Throughout the game the Spurs wanted this one more and understood the significance of winning on the road against a rival who has swept the team 2-0 before tonight's contest. Coach Popovich out-coached George Karl, while San Antonio out-hustled and out-played the Nuggets in every facet of the game to result in a much needed triumph on this tough Rodeo Road Trip. The offense was efficient and explosive tonight with both the inside game (54 points in the paint!!!) and outside game (9 of 19 for 47%!!!) was clicking on all cylinders. The ball movement was fantastic as time after time the Spurs found the open man and got many players involved on offense (7 players scored in double digits with the young guns Blair and Hill tying for the team high at 17 points!). The defense tonight was superb as crisp rotations, contested shots, excellent transition D (Denver had 6 fast break points!) and solid post D (30 points in paint for Denver) led to a team defensive performance that reminded us of classic Spurs defense! Now on to player evaluations. Hill was effective using his speed to get to the line throughout the game to score, kick out to the open man or dram fouls in the paint, while he was active on defense creating several turnovers. Blair brought his usual high energy game out with him to the high altitude of Denver,as he scored in the paint at will (No Kmart helped a lot) and was a best on the offensive glass with 4 offensive boards. Timmy had a solid game of 16 and 7 on 6-11 shooting and the fact that we didn't need to rely on him for the majority of our offense is a great sign going forward. Tonight offensive game proved that it is the bench scoring hi-lighted by Manu, Hill and Blair that can carry the team offensively on any given night and is the primary reason (not the addition of Jefferson) that the Spurs have improved significantly in team offense this season. Mason was another surprise as he came alive in the game to score 14 points on an efficient line of 5-12 from the field and 4-8 for 3's proving that when he is given a good amount of minutes (34 tonight) he can remind us of the 08-09 version of himself. Last but certainly not last RJ that man who has been stealing headlines for all the wrong reasons had (dare I say) good overall game, with effective offense on 5-9 shooting, due to an outside game of (2-4 3's) and inside drives to the hoop that also led to his 4 helpers. If RJ tones down the 3 point shooting slightly (currently at 2.6 3 pt. attempts per game should get it to around max 2 a game) and focuses on getting to the rim aggressively to score easy baskets (which he displayed tonight) than his offensive stats and the team's offensive game will flourish. If RJ gets to the rim more (which must do!) he will draws defenders to free up teammates benefiting the team offense and give himself more easy looks to help his own offense which is suffering to do forcing outside shots.
Well thats a wrap, Tremendous win against tough competition and hopefully this will be the game (as it was the best win of the season!!!) that will get us out of our slump and deliver us to one more Championship in the Pop, Duncan Ginobli and Parker era!
