Spurs Are Awful, Manu Is Awfulest

Manu agrees with you – he led off his postgame interview with “I played like crap.” Even I way wishing Pop would bench him. The team doctors sat on the second bench last night. I don’t remember seeing that at a game, and Manu was talking to them a lot.

Temple, Ian, and Blair all getting minutes should make them the 3 stars independent of any stats they produce.

Winston, the guy at Mathletic.com, thinks we need to move TP back into the starting lineup to shake it up. I think Manu rebounds on his own and makes the decision wrong, but it’s interesting.

Kind of figured it was going to be one of those games from the start, but you’re right Wayne, they just looked like they didn’t want to be there.

Also a bad sign when RJ made his first jumper (I think about 3 or 4 minutes into the 2nd quarter) and I asked my wife if he had been playing all game.

Manu’s foul trouble really hampered us in this game. He had to go to the bench early and we just were out of rhythm the rest of the half, or at least until Tony tried to save us. I think it really affected RJ because we’ve seen all year he struggles to create on his own and needs Manu to get him going early.

Interesting to look at our losses and see that in Game 1, RJ had to go to the bench early with 2 fouls and in Game 5, Manu had to go to the bench with 2 fouls. This made us play Mase more and got us out of sync. So early foul trouble makes us go to our bench a lot earlier than Pop wants and that is not a good thing.

I thought George started pressing and taking bad shots once the Spurs got down big in the 2nd quarter. That being said, he still played better than most of the other guys. Good recap ATS. I think your numbers pretty much sum up how bad the Spurs played. Mavs came out and played hard, you have to give ’em credit for that.

Tony did something in Game 3 I’ve never seen him do; he hit clutch shots (three fourth quarter jumpers) and helped put the game away.

In last night’s Game 5, I saw him do something else I haven’t ever seen from him: he hulked up, like Manu does. What do I mean by that?

After Tony absorbed the flagrant from Najera, he did his usual lying-on-the-court-for-an-extended-period before getting up, but then, after the free throws, he drove right back into the lane and took another hard foul; this time, without a reaction of any kind. He nailed both FT’s and after a turnover by Dirk, he hit a pretty jumper.

This is exactly how Manu always reacts whenever a team roughs him up, but I’ve not witnessed another Spur take that mantle on. If you include Tony’s basket as he was fouled, then that’s the whole 7-0 run at the end of the 2nd quarter. Who’s to say whether he can continue to develop as a BAM (literally and figuratively) but as an optimist, I’m contractually obligated to find a silver lining in every game, and for me, this was Game 5’s.

I’ve got some positives (as in regular season kind of positives, not the kind that shine the sh*t off an uninspired playoff loss):

1) Mavs only shot 44% while playing their starters and main guys into the 4th Q.

2) Mavs scored 103 points, three more than their game 1 win. This despite the Spurs shooting 36% and commiting 18 turnovers.

My point here is that our defense is fine when we don’t screw up on offense. The Mavs were able to up the pace off our mistakes which gave them confidence and easy points for Butler. Simply executing on offense keeps the Mavs under 100 points and running their offense through Dirk. That’s our game. They struggle to consistently score on us in the half-court.

3) Timmy actually started out well. Had this been a game where we were in it late he was heading for another 20 & 10 night and possible excellence in the 4th Q. We never got there so instead he’s rested for next game.

4) Hill’s speed and long arms still give us a match-up advantage. His energy in the 3rd Q, when all else was sucking, was excellent. He should’ve had an and-1, plus he got fouled on another layup miss that went uncalled. He’s a problem for the Mavs and this will show itself more when the rest of the team plays well.

5) How about a moment of appreciation for Ian and Temple? Ian was a missed FT from double digit scoring and both guys received their first ever playoff minutes and points (or point in the case of Temple). It may not mean anything but good for them. They’re now officially Spurs.

