Game #28 Recap: Spurs 109, Nuggets 103 - The Bench Ain't So Bad

Slowly but surely, the pine riders chip away at the lead by playing interior defense and timely shooting. At the 9:30 mark, CIA Pop threw out another wrinkle – zone defense. With Splitter anchoring the middle, the zone fully discombobulated the Nuggets for the next 3 minutes.

I love this part. The zone was completely unexpected. I know Dallas goes into zone a lot this year (usually with Haywood and some of the benchies) but I don’t know how often we’ve used it. Pop always seems to have an adjustment ready when we’re losing and this year he’s got promising weapons.

QWin has been a steal for us so far. He comes in with a lot of energy and seems to make all right plays – shooting, assists, even important rebound and steal tonight. I am very impressed with his contribution in a very limited minutes.

Good recap, Cap. hah. I usually don’t read recaps because I watch the games but tonight I had to miss it so this was much appreciated.

On a completely unrelated note, did you see the Hopkins vs Pascal fight? Is it worth me watching onDemand right now?

Great recap. The zone killed the Nuggets in the fourth. We only allowed them 14 points while scoring a bunch. Can you imagine that? Though, I want to see them play D not only when we’re trailing.

Gary Neal – The Nail has icewater in his veins. Gary doesn’t care if you posterize him; Gary cares if his team wins. And Gary scores 22 points on 7-12 shooting (5-7 from beyond the arc).

If Neal wasn’t forced to take 2 quick rush shots, he’d really be 5-6 from 3pt and 7-10 overall in field goals. He was solid.

Honorable mention to RJ who made some solid plays. To end the 2nd quarter he had like 7 straight points.

Nice ’cap Cap. Nice win

Cap = btw, on the Spurs telecast, they showed Anderson doing some shooting drills at the sideline. That looks promising as they mentioned he couldn’t even do that days ago.

Will a blog poll show that the Spurs are in and win more blog polls than any other team? Seems there’s a whole lot of trophy envy going around.

I missed the 1st half but watched the replay. Could not believe some of the easy scores missed by the Spurs early in the game, starting with the Manu’s first layup. To see them win on a night where G-Hill doesn’t play; they miss 9 FTs and are -10 at the FT line; -3 on rebounds; TD played only 27 minutes? Wow. It looked like most 50/50 calls went the Nuggets way, especially when Blair or Splitter were on the court. None of that mattered.

Denver is a very talented team. Lots of quickness, shooters, and the difficult match up of Nene in the paint. Lawson was drafted specifically to help match Tony and other quick guards in the West; he’s able to stay with TP plus attack on the other end. They won both games in SA last season and were due for a one-game overachievement when a star player is out. None of this mattered as the Spurs defeated Denver twice in seven days, shooting 52% and 53% respectively, even while each game was part of a Spurs back-to-back. Broke their hearts in Denver then followed that up with a bench mob mugging. It is hard for even the most talented rosters to match up and keep up with this Spurs team. What a nice playoff feel victory even in December. The foundation for bigger things continues to be set.

Yes, caps. Yes, in the subject.

Sorry, had to.

Now for a decent reply: gratz on the 10th. Looking forward to meeting you guys in the new year. Should be a nice game, somewhat of a challenge, a game to get up for.

You guys think you’re going to the finals this year?

Cheers,

I only got to watch the first 3 minutes of the game as I had to drop-off my mom to the mall. Then on the way, the clutch of my car got broken so I had to get it replaced. I thought this was an omen on the Spurs game (like a RQC or something). Fortunately, this wasn’t, as our clutch players came through again with timely shots and defense to win us our 10th straight.

Tis the season of stars brought about through Pop’s…“Are we having fun?” attitude of imbalance.

What a great game! It was a lot of fun to watch. Splitter played finally. I want Pop to play TS more but from what I read about what Pop is trying to do with TS I trust Pop. I mean I know I’m not the only one who sees how good we are when he’s on the floor, and the scary part is TS is only going to get better learning from the best TD. My new favorite nba analyst Kenny Smith, he said exactly what I think we are all thinking that the Spurs are getting no love for the record they have. Kenny Smith also said if this was the Fakers, Boston or Miami that everyone would be saying that they are going to win 70 games. He’s the only analyst giving the Spurs any love. Skipp Bayless dosen’t count cause ESPN has banned him from saying anything about the Spurs, why?.

Thanks for the ‘cap, Cap. The Spurs are trying to kill us with these close games, but what does it say about them that they keep finding a way to win? Pop’s adjustments last night were beautemous to behold.

I know you yearn for the day when you can see Anderson running the floor—stay strong! He will find you!

There was one sequence in the 1st quarter wherein Manu had the ball, then he passed it to TD, then he passed it to Splitter for the deuce. It was like counting numbers, 20-21-22.

Nice, thanks Cap.

Watching this game was like watching an Action Movie Thriller. Trading punches back and forth at first, then the bad guy takes some momentum and it looks like it’s all about over --early 4th quarter. But I knew the Spurs were going to come back and pull it out somehow. And sure enough, Pop switches to zone and Denver starts shooting cold in the middle of the 4th q. Anderson, Bonner, RJ, Splitter and Manu hit some big shots down the stretch to keep it from being a complete nail bitter.

