Don't Touch the Mic, Baby Don't Come Near it
Parker converted 11 layups and scored 28 points in San Antonio's 93-83 win over Memphis on Monday. Parker, the NBA leader in points in the paint, shot 12-for-13 from the field and rebounded his only miss for a layup. He also hit all four of his free-throw attempts.
Parker is shooting 54.4 percent from the field and averaging a career-high 19.4 points per game. His output against the Grizzlies was his best since a 30-point effort against Dallas on Dec. 1.
Parker has 488 of his 736 points this season in the paint, a place where centers and forwards, not point guards, usually thrive.
"When he's got his mind made up that he wants to get to that paint, he gets to that paint," said Memphis guard Bobby Jackson. "I can see why he leads the league in points in the paint because he's fast, he's effective. He knows how to score and how to finish at the basket."
I forgot that on his only miss out of 17 shots (including 4 free throws, which he usually struggles with), Le Pénétration pulled down his own board and laid it in.
You can't stop the pénétration. Bobby Jackson knows it. Eva Longoria knows it. Now you know it.
Cold got to be - Funktiger.
posted by The Funk at 10:39 AM
1 Comments:
Teams have been denying him penetration more in the last few weeks, always going under the screen and packing the middle whenever he looks to drive. I think this is the earliest in the season he's ever faced such efforts to stop him. Usually the "prevent defense" doesn't hit him until the playoffs, when his drives suddenly become less effective. But he has a few things in his favor this season:
1. In a lot of games in which teams have focused their defense on denying him penetration, he has still been able to do it.
2. He's started hitting his jumper again, after being cold for a few weeks, and he's ALWAYS open coming off that screen. He's hit a number of big outside shots for us already this season. If he can keep his outside shot going through the postseason, the Spurs will be unstoppable. Except maybe by the Pistons.
3. For the most part he has run the team better this season. He's always been an underrated passer (because of the nature of the Spurs' offense, his assist stats don't compare with most other top point guards), but now he's running the team more and more like a true point guard, seeing the kinds of things that Manu "The Natural" Ginobili has always seen.
4. This season, because of his hot start, he has more time to get used to the kind of defense he'll see in the playoffs.
5. With Manu back, opposing teams can't focus on just stopping TP's penetration.
TP is an All-Star this year.
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