Okay, well, 2-23 now the last two years without Cuz. But this one offered some hope that might finally start to turn in the future. Someday. Maybe.
Both young backcourt guys showed well, Ray mostly after half, JT and Reggie battled inside, and the Spurs STILL look like they have a fork in their back, but just did the old man strong close thing to pull away from our undertalented and shaky crew in the final 6min. But up until that point it had felt like there was a legitimate chance for us to win this one. The Spurs weren't toying with us, they were struggling again, and our guys, at least our starters, were playing with aggression and spirit.
Anyway, one way or the other, yet another loss. But not an ugly one, and one that was a solid watch until the last few minutes of the game. Good enough at this point I guess. Check back in with the oldsters next week in San Antonio presumably with Cuz.
Boxscore
Stats: 36min 16pts (6-15, 0-0, 4-4) 6reb 4ast 1stl 0blk 8TO
Gay ( C- ) -- ok, so what we had here was Gay getting off to a strong start, and along with JT and Ben pushing us out to the semi-surprising early game lead (only semi-surprising if anybody has caught the drag old Spurs show these last few weeks). But after he went to the bench and was left there for a surprisingly long time, he never got it back. He set a few guys up, but his own offense was quiet as the Spurs slowly creaked back into it. And down the stretch when he tried to reassert himself against a Spurs defense clamping own on precisely the idea of Rudy reasserting himself, it became a real mess of TO after TO that could really have pulled this grade down even lower if it were not for the extenuating circumstances of him having to try to do this all alone against multiple defenders.
Stats: 18min 8pts (4-8, 0-0, 0-0) 5reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Landry ( C ) -- starting him in place of Cuz made sense I thought. Try to get a little extra offense back to replace Boogie's scoring, and the Spurs don't have anybody other than Duncan, who JT took, that scares you along their frontline. Unfortunately in the first half it didn't work like that at all and Carl did absolutely nothing with his early minutes, notching all of 2pts 1reb by half. In the third we finally got more of what I was expecting to see early, as he gave us some scoring and a few opportunistic rebounds. But his night was ended by the Spurs going to their chubbyball lineup with Diaw at PF down the stretch. Only so much grade you get for basically playing 1 good quarter, but it should be toed we won his tow stints out there.
Stats: 33min 12pts (6-10, 0-0, 0-0) 11reb 2stl 0stl 1blk 1TO
Thompson ( B+ ) -- another strong solid game from JT, this time facing down that "All Star" Tim Duncan (seriously, the coaches are as full of crap as fans in their voting), and largely outplaying him. In the early going was even one of a trio of guys (Rudy, Ben) carrying the scoring load as we jumped out ti our good start. But repeatedly used his length to bother Duncan inside, and abruptly since Karl has arrived has ditched the physical weeniness, and is flat sticking his boy on guys on the glass. The old guy got very few against him tonight. The offense however did not last, and after half Duncan began scoring a little bit, albeit not efficiently. Still another nice showing by JT however as he's threatening to be an actual productive player once more.
Stats: 35min 21pts (5-8, 1-2, 10-12) 4reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
McLemore ( A- ) -- really had a rare game where he felt like a legitimate weapon out there for us. Not a kid being spoonfed. Or an outlet guy taking open shots. But on a night when 2 of our normal 3 weapons were out, for at least a half, and maybe more, Ben looked and moved like an aggressive NBA SG who believed he was a weapon. In trying to sort out some of the difference in why this game felt more formidable, I think maybe you don't have to look much further than the 3pt vs. FT stats in this one. Typically Ben is a shooter, he waits outside, takes a large percentage of his shots form beyond the arc, sprinkles in one or two alley oops on the break, and calls it a night. But tonight in the first half in particular he was attacking, not shooting. Getting right into the defense and directly challenging them. And while he might have gotten the benefit of the doubt on one or two calls, he put Danny Green to the bench in a hurry (I would not be surprised if the 12FT he shot were a career high) and never let him be any factor at all. And of course had a major athletic advantage vs. Bellinelli. he was quite good int eh first half even after the Rudy well dried up. Unfortunately the Spurs clamped down after half, Ben began to look more like normal Ben, and Ray...well Ray played much better after half, but he played much better as a mini-SG, he wasn't running plays looking to set guys up. And so by the Spurs ingenuity, our own, and Ben's own natural passivity perhaps reasseritng itself, the aggressive I'm-a-weapon Ben wasn't seen much of late in the game except for a single half luck/half special off balance pop against the clock. Nonetheless, Ben showed something for a good long while here, and led us in scoring on the night.
