San Antonio (3-5) at Sacramento (4-6)

[a-rod]

Game info: 9:00 pm EST Sun Nov 16, 2008

While the San Antonio Spurs pulled out a last-second win at home on Friday night, the Sacramento Kings couldn’t.
The Spurs will try to continue their recent dominance at Arco Arena over the Sacramento Kings as the teams meet for the first time this season on Sunday night.
San Antonio, which has won eight of its last 11 in Sacramento (4-6) since December 2002, comes in following a dramatic 77-75 victory on Friday over Houston in which Tim Duncan made a game-saving block on Aaron Brooks in the final second.
“What can you say about Tim Duncan that hasn’t already been said,” said Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, whose team scored the game’s final 12 points. “He provides the leadership on this team. He is the center of the program.”
With Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili sidelined by ankle injuries, Duncan has to be. In three games since Parker went down, the Spurs are 2-1, and Duncan is averaging 23.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.0 blocks - perhaps none bigger than his only block against the Rockets.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/preview;_yl ... 2008111623

I'll be out of town for the next few days on a work trip. probably i won’t be able to watch this game or the next few games.

[sacking101]

As long as we don't allow duncan to have a huge game and don't let udoka get wide open threes i think this should be a win for us. Thompson needs to post up a little more against these small forwards and I expect beno and salmons to be able to score a lot of points in this one.

[Ballings7]

Watch out for George Hill and maybe Anthony Tolliver, two nice young players found by the Spurs

Should be a good game here

[Joseph17]

The Spurs are like a D-League all-star team with Tim Duncan. We should win this.

[KingInExile]

The Spurs are like a D-League all-star team with Tim Duncan. We should win this.

Unfortunately the Kings have a tendency to play like a bad D-league team at times. The Kings will have to fight for this one if they are going to win it.

[SacTown Kings]

I love how Thompson seems to always be in the mix when there is a rebound opportunity.

[pillwenney]

Honestly, I'm fine with Duncan having a big night. Just stop everybody else and run the offense successfully, and we should be fine.

[SacTown Kings]

San Antonio has no idea what they are doing on offense.

[pillwenney]

Ughh...come on guys. We shouldn't be losing ground when Duncan is out. Stop making Shelden an option offensively, and get back and just cover the perimeter defensively. It's just not that hard.

[Cruel_Ruin]

Can we PLEASE kill the Thompson at SF experiment already? It's not working now, it won't work later.

[pillwenney]

I think I figured out why Shelden just can't really stay in the game. The short answer is his offense. The longer version of that is that offensively, his mid-range shot isn't good enough to spread the floor, his post up game isn't good enough to where we'd want to go to him, and he's just plain not a good finisher around the basket. I don't think he'll ever be somebody you'll really want to go to in the post, (since that would make him something other than a 4th or 5th option), and I don't think he'll ever be athletic enough to be a good finisher (although he could improve on body positioning to improve here) so really what he has to do is improve his mid-range shot. If he can do that, I think he has a place in this league in a Kurt Thomas-type role.

[pillwenney]

Well, we need to limit the 3 a lot more defensively (like, perhaps go to a lineup that can rotate quickly enough defensively), and we need to limit the turnovers a lot more offensively. There's nothing in particularly we're doing wrong--we're just making some dumb plays, and you can't do that against the Spurs, no matter how injured they are.

[Cruel_Ruin]

Reggie said his offense is a C-series, High post, double high post system... So far, all I've seen is Beno dribble around in circles, some random post ups, and a Salmons iso here and there. Come on, Reggie...

[SacKingZZZ]

Can we PLEASE kill the Thompson at SF experiment already? It's not working now, it won't work later.

Actually that was about the only time we were playing well was with the big lineup. But I agree, if they aren't going to make the most of the mismatch then they really should go with a different look.

[SacKingZZZ]

There they go! Look for that mismatch. Finley can't guard Jason Thompson down there. Rookie mistake with the push though.

[SacKingZZZ]

Ok this is an interesting lineup too. I want to see the team run that high post offense through Brad and Jason. Douby out there running off screens is what I want to see.

[pillwenney]

We've been trying to run the high post offense, but the Spurs are defending it extremely well. They're just sticking to everybody off the ball when Brad has it. So it seems we've resolved to just iso John every time down.

But hey, it's working so far.

[Smills91]

Any feeds out there. Free NBALP is over...BOO!

[SacTown Kings]

Miller with the slam! If you don't like that you don't like Kings basketball !!! Lol

[SacKingZZZ]

Now that's what I'm talking about. Douby could be really good coming off screens. It falls more in line with the way he played in college. He seems to have the same kind of issues Ron Artest has with his jumper, he feels more comfortable moving on the shot as opposed to spotting up.

Now they're running the motion offense they are supposed to be running.