No Pop, No Tim, No Problem. Spurs beat Suns for 8th Straight, 108-99

Your Game Thread comments are in bold; my writing is not.

Finally, Diaw's looking to shoot. by alamoaggie
It began several games ago. Diaw wore out his passing game and now must shoot in order to remain effective. Most teams now completely play him for the pass, so for the last few games he's been looking for his shot. It's great to see since Diaw actually has a pretty nice stroke.

Jax is a consistent 3pt shooter if you give him 2 minutes or so. by kenshinsama
Jack doesn't quite shoot Bonner's Trey-buchet, but he definitely has a few hitches in his shot that make his delivery extremely slow. I think he sometimes gets his shot off because all his hitches convince his defender that he's not actually going to shoot.

Hello my fellow #ers. No Timmeh again? Good thing we're playing the Suns. by CapHill
You'd think that, except that since they fired Alvin Gentry the Suns have been trying to win games. I know, not cool. In their previous game, they beat the Clippers by 5 in Phoenix. Well, that's actually very helpful and therefore cool. Hopefully they don't do the same to us.

Where the hell is Coach Pop? by JohnWilSal
Drinking wine. by chapnis
Wine cellar ....recuperating. by kenshinsama
Still locked in the wine cellar. by oldtimeyspurfan
Drinking some wine. by nicolaspursfan88
Sick and drinking wine. by eastbaysd
Almost everybody said he's drinking wine. by nicolaspursfan88
It'd be fantastic if it turned out that Pop was missing these games purposely just to stick it to Stern one last time, wouldn't it? What if there was some technicality that Pop was trying to qualify for so that he was ineligible to coach the Western Conference All Star team? Wouldn't that be great? Actually, I'm probably over-thinking this. He's just drinking wine.

Just what we need, more horrific officiating. by alamoaggie
I know, right? Do we not always get screwed by the refs? Am I nuts? I can't remember the last time I thought the officials called a fair game for the Spurs. I need to stop being biased so that I can give you an objective opinion.

Dudley would fit in well as a Spur but his skinny neck annoys the hell out of me so I'm glad he's not. by Manuwar
Dudley is weird looking dude, for sure. He'd be a good Spur, but I'm not sure he'd make our roster. I like Kawhi, Danny, Manu, Gary and Captain Jack more than Dudley. Dudley is an average man's Matt Bonner. He makes threes and awkward runners, is un-athletic, and most likely lacks a soul.

Love those quick three's by Neal. I think he suffers in the half court now that teams are on to him. by Manuwar
I like that Pop clearly gave Neal the green light. The more often Neal shoots, the better it is for the Spurs. I especially like it when he pulls up on the fast break for a three. As long as we have an offensive rebounder in the area, #LetNealShoot. By the way, shouldn't we be fighting for Gary to get into the 3-Point Contest? His quick release is perfect for the game.

The Suns are playing with energy. I thought they would be worse. by LatinD
As I mentioned, the Suns are actually playing very well right now. We just caught them at the worst possible moment of their insignificant season. They're trying so hard; it's maddening. BTW, what's up, LatinD? Isn't it funny how even in the interwebs, we have 'cool kids' that everyone wants to talk to? I think it's funny. LatinD, you are our cool kid.

I'm puzzled about why Patty Mills is not playing. Next to Parker, he's our best ball handling PG. by JAWS#3
I don't really think of him as a PG, unless "run down and shoot as fast as you can" encompasses everything a point should demonstrate. Love him as instant offense, but not really a pg. Nando maybe? by swgeek
Yes, NANDO. #FreeNando! Patty is definitely a better option than Gary Neal, but the only pure point guard on the team is Nando De Colo. Patty has way too much Nate Robinson in him for my liking, and Gary simply isn't a point guard. That leaves us with Nando. He's already shown what he can do. I hope Pop starts giving him more minutes soon.

Damn this Dragic. by JohnWilSal
I hate Dragic. In a crucial Game 3 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals against Phoenix in 2010, Dragic scored 23 fourth quarter points against the Spurs. It was miserable. He couldn't miss. Yuck. John, I can't believe you made me think about that. If you are really sick, watch this video like I just did. Why did I do that to myself? Man, I hate Dragic.

