Game #23 Preview: Blazers @ Spurs
by Tim C. on Dec 12, 2010 12:00 AM CST
in Game Previews
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PrintEarly Start Time Alert: 2:30 PM Spurs time
Last year, our beloved Spurs got swept in the regular season by precisely 3 teams. Two of them were Chicago and Utah, against whom the 2010-11 Spurs have already won games. Today, we see the last of those teams, the Portland Trailblazers. It's an early start, but The Flying Spurcus needs to be in full effect today to get our final measure of revenge for the 2009-10 squad's struggles.
The Blazers, once such a promising team, have been so decimated by injuries over the last two seasons that they are now debating whether to go younger(read: blow it up and rebuild). As many of you know, Portland is my "second" NBA team. So, while the Spurs start has been nothing short of awesome for me, another part of me hurts for what's happening to the Blazers. But make no mistake, those feelings will not cloud my judgement today - I hope the Spurs crush them.
Mood Music
The Spurs apparently want you guys to listen to more industrial music, so here ya go:
Let's do it.
 San Antonio Spurs vs Portland Trail Blazers Where: AT&T Center When: 12/12/10, 2:30PM Spurs Time - Timezone Converter Watch: FSSW, CSN NW
By the Numbers
Data source: basketball-reference.com |
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Lineups
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Lineups
Starters
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Matchup Analysis
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Intangibles | |
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Mojo | |
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Winner |
Starters
PG: Tony's had his struggles with Miller in the past, but Millers not as quick or athletic as he used to be, and Tony's playing his best ball ever.
SG: What a sad situation Roy's knee issues are. If he hadn't been robbed of what speed and athleticism he had over the past two seasons, he might not only be challenging Manu for the edge in this game, but he might have challenged for leafue MVP honors. Edge to The Anomaly.
SF: Matthews is another very solid wing player, and much like the Spurs, Portland treats the wing positions as interchangeable. However, RJ 2.0's size advantage should give him some good opportunities in this game. After he basically won his battle with Josh Smith on Friday, I'm not betting against him.
PF: LMA is a very good player... on offense. But Timmeh's been getting it done on both ends at a deceptively high level this year, despite the lower-than-normal scoring numbers.
C: DeJuan has looked much better lately, as compared to his struggles in the early part of the season. I'm not ready to give him the edge over Camby, but I hope he keeps bringing it.
Bench
Over the previous two seasons, Portland had one of the deepest teams in the league. But they traded away a lot of their depth over the last year, with mixed results(Babbitt is in the D-League, but Camby is as solid as ever). Batum is the 6th man, and even though he should probably start over Matthews, the Blazers have had good results with the 3-guard lineup. Meanwhile, George has been like a stick crate pallet of dynamite off the bench lately, and Neal and the bench bigs can not only maintain leads, but blow games wide open with their great play this season.
Coaching
A lot of folks were calling for Nate's head a couple weeks ago, but that talk died down after the Blazers' brass said they wouldn't dream of letting him go, and especially now that the ship appears to be righted again. But you'll never hear the media talking about Pop getting canned.
Intangibles
We're an amazing 4th quarter team, as was proven yet again on Friday. Getting it done when it matters is the ultimate intangible.
Mojo
Props to the Blazers for winning 4 in a row. We've done the same, and have been more consistent from the start of the season.
Prediction
The Spurs keep it rolling, mainly because they have to keep Dallas at bay in the division standings.
Keys to the Game
Defensive Rebounding - Portland's shooting percentages are awful, and they don't get to the line often enough to make up for it. However, they get a ton of offensive rebounds. If we can keep them off the offensive glass(easier said than done), this should be a fairly easy game to win. For the love of Manu, somebody needs to show Bonner how to box out properly.
Offensive aggressiveness - The Blazers are pretty good at defending the three ball, and also fairly good at field-goal percentage defense. Where they have the most trouble defensively is with fouls. They struggle to keep their opponents off the charity stripe. With the penetration abilities of Tony, Manu, RJ, and George, (not to mention the beastliness of DeJuan) we should be looking to take it to the hole aggressively on every possession. Not only are the free points nice, but getting their bigs in foul trouble would make it even easier to get to the rack.
Other Reading
Spurs
48 Minutes of Hell - Seriously, read the advanced scouting report posted on gameday. It's so much better than anything I can scrape together.
Blazers
Blazersedge(SB Nation) - BE gets about 5-6 times the amount of traffic that PtR does. Partly because of that(and the other part is because they're so good at it), the two guys who run it are fully credentialed media members with full access to the Blazers' players, coaches, practices, etc. If you're prone to siezures, DO NOT attempt to keep up with their game threads - they're off the charts, even compared to ours.
