El Conclusión: San Antonio Spurs 113, Toronto Raptors 106
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Tim Duncan, C 19 MIN | 3-8 FG | 2-2 FT | 3 REB | 2 AST | 8 PTS | -2
Duncan’s streak of double-figure games comes to an end, which is a shame, but Duncan played less then 20 minutes and the Spurs win. We can all agree that’s a fair tradeoff, no? |
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Richard Jefferson, SF 26 MIN | 4-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 1 REB | 1 AST | 10 PTS | -8
Made some mistakes defensively, this much is true. Jefferson did appear more aggressive and engaged tonight than he’s been in a while. He’s also gotten on the floor for loose balls twice in the last two games. So much for last guy to the pile. |
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DeJuan Blair, F 16 MIN | 3-7 FG | 0-0 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 6 PTS | -4
Like Duncan, Blair had a quiet night. The Spurs went small for stretches in this game, and Blair’s simply not built to be the lone big man in the game. |
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Tony Parker, PG 39 MIN | 11-23 FG | 12-12 FT | 3 REB | 14 AST | 34 PTS | +12
This guy. Parker didn’t shoot well from outside the paint, but he finished well around the rim and with contact. Knocked down all of his free throws, a lot of them, and had 14 assists. |
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Daniel Green, G 28 MIN | 4-7 FG | 2-2 FT | 7 REB | 1 AST | 13 PTS | +5
Green was everywhere early in this game. Loose balls, steals, rebounds, swinging the ball, hitting open shots. You name it, he was there. Quiet second half, offensively, though. |
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Matt Bonner, PF 20 MIN | 4-6 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 0 AST | 10 PTS | +17
Hit both his 3s, hit a pair of other shots and grabbed five boards. Took a charge too and was active on the backside on defense. Solid night for Bonner. |
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Manu Ginobili, SG 20 MIN | 3-4 FG | 4-5 FT | 3 REB | 1 AST | 11 PTS | +4
Manu still appears to be getting his feet under him offensively. His timing is still off and his shot hasn’t come around. Defensively his instincts are sharp, though. |
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Gary Neal, PG 26 MIN | 3-5 FG | 2-2 FT | 4 REB | 1 AST | 8 PTS | +10
Missed both his 3s, but had four rebounds. Not a whole lot to say about Gary’s night except that his defense seems improved in his second season. |
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Tiago Splitter, C 28 MIN | 6-8 FG | 1-2 FT | 5 REB | 2 AST | 13 PTS | +13
Fun thing I noticed about Tiago tonight: the entire area around the rim is fair game when Tiago gets the ball down low. Whether he’s posting up or cutting to the hoop, there’s a good of a chance of him finishing on one side of the rim as the other. |
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Kawhi Leonard, SF 15 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 2 REB | 1 AST | 0 PTS | -5
Very quiet night for Kawhi. Get my bags, rookie. |
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| Cory Joseph, G 3 MIN | 0-1 FG | 0-0 FT | 0 REB | 0 AST | 0 PTS | -7
Tonight was one of those nights where I wanted for Cory to do well, him being home in Toronto and all. Didn’t happen, but it was nice that he saw some time on the floor in his first NBA game back home. |
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James Anderson, SG DNP COACH’S DECISION MIN | FG | FT | REB | AST | PTS |
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Five Things We Saw
- Jose Calderon finished with 16 points for the Raptors, and I’d guess that 10 of those came from him shooting jumpers off the pick. The Spurs big men didn’t step up enough to discourage Calderon from taking the jumper and he nailed it. Another time he crossed over and went away from the pick, and Splitter was slow to get a hand in his face.
- Tim Duncan puts two hands on players on picks and rebounds more than any player should legally get away with. Part of this is because he’s a vet, and that’s just how it goes. The other is because he doesn’t extend his arms a lot. It’s a testament to Duncan’s strength that he can put his hands on guys and control them without extending his arms too much.
- A lot of “meh” grades for the Spurs tonight. Outside of Parker, nobody played great, but the team still won. Nine on the trot, even without a great performance in either of these back-to-back games.
