My first Stat of the Game post was 17, but that was margin of victor. This time it is FGA differential in the second half. More on that with an awesome song after the jump....
So here is your very awesome song.
Doves - Kingdom Of Rust (via dovesofficial)
We got dominated in the first quarter (by 15 points), won the second and third (by a combined 5), and then would have won the 4th (by 2) without the free throw gimmes for Portland at the end (which put it by 2 the other way).
At half, we were down 43 to 31 in FGA's (-12 Spurs). We were allowing them to shoot 44.2% and were only able to shoot 38.7% ourselves. When you're shooting that cold, the only way to get back into the game is to limit their opportunities and to take as many as you can get. We finished the game 79 to 74 FGA's (+5 Spurs). We increased our own second chance opportunities with 7 second half offensive boards compared to only 2 in the first half. The main thing was on defense though. We were limiting their opportunities with shot clock violations, reducing their offensive boards from 7 in the first half to 4 in the second half, and forcing the Blazers to create their own shots. Portland only had 11 assists for the entire game on 32 shots. The assists were pretty balanced with 5 in the first half and 6 in the second for them though. If a few more of our shots, especially 3's, had gone in or the Blazers didn't have a lucky string of events to end the game ending with Blake's clutch 3, we could have had a successful comeback.
Manu and Tony both said it was important to start strong with our home heavy schedule so I'm curious if they meant "at home" with our 0-3 road start.