PtR Preseason QuickCap: Olympiacos is Not an NBA Team

by Tim C. on Oct 9, 2009 10:46 PM CDT in Game Previews & Recaps Comment 9 comments

That weaksauce? Get it outta here.

OK, let's make this live up to the whole "quick" thing. All I have to go by is a box score, and several PtR members were at this game, so one or more of them should be able to drop a full recap on us.

Tonight the Spurs squared off against Olympiacos B.C., and beat them in convincing fashion(did you expect anything less?), 107-89. One look at the box score will tell you a few things:

The Leaders

George Hill is awesome. Cubits had 17 points, 3 board, 2 assists and shot 5-8 from the field in his 22 minutes of play. Rock on, Cubits, rock on.
Josh Childress is still a really good player. If he ever decides to come back to the states, the Spurs would be wise to provide a home for him.

The Rest

Tim Duncan(10 points, 5 boards, 3 assists) and Tony Parker(12 points, 3 assists) had a better +/- score than anyone else who played in this game. Big surprise, I know.
Manu Ginobili was pretty lackluster, but still chipped in a team-high 5 assists. It's OK Manu, you're still the Manuest, or something like that.
The Spurs got 5 blocked shots tonight: 2 from Timmeh, 2 from Malik Hairston(who was quietly effective again), and 1 from Theo Ratliff.
Richard Jefferson was again not very involved in the offense(going by the boxscore), but managed to get 2 steals on the defensive end to go with his 4 points on 2-2 shooting.
Roger Mason shot 4-5, including 2-3 from long range, for 10 points. It's good to see Roger back in midseason form.
Ian Mahinmi had a redemption game of sorts, coming away with 7 points, 2 rebounds and zero fouls, even though the game was already decided by then.
DeJuan Blair must have switched brains with Ian, as he had 4 fouls to go with the 9 points(mostly on FT's), 2 boards, and 2 steals he picked up.
Every player on the Spurs camp roster played tonight, and all but Marcus Williams and Dwayne Jones scored.
On the Olympiacos side, Von Wafer and Sofoklis Schortsanitis(leading scorer for the Greeks tonight) scored in double figures, though Schortsanitis got in foul trouble.
Linas Kleiza sucked. I wonder if this is because Keith Bogans started and SHUT. HIM. DOWN. Somebody who was at the game might be able to elaborate on this a bit more.
Ioannis Bourousis, of rumored-to-be-offered-a-deal-with-the-Spurs fame, had a less than stellar outing, but still managed to get 7 points, 4 board, and stole the ball from Manu at least once.

Ok, I lied about only going by the boxscore - there's also some video highlights. And photos.

I have no idea why there are no second half highlights as of this writing, which sucks.

all images below via yahoo

Oh man, I hope I don't get me the Bourousis from this.

Hey Josh, will you be my backup next year? OK, fine, I'll back YOU up instead... just come to SA.

Didn't I just beat you last month?

So, the Spurs won a game they were supposed to win, got good performances from most of the guys we're concerned about, and nobody got hurt. Seems like a good outing to me. Next up, the Spurs play in Miami on Sunday night.

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Good game tonight. I saw Ian getting more than just 2 rebounds, I dunno why they didn’t count at least the one he got fouled and fell hard getting it. He spent most of his playing time away from the basket setting up screens for that TO machine of a point guard (number 5) who didn’t use the picks much except for a few times. Ian should have been posting up more and trying to establish position down low to be really effective.

Hill was “amaaaaazine”. Oh yeah, Childress is a baller.

by SaSleepless on Oct 10, 2009 12:19 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Good boxscore/game live recap. Just in case, the video for the first and second half highlights are right here.

"He's Manu Ginobili"
"moonshine is dangerous stuff."- HIpuks

by the little o on Oct 10, 2009 1:38 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

nice block by hairston and nice pass by haislip

by spursfan87 on Oct 10, 2009 2:41 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

yeah, I liked the block, Hairston seemed to have a decent game and I think the spurs should keep him. I liked the pass from Haislip too.

Cubits really seems to be coming into his own. He seemed to be in a lot of those highlights being very active (too bad they didn’t count his bucket that was goal tended).
I also noticed that they were posting Jefferson up in the play in which Parker finishes with a jumper in the corner.
I really wanted mason to shoot the three on the steal and fast-break play. Not to show off his sweet stroke, but because I was worried about him taking more than 2 dribbles.

"He's Manu Ginobili"
"moonshine is dangerous stuff."- HIpuks

by the little o on Oct 10, 2009 3:04 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

I have some thoughts.
1) Despite the perpetual injury concern that is the San Antonio Spurs I feel PTR in general needs to not end every game where someone doesn’t get hurt with the comment, “Well at leats no one got hurt.” Sure that may be more important than the win or loss but I feel like we may just be jinxing ourselves, or at least drawing undo attention to our one achilles heel (no manu related pun intended).
2) I know it’s preseason and our seasoned veterans aren’t playing serious minutes yet, but how exciting is it that there are probably like 6 or 7 guys on this team that could be the leading scorer any given night. Seriously, I feel Grizzly Blair, Cubits, RJ, Hairston, and Mason on a good shooting night and of course the original big three could all be our top-performer just about any night. Maybe I’m being a tad too optimistic and it will be Tony every time, but the potential of this team blows me away.

by 2757 on Oct 10, 2009 3:18 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

+1

Its going to be a fun season. I am and will be grateful for every no-injury game. But we don’t have to remind ourselves every game :P

Lets just focus on Mace-Windu’s PG skills.

by LionZion on Oct 10, 2009 12:55 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

The game was fun but with the early domination and first quarter victory, I spent more time having a good time than analyzing the team. I can confirm that Shiner is still good though if anyone wasn’t sure how it would be this season.

Now for the criticisms. The AT&T center has a terrible cotton candy situation. My friend had to wait like over a quarter before one got to our section. I was a little sad Jones and Williams didn’t score either. Jerrells sucks. We got some new hires at my work and 4 of them are from Baylor. They don’t like Jerrells. They tell stories about him waiting out the shot clock at mid court, driving into the defense, and instead of kicking it out, dribbling back out to half court. Then, he would pass to force a teammate to take the 35 second violation or a bad shot, or he would re-drive or jack up his own bad shot.

by BlaseE on Oct 10, 2009 6:17 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Sounds like a real winner.

by Gino20 on Oct 11, 2009 2:16 AM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

A note on Defense

I was at the game friday night and this is the first time I’ve looked at the box score since, but I have to say I’m suprised Theo Ratliff only registered one block, I thought he had at least 2 that were counted, a couple that were real close, plus another he blocked that ended up being a foul committed by another Spur so I guess it didn’t count either. Ratlif contended a hell of a lot of shots, he really didn’t look bad out there on defense, did a good job altering shots and a great job sealing up the baseline while he was out there. Towards the end of his min though he started to look a little out of breath and was the last man getting back down the court on a possession or two before pop pulled him out, so transition is where we really have to watch Theo in my opinion. Check out his vertical though, he can still get really high up there.

Other than that Hill and Hairston both showed me that they’re gonna be serious defenders this year. Hairston can block shots and he did… watching the big 4 plus McDysse on the court together was pretty exciting

by RamblingSpur on Oct 11, 2009 2:47 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs