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As always, well thought out and stated.
I particularly agree with your takes on Duncan, Parker, Manu, and Pop.
Is this what you're going to do instead of grades this year?
I like it.
I liked the grades too but this seems deeper.
-Good loss. The Spurs were worrying me with all this early season success. Championship Spurs teams struggle out of the gates. 4-0 would have given me a bad vibe
On top of that, the Rockets gimmick defense isn't going to work in the playoffs. They were hugging the three-point shooters all night. You give Duncan that much room in the playoffs and he'll destroy you. The Spurs have never lost a playoff series in which the other team dared Duncan to beat them. Duncan just beat them.
The Spurs defense was good. Very active and rotating decently well. The offense was just a bit rusty, no big deal. The effort was there but the execution was off. That's perfectly acceptable this early in the season.
-Duncan's first half was pretty bad. He wasn't fighting for position or using any of his post moves. He resorted to using his jump hook almost exclusively. In the second half, his offense was much better. Still has a ways to go but it's early. Defensively, he was good for the most part.
-Ginobili is playing like a beast. His energy level, jumping ability, quickness and all-around athleticism is perhaps at a career best level. That's pretty shocking considering he's 30-years-old and should be becoming a worse athlete. Then again, Ginobili was a late bloomer so perhaps he can peak later than most shooting guards.
-Parker is rusty. His stats look decent but it's obvious that he's just not in sync. Tough to blame him seeing as he didn't play in training camp and in only a couple preseason games. His defense has been solid much of the season and I like the strength he's shown. He's becoming Gary Payton-esque in his ability to muscle other point guards out of the way.
-Bowen played TMac well. He made him shoot tough shots. Nothing really to complain about in regards to Bowen.
-Oberto was pretty bad. Early on, he was letting Yao get too good of position. Then obviously Pop got on Oberto to fight Yao for position and then that resulted in Oberto picking up cheap fouls. Not a good showing.
-Finley wasn't that good in the first half but I like how he competed in the second half. He picked up his defensive intensity and was one of the few swingmen who bothered to box out.
-Barry was decent. The Rockets hugging the three-point shooters took him out of the game for the most part. Decent to good effort defensively ... when he wasn't guarding Bonzi, that is.
-Bonner was pretty horrible. Defensively he was just ugly bad at times and offensively, the Rockets made him disappear. Not a way to try to earn some of the backup bigman minutes.
-Elson was really good in the first quarter. Trouble is he SUCKED in quarters two, three and four. If he wasn't boxing out Yao, he was letting Bonzi push him around. Not to mention Dikembe dunking on him. The Spurs need a more consistent effort out of him.
-Washington really didn't show much. Pop's trust level in Washington doesn't seem that high at the moment. Those footsteps you hear are Jacque Vaughn coming to reclaim his job.
-Udoka still has a ways to go. The Spurs' defense is based on trust and in the couple minutes he was out on the court, he left his teammates hanging a few times but not rotating. His man-to-man defense was solid but he has to better learn the team defensive rules.
-Pop confused me a bit with his coaching. I though Duncan and Parker should have played fewer minutes. Maybe I'm spoiled but I don't think an early November game is a game to be trotting Parker out there 40 minutes. I would have liked to have seen Washington play a bit more to get a better read on him. Overall though, this was your typical early season Spurs loss.
As always, well thought out and stated.
I particularly agree with your takes on Duncan, Parker, Manu, and Pop.
Is this what you're going to do instead of grades this year?
I like it.
I liked the grades too but this seems deeper.
way to go houston rockets
I'll email you my reply.way to go houston rockets
Thanks.
Let me make this comment simple... I don't think most of you quite understand......
Bonner sucks.
I actually haven't seen Duncan and Parker do the pick-and-roll like they used to.
Duncan had a good defensive game, but Bonzi and Yao were just too much.
I see we've found Sequ's new whipping boy.
on the random thoughts, though, timvp. Agreed on all of them.
i like this well enough.
Grades gave an excuse for people to gripe over who deserved what last year.
Good takes.
I like them also. They are usually right on and more objective.
Just because someone puts on a Spurs jersey doesn't necessarily make them an allstar in the Eastern Conference when they leave.
a November loss. whatever. wake me when the playoffs start. oh, and Ginobili looks good. We'll figure the Rockets out when it counts.
thanks timvp! i like random thoughts better than grades,
in this way we avoid the discussion of Elson or whoever..didnt deserve C- or why duncan/ manu have only a b+, etc.
I agree on all that u said, specially that i would be worry if the spurs win too many in a row this early in the season.
I also see Manu with a monumental energy, i just hope he saves some for later...
Great Analysis as usual.. I actually like Spurs' losses than wins.. in some ways..
Prob I am older nowadays..
Whenever Pop wants our offense to start sucking early in the season he has sone of those "confusing" games. #1 thing he does is sit Barry...which usually then sends Barry into a funk because he wonders why in the heck Pop sat him.
It's a huge load of crap that Barry play against the Rockets, yet that is almost always the team Pop picks to sit him against.
