Photos - Spurs Continue to Feed on Nuggets

by janieannie on Jan 17, 2011 4:57 PM CST in Scenes from the Season

How do you like your Nuggets? Smothered, as the Spurs did on defense against Carmelo, or Shredded, as the Spurs did to the entire Denver team in the second quarter? The star of the show for the Spurs tonight was Tony Parker, who filled up the stat sheet with 30 points (11 of 15 shooting, 2 of 2 threes, 6 of 6 free throws), 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals.

Tony hit from all over the floor - driving layups, short jumpers, and three-point territory.

Tony's two three pointers in 42 seconds in the fourth quarter put the sauce on the Nuggets.

As great as Tony was, it was Manu who made the highlight reels: a block on Melo from behind that was the NBA Play of the Day, a bounce pass assist to DeJuan through Nene's legs that was the Assist of the Night, and a beautiful driving layup with a behind the back added for good measure.

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Tiago Splitter played some real minutes tonight, coming in late in the first quarter and playing into the second. His confidence seemed to grow with every minute he was on the court.

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Play was rough on the court - check out the scratches on Tiago's arm after only a little more than two minutes of playing time:

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Late in the game, Tiago went down the lane for a thundering dunk, but landed hard on his back, prompting Coach Pop to say his "butt-bone must be made of steel."

Timmy's offense wasn't as needed tonight, but his 16 defensive rebounds set up the offense for the rest of the guys. This jumper in the first quarter was a thing of beauty, though.

Jefferson continued to love his corner threes.

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The Spurs played smothering defense against Carmelo, double and some times triple-teaming him to hold him to 5 of 17 for 12 points, well below his season average in the 20s.

Here Neal and Jefferson team up to guard Melo.

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Manu uses those long arms and his quickness to bother Melo in this one.

The game got a little chippy in the second half, and the Nuggets were called for two technicals in 5 seconds. The first went on Billups for shoving Parker into the Nuggets' bench. Here Carmelo is about to get the second one for complaining a bit too much.

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The Nuggets were not completely void of highlights. Nene dropped down a couple of dunks, although he, Melo, and Billups failed to score a single bucket in the second quarter.

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Just how dominating was that second quarter? Here are two shot charts from ESPN's on-line coverage:

First the makes for each team in the second quarter:

and the misses for each team in the same quarter:

Both shot charts are from http://espn.go.com/nba/shotchart?gameId=310116024

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Comments

Excuse the tardiness – it was a late game that, thanks to ESPN’s need for so many commercials, was made even longer. I didn’t get home until very early this morning, and was too sleepy to put together the post.

"Ginobili. . .He's weaving, he's throwing up triple axels in sneakers, he's willing the ball into the basket. It's Cirque du Soleil with refs." Dan Oshinsky / KENS 5

by janieannie on Jan 17, 2011 4:59 PM CST reply actions

No need to apologize. You just keep doing what you do.

Superman wears Manu Ginobili pajamas to bed.

by CMoney on Jan 17, 2011 5:08 PM CST up reply actions

Great JA.

by indiancharlie on Jan 17, 2011 5:13 PM CST reply actions

Here Carmelo is about to get the second one for complaining a bit too much.

Carmelo looks too much like Kenyon Martin on this photo. May be the Nuggets want to send Martin back to NJ pretending that he is Melo?

"Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure."

by Kondor on Jan 17, 2011 5:36 PM CST reply actions

Thanks for noticing. I just fixed it and put up the correct photo and caption.

"Ginobili. . .He's weaving, he's throwing up triple axels in sneakers, he's willing the ball into the basket. It's Cirque du Soleil with refs." Dan Oshinsky / KENS 5

by janieannie on Jan 17, 2011 6:26 PM CST up reply actions

Awesome photos, as usual. There is one shot of Martin mis-identified as Carmelo. Don’t feel too bad; I kept getting the two confused all game long.

All these GIFs are breaking my browser.

by quincyscott on Jan 17, 2011 5:44 PM CST via mobile reply actions

Oops! I put the comments on the wrong photo. Like I said, it was a late night.

"Ginobili. . .He's weaving, he's throwing up triple axels in sneakers, he's willing the ball into the basket. It's Cirque du Soleil with refs." Dan Oshinsky / KENS 5

by janieannie on Jan 17, 2011 6:06 PM CST up reply actions

I’ve also added to the end of the post some shot charts from ESPN’s online coverage of the game. They really give a great visual perspective on how dominating we were in that second quarter. I rely on these charts and their play by play coverage a lot in preparing my posts.

"Ginobili. . .He's weaving, he's throwing up triple axels in sneakers, he's willing the ball into the basket. It's Cirque du Soleil with refs." Dan Oshinsky / KENS 5

by janieannie on Jan 17, 2011 6:28 PM CST reply actions