GT: Jazz vs. Spurs

[Nolan]

When: 7:00 PM ET, April 8, 2012
Where: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX



VS



Starting Lineups:

Jazz:
PG - Devin Harris
SG - Gordon Hayward
SF - C.J. Miles
PF - Paul Millsap
C - Al Jefferson

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

Should be a good one tonight against the Jazz. We've been on a role lately and now all we need to do is lock up that top spot in the West.

Go Spurs!!

[FJS]

You win, we lose.

Still, our logo is a little different (no blue) since last year


or

[co_laper]

Jazz wouldn't go away, but we've kept a comfortable lead ever since the game started. Started off leading up by over 10 points and stayed that way through out the game.

Good to read that Manu's comment on ESPN recap about how he's trying to get used to physical contact again. He was definitely aggresive attacking the basket. We need Manu to be this way. I was afraid he would be passive because it's becoming Tony's team. He looked real good out there. I just hope we're not peaking too early cause we're playing great basketball right now.

The best part about this is everyone who plays is always playing great. I mean, remember the Memphis series where nobody showed up. Nobody. It'd be disappointing if everybody shows up now, and then nobody does in the playoffs. If all this stuff we're doing carries over to the playoffs, man we're gonna be tough to beat.

[Donald Kaufman]

I think we lose on the b2b in SLC. Just a hunch. The Jazz played us well and refused to go down when we had them against the ropes. Happy to be proven wrong with a W though...

[ManuGino]

Why do I sense a DNP-Old for Duncan and Ginobili?

[co_laper]

Stephen Jackson was quoted as saying "see you when we get back" to Manu. I'm guessing that means Manu is out. This would probably be a good time to rest Duncan too so I also think he's out. And at the same time, Parker should also get some rest. He's been logging the most minutes. I definitely wouldn't mind if we rest those three guys and lose this next game. I just wanna see whether we're any different than what we were last time our big 3 is out.

Last time, we had no penetration at all. Ford, Manu, Duncan, Parker, and I think Tiago was out. There was no post up game, no penetration, and guys like Neal/Green/Blair trying to do way too much.

[SinJackal]

Pointless to sit people and basically indirectly tank to the Jazz tomrorow since we have a rest day after that. If they rest people here, they're pretty much going to have to rest people during the Lakers/Grizzlies b2b that we have next. If Pop's worried about contact and injuries, then what's he gonna do, rest them for the next 3 games? Lakers and Grizzlies are just as physical as the Jazz. Grizzlies possibly moreso.

We could end up losing 3 straight due to "rest". What kind of crap is that? Or it could be another one of those amazing, rest people now, win later deals, only we could easily not win the next two anyway, and still lose 3 straight.

Oh well, we'll see what happens in any case. If we play most of our guys, I expect a win tonight. vs LA and Grizzlies though, depending on who they "rest", I'm gonna say really low chance of taking both due to coach's decisions on rest. Going 1-1 is a possibility, but the rest decisions could end up leading to losing both. Going all in on the wrong game would suck. Both those teams are going to want to come in and prove they're legit. I expect a playoff atmosphere for the rest of the week tbh.

[ManuGino]

Pointless to sit people and basically indirectly tank to the Jazz tomrorow since we have a rest day after that. If they rest people here, they're pretty much going to have to rest people during the Lakers/Grizzlies b2b that we have next. If Pop's worried about contact and injuries, then what's he gonna do, rest them for the next 3 games? Lakers and Grizzlies are just as physical as the Jazz. Grizzlies possibly moreso.

We could end up losing 3 straight due to "rest". What kind of crap is that? Or it could be another one of those amazing, rest people now, win later deals, only we could easily not win the next two anyway, and still lose 3 straight.

Oh well, we'll see what happens in any case. If we play most of our guys, I expect a win tonight. vs LA and Grizzlies though, depending on who they "rest", I'm gonna say really low chance of taking both due to coach's decisions on rest. Going 1-1 is a possibility, but the rest decisions could end up leading to losing both. Going all in on the wrong game would suck. Both those teams are going to want to come in and prove they're legit. I expect a playoff atmosphere for the rest of the week tbh.

