Tony Parker, Spurs beat Mavs for 7th Straight Victory

Your Game Thread comments are in bold, my writing is in the parentheses.

This is a poor attempt to say something smart enough to make Fred's recap. by 707kid
(Interestingly, your poor attempt missed, but your admission made it. I like to keep people guessing. I do wonder how many of you will start making comments for the sole purpose of making the recap. I'm all for it, by the way. Let's raise the snarkyness of the Game Thread. #CountOnFARS)

Pop is probably drinking a glass of wine right now. by KD1
(He's definitely playing hooky. It's the perfect time for a mid-season vacation for him and Tim. They noted their five game win streak and realized they had the Pelicans, Mavs, Suns, Bobcats, Wizards, Timberwolves and Pistons all coming up. Look at the schedule. This is as easy as it gets. This is not a coincidence. They're on their second game of chess, fourth bottle of Merlot, as I type this.)

Hello Pounders! I see that the refs are trying to screw us early. Parker should have gotten a foul call. by Marky G
(I always try to realize that I am biased and only see the questionable calls that the Spurs do not get, while ignoring the questionable calls that they do receive. I try really hard to convince myself of this. It hasn't worked. Objectively, I'm pretty sure that the officials always have it out for the Spurs and if you added all the questionable calls up, 70% would work against the Silver and Black. Try to understand, though, I'm also pretty sure I'm biased.)

4 pt play , Neal With It! by kenshinsama
(I enjoy the "Neal with It!" phrase. I especially like that it's in Urban Dictionary and this is the example given on how to use it: Lakers Fan: "Damn, that guy Gary Neal is making every 3-pointer. We're down by 20!" Spurs Fan: "Neal with it!" Interestingly, the phrase was defined on February 16th of 2011 and is clearly dated. For 2013, the Lakers should be down by at least 35. Someone needs to update this.)

Somewhere out there, Ghost is high-fiving himself! by swgeek
(I was thinking, the Ghost is single-handedly responsible for making the hate on Blair go too far. I ask you, was this part of his plan all along? He spent the entire season bludgeoning us with his data on why Blair is useful and successfully turned even the most enthusiastic Blair supporter into a full-fledged Blair hater. He's an evil genius. It was all a set up. We have been conned. Finally, Blair gets in a game and does Blair things like rebound and make layups and guess who looks like a genius? It's the Ghost for making us all turn on Blair to such an extent that when he makes layups, Ghost seems prophetic. He did this so he could be the only Blair supporter left when DeJuan finally turned in a good game. Well done, sir.)

I hate techs for hanging on the rim, period. I miss that part of the game. by play_splitter
(The officials rescinded the technical, but I've seen this call made many times this year. Stern is attempting to wipe out all things fun before he retires. By the way, you have to swing on the rim. If you don't, it totally sucks. Back in the day, I could dunk. One time, I went up with two hands for a dunk, had momentum swing my legs out from under me, lost my grip on the rim and fell ten feet landing right on my back. The wind was knocked out of me; I was pretty sure I was dying. That is why you swing on the rim. It's a safety thing. Stupid Stern trying to make players almost die. What a jerk.)

I think Neal is on fire. by spursfan87
(You are correct. Gary played a great game finishing with 18 points on 7 of 13 shooting, 2 of 3 from distance, and had 6 assists. I love Gary's shot. It's so pure. He has flaws and sometimes I get down on him for attempting to dribble, but whenever he shoots, I'm glad he's on our team.)

Wow. Blairball at the FT line! by TD21
(It's a Blairball! I like it. Please add this to the Lexicon, Dale. As far as the Blairball goes, how is that possible? I can understand missing a freethrow. It happens. But to miss the entire rim is fairly absurd. I know I'm stating the obvious, but Blair is getting paid one-million dollars to put the ball in the hoop. Fourth graders that shoot an air-ball feel ridiculous. I don't get it.)