6) I’m grateful that our Big-3 didn’t log 35+ minutes and lose in the final minute. That would’ve been a wasted effort and more of a momentum builder for Dallas.

GREASE ME UP

Back to back years I attend a Spurs v Mavs playoff game and we shit the bed. I take full responsibility for this. This is what happens when you call for Manu to be traded. God is punishing me for such transgressions. No more dropping $200 to watch my boys get rainbowed. I will be on my couch, praying for forgiveness.

Did any one else watch it on NBA TV the coverage they did was bad. It was the first one I watched on there because I don’t have it at my house. They would skip parts of the game and go on about random stuff. Most of the good comments just happen to be the easy ones like describing the most basic things about the series.

To me, the best part of that awful game was minutes played. Our older guys should hopefully be well rested before game 6, and our reserves got some playoff exposure, which can only be good for their progress.

you know what was comical about this game? the way eddie najera came in puffing out his chest and trying to chest his way into anyone wearing a black jersey. then, a few of the other mavericks tried it for a few minutes. it was almost like carlisle gave them the “we gotta get physical” speech that mike D tried to do when we were kicking the suns arse….but just like the suns, the mavs had no idea how to do it the seemed to abruptly quit after a few minutes early in the second quarter. very chuckle-worthy.

but in the end, it was the speedy claxton/manatee/the P game or whatever you want to call it. you could see it right away. our guys almost scratched their way back into it by half…..but that was mistly because of dumb play by the ponies more than it was good play by the spurs. time to chalk it up and finish them off tomorrow night.

Wayne taking a shot at Manu and slurping Tony. Always a good thing when the leader of the blog has no idea about the principles upon which the blog was founded. That’s not an ominous sign at all. (Sigh).

Yeah, Manu and Tim played like poop. Such a surprise. I mean me, I was totally expecting the Spurs to go balls out today in a game where the Mavs would come out desperate and supremely motivated, where the refs would be giving them all the calls, and in a situation where if they won Holt wouldn’t be getting extra gate money. Yeah, that made perfect sense to me.

I think Pop, Tim and Manu were skeptical about the game to begin with in a “should we even bother?” kind of way. Once they saw how lackadaisically Dice and RJ were playing, and realized that they’d be getting nothing from the other starters, they mentally checked out too. Those two Manu fouls in the 1st? They came after turnovers by those guys. Which is fine. If I were Pop those two wouldn’t have even been in the arena last night. I understand this team’s limitations. You can’t just play Duncan 44 minutes one game and not expect to have repercussions. Those guys needed rest. They’ll be fine and ready to go in Game 6, they’re the last two Spurs I’m worried about.

As for Tony, I guess you missed the first quarter when he played like crap and had as much to do with the early deficit as anybody. He’s still leaving 3-pt shooters open and still getting his butt kicked by J.J. Barea. In the second quarter he played better, true. But it’s because he thinks he should be starting and he’s trying to prove something to Pop.

Or maybe y’all have missed all his thinly-veiled comments.

Whatever. This series ends on Thursday.

Jail Mason !

Manu isn’t the same since he broke his nose, you can see it in the way he launches his 3 pt. shot, but he’s still Manu. The problem last night was that nobody stepped up other than Hill. Manu provides the tempo for this team and if he’s playing like crap, somebody should take the helm. I think that in situations like this, we should count on our defense as a unit and I think that the players need to be reminded of that, and there’s no better person to motivate the team than Duncan, he should demand defense from every Spurs and I am sure they would follow his lead. But last night, I thought they just lay there knowing they’re still leading the series and just took the beating which isn’t very Spurs. I hope Spurs learned from last night and understand that its Spurs defense that gave us the lead in this series and that they should play it no matter what.

The worst play of the game was when Mason was at PG (a big clue here), which led to a turnover. The worst part about this is that both Tony and Hill were in, and again MASON WAS EFFING PG.

FEAR THE M11G DEER!

The hawks hens are pathetic. Getting beat by the Bogut-less Bucks does