Jack and Manu are the only ones who look like they've even tried in this game. by alamoaggie
Manu finished with 20 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists while Captain Jack scored 10 points and grabbed 6 rebounds. Both players are fiery and we are extremely lucky to have them in the Silver and Black.

A break in the Spurs' schedule? Never heard of such a thing! by alamoaggie
I've been talking about it. So, we're at 8 wins in a row right now. Next up we have the Bobcats, Wizards, Timberwolves and Pistons. If the Spurs play well, we can assume we'll be at 12 straight soon. Next, we'll have the Nets, Bulls, Cavs and Kings. While the Nets and Bulls will be challenging, I think it's reasonable to expect the Spurs to win both of those games. So, now we are at 16 straight. At this point, the Spurs will have to beat the Clippers in LA and then the Warriors in California if they wish to hit the 20s, which is unlikely but still believable. I'm just saying, knock on wood often and be prepared for a lengthy win streak.

So, will we see Baynes in the game again or were his 5 seconds of shame were enough? by Kondor
Ha, his five seconds of shame were enough. I still can't believe that happened. "Out of the way Diaw, I'm going to turn the ball over!"

Danny is playing bad. Really bad. by JohnWilSal
His defense wasn't too bad. I like Danny "Big" Green (Go Dartmouth!). Let's give him a chance to shoot himself out of this slump.

Ok, no one woke me up and we are down 5 now.... by play_splitter
Yep, it was a rough game. The Spurs were down for most of it. Neither team was able to pull away until the last five minutes. For the first 43 minutes, the game was extremely close.

Sean Elliot is the worst homer ever. by Manuwar
How dare you. Sean is the BEST homer ever. He speaks like I write. He knows his audience and speaks to them directly during his telecast. If you do not enjoy his work, well then you must be a Mavs fan.

This is why TP should be in the MVP conversation. by Wes Thorne (Izee)
These past few games without Tim Duncan have given Tony Parker the opportunity to show off his stuff, and he hasn't disappointed. He's averaged 26 points and 10 assists since Tim has been absent. Tony is 30 and should be in his prime right now. So, if Tony played for a different team, how ridiculous would his stats be? Would he be in the MVP conversation?

Damn it! YOU DO NOT DO THAT TO MANU GINOBILI! by anirontag
I'm still mad that he did that. What was the point? So intentional. by Manuwar
Shannon Brown intentionally smacked Manu across his face and was ejected from the game. I don't know how to feel about this. I don't consider Shannon a dirty player. If this intentional foul had been committed by Chris Paul, Matt Barnes or Caron Butler, I'd be upset. I'll have to keep an eye on Shannon. I'll let you know if he his worthy of hate.

Dirty play by Brown, But nothing we haven't seen in this rivalry before. Been a while since the Bruce Bowen days. by NashtyNash
Nashty! How nice of you to stop by. First, ‘rivalry.' Ha! The rivalry ended when the Suns began sucking. Please do not consider this a rivalry. Secondly, Bruce did sneaky, dirty things. He never punched a guy in the face. He would get his feet tangled and fall with the enemy. Bruce's actions were always defensible, unlike what Shannon did to Manu.

ESPN Gamecast is broken. It says Blair just made a 17 foot jumper. LOL, yeah right. by swgeek
It may have happened, two games in a row! It looked just as ugly as ever, though. The Ghost is fist-bumping his mirror like never before!

And this is why Tony is an All-Star. by CapHill
Tony Parker taking over the game by kenshinsama
TP STEAL AND SCORE by hurts2bgood
TP with 7 straight points! by the ellimist
This game now belongs to TP9. by SAChE
Well, the game was close until Tony took it over in the fourth quarter. The Spurs took the lead and Tony extended it to double-digits. Once it hit double-digits, the Suns were done.

Just 9 TOs, I really like that number!!! by nicolaspursfan88
I had to stat check that number because it seemed unbelievable to me. He is correct, the Spurs only committed 9 turnovers against the Suns. That's great to see. If the Spurs can keep their turnovers low, I don't think anyone in the NBA can beat them. That's how huge it is.

We brought it tonight, fellas. And the Korean Komics did it again. by LatinD
SPURS WIN SPURS WIN SPURS WIN by eastbaysd
Korean Komics and Spurs WIN! SPURS WIN! That is all you need to know.