- My current favorite play is any pick-and-roll involving Tiago Splitter and Manu Ginobili / Tony Parker with Matt Bonner spotted up behind the arc on the same side of the floor. Splitter rolls so hard to the basket that it’s easy for the player defending Bonner to get sucked in. If he does, Bonner is wide open for a 3 in the corner.
- Spurs executed very well out of timeouts in this game. San Antonio is traditionally very good in these situations, but I thought especially so tonight.
“Tim Duncan puts two hands on players on picks and rebounds more than any player should legally get away with” Read more: http://www.48minutesofhell.com/spurs-raptors-rodeo-road-trip#ixzz1mVhBUYYT
Go back and watch game tape…they were allowing every big on both sides two hand checks with no calls. Saw it several times and came to the conclusion…it must be something they allow in Canada.
A win is a win. Toronto with some good players but bad luck (inexperience as a team).
Interesting choice of starters. Parker, Green, Jefferson, Blair and Duncan.
Neal’s C rating would improve to a consistent B or better if allowed to start.
Great time management by Pop allowing extended minutes to Tiago and minimal minutes to Duncan.
Parker must be runnin’ on aviator fuel. Hard to believe he will be effective come playoffs at this rate of court time. But…at this time he doesn’t seem to be slowing down or looking fatigued.
Solid win, nice to keep the winning streak going. However, the last two games have been very bad defensively. I hope the Spurs don’t forget about what has made them great the last 9 games. Maybe the presence of Manu makes some guys relax and not play as hard on D, I don’t know.
RJ played very bad perimeter D, at least 4 times he gave the offensive player too much space and they knocked down the jumper.
I like the fact that the Spurs are improving slowly, they haven’t peak early like last season. I always write that the winning combination for the Spurs is solid defense and inside scoring, last year they shy away from both. With Tony back to his old self and TIago getting minutes, the inside scoring is back. On the other hand, defense is improving, but as much people insist that team defense is different than individual defense, the fact is that defense will always depend on personnel. Tiago, Green and Leonard are all solid defensively, that’ why I hope they slowly but surely steal playing time from guys like Blair, Bonner and Jefferson.
Spurs got 9 in a row, but I smell a nasty loss brewing. We were terrible in the 4th quarter in Detroit (almost lost that one) and didn’t play any defense tonight. While the Clips aren’t a juggernaught team, they are much better than these last two. Maybe a few days off to rest and refocus is what this team needs. Parker is back to beasting with another monster performance. IMO, he is hands down our MVP this year.
I know I am just stating the obvious, but damn we are deep at the wing positions. KL, Green, RJ, and Neal give us huge depth that has and will continue to pay off this year. Those 4 role players produced 31pts, 14rebs, and 4 assts. Even though it was a quiet night for KL, I am glad Pop is playing these young wings and not just having RJ play for 35 mpg.
If TJ can play well after his return, Parker should see more rest later this season. Also, Manu’s minutes will climb relative to tonight.
Tbh I don’t think our defense was ‘that’ bad and in some stretches was actually very good. Toronto made a lot of contested midrange jumpshots. I’d wager around half their field goals were on such shots, that’s the lowest percentage/worst shot in basketball so I could have dealt with a loss in this game but we pulled it out pretty much entirely thanks to Tony and Tiago.
People worrying about Tony really shouldn’t he’s averaging 33/4 mins a game (?), that’s not a problem, it just seems like a lot but realistically it’s barely even top 50 in the league. He’s only 29 and as soon as Manu’s back to fitness and TJ Ford’s back, we can regulate Tony’s minutes again. We can’t be worrying about injuries either, at the end of the day, Tony’s one of the best conditioned guys in the league but no one can account for him (for instance) falling down the stairs and breaking his leg. Injuries can happen at any time so if they happen, we’ll cross that bridge, otherwise we gotta just keep playing basketball.
