    That’s pretty much the game.

    Not an auspicious start. Game 2 is almost a must-win now.

  • hoopsaf

    I think Kawhi needs to get a lot more touches when the offense is going nowhere. If pick-n-rolls keep on yielding fruitless results, Kawhi offense might be the more efficient option.

  • Ali

    I was at the game and will be in Game 2/5/7 as well. Few notes:
    1. Without Tiago we will get murder. we played spurs offense with him on the floor and solid D on blake with him in there. Baynes has no chance with Blake, every time Blake went by him. So if Tiago cant play Diaw needs to show BOBO defense he showed on Lebron he was way too passive on Blake. Our faith might depend on Diaw. I think Bonner would be a better matchup than Baynes, Bonner is a smart defender and makes blake shoot more jumpshot(i take that over a spin and a Dunk). Hell Ayres might be a better replacement than Baynes in this series as he is more mobile. I dont like to see Baynes on anyone other than DJ but if he has to guard Blake, he better back off and force him to shoot more.
    2. I like starting Kawhi on JJ, to shut him down and then transferring him on CP3 so he cant take over. Maybe Kawhi on Blake for a bet.
    3. Our D without Duncan was a joke, guys were not getting back, guarding their guys etc…
    4. we missed way too many FTs that allowed the lead to balloon. we missed many lay-ups. if we made lay-ups and FTS we could had won or a close game loss
    5.I didnt see Spurs ball movement till the 4th. i saw way more ISO Baynes than Spurs ball movement.
    6. Before CP3 took over. Clippers offense wasnt doing much, they were scoring on Spurs missed baskets. if we executed on that end we would be okay.
    7. Kwahi needs to punish Barnes/Jamal. Neither of them can guard him one-on -one. he can drive by them to the paint, or post them-up. Kawhi needs to eat in the paint, if he does the clips have no answer. If DJ comes out to help, pass the ball and Tim/Diaw/Tiago should make them pay.
    7. Manu deserves a B-, and POP a c-, come on man were you watching the game?

    I honestly think Spurs in 5. post up Kawhi, take away CP3, force Blake to shoot, and play Spurs ball on offense. Clippers offense wont jump start. I anticipate Parker to start hot in game 2.

  • SpurredOn

    I appreciate that Pop didn’t bother with in-game adjustments. Some nights it is clearly not your night. They got what they wanted on offense but couldn’t get open shots to go down. On the defensive end, the LA starters + Crawford were dominant and focused. No problem. They earned their win, hold the adjustments tight till game 2. Whenever Crawford is on, LA is hard to beat. When he’s not, they struggle to defeat top teams. He nor Barnes will be so hot from outside all series. The Spurs should not be so cold. No reason to panic.

  • SpurredOn

    Don’t let Barnes bother you. He’s a prideful go who in one-game scenarios can shoot better than his average when he hears everyone say he’s at a disadvantage. He did the same in the first matchup of the season between these teams. Over the course of the series, he’ll revert to the mean while Kawhi will score more.

  • Dan

    Manu a D+??, He deserves a B- at least. He had a very decent game, move the ball well, 7 AST and also carry the team and brought us to the game in the 1Q. I don´t understand why we allways blame Manu when things doesn´t work. He is 37!!, he can´t save us like he used to, he redeemed him self last chamionship. So come on!!, Give him the grade he deserves!

  • brunostrange

    The encouraging sign is that, as crappy as we played, we weren’t really out of it. Even after LAC went up fifteen points at the end of the third, we managed to claw back to single digits shortly thereafter.

    There were plenty of discouraging signs. Chief among them is the reminder that, recent win streak notwithstanding, this version of the Spurs has not been a good road team. We tend to shoot badly on the road, with Danny Green being the most glaring example - and that’s exactly what happened in Game 1. Tony played well for stretches, but he spent much of the game doing his Omega Male impersonation - if he continues to do that, we’re in trouble. We don’t need him to be spectacular, but we need him to be aggressive, and for the defenses to take him seriously. That really only happened during a stretch in the second quarter last night. And Kawhi - don’t look now, but this is his third quiet game in a row. After having been dominant for over a month, and after all the talk of “top 10 player,” he’s choosing a very inopportune time to go missing - relatively speaking. He’s capable of being the best player on the floor on most nights, but he’s not playing like it.

    Baynes is going to continue to get abused in this series. We really need a healthy Tiago, and an aggressive Diaw to be effective.

