Spurs of the Moment

I’m not going to bother with an elaborate recap today. If you have ESPN or live in LA or San Antonio then you probably saw the game. It went something like this:

Tim Duncan shooting like Roger Mason on a bad day- check.
Kobe Bryant playing like Kobe Bryant – check.
Ron Artest stealing the ball at will – check.
Spurs falling apart in the second half – check.

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The word is Garrett Temple is going to be a Spur for the rest of the year. According to sources, “Garrett Temple has told the Vipers’ coaches that the Spurs will be signing him to a contract for the remainder of the season.” Meanwhile, Cedric Jackson’s 10-day contract expired as of Friday and he is not expected to be re-signed by the Spurs. I personally liked Jackson better than Temple, but let’s face it – neither will likely be a long-term fixture in San Antonio. Once Parker returns, we probably won’t see much of Temple and it’s doubtful that he will be on the playoff roster.

The Spurs got blown out by the Magic 110-84. This game was all kinds of ugly as the Spurs got outscored in every quarter and were particularly bad in the 3rd when all hopes of a comeback completely disappeared. Manu Ginobili and Richard Jefferson were the only two Spurs players who gave us any hope early on. RJ was the best Spurs for once, and he finished with 20 points, six rebounds, three assists, one steal, and one block. Ginobili had 18 points, three rebounds, and three assists.

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The Spurs have won seven of their last eight games and are on a three game winning streak again after that debacle against Cleveland. OK, so they only played the Clippers, T-Wolves, and Knicks, but as the Knicks showed our North Texas Nemesis, if you don’t come to play, there are no easy wins in this league – not even against the cellar dwellers.

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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.

Today the Spurs signed guard Cedric Jackson to a 10-day contract. Jackson played some forgettable minutes earlier this year for the Cavaliers. The Spurs have a little room to sign someone after releasing Finley, and since Parker is out for the next 4-8 weeks with a broken hand, and Mason’s shot is M.I.A., the Spurs had to take any opportunity to add some scoring punch off the bench. I don’t know how much he will factor in, but every little bit helps – at least in theory. In reality, Pop will give him like two minutes of garbage time against the Knicks and that will be all we ever see of him. I just hope he doesn’t pull a Mahinmi and proceed to turn the ball over three times before getting yanked.

Then again, maybe we’ll get lucky…
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