Looking at our schedule, it’s been very light so far in comparison to whats coming up. When we hit March 16th, we’re gonna see what our guys are really about. Great start to the year though, undefeated February so far. Maybe Pop’s going after another 50 win season? lol
Great night at the foul line for San Antonio. That probably got us the win tonight.
Parker would have had a better FG% and more assists if he would have given up half of those 12 misses to the trailing guy or the big standing around picking his nose watching Tony miss forced shots. THAT”S IRRITATING!
NY and the Spurs are having win streaks. What is this? 1999 all over again?
TP has 34 pts on 23 shots and 14 assists…and people still complain about his play?
whatever.
the fact is, TP is playing like the all star that he is. the team is getting offense up and down the roster with 7 in double figures last night and 6 tonight.
was i pleased the team let seemingly weaker competition hang around? of course not. but am I surprised a team – regardless of record – rode the emotion of the home crowd and sank some lucky shots to come back against us and make the games close? no.
i’m really liking this team…i see the same team that won 61 games last year – only better, younger and deeper. Timmy is looking good and his minutes are down; Tiago is giving us this year what so many of us thought he could have given us last year on both ends of the court; Tony is Tony and Manu is Manu – or will be, shortly; RJ is his consistent 10 pts a game; Gary Neal is showing his second-year comfort level; Bonner and Blair contribute adequately in their 20 and 22 mins per game, respectively; then add the youth of Kawhi and Danny Green, and I just feel we have a team that can compete against anyone out there.
btw, OKC lost at Houston tonight and that Detroit team that wasn’t supposed to be able to hang with us went into Boston and beat the Celtics by 10. The Spurs have as good a chance as anyone to come out of the west.
anyway, haven’t posted here in a while. just thought i’d add my 2 cents.
Go Spurs! Go!!
And this is why Blair can’t play with Splitter..
My current favorite play is any pick-and-roll involving Tiago Splitter and Manu Ginobili / Tony Parker with Matt Bonner spotted up behind the arc on the same side of the floor. Splitter rolls so hard to the basket that it’s easy for the player defending Bonner to get sucked in. If he does, Bonner is wide open for a 3 in the corner.
Neal is in the exact role that he needs to be. The second group needs Neal as a confident shooter and competent playmaker/distributor to help keep the offense running when Parker comes off the floor. I’ve been impressed in the last few games at how much better it seems his decision making has gotten. If he can continue his growth as a facilitator it helps keep the team in rhythm in regards to moving the ball (which is where we see the most success on offense).
BTW,
did you guys notice Steve Novak scored 14 points for the Knicks tonight? He’s been posting double figures lately. Same’s been happening to Gee in Cleveland. He’s been on a roll too. Could that mean the Spurs system somehow dampens offensive players? If so, then if we traded or amnestied RJ, he would start posting near-all star double doubles on whatever team he ends up with. Is that conclusion warranted?
Must be a lockout-shortened season!
I think a ‘B’ for Danny Green is pretty generous considering he was getting torched defensively by DeRozan in the early third quarter. It wasn’t like DeRozan was doing anything complex. He was running off a simple screen and getting wide open looks. For a guy in their for his defense, he sure wasn’t doing much to make his guy work.
Name one forced miss outside of six feet?
Neal is best suited to be a scoring 2 guard who is a smart passer as opposed to backup PG who has to worry about keeping his team involved. The different mindset makes a huge difference.
Knicks needed help on the boards, and guys on a D’Antoni team, like a Don Nelson team, will get stats… The rest is largely an issue of opportunity/minutes. In SA, with a healthy TP & Manu, chances are you won’t get nice PPG numbers unless you are (getting time &) hitting spot-up 3s. RJ’s numbers were juicier before coming here, which has been discussed. But… many here preferred Novak to Bonner last year (esp for the money), and were surprised Pop didn’t make room for Gee (by taking mins from RJ, Ime Udoka, even Chris Quinn).