This guy is terrible. Hasn't he learned anything from Pop? You're supposed to give three word answers to these questions. by KD1
(The great thing about Mike Budenholzer is that he has that good lenses, bad frames thing going on. I'm sure he knows what he's doing. He seems knowledgeable and if Pop trusts him as his number one guy, then he must have a great basketball mind. The thing is, his physical appearance does not inspire confidence. If he had the Harbaugh jaw line going on, he'd be coaching the Lakers right now. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for us, he has an affable, ‘lucky to be here' kind of look that should keep him on the Spurs' bench for a long time.)

Manu showing Tiago how to grab a rebound. With authority! by swgeek
(Since returning, Manu doesn't seem to have lost a step. In fact, he has looked spry. This is fantastic news. Apparently the injury wasn't much more than a great excuse to give him a little mid-season siesta.)

Jax laying a big turd of a game so far... by chapnis
(I don't mind it. Regardless of how he's playing, you can count on him to give the officials an ear-full and to bring the lumber. Jack likes contact and is constantly making his presence felt out on the court. The Spurs need his physicality; points are a bonus.)

#LetBonnerShoot by spursfan87
(There are many ways to gamble during All Star Weekend. Did you know that Sports Books will give an over/under on the amount of points each 3-Point contestant will score in the first round? Is there a player that will be in this 3-Point competition that has choked on the big stage more often than the Red Rocket? Look, nice guy, fun personality, likes sandwiches, makes ridiculous videos [watch these three videos if you haven't already], I understand. But we can agree he has a tendency to choke, right? I'm just saying, I'd love the opportunity to bet the under.)

"In the blink of an eye, the lead went from 8 to 14" by Trey Felder
Everyone, blink some more! by sambunnell
(It worked! Your collective blinking grew the lead into the 20s. What does Budlight say? It's only weird if it doesn't work? [I'd argue that some homeless ginger breaking into your apartment to watch a game is weird regardless of the outcome of the game, but that's just me.])

It's raining 3'ssssssssssssssssssssss! by Ike Mana
It felt that way in the third quarter. Danny "Big" Green and Kawhi Leonard both hit a pair of 3s in the period that helped the Spurs outscore the Mavs 35-25 and take a commanding 20 point lead into the fourth.)

I'm enjoying watching Cuban flinch every time they miss. by alamoaggie
(Me too, and as the game progressed, the camera caught him doing more than flinch. Just to wake you up from the best dream ever so that you can realize what is happening, the Spurs just blew the Mavs out in Dallas without Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich. The Mavericks are 18-25 and the Lakers are 17-25, while your Spurs are in cruise-control sitting on 35-11. Okay, continue the dream.)

Screw ESPN, I'm stickin' with good ol' Bill and Sean! by alamoaggie
(The problem with ESPN, or any national broadcast team, is that objective commentators are boring and biased commentators are alienating. It's a lose, lose situation, unless you get Charles Barkley. Did anyone watch Thursday night's Clippers @ Suns game? Barkley and the crew were so funny that I stayed up and watched the entire Inside the NBA postgame show for the first time in five years. My eyes were watering I was laughing so hard. A great bonus that comes with Barkley commentating is that you get Chris Webber back in the studio. Now if they could just replace Shaq with Bill Simmons, then we'd really have something special.
"Ain't no shame in my game. Just for the record, I get other things waxed, too" -- Sir Charles)

Carter celebrating after the dunk... with his team down 24. by spursfan87
(It's a straight-up McGhee move. I think it's because they are not smart and just play on instinct. Their bodies do not understand that they are losing by 24; all the body knows is that it just dunked the ball and now must celebrate.)

#CountonKobe LMAO by spursfan87
Kobe decided to tweet along during NBATV's rerun of his 81 point game. After reading his tweets, I remembered that he never went to college, and it made a little more sense. Even so, he can't say one interesting thing? Not one? So, he's just an unintelligent narcissist? He's hardly worth hating. I still will, though. Here are his 11 tweets. [Warning: It's just a waste of your time.] #CountOnFARS "1 I scored 81 this game? 2 Watching the game now, the easy shots I missed, I could of had 100 pts! 3 Down 14, I'm heating up...at this point I wouldn't pass a kidney stone 4 Finally took the lead 5 The look of frustration has become all too familiar lately 6 After the 3rd quarter, @RealLamarOdom tells me "you can't get 60", then half way through he said "you can't get 70" 7 Luke, the only white boy with a jerry curl 8 The last 2 mins of the game @laker fan reactions gave me goose bumps 9 I wonder what Phil was thinking 10 I knew I should have got a fresh hair cut for this game 11 I'm thinking "better not miss these free throws"

