The second half run that doomed the Spurs

by Andrew A. McNeill

AT&T CENTER — It was a quiet home locker room in the AT&T Center last night, and for good reason. The San Antonio Spurs, who hoped to get out to a better start this season than last, thanks to a favorable early season itinerary, put in a terrible third quarter of play and fell 99-90 to the New Orleans Hornets.

“It was a 22-7 run over time,” Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich said after the game. “I thought during the 22-7 run in the second half, we played poorly.”

What was so bad about that run? Well, after the postgame interview concluded last night I rushed home to re-watch the Spurs’ abysmal third quarter and bad start to the fourth, and look at the breakdowns. Let’s go through this play-by-play style, starting at the 10:58 mark of the third quarter, when the Spurs got their last lead of the game.

10:58 - Richard Jefferson rebounds Emeka Okafor’s miss and outlets the ball to Tony Parker. Parker races up court and drives into the lane. He’s fouled and shoots two free throws. Makes both. Spurs up 46-45

10:52 - Chris Paul takes an 18-foot jump shot off a pick from David West. Paul misses and Tim Duncan rebounds.

10:33 - Manu Ginobili dribbles up court and does a fancy behind-the-back dribble, takes it to the hoop, but misses the layup. Could’ve been a foul there, but tough to call.

10:25 - Chris Paul brings the ball up in transition and hits Trevor Ariza cutting to the basket with a bounce pass. Ariza gets fouled by Duncan. Ariza hits both free throws. 46-47

10:20 - Manu Ginobili gets a pass from Richard Jefferson on the left wing and he drives to the basket. Again, there’s contact near the hoop and Manu misses the layup. But again, there’s probably not enough contact to make the foul call.

10:06 - Marco Belinelli gets the ball in the corner for New Orleans, he pump-fakes and starts to drive to the basket. Once he gets by the defender, he goes up for the shot but sees Okafor cutting to the basket and makes the pass. Okafor makes the layup and draws the foul. The Hornets’ big man hits the free throw. 46-50

9:54 - Tim Duncan gets the ball in the low post and turns to the middle for his shot-put like move. Okafor gets just enough to deflect the shot and Richard Jefferson knocks the rebound out of play.

9:42 - Chris Paul dribbles off a Okafor and West double screen and hits West near the perimeter. West drives into the lane and hits a short fadeaway jumper. 46-52

9:22 - Jefferson passes to Manu near the corner for an open 3-pointer, but it misses and New Orleans gets the rebound.

9:03 - Off a sideline out-of-bounds play, Chris Paul takes Tony Parker off the dribble, gives him a bit of a shimmy to get the defender off-balance and hits the 18-footer. 46-54

8:48 - DeJuan Blair gets a pass near the elbow and drives on West to the hoop. He performs a nice little up-and-under, but the ball appears to slip out of his hands as he goes up for the shot and misses.

8:32 - Chris Paul takes the ball up court and drives all the way to the hoop for a layup. Not good defense at all from San Antonio. 46-56

8:21 - Jefferson takes the hand-off from Duncan in the post and is stripped going up for a reverse layup. It goes out of bounds off of New Orleans. On the ensuing in-bounds play, Manu gets the ball near the top of the key, drives to the basket, and dumps it off to Duncan near the left block. Duncan up-fakes a couple of times, gets some Hornets to jump early and Duncan lays the ball in. 48-56

7:58 - Chris Paul runs a pick-and-roll with Emeka Okafor and Paul takes it all the way to the hoop for a layup. Duncan didn’t do any sort of hard hedge on the pick and Paul was just too quick for TD. One can only hope Splitter is up to snuff when it comes to pick-and-roll D. 48-58

7:40 - Duncan gets the ball on the right block and turns toward the middle for a running hook shot, but it misses and the Hornets get the rebound.

7:21 - Chris Paul takes a pretty weak pick from Okafor and dribbles around the lane before slicing to the basket for a layup. More bad defense from San Antonio as no one stopped Paul’s dribble. 48-60

7:10 - Tony Parker dribbles to the hoop off a Duncan pick and kicks it to Jefferson for an open 3-pointer in the left corner, but RJ misses and Parker gets the offensive rebound. The ball swings around the perimeter to RJ in the left corner again and he drives baseline, drawing the foul on Okafor. Jefferson makes both free throws. 50-60

6:47 - West and Paul run a pick-and-pop and Tony Parker ends up matched up on West. West spins baseline and throws up a floater but it hits the side of the backboard and San Antonio heads the other way.

6:30 - The Spurs swing the ball around the perimeter and Jefferson gets it in the right corner. He drives hard to the basket and misses a layup. Jefferson gets his own rebound and floats it in. Tim Duncan did a good job sealing his man on his back in the low post, giving RJ a clear path to the basket. 52-60

6:15 - Chris Paul runs a pick-and-pop with West again. Paul drives across the free throw line and kicks it out to West near the top of the key, who drives to the basket and misses a layup at the rim. Duncan gets the board and quickly outlets it to Jefferson.

5:55 - Parker and Duncan run a pick-and-roll on the left wing. Parker gets into the lane, draws the defense and dumps it off to Duncan. Duncan up-fakes and appears to shuffle his feet. Traveling is the call and Duncan doesn’t like it.

5:48 - Another pick-and-pop with Paul and West. West misses the baseline jumper off the pass.

5:33 - Duncan gets the feed on the left block, turns to the middle and misses the short hook shot. West rebounds for New Orleans.

