FanPost

Game Thread #31: Vs. Bucks

This will be my final game thread for a while, because I'm going away for New Year and ATS is back. Hopefully the Spurs won't let me down, since I've previewed nothing but wins so far. Then again, the Spurs love to crush my tiny, black heart.

Winning like that against the Grizzlies counts as half-a-win, doesn't it? Don't worry, though - we face them again on January 2nd. I'm sure it'll only take us 1 overtime to put them in the ground.

Let's get right to it:

Ptr_ambigram_white_on_black_medium
Game Time: 7:30 Spurs Time, 11:30 Argentina
10:30 am Perth, 2:30 am CET

TV: MY35
Officials: TBA
TBA
TBA


20-10
Tony Parker
Sticky hands
layup man

Manu Ginobili
Big-nosed
wizard

Tim Duncan
Fleetfooted
Buddha

Matt Bonner
Likeable
big lug

Michael Finley
Scores from
time to time



14-17
Luke Ridnour
Serviceable
point guard
Michael Redd
Scoring
threat
Andrew Bogut
Overachieving
Aussie
Luc Richard Mbah a Moute
Luc Longass
Name
Richard Jefferson
Shiny head
can score
images via espn.com
12-5 Home 8-5
8-5 Road 6-12
96.9 Offense 96.8
93.6 Defense 96.9
46.3 FG% 43.4
39.7 3-pt% 33.0
75.3 FT% 77.6
40.8 Rebounds 43.7
12.1 TO's 15.4
8-2 Last 10 5-5
W 5 Streak L 1
PG
SG
C
PF
SF
Bench
Coach
Intangibles
Mojo
Winner

Breakdown

  • Point Guard - This is a scary new world, guys. I remember Tony being pretty clutch in about three or four games this season. He even made most of his FTs. Good thing he's still a bit of a ball-hog, likes Kobe, looks so French and can be such a diva, otherwise we'd have nothing to complain about.
  • Off Guard - Redd is in the middle of a slump right now, but if I'm going to respect Manu despite his slow, injury-ridden start, I should respect Redd's potential for scoring monsoons.
  • Center - Bogut can't seem to decide whether he's an idiot or the coolest person alive. However, he's stopped taking those horrible jumpers this season, and has focused on playing beneath the hoop. He's looked pretty effective at times, and did a good enough job of making things hard for Duncan in the last game. But yeah, he's not Duncan. Timmy will get his points, and more.
  • Power Forward - How can pick against someone named "Luc Richard Mbah a Moute"? How cool is it to have a name that begs for an acronym (LRMM (tm))? LRMM isn't the 3-point threat that Bonner has been this season, but he's still a solid rebounder and good for 4 or 5 baskets every night. Hopefully it evens out.
  • Small Forward - Richard Jefferson wins. I wonder what it feels to have someone at SF you can be proud of?
  • Bench - Mason and Hill have the Midas touch, whereas Ramon Sessions, Tyronn Lue and Malik Allen are only good for taking Joe Alexander's minutes.
  • Coach - I liked Scott Skiles when he was fighting tooth and nail to shape the Bulls into something resembling a team. However, at times he can be everything Stampler claims Pop is: overbearing, capricious and contrary. I'll take Coach GT's snarky self any day.
  • Intangibles - I wanted to give the edge to the Bucks, because this game will bring Francisco Elson back to SA (can you say "revenge game"?), but the Bucks are going to be on the bad end of a back to back and the last time they won in Texas people still used hats with buckles.
  • Mojo - I think winning yet another overtime game speaks for itself. In the mojo standings we're number 1, and every chest pump by KG or unnecesary last-second dunk drags down the Celts and the Lakers.
  • Winners - We lost in a pitiful and painful fashion during the no-Manu-or-Tony part of the season. On the plus side, though, we held them to 82 points. Now they have Redd back and we have the dynamic duo. We need to win this and keep racking up the Ws before the schedule tightens up in January. (Check the old game thread if you want to relive the pain and humilliation. Those were better, simpler times... and had dunking cheerleaders.)

