I really thought the Spurs would win this one, and I continued to back the Spurs against the spread. After laying off the Spurs completely until the game against the Hornets and backing them since, both of our win streaks come to a close. Also, that double-digit win-streak I predicted comes to a halt without even getting halfway there. The Spurs' upcoming schedule is soft so I'm not really worried, that was a pumped up Bulls team that is still my pick to make it out of the East, but SA needs to pick up the game at home against the Lakers on Friday night and make the most of this stretch of easier games.
--------------------------------------------------------------
There wasn't much from Tim Duncan to celebrate in this game, but this feed is amazine. Duncan works against Taj Gibson, makes his way into the paint and attracts enough of Pau Gasol's attention that Tiago Splitter is able to work to the left side along the baseline. Tim then makes a fine pass through the one foot opening between Gibson and Gasol to Sparkles, who gets a righty hook to bank home for two. The rest of Tim's passing wasn't so pretty.
Here's a broken, rushed play that Timmy cleans up. Tiago is attempting to go to work in the paint, loses control of the ball, but then he makes a nice effort play to hit the deck and poke the loose one out to Tony Parker before Derrick Rose can get to it. Tony takes a dribble and fakes a three before firing the rock to Timmy, who doesn't really seem to expect the pass, and Big Fun beats the shot clock with a turnaround 15-footer over Gibson.
Here's not so good Timmy. The veteran dribbles into the paint and tries some razzle-dazzle that doesn't go so well. Tim tries the ill-advised behind-the-back, wraparound to Whi but has it picked off. That's so uncharacteristic of Tim that I really don't know to make of it. Bad idea, bad execution...just bad. Hopefully we don't see anymore of that nonsense ever again.
Here we see a nice "cut" from Kawhi lead to a great pass from Tiago fro an easy slam. Why Rose decided to double Patty remains unclear, perhaps some miscommunication about a switch had something to do with it. I just wanted to share that great pass from Splits.
Let's give the newest Spur a little love. Here's JaMychal Green with a nice drive down the baseline. He beats Tony Snell on the drive and Nazr Mohammed isn't able to stop the nice reverse from Green for the score. He had a nice block in the game as well. Welcome to the big time, JG.
We'll end this edition of GIF Breakdown with one from Cory Joesph. CoJo uses the exchange with Bonner to slice through the lane on his way to a great finish to keep Pau away from his shot. Joseph continues his excellent season.
See you Pounders after the short turnaround with the Lakers in SA on Friday night.