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You may have heard that the Spurs went the entire 2012-2013 regular season and only tallied a single alley-oop, per NBA.com. Well, tonight they doubled their output from last season.
In the first one we see Manu Ginobili and Jeff Ayres run a high pick and roll. E'Twaun Moore honors Manu's shooting ability and goes over the screen which forces Nikola Vucevic to pick up the driving Manu. With Matt Bonner, Patty Mills, and Marco Belinelli threatening from the 3-point line, Orlando's defense is forced to quickly Choose it's own Adventure method of execution and decides to deny the open three, leaving the rolling Ayres a clear path to grab the Ginobili lob and throw it down.
In the second one we find the Spurs in transition. The 37-year-old Tim Duncan beats everyone down the floor, again, and the big man is rewarded with Marco Belinelli's superb lob. During the postgame coverage, Ginobili remarked that completing an alley-oop to Tim has a low rate of success, because with Tim, you only have a millisecond to time it while he is in the air. This sequence seems to back that up. Manu went on to say that he wants to get Matt Bonner an alley-oop. If the Red Mamba ever throws one down, the resulting GIF may break the internet.
In this next GIF we see Tim get fouled as he makes a strong move to the basket. Not only does he get an incredible bounce for the and-1, but there appears to be an invisible force pulling players on the right baseline toward the ceiling. The GOAT PUFF seems to get up off the ground as quickly as any time in his career, but notice Aaron Afflalo's shoulders. They appear to be yanked upward as if he were a marionette just as Tim is getting to his feet.
This is just classic. The Spurs run 4-Down and Tim gives us one more banker to add to the 1.2 million we've already had the pleasure of watching. I don't care how many times I've seen it, this always makes me smile. I'm going to miss it when it's gone, and to the best of my knowledge there isn't a big that likes to get the ball that far out in the post, and it will probably a long while, if ever, before there's a big that wants it that far out, and is looking to put it off the glass. This is pure Duncan. Soak it in.
Lastly, we'll feature a recent addition to the team. Marco Belinelli has found a home in the worldly Spurs locker room. Italian Ice has found his place on the team, and is enjoying his best season thus far. He is shooting 50% from the field, 55% from distance, his rebounding is at an all-time career high, his assists are at a career high per 36 minutes, and his win shares per 48 minutes are 270% higher than his career average. In a case of one hand washing the other, Beli is knocking down most of the open looks the system is providing him with. In recognition of his outstanding night, here are all of his makes against the Magic - where he went 6-for-8 from the field and 4-for-4 from long range.
