Saturday, April 10th, 2010...7:20 am
San Antonio Spurs 99, Memphis Grizzlies 107: Spurs lose focus, game in second quarter collapse
AT&T CENTER-Manu Ginobili and the San Antonio Spurs thought they had purged the mental collapses that plagued the team through most of the season, only to suffer a letdown last night against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Coming off a loss in Phoenix, the Spurs jumped on the Grizzlies early, holding them to 8-for-22 shooting in the first quarter for a 30-21 lead. It was the last time the defense was seen all night.
“It was a very disappointing loss, it was a game we were counting on,” said Manu Ginobili. “We should have won and had a one game advantage (over Oklahoma City and Portland), but now we have to go on a back-to-back flight to Denver against a great team that needs a win too.”
In his third game back from injury, Tony Parker entered the game in the first quarter and the Spurs scored on eight of their nine possessions (not including the three-point heave at the end of the first quarter).
Parker (13 points, eight assists) was in top form in the first half, weaving his way through defenders, threading passes through the pick and roll defense to find DeJuan Blair at the rim or Matt Bonner at the three-point line.
And for a little more than a quarter it all seemed to be clicking. Tim Duncan (15 points, 10 rebounds, five assists) went to the bench at the 6:21 mark in the first quarter and the Spurs extended their lead into double digits.
But Duncan stayed on the bench, as Popovich went deep into his roster trying to provide his starters rest, even dusting off little-used center Ian Mahinmi for some minutes. The Spurs relaxed on defense, and the Grizzlies torched the Spurs for 37 points in the second quarter.
“Today we kind of took a break in the second quarter, relaxed a little and stopped playing ‘D’ as hard as we were,” Ginobili said. “And against a team that has nothing to lose, and is very talented, those shots tend to go in when you have no pressure.
“That was our mistake, to let them loose in the second quarter.”
Zach Randolph bullied his way to 28 points and 15 rebounds, five on the offensive end, as the Spurs were out rebounded 48-39.
With the Spurs switching all screens, Rudy Gay (21 points, seven rebounds), Mike Conley (14 points, nine assists) and O.J. Mayo (20 points) were able to create mismatches all night.
“Our defense really let us down tonight, individually and team-wise,” Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said. “That was the ball game.”
In what was suppose to be a night of celebration for Ginobili, who signed a contract extension, the Argentine guard crafted another beautiful game, 26 points, eight rebounds and five assists, but was only 1-3 for four points in the fourth quarter and 1-6 from three for the game.
Outside of Matt Bonner (6-10 from three, 19 points), the Spurs struggled with their outside shots, shooting 3-18 from three-point territory.
“Sometimes they go in and sometimes they don’t,” Bonner said. “They were good looks but they just didn’t go in.”
The Spurs now face the arduous task of traveling out to Denver to play tonight, trying to keep out of the eighth seed and a first round date with the Los Angeles Lakers.
“We need to stay humble and work from one (minute) to 48, knowing that we’re not the Cavaliers,” Ginobili said. “We’re not a few games ahead of everyone else, every game is important.”
31 Comments
April 10th, 2010 at 7:29 am
Damn, bad 2nd quarter, crap!
April 10th, 2010 at 8:02 am
Spurs expected at start of season to dominate. Result: they do bad. Everyone writes off Spurs. Result: they dominate. Spurs start getting predicted to do well in playoffs. Result: back to losing. So, everyone must not believe in the Spurs so they will do well.
April 10th, 2010 at 8:14 am
Pop played the whole team in the first half and changed up our set rotation that has made us great again. Pop blew it.
April 10th, 2010 at 8:25 am
Is Malik H in Pop’s doghouse? Haven’t seen much of him lately.
April 10th, 2010 at 8:38 am
Now this was a tough loss…We really needed that win. Team actually played well, but more bizarre rotations got the best of us, yet again…Its becomming all too familiar
Bonner is a guy that I have beat the hell out of all year. But I must give any Spur credit when credit is due. Bonner has been playing much better of late. He has added a lil variety to his offense. He just needs to stop finishing small at the rim.
If he would finish at the rim like a 6’10 fully grown man, he could actually help this team now, and build his market as well.
Go Bonner, AKA- “The Red Improvement”
But, the down side is that you give up over 40 points per night to the opposing frontcourt when Bonner is playing over 30 minutes. Zach killed him and Mcdyess.
Would have been a good night to give Blair more than 8 stinking minutes…
As for Garrett Temple…I would go into it, but so many experts in the 48 have insisted that no D League guy could ever contribute.
Temple is a good example of what could be when young guys are given opportunity…
April 10th, 2010 at 9:09 am
I think the absence of George Hill is huge, especially on the defensive end.
I think the reason we were so successful when TP was out was b/c are defense stepped up.
Now that there’s no G-Hill we’ve replaced him with a better offensive player, but worse defender.
