Spurs of the Moment

The Spurs slapped around the Miami Dwyane Wades a few days ago. It’s a pre-season game and James and Bosh both sat out most of it, but it still feels good for the Spurs to be the first to beat them.  DeJuan Blair continued to have a solid pre-season with 13 points and seven boards.

In other news, Popovich is beginning to look at a new approach to his backup small forward situation. It’s become obvious that the “Next Bruce Bowen” approach will net little more than another Keith Bogans disaster, so he is now looking more at the offensive firepower side of things.

To find exactly what he’s looking for, Popovich would need to build a time machine.

“If I had my druthers, and it was a perfect world, I want Bruce Bowen to be 28 years old and back on our team,” Popovich said, echoing a persistent preseason theme.

Seeing as the world is imperfect, Popovich doesn’t always have his druthers and Bowen is 39 years old and wears bow ties on ESPN for a living, the search continues.

What Popovich wants most in a backup to Richard Jefferson is a defensive menace who could be, in the coach’s words, “a pain in the ass.” He isn’t certain anybody on Sunday’s charter flight to Mexico City for Tuesday’s game against the Clippers fits that description.

At this point, Popovich will settle for something less.

“If I can get somebody who can at least spell defense and say the word once in a while, then I’ll know they have some interest in it,” he said.

…

Absent the next Bowen, however, Popovich will accept the next Peja Stojakovic.

“The worse they are defensively, the better they’d better be able to shoot,” Popovich said. “Or there’s no reason to have them around.”

Uh oh. That sounds to me like more people will be getting cut than I originally thought.

Here are the ten players we know will be back:
1. Tim Duncan
2. Tony Parker
3. Manu Ginobili
4. George Hill
5. Tiago Splitter
6. DeJuan Blair
7. Richard Jefferson
8. Antonio McDyess
9. James Anderson
10. Matt Bonner

Beyond them, it’s hard to say who we should bother getting too attached to. There are eight other players vying for a spot:
Kirk Penney
Gary Neal
Bobby Simmons
Alonzo Gee
Garrett Temple
Marcus Cousin
Curtis Jerrells
James Gist

If the Spurs keep a maximum of 15 then the three who I think will get cut are Cousin, Gist and Jerrells.
If they cut down to 13, then say goodbye to two of these guys: Temple, Simmons or Gee.

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.

Another guard is leaving San Antonio this summer. Keith Bogans has agreed to a 2-year, $2.5 mil deal with the Chicago Bulls. Bogans had a few solid games, but for the most part he never quite fit in and fell almost completely out of the Spurs rotation during the playoffs. He started 50 games last season, but only averaged 4.4 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 1.2 assists. During the post-season, his playing time dwindled to less than seven minutes per game and he only scored five points total over 10 playoff games. He was supposed to be a defensive specialist, but never really had that kind of impact over the season. I thought last year that Bogans or Hairston would emerge as replacements for Bruce Bowen as defensive stoppers, but neither really did and now both are gone. The Spurs’s Malik Hairston signed to play in Europe. Free-agent Roger Mason agreed to a deal with the New York Knicks last week.

The Spurs signed their summer league star, Gary Neal, to  a contract yesterday. He was definitely the brightest spot on the summer team and could be on his way to helping put last year’s Roger Mason fiasco behind us. One can only dream.

The 6-foot-4, 210-pound Neal led the Spurs’ summer league team in scoring with 16 points in 25.8 minutes per game in five games. He was 30 of 60 from the field and 17 of 34 from beyond the 3-point line in Las Vegas.

He went undrafted in the 2007 NBA draft after playing college ball at La Salle and Towson. Since then, he has played one season of pro basketball in Spain and two in Italy.

I think Neal has a solid chance to stick and make the active roster to start the season. Keith Bogans and Roger Mason are still unsigned right now, so it remains to be seen just how this will play out, but I am all for the new blood after the way those two played last year.

Well, here we go again. It’s time for another showdown with another rival – this time the Phoenix Suns. The Suns (54-28) have home-court in the series, but that means nothing to the Spurs who dismantled Dallas’s team in six games. The Suns shouldn’t be any more difficult to beat than those pesky Mavericks. Let’s look at who we’re facing.

