GT: Spurs vs. Warriors (Season Opener!)

[Cactus Jack]

Heck of a performance! Kawhi looks in MVP form.

[-Sammy-]

Career-high for Kawhi on opening night; that's a great omen. I loved seeing him bring up and run the O at points tonight; that's exactly what I was hoping he'd worked on over the summer.

October games mean virtually nothing in terms of postseason prognosis, but this is a great way to start the season.

[Cactus Jack]

That new avatar is something else Sammy. Lol

[Cactus Jack]

Oh my! Simmons with a Nasty dunk.

[imagump1313]

I really didn't care if we won this game or not but after seeing them beat us at home at the end of last year to about seal the win record, it was kinda nice to kill all their record thinking this year already.

[-Sammy-]

That new avatar is something else Sammy. Lol

Thanks! Do you know what it's from? I don't want to give it away if you don't.

[-Sammy-]

Well, that was just delightful. Definitely my favorite season-opener of all time.

[Flip Murray]

How do you guys find players like Simmons? Me and another guy on our board reckon we will never see the hornets get a diamond in the rough in our lifetimes. Maybe our children's children will see it happen. His dream is we can do it 15 years from now.

[Cactus Jack]

That new avatar is something else Sammy. Lol

Thanks! Do you know what it's from? I don't want to give it away if you don't.

I actually don't. But, I don't know whether to be scared or...?

[-Sammy-]

How do you guys find players like Simmons? Me and another guy on our board reckon we will never see the hornets get a diamond in the rough in our lifetimes. Maybe our children's children will see it happen. His dream is we can do it 15 years from now.

Well, Simmons killed it tonight, but it's just one game in October. If he's doing this on the regular, then we'll have something to talk about.

[-Sammy-]

That new avatar is something else Sammy. Lol

Thanks! Do you know what it's from? I don't want to give it away if you don't.

I actually don't. But, I don't know whether to be scared or...?

Ha ha... nah, nothing to be scared of. It's from a TV show, but the character is part of an important plot twist, so I don't want to say which show it's from.

[Flip Murray]

How do you guys find players like Simmons? Me and another guy on our board reckon we will never see the hornets get a diamond in the rough in our lifetimes. Maybe our children's children will see it happen. His dream is we can do it 15 years from now.

Well, Simmons killed it tonight, but it's just one game in October. If he's doing this on the regular, then we'll have something to talk about.

I fantasize about one game in October.

The gap between our franchises is equal to how much weight Diaw instantly lost when he went from the Bobcats to the Spurs.

Anyways, I just came by to congratulate from all NBA fans on spoiling this coming out party. I think you'll have a lot of neutrals cheering for the Spurs this season.

[Cartuse]

Great game overall, very enjoyable. Anyway

THE GOOD:
-Aldridge's offensive mindset from last year's playoffs seems like it's still there.
-Simmons played great, but what I really liked seeing was his improved iq. He made smarter decisions than ever before, moved the ball around, and of course hustled like always.
-David Lee was pretty decent (he's one of my biggest concerns)
-Patty looked good on both ends.
-Dedmond looked solid.
-Kawhi has added new moves and he keeps getting better.

THE BAD:
-Gasol's overall defense. It doesn't exist. Very early to tell, but it seems that his contributions will very determined by the type of team we're playing against. He gets shamelessly abused on the pnr and on switches. I expect him to have plenty of games with few minutes as the season progresses.
-Parker was meh. If his shot wasn't falling it would've been uglier.
-Kyle was not much of a factor, taking into consideration that he started.

[bondom34]

Thank you.

[Milenkovic]

Long time Spurs fan, just joined the forum.

Kawhi was insane. His game looks like its evolved even more over the summer. I know he was training with Kobe, his handles resembled it at times.

Patty and Manu with the performance of the bench too.

Would've like to see Murray come in at the end, but there's plenty time for that.

[Phreak50]

One heck of a 1-2 punch when Kawhi and Aldridge are beasting on offense.

Kawhi definitely improved his handles and his overall confidence on offense as well.

Manu played way more minutes than he should (even though he played well).

I thought we'd get blown out and was completely wrong. Although it was a bit concerning seeing Parker and Gasol with -13 in +/-.

I also think my earlier suggestion of Simmons starting in place of Green might be a good option. What he gives us is more consistent (especially because he can score on the drive, hit from mid range and create his own shot) than Green. Obviously we still need Danny to regain his form but even if he does, it might be better suited in a bench role.

[bobobolas10]

Came over from the Grizz forum just to say: Congratulations! Awesome game. Mills and Simmons look great. About Kawhi, I actually never seen him playing that way, very agresive on offense and the best in defense as always.

I would not worry about Gasol, just one of those bad nights and defending the warriors is not easy for a big. It is just his first game!

[perempe20]

great points, Cartuse. Anderson's D was bad. I loved the end of the 1st (3, steal, another 3). Parker was OK.

[Nolan]

Long time Spurs fan, just joined the forum.

Kawhi was insane. His game looks like its evolved even more over the summer. I know he was training with Kobe, his handles resembled it at times.

Patty and Manu with the performance of the bench too.

Would've like to see Murray come in at the end, but there's plenty time for that.

Welcome aboard my friend!

[Nolan]

Was not expecting that but i'll take it. Great performance last night, the Warriors definitely didn't bring their A game but then again we didn't play our best at times either.

The positives:
- Kawhi - Started a bit slow but once he got going he was the best player on the floor without question. He got to the line at will, scored in every way possible and just looked unstoppable on the offensive end and he was his usual beastly self on the defensive end.

- LMA - Like Kawhi he got off to bit of a slow start (he was having a ton of trouble with the double teams in the first half) but he really got things going in the 3rd and sealed the victory for us. I was also impressed with him on the defensive end, he moved well, contested shots and was usually in the right spot.

- Simmons - That might of been the best game he's ever played for us. Shot the lights out, pushed the tempo in transition, got to the rim, played amazing defense and that chase down block on Curry was unreal.

- The rest of the bench - The game really swung our way when Patty and company came in the first. The ball movement was amazing, the defense improved and they shot the ball with confidence.

- The rebounding - We took advantage of our size and really did damage on the boards on both ends.

-Dedmon - He was a little shaky and he had a couple cases of butterfingers but he did his job. Really locked down the paint on the defensive end and grabbed 8 boards and blocked 2 shots in 17 minutes.

The negatives:
- Pau - Made some nice plays on the offensive end but made a ton of mistakes on the defensive end and holly hell did he look slow.

- The defense - The Warriors made us look better on that end than we really were. We were constantly getting lost off screens (Tony and Pau are the guiltiest of this) and the Warriors got way too many easy buckets at the rim.