Side note: Spurs would have pulled to a double digit lead in the 2nd quarter. But Quinn was giving up the right side for T. Lawson, and he just coasted to the basket for layups. I know Quinn can make some plays but he didn’t look good against the more athletic Lawson. I think Hill would have done better. Can’t wait to have him back.

Oh and Neal looks just like he did on that Europeon highlight reel someone posted back during the summer. I knew that all he would need were minutes and touches and that he would keep scoring like he’s accustomed to doing. I hope they keep giving him the opportunities because him and Hill are a potential nightmare off the bench in the playoffs.

-So great to hear Bill and Sean again on league pass! This is looking like a great way to deal with home sickness.

of course they would feature Sasha in that poll. lol

Great recap, CH! Rec’d for your sacrifice in allowing Hastings into your head.

Some thoughts (lots of them):

• Over at Denver Stiffs they’re still complaining about “The Flop” (as they see it) in the latest game recap. Still, they do have some discerning fans…. one posted this surprising sentiment:
  

  However when you compare us as a team and an organization to the San Antonio Spurs. We are just worse in every way. That’s all there is to it.

• I’m actually starting to like the ‘ugly’ wins. It’s kinda fascinating seeing all the different ways they come up with to win. Of course, I hope that the Spurs are firing on all cylinders come playoff time.
• I thought Quinn played very well overall, but Lawson sure did seem to have his number in the 2nd quarter. Especially loved his no-panic, ‘on-the-knees’ assist to Neal and a key steal (in the 4th quarter, I believe).
• The lid on the Spurs rim at the end of the 2nd (and much of the 3rd?) was frustrating; otoh it made their 4th quarter outburst all the more satisfying.
• Even more frustrating was JR’s 16 3rd quarter points. Fortunately he reverted to knucklehead form in the 4th, the most telling example to me being his failure to drive on Bonner in a mismatch. If he made that silly, silly three he put up instead, I would’ve said they have the mojo tonight and conceded. But he didn’t, and I became even more convinced that maybe Kenny has something to his theory that the Spurs are beating teams by daring them to take only good shots for a full 48-minute game.
• Pop said after the game that he had the Spurs go zone because he was ‘tired of begging them to play defense,’ but I think it’s a little more subtle than that. Quinn/Neal/Ginóbili/Bonner/Splitter probably hadn’t played together as a unit very much outside of practice (if even there). Man-to-man defense could prove to be problematic for such an untested five-some, but the responsibilities in a zone are pretty much the same for the defending players regardless of whether they normally play together or not. The Spurs were fortunate that the Nuggets’ had cooled down from behind the arc (they were 0 for 8 in the final quarter) and weren’t able to take advantage with lots of baskets off of offensive rebounds; otherwise, it could have turned out very ugly for the Spurs.
• The Nuggets did indeed seem to have good ball movement at times last night. Maybe it was ‘Melo, maybe it wasn’t. But I think it shows they’ll be OK even if he doesn’t re-sign with them.
• I’ve been complaining that Tiago hasn’t played enough this year (so far), and I’m happy that he used the minutes he got last night to show Coach what he can do. Nearly a double-double to go along with solid defense in what, 21 minutes? As someone at 48MoH (?) pointed out, there were a lot of voices early last year complaining that DeBeast needed more minutes to develop, and look how well that turned out. It’s possible that Pop may simply be playing the ‘managing minutes’ game with Tiago, due to his pre-season injury and lack of any real rest since the summer before last. (And bearing in mind the relative lengths of the NBA and EuroLeague seasons.)
• I’m OK with the Spurs holding teams to one or two quarters in the teens each game, if they’re able to keep it close in the other two or three quarters and can run up the score in the quarters that they play ‘old-school D.’ And I really don’t think it’s traditional old-school Spurs D. To me, it looks and feels more like the Magic/Kareem Lakers, with long outlet passes off of defensive rebounds and turnover-generating defense leading to fast-break opportunities.
• Those ‘ill-advised shots in the half-court sets’ generally occur when the Spurs stop ball movement and players start standing around instead of moving around without the ball to cause the opposing team’s defense to break down. They’re so effective when they play offense right that, several times each game I’ve noticed that the ball-handler sometimes misses an open teammate flashing to the basket, but then gets an even better shot opportunity (for himself or another player) because the defense continues to break down under the unrelenting pressure. It’s truly amazine to see, as beautiful as the ballet or living art of the “Princeton offense” is (imho)…. and it makes it even more painful to watch the Spurs when their offense is stagnant or littered with bad decisions.
• Manu may be the “Man with No Swagger” but Gary is the “Man with No Fear.” Nothing seems to phaze this ‘rookie.’ I continue to be glad to say that I was entirely wrong in my expectations for him and his game.
• Speaking of Ginóbili, I’m ecstatic and amazed that Pop is somehow able to start Manu yet still have him play minutes with the bench as their primary playmaker and facilitator… I think the new players benefit from playing with him (i.e. are able to contribute and develop faster), much as RJ and Blair benefited last year. Of course I’m concerned about the amount of minutes Manu’s been logging, but he’s probably tougher and more durable than I realize. So far, so good.