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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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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…

You know how all season long I have been harping on the way the Spurs don’t take care of the ball? You know how I said that the Spurs had to play near mistake-free basketball in order to win this series? Well, last night’s Game 1 pretty much summed it up better than I ever could. A few things went right, but a few more things went wrong for the Spurs. It’s not time to lose hope though. We knew this would be a longer series – no matter who eventually wins. Hopefully the Spurs can bounce back from this loss with a better game plan and better execution, and steal Game 2 in Dallas. Let’s review…

What Went Right
-Points in the Paint: The Spurs had a 50-34 edge here
-FG%: The Spurs shot 50% to the Mavs 47.3%
-FT%: The Spurs shot 85.7% to the Mavs 73.5%
-3PT%: The Spurs shot 36.4% to the Mavs 35.7%
-Manu Ginobili: 26 points, 4 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 steals
-Tim Duncan: 27 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists (although no blocks)
-Tony Parker: 18 points, 1 rebound, 4 assists, and 2 steals off the bench

What Went Wrong
-Turnovers: 17 Total – Ginobili had five and Duncan had six.
-Rebounding: Mavs won this battle 45-37 – I am surprised DeJuan Blair only played eight minutes. He was not in foul trouble. Didn’t do anything too stupid, and had four points (2-of-2 shooting), two rebounds, one assist, and one block. I think we could have used more of this type of efficiency.
-Free Throws: The Mavs shot 34 free throws compared to only 14 for the Spurs – I actually counted on this sort of discrepancy when I saw that Bennett Salvatore was one of the officials – when he’s around, always bet on the home team shooting a gang of free throws. Just ask the Mavs about Game 5 of the NBA Finals in Miami a few years ago.
-Dirk Nowitzki: 36 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block – As soon as I saw Matt Bonner enter the game in the 3rd quarter with the score tied I knew trouble was on the horizon. The Mavericks immediately scored six unanswered points with Dirk capping off the mini-run with a shot over Bonner’s outstretched hand. It does no good to stick your hand up as if you are contesting Dirk’s shot if your feet are glued to the ground. That’s how Bonner plays defense – flat-footed, stuck to the ground, waving his hands in front of his defender. That is not going to stop a lot of players, especially Dirk.
-George Hill:  Hill was 0-for-2 from the field with zero points, two fouls, two turnovers, and three rebounds.
-Richard Jefferson: Jefferson wasn’t that bad, he just wasn’t that good. He had only four points, but he did manage to grab seven rebounds, and he played defense better than Bonner or Bogans.
-Keith Bogans: I thought this guy was supposed to be a defensive player…? He did absolutely nothing but watch Caron Butler make shots over his head.
-Roger Mason: 0-for-2, one assist, four fouls – ’nuff said.

What Needs to Happen
-George Hill needs to show up. I don’t wanna hear about his ankle. I wanna see him scoring and making some stops late in the game.
-Richard Jefferson needs to be more assertive. The rebounding is great, but he needs to attack the basket and help balance out the free-throw attempts.
-Take care of the #$!% ball! Can’t say enough about this. There is no reason for our two best players to combine for 11 turnovers in the game. None.
-Unleash The Beast! Popovich needs to quit punking out and let DeJuan Blair loose. The Spurs can out-rebound the Mavs and rough them up a little in the process, but we need someone who isn’t afraid to be physical and fight for loose balls – that’s Blair.

The Spurs pummeled the Timberwolves last night 133-111 for their 11th straight 50-win season. Unfortunately, this does not mean a high playoff seed in the West where 50 wins is barely  enough to get a team into the playoffs.

Eight Spurs players scored in double figures led by Keith Bogans with 17. You know it’s an easy game when Bogans is the high scorer on the team. McDyess sat this one out and Matt Bonner started at center, but no starter played more than 23 minutes. The Spurs shot 14-of-26 from downtown and were 58% from the field. They also had 12 turnovers to the Wolves’ 19. Ramon Sessions had the games lone double-double with 13 points and 10 assists off the bench for Minnesota.

Playoff Matchups
The Spurs play the Mavericks on Wednesday in what is very possibly a first round preview. Here’s the deal: If the Spurs lose to Dallas OR beat Dallas and Portland beats Golden State, then the Spurs will face Dallas in the first round. If the Spurs win in Dallas AND the Blazers lose to the Golden State Warriors on the same night, then the Spurs move a game ahead of Portland and will face the Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz or Phoenix Suns in the first round. Denver is currently in 3rd with a half game lead on Utah and Phoenix. That 3rd spot is up for grabs though as Utah plays Golden State and Phoenix still, Phoenix plays Denver and Utah, and Denver plays only Phoenix. Honestly,  I would take any of those three teams over the Mavs or Lakers in the first round, but the Spurs’ first round fate is only in their hands so much. Of course, now that I think about it, if the Spurs beat the Mavs then Dallas could conceivably drop to 3rd place depending on how the Denver/Utah/Phoenix scenarios play out. This is getting too complicated for only two days left in the season. I’ll revisit this tomorrow.