    Having said all that, in the end, we weren’t really out of it (outside of that LAC run in the third) despite playing so poorly (and kudos to LAC, they played well). And the Clippers bench is so awful, I imagine Rivers is going to have to run his starters to the ground - which could prove to be a real hindrance for them once the series moves past Game 2, and we’re playing every other day. We’ll see. Looking fwd to seeing how the team adjusts on Wed.

  • brunostrange

    Barnes is gonna Barnes. Very annoying when they’re ahead, but if/when they fall behind in the series, it’ll just cause them to go into mental breakdown and self-destruct. It’s happened every year. They’re a mentally weak team.

  • ferscia

    Manu deserves a B-! He was the most enthusiast Spur out there, he got boards, assists, and a couple of big shots. He´s not going to shoot well, I repeat: he´s not going to shoot well anymore. So if he does everything else, you can´t ask more from him. And just one turnover. And all in 20 minutes.

  • junierizzle

    Actually not really. Maybe Crawford but they still have a week bench. This team feeds of of turnovers and missed shots which the Spurs did plenty of. Give credit to Clippers defense as well but their defense is a product of the Spurs lame offense, mostly.

  • TD BestEVER

    I agree we need more aggressive TP or just go have a seat. He needs to mae quick desisons with the ball, either shoot it or move it along.

    Kahwi can and shouldn’t guard Reddick, he moves too much off the ball. And that’s not a strong suit of Kahwi. I think he starts on Paul and goes under all screens. Danny on Reddick. Or hell even Tony if he has his legs because all he does is shoot.

    Also I think we need Diaw in the game to start just to help spacing and getting the ball inside to TD. This gives us another play maker in the starting line up which allows Parker to bot have the ball in his hands all day long. Also Splitter will do much better vs the 2nd line guys.

  • Jimbo

    Yep, the loss of a healthy Splitter is a huge factor in this playoff run. He really is irreplaceable.

  • Jezav

    I agree with those who think that game wasn’t as bad as the final score. There were a lot of open shots that the Spurs just couldn’t get to go down. It happens. Also the wheels came off of the transition D during that one nasty stretch in the second half. It was too much to overcome on the road.

    One thing I’d like to see, especially with 2 full days off, is if the Spurs could work on some options for Kawhi to combat the double-team in the post. I was surprised the Clippers went right to the double-team bringing Jordan immediately over. That shows a lot of respect (which Kawhi’s post play this year merits). Kawhi has to show what he can do to pass out of the double-team in ways that move the offense forward instead of just passing back to the top and resetting everything. That take too much time and allows the Clippers to reset on D, gumming up the offense. People need to cut to the basket, or there needs to be some weakside playcalls to catch the Clippers out of position and make them pay for the double. Adjustments will be made and we’ll see if they’re enough.

  • joe

    Spurs in 6. Nothing about this Clips team scares me. That foul call on Baynes when Griffin threw him to the ground was comical. Griffin is a great player but gets away with way to much. You should not be able to push a players arm out of the way with your off hand when you dunk the ball. Clear offensive foul.

  • Thedrwolff

    It’s official, Danny Green is cold. I have NO IDEA how we shoot 9-20 from the line at one point with 6 different players shooting. 2 games in a row where if you take Patty Mills out of the 3 shooting stats they look simply horrendous. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. I DO know that Kawhi has got to be more aggressive on offense and realize that it’s not a hot potato the moment he see’s Jordan coming over. Take a step back and see if you can burst to either side for a good court view. They’re guarding the release pass a little tight so it’s 2 on 3 weakside. someone is wide open over there and Kawhi has the quickness to at least get a jump pass (non floating duck style please) to someone. I guess it’s the next step in growth for him, handling the double team.
    If Kawhi shoots 8-20 next game with 8 free throws I’ll take that over the TEAM shooting 36%….he’s shooting well even with someone on him. I still don’t know why we don’t take the kid gloves off there and give him a half qtr hall pass to act like “KOBE JR” when the offense looks like crap. Get him the ball on the elbow and put boris out on the circle.
    When Deandre has 2 fouls early can I see Timmay on the block with the ball say…3 out of the next 5 possessions. WILL ANYONE SIMPLY GRAB BLAKES OFF ARM THE WAY HE GRABS THE DEFENDERS BLOCKING ARM…JUST ONCE PLEASE…ANYONE!!!

