I think the officiating certainly helped Dallas as well.

You hit the nail right on the head with Tony LD. His play was not terrible but for a player of his calliber much much more is needed of him. His engagement of a one on one battle with Barea was the single biggest reason we lost that game.

No more Bonner in this series please. Gooden did a fine job on Dirk and in the first half, before Tony decided to become the black hole, Drew had some strong post play.

I don’t think we need to switch Bruce on Barea because then Terry will just get loose, we just need Tony to play smarter.

LD< you and the previous commenters pretty much nailed it.

I hate Barea. This isn’t exactly the first time he’s torched us, but we have no answer – ever. He’s the new Devin Harris, and that’s not a good thing for us. You’re also right about Tony’s assists… I remember he had 7 at the half.

Oh, and what the FUCK was Bonner doing on the court for most of the 4th quarter? seriously. Less of that, and more Gooden or Thomas could be a much better formula. Nobody’s going to stop Dirk, but I think those guys would do a better job of compensating.(Kurt could slow him a little, Gooden can score inside)

Good rights & wrongs. Changes definitely need to include getting Bonner off the court if he is playing like tonight and PLEASE Tony step it up much higher.

I don’t like picking on Bonner but tonight was borderline pitiful. Horry at his age could’ve signed and played better D. I’d rather start Bowen on Dirk and have a smaller lineup. Smaller defenders give Dirk more trouble anyway (remember Jackson in the ’07 upset).

I am ready to wear a “FREE GEORGE HILL” t-shirt. This series is made for him. A few minutes on Terry and many more on Bareja. Pop wasted a great chance to go with HIll in the 2nd when he had an 11 point lead. He also would’ve shut down Bareja in the 2nd half and got his playoff feet wet right away. Tonight felt like a wasted opportunity versus a team whose confidence is a mile wide but an inch deep.

The poor defense and rebounding lost the game but let’s also be real: Duncan shot 1 FT in 37 minutes with 24 FGA. Dirk had 5 on 9 fewer FGA. Get real. If all the contact TD and TP took had been called correctly, we may have still survived.

Firstly Tony has to hit the roller more often when he comes off that pick at the top.

There were a bunch of times particularly in the second half where he seemed determined to just use the Pick as something to look at on his drive by to the hoop. Particularly when Tim was the guy doing the rolling straight down the middle of the kyey. Anytime you get to give him the ball in the painted area in motion in my opinion you do it.

When you constantly do one thing and don’t vary your play you give a guy like Barea a chance. If you keep hitting that Pick & Roll or Pick & pop guy every once in a while then Barea becomes a liability, especially in a switch situation.

He is a quick scrappy backup guard who can shoot well and does a decent job penetrating, and i think he got a hand up on both ends of the floor from Tony Parker. Tony was screwed at times from doing his best Steve Nash impersonation and literally dribbling out the shot clock running under the hoop out and in etc. Consequently I think TP had a hard time when Barea penetrated off the high screen from Dampier & Dirk because his energy at such a low ebb.

Secondly, Bass doesn’t play this game again. I have seen a lot of his work during the season simply because i get 2 Games a week here in oz and they are pot luck with regard to who plays who. He is a great athletic guy, and that alone gives us problems, but the things he was hitting were circus shots. He does have a nice mid range jumper like most of the Mavs, and he is fearless and assertive but the turn around fades etc wont always be there.

Finally. Mase went to the point and things fell to bits. Momentum was lost, the Offense broke down, he had one good assist to Gooden which was a straight forward pick & roll (HELLO TONY), but making him run the offense is just bad i wont elaborate any more because Stampler already got the poo’s in the game thread when i mentioned it.

We have all talked about Mase & the point till blue in the face, Pop just doesn’t agree with us. It’s like every season he has some wierd pet thing, i.e giving the ghost of Robert Horry minutes vs the Lakers…playing the JV etc.

Well heres hoping Tony keeps mixing his play up in game 2 like he did in the first quarter. Would also not mind him taking a few long jumpers off the pick every once in a while rather than just the end of the game when his legs are tired and he is running out of options.

I found myself far less upset about this loss than in previous years, perhaps its b/c of Manus injury and the already lowered expectations, but I wasnt that upset.

Having said that, they had this one. I dont know that we can win the title w/o Manu, but a first round exit would not be acceptable.

Spurs defense was very bad last night. There were no energy as the guys were always late covering their man specially in fighting off screens. Parker was again abused by Barrea because of his inability to play smart defense. I think Pop has a a great game plan but it was the guys that didn’t deliver. Terry hitting transition 3’s, Howard getting freed up by screens after a good ball movement as the defense got lost, Barrea driving to the basket with ease and making plays, it seemed to me that the spurs weren’t committed to defense the way Pop used to preach them. I hope they’d be better in game 2 if they’re really serious on moving on or they could just rest Duncan for next season.

Finley was absolutely atrocious on defense last night, I can’t believe no one has really said that yet. If we are to win this series, Bonner needs to stay off the court (holy christ he was awful last night) and Finley cannot be asked to defend Howard. Man that was a frustrating game.

It’s funny, I turned to a friend after the game and told him, If Tony hadn’t broken Barea’s ankles on that one play, maybe Barea wouldn’t have been so motivated to prove himself.

All your insight is dead on… and where the hell was Bowen when we needed him? Huh, Pop?

I just read thru the game thread… CC cracks me up! I know he’s a serious mf, but he still cracks me up. I also love that everyone (almost) on this site knows what they’re talking about.

I always believe in my Spurs and Spurredon’s reminders just give me further hope.

GO SPURS GO!

Excellent recap, LD, and (slightly off-topic) having just read through some of what the Deadspin regulars apparently thought was all right to post about the hapless guest editor yesterday, my gratitude toward everyone who comprises the PtR community is redoubled.

It’s not easy for a relatively large and diverse group of people to maintain civility and general good humor but still allow individual members to be incisive and expressive. PtR seems to be the exception that proves the rule.