Game Preview #80: San Antonio Spurs @ Denver Nuggets

by silverandblack_davis on Apr 10, 2010 7:00 AM CDT in Game Previews

I'm tired of losing to all these teams we should be winning against.

Here's your FOGAFINI-style preview after the jump.

I'm exasperated and badly need a win. Then again, who doesn't? CIA Pop, maybe.

San Antonio Spurs @ Denver Nuggets
Where: Pepsi Center - Denver, CO
When: April 10, 2010; 8:00 PM Spurs time
Watch: NBA TV; KENS HD

How They Stack Up


28-12	Home	33-6
20-19	Road	19-21
101.1	Offense	106.6
96.2	Defense	102.1
47.3	FG%	47.0
36.0	3-pt%	36.6
74.5	FT%	77.4
42.7	Rebounds	41.5
13.0	TOs	13.7
6-4	Last 10	5-5
Lost 2	Streak	Won 4
2nd, Southwest	Position	1st, Northwest


Country/Time Zone	Game Time
Argentina	10:00 PM
West Coast	6:00 PM
Philippines	9:00 AM
Central Europe	3:00 AM
Palestine/Egypt	4:00 AM
East Coast	9:00 PM
Surprisingly Balmy	7:00 PM
Perth, AUS	9:00 AM
Tokyo, JP	10:00 AM
Sydney, AUS	11:00 AM

Spurs (48-31)	Matchups	Nuggets (52-27)
Garrett Temple of Doom	Point Guard Temple's a +/- savant but Chauncey's just better and doesn't make too many mistakes. Advantage: Nuggets	Chauncey Billups Papa Smurf

Manu Ginobili S'Nova	Shooting Guard Um... hey everyone else. Let's not let Manu's superhuman efforts go to waste this time, shall we? Advantage: Spurs	Arron Afflalo Underrated

Richard Jefferson Princess Peanut	Small Forward RJ, please don't return to suck mode again. It's almost the playoffs. Advantage: Nuggets	Carmelo Anthony Stop Snitching

Tim Duncan Merlin	Power Forward All this talk about "resting Timmy" has me confused because obviously, we'd be hard-pressed to win a game without him playing significant minutes. No one's going to lay down for us, that team be playoff-bound or not. Advantage: Spurs	Johan Petro Another French

Antonio McDyess Dice	Center Dice pretty much laid an egg last night. Things won't be easier against the hulking Nene. Advantage: Nuggets	Nene A Bird

DeJuan Blair Grizzly Blair	Bench & Role Players Bonner's the only one who showed up for the bench. TP did for the first-half but got lost somewhere along the way. Meanwhile, the Nuggets' bench led by JR Smith, Ty Lawson and the Bird Man are an active bunch. Advantage: Nuggets	JR Smith "Thuggets" Personified

Gregg Popovich Wino	Coach George Karl's out. Still, let me just say that too much playing it safe can also backfire. Advantage: Spurs	George Karl Excused
	images via yahoo.com

	Other Factors
Intangibles
We lost to Memphis at home and are on a 2-game losing streak. Advantage: Nuggets
Mojo
Nothingness. Advantage: None
Winner:
Nuggets. Yes, you read that correctly. I'm tired of picking the Spurs to win.

Keys To The Game

Defense - Denver's been better than us at scoring points all season long. If we can't get stops, we lose... it's really that simple. But simple and easy are two different things - The Nuggets get to the line more than any team in the league, and this means that our young guys are going to have to be smart about their decisions on the defensive end.
Ball and Player Movement - The Spurs are a much better team when they confuse the hell out of opposing defenses. The two-man game isn't the kind of movement I'm talking about here... I'm talking multiple cutters, misdirection and crazy double screens. Make them work on the defensive end, and stopping them will be a bit easier.

Strength of Schedule

Finally the FOGAFINI ends. No rest for the weary as we play the Wolves after a days' rest and then close the season against bitter rivals, the Dallas Mavericks - who, I might add, locked up the division title.

Last Time They Met

A 111-92 win at Denver on February 11 shows we can take the Nuggets on their home floor. But after these last two games and a punishing schedule? I doubt it.

Some Other Reading

Grizzlies

Denver Stiffs - This is the Nuggets' SBN home. There's some good stuff here, and you can probably expect a few of them to wander over here.
Roundball Mining Company - The Denver TrueHoop affiliate. Looks like pretty good stuff, but I didn't have time to read up, since this game is going to be so early.

Spurs

48 Minutes of Hell: The best TrueHoop team blog is now even better, after adding two new writers. Congrats to Jesse and Andrew, who are already doing good work.
Project Spurs: Check out their podcast recaps of the game, plus the well-written articles.

Where to Tune In

TV

This game will be aired nationwide on NBA TV. If you have cable or satellite, you'll have to look up your individual channel. And of course, there's always League Pass for the haves. For the have nots, read on.

Online

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. In fact, nobody can stop you from googling "atdhe". You can also shoot an email to poundingtherockmail@yahoo.com for more assistance.

NBA League Pass audio is still free this year, so check it out.

Radio

If you're in the San Antonio area and aren't near a TV, tune in to WOAI (1200 AM).

Poll

After the loss to Memphis, is a first-round match with the Lakers now inevitable?

Yes, we deserve it and now we're going to have another early vacation.

68 votes

Yes. It's all part of the plan to take out the big bully first then win the 'chip.

51 votes

No. We can still do this. In Manu We Trust.

45 votes

No. Anything can still happen with the other teams.

