Game 12: Orlando 110 @ San Antonio 128
The Magic shot 56% for the game. Dwight Howard had 34 points and missed five field goals all night. Hedo Turkoglu, undoubtedly inspired by his country's football team's dramatic comeback against Norway, repeatedly beat Bruce Bowen the entire first half and finished with 26 points. Keith Bogans hit 4 out of 6 from behind the arc and the team hit 10 of 20.
And they still lost by 18.
I'm starting to develop some rather strong man love for Tony Parker. It will never reach the inappropriate levels of my love for The Sickness, but Wee Oui is making opponents look silly with nonchalance. It's gotten to the point where defenders are intentionally going with the ole defense.
It was much the same against Orlando, with Tony penetrating at will and dropping 9 dimes to go with 0 turnovers. His utter dominance of the past two games has me wondering if Bill Simmons ever watches the Spurs. I'm thinking no, considering he wrote the following:
If Chris Paul goes wherever he wants, why are 84% of his attempts jump shots (70% last year) compared to 63% for Tony Parker (59% last year). I'm thinking Chris would want to get closer to the basket.
I know it's silly of me to try to deflate the general perception of Chris Paul. He's third in the NBA in PER and firmly holds the point-guard-renaissance torch. But Bill Simmons needs to be taken to task for thinking he's the author of the NBA Gospel while writing bullshit such as "[Ben] Gordon is the best sixth man in the league..." Look, I know you love the NBA Bill, and you just had your second kid, but you can't be serious with this shit. I'm pretty sure you watched the playoffs, so I'm thinking you know Manu's coming off the bench now. And if you think Ben Gordon is a better player than Ginobili then you're quite simply a moron.
So I got off on a little tangent there. Back to the game. It was fun. I enjoyed watching the Spurs out score another team. I enjoyed watching Manu play the entire third quarter. I enjoyed watching Brent Barry add fuel to the I-just-might-be-better-than-Michael-Finley fire. I enjoyed Duncan grabbing rebounds and displaying a free throw trajectory that could actually produce 70%+ success from the line. I enjoyed watching Manu have one of those games where it seems like he's not playing that well but he still ends up 27/4/5.
The Spurs are fun. Whoda thunk it?
Happy Thanksgiving everybody.
Yes, that's Ray Allen's head on a turkey. Just because.