Come on, let's not get complacent... by sleep research facility
(Dallas was in the midst of an 11-2 run when SRF made this comment. The Mavs cut the lead to 17, but our one-eyed hero answered with two layups and an assist to the Dancing Bear for an and 1 to bring the lead back up to 22. Tony was the MVP tonight finishing with 23 points, 10 assists and 3 stitches in 30 minutes of action.)

and TP just played the entire quarter. No minutes for Manu. by spursfan87
(Manu only played 8 minutes. Obviously, [hopefully], this must have been part of the game plan from the get-go. The Spurs face the Suns tomorrow night and I'm sure the Spurs didn't want to aggravate Manu's hamstring by running him two nights in a row.)

TP is still pretty fresh though because he didn't play earlier. by chapnis
(Oh, right, Tony got hit by Elton Brand in the opening minutes of the game. It wasn't so much a pointy elbow as it was a blunt blow to Tony's face that opened up two cuts just above his left eye. As to be expected, the three officials didn't call a foul. That's nice. Tony missed most of the first half, which turned out to be a good thing for the Silver and Black. The Spurs took a lead into the half and old Mike "Good Lenses, Bad Frames" Budenholzer rode Tony to victory.

WOW. A Blair mid J! by TD21
(Yep, it happened and I'm pretty sure Ghost ran into his bathroom and fist-bumped the mirror. The Dancing Blair finished with 22 points and 4 rebounds making 10 of his 13 shots in only 19 minutes.)

Red Mamba! by play_splitter
(In an ESPN interview interlude, Matt Bonner looked into the camera and said, "There's only two ‘Mambas,' and I'm one of them." That was pretty fantastic. I'm still betting the under.)

That was a clear offensive goal-tending. by spursfan87
They counted it!? by TD21
(It was a crazy sequence. Vince Carter put his hand through the net to tip a Dallas missed shot into the basket. The official rightfully called offensive goal-tending because he interfered with the basket while the ball was in the cylinder. Jim Carrey lost it. He was given a technical and then, for some unexplained reason, the officials rescinded the offensive goal-tending call. The technical stood and we made a free throw. Weird.)

Lol Baynes! What are you doing? by TomShoe
(This was pretty much hilarious. The entire game the Game Threaders were begging for Baynes. His name was spelled correctly 63 times in the Game Thread, so I'm sure he was mentioned upwards of 1,000. I kid, I kid. Regardless, the people wanted some Baynes and Budenholzer appeased them in the last minute of the game. The Spurs were up by 9 and there were only 30 or so seconds left.

The Mavs hit a desperation three and Baynes inexplicably grabbed the ball out of the net. Diaw tried to take it from him but the Kiwi was having none of it. He brushed him aside and threw the ball a good three feet behind a cutting Gary Neal, who was probably 4 feet away from him. Think about that... Okay.

The Mavs caught the ball and hit a quick layup cutting the lead to four. The game was out of reach and the Spurs easily won, and so it was hilarious instead of tragic. It was the only way that Baynes could screw up the situation and he did it, with pizzazz. He forced Budenholzer to take him out of the game! Worst victory cigar ever! Oh man!

"LOL Baynes! What are you doing?"
-- TomShoe)

"I want to get on the Spurs season ticket waiting list and if I get them, I'm moving to San Antonio. I want to watch this kind of basketball every night." -- JVG
(I'll finish with Jeff Van Gundy. We should all take a moment to feel privileged that this is our team. They play beautiful, unselfish basketball nearly every night. They epitomize what's great about team sports: integrity, responsibility, sacrifice and holding the team above the individual. And with that, I'll see you tomorrow night. Same time, same place.)