Bustabucket - I quite simply love this blog.
Following Along
TV
This game will be aired on Fox Sports Southwest in San Antonio, and CSN NW in the Northwest. NBA League Pass will be airing the game as well.
Radio
WOAI 1200AM; Audio League Pass[streaming]
Online
As always, NBA league pass is recommended for those who are willing to pony up the cash. Almost every Spurs game will be broadcast there, which is especially helpful for those of us who aren't in the San Antonio area.
Please don't post links to illegal game feeds in the game thread. Links to illegal feeds are not permitted on SBNation, but you can probably find them out there on the internets if you're resourceful and desperate. You can also shoot an email to poundingtherockmail@yahoo.com(IMPORTANT: Please include your PtR username in the email for reference) for further assistance.
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Comments
Alright so, in light of the fact that its PtR vs Blazersege, I’m going to allow full out mayhem in the gamethreads. Make me have to create like 6 of them, I don’t care.
Go nuts!
Biggest coach Pop/Tiago Splitter homer on the internet™
by Josh Guyer (completely deck) on Dec 12, 2010 12:34 AM CST reply actions
We got a PF spur all to ourselves!!!… I don’t know what to say… I’d like to thank all the little people that made this possible… Thanks Ricky!
GSG!
by In the 666 on Dec 12, 2010 3:11 AM CST via mobile reply actions
Portland is my “second” NBA team
They were mine too, along with the Thunder last year, and “anybody playing Lakers” any year. I am pretty fickle with my second team :-). Married to the Spurs, but fast and loose with the mistresses.
A lot of folks were calling for Nate’s head a couple weeks ago
Wow! I missed that. I like McMillan. He is a good coach, but I especially like that he seems to care about character and discipline. However, here is an example of my I dropped him from my short list of favorite coaches:
Brandon Roy, SG 41 10-19 2-4 4-6 1 1 2 6 2 0 3 1 +11 26
41 minutes! And last year it royally pissed me off that Nate allowed Roy to play shortly after having knee surgery, and am convinced the heavy wear and tear last year screwed up Brandon Roy’s future. Short term thinking.
Lauri: thank goodness I have you magnificent bastards to waste [the offseason] with.
The Nate hate is mainly because of style of play.
Nobody argues with the results. If anybody expected to win our series the past two years they are kidding themselves.
KFBR392
by Sabonis4Ever on Dec 12, 2010 6:20 AM CST up reply actions
I took a quick saunter over to Blazers Edge – y’all are not kidding about participation! Those are some involved fans.
On the topic of BRoy playing time
So it looks like Brandon is forcing Nate to play him those minutes. Still pissed at Nate though, he is still the coach. Can you imagine Pop letting some player, even the franchise player, push him around?
Also, it looks like Roy is not ever willing to come off the bench no matter what. There is only one Manu.
Lauri: thank goodness I have you magnificent bastards to waste [the offseason] with.
“There is only one Manu.”
Very true, someone needs to tell tha paper airplane that (then crumple him up)…
by In the 666 on Dec 12, 2010 8:29 AM CST via mobile up reply actions
Good luck Spurs. Glad to see you guys killing. I'm a Blazer fan, but also a fan of any team that's playing the Lakers.
I hope if my Blazers are going to fail, at least the Spurs the Spurs can beat LA. You guys are one of the few legit winning teams. I don’t care how many times the Spurs win as long as it’s not LA or Boston.
Thanks. There seems to be a lot of cross-support between Blazers and Spurs fans, probably as both try for “character” guys. Good luck to you after our game :-).
Lauri: thank goodness I have you magnificent bastards to waste [the offseason] with.
I agree with that one,I remember in ‘08 por was like my second team.I do like Roy and with his talent it is just sad that he is so injury prone.And I always wonder what would have happen if you have a deep bench then drafted KD,but anyway let’s not open those wounds.I do agree,we are more of character guys.And thank you, not too many fans believe in SA since the best teams around as they say is MIA,LA and BOS,you might even add DAL.SA fans are really hoping that SA can prove all the analysts and haters that they can do it in a way of meshing young&athletic to the “old”,slow and boring but textbook loving spurs.
"I cry,but everyone will cry if I'm in the NBA"-Adam Morrison.I know now why fans cry when they see him on the floor.
I was told the blazers are the lakers nemesis so I’m ablazers fan too. hope you guys get play lakers in the playoffs.
by laughing hyena on Dec 12, 2010 8:49 AM CST up reply actions
Teach Matt to box out? Seriously?
