San Antonio Spurs 95, New York Knicks 88

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As they used to say in New York on Saturday nights, “I’ve given you a topic. Talk amongst yourselves.”

  • SpurredOn

    The team may have finally found their rhythm. Milwaukee has been a bugaboo. Knicks have been playing well. Yet on a short night of rest, the Spurs won in NY after dominating the Bucks and have an upcoming stretch that should be no worse than 4-1 when the Mavs visit again. Don’t look now but, despite the inconsistent play, missed FTs and close losses to winning teams, the Spurs have the third fewest losses in the West. It may be better that when the schedule gets tougher this team will have made it through the bumps and adjusted to one another.

  • Ivander

    Holding the Knicks to 88 points , that’s what I want to see!!! Winning a game after all the troubles they had getting to NY, I’m proud of them. Like Manu said, they won with the head, not with their legs!

  • kb

    I’m starting to see Tony trust his teammates more “great sign for the Spurs”. Now lets beat some good teams.

  • NL

    Gritty win in what sounds like a terrible trip to NY, especially losing an hour’s sleep. My favorite stat of the night was Manu’s 6-14 shooting. It’s a great sign to see Manu shooting the ball 14 times and given that he started 0-5, he finished 6-9 from the field. George Hill impressed me last night too.

  • http://www.goodtimescomic.blogspot.com Jordan

    Those FT’s were horrible though. I couldn’t believe some of the calls Galinari was getting.

  • SG

    Until they win against some good teams, I reserve my judgment for the Spurs. They are not very consistent and I don’t expect a championship this year, especially not the way the Lakers & Celts are playing.

  • ali

    SG, even if we continue our struggles with good teams we have a great chance of winning the title. Look the lakers, the “best team” in the league, are on the same exact boat as us. Their record against above .500 teams is 2-4, wins against Atlanta and Utah both at home, while they got blown out in the 4 game they lost. At least we loose close games and we make tons of dumb mistakes which could be fixed. As far as the celtics, POP will out coach Doc in 7 games. I still think we have a chance as long as the big 3 play smart, and RJ doesnt play the last 2 minutes of any game.

  • junierizzle

    17-11 sounds pretty good after the inconsistent start. As someone esle stated, we only trail by 1 or 2 games in the loss column with the other best teams in the west. (except Lakers)
    Honestly I wouldn’t have been surprised if they lossed to the Knicks. It had all the makings of a trap game. they Pulled it out, thankfully. I know it was only the Knicks but they it was a good ROAD win. Im glad POP finally let MANU play, I was surprised POP left him in there even though MANU had a bad start. Manu finally got into a rhythm in the second half and was the difference.

    That’s how Manu is going to get better, just let him play.
    Hill had a solid night too, he wasn’t as eratic as in the past.
    It was also nice to see the big 3 in there at the same time. Especially down the stretch. They know how to play close games.

    Its looking good, Im not worried.
    Two reasons why
    1.We are beating the teams we should.
    2The losses against the “good teams” have all been close. The Spurs really beat themselves with turnovers or whatever your excuse is. The point is the “good teams” aren’t blowing them out.

  • d mode 59

    well i think the problem my spurs have is tony parker ! we need a pass first point guard ,a steve nash or kidd even paul . our guys struggle enough gettin open shots and parker just dont make good passes i say we trade for a true point guard i bet we look like a whole new team !!

  • grego

    Hahah, only 4 teams have those guys. None of them are moving. Parker is the best option available.

    Luckily Spurs have good passers in Manu and Tim. And decent passers in Hill and Mason as other options.

    Spurs passing was good the past two games. Parker’s problem is he’s not scoring enough to give that star scoring (most needed when tougher teams play and role players tend to disappear more often)

  • r. ibanez

    As much as I dislike admitting it the current Spurs roster will not beat the Lakers. They simply do not have a second big that is athletic enough to compete with the Lakers front line. I had hoped that Mahinmi or Marcus Williams, along with TD, would have provided an answer to the Lakers big men but unfortunately the current answer is no. Bonner for all his effort and shooting prowess is not athletic enough not big enough to cause the mayhem like the Cavaliers bigs on Christmas day. Equally as important there seems to be a lack of physicality to the Spurs unit as a whole. They need a Bruce Bowen type of presence and they do not have it.

  • greyberger

    I say take this win, this opportunity to see the good in this awkward early season. The Spurs are 3rd in the west in point deferential, which I think is especially important in the regular season - put teams away early, and you can play your bench more. Early/authoritative leads not only prepare you better for the next game, they also improve your team’s long-term development and health.

