My thoughts regarding last night's game:
-It's foolish to get overly excited about a game this early in the season. But the Spurs beat a playoff team by 26 points and no one Spur played more than 29 minutes. A near perfect outcome if you ask me.
-Nesterovic got his first dunk of the season on a nice pass from Parker on a pick and roll. He played good defense on Ilgauskus, helping to limit him to 9 points on 4-11 shooting. Zydrunas did have 5 offensive boards, but that's going to happen when the Spurs defense forces CLE into 54 missed shots.
-The Sickness still doesn't look right, and he was noticeably limping during the second quarter. I have a feeling most general NBA observers will consider his regular season a disappointment. SA needed him to score during the playoffs; this year they have more offense than they know what to do with. Manu is not the type of player to force the game on the offensive end, and I wouldn't be surprised if he only plays 25 minutes a game. Look for Parker to take his place in the All Star Game.
-Speaking of Parker, he was about two steps quicker than everybody else last nice. At one point he blew past Larry Hughes with such ease that I actually laughed out loud. The Wee Frenchman also doled out 8 assists and was the biggest factor behind the Spurs shooting 55% from the field.
-Bill Walton has an unhealthy affection towards "Fabulous Fabricio," who Pop has called "The ugliest good player I have ever seen." Oberto is noticeably fast for a guy his size, but other than that I haven't been too impressed. He doesn't look for his shot at all; I realize the Spurs have a lot of scorers, but if you're 15' from the basket and unguarded you should at least look at the basket. Fabricio's highlight of the night was definitely getting called for 3-second violations on two consecutive possessions. It's only two games into his career and I'm sure he'll improve.
-Timmeh's afro was downright vivacious last night and did a good job of augmenting Duncan's head fakes. It also performed a rousing rendition of the national anthem before the game. On the kazoo, no less. Not a dry eye in the place.