Pregaming: Spurs vs. Grizzlies Game 1

I will be honest : our second unity can do better than Spurs did today, Memphis shot 60% from 3 point line and 55% from the field, Gasol+Randolph= 49 points(19-25 FG), 23 rebounds

I agree, Blair didn’t played so bad.
Macdyess/Bonner were horrible, TP was the biggest disappointment

If I remember correctly, the Spurs had some unexpected early round losses on their title years. Hopefully, this is similar, and they are going to pick it up. If Parker keeps playing this badly, it’s going to be rough even when Manu gets back. Hill had one of his poorer games, and he had been playing pretty well for the last month. I’m going to go with aberration, since the Spurs can’t have this many players play poorly every night, and the Grizzlies cant’ keep up this level of play every night.

I agree totally TP…..Tony needs to learn to PASS THE DAMN BALL when he doesn’t have it going……but he doesn’t know how,,,,, and POP doesn’t have the BALLS to yell at him and coach him anymore……..TD had 10 FGA’s in the 1st half(6-10) and only 3 in the 2nd(2-3) ending the game (8-13)….. why can’t POP tell Parker to feed it in to Duncan more when he was playing so well………Why can’t Parker see that giving TD some looks will help out his scoring, not hurt it………

5 sorry assist in a game w/o Manu…… TP should have had 10 or more like Conley who kept other players involved in the game….. instead TP, Hill, and POP let TD hang out 16 minutes at one point w/o a shot attempt……. Way to loose a game……

As far as Bonner/Blair….. Bonner needs to shoot the ball MORE OFTEN……. if his contribution is going to be the 3 ball….. then shoot 10 a game……. let it fly like Neal does….. do SOMETHING…….

Blair just needs to keep hustling…… and he did that well……. He will shoot it better most games(50% for the season) and he also won’t be in as much foul trouble in future meetings which will allow him to chase down even more loose balls……

Splitter needs 10 minutes minimum to see what he an offer…..IF he brings out that UGLY Hook…..pull him…… If he is finishing Strong…..pull Bonner

Totally agree, this Grizzlies team couldn’t possibly keep up this level of play for a whole series, could they??
Manu will be back by the next game hopefully and then we can take it from there. I would have rather we put Anderson or Neal in the starter position to allow George to stay in his 6th man role. At least that gives him consistency were he knows he’ll be playing

I’ll also take issue with saying it was a 20ft shot. He was in the lane, and Parker was no more that 12 feet from the basket. Tony makes that shot 75% of the time … I think it was just a little bit of bad luck. Now the pressure is on the Spurs. Wednesday in SA is a must-win, and also they need to win at least one of the weekend games in Memphis. If the Spurs get behind 3-1 it’s time to go fishing. I really hate it when Charles Barkley is right … that would be just turrible.

That is the biggest fail on Pop’s part and it’s evident teams don’t win on offense as a primary strategy. Defense in the paint primarily is what wins championships.

Hey Msteele Blair gave up a combined 13 pts on getting scored on and the fouls he committed sending the opposing to the line resulting in points. He gave up points the minute he got on the floor by committing a foul 30 seconds into his first appearance of the game.
He got three of his shots blocked under the rim (he’s too short) resulting in 6 pts we missed out on and missed 2 wide open lay ups resulting in 4 more points that we didn’t get. That ‘s a total of 10 points he should have easily had.
Add the gave up points and the missed out on points and that’s a 23 point spread. He played 22 minutes, he’s loosing a point per minute if you want to look at it that way. No Double/Double he got 6 rebounds and 9 points taking up that many minutes. I don’t call that a moderately well performance.
Notables: 1st quarter - committed foul 30 seconds into getting on the floor. 3rd Quarter - Threw the ball out of bounds.
4 quarter - at 6:15 missed an easy lay up to tie the game. Not trying to blame Blair for the game but people just can’t say he played a moderately good game. Not today. Pop is going down the the wrong road here in this series by giving Blair that kind of minutes. Both you and I and everyone out know he ‘s good for 10-15 minutes. They really need to give Splitter time on the court in this round at least 10 minutes to help out Blair or Bonner and to help clog the lane up and make bigger shooters shoot over him with out view. We know he can draw a lot fouls regardless if he makes half or less of them. The point is it puts them in the penalty sooner and forces them to make adjustments.
This series is over with or without Manu if they keep throwing that line up of bigs out there for that many minutes. I said minutes because they are going to play regardless and they need to but the time needs to be adjusted in regards to their minutes. I have to say Bonner did come through at the last moments but this game should have been over a long time ago in our favor if the adjustments on the bigs times were handled differently.

Not bashing Blair but he had 22 minutes 6 boards, 9 points. That’s not bad but 3 shots blocked under the rim, 2 missed lay ups thats 10 points. I would like to see him finish strong on that account. Everyone gets scored on but to give up points on 5 fouls that’s gotta change or they just have to pull him. Add some mental mistakes like throwing the ball out of bounds in the 3rd quarter doesn’t help. But all in all he does bring the effort and if he can limit some mistakes and finish at the rim he then would truly be a beast among players. This is a blow out in our favor if the team can stop making mental mistakes and getting better shot selection at the close of the game. Everyone has blame for this loss and everyone would have credit for the win. Would have like to see Splitter in there for about 10 minutes just to throw a body on someone get some rebounds and maybe get a bucket or two while Bonner or Blair rest and compose themselves. We’ll see in game two. I’m sure it will be better. I still think this is 7 game series with us winning it.

The Spurs better figure out a way to negate the inside game. Randolph/Gasol too much. I saw a post that said Gasol was a slug with no feet. Yeah, so is Randolph. Open our eyes, Memphis is a legit competitor for the first round and Gasol doesn’t need fast feet to be effective (see his stat line game 1).

More Duncan in the 4th qtr would have been good as we struggled to find the offensive rhythm we attained in the 3rd.

Overall, a shitty loss that was borderline embarassing.

Our consolation prize: A Lakers loss today as well. Are both games aberrations?