Game #73 Recap: Manu injured, slumping Spurs succumb to Grizzlies, 104-111

nice “recap” dave. i kinda agree with you on almost all of what you’ve written here. no reason to doubt this team. we have our ups and downs. this moment of the season is the darkest. the best thing is yet to come (june) for this spurs!

GSG!

Great write up. I think it’s been over a year since I posted here, mostly because what constitutes a “troll” is overblown on all SBNation blogs now. But I still visit PtR frequently, just to get a feel for the land, so to speak, to try and get into the mindset of our rivals.

While my heart hopes the Lakers catch the Spurs for No.1 merely for the additional morale boost, my brain says that there is almost no chance for that to happen. But then Duncan went down. Then SA lost 2 straight close games. Then Manu gets hurt, and a third straight loss ensues. And during this I’ve been perusing the game thread comments during early morning feeds for my 3 month old baby boy.

And frankly, I’ve been disgusted.

Blame the refs is the new rallying cry of Spurs Nation. Not far behind are remarks like the NBA hates small markets, and how bad of a homer local announcers are.

Blaming refs is the calling card of up and comers, not veterans, championship quality teams. 4 titles for SA, plus getting TD instead of Boston, begs to differ.

And lastly, homer announcers. Let’s get this straight. Local announcers MUST be a homer. It’s a requirement of the job? Why? Because they want more people to become fans of the local team, increasing viewership, ratings, and revenues for the tv station/network. And I while I think we all can agree that the announcers for Portland are the biggest homers in the game… I think Spurs fans are hilarious when I seem to recall earlier this year when the once classy Sean Elliot spent an ENTIRE game ridiculing and berating Lamar Odom, and refused to call him by his legal name, but instead would only refer to him as “Lamar Kardashian” or “Mr. Kardashian.”

Let’s be honest here. Winning has gone to your heads, and you all left your manners behind in the thirst for the next win.

Stay classy San Antonio. I loved the time I spent there.

Everything that’s in the recap is true. Also, to add up to these, let’s give the team some slack. In fact, we didn’t expect them to be where they are right now this season as they almost didn’t make it to 50 wins last year. What’s really painful about the three consecutive losses is that we were there. We almost took home the wins if not for some defensive lapses and a series of unfortunate events not to mention that these happened at this time of the year when the team should be fortifying its quest for the number one seed. Well, well, well. I’m just sulking here. But to be fair with the team, as Pop said, they fought hard until the end and they came up short. I’m still optimistic that we can still muster enough hope and come back strong in the playoffs. We need to have Timmy and Manu back.

If the rest of the team keep this fire they being playing with since being short handed, just imagine what happens when Duncan returns.

I guess the one thing that has people tied up in knots this time is that this thing is happening so late in the season. Even last year, when the Spurs could barely make it to 50, they were playing their best ball in the 2nd half of the season, in the run up to the playoffs.

This year, everything started so perfectly and things seem to be unraveling pretty fast. I’m sure it’s nothing that a good win won’t erase. But until they do, fans will always question.

Still, this has been a storybook season for us and we shouldn’t forget that after the Suns series loss last season, a record like this was the farthest thing in our minds.

I really liked this fatalistically improvised recap SBD. Keep the faith.

I am manually reminding you that if we go 6-3 the rest of the way, we’ll tie for the best regular season record Tim Duncan has ever had in a Spurs uniform, and tie the best record in the history of the franchise. If we somehow finish the season 0-9, we’ll tie for the 9th best record in franchise history. Are there concerning signs? Yeah. But we’re a good team. A really good team. We should appreciate that.

  Someone with computer skills, please insert the animated gif of the crazy looking dude clapping in a movie theatre as a reply to my comment.

I love this team win’ or lose. Great write-up, finally saw Hill step up like i knew he could. Have a good one!

Fortunately for us the Spurs as constructed are a team that can take something positive from a loss. Even if that comes with a giant dose of Popovich fury. Some teams and players just shrug off losses. “We’re still the best”, they say. “Next time we’ll try”. That works well for some teams.

Teams like the Spurs though begrudge every loss, try to learn from mistakes, and use negativity for motivation instead of getting Zen.

This is a reality check. “You’re not that good”, Pop will say. And the team will get better.

It’s really strange to me that the same group of people that always seemed to look at the big picture and not care about regular season success is now panicking because a shorthanded team has lost close games against very good teams.

