Spurs Recap

If ever there was an opportunity to snatch a win from San Antonio in there place last night was it. However the Blazers failed to capitalize and were outworked, outhustled, and outsmarted by the veteran Spurs. Tony Parker scorched us for 39 points (17-27 FG) and 9 assists. We let him pretty much get anywhere he wanted on the court, and it showed as he had 21 points in the first half on 9-12 shooting. Despite his amazing FG% in the first half we were still only down by 3 at halftime after a great individual effort from Batum to steal the inbounds pass and drain a 3 with 1 second left in the half. However, in the 2nd half we found ourselves settling for jumpshot after jumpshot and not taking advantage of the open looks generated by the Spurs double teaming Roy and Aldridge. They basically said “someone besides Roy and Aldridge step up and beat us”. Well no one did. It was a disappointing loss that does not fall on one player, but the entire team.

Individual Performances

Brandon Roy – Roy struggled to get a good look all night and ended up going 5-18 for only 14 points. Usually you see Roy getting teammates involved when he is having such a difficult time scoring, and he tried but no one else stepped up. I also thought Brandon was somewhat content settling for his jumper rather then getting the rim against the undersized Spurs.

LaMarcus Aldridge – Not such a pleseant home coming for LA. He ended with 13 and 7 on 4-9 shooting. He struggled to find his groove against he likes of Matt Bonner and Kurt Thomas. That just goes to show how good of team defense the Spurs play. Like Roy, LA could not/would not get to the rim, and relied on his jumper far too much.

Steve Blake – Blake killed us by going 0-9 and 0-2 from 3. He struggled to keep Parker in front of him, and was exposed early and often. During the 2nd half, I noticed that Blake began to get gun shy and was not shooting open shots when they came to him off of Roy double teams. If you are not going to take advantage of the open looks given to you by the other team doubling, then you deserve to lose.

Channing Frye – Too bad this game wasn’t played on a “Friday”. Get it? Frye had his best game of the year with 15 points and 7 rebounds. He seemed to be the only one to truly mix it up on offense, and played a season high 25 minutes. He was one of the main reasons we were in the game as long as we were.

Travis Outlaw – Outlaw played well also, scoring 13 points (6-9) and 5 boards. I wish we would have went to him a little more down the stretch, but I don’t know if it would have changed the outcome of the game.

Nicolas Batum – Batum did his usual thing, plus some 3’s. The last two games Nic is 5-6 from deep. That is definitely a welcome stat.

Joel Przybilla – Przy played decent and ended with 8 points and 10 boards in just 22 minutes. Przy was shelved in favor of a smaller lineup to matchup with the Spurs small lineup a little better.

Sergio Rodriguez – Sergio played a very good game, and ended with 8 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds, and only 1 turnover in 20 minutes. He is the main reason Frye and Outlaw got off to such a good start. Sergio was definitely the right play over Bayless tonight.

Rudy Fernandez – Rudy continues to struggle with his shot and ended with only 5 points (2-8 FG, and 1-6 from 3). Out of all of our rookies, you can see the “Rookie Wall” affecting Rudy the most.

Game Summary in One Sentence: A tough loss, and a not so nice reminder of what it is going to take down the stretch to get into the playoffs.