Spurs of the Moment

The Spurs beat the Clippers 103-87. The Spurs led by as many as 25, only had seven turnovers, and held the Clips to 43.9% shooting. Once again, they did what they were supposed to do – beat a weak team, score over 100 points, shoot better than 50%, and rest Tim Duncan (he only played 25 minutes). I’m not impressed or thrilled by any means, but the lack of enthusiasm is better than being filled with bewildered disappointment. Let’s see how they finish the year before we get too excited.

Some Notes From The Game

-DeJuan Blair started at center, but still only played 16 minutes. He finished with eight rebounds and six points.

-Malik Hairston and Marcus Haislip each played 3 1/2 minutes. Their combined stats: 0-of-3 from the field, one assist, one rebound. Bah

-The story of the night (to me anyway) was that Theo Ratliff played an astonishing 23 minutes. He went 5-of-10 from the field and finished with 10 points, seven rebounds, two assists, and a block. In other words, he played better than Marcus Camby, Al Thornton and Eric Gordon – all Clippers starters who played more minutes than Theo. What says to a team “You guys suck and I don’t even take you seriously” like playing Ratliff for 23 freaking minutes?

Highlights

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Looking Ahead

Next up are the Portland Trailblazers tomorrow night. The Blazers are 17-14 right now. That’s right, they’re above .500, which means that the Spurs need to start looking like a convincing championship contender during this game.

Other NBA News

The Knicks might be trading Nate Robinson soon - No I don’t think he will be a Spur, nor should he be. Nate says he wants to be Knick, but I believe he prefers to be bought out so that he can sign with any number of contenders. Good luck with that – beggars can’t be choosers. I’m still not sure how he ended up in Coach D’Antoni’s dog house in the first place.

The Kings, who I already pointed out are much better this season than most people expected, just fired Vinny Del Negro. Actually, they just destroyed the Bulls by overcoming a 35-point deficit halfway through the 3rd quarter. Apparently VDN has a stay of execution until mid-January. Whatever, I think they just believe it’s poor taste to fire the guy immediately after the loss, so they are going to watch him throw away a few more games before firing him. I would criticize the logic, but what more can you say about the folks who hired him in the first place.