El Conclusion: Down Goes El Contusion

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San Antonio Spurs 90 Final

Recap | Box Score

 97 Houston Rockets
Tim Duncan, PF Shot Chart 30 MIN | 6-10 FG | 0-2 FT | 14 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 4 BLK | 3 TO | 12 PTS | +2

Great first half, not so great second half. Pretty much sums up the Spurs night except for Boris Diaw.

Boris Diaw, PF Shot Chart 34 MIN | 9-20 FG | 2-3 FT | 11 REB | 4 AST | 0 STL | 2 BLK | 3 TO | 22 PTS | -8

More of this please. If Manu Ginobili is going to be out, Spurs will need aggressive Boris for at least the start of the Rodeo Road Trip. He was just fantastic tonight.

Tony Parker, PG Shot Chart 33 MIN | 6-16 FG | 4-6 FT | 1 REB | 4 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 2 TO | 17 PTS | +1

Not great tonight. Had Patrick Beverly, a pesky defender, or Jeremy Lin, a longer defender on him, so that was an issue.

Cory Joseph, PG Shot Chart 23 MIN | 3-5 FG | 2-2 FT | 2 REB | 5 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 8 PTS | +6

I’m not sure what more you can ask Joseph to do. He’s not going to be a scoring juggernaught, so filling the stat sheet and playing solid defense is all you can expect. Still, if he wants to hit a couple 3-pointers a game for the next few weeks no one’s going to complain.

Marco Belinelli, SG Shot Chart 38 MIN | 5-12 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 11 PTS | -8

Well, you’d like more than one 3-pointer. We’ll see how Belinelli does without Ginobili finding him in the right spot.

Aron Baynes, PF Shot Chart 9 MIN | 0-2 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 0 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | -5

Keep using those six fouls, Aron. Keep using those six fouls.

Matt Bonner, PF Shot Chart 15 MIN | 1-3 FG | 1-2 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 1 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 4 PTS | +1

He wasn’t bad. The opportunities just weren’t there for him. He did an admirable job trying to defend Terrence Jones considering his defensive limitations.

Jeff Ayres, C Shot Chart 8 MIN | 0-0 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 2 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 0 TO | 0 PTS | -4

Didn’t get a ton of burn. It’s tough to play him and Diaw together because of the lack of rim protection and Diaw had to play a ton tonight to try to create some offense.

Nando de Colo, PG Shot Chart 7 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 0 AST | 2 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 0 PTS | 0

Get used to more of this guy for the next few games.

Patty Mills, PG Shot Chart 28 MIN | 3-7 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 2 BLK | 0 TO | 7 PTS | -11

Shots didn’t fall. These nights happen, but like Belinelli, you just hope the poor shooting nights happen less over the next couple of weeks. Spurs will need the points wherever they can get them.

Manu Ginobili, SG Shot Chart 14 MIN | 2-6 FG | 5-6 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 0 STL | 0 BLK | 1 TO | 9 PTS | -9

Things were going well until there was hamstring tightness. Hopefully it’s just a few games.

One Thing We Saw

  1. Injuries, man. Ginobili’s already been ruled out for the Chicago. If the injury really isn’t that dissimilar to the last hamstring tweak, we’ll hopefully see Ginobili back by early next week.
  • rj

    ummm…..can we give coach pop an “F”? hack-a-Dwight was totally unnecessary. he was out of rhythm anyways and baynes usually does a decent job defending him. its like pop knew we were going to get behind and expected our starters to get the lead back in the 4th. this was definitely a blown opportunity to at least say we beat an “elite” team.
    ………….and manu got hurt,……
    serenity now

  • Saneel Radia

    I’m not morally against hack-a-anyone. take advantage of the rules. but man, it’s a blown opportunity to grow some talent because it basically just pauses both teams- and has consistently proven unsuccessful for the last 2 years. I’m less worried about the loss than the lost opportunity to develop the end of the bench more (Baynes, De Colo, Ayres hands).

  • Lee Baek Rok

    They aready sent Jeffers back to the D League? I had not watched the game.

  • Spurholic Mumbai

    The front court flalilings were glaring today, first Terence Jones and then Dwight Howard “abused” the Spurs. the former, actually single handedly brought the Rockets back in he game after the Spurs had run up a 12 point + lead in the first quarter. As a Spur fan am already shaken by the 1-10 against contenders, will be stirred if after the All-Star break and the return of the injured trio we still fall short while competing with the best. On present form, a secnd round exit in the play offs could be a reality staing all Spurs fans. Just a doubt, wasn’t Malcolm thomas signed as a SF behind Kwahi? if so? why was he waived on the day kwahi was signed. Also, Jeffers was signed as a defensive wingman, why not play him against Lin, who scored over 8 oints in Q4?

  • 3Chord

    jeffers was on the bench all night.

  • 3Chord

    first game in a while where i’ve liked the Spurs’ intensity. they’ve been playing soft on both sides of the court allowing teams to be more physical and simply out hustling them. last night was a nice spark after getting pushed around by the Heat and Thunder.

    i’d love to see a 48MOH piece on Parker’s mid-range jumper numbers. seems as though when he has it going, the Spurs are unstoppable. he mixed it up nicely at the start of the game, but started forcing shots in the lane as the game progressed. by the time he went back to the jumper in Q4, it wasn’t there for him.

  • AHeights

    It’s a good thing we have all these injuries to distract us from the fact that when we were healthy, we had absolutely no answers for the Thunder, Rockets or Pacers.

  • LukeDawg

    Really excellent point. I, like all spurs fans, want to believe that health is the only thing standing in the way of another spurs championship. But the fact is, at no point this season has this team shown itself to be anywhere close to championship caliber. I pray that they have another gear to switch to in the coming weeks, but there is an equal probability that a more consistently healthy west this season might just be too tough to overcome(at least as currently constructed).

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