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Given Golden State’s chaotic style, you never expect a game against the Warriors to be evocative of all the things that plague a team. But lo and behold, last night’s contest offered a textbook primer for what has ailed San Antonio in recent weeks. I’m not going to complain too much, since we got the win, but narrowly defeating the Warriors 107-106 is nothing to brag about.

At the beginning of the season, I thought we had one of the strongest backcourts in the league. When Parker joined Ginobili in street clothes, Mason and Hill rose to the occasion, causing my confidence to balloon ever higher. My recaps became a daily platform on which I could voice my concerns about our big men. I never thought I would wake up one sunny morning in late March, worried about our guard play.

A quick look at the box score would suggest I relax. Tony Parker had 30 point and 10 assists. Roger Mason Jr. had 24 points on 10-16 shooting. Since they combined for over half the team’s offensive production, you’d think I’d let them off the hook. No such luck, fellas.

The problem isn’t when they are on the court together. The problem is when Mason is it at the point. The Spurs entire offensive scheme is based around having at least one player who can collapse the defense (whether that be via penetration or commanding the double team in the low post) and surrounding that player with perimeter shooters. When the double comes, our meticulous ball movement will find those open shooters and find them fast.

But when Mason is at the point (and Duncan isn’t on the floor) no one has the ability to breakdown the defense. Oftentimes he’s accompanied by several other scoring options: Bonner, Finley. But none of them can score with a hand in their face and no one can find an open look.

The thing is, they all know this. So you get mediocre ball-handlers driving to the hoop, hoping to draw the foul or kick the ball out. If they don’t the offense can’t function. Most of the time it ends poorly. Sometimes it ends in a hilarious stroke of good luck, such as when Bruce Bowen made a layup and drew the foul (has Bruce ever gotten an “and one” before?).

What it makes overwhelmingly apparent is how necessary Manu Ginobili is for this offense to hum for a full 48 minutes. While Parker and Duncan sit, Ginobili provides reliable penetration, adept passing, and the ball-handling skills to remain in control when pressure is applied near the half-court line.

To be fair, Mason performed beautifully last night when he was allowed to play inside his game. His go-ahead basket with 23 seconds left made visions of early season nail-biters dance in my head. But Pop’s use of Mason as a backup point is not working. I’m not sure what my advice would be in this situation: Currently Hill does not possess the confidence or offensive abilities I’m looking for either. I guess we’ll just have to wait for Ginobili to make his return (which some reports say may be tonight against the Hawks).

The frontcourt, on the other hand, performed well. Duncan had his best game in a while, scoring 21 points and nabbing 10 boards. Ronny Turiaf, who gave Duncan trouble in our last meeting with the Warriors, proved unable to slow down Duncan without committing the foul. Thomas played well but continued our nasty habit of missing late-game free throws by clanking two off the rim with 5 seconds left in the fourth quarter. I have no insight into our struggles from the line in crunch time. If we want to win close games, we need to make our free throws. It’s as simple as that.

The only fluky aspect of last night’s game was the poor job we did on the defensive glass. The Warriors pulled down 14 offensive rebounds, which is 14 too many. We are the best defensive rebounding team in the league. If we had controlled the boards, we would have cruised to a win. But giving Golden State second shot opportunities kept the game close.

The Spurs will be in Atlanta this evening, where they’ll face a hungry Hawks team who has won 8 of their last 8 homes games (their only loss at home since Feb. 10th was an 88-87 loss to Cleveland). The Atlanta Hawks official site asked me to answer a few questions about the state of the Spurs. If you have a chance, stop by and check them out.

Ed. Note: I wrote a slightly more succint version of “The Notebook” for ESPN’s Daily Dime if you want to take a quick look.