Is there much else to say other than whats in the title? Also, we need Tony like biscuits need molasses. The Grizzlies absolutely crushed us tonight, led by Mike Conley (!!!!), Darrell Arthur (!!?!?) and Tony Allen. Pretty good game by them, pretty not good game by us.
Sorry ya’ll. I was at a pot-luck with some friends from college and we started late, so I didn’t get back to the house until it was 24-16 and just about 3:00 minutes left in the first. I picked up from there. But first, this song sums up about how I feel about the game. I find it best played as loudly as possible, but I don't necessarily recommend that for everyone.
First Quarter:
Tiago Splitter had a couple nice buckets., then CHRIS QUINN WITH THE NICE CORNER TREY! Manu had a nice and-1 to close out the quarter. End of the first, we’re down, but I could see us pulling this one out.
Second Quarter:
At the moment, we’ve got a rebounding problem. And a defensive problem, and an offensive problem. We aren’t moving the ball well, we aren’t defending any shots well, and we aren’t keeping them off the offensive glass. We can survive one of three, and on some nights, maybe even two of three. But there is no way we can win a game when we have all three problems. Speaking of problems we have…Darrell Arthur, anyone?
Duncan is so much money in the post. Even the Memphis announcers are saying "Give him time in the post, and he will convert 80% of the time." I think they said 80. It could have been 90. Either way, they’ve got a point. With Tony out, I’d prefer our offense to revert to going back through him, because IMO he’s the most efficient means to getting points. Especially against teams like Memphis who lack the dominant post defenders to stop him. We’re down by 6.
We need Tony Parker. Mike Conley killed us. Did anyone ever think we’d say that?
Halftime.
Third Quarter:
DeJuan Blair came out playing pretty well. Good position on offense led to a layup, then he hit a midrange jumper (confidently) right in Randolph’s face. In spite of this…we just cannot cut into this lead, and Pop takes a timeout. Couple minutes later, and I can confidently say we are not winning this game. There is still plenty of time for a comeback, but I don’t think we’ve got it tonight. We’re pretty much trading buckets and that isn’t going to cut it when you’re down double digits.
We had 20 turnovers by the end of the third quarter. I HATE turnovers. We also couldn't make 3’s. Let’s face it: tonight, we just sucked.
Fourth Quarter:
I think this is the white flag from Pop but I’m not sure. Darrell Arthur is taking Tiago to school. If Pop wasn’t surrendering before, he is now: Steve Novak is in, and we’re down by 20+. At this point, if we lose by less than 20 I’ll sleep easy. Quinn sucked royally. Conley straight up took it from him a couple times then tied him up for a jump ball. I was not happy with his play at all tonight. While editing, I realized that the "his" in the previous sentence is ambiguous. I forget the rule that is called, but I'm deciding to leave it ambiguous because you can apply it to pretty much everyone who played for either team.
Analysis:
We suck and we need Tony.
Ok. Seriously now- how many of us actually expected to win tonight? First game minus Tony, attempting to work Splitter back into (or for the first time) the rotation, on the front end of a back to back…if you were expecting greatness tonight, I’m sorry. While I expected us to do better than this, I didn’t expect a win. Honestly, it was probably better that it wasn’t close because Manu and Duncan barely played at all (if they did play at all) in the fourth quarter. Our ball movement was bad, our shooting (from 3) was bad, our defense was bad. I’ll save myself some time and just do this like a fill in the blank test question, and let ya’ll fill it in. Our ____ was bad. We got destroyed by MIKE CONLEY and DARRELL ARTHUR. All I can think of right now are words I’m not allowed to post in a recap so I’ll just say "BAHhumbug" and move on. I suggest you all do the same, because tonight the Spurs showed all of their weaknesses but left their strengths in San Antonio.
Like it:
Tiago doing pretty well in his 15 minutes of action. So happy to see him back, even if Darrell Arthur did run circles around him. Not fair to evaluate Splitter on tonight’s game- it’s his first game back from a long injury and he wasn’t playing for us much beforehand. Mostly, I liked what I saw.
Love it:
Katy Perry. That’s all I got right now. Oh. We also held Zach Randolph to 21 points on 19 shots (not too shabby) and only 10 rebounds. Normally, I’d take that.
Loathe it:
Everything that had anything to do with tonight’s game, minus Splitter/ James Anderson getting some decent minutes.
Three Stars (do we do these for losses epic fails?):
Third: Gary Neal: the only Spur in double figures.
Second: Steve Novak- led the team in plus/minus. Lookout, Matt Bonner, he’s after your spot.
First: MANU GINOBILI- even though you missed all your 3’s (again), I’m giving you the nod over Duncan because you had seven assists and ONE turnover. Why can’t you do that when we win?
Next up: The soon-to-look-unstoppable-due-to-Spurs-poor-play Cleveland Cavaliers. Just kidding. If we make them look good, I'm jumping off a bridge, and none of you can stop me. Well, maybe. I personally will be going to see the OKC Thunder play, hopefully (but doubtfully) witnessing the debut of Kendrick Perkins.