Spurs of the Moment

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.

 I know we’ve all been anxious to see Tiago Splitter play for the Spurs, but it looks it will have to wait a little bit longer. Popovich has already named DeJuan Blair the starting center for the opener, and Splitter’s foot injury will likely keep him from suiting up at all right away. It makes sense to not rush him into action, but it is definitely frustrating to wait a few years for a draft pick to finally make his way to the league only to be sidelined almost immediately. This is good news for fantasy drafts though, since most people will not want to take a flier on a Euro-league import who hasn’t made any noise in pre-season due to injury. That will leave him available for late round draft picks for the more savvy among us.

To get a good idea of how likely it is that Splitter will play in the opener, here is what Popovich had to say: “Sure, it’s definitely in the realm of possibility,” he said. “It’s also possible I might play.”

I don’t take that as much of an endorsement that we should count on seeing either of them in a jersey until maybe a few games into the season, and then only Splitter. Although, Pop probably couldn’t shoot any worse than Roger Mason did last season.

McDyess did have some nice words to get fans excited about Splitter’s eventual court time.

“Today was the first day I saw him get out there and shoot the ball,” forward Antonio McDyess said. “He’s got a nice little touch to him. He picks up on the plays very easy and very quick. That’s very impressive, for a guy to come in and learn this system.

“I’m just as eager as the fans are, just to see what he has. He looks like a guy who can really play. It’s going to be exciting for him to get on the court, and I can’t wait for it to happen.”

I guess we’ll have to live with that for now, but I am sure the Spurs can handle the Pacers in their first game of the season. I just hope Tony Parker doesn’t roll his ankle in the first quarter.

Oh yeah, I also got the NBA preview magazine from Sports Illustrated (finally). They have the Spurs ranked 3rd in the West behind the Lakers (1) and Thunder (2). That means, of course, that the Spurs are ranked #1 in the division. I’ve seen a few writers who rank the Mavs higher, and I’ll at least concede that that”s debatable based on talent. What I don’t get is how a writer or two have Houston ranked higher than the Spurs. If you see this anywhere, immediately write that person’s opinion off. They know not of what they speak. There is no way Houston outperforms San Antonio this season. Yao won’t play but 20-something minutes a game, Ariza – their best perimeter defender who they signed when they let go of Artest – is long gone, and Aaron Brooks and Kevin Martin can score, but can’t guard me. Yeah, I said it.

But aaaanyway… go Spurs.. and Texas Rangers.

I can’t take it anymore. Even with the Fantasy Baseball Playoffs and the fact that football season has finally started and I am once again in an inordinate amount of fantasy football leagues (Eight to be exact – Money, IDPs, Keepers, Expert Leagues… you name it), I am anxious to focus on the upcoming basketball season. Let’s start today with a quick summary of what has happened and is about to happen in Spurs Land.

Last year we started the season with archaic has-beens like Theo Ratliff and Michael Finley, projects like Ian Mahinmi and Malik Hairston, and a deadly three-point shooter in Roger Mason. Oh yeah, and Keith Bogans (blech). None of them are in San Antonio anymore. Ratliff and Finley’s corpses were cast off mid-season, while Roger Mason’s jump shot and hopes for a lucrative off-season deal both died a horrible and unexpected death over an agonizing season of inconsistency.  Mason is now in New York where he will probably have much more opportunity to either find his jumper again or at least jack up tons of errant threes. Mahinmi was not retained and is now the problem of the Dallas Mavericks, and the promising Hairston decided he would rather play in Europe than watch his teammates play in the NBA. Oh, and Keith Bogans was allowed to leave (blech again).

Mid-season acquisitions Alonzo Gee and Garrett Temple are both still around as is Curtis Jerrells who was cut, then brought back later in the year.

The Spurs did mediocre in the draft by picking up James Anderson with the 20th pick and Ryan Richards at #49. I wasn’t a big fan of the picks (I liked Jordan Crawford, Dominique Jones, and maybe even Damion James better), but I am keeping an open mind.

Also added to the mix was Summer League sensation Gary Neal. And of course, the most unheralded major off-season acquisition, Tiago Splitter was finally brought to San Antonio from the Spanish League where he is the reigning MVP.

I’ll do some more analysis of the Spurs newbs in the coming weeks.

The NBA Preseason begins October 3rd, but the Spurs have their first game on October 7th @ Houston. Their first home game is October 9th vs Miami’s Dwyane Wade and Friends. The rest of the Pre-season schedule goes like this:
Oct 12 @ Clippers (in Mexico City)
Oct 14 @ Cleveland (at the U of Pittsburgh)
Oct 16 vs Vitoria (I believe that this is one of the 50 names for Tiago Splitter’s old Spanish League team)
Oct 18 vs Oklahoma City
Oct 21 vs Houston

The season opener is a home game vs the Indiana Pacers on October 27th.

There is a new and improved rumor involving Tony Parker. This one has him going to the Pacers for Troy Murphy, Brandon Rush, and the Number 10 overall pick in the NBA Draft.

I am not sure what to think of this one just yet. On the one hand, I do not want to see the Spurs part with Tony. I think George Hill is great, but I am not 100% convinced he can replace Tony. Plus I hate the Pacers so there’s that. Then again, Troy Murphy is a great rebounder and can shoot the three – he is basically a one man replacement for Antonio McDyess and Matt Bonner. Brandon Rush is decent player with upside, but I am not sure where (or if) he fits into the Spurs system. Then we come to the #10 overall pick. That’s the most interesting piece of this puzzle. Would they go after Ed Davis, Ekpe Udoh, Cole Aldrich? Try and trade up some more for a shot at someone like DeMarcus Cousins? Who knows? I am somewhat intrigued by this scenario tho, and I trust Popovich and Buford to do what’s in the best interest of the team and winning another championship. We’ll just have to wait and see whow much truth there is to this one.

The Spurs beat the Pacers last night 90-87. It’s the Pacers so I am not gonna pretend that I am oh-so-excited about the win, but it does make them 4-2 so far on the Rodeo Trip. The game shouldn’t have ended as close as it did. Tim Duncan was way off shooting 4-of-23 from the field. You would have thought it was Allen Iverson if not for the 26 rebounds he pulled down. That’s what we like about Tim, when his shot is off he can still affect the game in some other way, unlike some people.   *COdirkUGH*

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Matt Bonner broke a bone in his shooting hand in the Spurs’ 100-99 win over the Pacers. Unofficially, he is expected to miss about four weeks, but we should know more later today or tomorrow. Marcus Haislip is expected to be activated and hopefully help fill the void left by the Red Rocket. This could also open the door for more of DeJuan Blair who I mentioned last week was being severely under-utilized. That would make the most sense, and I really don’t see Haislip getting a ton of minutes… then again, they do play the Clippers next.

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The Spurs finished their pre-season at 3-3 after dropping in the finale against the Pacers on Friday night 114-112. George Hill scored 21 off the bench, while Ginobili was off target all night shooting 2-10 from the field and missing all six three-point attempts. The good thing about Gino is that he will show up in the box score elsewhere when this happens. During this game, he also had three rebounds, three assists, a steal, and a block. Tim Duncan flirted with a triple double in 23 minutes with 15 points, 11 rebounds and six assists. DeJaun Blair continued his impressive pre-season campaign by tallying nine points, six rebounds, three steals and a block in 16 minutes.

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