As we saw with Tony out this team has plenty of firepower, especially when Manu is running the show.
Who would have believed:
George Hill defense has been more valuable than Tony Parker’s offense *this season.
April 10th, 2010 at 9:24 am
Manu’s back must be sore from carrying the team for so long. Will someone step up please?
By the way, does the name of this site refer to watching Frenchie Parker’s play? I just adore the way he dribbles out the shot clock only to launch that cockeyed jump shot of his. Can’t wait to see him slog through another summer playing for France.
April 10th, 2010 at 9:55 am
I agree the Spurs defense was terrible. Pop trying to set his star players was done to soon. They lost control and could not get it back. I agree we miss Hill, but the real problem is the Spurs let up. They have done that alot this year. Not the mark of a championship caliber team is it. They have shown when thier heads are in the game they can beat anybody. Get your heads screwed on right guys nows not the time to be having lapses. Who ever said the Spurs played well didn’t see the same game I saw. Loook back and see how many open shots Mem. got.
April 10th, 2010 at 10:07 am
We all knew G HIll was good. He has come a long way this season. But I think we all underestimated his importance. Get well HILL.
I thought he was just supposed to missed two games??
Also RJ only had 7 points this game. That aint gonna get it done either.
Manu is right. You can’t let a team that has nothing to lose get loose. Come to think of it they have done this all season. They give teams that they should beat too many chances to get off.
Well, at least they are already in the playoffs.
April 10th, 2010 at 10:46 am
It’s pretty sad that all the momentum and team chemistry we built during the last 5 weeks seems to have disappeared in 3 games.
I almost would rather not make the playoffs than get swept by LA in the first round, which looks very possible if we don’t turn things around quickly.
April 10th, 2010 at 11:07 am
@idahospur - I’m doing my part since I expect them to lose tonight. I’ve been counting this one as a loss for a month knowing that it’s the rare but dreadful fourth game in five nights, all in different cities. Meanwhile, Denver has been waiting at home with an off day. As though this team isn’t exhausted enough from the current schedule, while missing their fourth best player and trying to get their third best into rhythm. Thank you David Stern.
April 10th, 2010 at 11:07 am
Raja Bell and I’m a player the Spurs should go after in the offseason to replace the worthless RMJ.
April 10th, 2010 at 12:59 pm
zach randolph is a tough matchup for us b/c we don’t have a long, athletic big man that can guard him, which seems to give him trouble. plus, we all know how we do against the younger, athletic teams…
mason is looking terrible out there. he doesn’t hit open threes anymore, and outside of his shooting, he really doesn’t provide anything else. i rather see temple and hairston take up all of his minutes now.
April 10th, 2010 at 1:00 pm
Sad loss, we need that to get out of the 8th seed. LA is so mad at the Spurs,, I think Kobe is going to sweep us by himself evan if playing alone. Dunccan is done we should really look into getting Amare/Chris Bosh or Trade TP & RJ to get Joe Johnson & Marvin Williams somehow…Man anything but the 8th seed and we may have had a chance to go to Round 2 or even the WCF….Sad…LA is 10-0 in 1st Round as a higer Seed….Next year my Spurs..byebye for the summer.
April 10th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Gut-wrenching loss. At this rate, it’ll be first-round meeting with our beloved Lakers and a quick exit in 4-5 games. There’s no way Spurs are going to win against Denver unless the Nuggets really screw it up, and at 32 losses (and that’s considering Spurs beat Dallas in the regular season finale) there’s nothing the Spurs can do about it except to pray that either Portland or Oklahoma loses 2 more games. I know there’s a POR v OKC next week, but with two more games to go other than that, it does make the situation quite grim.
April 10th, 2010 at 2:19 pm
I don’t care if they end up playing the LAKERs.
THey had to play them sooner or later. And we all thought they would play each other at the beginning of the season. So why is everybody acting like this is an unwanted, out of the blue situation??
WIn or Lose it was supposed to be SPURS vs. LAKERS.
I for one think they have a shot, it isn’t impossible.
I’d rather lose to The defending champs then the Mavs or Jazz.
April 10th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
we couldn’t muster any rebounds in the 4th and memphis went on a nice hot streak. i hope our “gauntlet” stretch hasn’t worn us out.
ian had a nice statline with the expection of 1 rebound. 4pts, 1 blk, 2 steals. if we play L.A., we may have no choice but to play him based on height alone.
well, looks like its a spurs lakers 1st round
April 10th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
LA, first round? Not yet, Portland lost last night and have LA on Sunday, and OKC on Monday. That said, we will clearly have to win 2 out of our remaining three to avoid the 8th spot, which includes Denver & Dallas on the road. A win tonight would help. We’ll see if Pop and the big three can pull one out of their bag of magic tricks, along with some help from their friends.