Let me just say that, when you are born with hops which rival Bill Lambeer’s, you do not need to box out…
Count down and blast off into the cosmos, Rocket!
zzz
by Iullaby on Dec 12, 2010 4:51 AM CST via mobile reply actions
Been looking forward to playing the Blazers. I don’t dislike them and have always appreciated the enthusiasm their fans have (plus it’s a nice, clean city). But I do recall the 0-3 vs them as I do the 0-4 vs Utah from last season. Being winless against Portland was more maddening considering our guys lazily gave away a home win two days before Christmas by letting Bayless destroy them on an night that Roy nor Oden played. Then blew a TNT game they controlled in Portland in February. We’ve now lost five straight to these guys after a twelve game win streak.
I want vengeance now. Run them over as was done to NOLA last Sunday. Rinse and repeat in February. Win the season series in March. But do wish them after crushing their spirits; they play the Mavs on Wednesday.
Thank you SF Giants for an incredible 2010 season and painting the City orange & black!
You gotta bring ass to get ass.
Agree on all counts.
"A life, Jimmy, you know what that is? It’s what happens while you wait for moments that will never come." - Lester Freamon, The Wire
by silverandblack_davis on Dec 12, 2010 6:04 AM CST up reply actions
This game in all honesty could get very ugly.
Blazers have not been playing good…even when winning.
KFBR392
by Sabonis4Ever on Dec 12, 2010 6:22 AM CST up reply actions
Sean Elliott had mentioned a couple of times the last game how tough the Portland schedule was in flying from Portland to Phoenix on a back-to-back and less than 48 hours later having to play the Spurs in San Antonio. Then tomorrow they play in Memphis followed by a game in Dallas on Wednesday.
It makes me wonder if they might just as soon be pulling the starters out early today to have them fresh for Memphis. If they play a lot of minutes vs. the Spurs yet lose, they increase the chances of losing to Memphis (who’s not playing today).
The Spurs seem somewhat used to the thought of giving some of the players an occasional game’s rest during a back-to-back, even if it makes it more likely they might lose that game. As the Portland starters seem to be averaging a lot of minutes, I’m not sure that they have given much thought to allowing a starter a game off. If they did, I’d think they’d want the more competitive team vs. Memphis to try to make sure they did not go into a 3 game losing streak.
Not everybody on the Blazers is on the same page. Apparently Brandon Roy and the coach Nate McMillan disagree on how may minutes the injury-plagued Roy should play, and it’s not entirely up to either of them.
It’s weird to think the coach doesn’t have the say there, but Nate’s not under contract after this year. It’s not like Roy is going to go to the GM or owners and demand more minutes, but the coach’s lack of clout in the front office and authority generally makes for strange politics.
There’s also pervasive desperation and angst in the fans and perhaps organization, and who knows how that will affect their strategy… but I wouldn’t bet it makes them act more rationally.
I find McMillan’s lack of backbone unsettling anyway, assuming reports are correct and Roy is forcing his way into more minutes, otherwise I would have even more problems with the coach. He has a decent reputation, there will be lots of openings coming up and he could probably pick a decent spot. It is not like he is desperate or something.
Lauri: thank goodness I have you magnificent bastards to waste [the offseason] with.
I don't get the "Key Bench Players" list
Splitter over Bonner? Not in Pop’s mind… lol
Fuck it, Spurs by 40
"He was just a young skinny guy who looked like a winner. We didn’t know he was going to be as good as he is."
—Popovich on Manu Ginobili
by spursfan87 on Dec 12, 2010 10:54 AM CST reply actions 2 recs
It’s an early game!
"Sometimes the Spurs make you play ugly. That's just the way they are." - Gary Bender
Suggestion for the template. I’d like to be able to see OPP FG% & OPP 3PT% in the preview.
"Sometimes the Spurs make you play ugly. That's just the way they are." - Gary Bender
In other news, someone forgot to tell the NOOCH that they’re supposed to put the ball in the basket.
Free Tiago Splitter!
Good thing about him is that he usually gets the ball back after being blocked, though.
Free Tiago Splitter!
Did Dejuan just show up, block Ariza three times, leave and fly back to San Antonio?
Amazine.
↓↘→ ↓↘→ ↓↘→ + P
by transgojobot on Dec 12, 2010 12:40 PM CST up reply actions
it seems they have a team of last year’s RJ, last years Roger Mason Jr, Kwame Brown…….I could go on and on
Biggest coach Pop/Tiago Splitter homer on the internet™
by Josh Guyer (completely deck) on Dec 12, 2010 1:08 PM CST up reply actions
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