    Nobody’s lighting fireworks because the spurs beat the Bucks in the 3rd quarter and the lukewarm Knicks with 90 seconds to go. Instead, look to the good signs in the improved play of Roger Mason, Antonio McDyess and Theo Ratliff.

    And another thing, don’t just think there’s the Lakers to benchmark against out there anymore. In this amateur’s eyes it looks like the Celtics will be waiting after that, and the Nuggets and Mavs have genuinely improved as well. The playoffs will be a crucible for the 3-8 teams in both conferences where depth and versatility matter.

  • greyberger

    One last note about the fourth quarter:

    7:54 Tony Parker enters the game for Manu Ginobili
    7:09 Tony Parker misses 19-foot jumper
    6:30Tony Parker makes driving layup
    5:11 David Lee loose ball foul (Tony Parker draws the foul)
    4:50Danilo Gallinari personal foul (Tony Parker draws the foul)
    4:26 Tony Parker blocks Chris Duhon’s layup
    2:43 Tony Parker misses 16-foot jumper
    2:33 Tony Parker makes two point shot
    2:12 Manu Ginobili makes driving layup (Tony Parker assists)
    1:06 Tony Parker makes driving layup (and one)
    0:39 Tony Parker misses 18-foot jumper
    0:30 Tony Parker defensive rebound

    If there’s one player I’ve want to see more involved after watching the first third of the season, it’s Tony. He’s a high-usage, take the game over type of point, and whatever criticisms you want to make about his play he has he can put wins in the column with the best of them, these last three years in particular.

  • junierizzle

    Hey lets’ trade Parker even though he helped the Spurs win 3 rings and was the Finals MVP of the last one.

    STOP IT!
    Spurs ain’t trading PArker.

  • lvmainman

    Notice that 4th qtr, why trading Parker seems to be an option? 0 made jumpers in the last 8 minutes - 0 for 3, 1 assist in last 8 minutes - a fast break 3 on 1, 2 fouls because he can’t guard anyone.

    Against good teams, ie playoff caliber teams, which the Bucks, Knicks, Twolves are not, that kind of production doesn’t cut it. Those teams don’t let Parker shoot layups, so the ability to make a jumper is critical. The ability to make an assist is critical. The ability to make FT’s is critical. Areas Parker still struggles in.

    Remember Spurs have lost to Trailblazers, Suns, Celtics, Jazz, Nuggets, Mavericks. Those are the teams Spurs need to concern themselves with. So, trading Parker to me should be under consideration, if the Spurs can improve themselves to match up with playoff caliber teams.

  • bigtee34

    hollinger has us ranked 4th in league on his power ranking below atlanta, cleveland, and boston and two above LA. Because our losses arn’t blowouts like the lakers. We play good teams close and beat sub 500 teams, at a margin that is top 4 in the NBA. Stop hating your very good team that is going through a transition period or leave and become a lakers fan.

  • agutierrez

    I thought the take-away from the Cleveland-Laker Christmas Day game was twofold: 1. the Laker bigs, particularly Bynum and Gasol, struggle mightily against equal bigs (O’Neal, Z and Varejao); and 2. Mike Brown took a page from Pop, namely, let Kobe get his but stop everyone else. Of course, it also helped that Kobe took it personally to out duel Lebron on national tv. Do the Spurs have the personnel to employ a similar strategy?

  • nba_fan83

    Spurs strategy is more towards what the suns did. Use Bonner/Mcdyess to force bynum, gasol out of the paint. Crush them with timmay, and drives by tony/manu. And on D play duncan on bynum, mcdyess on gasol. Or bonner on Gasol (with awesome help D), and hope kobe goes one on one instead of pounding the ball to whoever bonner is guarding.

  • Rey

    Let’s just give the Spurs until the All-Star Weekend until we start saying that their current roster doesn’t have what it takes to win the championship. Let’s take note that a huge portion of the Spurs are relatively newbies: RJ, Ratliff, McDyess, Bogans and even Haislip are still learning the system (as well as adjusting to their roles from first option to something relatively lesser); Blair just came from being a “superstar” into a second round draft pick rookie; Hill is growing up. Even the Big Three is learning to jell with the newbies. Plus Manu’s still recovering and relearning his stride. It’s very much unlike the other “more powerful” teams that only added one or two important players (e.g., Artest to the Lakers, Carter to the Magic). With the way things are going, it seems that they are just in the process of learning how to deal with each team given their relatively much deeper lineup now. I’m not worried that they aren’t in the Top Three teams in the NBA now: that’s not the way the Spurs play.