Spurs of the Moment

The Spurs beat the Knicks last night 97-87 in a game that was a little too close for a little too long. All of the Spurs starters scored in double figures while no one off the bench scored more than six. We got a grand total of 16 points out of our bench last night. Al Harrington had 15 points alone off New York’s bench, and that my friends, is why we couldn’t pull away for most of the night. Not that New York was exceptional, but neither were the Spurs.

Manu Ginobili led all scorers with 28 points to go along with five rebounds, six assists, and a steal. The man is possessed, I tell you. In his two recent starts he is averaging 33 points, 6.5 rebounds, five assists, and 1.5 steals. He is shooting 22-of-41 from the field (53.7%), including 9-of-17 from downtown (52.9%), and is 13-of-15 from the charity stripe (86.7%). I know that Pop has been trying to keep Manu healthy this season by limiting his minutes, but when Parker returns he should really consider leaving Ginobili in the starting lineup and taking out Bogans. It’s nice to have Manu’s energy coming off the bench, but it’s also nice to not play from behind or struggle to put bad teams away early, especially when Duncan and Parker could get more rest if games didn’t stay close for 48 minutes.  Come playoff time, I feel that Pop really needs to roll with the Duncan, Blair, Ginobili, Hill, Parker starting lineup. That means that he is also going to have to find out which 3-5 players he is going to lean on to carry the bench scoring for the playoffs. I think RJ, McDyess, Mason, Bogans, and Bonner are it at the moment (in that order), but Hairston and Jackson should be seeing some significant minutes right now to see if one of them can do the things Mason is not doing right now – which basically means score.

Speaking of Mason, he had another terrible night going 0-of-3 from the field. He only played 15 minutes, and he did grab three rebounds to go with three dimes and a steal, so he wasn’t all bad. Still, he is in there for his scoring and he needs to find his shot and stop losing track of it. Keith Bogans had a bounce back game with 13 points, three rebounds, and one assist. He seems to do that against crap teams tho, so I am not a believer yet.

Malik Hairston played 12 minutes and had four points, three rebounds, and one block. Two of those points came on a nice dunk that you can check out in the highlights. Antonio McDyess started at center and had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Tim Duncan had 18 points and nine boards, while George Hill had 12 points, four assists, and three rebounds.

Richard Jefferson had another bad scoring night, but he is still crashing the boards so I won’t berate him. He had seven rebounds, one steal, and two blocks. One of those blocks was just vicious and is also shown in the highlights. David Lee led New York with 21 points, 10 rebounds, four assists and two steals.

On another note, College Basketball fans should check out the FOUNDATION FIGHTING BLINDNESS BRACKET CHALLENGE which has some huge cash prizes and even an autographed LeBron James jersey. Check it out, read the rules, sign-up, and pick well.