GIF Breakdown: Spurs vs. Bobcats

15th pick Kawhi Leonard abuses number two pick Michael Kidd-Gilchrist in the post on this play. Our man Whi tosses the ball to Tim Duncan and reestablishes himself with better position in the right block. Timmy returns the ball to Leonard who takes one dribble to back up MKG just a little bit more. Then a turnaround, fade-away jumper that is just otstanding. I know the league is going away from the inefficient post-up and moving towards a ton of threes (where 1-of-3 is as good as 1-of-2 inside,) but I am giddy at the thought that Kawhi can do this reliably. I mean that's a pretty unguardable shot, and I miss watching guys work in the post. More of this, please.

This play has loads of good stuff in it. It starts with Patty Mills passing the ball to the trailing Duncan, who swings it over to Manu Ginobili in the right wing. After Patty passes to Tim he kind of saunters towards the lane, faking an off-ball screen that could have freed Marco before making a cut under the basket. The Manu makes a routine great pass to Mills, who gets two off the glass. This team is so easy to root for.

In this play we see Timmy set a high screen for Patty. The Aussie drives and kicks to Boris, who spots the GOATPUFF in excellent position down low. The still elite veteran gives a quick fake to move Big Al Jefferson and then drops a hook through the hoop. Timmy Tim Tim Tim. Tim.

Tony on Patty: "He always teases me I need an Australian passport to shoot 3s. I gave him a French passport for the teardrop."

— Dan McCarney (@danmccarneysaen) March 1, 2014

This is a great dribble drive floater from Mills, and I'm pretty sure that Patty still has the passport that Tony gave him in his possession, and maybe some fois gras. The little dude brings it every night, and gets an and-one on this play. Good side-five from Gino, fundamentally sound fist pump from Timmeh, and a couple of nice claps from Beli and Bobo. Good work, team.

Marco Belinelli is such a sneaky fella. He tosses up a brick and the ball finds it's way into Tim's hands via Boris Diaw. Marco has opened, gone through, and shut the backdoor before anyone on the Robertcats can check him under the basket. Tim's one of the better passing big men in the league, but this bounce-pass is not his finest work (it is a pretty tricky pass through traffic to a moving target though), and Beli fumbles the low pass before displaying amazine court awareness. He jumps with his back to the basket as soon as he gets the handle and gets a well-contested layup off the glass to go. The more I watch this, the more amazed I am that The Spicy One got this to go. I'm with Fred, this team is definitely better than last years when healthy.

Again with the Belinelli. Here he uses a high screen from Tiago to weave his way through a couple defenders. A slight hesitation and two big steps before the Italian gets a pretty floater to go. Manu in Training indeed. I can't believe how great Marco has been for the Spurs this season. Steal, brillian, another great pickup, PATFO, etc.

Fred also mentioned Patty in his recap, and noted that Patty is a different player than he was last year. I think we can all agree with that. Here he is running a give-and-go with big, bad Boris. Mills loses Kemba Walker, who runs into Diaw set up to take a charge - I'm not too sure how often Diaw is going to draw an offensive foul call on a guy who weighs 100 pounds less than him. It's a good thing the refs let it go or the Spurs would have actually had to work to get two points.

Let's end this with one from Manu Ginobili. Manu and Timmy run a two man game that leads to Manu curling into the lane, going left, and finishing with a one-handed lefty runner. Perhaps in the next edition we can include Mr. Parker.