Spurs of the Moment

Well, the Magic definitely looked like they were an improved team after their recent trades, but unfortunately they decided to do so against the Spurs. It wasn’t even very close as the Spurs lost 123-101. It’s pretty difficult to win games when you allow the other team to score 123 points on 60% shooting. Gilbert Arenas finally came back to life and scored 14 points with nine assists and six boards, and is now looking more like a good fit with Orlando. They also got 15 points from Jason Richardson and 11 from Hedo Turkoglu. I don’t think they will miss Rashard Lewis and his lack of rebounding prowess. I am not worried about them too much, but I do sincerely hope they beat the crap out of Miami from now on.

Anyway, the Spurs were pretty much done in by poor defense and some off-shooting by Ginobili and a few others. Collectively they only shot 42% from the filed. George Hill is still out with a “strained right big toe” (huh?), but Gary Neal has continued to pick up the slack. Neal is now averaging 17.8 points and three rebounds in the past four games that Hill has missed. He’s shooting 47% from the field, 84% from the line, and 42% from downtown (11-for-26). Not too shabby.

Notable Spurs Stat Lines
Tim Duncan: 12 points, 6 rebounds, 1 assist. Duncan shot 50% from the field and only played 20 minutes.
Tony Parker: 16 points, 3 assists, 1 rebounds. He also had 3 turnovers… his A/T ratio has been a decent 2.8 this season, but that sucked. He shot 7-0f-12 from the field tho.
Manu Ginobili: 10 points, 6 assists, 5 boards, and 1 block. He only shot 3-of-10 from the field and played just 20 minutes also.
DeJuan Blair: 10 points, 5 boards, 2 assists, and 3 steals. I am still not sure what to make of Blair this season. He can grab potentially 15 boards a game, but just hasn’t been getting close most nights.�
Tiago Splitter: 11 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block. Splitter had one of his better games so far in just over 17 minutes of action.
Richard Jeffferson: 10 points, 6 boards, 2 assists, and a steal. A little disappointing considering he played 30 minutes.
Matt Bonner: 10 points, 6 boards, 1 steal. And in seven fewer minutes than RJ.
Gary Neal: 16 points, 2 rebounds. His scoring has been great, but the lack of peripherals is worrisome. The NBA doesn’t need another scorer/one-trick-pony.

Highlights/Recap:

The Spurs dusted off the Indiana Pacers with a 122-109 victory. Tiago Splitter didn’t play since he is still dealing with his foot injury, but the surprise of the night was James Anderson who went for 10 points with an assist and a steal to boot. He played 27 minutes off the bench and was actually pretty decent. We may have something here.

The Good:
-Three Point Shooting: The Spurs shot 9-of-20 from downtown with contributions from Ginobili, Anderson, Hill, and Jefferson. Bobby Simmons tried but was 0-for-2. Let’s not count his shenanigans and say the Spurs were 9-of-18 from downtown.
-Free Throw Shooting: The Spurs shot 81% from the stripe going 29-for-36.

The Bad:
-Defense: The Pacers shot 53% from the field. That will never do. A better defensive team would have made things more difficult for the Spurs in the 4th quarter and maybe pulled off the win. Also just letting Indiana hang around so long was a little annoying. This game almost looked like it was going to be close until the final buzzer. The Spurs managed to pull away in the 4th, but they need to pounce on teams early, especially weaker ones.

Notable Spurs Stat Lines
Tim Duncan: 23 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals, 4 blocks. Did I mention the 10-of-12 shooting? Why people continue to harp on his age I don’t know, but he looked just fine in this game.
Manu Ginobili: 22 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 block. He also went 5-of-9 from beyond the arc. Gotta love his all around game.
Tony Parker: 20 points, 6 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals. Of course he had to throw in his usual 4 turnovers, but otherwise he had a good game.
Richard Jefferson: 16 points, 2 boards, 2 dimes, and a steal. Not bad at all.
George Hill: 16 points, 4 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal. Hill did a great job of getting to the foul line and went 7-of-9.
DeJuan Blair: 9 points, 4 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals. Blair started at center and I honestly expected a little bit more, but I did like seeing him go 5-of-5 from the free throw line. Maybe he will improve on last season’s 55% free throw shooting.

