You’re a producer for NBATV. You and your merry crew have shipped off to springy Denver for a matchup that might be a preview of the Western Conference Semi-Finals. You’re excited. If this thing pulls well, could be a great chance to showcase your skills, and promote the network. Duncan! Melo! Billups! Parker! Only on NBATV!
You’re George Karl. You’ve managed to take a team that everyone was laughing at you to the top of the division, 9th in defensive efficiency, and you know, respectable in stuff (sorry about that, Mr. Karl). You’ve got San Antonio coming to town tonight, after an overtime game against a huffer-and-puffer Warriors team to start the Rodeo road trip. You’ve got a great chance to get a signature win.
You’re Ime Udoka. You haven’t seen the floor much this year. You’re looking forward to a night of resting on the bench, with the occasional rise to congratulate teammates coming out of timeouts or jumping up and yelling whenever someone dunks, which should be… never.
And Gregg Popovich has ruined all three of your nights.
Popovich yanked Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, and Tony Parker for the game tonight. All of them. Effectively killing any drama in the game, denying Karl a quality win, and preventing Ime Udoka from texting his special lady friend from the bench all night.
Popovich, you diabolical madman, is there anything you won’t do?
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Manu is banged up, but the Spurs aren’t playing again until Sunday at Boston. Pop must really want to beat the Celtics.
If the Spurs hadn’t turned the ball over quite so much they could have won this one even without TD/Tony/Manu/Finley. Also don’t forget the Nugs were w/o Kenyon all game and Billups for half the game.
I could not have cared less about this happening except Manu is on my fantasy team. Sadface.
This is pretty standard Pop. He throws in the towel faster than any other coach in the league if the game starts to slip away in the 4th quarter. I’m guessing the age of his team and relative lack of depth has something to do with it. I tend to think it’s a pretty classy move, actually. I’d rather that than a coach who insists on having his players continue to intentionally foul even though they’re down 10 with 30 seconds to play. It’s better to just let it go.
BTW, I see the Spurs once again managed to give up a ton of points in this game. I know they’re “The Spurs” and all, but until they get their defense back to what it was last year, or preferably the year before, I think they’re not a realistic part of the title conversation for this season.
[...] Matt Moore’s heart hurts for Ime. [...]