The San Antonio Crisis Of Faith
Above is the play-by-play for the final ten seconds of last night’s game against the Indiana Pacers. Hidden inside this very standard and typically unhelpful form of score-keeping is a wealth of information about what has been going right and wrong for the Spurs this season.
The hero of this ten second stretch is Tim Duncan, who manages to haul down two defensive boards and slam home the game winner during this short period. His trustworthy but unacknowledged accomplice is the young George Hill, whose defensive pressure is partly responsible for T.J. Ford’s missed 14 and 16-footers. But what’s most interesting about these ten seconds are the substitutions made by Gregg Popovich during the two timeouts.
via Read Between the Lines | 48 Minutes of Hell.
Graydon with an excellent feature on the closing minutes of the Spurs’ win over the Pacers. He dives in and discusses how Pop never put the big 3 on the floor at the same time down the stretch, which is really concerning for Spurs fans. Either Pop’s right and the Big 3 aren’t as reliable as they used to be, or Pop’s wrong and playing the wrong combos down the stretch and getting away from who brung him, so to speak.
More than likely it’s just a branch-out he’s experimenting with early in the season. In March, you’ll see Duncan-Ginobili-Parker. And they’ll succeed.
Oster-Tags: Gregg Popovich, Manu Ginobili, San Antonio Spurs, Tim Duncan, Tony Parker