Notable Pacers stat Lines
Danny Granger: 26 points, 4 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals. 10-of-18 from the field and 3 three-pointers. Not a bad night for their main guy.
Roy Hibbert: 28 points, 9 boards, 3 assists, 4 blocks. 10-of-17 from the field and 8-of-8 from the line. Hibbert looked good and put up better numbers than Granger.
Darren Collison: 19 points, 8 assists, 2 rebounds. A solid Pacers debut from D.C.

Coyote Ugly
The Pacers Bench:
They combined for 17 points on 6-of-17 shooting. They went 2-for-9 from downtown and 3-for-6 from the line. The high note was they played some defense with six steals and a block, but they helped shoot Indy out of the game. Outside of TJ Ford they were terrible.

So the mighty Spurs have been unceremoniously swept out of the playoffs by the Suns of all teams. The Suns who San Antonio beat mercilessly for a decade. I did not expect this. No one expected this. Anyone who says they expected this is a liar or a fool, albeit an inadvertently correct fool. I can only take solace in the fact that the Spurs did not go easily, but fought hard every game. There is a world of difference between the way the Spurs were swept and the way Atlanta is getting swept by Orlando. One is disappointing, the other is just plain ugly.

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So it’s come to this, has it? The Spurs are down 0-2 to the Phoenix Suns after last night’s 110-102 loss. That’s about the same score as Game One. The Spurs started out strong in the first quarter and even had an 11-point lead at one point, but they ran out of gas pretty quickly, went into halftime tied, and were outscored in each of the final three quarters. Personally, I think karma was on the Suns’ side after they opted to go with the “Los Suns” jerseys. It would have been cool had the Spurs worn their Los Spurs jerseys too.

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Well the Spurs lost 102-111 in Game One, but I’m not really worried. They lost the first one to the Mavs as well, but were able to make the necessary adjustments to win the series. This game actually was pretty close in the fourth quarter as the Spurs played a much better second half than the Suns, but Phoenix was able to hang on for the win behind Steve Nash’s 33 points and 10 assists. Amare Stoudemire had 23 points and 13 rebounds, and Jason Richardson had 27 points.

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The Spurs defeated the Mavs 97-87  and won the series 4-2. The Suns finished off the Blazers last night 99-90 and will be the next team the Spurs face.

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I was hoping the Spurs would put the finishing touches on another Mavs implosion, but instead it was basically a blowout loss as the Mavs won 103-81. The Spurs had 18 turnovers – four from Ginobili. Also, the Spurs have shot in the upper 40′s all series, but had their worst night at 35.9% yesterday. I don’t see that happening again. Caron Butler showed a pulse which was interesting, and he finished with 35 points and 11 rebounds to lead all scorers… and rebounders for that matter. I don’t see that happening again either. Tony Parker led the Spurs with 18 points, but everyone else was “eh”. No point in looking at boxscores since Manu, Tim, Jefferson, and Hill played limited minutes as the game got out of hand. At least they’ll be well rested for the next game, of course so will Kidd and Dirk.

Now we must endure all the front-runners and fair-weather Mavs fans who 24 hours ago had to be talked off ledges but now insist that the Mavs will win in San Antonio and of course win Game 7. I don’t buy it, but I will admit that it’s possible. Anything is possible in the NBA except for speaking your mind after a game without a fine or getting that slum-lord Donald Sterling to sell the Clippers to someone who gives a crap about basketball. Other that that, pretty much anything.

It’s also possible for the Mavs to play like they did in Games 2, 3, and 4. One thing that does bother me is that the Spurs allowed some large leads in Games 3 and 4 that they had to overcome. As we saw last night, they can’t always bounce back. They need to come out swinging in Game 6, and Tim and Manu need to bring their best stuff.

As ESPN notes, Now It’s The Spurs Turn To Sweat:

A four-point game from Tim Duncan can be dismissed as an aberration. Especially when you win anyway.

What happens, though, when Duncan follows up the four points with a mere 11 points in what was supposed to be his bounce-back game?

The Spurs, though, will be facing undeniable pressure all their own to close the Mavs out at home Thursday night, after Dallas hit the visitors with an active and effective defensive display that led to numerous opportunities to push the ball, setting up Caron Butler to finally join this series at last with a career playoff-high 35 points.

The Dallas Morning News threw out some real numbers that are cause for concern:

For the second straight game, Tim Duncan looked every bit of his 34 years.

In two games since breaking his nose, Manu Ginobili has shot 6-for-23. And for the second time in this series, Richardson Jefferson’s performance was more bow-wow than wow.

