Spurs of the Moment

The Spurs beat the Wizards on Sunday 94-80. As you can imagine this wasn’t exactly a close game as the Wiz shot 38% from the field and were missing Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee who were suspended.

So yeah, the Spurs won despite the Ghost of Rashard Lewis putting up 21 points and 12 rebounds. He may still have some life left in him, but I doubt he will grab double-digit rebounds more than five times the rest of the season. John Wall did return from injury and played almost 20 minutes off the bench. It might be time to sell high on Nick Young and Kirk Hinrich. Josh Howard wasn’t too bad for Washington, scoring 11 points with six boards in 24 minutes off the bench. I think he is close to usurping Al Thornton’s role as the starting small forward. Now might be a good time to pick up Howard and drop or trade Thornton, although to be honest if you still have Thornton on your fantasy squad you may have bigger problems.

Tony Parker had a monster game of his own with 20 points, 14 assists, and six boards.  Manu Ginobili also added 21 points, and George Hill returned from his own injury woes to score 11  off the bench. I think Hill’s return means Gary Neal is going back to the pine in a minute. Oh well, it was a good run. He might be worth hanging onto in fantasy leagues for another week just to see how things shake out, but I think you can find better value on the waiver wire.

So the NBA draft lottery was held last night before the tip-off of the Celtics-Magic game, and the Wizards won the first overall pick. So now the Wizards are faced with several different decisions: A) Draft Evan Turner instead of the projected and consensus #1 pick, John Wall, B) Draft Wall and send Arenas packing, or C) Draft Wall and keep Arenas and see how that pans out. They could even trade the pick, although I think that it’s unlikely. I find it funny since Arenas is the one who basically derailed the Wizards last season with his firearm shenanigans, yet the team chose to keep him and move damn near everyone else. Perhaps it’s because they still believe in him, but I think they just know that they won’t get near the value they want by dumping him, assuming anyone would trade for his ginormous contract and questionable judgement. At any rate, now they are faced with the prospect of having two point guards and trying to make it work, trading the pick, trading Arenas (good luck with that), or drafting Turner. It’ sounds messed up, but then again, that’s not really a very bad problem to have.

So after the draft lottery we got to watch Orlando squander home-court advantage by losing again to the Celtics. Let me just say this: I stand corrected. Boston is legit and Rondo is THE reason I am watching this series. Rondo looks like he is 12, but that’s a bad man and he should be counted among the NBA’s top point guards more often than he is. Nash, Deron, CP3, Kidd, Rose… those guys always get the love, but Rondo has the ring and is well on his way to another one. The Celtics are primed to get back to the top and duel the Lakers, showing that the only reason LA won last year was thanks to KG’s injury derailing Boston’s season. I’d buy that. Orlando meanwhile… what can I say? It’s hard to win it all when your best player shoots free throws like a drunken Shaq, Rashard Lewis is giving you like five points a game, and Vince Carter looks like he is preparing excuses like when he slipped and then laid there for ten minutes writhing as if he’d been shot.

I don’t care who wins tho, just so long as it isn’t the Lakers, and right now I think that Boston is the team to beat them.

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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First off, Mason’s agent is trying to clarify that Mase is not demanding a trade, but is simply “open” to one. The reason, of course, is due to minutes. I’ve been saying all year that Mason should start at shooting guard if not Ginobili, but Pop stubbornly stuck to Keith Bogans for several months. Now George Hill is starting next to Parker, and while he is getting better and is coming along defensively, he is still undersized and I don’t recall him hitting any game winners like Mase did several times last season. According to the San Antonio Express News:

“One league executive said he expects the Spurs to make overtures at the Miami Heat, who are shopping a number of players, including power forward Udonis Haslem and small forward Dorell Wright.”

My response: Huh? Read more »

According to reports such as this one on Yahoo, Roger Mason is ready to move on to a team where he can play a more prominent role. I would like to keep Mase, but I understand his position. Pop has seemingly started everyone except Mase and Ginobili this season despite the fact that they are the best shooting guards on the team. With his diminished role, and the Spurs struggles, maybe he feels like he needs to get off a sinking ship.

I’m still liking the Spurs chances of making the playoffs and even going the distance, but I am nowhere near as optimistic as I was in October. Maybe this can be a win-win for Mase and the Spurs. Personally, I would like to see them pursue a deal for someone like Antawn Jamison who everyone knows the Wizards are shopping around. What’s wrong with a scenario of Jamison for Mason, Finley, Bonner and Bogans? Yeah, that leaves the Spurs thinner in the backcourt, but they don’t give up any of the Big three, RJ, Dice or Blair. Plus they can bring Hairston back from the D-League and work him into the rotation more. The Wiz get another $10 million in expiring deals to splurge on 2010 free agency. Works for me.

OK, that doesn’t really solve the defensive issues of our beloved Spurs, but it looks good on paper – or in this case in pixels. I do hate to see Mase leave, but if the Spurs are going to keep up with LA and Dallas then someone will have to go. I just hope it works out better than the RJ deal.

The Washington Wizards, desperate to turn over probably their entire roster after the Agent Negative 80 Million fiasco, completed a seven-player trade with the Dallas Mavericks today. That’s not a big deal until you realize that the Mavericks just got a whole lot better. The Wizards gave up Caron Butler, Brendan Haywood, and DeShawn Stevenson for a package of Josh Howard, Drew Gooden, Quinton Ross, and James Singleton.

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First off, the Spurs did the unthinkable and beat the Nuggets on Thursday night 111-92. It was a road win, a win against a playoff team, and great way to go into the All-Star Break. In other words, it completely defied logic, or at least my significantly lowered expectations. That makes the Spurs 3-2 on the Rodeo trip, and the next three games are against weaker teams, so they should be able to come back to San Antonio with the (minimum) 6-2 record I’d hoped for as well as a win over at least one of the three playoff caliber teams. At this point I will be happy with that scenario.

As for the All-Star festivities, Read more »

The Spurs got Tony Parker back last night and proceeded to crush the Wizards 106-84. They finally went with a respectable lineup of McDyess, Duncan, RJ, Bogans and Parker and limited the Wiz to 33% shooting. The difference in three-point shooting was particularly interesting as the Spurs hit 10-of-21 from downtown compared to 4-of-19 for the Wizards. It’s more interesting since the Spurs also allowed only 26 points in the paint. Believe it or not but a huge reason for this was none other than Theo Ratliff. That’s right, Ratliff seems to still be alive after all and played 22 minutes last night menacing any Wizard with the audacity to come near the rim. I for one, am relatively shocked. The Spurs took a 12-point lead into halftime and put the Wiz on their heels for good with a 22-8 run to start the third. This was particularly nice since Duncan played only 27 minutes last night and was able to sit out the 4th quarter and get some rest for a change. The Spurs outrebounded the Wizards 59-44 and had 32 assists compared to only 14 for Washington. The Spurs starters were a perfect 13-of-13 from the free throw line. Highlights below: Read more »