5:15 - Paul dribbles up court and finds Okafor down-low with a wraparound pass. Okafor draws the foul on Duncan and hits one of two free throws. 52-61

5:09 - Gary Neal flashes out to the right wing after a down screen from Antonio McDyess and hits a 3-pointer. 55-61

4:53 - Chris Paul runs a pick-and-roll with Jason Smith and gets fouled on the left wing. The Spurs are in the penalty and Paul shoots two free throws. He’s Chris Paul, so he hits both. 55-62

4:47 - Richard Jefferson attacks the basket again and gets the bucket inside. Is it a stretch to say Jefferson was San Antonio’s best player last night? I think not. 57-63

4:30 - Now the wheels start to fall off. Okafor gets a pass inside, again he scores and draws the foul. Okafor hits the free throw. 57-66

4:19 - Tony Parker draws two defenders and dishes it to McDyess just outside the elbow. McDyess hasn’t hit a shot in the paint since 2003, but he nails the 18-footer. 59-66

4:05 - Chris Paul attacks the basket off a pick but Duncan is able to bother Paul enough that he misses the floater.

3:45 - After a defensive 3-second call (Parker hits the free throw), Tony Parker runs a pick-and-roll with DeJuan Blair. Parker pulls up for an 18-foot jumper but misses, and Blair grabs the offensive rebound. Blair kicks the ball out to Gary Neal, takes a 3-pointer near the top of the arc, but the shot misses.

3:31 - Dribbling the ball up court, Chris Paul spots Trevor Ariza open on the other side of the 3-point arc and hits him with a one-handed pass. Ariza knocks down the open shot. 60-69

3:24 - Antonio McDyess tries to set a pick for Tony Parker and at the same time, Gary Neal is setting a screen for McDyess. Neal’s screen is a bad one and he’s called for an illegal screen.

3:11 - Marcus Thornton gets a pick from Jason Smith and splits the defense on the way to the hoop, but Thornton misses the layup. Antonio McDyess grabs the rebound for the Spurs.

2:56 - Tony Parker takes the pass from Gary Neal on the left wing and drives to the lane, but Parker misses the floater.

2:49 - Trevor Ariza dribbles into the lane and tries to dump the ball to DJ Mbenga, but DeJuan Blair steps in and steals the pass. Ariza compounds his mistake by fouling Blair 85 feet from the Spurs’ basket.

2:27 - Blair gets the ball at the high post and tries to throw a bounce pass to Tony Parker, who is curling to the basket, but the pass is off the mark and Parker has to pull the ball out and regroup. Parker has New Orleans’ Jason Smith matched up on him and this point and he bricks an 18-footer over Smith.

2:04 - Thornton gets the ball on the left wing runs a pick-and-pop with Smith. Thornton goes all the way to the basket for a layup because San Antonio’s help defense was slow to rotate. 60-71

1:47 -Antonio McDyess has the ball at the top of the key and looks for Tony Parker running his pet play, where he looks like he’s running to baseline to the left corner, but quickly does a backdoor cut to the basket for a layup. Only problem is, the Hornets’ Willie Green jumps the play and gets the steal. Green takes the ball all the way to the other end and pulls up for a short jump shot in the middle of the lane. He makes it. 60-73

1:28 - Gary Neal curls to the basket from the right wing and gets a pass from Tony Parker. Neal takes a 8-foot jump shot in the lane but misses to the left. Willie Green secures the rebound and again takes the ball all the way to the hoop on the other end. Green scores the layup and draws the foul. Not much effort trying to stop the ball from the silver and black. Green sinks the free throw. 60-76

1:02 - George Hill and DeJuan Blair run a pick-and-roll on the left wing. Blair gets a pass from Hill on the baseline and makes a nice spin move to get a look at the basket, but his shot is blocked by DJ Mbenga. The Spurs get the ball back and it goes to Manu in the right corner, but he misses the 3-pointer and New Orleans gets the rebound.

36.4 - Willie Green runs a pick-and-roll with DJ Mbenga and then fires a cross-court pass to Jason Smith. Smith shoots a 15-foot jump shot that misses and Mbenga gets the offensive rebound. He throws up a hideous jump hook but it misses. Gary Near goes the other way with it and gets the ball to Manu. Ginobili finds George Hill open in the corner with time running down in the quarter, but Hill misses, a common theme in this game.

The Hornets scored 10 straight points to close the quarter and went into the 4th quarter with a 76-60 lead.

4th Quarter

11:40 - The Spurs move the ball around well, and Manu Ginobili ends up with it on the right wing. He drives to the basket and draws Antonio McDyess’ defender. Manu kicks it to an open McDyess at the elbow, but Dice misses the 15-foot jumper.

11:28 - Willie Green comes off a pick and goes up for a 15-foot jump shot near the baseline. A pretty harmless offensive possession from New Orleans.

11:13 - Hill dribbles the ball up court, and gives a nice hesitation dribble near the right wing. He attacks the basket, but misses the layup and DeJuan Blair gets called for the loose ball foul going for the offensive rebound.

11:07 - Marcus Thornton curls off of a double-screen to the right wing and gets a pass from Jerryd Bayless. Thornton takes two hard dribbles toward the basket and pulls up for the 18-footer. He makes it. 60-78

At this point in the game, the Hornets had their biggest lead of the game. Over and over again, the Spurs failed to stop the ball. Whether it be a Hornet coming off a pick attacking the basket, or someone grabbing a rebound on one end and taking it all the way to the other, the Spurs did a poor job preventing the ball handler from getting wherever they wanted.

San Antonio missed shots too, but good defense tends to spur easy baskets on offense. That didn’t happen much during that third quarter run from the Hornets. Manu Ginobili said it best after the game, “We really struggled, couldn’t make a shot, and couldn’t play any defense. They beat us in every possible way.”