Stats: 36min 20pts (10-17, 0-1, 0-0) 0reb 3ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
McCallum ( B ) -- this was a tale of two halves for Ray, and one with some mixed feelings. In the first half, the one where we were right there with the Spurs, Ray was mostly an afterthought on offense, but was holding Parker down...or given Parker's play this season, at least was not letting Parker get easy ones to snap out of his getting-old-and-lost-my-quickness slump. You didn't really pay attention to Ray out there, but we were in position to win. Sometime around the middle of the 3rd quarter though, with our other offensive weapons on the night winking out one by one, Ray began to step forward...but it was a scorer. I was watching he and Miler run the exact same play, Miller ran it, and looked crosscourt to the corner trying to hit Ben or Casspi. Ray ran it, and looked to the hoop for his own shot. But his own shot started falling, and at a time when we weren't getting much other scoring, Ray became our best offensive weapon. Just a question of...17 shots vs. 3 assist? That's IT. And we as a team only notched 15 assists on the night again. To cap the misgivings, late in this game Parker finally woke up for just long enough to knock us out of the game, and we had no answers for him. So Ray showed something here...but we were more effective as a team when he wasn't showing anything. What's the chicken or egg there would be the question.
Bench
Stats:24min 6pts (3-9, 0-0, 0-0) 4reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Casspi ( C- ) -- well...there was probably effort here. But after the back to back excellent adventures of the first tow Karl games, Omri has now given us back to back 6pt 4reb type games, and this one in particular featured a lot of near random oh what the hell why not forced drives to the hoop into the teeth of the defense. It did not help, and helped throw us out of rhythm as even while the rest of the team had semi-composure, Omri's game felt jittery and panicked
Stats: 21min 3pts (0-3, 0-0, 3-4) 11reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 3TO
Evans ( B- ) -- was both part of bench scoring problems, and the only member of the bench other than Dre to be effective at anything as he notched 11rebs in only 21min (the entire Spurs bench together only got 12reb in 108min combined). Not able to convert any of his shots however, and had ballhandling misadventures a Reggie Evans just should not have out there. Got the details wrong, but as usual brings something to the table to such a degree that he can singlehandedly win you the rebounding battle on many nights.
Stats: 8min 0pts (0-2, 0-0, 0-0) 1reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Williams ( INC ) -- we tried him in the first half, he tried to be spectacular, he failed, we didn't try him any longer.
Stats: 17min 10pts (4-7, 0-1, 2-3) 5reb 3ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Miller ( A- ) -- while several members of the bench were starting, you know your bench has problems when you trade for a 39yr old PG getting limited minutes and widely thought to be on the verge of retirement, and a few games later he's carrying the bench scoring. And that was the difference tonight. Coach Karl has settled into a consistent bench rotation quickly, and tonight the bench was basically Miller scoring, and Reggie rebounding. Every once in a while Omri would attempt a wild drive. So it was less Miller as floor general, and more Miller saying hey, look, these guys are as old as me and blowing by them. We even got to see maybe the oldest 1 on 1 clash in NBA history since Kareem and Parrish were winding things down when in the first half 39yr old Dre squared up 37yr old Manu and blew by him with all the speed of 5yr old denture gum on the way to the rack. Unfortunately down the stretch that fun stuff dried up, and suddenly we just didn't have enough real weapons to continue scoring with the Spurs.
Stats: 12min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 0reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Hollins ( INC ) -- played 12 minutes...and George may be figuring out why he doesn't play those minutes very often. Big highlight, in fact only highlight or production of any kind, was a big block on a falling/flopping Manu which triggered a break and score for us the other way at a time when it still looked like we might win this. Then managed to play another 11 minutes without managing to notch a statistic of any kind other than a TO.
