Posts tagged ‘Phoenix’

Let me be the first to say, nice try Phoenix.  You really did put in quite the effort.  Trading a young superstar, acquiring an aging big man.  All with the hopes of finally finishing off that arch-nemesis team from San Antonio.  The thugs that knocked you out last year.  The son-of-a-guns that seemed to have foiled you nearly every step of the way since Steve Nash became a Hall of Famer.

Well, if you’re the Suns, at least you can take solace in these few truths. 

1. You still have two more years of Shaq’s 20 million dollar contract left!
2. You did win one game, and did it really impressively.
3. You came close in Game 5.

To put some perspective on this series, the Spurs have now beat the Suns in four of the last six playoffs.  The Suns, throughout the drought, haven’t changed much.  Steve Nash still captains the ship, Mike D’Antoni runs the the team from the bench (though, according to Yahoo! Sports Johnny Ludden, maybe not for much longer).

The personnel may have changed (the Joe Johnsons, the Jim Jacksons, the Leandro Barbosas, the Grant Hills, the Boris Diaws), but honestly, it doesn’t matter much.  There are a few fundamental flaws in this team that simply aren’t changed by bringing in Shaq, or having Steve Kerr come in and run the team. 

They just don’t play defense from the perimeter (everyone not named Raja is basically a human turnstyle), or from inside (while its nice, theoretically to have Shaq and Amare down there, neither is that great of a defender at this point in their careers, and both are too often in foul trouble).  Further, they are always making stupid mistakes.  Boris Diaw backing Ginobili down, throws the ball to the second row.  Raja Bell makes a bad pass to Steve Nash on the inbounds, he can’t control it, they lose possession.  Mental mistakes seem to have always plagued this club, the image of Steve Nash looking wide-eyed at an official for a call at the end of any game sticks in my head as the logo for this team.

As for the Spurs, Tim Duncan, business as usual, and Tony Parker, despite that missed FT down the stretch, was the man.  Hate to say it, but he was amazing this series.  Over 29 points per game, TP did his thing.  Manu clearly needs the rest until whenever the NOH series starts.  Ginobili has been clearly limited, hitting the low last night with only 8 points in just over 27 minutes of action.  He doesn’t look to have the same explosiveness throughout the whole game.  A spurt here, a drive there, but not a sustained, Manu Ginobili-esque effort.  He should be fine.

 As for now, all you can say is good riddance to the Suns.  They did try their damnedest to beat the Spurs, even mortgaging their future and changing the makeup of their team.  Too bad, I guess.  Some things just are better left alone.  Or, left out.

 Spurs Drop Tough One At Home

Boxscore 

For some reason, some how, this team can’t score any more.  That’s been the real issue for parts of the entire season, and, unfortunately with only a handful of games remaining, the lid on the rim has returned.

 As I wrote earlier, the Spurs hadn’t scored over 80 in a game in two contests.  After reaching 95+ seven out of their last eight games, the dubious streak continued again tonight.  They could only muster up 79 points, and barely even got there.  The numbers, in this particular instance, don’t lie.  While the Spurs are by no means an offensive juggernaut, they do average over 95 points per contest for the whole season.  Don’t forget that they also attempt near 20 treys a game.  Tonight, against a largely porous (though, admittedly improved) defense, they could only find nine threes, and made only two. 

 While you can look at some of the lesser players’ production, the Spurs have always and will always live and die by the production of their Big 3.  Duncan, Parker and Ginobili combined for a paltry 21 for 50 from the floor, good for just 42% from the floor.  Not terrible, but not good enough to beat an obviously talented team in Phoenix.

 The Spurs did get what they wanted:  both Shaq and Amare in foul trouble (both Phoenix big men had their fourth fouls by the end of the 3rd).  That said, Shaq didn’t miss much of anything in the paint (suddenly, the jump hook that made him look ancient returned), and Timmy clearly looked like he was wearing down at the end of the game.  The same baby hooks that Shaq was getting on Duncan, Tim was getting on Shaq.  Trouble was, they just couldn’t drop for TD.