Now will the Spurs join history as the losing end of one of the rare occurrences when a team blows a 3-1 lead? Or will they man up and boot the Mavericks out of the 2010 playoffs? We’ll find out tomorrow at 7:00 PM Central in San Antonio. In the meantime, if any of you Spurs fans need a little extra encouragement, check out this nice Chess Analogy to the Mavs-Spurs series from Pounding The Rock.

 It’s not looking good for the home team right now. Road records, trades, winning streaks…. none of that matters if you can’t get it done in the post-season. The Dallas Mavericks should know that better than any other team, but they still fall apart every year to the point that I’m starting to think they are cursed. Well, forces of darkness aside, the forces of San Antonio took a commanding 3-1 lead in this series with a well fought 92-89 victory. It was close but the Spurs get the W on Tim Duncan’s birthday (34 years old) despite Tony Parker’s best efforts… five turnover having… anyway.

Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili combined for 31 points on 9-of-34 shooting. Ginobili, playing with bandages on his nose (we don’t need no stinking mask), did finish with 17 points, and Parker had 10 points off the bench. Duncan was particularly bad shooting 1-of-9 from the field and finishing with only four points to go with his 11 rebounds. He didn’t have his first field goal until four minutes left in the game. He sat for about 25 minutes of real time while the Mavs relinquished a 15-point lead in the third quarter by going 4-of-17 and letting DeJuan Blair and George Hill run all over them.

The Mavs responded by getting a technical (Dirk) and a flagrant 2 foul instead of scoring or getting stops. The worst moment came when Eduardo Najera yanked Ginobili down by the neck and was ejected. To be fair, I like Najera and don’t think he is a dirty player. I think he was trying to be physical and it went awry when he basically horse-collar tackled Ginobili. They don’t allow that in the NFL, let alone the NBA so that was it for Eddie in this game after only 47 seconds. DeJuan Blair and Richard Jefferson also had flagrant 1′s.

DeJuan Blair finished with seven points, seven rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block in only 12 minutes. He only played half the minutes that Haywood or Marion played and about seven minutes less than the useless Dampier, but had a much bigger impact on the game. I also think it’s interesting that Marion is on the bench in the 4th quarter a lot in this series. What is going on with Rick Carlisle? Does he not trust Marion or something? He actually had a decent game this time with 14 points and seven boards, but was a mere spectator down the stretch.

George Hill was the star of this game leading all scorers with 29 points, four rebounds, two steals and a block. He was efficient shooting 11-of-16 from the field including a deadly 5-of-6 from downtown. The Mavs had no answer for him aside from Jason Terry’s late appearance which was nowhere near enough.

Richard Jefferson had his way with the Mavericks again going for 15 points, including a nice dunk under the basket with none other than the defensive stalwart Jason Terry trying to guard him. Of course, Terry rolled his ankle earlier in the game, so I’ll cut him a little slack.

These teams were about even in every way except the Spurs once again shot better at 45.3% to the Mavericks 41.6%. The Spurs were out-rebounded 48-43, but had two fewer turnovers. As Coach Carlisle stated, “If you additionally get your ass kicked on five to seven loose balls, that certainly contributed to losing. We played hard, but there’s a set of plays in the last couple of games where you’ve got to get down and dirty. We have to come up with balls that are 50-50 balls. That’s where the game is being won and lost, in the trenches.”

I don’t see that changing in Game 5. The Mavs better get Joey Crawford and Bennett Salvatore to officiate if they want a chance to win the next one at home.

Manu Ginobili is at it again. Bleeding from a nasal fracture from a Dirk elbow in the third quarter, Manu bandaged that sucker up and scored another 11 points in the 4th quarter to keep the Mavs at bay in a 94-90 win. Dallas went on a little run to take a nine point lead late in the game, but it wasn’t enough. Ginobili finished with 15 points, five rebounds, seven assists, three steals, and one block. He is now averaging 21.3 points in this series. He did much of his damage last night by getting to the free throw line where he was 7-of-8. The Spurs shot 20-of-26 from the line in this game while the Mavs went 14-of-15.

George Hill decided to finally join the party last night. He had 17 points, five rebounds, one assist, one steal, and one block. Nice to see you, George. The Spurs needed him to step up since RJ faded into the background again and Tony Parker is playing well enough as a reserve that Popovich probably would like to keep that going. RJ finished with six points, three rebounds, and three assists. Parker finished with 23 points, four rebounds, three assists, and one steal. He is averaging 19 points in the series.

