Portland Trailblazers 98, San Antonio Spurs 96: A perfect storm of errors
You know how Kobe Bryant can take so many bad shots at the end of games, but the ones he hits are so spectacular people tend to forget the many more he misses, while the heroics are forever etched in their minds? Well this was the complete opposite of that.
There was quite a bit of positive to take from this Spurs game, especially in the fourth quarter, that no one will remember because the San Antonio Spurs botched things so spectacularly bad down the stretch.
Call it the anti-Kobe clutch theory. Sean Elliott called it a perfect storm of errors. That’s what it took for the Spurs string of misery to continue in Portland even after outshooting the Blazers, almost drawing even on the boards, and holding LaMarcus Aldridge to 14 points.
Three turnovers in the last minute, all leading to points quick points for the Blazers. The final one with less than a second left on a botched inbounds pass that setup a brilliant alley-oop pass from Andre Miller to Nicolas Batum that, again, displayed terrible execution from the Spurs.
The team is now 0-2 without Tim Duncan-in which both losses the Spurs blew a fourth quarter lead-and as predicted, it’s in the little things that the Spurs have missed him most.
Perhaps the most glaring example came with less than a second left last night, with the Spurs looking for a quick shot to avoid overtime. After not playing all night, Steve Novak was the trigger man on an inbounds play that found Manu Ginobili streaking towards the basket.
Only the pass was too far out of Ginobili’s reach, sailing out of bounds with no time coming off the clock. Most nights, Duncan would be the one making that pass.
Another theme without Duncan has been free throws, and their opponents ability to take them. If there is one category the Spurs remain elite in, it’s in the ability to defend competently without fouling. Much of that is the ability of Duncan to protect the rim and secure the rebound without fouling.
And while the Spurs did well not to allow 39 free throw attempts as they did in Denver, they got into the penalty early in Portland and found themselves at the line enough times down the stretch to prevent the Spurs from pulling away.
Finally, Duncan provides the lone post threat, and while it’s not utilized very often anymore, when it is it’s still a calming enough presence to settle down a Spurs offense that found itself, in stretches, stagnating amidst a lack of ball movement and turnovers.
It’s easier for the nearly 7-foot Duncan to navigate the sea of arms and legs that is the Blazers than it is for Tony Parker (eight turnovers) or Manu Ginobili (five turnovers).
There is clutch putting up the highlights, and there is clutch doing all the little things. Over the last two games Duncan’s value in the clutch has become more apparent.
A few quick (and not so quick) thoughts:
- Following a loss like this, much of the talk is going to be centered on the Spurs rookie center. Tiago Splitter had another solid game producing 11 points and seven rebounds in 23 minutes while guarding Aldridge as well as can be expected.Without going to the tape, I can only recall one instance where Aldridge completely demolished Splitter. The rest of the time Splitter was able to move his feet and contest each shot.
- While it seemed that Splitter earned more than those 23 minutes, especially down the stretch, Popovich generally has his reasons. Frustrating as it might be to many of you, with Pop such decisions are usually made around a bigger picture that people find hard to contemplate when they live game-to-game.It’s less about drinking the Kool-Aid or blindly following the team’s decisions, and more about trusting a front office and coach that has won four NBA championships and squeezed more out of this roster than could reasonably expected.
After all, had the Spurs given into such knee-jerk reactions this team would feature George Hill as its starting point guard, Ian Mahinmi as its starting center, and would be in no position to weather these late losses while Tim Duncan recovers properly.
- It was nice to see Bonner break out of his shooting funk. Contrary to popular belief, the answer to playing long teams like Portland isn’t always to try and match “big” for big. These Spurs don’t have the explosive athletes to rise up over such defenders, they rely on spacing and movement.As nice as it would be to pick up another David Robinson, it’s just not happening with the resources the Spurs have. Any traditional big man you could pick up, that the Spurs could afford, would not be good enough to close the gap between front lines like Portland or Los Angeles. Best to find other areas in which to make up the difference.
Bonner will be important in a secondary role.
- On the surface Manu Ginobili had an excellent game, and I’m not about to criticize that final turnover because so far as I’m concerned, it’s a fluke. The three-point barrage that has been Ginobili for most of this season (eight attempts!) has been acceptable, and he has remained efficient, because he often buttresses his three-point shooting with frequent trips to the free throw line.Only two free throw attempts for Manu last night.
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