Spurs of the Moment

The Spurs lost to the Mavs in OT last night even after holding them to less than 40% shooting for most of the game. The Spurs played some good defense, but there were still some glaring problems, namely injuries, interior defense, and turnovers. I won’t play the injury card since the Mavs were without Shawn Marion (ankle), Josh Howard (ankle), and Erick Dampier (illness). However, it is worth noting that the Spurs did not have Tony Parker last night, who aggravated his ankle injury against the Thunder. Manu Ginobili started but played only seven minutes before retreating to the locker room with a groin injury. Still, the bigger problems were that, A) the Spurs allowed 46 points in the paint compared to the Mavs allowing only 22, and B) the Spurs turned the ball over 18 times leading to 19 Mavericks points. Meanwhile, the Mavs turned it over only 5 times leading to only 2 Spurs points.

Some notes on the first half:
-Rodrigue Beaubois started for Dallas last night, and this guy could be pretty good down the road if he plays under control more often. He finished with eight points, mostly in the first quarter, and played only 17 minutes.
-I could swear one of the ESPN Announcers (Mike Breen perhaps?) referred to Roger Mason as “Anthony Mason Jr”, and then said that Manu was “headed to the lineup” instead of the locker room a minute later. Wait, what?
-With nine minutes left in the 2nd quarter, Finley does an encore of his “slide outta the way” move where he all but rolls out a red carpet for an opposing player on their way to the basket. I can’t even remember which Mav it was, I had to look away in disgust.
-The final minutes of the 2nd quarter was some atrocious officiating. First, RJ gets called for a charge while Kidd is running along side him as he changes direction and collides with RJ. WTF? Not long after, Roger Mason gets mugged in the corner by two Mavs. No call, Mav’s “steal” the ball and get an easy lay in. I think the refs realized they were mucking things up so they tried to make up for it by immediately calling a bogus foul on Dirk as Bogans is shooting a three. One of the worst stretches of officiating I have seen in a minute.
-DeJuan Blair blocked Dirk’s shot to end the half. It was brilliant.
-The first half was a thoroughly ugly game. Halftime score was 37-35, Mavericks. Ironic since  that’s what these two teams were shooting – Spurs 34% and Mavs 37%. Go figure.

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Some notes on the 3rd quarter:
-Midway through the 3rd quarter and Finley goes 1-on-2 after getting an outlet pass from Duncan. Instead of waiting for his teammates and getting a good shot, he throws up some nonsense amidst the two Maverick defenders and of course misses. But he did make a nice baseline turnaround shot shortly after.
-With 6:08 left in the 3rd, McDyess fouls Nowitzki by throwing his chest into Dirk’s elbow. Gotta love this officiating.
-Mason gets called for an offensive foul (pushing off) as Barea pretends he is shot 6 times.
-Spurs have 14 turnovers already, but only trail by one.
-The Ghost of Tim Thomas enters the game. He scores on a put back, and hits one at the buzzer that doesn’t count. Whew! Wait, what the heck is going on here?

Some notes on the 4th quarter:
-Roger Mason tries to dunk (I didn’t know he had it in him), gets fouled, makes both. Mavs lead 63-61.
-What’s this I see? Malik Hairston enters the game with over 11 minutes left. He finishes with two points, one rebound and a turnover in six minutes.
-Kris Humphies was out there snaggin’ everything that even looked like a rebound. I remember thinking, “Where’s Blair?”, but saying out loud, “Someone needs to stop Kris Humphries.” (You know things are grim when you utter that sentence out loud.)
-Dirk shoots over Bonner… again. When is someone (besides Dirk) gonna realize that Bonner cannot guard him.
-The Hobbit (Barea) flops again, but thankfully doesnt get the call this time.
-Finally McDyess is guarding Dirk and blocks his shot – about friggin time.
-Score is tied at 78 on a McDyess baseline jumper with 3:14 to go in spite of 17 Spurs turnovers.
-Oops, make that 18 as RJ completes a 1-yard pass to Terry. Touchdown Dallas!
-Kidd was guarding McDyess on a switch and RJ chose to drive into traffic and miss a terribly ill-conceived shot. The refs will not bail you out in Dallas, RJ.
-Mark Cuban should be forced to wear a hat in public – Frankenhead.
-Huge tip in from Dirk gives dallas 84-82 lead with 14.6 seconds left. No one boxed him out and he came screaching through the lane like a man possessed. Doh!
-Duncan ties it with a bank shot with 2.3 seconds left then blocks Terry’s last second shot – OVERTIME!