April 10th, 2010 at 5:32 pm
That’d be a fan’s wishful and ignorant thinking junierizzle, as no owner would want to see his/her team drop in the first round. Think about all the revenues (which I heard was around a few million $) that can be earned from getting deeper into the POs… Good that you’re optimistic about the Spurs’ chances against the Lakers, but they are still the favorites to win the Western Conference, and if the Spurs have to face them, I’d rather see them playing in the Conf. finals than in the first round.
So basically what I want to say is this: it’s better for the franchise when they lose to Lakers in the Conf. finals, than beating Lakers in the 1st round then losing in the 2nd round to some random team. I know the best scenario would be winning it all, but what are the chances?
April 10th, 2010 at 8:21 pm
If they beat the Lakers in the 1st round, its pretty evident that the Spurs would be playing their best ball of the year. If that is the case then they’d likely go through the next two series just fine if they played at that same level, but more confident that they just beat the best team in the west.
April 10th, 2010 at 10:16 pm
The chances of beating LA in the first round are remote. Let’s try our hardest to avoid it.
Pop was recently asked by a reporter: On a scale of 1 to 10, what do you think your chances would be of upsetting the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs?
In true Pop fashion, his pithy answer was, “minus five”.
April 10th, 2010 at 11:20 pm
The odds of beating the Lakers in a later round if Bynum comes back early and gets his rhythm becomes even less. The only bad thing about 1st round match up is Hill is going to be out until the playoffs.
April 11th, 2010 at 12:52 am
ive been hoping all season we would get denver in the first two rounds because we have their number….i also think we will beat the mavs too…we have a stronger team identity and just as many big game players…..the lakers are beatable, but we need a playoff series win first to build confidence in our role players.
April 11th, 2010 at 4:44 am
We lost to the Mavs last year because we didnt have Manu. We have him now. We also have half of Parker, and hopefully George will be back. I like our odds if he comes back healthy and ready to play as good as before. And not just against the Mavs either. I like our odds against anyone when all 3 of our guards are capable of big nights.
April 11th, 2010 at 5:14 am
Two losses (Griz and Nets) can be directly contributed to the head coach taking these teams for granted. To think that the Spurs bench is better than the starting five of an NBA team is ludacris and to take these games for granted with so much at stake is shameful.
April 11th, 2010 at 6:18 am
Actually I didnt underestimate Hill. Hill is a solid player. Everyone here just rides the train and makes little sense. A slow Parker is a worthless player since he doesnt have multiple abilities on offense. Stating that from day 1. Unfortunately I think that Hill’s injury does a couple of things. It shakes up an already junk rotatation. And it allows Parker’s value to slip.
Here is the question. What will happen with Temple in the playoffs when Hill returns? How will that effect Parker/Hill/Temple minutes?
And I think I called the McDyess being worthless as well.
April 11th, 2010 at 10:40 am
grego
April 10th, 2010 at 11:20 pm
I’ll take the higher odds of advancing past the first round (not playing LA), rather than the slightly higher odds of advancing in a later round against LA (which requires considerable speculation to even grant the “higher odds” in this scenario, and that’s IF LA advances to meet us in a later round). And obviously, Pop agrees.
Ranking of teams in the West we’d least like to see:
LA
Dallas
Utah
Denver
Phoenix
Portland
OKC (they’re last, and still scary!)
Sure, we had a nice “bounce-back” win against Denver last night (it IS just one game; it’s NOT a 7-game series), but it looks like some of you are still underestimating our difficult match-ups with other teams on the front line. You don’t win in the PLAYOFFS by being “guard heavy”.
therealkman
April 11th, 2010 at 5:14 am
“Two losses (Griz and Nets) can be directly contributed to the head coach taking these teams for granted.”
To not hold the PLAYERS even MORE responsible for these unfocused and lackluster performances is utterly ridiculous (and please don’t try to tell me that resting Duncan was a coaching error, and lost us these games - that’s absurd). And of course, even one of these losses can end up costing us the 7th seed, and being stuck with defending champion LA in the first round.
April 11th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
jim henderson, anyone can do what pop does. being witty with the media is his talent
April 11th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Trade TP
April 11th, 2010 at 6:37 pm
“……..anyone can do what pop does. being witty with the media is his talent.”
Yup, that’s why Holt pays Pop the big bucks; he likes his witty comments with the media. It’s good PR!
April 12th, 2010 at 3:17 pm
dayum!..wheres blair?..les use um coach!!.dayum!..itsall right tho..we gon win today..open mavs eyez on wed…and have our mind right come playoffs!..les go..we ready!..Spurs 2010 CHAMPS!….LES GO!!..GO SPURS GO!
October 4th, 2010 at 4:44 pm
[...] Spurs don’t really seem aware of the changed circumstances of their NBA lives. Consider this choice quote from Manu Ginobili about the game from Spurs blog 48 Minutes of Hell. “It was a very disappointing loss, it was [...]
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