I got a good song for you this time. It's Dredg's Savior. I know Tim likes them too and put one of their songs on a TWSS awhile back. Some of the lyrics fit tonight. Our savior tonight was RJ. Clearly he picked up some of the FSM gospel from watching Manu go crazy against the Raptors. It mentions some stuff about revenge (There's no need for forgiveness, It's already said and done, But don't let revenge consume and take hold of you, Cause it will blind you) which I'm sure a lot of us were craving tonight; not that a Spurs fan should openly admit that a regular season game is revenge for a playoff defeat.
1. Dirk had 29 points on 9 of 27 shooting. Sure he got to the line 10 times and made them all but he looked out of rhythm for 90% of the game. He seemed to be preventing anyone else from finding a real great streak too. This stat was my girlfriend's pick.
2. RJ had 10 FTA's. I don't care that he missed 5. FTA's are a measure of being aggressive and getting into the paint. Even if one player is missing them, they can speed up the opponent going into the penalty so other players can get opportunities. RJ had more than every other player on the team combined, 10 to 9 and Bonner's 2 were just a forced foul at the end by the Mavs. Usually Duncan takes contact in the paint and gets to the foul line for us. Without him, it was great to see RJ step up...
3. ...which leads me to RJ stepping up in terms of minutes. We knew going into this season that Parker, Duncan, and Manu were likely to see reduced minutes because of injuries or playing in the summer for Parker. We brought in RJ to carry some load. If we played this game last year, how many minutes do Manu and Hill play and we still probably lose. RJ played 41 minutes. Bogans shared the load and finished second with 34.
Hill had a respectable 33, and Manu was able to play an efficient 29. Sure, you can say Blair saw limited minutes because of foul trouble or being a risk on defense, but I think 20 minutes and his first career start is pretty damn good for the rookie (playing for Pop). He finished with a +6 and some decent rebounding numbers and had one of the top highlights of the night, his block on Dirk. We shouldn't have to ask Blair to play any more than 20 minutes a night and last night, we were able to limit him with a shallow rotation.
4. This is just a funny stat line to me. James Singleton played 1 minute with 1 foul and a -10 plus/minus.