GT: Spurs vs. Cavaliers

[Nolan]

When: 7:00 PM ET, April 3, 2012
Where: Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH



VS



Starting Lineups:

Spurs:
PG - Tony Parker
SG - Daniel Green
SF - Kawhi Leonard
PF - Tim Duncan
C - DeJuan Blair

Cavaliers:
PG - Kyrie Irving
SG - Anthony Parker
SF - Alonzo Gee
PF - Antawn Jamison
C - Tristan Thompson

We've been playing very well as of late and we need to keep this pace up heading into the playoffs. The one thing we can't do tonight is underestimate this Cav's team, if we sleep on them they can beat us.

Go Spurs!!

[thecouch]

i hear irving might not play

[SinJackal]

Sweet, we're playing the Cavs next. Too bad we always play such weak teams after our lengthy rest periods. I wish we had more weak teams in the middle of the brutal stretches of 5 games in a week crap. Almost feels like a waste of that game. Ah well, not like I ever expected the schedule SA gets to ever be favorable since their 2nd title.


Edit: Looks like the Thunder choked tonight to the Grizzlies. Gay had an off night, ZBo clearly not ready yet, and Thunder still lost @OKC.

So if we win our next couple games, there's a chance we'll just be 1 game back because they're playing the Heat next.

[Nolan]

i hear irving might not play

Sounds like its a toss up if he's going to play. I'm sure we'll find out exactly whats going on with him closer to game time.

[LoyalKing]

Spurs wins easily

[SinJackal]

Anyone else dislike how the Spurs' scrubs rush to jack up the ball in 10 seconds or less every time? All they're doing is giving the Cavs more possessions and are running up the score. Now the Cavs are prolly gonna score 90+ when they should have struggled to break 80.

They aren't even running any plays, which is probably what they need to practice the most. it's like a fight over the ball down the court to see who's gonna jack it up next. Cavs are getting like 4 points a minute now.

Edit: Hopefully they don't break 90 at least, but they're at 86 and getting FTAs now and they'll probably get another 2-3 possessions before it's over. So looking like it's gonna be 90. :\ Giving up 90 to the Cavs who were scoring terrible all night, yuk.

[Nolan]

Well that was never in doubt. Mills looked great tonight, hopefully he can keep it up.

Interesting stat from this game every player on our team was a plus tonight, don't see that happen very often.

[Black_Jack21]

That looked like a great game from mills according to the boxscore.

I'll be the first to admit he's looked better than i though he was going to be esp this early. He is hitting his shots and looking productive, good to see.

About our scrubs, doesnt that answer it for you, i know if i got any floor time id be pretty trigger happy too.
Pop probably gave them a bit of a licence to play freely, its what garbage time is all about

[Donald Kaufman]

Love Diaw's passing ability. Blair is a foul machine and little else. Disappointed with him after what was a promising rookie year. Green was awesome tonight. Bonner looks like the odd man out on the floor.

Is this the best 2nd unit we've had in the Duncan era?

[Black_Jack21]

Our 06 team would have been pretty awesome if everyone was in their prime.
Finley and Nick Van Exel, to go with a healthy big 3 and bruce bowen

But you're right this current team is pretty well balanced, a little light at PG and size down low, but lots of depth.

[Nolan]

Love Diaw's passing ability. Blair is a foul machine and little else. Disappointed with him after what was a promising rookie year. Green was awesome tonight. Bonner looks like the odd man out on the floor.

Is this the best 2nd unit we've had in the Duncan era?

I had such high hopes for him as many of you know, but its been all down hill since his rookie year. He's gone away from the things he does well and I don't even know what he's trying to accomplish out there anymore.

[co_laper]

Well I don't agree with that.

If you guys remember his rookie years, yes he showed loads of potential but also remember that he played mostly on garbage time. He was out of the rotation but we play him when we can. His rookie year, he proved us that he's a monster rebounder, but the weaknesses are glaring. He couldn't finish around the basket. Someone should remember when he always get his shot blocked. It was last year and this year when he starts doing those double pumps at the basket mainly to show the ball to the shotblocker and avoid getting it blocked. I must say he's been doing that very well and converting his shots at a high rate. It's not often he gets it blocked anymore while there are still some occasions. Also he's more patient on the offensive end and IMO is playing within himself whereas his first year I think we're still trying to figure out what he can do at the post and sometimes he's forcing shots as if he actually has those moves.

keep in mind that he's defending better.. Well, he's doing as well as he could because let's be real, he's just not very tall. He's not fouling as much. Rookie year, he was foul prone againts backups. Last year he's foul prone againts starters. This year he's not as foul prone as he was last year.

Right now, all of Blair's minutes are mostly againts starting caliber players. And lots of those are againts star big mens because Duncan don't usually guard them for a full game. Considering those, I think Blair has shown a nice improvement within his game. It's just that his ceiling isn't that high to begin with. He wasn't about to be Dennis Rodman. He can in terms of rebounding, but the one on one defense and the athleticism was never there and unlikely to ever be there for Blair.

My only hope for Blair is that he become what he's drafted to do. That was rebounding like Reggie Evans and gives us energy. As he gets older, his defense should be a lot more dirty like Reggie Evans. As long as he's not foul prone, that's good. And that Blair doesn't become Ben Wallace like on offense.

Energy and Rebounding is his forte. What more can we expect? In the long run, he's not best suited as a starting PF. More of a 6th men off the bench. I'm sure when TD retires and Splitter takes his spot, we're gonna need Blair off the bench because we can't have two bigs who can't shoot. That's when Blair is gonna look great. When he's playing againts starters all this time, suddenly he gets to feast on backups again like his rookie year.

[ManuGino]

Fantastic W. Lets crush the Celtics tonight.

[SinJackal]

That looked like a great game from mills according to the boxscore.

I'll be the first to admit he's looked better than i though he was going to be esp this early. He is hitting his shots and looking productive, good to see.

About our scrubs, doesnt that answer it for you, i know if i got any floor time id be pretty trigger happy too.
Pop probably gave them a bit of a licence to play freely, its what garbage time is all about

It was mostly just Mills dribbling around and jacking it up. I don't see how that helps overall team growth, since most of the shots they were taking would be frowned upon during a legitimate game.

My main issue with it was exactly that. At least run Spurs plays to get shots, not just dribble around and jack it up. That literally serves no purpose besides to pad your stats. I also didn't like giving up just nearly 30 points int he 4th quarter to a bad lottery team. But that's less important since it was a 35 point blowout. Just seemed like a waste of potential practice time is all, since they ran almost nothing the team usually does.

[Black_Jack21]

Yes but usually players that get garbage minutes are players who's spot on the side isn't guaranteed.

So when they get some freedom to play they are usually focused on stat padding? To either show their wares to the coaching staff that they have the ability to get more minutes or to other teams for future contracts.

I don't mind that attitude in a 30 point blow out and you know if pop didn't like what he saw he'd bench them.