Both young backcourt guys showed well, Ray mostly after half, JT and Reggie battled inside, and the Spurs STILL look like they have a fork in their back, but just did the old man strong close thing to pull away from our undertalented and shaky crew in the final 6min. But up until that point it had felt like there was a legitimate chance for us to win this one. The Spurs weren't toying with us, they were struggling again, and our guys, at least our starters, were playing with aggression and spirit.
Anyway, one way or the other, yet another loss. But not an ugly one, and one that was a solid watch until the last few minutes of the game. Good enough at this point I guess. Check back in with the oldsters next week in San Antonio presumably with Cuz.
Boxscore
Stats: 36min 16pts (6-15, 0-0, 4-4) 6reb 4ast 1stl 0blk 8TO
Gay ( C- ) -- ok, so what we had here was Gay getting off to a strong start, and along with JT and Ben pushing us out to the semi-surprising early game lead (only semi-surprising if anybody has caught the drag old Spurs show these last few weeks). But after he went to the bench and was left there for a surprisingly long time, he never got it back. He set a few guys up, but his own offense was quiet as the Spurs slowly creaked back into it. And down the stretch when he tried to reassert himself against a Spurs defense clamping own on precisely the idea of Rudy reasserting himself, it became a real mess of TO after TO that could really have pulled this grade down even lower if it were not for the extenuating circumstances of him having to try to do this all alone against multiple defenders.
Stats: 18min 8pts (4-8, 0-0, 0-0) 5reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
Landry ( C ) -- starting him in place of Cuz made sense I thought. Try to get a little extra offense back to replace Boogie's scoring, and the Spurs don't have anybody other than Duncan, who JT took, that scares you along their frontline. Unfortunately in the first half it didn't work like that at all and Carl did absolutely nothing with his early minutes, notching all of 2pts 1reb by half. In the third we finally got more of what I was expecting to see early, as he gave us some scoring and a few opportunistic rebounds. But his night was ended by the Spurs going to their chubbyball lineup with Diaw at PF down the stretch. Only so much grade you get for basically playing 1 good quarter, but it should be toed we won his tow stints out there.
Stats: 33min 12pts (6-10, 0-0, 0-0) 11reb 2stl 0stl 1blk 1TO
Thompson ( B+ ) -- another strong solid game from JT, this time facing down that "All Star" Tim Duncan (seriously, the coaches are as full of crap as fans in their voting), and largely outplaying him. In the early going was even one of a trio of guys (Rudy, Ben) carrying the scoring load as we jumped out ti our good start. But repeatedly used his length to bother Duncan inside, and abruptly since Karl has arrived has ditched the physical weeniness, and is flat sticking his boy on guys on the glass. The old guy got very few against him tonight. The offense however did not last, and after half Duncan began scoring a little bit, albeit not efficiently. Still another nice showing by JT however as he's threatening to be an actual productive player once more.
Stats: 35min 21pts (5-8, 1-2, 10-12) 4reb 2ast 0stl 0blk 0TO
McLemore ( A- ) -- really had a rare game where he felt like a legitimate weapon out there for us. Not a kid being spoonfed. Or an outlet guy taking open shots. But on a night when 2 of our normal 3 weapons were out, for at least a half, and maybe more, Ben looked and moved like an aggressive NBA SG who believed he was a weapon. In trying to sort out some of the difference in why this game felt more formidable, I think maybe you don't have to look much further than the 3pt vs. FT stats in this one. Typically Ben is a shooter, he waits outside, takes a large percentage of his shots form beyond the arc, sprinkles in one or two alley oops on the break, and calls it a night. But tonight in the first half in particular he was attacking, not shooting. Getting right into the defense and directly challenging them. And while he might have gotten the benefit of the doubt on one or two calls, he put Danny Green to the bench in a hurry (I would not be surprised if the 12FT he shot were a career high) and never let him be any factor at all. And of course had a major athletic advantage vs. Bellinelli. he was quite good int eh first half even after the Rudy well dried up. Unfortunately the Spurs clamped down after half, Ben began to look more like normal Ben, and Ray...well Ray played much better after half, but he played much better as a mini-SG, he wasn't running plays looking to set guys up. And so by the Spurs ingenuity, our own, and Ben's own natural passivity perhaps reasseritng itself, the aggressive I'm-a-weapon Ben wasn't seen much of late in the game except for a single half luck/half special off balance pop against the clock. Nonetheless, Ben showed something for a good long while here, and led us in scoring on the night.