Should Splitter play more? Maybe, but what he brings to the table (defense and rebounding from the C position) is what Duncan is going to bring when he returns. Pop plays Bonner because he has a unique skill that would probably be more important for the team’s success in the post-season than 10 minutes of Tiago.

The weird thing is I believe everyone knows this but the hectic pace of the regular season is clouding people’s judgment. Three straight loses in a week would do that to you, but come on, we should know better. I’m not saying no one should criticize
the team but let’s keep some perspective.

I have “the audacity of hope”:) Good recap…GSG!!!!!

Wow… without TV and internet for a few days and missed out on everything. I’ll take the blame for these losses. Moving across town had to destroy the mojo.

Good write up. I agree with your overall point. I wrote a post at the beginning of the season about how everyone needs to look at themselves and figure out what the expectations are for the season so things don’t get crazy around here last in the past. And I’m probably sure that this regular season has far exceeded anyone’s expectations, so it’s tough to find fault with this team right now. The guys are trying hard and we’re just riding a rough stretch.

However, I do feel a little concerned as we head to the postseason. And these aren’t complaints with the team like Splitter needs to play more or the ref’s are screwing us over. I’m just a little worried that our rough stretch is right before we hit the playoffs. A lot of the other teams in the league are hitting their stride and it makes it rough to see how well they are playing while the Spurs are hitting their worst stretch of the season, as well as their toughest schedule of the season. And I’m also a little concerned about home court for the postseason. I know it doesn’t mean anything and the Spurs can win on the road, but I think this year, it does means something and it means more than ever before. I don’t think anyone wants to see Dallas or LA in the the 2nd round and then the other in the WCF. So I really feel the Spurs need to hold onto that 1 seed and I’m getting a little uneasy as our losses continue and LA keeps on winning.

I love our team and I love the Spurs and I will continue to support them no matter what. But I’m starting to get that same uneasy feeling in my stomach that I got when I was in college after my buddies convinced me it was an ok idea to eat Taco Bell at 11:30 at night. Hopefully this will turn out a little better than that situation usually did…..

Very well expressed nonrecap recap, sab_d.

Lest we forget, the Spurs franchise record of 63 – 19 in ‘05-’06 didn’t result in a championship. As a matter of fact, the Mavs eliminated the Spurs in game 7 of the WCSF. As a matter of trivia, the Spurs also lost four of the last thirteen games that season, just not all in a row.

While the probability of matching or exceeding that record number of wins has faded with Tim’s and Manu’s injuries, it is not a mathematical impossibility. But is it even desirable at this point. It certainly didn’t guarantee a championship in 2006. As Pop has been saying for most of the season, a regular season record isn’t the goal. Learning from mistakes, improving and moving forward is the goal.

As the old saying goes: “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” I expect the players to be pounding the rock even harder these last nine games in anticipation of the final blow that splits it in two and yields the championship.

forty-first, just speaking of numbers.

I love the Spurs. They’ve brought so much joy this year to me, and perhaps a little bit of the entitlement attitude too.

I have been guilty of skyisfallingitus. We just have been so accustomed to winning, that we start to expect it, and while that is good. I think the need to remember that any team can beat any team is important.

The best team will win in a 7 game series. The Spurs are fighting, there is no absence of effort and we have chances to win.

I know we will be fine. We just have to stay positive. and all non believers and bandwagoners……This is your stop!

It’s funny how if you’d have told me in October that we would (likely) finish with 60 wins and see exceptional performances out of our bench all year, I’d have been ecstatic. I wouldn’t have care about seeding or position, or various highs/lows of the season at all. I would have simply been overjoyed at my expectations being blown away.

But give a team the #1 position all year and ask what I think with 2 weeks left? Wow, that’s a completely different dude. Is it “fickle,” or do I simply need to just remind myself of who we are and what everything really means? It’s just funny how something once so meaningless becomes critical when success blinds your perspective.

What I love about PTR is that you can express yourself your fears about the team. I mean we all are not going to agree on everything but at the same time you get too see things from someone elses point of view. Yea the Spurs have the best fans but that dosen’t mean we don’t have Faker fans (meaning bad fans). For my part its not so much panic as it is concern. I just want them to fix it cause i think allot of the problems they are having is fixable. I mean if you weren’t passionate about the team why be here?

No Parker (left patella contusion) or Dice (lower back contusion) tonight.
Batum and Roy both to play.
Anderson to start.
A win tonight would be… incredible.