Spurs vs Wizards: Stats of the Game

Sorry for the lateness on this, but Sunday is a slow day for all of us to catch up on our NFL (I think).  The Cowboys are really playing ugly right now and the Titans (and VY) get a MNF game to conflict with a Spurs home game.  Cedric Benson is hurt so I rooted against the Bengals today and they lost! To the Raiders!  Ricky Williams dominates for the Dolphins on the Thursday night game, but I'm stuck watching our Spurs lose to the Jazz.

So yesterday, I skipped watching the UT game live on TV to go see our Spurs in person.  UT ate the Jayhawks' dinners (night game) without my mojo from watching and wearing my burnt orange.  The Spurs treated me to what I've needed whether they needed my mojo or not: a dominating beatdown of an opponent to end this misery streak.  Stats and a song after the jump.

Your song sounds sad but it is optimistic.  I'm breaking out my favorite band for this one Copeland's "When Finally Set Free".  We are "finally set free" of this losing streak.  Not only that, but I think we are just starting a winning streak.  I posted a couple of weeks ago that if we could make it past the Wizards game over .500 we'd stay that way for the rest of the season.  At 5-6, we're just going to have to wait until after Golden State on Wednesday and then @ Houston on Friday to cement it.

1. You think Pop was pleased with our defense holding them to 33.3% shooting for the game?  They averaged less than 20 points for the first 3 quarters.  We only had one more offensive rebound, but if you factor in that they missed 56 shots, holding them to less than 20% offensive boards is damn impressive.  The league's worst offensive rebounding teams are Cleveland at 20.6% and New York at 20.7%.

2. I worship at the shrine of TD.  Tim Duncan was just shy of a triple double at half.  We were dominating them so bad, he only had to play 27 minutes which is probably the only reason he didn't get it.  He didn't even get a double double finishing with 9 rebounds and 7 assists.  TIM DUNCAN DOMINATES!!!

3. Our bench, without Manu, shot 17 of 40 (43%) compared to their 10 of 37 (27%). Hill was not good at 3 of 10  and no FTA's which I'll take as room for improvement.  Finley didn't help with his 2 of 7 either, but 2 of 7 is good for a zombie.  Without those guys having coldish shooting nights, this game could have been ugly....  If Bonner can get 12 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 block after every Fred Silva bashing of him, I think Fred might need to make his analysis more regular.

4. Oberto co-lead their team in +/- at +1.

5. Mike Miller has been having a great season and his 7 minutes were really disappointing.  I mean he wasn't disappointing.  The fact that he got injured and had to leave was really disappointing.  I like the Wizards, mostly because I think they have the talent (if healthy) to challenge one of the Eastern powers in the playoffs.  Many people will throw this game away as beating a bottom dweller fodder team.  The Spurs wanted this game more.  Parker and Duncan's aggression was amazing so if this is your only time watching the Wizards, know they are better than this.  I hope this team can get healthy and makes this win look even more impressive in hindsight.  They did just beat Cleveland last week in Jamison's first game of the season.  I think that is the Wizards team we should expect on a nightly basis.

6. Bonus: I just noticed this and had to add it.  Parker lead all Spurs with a +/- of +31.  The next closest was Duncan at +19.  Oh, Parker, we missed you so...

This is the win I think we all needed.  Enjoy it and I'm predicting it right here:  The Spurs are going to go into that Boston game with a 9-6 record.