Some notes on OT:
-George Hill makes a nice 3-point play to start it off. If not for foul trouble, Hill could have had a much better game. This also would have helped since Roger Mason is not the best option at point guard and Parker and Ginobili (the two best playmakers on the team) were not options.
-Bad foul on McDyess pushing Dirk in the back on a layup. Ugh.
-Humphries tries to punch it on Duncan to no avail.
-Duncan is missing everything including a tip-in that would have given the Spurs a 4-point lead.
-Dirk starts guarding Duncan and forcing him to take some tough shots.
-Dirk completes a 3-point play that gives the Mavs a 92-91 lead, followed by Terry hitting a jumper. 94-91 Dallas.
-Dirk stops Duncan again. Where am I? Did I slip into some alternate reality or parallel dimension or something?
-Terry hits a 3 – CRAP. 97-91 Mavs with 1:15 to go.
-George Hill gets called for an offensive foul, misses a three, and finally makes a three cutting the lead to three. What a weird sequence.
-Kidd gets fouled with 2.4 remaining but the Spurs aren not over the limit so they have to foul Dirk with 1.4 seconds left – he hits both for a season high 41 pts – that’s game. 99-94 Mavericks. Highlights below:

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Spurs Relevant Stat Lines
Tim Duncan: 22 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 blocks. He shot 8-of-22 from the field, including 0-of-3 in OT. He seemed to be having a lot of trouble with that turnaround bank shot all night, but it was stuff like missing a tip-in that would have given the Spurs a 4-point lead in OT that drove me crazy.
Richard Jefferson: 13 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block. Team high 5 turnovers – he had as many turnovers as the entire Mavericks team.
George Hill: 15 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds. The foul trouble was a problem since he had to sit during some crucial stretches in the 3rd and 4th quarters.
Matt Bonner: 11 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists. He shot 4-of-6 from the floor including 3-of-4 from downtown. He also fouled out, but it’s just as well – he may as well have been 2-foot tall the way Dirk was shooting over him. I’m not mad at him though, I mean he did have a double-double and it’s good to see him crashing the boards a little more.
Michael Finley: 10 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist. Finley shot 4-of-7 from the field including 2-of-2 from downtown. Offensively, he didn’t suck, but any time you’re forced to play Finley for 33 minutes you’re in trouble.
Antonio McDyess: 8 points, 4 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 assist, 1 steal. How does Dice only get 4 rebounds in 33 minutes?
Roger Mason: 9 points, 2 assists, 1 rebound. Mason’s shooting woes continued as he shot 2-of-8 from the floor and missed both three-point attempts. The good news is that he started to take it to the hole a bit more and finished 5-of-5 from the line.

Mavs Relevant Stat Lines
Dirk Nowitzki: 41 points, 12 rebounds, 1 block. Dirk won this game for the Mavs and played like an MVP.
Drew Gooden: 17 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks, 1 steal. He fouled out in the 4th quarter, but is making a strong case for remaining in the starting lineup even when Dampier returns.
Jason Kidd: 2 points, 11 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 steals, only 1 turnover. He shot 1-of-6 from the floor, but you’re allowed to do that when you snag 11 boards, steal the ball 4 times and finish with a 4.0 assist-to-turnover ratio.
Jason Terry: 13 points, 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 rebound. Terry was off last night shooting 4-of-19 from the field, but he made a huge three-pointer in OT that pretty much sealed it for the Mavs.

Coyote Ugly: Spurs Turnovers
I know it takes time to acclimate new players to a new system, and it’s difficult for a team to really gel when key players are missing games left and right, but 18 turnovers absolutely can not happen if a team expects to win games. We need some better decision making and communication or this is going to come back to haunt us all year long. Turnovers, more than anything else, lost the Spurs the game last night.

Injury Updates/Jazz Preview:

The good news: The Jazz have lost 20 straight games in San Antonio.
The bad news: Ginobili has been ruled out, and Parker is doubtful for tonight’s game against the Jazz.

The Jazz are 6-5 while the Spurs are 4-5 this season. With Parker doubtful, look for George Hill to start again. The lineup will probably be McDyess at center, Duncan and RJ at the forward spots, and Finley and Hill in the backcourt. The Jazz are coming off a 104-91 win over Toronto without starting center Mehmet Okur (flu-like symptoms). If he misses the game tonight, the Jazz will likely start Kyrylo Fesenko at center, Carlos Boozer and Ronnie Brewer at the forward spots, and Deron Williams and Wesley Mathews in the backcourt. The Spurs lost their November 5th matchup with the Jazz 113-99.