  • Andrew

    This was not a case of “shots aren’t falling” we took some really bad shots, took forever to get into the offense and looked slow. Lack of aggression and effort on top of it. The Pelicans game was forshadowing the playoffs. If we coudn’t beat the Pelicans in a high pressure game, why would we beat Clippers?

  • Dapimp Ofdayear

    You said not really, yet you didn’t refute anything I said.

  • junierizzle

    I said take away maybe Crawford. I meant not really in regards to CP and Blake, they always get theirs. The best way to combat this team is to score so Spurs can set up their defense. When they can set up there defense guys like Redick will be easier to guard.

  • PatrickChewing

    I don’t think so. First off they were both not letting go of the ball. Secondly, why would Barnes want to injur Baynes? They’d have to find someone else to be on the receiving end of three Blake poster dunks in a single quarter.

  • Ali

    yes open lay-ups, tip-ins, and FTs were really bad shots. I think they should take your advice, and take contested long jump-shots. Helk worked for Jamal

  • PatrickChewing

    Maybe you were in the wrong arena?
    We played…solid D on blake with him in there (Tiago)”. Tiago was a -10…not sure how that equates to “Spurs offense” and “Solid D”?
    Kawhi to keep CP3 from taking over? Evertime he was on Chris in the 4th last night CP3 got a bucket or an assist.
    You anticipate Parker to start hot with a gimpy leg and ankle?

  • PatrickChewing

    That’s what soft players say. He didn’t push his arm out of the way, he when up with his arm straight out, nothing wrong with that. Would you rather he tucked his off arm behind his back when dunking over Baynes? Gotta do something to make it more entertaining, it’s already becoming so repetitive.

  • PatrickChewing

    And you still have “week” grammar.

  • PatrickChewing

    Make Paul shoot over screens? He was 8 of 13 outside of 10 feet, including 3 of 5 from deep. Parker can’t guard Barnes. If you put a point guard on him, he’ll go to the post.

  • junierizzle

    A typo on a message board? No way!

  • Anwar Winston

    C+ for Duncan? Really? Smh

  • Chok.

    The internet is having a field day w/ Baynes, and I kind of think he’s getting a bum rap. I’m pretty sure he was supposed to get help on the first dunk (of course, it would have been nice if he had at least slowed him down a bit…) and he got hung out to dry by bad Pick and roll defense (Diaw+CoJo being the culprits) on the second two. Basically he was stuck trying to cover *his* man (that’s right…Baynes wasn’t actually guarding Blake on the last two), protect the rim, and face down a charging Blake Griffin. I thought he gave a good contest, given the circumstances and opponent. If Griffin wasn’t the freak of nature that he is, maybe Baynes disrupts that dunk attempt. He didn’t compound the problem by fouling and giving up an and-1. Not sure what else anyone could do in that situation.

    Outside of the Dunkfest, I thought Baynes did ok, certainly better than the D+ he got. He had two dunks of his own, the nice dish to Timmy, along w/ 5 boards and just one turnover. I’ll take that from our back up center. The problem is that he had to play 20 minutes…Obviously Splitter is a better passer/defender/ball movement guy, but Tiago apparently can’t play more than 10 minutes right now, so Aron is what we’ve got. Baynes is not a 20 minutes in the playoffs type of player. If we expect/need him to play those kinds of minutes, we will lose this series and probably get swept. That’s just the way it is folks.

  • fkj74

    No way we can play worse or they shoot better. In a way this may be a good loss as now the talk is..are the Spurs done? Instead of the Clips being underdogs as the 3 seed. But guys we got to make FTs good grief that was pitiful. Also looking forward to a Baynes poster of Griff, hard screen on Barnes, and shot block on Jordan. It’s coming! Must win game 2. go spurs!

  • Dapimp Ofdayear

    I said the Spurs didn’t take anything away from the Clips (CP, Blake, Jordan, Redick, Crawford) and you said “Not really.” So tell me what they took away. You can’t. Anyway, they have to take SOMETHING away to win what’s shaping up to be a must-win Game 2.

  • brunostrange

    The Clippers are not a good match-up for Baynes. He lacks the necessary mobility to make a positive contribution against a team like LA, and will continue to get abused if he gets meaningful minutes. Having said that, Tiago will supposedly play a lot more in Game 2, and hopefully can remain healthy. He and Diaw are key.

  • brunostrange

    I don’t. Gimpy Parker is timid, ineffective Parker. We saw plenty of that earlier this season. I expect Popovich to live or die with Parker, but hope that if he’s not pulling his weight out there, CoJo or Mills can play meaningful minutes.