45 votes

209 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

i’m drunk right now (argentine malbec + west australian muscat). i’m going to have a hangover in the morning. if i get up and brave that hangover, we better get a win, or i’ll be…in even a worse state. but hey…

free malik hairston!
perth wildcats - 2009/2010 nbl champions baby!

by sleep research facility on Apr 10, 2010 9:56 AM CDT reply actions

Is this bad?

A few weeks ago i was hoping theyd just miss the playoffs and luck into Jon Wall or Evan Turner, seeing as how we’re most likely not going to win it all this year

Okay, just so I understand it... in your wildest fantasy, you are in hell. And you are co-running a bed and breakfast with the devil.

by bren on Apr 10, 2010 10:06 AM CDT reply actions

If we stay where we are right now, we’ll have the 19th pick.

Spurs Basketball. Improving [other] NBA teams since 2010! - swgeek

by Tim C. on Apr 10, 2010 10:58 AM CDT up reply actions

is it possible to pay other teams to have a top pick like on the 10th?and by the way we need to make future trades on lousy teams so that we may end up lucky like utah,they are good now and might add a young core to their team if they pick the right player
they got the 3rd or 4th or 5th pick right,form new york?
when are we going to have this kind of luck(yeah we are always lucky picking guys,just the picks that i hope we can have,we can have 2 picks 1st rnd and steal or see what we have on second right?)

San Antonio,Thunder,Bulls,Memphis,Denver
GoSpuRsGo
Cleveland Sucks

by tp_09 on Apr 10, 2010 11:27 AM CDT up reply actions

Love the player pics, s&b. Ironically, the game I most want the Spurs to win is the one I won’t get to watch. I hope they give a better defensive effort tonight and hope they deflate the fans at the Can.

by CapHill on Apr 10, 2010 10:26 AM CDT reply actions

Rest everybody… we got the LakeShow to worry about.

I did not return empty handed. I came back with two huge handfulls.

by JonnyJam on Apr 10, 2010 10:32 AM CDT reply actions

+100

"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 Apr 10, 2010 3:39 PM CDT up reply actions

Exactly. Bring on the Fakers

"Mr. Gilmore deserves to be in the Basketball Hall of Fame damnit. Highest field goal percentage EVER"

http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/g/gilmoar01.html

by Joe deLarios on Apr 10, 2010 11:07 AM CDT reply actions

suggestion let’s not watch the game im tired of seeing us lose i might watch the next game if ever we win this if not…man idk what to do
ahhh i just finished watching coach carter(just to be inspired,plus idk what to do at home…ahhh…stupid idea….maybe i’ll boost me to think that we can do it…hoping it won’t be like the movie where they lost at the buzzer)
man!

San Antonio,Thunder,Bulls,Memphis,Denver
GoSpuRsGo
Cleveland Sucks

by tp_09 on Apr 10, 2010 11:23 AM CDT reply actions

I’m going to watch and see if the Spurs show signs of “figuring it out”.

...!!

by transgojobot on Apr 10, 2010 12:46 PM CDT reply actions

I’m tired of losing to all these teams we should be winning against.

I recall a month or so ago someone stated how the Spurs during the championship seasons used to beat the top teams then lose focus against some of the bad ones. That’s the last three weeks. It’s not like we were going to win sixteen straight, at least when they’re stacked into 26 days.

I’m one of the “rest Timmy” people. I’ve said it based on opponent and game situation (based on off days). I’d rather lose to NJ then wear him down. I’d rather lose to Sac but have him fresh @PHX. Or lose to Memphis but have him able to play @DEN (or reverse and go heavy vs MEM but sit in Denver). The results are why. Playing him is no guarantee to win when the whole team is tired and key players are injured, but now he never gets a game where he’s rested so the results are never quite top notch. Then there’s the injury risk with all these games stacked together. I feel like we’ve been playing with fire just in hopes of reaching the 4th seed and our foolish greed has left us where we’d likely be, only without Manu or TD having had a game off. Not wise.

And I don’t expect to win tonight no matter who plays because it’s a FOGAFINI, with all four in different cities. That’s insane.

You gotta bring ass to get ass.

by SpurredOn on Apr 10, 2010 1:28 PM CDT reply actions

Having said all that, I enjoyed the preview pics s&b. Another creative preview.

You gotta bring ass to get ass.

by SpurredOn on Apr 10, 2010 1:29 PM CDT up reply actions

Nugs fan here...

I love the previews on your site, always thorough and entertaining.

This may be a good game to rest Duncan, if that’s under consideration. The Nugs have been playing some ugly ball, but they have managed to skank out several consecutive victories to be somewhat on a roll. They will be extra keyed up tonight with Martin’s return. (I personally hope he plays, that would make for a more entertaining game tonight.)

The 8th seed makes things difficult in the first round, but there is no other team with a better chance to knock off the Flakers. PDX won’t. OKC is doing a lot of things right, but they lack the experience to do it. If I were the Flakers, the Spurs would be the last team I would want to face in the first round.

by Ski Bum on Apr 10, 2010 4:44 PM CDT up reply actions

Thanks, man. Although I forgot to give credit to transgojobot, he was the one who gave me the idea.

And SkiBum, thanks for dropping by. I’d rather have Dallas because I want to settle the score from last year. But then again, everyone has to go through LA so maybe meeting them early isn’t such a bad thing.

Just cause we're crippled, don't mean we gotta take the crumbs.

by silverandblack_davis on Apr 10, 2010 6:44 PM CDT up reply actions