On the other hand, Neal & Green have had some big nights. Minutes & opportunity. Look at Blair’s big rookie games, or Splitter this year. Speights and Mahinmi have had some nice games this year, it’s just how it goes. Who knows what Anderson or the foreign stashed picks would do, if given a chance to play a significant role. Sometimes those guys would get stats and the win, I’ll tell you that. The thing about Gee and Novak is they haven’t proven that they deliver stats + wins versus the best teams consistently, thereby proving to be difference-makers on playoff favorites. In other words, taking big statistical nights into account, we’re not ready to call these guys star players are we? We have TP & Manu, CLE and NYK don’t (and they’ve had key injuries). But on this roster, I doubt either of the guys you mentioned would be our 3rd or 4th scorer night in/out. I don’t expect they’ll be that on their current teams either. It’d be nice if we had another 2-way player that could secure a large role, and thereby be a major scoring option, instead we have the kind of imperfect talent that makes us deep, rather than top heavy. What are Novak & Gee? Depth.
Oh, and… RJ SHOULD be A LOT more AGGRESSIVE (as the 4th highest paid and accomplished guy on the team).
They had moments of bad D, but they have clamped down at times. It’s tough to judge these trap games, especially the 2nd back-to-back. I worry less about the defense and more about the Spurs taking their leads for granted.
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While the Clips aren’t a juggernaught team, they are much better than these last two. ”
Spurs won’t be playing a team that they can put it into cruise control. It’s not a trap game like the previous two.
Well, Novak is bad defensively. If you give him time, you lose something on that side. Knicks are run by D’Antoni. Although Melo has been bad for his offense, he’s out now. Systems make a difference, especially when they allow offensive only players to be free flowing.
Yes Sir. You can see the intensity level drop when the Spurs develop comfortable leads.
A new plaque needs to be made for all the players to read and instilled for every game.
“No Lead Is Comfortable”
”People worrying about Tony really shouldn’t he’s averaging 33/4 mins a game (?), that’s not a problem,…”
Can’t say if it will or won’t with confidence. And yes an injury can happen at any time regardless of minutes played so I agree in the just keep playing part.
Playing 33 to 35 minutes a game in a “regular” season would not be a concern. However, The fatigue factor very well could be a legitimate concern at the end of this compressed, b2b filled season. We’ll see, regarding Parker I’d feel less concerned if he could reduce his time on the court by 4 to 5 minutes per and be fresher for the playoffs.
LOL. By the way…were you able to get connected to see the games?
Leonard would have been a better match up defensively to DeRozan. But Leonard isn’t accomplished enough on offense. A wash. But a strong argument I believe for starting Neal and Leonard with Parker and Duncan. You get solid offense AND solid defense/rebounding with that lineup on the court. Hopefully when TJ returns Neal will be placed back into the starting unit to play in the position he’s more adept to playing. Ford, Ginobili, Green, Bonner and Splitter would make a solid second tier unit.
Exactly. And which of the new guys would you like give up in order to have Novak and Gee? [...crickets...]
That’s pretty much true. The difference probably has the most weight in his own head, Neal is most confident his scoring ability… and, wow, what a wonderful thing confidence is! Bowen was an exceptionally confident defender (remind me again how in the world did the Spurs miss on Tony Allen?), Splitter is confident playing inside.
Anyway, with Gary, there’s a good chance he sees most his time with Manu, so just being a G, rather than a PG or SG can work… if only he’d have it dialed all the way down to his instincts kinda like James Harden has. But short of that it would be wonderful if Gary became the uberconfident point guard… another DNP for James Anderson has me thinking more & more that the Spurs are planning on spending his money elsewhere. We stand to lose both Ford and Green in free agency, and are simply too deep at SG too pick Anderson over Ford, since retaining both Ford and Green may be expensive (and there’s still the issue of big man depth to deal with).
I imagine the Spurs want to retain both Ford and Green, but may be unable to, and would probably end up choosing Green if forced… still looking for BB2. Neal will be around next year, but if he played the one rather than the two, retaining balanced depth would be easier. The better point skills Green and Neal have, the better they could anchor the second team together, or man a starting guard spot if TP or Manu is injured or whatever as time marches on (Anderson was supposed to be the future in SA). So rather than developing Neal exclusively as a Killer Scorer, which would be fun to see, they are asking him to grow in other areas on offense. Just too many two-guards in Spurs uniforms, and Neal is small.