I'll just point out 2 or 3 years ago when the Spurs won the le, late in the seaon when Duncan was out and the Rockets were playing well and the Spurs were beat to and having to start Marks. Brent whupped up on the Rockets...in the fourth. One of his best games actually.
Pop just flat out didn't play him till late...and Barry can do other stuff to help our offense besides shoot the 3.
Would have been nice to see more of Udoka early as well...if not Barry.
Perfect game for Barry though....it's not like we ing stopped Banzi anyway.....might as well get some offense or defense.
Instead Pop went with Finley... compe iveness....winning is better than losing with effort.
Bottom line...as you said, this was one of Pop's "confusing" games.
I figure Pop uses these games to test match-ups/combos - takes notes, files it away for use when it actually matters. Also I figure he makes a point of not playing his own hand. Phil Jackson used to do this to the Spurs/Pop during the regular season. Totally different beast in the playoffs.
We lost to Dallas last night and beat you guys tonight and right now the Hornets are whuppin up on the Lakers.
Our division is going to be a dog fight....I think the NBA champ comes out of our division...again....
I just hope it is not a repeat champion.
DD
It seems to me that Bonzi is a problem for the Spurs. He is too big and strong for our guards to handle him. When he plays sg we simply can't keep him off the boards.
The rebounding differential was outrageous and unacceptable.
And we missing something like 10 free throws.
I know we played decent d, and kept it relatively close, but Houston did a very good job of making TD beat them, and he didn't. Maybe that is the way to beat the Spurs; let TD be a scorer but not create for others. The scoring from our shooters is predicated on passing out of the double team on TD and on kickouts from tony and manu...
we dared Amare to beat us way back in the 2005 playoffs, he scored something like 39 a game and we still beat them. Maybe you let TD score 30+ , let Tony and manu shoot jumpers and even drive without doubling, and shut down the 3pt shooters to beat this team.
In the playoffs, a team has never used that strategy to eliminate the Spurs. Teams have won a game like that but the Spurs adjust and Duncan beats teams single-handedly.
I'd welcome any team to hug the three-point shooters like the Rockets did tonight. Try that in the playoffs and the Spurs historically show they'll either sweep you or beat you in five.
bonzi wells = spurs killa
dude always shows up to play against us compared to other teams
That works with many players because they do not possess the basketball IQ of Duncan, nor the fundamentals. You can let a player like Amare go off, because you're going to catch him falling into a rhythm of scoring. Eventually, he will realize that you're letting him score and stop going through the motions of spotting open shooters. He's going to get a little too comfortable and turn the ball over.
Duncan is a machine in terms of scoring production. He is going to take 90-100% of what you give him every single game, and he's going to do it without turning the ball over or putting up bad shots. You're also going to let the offense dictate it's flow through the post game and pick up easy points while getting your own big men in foul trouble. This is going to limit you in 2 ways: 1. It means your big men will not be able to be aggressive on offense or pursuing rebounds. 2. It means that the 4 other Spurs on the court are going to get a huge "rest" while Duncan takes it in over and over again (offensive movement w/o the ball is much more wearing on a defense than an offense). They are going to be that much quicker on defense, where they can use that extra energy to get on the floor and make plays.
But hey, they can do what they want.I'd be more than willing to see Duncan single covered for an entire series. After he fouls out their two PFs, are they going to put Yao on him?
timvp preper to the next loss tonight
I hate that phrase - good loss
No matter what I hate lossing. If you would fight (boxing, MMA, whatever) are there good losses?
The fight hasn't been won or lost, there are 82 rounds to this fight, and then another 16+ round fight right after that one. Think of losing a few rounds now as learning and motivation to deliver when the fight hits the late rounds. The Spurs are body punchers, they win the fight in the late rounds when they step up and others are tired. You can't blow your wad early if you want to finish late.
The thing about this game is that even though the Spurs brought their D game and Duncan possibly his D- or F game, the Spurs were right there in the 4th to possibly take it with a nice little run. Even giving up 20-something offensive boards and shooting horribly all night they were right there against a Houston team that had Bonzi play the best game he's playing all season. There is no way this team should have been within 18 points in this game, and they were within 5 at one point midway through the 4th. Even a decent game from Duncan or Parker and this is a win. That's a damn good sign.
This thread is nice since I couldn't watch the game! Way to go Timvp!
i have a lot of respect for pop but some times i just cant understand what he's doing. the beggining of the season is the time to be trying things out, and if cir stance is giving you subtle hints... why didnt he try udoka on wells earlier (at least while tmac was in). why didnt he let parker catch a breather and put washington out there. why didnt we try and go small (i thought that was what bonner/udoka are for)? I'm not saying we would have won with those moves, but it would have felt better to lose an experiment than doing a full court press with our "closer" unit down 10 with 15 sec to go.
and speaking of coaching moves, i havent seen a boxscore but it seemed to me that when the rockets played yao and mutombo they killed us. i guess we can go back to trashing oberto/elson/horry/bonner... bring in splitter already!
Or maybe Yao is that good...Oberto was pretty bad..Bonner was pretty horrible...Elson was really good in the first quarter. Trouble is he SUCKED in quarters two, three and four.
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