For His Next Trick, Manu Will Turn Water Into Wine

That's the kind of game that makes you wonder where this Spurs team has been all season.

We played a really good game against a really good team. Maybe the 2nd best team in the entire league. Every Spurs player performed solidly. Manu was obviously the star, controlling the game like a bored puppeteer. Duncan was very impressive in the 2nd half (after missing most of the first half for daring to touch Dwight Howard), anchoring both ends of the court.

But we expect that out of those two. Often times the difference is in the margins, and our role players stepped up beautifully tonight. Jefferson shook off a rusty first half and gave us some key points and (more importantly) key hustle down the stretch. Bonner was active offensively, draining 3s and hitting his (now patented) hook shot. Roger had some good shooting, but most impressively got a block/save on Nelson. McDyess showed why we picked him up in the offseason and what he might bring come playoff time. And Hill was pretty normal, which is turning into a pretty good thing.

Late in the game we turned to the much-maligned tactic of intentionally fouling a poor foul shooter, in this case, Dwight Howard. I understand why people dislike it, because it makes the game agonizing to watch. But as a Spurs fan, I love the tactic, and I wonder why teams don't do it more. Time and again, it's proven effective for us, both climbing back into games and extending leads late in games. As Sean Elliott pointed out on the telecast, it has benefits beyond hoping a poor free throw shooter misses. It completely destroys the rhythm and flow of the other team's offense. It causes shooters to cool down, and makes a team go a long time without running a set or getting a shot off. And it can adversely affect the free throw shooter. We saw Howard lose his cool as he continued to brick ugly looking free throws. And we were able to extend our lead while we did it.

This game is also a demonstration of why we don't complain about the officiating. If we did, we'd most likely have to wait in line behind the Magic fans. The officiating was certainly questionable and made the game very choppy, but I don't think it trended in any particular way or in any particular team's favor. Ultimately, the officiating is part of the game, another factor that players must take into account in the game.

The best part of the game for me was Duncan's fourth quarter. This was vintage Duncan. Surely the rest in the first half did him some good. He was ferocious on both ends of the floor, and demanded the ball in the offense. This is the Duncan we need come playoff time. The Duncan who leads by effort and example, whose will to win is stronger than anybody else's on the floor, save Ginobili. I don't care so much about his offensive production, as long as his offensive presence is creating the space and rhythm that we need, and that his looks are clean. Where we need him is on the defensive end, the immovable object in the middle.

It's too bad we don't play in the Eastern Conference. In the last few weeks we've beaten 3 of the top 4 teams in the East, and took the 4th team to OT.

Looking Forward:

Our last game against the Lakers is on Sunday. The Lakers are supposedly reeling a bit. The last time we played them, they beat us something fierce. We need to make a statement in this game that we can play with them and that we will play with them. There's a strong chance this will be our first round opponent.