Keys To The Game

  • Rebounds - We've come a long way since our early season would-somebody-please-grab-the-ball woes, but the Bucks are pretty good themselves. In November Bogut grabbed a whooping 7 offensive rebound, so it could be a good idea not to let that happen again.
  • Suckitude - I didn't watch the game, but the consensus was that the Spurs sucked for nearly 4 quarters against the Suns. And letting the Grizzlies take us to double overtime wasn't all that impressive, either.
  • Softness - Marshmallow soft until Mason hit that 3, Nash-nose tough right now. Slowly getting there.
  • Hill - I prefer to watch him play HORSE than to watch Joe Alexander dunk. And I love me some Joe.
  • Triple overtime - We're close to an NBA record for most double overtime wins in the regular season. We can do it, fellas!

Some other reading

Google says that the Bucks have a strong online fanbase, and there're some quality sites you can visit if you want to read their side of the story:

  • Brew Hoop (An SB Nation blog, and as usual it's a quality place - there's not all that much activity, but it's chock full of the fancy stats ATS loves. And cheerleaders in Santa outfits.)
  • The Bob Boozer Jinx (Great name for the blog - read the story behind it. Could we someday created "The JV jinx"? It's a pretty engaging blog, and I'm not saying that just because of the cheerleaders in Santa outfits. Really.)
  • Bucks Diary
  • The Bratwurst
  • Milwaukee Bucks Fan Forum

Other things of possible interest

For post-game quotes and a video recap of last game against the Grizzlies, check out Spurs.com. You might also want to check out yesterday's practice report, that starts off with Mace's ever-so-round face showing a big grin.

I know there's some sort of feud between Stampler and the husband of Spurstalk's owner, timvp, but regardless of that it's a great forum, and incredibly active. Like in most open forums, the idiot quota is high, so I prefer close-knit blogs like PTR, but the sheer number of members assures that lots of interesting posts make it to ST. Among them I found this little gem, a recording of the 2002 Euroleague final between Kinder Bologna (Manu's old team) and Panathinaikos, the European giant.

I watched this game, and enjoyed it thoroughly. I recommend it for a number of reasons: - It's downright good basketball, with both teams playing well and taking the lead and momentum at different points of the game. - It features a younger Manu, already with his full arsenal of moves and playing in an MVP fashion for the losing team. He starts the game hot and nearly wins it in the 4th, but is ultimately screwed up by his teammates, who seem to define "unclutchness".

  • You can enjoy watching several excellent ballers playing with heart in a truly important game, like the Kinder big man Smodis, whose smooth game should've transformed into a contract with our Spurs.
  • Marko Jaric also played for Kinder, interestingly enough, and shows off some of the nifty moves that took him to the NBA.
  • For the Argentine, you can see Pepe Sánchez playing limited minutes for Panathinaikos and sporting Obertoish long hair.
  • There are no announcers in the feed, and the music is limited to timeouts and the breaks between quarters. It's so nice to be able to listen to the fans for once. And it's a rowdy, loud crowd the likes of which the NBA rarely shows. So watch it, if you have an hour and a half to spare. Here's the boxscore and a recap, for the impatient.

Also at SpursTalk, ChumpDumper did a great post recapping the Austin Toros' last game. Pretty interesting. I for one want more playing time for dark horse Mohammed Abukar.

The Buck's Joe Alexander is trying to worm his way into the dunk contest. What I've seen of him hasn't been particularly impressive (except perhaps for this one dunk) but his acting-impaired blurb is fun. And it's sort of impressive that he speaks Mandarin. Here's Joe's site.

Last but not least, the Aussie wonder has a blog of his own. Apparently he writes often, and the fans seem to dig it. You need to sign up to read the new entries, though, so he's still a bit of a dbag.

Game feeds

Check this game thead at gametime for specific links to good quality feeds. If you arrive late in the game, there game feed links are usually among the first 30 posts of the thread.

ATDHE.net
PPNBA
MyP2P

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