San Antonio Spurs 94, Minnesota Timberwolves 91: The defense came through where the offense couldn’t
AT&T CENTER — Tim Duncan stood on the defensive end of the floor as Tony Parker took the ball up court, looking to attack the reeling Minnesota Timberwolves’ defense.
Parker failed to get a basket and the ball went to Manu Ginobili. Ginobili took a look at the hoop and contemplated taking a shot, but thought better of it and dribbled the ball out to the perimeter to reset the offense. Duncan, still on the defensive end of the floor, threw his hands up in a bit of frustration and trudged up the floor.
It was another sluggish offensive possession full of them for the San Antonio Spurs in their 94-91 over Minnesota, and it was another missed chance to save their foundation’s knees in some small way.
The Spurs shot just 42.3% on the night and committed 17 turnovers, but were boosted by strong performances off the bench from Matt Bonner (11 points and a season-high nine rebounds), Gary Neal (13 points, 3-4 from the 3-point line) and Antonio McDyess (six points and eight rebounds). Ginobili led the Spurs with 21 points.
“[McDyess] did the best job of anybody on Kevin [Love],” Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said after the game. Love finished with 18 points and 17 rebounds, but it took him 15 shots to get his 18 points.
Gary Neal scored eight points in the fourth quarter and hit two of his three 3-pointers to ignite a stagnant Spurs offense.
“Me being on the floor at the end of the game allows Manu, Tony and Tim more room to operate because on the scouting report, it says ‘Gary Neal’s a shooter, so you have to be aware of him,’ ” Neal said postgame.
But where the Spurs offense was struggling, the defense carried them. San Antonio held Minnesota to under 40% shooting on the night and just 35% from the 3-point line.
The officials allowed a lot of bumps and holds to go on Sunday night, making for not the most aesthetically-pleasing of games. But it did grant the Spurs free reign to be physical on the defensive end.
“We played poorly on the offensive end, but you have to give out guys credit for hanging in and continuing to play on the defensive end,” Coach Pop said.
Some other bullet points from San Antonio’s 31st win of the season:
- Tony Parker played just 2:06 in the fourth quarter. He was benched by Coach Pop after failing to rotate over on defense and take a charge on Kevin Love. Parker and Pop exchanged words on the sideline after Parker came out of the game, but it didn’t appear to be anything out of the ordinary, just Pop expressing his displeasure with Parker’s decision.
- I asked Matt Bonner after the game if he’s been placing a greater emphasis on crashing the offensive boards the last few games, specifically after his tip-dunk against the Mavericks a week and a half ago, but he told me it’s just been a case of happenstance. “It’s just a matter of when our team drives-and-kicks, it gets them rotating and they’re not matched up when the shot goes up.”
- George Hill shot an awful 2-11 from the field against Minnesota, including all four of his 3-pointers, but he hit all seven of his free throws and finished with 11 points.
- DeJuan Blair struggled against Minnesota’s Love and Darko Milicic, who are listed at 6’10” and 7’0″, respectively. Love and Milicic finished with 27 of the Timberwolves’ 50 rebounds. Blair played only about 13 minutes on the game and just four of those minutes were in the second half. He did grab five rebounds in those 13 minutes, though.
- Coach Pop was asked pre-game how he felt about the scheduling that forces the Spurs to play the same team in two straight regular season games, as the Spurs play the Timberwolves again on Tuesday night, this time in Minnesota. “I hate doing it. I hate it. I always have, I always will. It’s hard to play a team twice and expect to get two wins. I think it’s difficult to do.”