Hope you're right Sin. We've been pretty good at resting our guys all season. Time to go full playoff mode. Wouldn't going into the playoffs with a 23 game win streak be amazing for our confidence?

[co_laper]

Well, it's not like we rest the big three every back to back. This will be our 5th game in a week. I would probably say differently had we blown utah out yesterday and the big 3 didn't get much action. I don't mind the resting every once in a while especially with the schedule being so grueling. I see guys getting injured and blaming it on the schedule and everything. While I personally don't get it, but if a lot of the players are saying that's what the doctors told them, well i guess there's got to be some truth to it. So that's really how i'm looking at it. The big 3 got plenty of minutes yesterday, it's a back to back, and it's our 5th game in 7 days. Yeah, it's a good game to rest them.

I definitely expect the big 3 to play againts our next 4 games thou.. LA, Memphis b2b after the utah game. after that Phoenix and GS but there's a day off in between. No reason to rest them there.

[SinJackal]

We've won most of those 4 in blowout fashion, so our big 3 didn't actually play much overall. Which is why I don't believe there's a point to resting them. And before the last 4 games, we only had one game in 5 nights. So they shouldn't have been tired anyway.

I'm looking at it this way: Why rest during what would otherwise be a very winnable game, which makes it a loseable game, then play hard in two losable games where we're even more likely to pick up injuries?

I'd rather play people now, rest vs LA, then play everyone vs the Grizzlies. That way we're at least going to get 1 win, and possibly 2. vs possibly 2 wins but also possibly 0 wins, and an even greater chance of injuries.

Just doesn't make any sense.


Btw, just throwing this in there so you don't have to look it up. I'm not trying to create some big argument or anything:

March 29t: no game
March 30th: no game
March 31st: vs Pacers, blew them out early and coasted to victory. Minutes: Duncan: 32. Parker: 35. Ginobili: 28
April 1st: no game
April 2nd: no game
April 3rd: @Cavs, massive 35 point blowout. Minutes: Duncan: 23. Parker: 22. Ginobili: 18
April 4th: @Celtics. Minutes: Duncan: 34. Parker: 32. Ginobili: 25
April 5th: no game
April 6tgh: vs Hornets, another big blowout. Minutes: Duncan: 20. Parker: 16. Ginobili: 21
April 7th: no game
Yesterday: vs Jazz. Coasted to victory again. Minutes: Duncan: 31. Parker: 31. Ginobili: 26


What's the point in resting now? They basically already have had a ton of rest anyway.
Last 11 days:
5 games
2 huge blowout wins and victory coasts in the 2nd half
2 big blowout first halves and coasting in the 2nd half w/o trying hard 'til the last bit.
1 hard game.

140 total minutes for Duncan, 28 per game (just under his average minutes this year)
136 minutes for Parker, 27.2 per game (5 minutes less than his season average)
118 minutes for Ginobili, 23.6 per game. (right at his season average)

They haven't exactly been logging huge minutes and playing tons. Yeah, this will be the Spurs' 5th game in 7 nights, but how many of those were even difficult games? 1? With 2 almost moderately difficult games, and 2 super easy games which was more like an offensive display than a real game.


I'd like to play people tonight, and rest vs LA if they really want to rest people.

Hope you're right Sin. We've been pretty good at resting our guys all season. Time to go full playoff mode. Wouldn't going into the playoffs with a 23 game win streak be amazing for our confidence?

lol, well that'd be awesome. I doubt it happens though. I'm more just hoping we don't lose more than 4 games, if that's possible. If we can win all but 3, that'd be even better. I don't expect any better than that, and I'd hope we don't do any worse. Right now I just wanna get into the playoffs with no injuries at the end of the season again. . .if we can get the top seed, I'm happy. If not, well, then I hope we at least finish with a better record than Miami so we can get HCA on them in the Finals, should we potentially get there.