 So, what exactly is the problem?  Well, I think being the oldest team in the league isn’t helping.  If you’re optimisitic, you’d have to believe that the Spurs are just waiting to fully turn it on, though, even then, you’d have to be concerned with why they aren’t playing “hard” now, when so much is on the line as far as seeding goes.  Ginobili seems to go in out of spurts, so maybe this is just a down spell.  Better to peak now than later?  Who knows.  The one thing I’ve been saying over and over for a while now though, they need guys like Brent Barry and Robert Horry to be able to come off the bench and not only produce, but at the very least, give a blow to the likes of Michael Finley and the big guys on team.

What’s Next?

The Spurs get a game off, they head to Seattle for a Friday snoozefest with the Sonics.  The Hornets won tonight, so that just makes the possiblity of snatching that one spot all the more improbable. 

The Spurs play host to the Suns tonight, in a battle between two teams that have already clinched the Western Conference playoffs.  Still, there is much to play for.  San Antonio comes in 1 game back of the leading New Orleans Hornets; the Suns sit in 6th with only 2.5 games separating them and Chris Paul. 

 Last time the two teams met, a month ago, the Spurs fell 94-87 in Phoenix.   Though, the game was much closer than it appeared, as free throws and garbage baskets put the final touches on a 7 point loss.  The result of some poor luck (Kurt Thomas not hitting wide open jumpshots, Tim Duncan missing layups–6-19 FG–) and some poor calls (come on, we all know that Duncan got clobbered and Shaq and Amare curiously didn’t get a foul call whistled on them as soon as they each got 5), the Spurs couldn’t quite close the deal.  Add all of that to how awfully the Spurs shot in that game.  They never were able to get going against a Suns team that allows over 100 points per on over 45% shooting.  For the game, the Spurs shot under 40%.  The game, even statisitcally, wasn’t pretty.

The solution, far as I see it, is fairly simple:  Get Kurt Thomas involved.  Having both Amare and Shaq allows the Suns to put bigs on and around Duncan at all times.  That being said, neither of the Suns big guys are comfortably defensively on the perimeter, where Kurt Thomas has made a living knocking down jumpers off pick-and-rolls for over the last decade.  It isn’t an accident that his best game (11 points and 7 boards in 29 minutes) came against Phoenix.  Amare likely will be on Timmy, and Shaq will not (and more importantly, cannot) pop out to contest a 15-20 footer from Kurt Thomas.

Elsewhere, the formula seems to be the same.  Allow Parker and Ginobili to dictate the pace offensively, run things through Duncan, and try not to get caught up in scoring in the 100s.  Sounds pretty easy, no?

 Playoff Picture

Games Left: 3H, 2A.  Road Games back-t0-back against LAL and Sac.

Truth is, after this game, the Spurs still aren’t out of the woods.  A tough date in L.A. with Kobe awaits, as does a rendezvous with Utah to finish off the season.  The most important thing for the Spurs–don’t take the garbage games (Seattle and Sacramento) too lightly.  Losses to those teams could wind up meaning the difference between having home court advantage or not.

What to Watch For

80+? The Spurs haven’t scored in the 80s in two games, one of which was an embarrassing 64 point effort (tied for the lowest in franchise history) against Utah.  If they want to win tonight, I’d imagine they’d have to do better than that.

More Manu  After a blistering February, Manu Ginobili has considerably cooled over the last month plus.  March saw him score 19 ppg, while the first 3 games of April have seen the average dip to just over 11.  Maybe it’s been fatigue, maybe just shots aren’t falling.  Whatever the case, this team needs him to get going if they’re going to win later on. 

Barry Time?  When will we see Brent Barry out of street clothes and in a Spurs uniform?  If the Spurs really want to get away with cheating, they’re going to have to actually play the player they reacquired.  My suspicion is that his calf injury is more serious than they’re letting on.  He does need some run though.  Unlike Robert Horry, some people can’t just be dusted off for the playoffs.