Just got home. Got to see the Spurs in person tonight. Only 1 time a year.
I was a little worried because Detroit plays crazy flailing defense and on a 2nd night of a back to back it didn't look good. They had Kawhi frustrated all night. But we are soo deep other guys just took over. Started with LMA in the first, then Manu in the 2nd. For the Tony Parker bashers, TP made Detroit's younger guards look like little girls tonight. I noticed at half time during the shoot around that Tony was having some pretty intense conversations with Pop and others and it was easy to tell why in the 2nd half because he took over the game. Tony can still do this in spurts, just not an entire game anymore.
He made Reggie Jackson look silly a couple times and when it was obvious he couldn't guard him, SVG but Detroit's best perimeter defender, Caldwell-Pope on him but even then Tony scored pretty easily. Now Ive seen KCP contain many great scoring guards so you can't convince me that Tony Parker still cant play at a high level in short stints.
Anyway it was awesome to see everyone up close and to see how Pop interacts with everyone. Boban didn't play very well and neither did Simmons, both of which got a lot of playing time in the first half.
I took a bunch of pics for myself but the most interesting one was during the National Anthem noticing that while everyone kind of does their own thing, Pop stands at complete attention straight as an arrow as if he never left the military. Love that guy!
Another nice thing I noticed was Detroit's fans giving Tim Duncan some pretty loud cheers every time he left the game. Also, Boris is soo much more important to this team then many people realize.