Spurs update

Home & home with the Utah Jazz Sunday & Monday. First one here, second one in Salt Lake City. Both games were terribly officiated. Here are the boxscores: Sunday 4/8: @SA-114 Uta-104 F -- Monday 4/9: @Uta-91 SA-84 F.

Pop chose to leave Tony, Manu, & Timmy at home for that second one. And we still almost won, despite the huge disparity at the free throw line. The night before we got the better end of the calls to the FT line, but they also missed tons of calls, and made so many bad calls, I was ready to scream.

I was also prepared for the previous limited post for those two games - but based upon the LA Lakers coming to town Wednesday. No doubt we'd have a great game hosting them for the first time this season, right? Not the case. Even without Kobe playing, we came out
Image Source (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

sluggish, worried, and as Sean Elliott said, "over-respecting" this team. Gary Neal didn't play due to a stomach issue, and Tony Parker seemed like he was either thinking abut his new French hottie, or dreaming about memories with Eva.

Bynum was huge in this game. Absolutely huge. 16 points & 30 rebounds. He had 19 at the half. Crazy stat #2: Metta World Peace led the Lakers in scoring with 26, including 5 of 8 from three. So as we were out-rebounded 60-33, and dominated inside most of the game, we still kept it reasonable for the most part - chipping away at the lead throughout. But it was the 3rd-Q that was our downfall. LA quickly increased the 5-pt. halftime lead to 13 in just over 3 minutes. We would close to within 9, but then go completely cold from the field, and fall to a 20-pt. deficit. Wow! Then later, down by 26 with 7+ left, the Spurs went on a 16-1 run to come within 11... but by that time, it was clear Pop was going to concede the loss with only 2 minutes to go. Lakers win 98-84.

In 24 minutes Duncan had 14 pts. 3 blocks, but 2 rebounds. In 26 minutes Manu had 9 pts., 4 reb., and 5 assists on 3 of 8 shooting. Most importantly, Tony had only 4 pts. on 2 of 12 shooting, with 8 assists. We simply got out-played, but I can guarantee it won't happen again. Every now & then the whole team is gonna have a bad game against a good team. This was one of those nights. Here is the boxscore.

Spurs/Lakers Score by quarters and all stats via ESPN.