Now the question is if Coach Popovich will resign himself to facing anyone but the Lakers and rest some key players on Wednesday when Dallas possibly rests some of their players.

The Spurs went back to their wishy-washy ways this weekend with a mind-boggling loss to the Grizzlies followed by another great win over the Denver Nuggets – a Western Conference contender. It’s a good thing the playoffs are starting soon because this recent trend of losing to bad teams but beating good ones will be much more useful in the coming weeks. Also, there hasn’t been a ton of minutes for Malik Hairston lately, but the good news is there haven’t been many for Keith Bogans either. At any rate, let’s recap the games a little bit and see what other Spurs news I can dig up.

Stupid Blue Bears
The Grizzlies beat San Antonio on Friday night thanks in part to Zach Randolph’s 28-point, 15-rebound performance. The Grizzlies outrebounded the Spurs 48-39 and held a 16-7 edge in offensive boards. It boiled down to the Spurs having seven more free-throw attempts, but the Grizzlies having 13 more field goal attempts – 10 of which they made. They were simply better at getting to the ball and outplayed the Spurs for the whole night except for the first quarter.

The game got out of hand in the second quarter when the Grizzlies scored 22 points in the paint on their way to 46 for the night. Watching Mike Conley run amuck at the end of the first half kinda shows you how important it is for George Hill to return.

Richard Jefferson had one of his off nights with only seven points on 1-of-4 shooting, and he only grabbed two rebounds. Not his A game in other words. Manu Ginobili, for his part, at least led the way for the Spurs with 26 points, eight rebounds, and five assists. A comforting stat line in light of his recent contract extension. Unfortunately he was off from downtown on 1-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc. Fortunately, Matt Bonner was able to hit 6-of-10 from deep on his way to 19 points off the bench. We needed every bit of it since McDyess was back to playing like crap (0-of-3 from the field for zero points, four boards and a turnover in 15 minutes), and DeJuan Blair couldn’t stay out of foul trouble (5 points, 3 rebounds, but four fouls in eight minutes). Tim Duncan did his usual double-double thing with 15 points and 10 rebounds, plus he had five assists. Temple was adequate with eight points as the starting point guard again, but Tony Parker played about the same amount of minutes (26) and had 13 points and eight assists. I think he will be starting again before season’s end.

No One’s Scared of the Nuggets
The Spurs showed up in Denver though, as they kept the pressure on the Nuggets all night before turning the game into a blowout in the 4th quarter. The Nuggets got about 50 technicals in the second half, two of which got Carmelo Anthony booted from the game. He finished with 19 points, four rebounds, two steals, one assist, and five turnovers. I kind of understand them losing their minds though. The Spurs shot 45  free throws in the game. That is not a typo. Forty-five free throws – they made 30 of them. The Spurs also outrebounded Denver 48-31 and shot 46% from the field compared to only 39% for the Nuggets. So basically it was everything that could wrong kind of did for the Nugs. Billups was on his game though with 27 points – he just couldn’t get anyone else going as he only had three assists. Yes, that was the team high for both.

For the Spurs, Tim Duncan had 18 points and 10 rebounds. RJ bounced back with 15 points, seven boards, and two assists. Ginobili was slowed down a little bit with only 15 points of his own to go with seven assists, three boards, and a steal. Temple was still the starter at point guard but only played 20 minutes, finishing with 11 points and four rebounds. He might have played more if not for foul trouble. Tony Parker played 31 minutes and had 12 points, six assists, two rebounds, and… you will never guess… five turnovers. Sheesh, man. DeJuan Blair had one of his better games lately with 12 points and eight rebounds in 19 minutes off the bench.

Next On the Schedule
There are only two games left. Monday night’s game against the T-Wolves, and the Wednesday night finale against the Dallas Mavericks. They should be able to win against the Wolves easy enough, unless they pull another Nets/Grizzlies game out of their hats, so the real fun will start on Wednesday when the Spurs play the Mavs. Then it’s Playoff Time! But I’ll get into all of that in my next update. Stay tuned…

Ginobili’s Summer
Manu signed a nifty contract for $39 Million over three years, but is still deciding on whether or not he will play in the World Championships this summer. Personally, I would like him to take off because it would suck immensely if he got hurt after the Spurs just gave him all that money. Also, with his wife set to give birth to twins, maybe staying with her is a better way to spend the down time this year. I wouldn’t blame him either way – he’s a professional basketball player so that’s what he does – period. Still, I hope he leans toward an easier summer. He says he will make his decision in the coming days.