Sometimes It's Better To Be Lucky Than Good
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
The cast of characters may change, but most of the principals are still there. Duncan, Ginobili, Parker, Nash, Stoudemire. The teams may be diametrically opposed philosophically, but they have slowly shifted towards each other over the last few years. The Spurs, once the standard bearer for defense, has become a more effective offensive team at the expense of their once dominant defense. The Suns, once the inventors of a new style of offense and the evolution of the game, have become a more traditional team, even playing active and scrappy defense.
And whenever the teams play, it seems to produce a memorable game.
This game was very enjoyable and fun to watch, and certainly had me reminiscing about May battles of old. But neither team seemed to play terribly efficiently at either end of the court, and save for a pair of odd and boneheaded plays by the Suns, the Spurs could have easily lost this game.
The fist odd play was Richardson's missed dunk. There's not much to analyze there; sometimes players miss dunks. This missed dunk just happened to be at the most inopportune of times. The second odd play was Nash's pass as time expired. Nash says he lost his balance and couldn't take the shot. People are rightfully criticizing Frye for moving inside the 3-point line when a 3 was the only thing that would have helped. But Nash passed the ball right to him; if Frye hadn't moved in, where would the pass have gone? It looks like Nash may have been passing to another Suns player (I think Richardson) who was standing just past Frye beyond the 3 point line, and Frye walked into the passing lane. Either way, it doesn't matter; there was no way the shot was getting up in time. Nash had to shoot that ball, and he didn't. That's not like Nash at all, whose intelligence is beyond reproach. We got lucky on two counts, and we won the game. As Duncan said in the post-game interview, it's about time some of the breaks started going our way.
The great thing about this game as a Spurs' fan was the great play we got from basically our entire rotation. Duncan had his usual excellent night, and Ginobili played the role of closer extraordinaire. Parker had a great game, though in limited minutes, most likely because of his recent injuries. But when he was in, he seemed to have some zip back in his legs. Hill and Blair both played well in their roles.
But the two best sights were from Jefferson and McDyess. Jefferson arguably had his best game as a Spur. He was aggressive and attacking the basket early and often, which led to defensive breakdowns, lay-ups, or fouls. Later in the game, he used his early aggression to set up his jump shot, which he was hitting. He even played aggressive D, getting an important block on Stoudemire. If things can start clicking for him, we can be a great team.
McDyess had a scary moment when he went down in a heap after landing on his left leg awkwardly. As the announcers pointed out, his left knee is the knee that had given him so much trouble early in his career. A serious injury to his left knee could legitimately end his career. Setting aside the obvious personal repercussions of that happening to such a good, humble, and hardworking person, that could really screw up the Spurs' big man rotation, as it seems to be pared down to just Duncan, McDyess, and Blair, with Bonner getting limited spot minutes. With the trade of Ratliff, we basically cashed in our big man insurance policy.
So it was great to see McDyess back on the court early in the fourth. It was even better to see him stick several critical jump shots down the stretch of the game. That 15-18 foot jump shot has become his offensive calling card over the last 5 years, and it does so much for our offense when it's working. Just like with Jefferson, his full integration into the team can make us much better than we are right now.
No matter the circumstance or the situation, it always feels good to beat the Suns.
Looking Forward:
As with all nice Spurs win of the last few months, all hopes and expectations should be severely tempered. Until the team can prove their ability on a game-to-game basis, all of us should be skeptical.
Our next two games are both against the New Orleans Hornets. We play them in New Orleans Monday night, then back in San Antonio on Friday night, with no games scheduled in between. The Hornets are without Chris Paul, but have really started playing some good basketball of late. And like all games in the Western Conference this time of year, every win and loss is critical.
It's about time we started stringing some wins together.
The cast of characters may change, but most of the principals are still there. Duncan, Ginobili, Parker, Nash, Stoudemire. The teams may be diametrically opposed philosophically, but they have slowly shifted towards each other over the last few years. The Spurs, once the standard bearer for defense, has become a more effective offensive team at the expense of their once dominant defense. The Suns, once the inventors of a new style of offense and the evolution of the game, have become a more traditional team, even playing active and scrappy defense.
And whenever the teams play, it seems to produce a memorable game.
This game was very enjoyable and fun to watch, and certainly had me reminiscing about May battles of old. But neither team seemed to play terribly efficiently at either end of the court, and save for a pair of odd and boneheaded plays by the Suns, the Spurs could have easily lost this game.
The fist odd play was Richardson's missed dunk. There's not much to analyze there; sometimes players miss dunks. This missed dunk just happened to be at the most inopportune of times. The second odd play was Nash's pass as time expired. Nash says he lost his balance and couldn't take the shot. People are rightfully criticizing Frye for moving inside the 3-point line when a 3 was the only thing that would have helped. But Nash passed the ball right to him; if Frye hadn't moved in, where would the pass have gone? It looks like Nash may have been passing to another Suns player (I think Richardson) who was standing just past Frye beyond the 3 point line, and Frye walked into the passing lane. Either way, it doesn't matter; there was no way the shot was getting up in time. Nash had to shoot that ball, and he didn't. That's not like Nash at all, whose intelligence is beyond reproach. We got lucky on two counts, and we won the game. As Duncan said in the post-game interview, it's about time some of the breaks started going our way.
The great thing about this game as a Spurs' fan was the great play we got from basically our entire rotation. Duncan had his usual excellent night, and Ginobili played the role of closer extraordinaire. Parker had a great game, though in limited minutes, most likely because of his recent injuries. But when he was in, he seemed to have some zip back in his legs. Hill and Blair both played well in their roles.
But the two best sights were from Jefferson and McDyess. Jefferson arguably had his best game as a Spur. He was aggressive and attacking the basket early and often, which led to defensive breakdowns, lay-ups, or fouls. Later in the game, he used his early aggression to set up his jump shot, which he was hitting. He even played aggressive D, getting an important block on Stoudemire. If things can start clicking for him, we can be a great team.
McDyess had a scary moment when he went down in a heap after landing on his left leg awkwardly. As the announcers pointed out, his left knee is the knee that had given him so much trouble early in his career. A serious injury to his left knee could legitimately end his career. Setting aside the obvious personal repercussions of that happening to such a good, humble, and hardworking person, that could really screw up the Spurs' big man rotation, as it seems to be pared down to just Duncan, McDyess, and Blair, with Bonner getting limited spot minutes. With the trade of Ratliff, we basically cashed in our big man insurance policy.
So it was great to see McDyess back on the court early in the fourth. It was even better to see him stick several critical jump shots down the stretch of the game. That 15-18 foot jump shot has become his offensive calling card over the last 5 years, and it does so much for our offense when it's working. Just like with Jefferson, his full integration into the team can make us much better than we are right now.
No matter the circumstance or the situation, it always feels good to beat the Suns.
Looking Forward:
As with all nice Spurs win of the last few months, all hopes and expectations should be severely tempered. Until the team can prove their ability on a game-to-game basis, all of us should be skeptical.
Our next two games are both against the New Orleans Hornets. We play them in New Orleans Monday night, then back in San Antonio on Friday night, with no games scheduled in between. The Hornets are without Chris Paul, but have really started playing some good basketball of late. And like all games in the Western Conference this time of year, every win and loss is critical.
It's about time we started stringing some wins together.
posted by secretchord53 at 3:46 PM
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