Spurs Review

The last post capped off an exciting 4th quarter of the game against the Golden State Warriors last Wednesday.

Since then there was an ugly 93-71 Spurs WIN at home against the old champions, the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday. I say ugly because the Mavs provided very little competition, but neither team could buy a bucket for a lot of the game (Spurs 40% Dallas 35% shooting). Another reason it was ugly was that our Spurs led 55-29 at halftime. So rather than allowing the 2nd-team to go in and play decent basketball to seal it early in the third, it seemed like it just got uglier for both teams.

In the 4th both teams finally started hitting shots, and made it interesting, but by this time, the game was pretty much decided.

A few highlights worth mentioning: The Spurs did manage a whopping 16 of 33 from three point range (49%), but the problem was inside the arc, they shot 18 of 53 (34%).. Go figure! Matt Bonner was 5 of 9 from three-range, Gary Neal made 4 of 7, and RJ also extended his hot shooting with a 3 of 7 night.
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Saturday's game vs. Denver was a pretty fun game. It was a shoot-out. Spurs jumped out to a 37-25 lead after one quarter, only to see it cut into a bit by halftime, 62-55.

Going into the 4th, we held a 9-point lead that was cut to only two by the 6-minute mark. The next 4 minutes we would outscore them 9-4 with critical jumpers by RJ, Ford, and Parker. Oddly enough a Danilo Galinari 3-pointer with 7 seconds left would cut our lead to 3, but Danny Green, who led the Spurs in scoring with 24 points - on 9 of 13
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shooting, made the clutch FTs required to seal the Spurs' WIN 121-117.

Six other Spurs scored in double figures, including Tony with 19, and RJ with an additional 19. Jeferson again shot a very nice 5-8 from three-range.

Having not yet won a game on the road yet, I knew the game at Oklahoma City would be very, very tough, notwithstanding that it would be their 3rd game in 3 nights. Once the contest approached the end of the 1st quarter, the Spurs never led, but were able to keep the game close for a chance to pull it out throughout.

Down by 2 after 1, and by 6 at the half (48-54), as is often the case, the 3rd quarter proved to be crucial, as their lead was 11 in less than 4 minutes. Bad Spurs shooting and several turnovers led to this lead becoming 16 in just a few more minutes. With a 22-point lead after 3 quarters,
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our starters sat, while our second team rallied late in the game to outscore the Thunder 15-4 in the final 3 minutes of the Spurs' LOSS -- 96-108.

Gary Neal had 18 on 7-12 shooting, and Kawhi Leonard & Richard Jefferson combined to hold Kevin Durant to only 21 points, but it was James Harden who was the man for OKC. The 6th man had 20, and was unstoppable for the most part.

Coming up is Tuesday night @ Milwaukee, followed immediately by a home game against Houston Wednesday - the 4th time we'll play Houston in a matter of a month.

I expect us to get both of these.

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