Tim Duncan had 25 points, five rebounds, four assists, and one block. He didn’t really crash the boards, but then again, no one did. There were no double-doubles in this game from either team. The main thing for Duncan is he had another five turnovers. He had six in Game 1, but none in Game 2. He is averaging 25.7 points in this series.

The rebounding edge belonged to no one as both teams were even in that department. Turnovers were about the same as well. However, the Spurs shot 11 more free throws than Dallas. Of course, they also missed every three-point attempt while Dallas went 8-of-20 from downtown. In the end, it was just slightly better shooting that made the difference as the Spurs shot 48.7% from the field compared to 44.7% for Dallas.

Dirk was the best player for the Mavs, as usual, with 35 points, seven rebounds, three asssits, two steals, and one block. Also, Jason Terry is doing his thing off the bench still. He finished with 17 points and was 4-of-8 from beyond the arc.

The Dampier/Haywood tandem was as pitiful as ever finishing with a combined four points, eight rebounds, one steal, one turnover, and seven fouls. Wow, they can’t even manage a double-double  between them – and in a combined 45 minutes? Even the Spurs’ DeJuan Blair had two points, five rebounds, one assist and no turnovers last night, and he only played about 4 minutes. Caron Butler and Shawn Marion have been non-factors in the past two games, well Marion has been a non-factor in all three. Granted Rick Carlisle opted to go with the hot-shooting J.J. Barea (14 points) for much of Game 3 instead of Butler, the fact of the matter is Butler needs to show up for the Mavs to have any chance. Shawn Marion is not any better and hasn’t reached double digits in scoring or rebounding once in this series. The Mavericks picked these two guys up specifically for this moment and neither is worth a flip right now. The Mavs have no chance of winning it all this year even if they miraculously make it past the Spurs. Frankenhead will probably spend another few million to bring in another fringe star, former All-Star, or overrated has-been this summer and everyone will get all excited until this time next year when the Mavs start falling apart yet again. Tsk. Tsk.

Check out the Game Highlights.

The Spurs evened their first round series with the Mavs at 1-1 with a convincing 102-88 victory. The Spurs never trailed in the game after jumping out to a 9-0 lead to set things off. Dirk, who had a monster game on Sunday, was off for the most of the night. Mavs fans should have known he wouldn’t be as efficient in game 2, but they are a delusional bunch.

Jefferson Steps Up
RJ bounced back in a big way with 17 first half points. He finished with 19 points and was aggressive all night which was exactly what we needed. He also had seven boards, one assist, and a steal. He needs to bring it every night like this and he did just that against the Mavs in three of their meetings during the season, not to mention the nice run he had while Ginobili was running wild and securing his contract extension. The Mavs now have to find a way to address him and that means things are going to open up for someone else a little bit… hopefully George Hill can get out of the doghouse in Game 3.

Tim Duncan is Still the Man
Duncan went off for 25 points and 17 rebounds and carried the Spurs in the second half, especially when he scored several straight buckets as the Mavs were trying desperately to rally late in the game. Haywood, Dirk, Dampier… no one could really stop him as he shot 11-of-19 from the floor.

Other Spurs Stat Lines
Manu Ginobili: 23 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals – Another great game from the rejuvenated Ginobili. Aside from the three turnovers, he was great.
Tony Parker: 16 points, 4 rebounds, 8 assists – Tony is still coming off the bench, but unless George Hill gets his act together, that will soon be over – hell it might be over already.

Hill had seven points, three boards, one assist, and two steals in 31 minutes – not quite what we’re looking for.
McDyess was a little better with nine boards and four points.
Bonner played 20 minutes off the bench and had eight points.
DeJuan Blair, Roger Mason and Garrett Temple barely played.
Keith Bogans never saw the court – thank goodness.

Game Stats
The Spurs had the rebounding edge 51-42
The Spurs had only nine turnovers in this game – they had nearly twice as many in Game 1
The Spurs shot 48% to only 37% for Dallas
The free-throw discrepancy of Game 1 was non-existent in this game

Game 3
The Mavs will surely be looking for stronger efforts from Marion and the Dampier/Haywood combo – especially on defense. The Spurs are shooting very efficiently in this series so far and the Dallas defense has yet to do anything about it. This will be their undoing. Mwahahahaha…