Sorry, mistook you for Dorie in that question. It must have been the “D” thing in both your names.
Actually Gee is playing good right now for a crappy WIZ team that’s winning a few games. But to answer your question I’d stick with our guys as well.
These last two games are bad teams we played. If TP continues to ignore who’s around him on the fast break and insisting to be superman on his own then yeah he’ll pile up the missed shots like he did losing precious offensive opportunities to score and it will be worse for the better teams. He has to shoot a lot inorder to get those points when he could easily utilize his team mates. He’s notorious for that. 23 shots to make 11? That’s 47% when easily he could take advantage of the other 4 players on the court and raise his FG% and assists resulting in higher % scoring success for the team overall. If you can’t see that during the game than I guess that doesn’t matter to you. Wait till he does it against the real good teams in the playoffs and we lose because of that, playoffs not regular season. All star - shmall-star I don’t care what he is he needs to stop doing that!
I’m talking about going into the lane on fast breaks when there’s an outlet for him when he gets to a dead end. This guy thinks he has to score for everybody. It’s not a good way to get sure points for your team. Yeah he makes the ones where he’s by himself under the rim but he forces too many and misses too many to get the impressive points you see in the box score. Those dead end misses are lost opportunities for the others that wear a silver and black jersey. Go back and look at his fast breaks and tell me there isn’t one where he should have utilized the trailer or the guy under neath the rim next to him. You can’t be blind. If I haven’t erased the game yet I’ll go back after work and document the plays I’m talking about just for you. I’ll say it again this is irritating! And by the way I’m not complaining about his overall play ( he can shoot well from the outside) just when he makes those stupid decisions.
I don’t care if they play him to the ground. He just needs to stop making stupid decisions. Read my post in reply to Wayne.
It’s more like if Pop decides your not good enough for the Spurs than your not good enough to play in the NBA.
That’s why we need to get another big so we can leave Blair out of the rotation. He can have mop up minutes.
Hack a Blake! At 52% Blair and Bonner can hack him all night long.
I have to give RJ his due for playing two very solid back-to-back games.
By no means did he light up the scoreboard, but he played with aggressiveness rarely seen from him in the silver and black. We need RJ to play like that on a consistent basis.
Also, Danny Green started the game on fire. Defensively he had 2 or 3 steals in the first couple minutes of the game.
I don’t think we need to trade or acquire anyone. I don’t understand any of the talk that the Spurs are a regular season team and not a playoff team.
I think the playoffs are a game of match ups. There are teams that match up well against you, and then there are other super teams that match up badly against you. If we manage to avoid a couple of teams in the West, we might be able to get something done. I don’t think we’re contenders either, but any healthy Popovich coached team can go anywhere.
Well, Tiago scores a “B”, Blair a “C”, and not a peep from the ghost of Jim Henderson, aka TD BestEver/thomasholdren. The man “had some gifts” and “brought a ton of effort”, just “too disruptive in the locker room”, “couldn’t get over his bad habits.” Oh, well.
Good point. As a point guard if you have an equal opportunity to score as another player it’s better to make the pass because it makes your team better.
I think having Manu back has rejuvenated him a bit. Manu’s effect on the confidence and psychology of the team is huge.
I think we’re being a little picky, aren’t we?
I think Leonard is about as accomplished on offense as Green. It’s not like Green is a better shooter.
Gee is on the Cavs.
You never hear from tdbestever unless the spurs lose
Man he moves around a lot. But he’s still playing good.
I just want him to be better than Nash so that no one around the NBA can ignore him.
Wait, are those the same people with different tag names, or are you just making fun of all of them for blindly trumpeting Blair? When are they gonna let Jim Henderson out of jail? The guy’s been in the doghouse for like a year and a half, right?
Nah, Dude’s been 86′ed again.
pretty sure pop wants tp to do that or pop would have screwed tp up and down.