Stats: 36min 20pts (10-17, 0-1, 0-0) 0reb 3ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
McCallum ( B ) -- this was a tale of two halves for Ray, and one with some mixed feelings. In the first half, the one where we were right there with the Spurs, Ray was mostly an afterthought on offense, but was holding Parker down...or given Parker's play this season, at least was not letting Parker get easy ones to snap out of his getting-old-and-lost-my-quickness slump. You didn't really pay attention to Ray out there, but we were in position to win. Sometime around the middle of the 3rd quarter though, with our other offensive weapons on the night winking out one by one, Ray began to step forward...but it was a scorer. I was watching he and Miler run the exact same play, Miller ran it, and looked crosscourt to the corner trying to hit Ben or Casspi. Ray ran it, and looked to the hoop for his own shot. But his own shot started falling, and at a time when we weren't getting much other scoring, Ray became our best offensive weapon. Just a question of...17 shots vs. 3 assist? That's IT. And we as a team only notched 15 assists on the night again. To cap the misgivings, late in this game Parker finally woke up for just long enough to knock us out of the game, and we had no answers for him. So Ray showed something here...but we were more effective as a team when he wasn't showing anything. What's the chicken or egg there would be the question.
Bench
Stats:24min 6pts (3-9, 0-0, 0-0) 4reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 0TO
Casspi ( C- ) -- well...there was probably effort here. But after the back to back excellent adventures of the first tow Karl games, Omri has now given us back to back 6pt 4reb type games, and this one in particular featured a lot of near random oh what the hell why not forced drives to the hoop into the teeth of the defense. It did not help, and helped throw us out of rhythm as even while the rest of the team had semi-composure, Omri's game felt jittery and panicked
Stats: 21min 3pts (0-3, 0-0, 3-4) 11reb 1ast 0stl 0blk 3TO
Evans ( B- ) -- was both part of bench scoring problems, and the only member of the bench other than Dre to be effective at anything as he notched 11rebs in only 21min (the entire Spurs bench together only got 12reb in 108min combined). Not able to convert any of his shots however, and had ballhandling misadventures a Reggie Evans just should not have out there. Got the details wrong, but as usual brings something to the table to such a degree that he can singlehandedly win you the rebounding battle on many nights.
Stats: 8min 0pts (0-2, 0-0, 0-0) 1reb 0ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Williams ( INC ) -- we tried him in the first half, he tried to be spectacular, he failed, we didn't try him any longer.
Stats: 17min 10pts (4-7, 0-1, 2-3) 5reb 3ast 0stl 0blk 2TO
Miller ( A- ) -- while several members of the bench were starting, you know your bench has problems when you trade for a 39yr old PG getting limited minutes and widely thought to be on the verge of retirement, and a few games later he's carrying the bench scoring. And that was the difference tonight. Coach Karl has settled into a consistent bench rotation quickly, and tonight the bench was basically Miller scoring, and Reggie rebounding. Every once in a while Omri would attempt a wild drive. So it was less Miller as floor general, and more Miller saying hey, look, these guys are as old as me and blowing by them. We even got to see maybe the oldest 1 on 1 clash in NBA history since Kareem and Parrish were winding things down when in the first half 39yr old Dre squared up 37yr old Manu and blew by him with all the speed of 5yr old denture gum on the way to the rack. Unfortunately down the stretch that fun stuff dried up, and suddenly we just didn't have enough real weapons to continue scoring with the Spurs.
Stats: 12min 0pts (0-0, 0-0, 0-0) 0reb 0ast 0stl 1blk 1TO
Hollins ( INC ) -- played 12 minutes...and George may be figuring out why he doesn't play those minutes very often. Big highlight, in fact only highlight or production of any kind, was a big block on a falling/flopping Manu which triggered a break and score for us the other way at a time when it still looked like we might win this. Then managed to play another 11 minutes without managing to notch a statistic of any kind other than a TO.
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