Spurs 104, Grizzlies 101 Post-Game Three-Pointer
Griz lose a tight one tonight in what was a very good basketball game. As always, three observations on the night’s action.
1. Closing it Out
With just over two minutes to go and the game tied, I turned to a media-row colleague and remarked that it was dread, not excitement, that was in the air. Having been to every Griz opening night, I know how they play out: The deflating blowout or the gripping heartbreaker. By that point, it was clear which way this one was headed.
The Griz just couldn’t close it out, coming up a little short all-around. Pau Gasol hit a stirring reverse layup around Tim Duncan to tie it at the 2:04 mark, but missed back-to-back shots around that to go 1-5 down the stretch. Mike Miller missed a crucial free throw late. These are things we’ve seen before. Rudy Gay’s offensive foul (a legit if potentially unnecessary call) and Marc Iavaroni leaving the team without a potentially crucial timeout at the end of the game added new wrinkles to how the Griz can let a close one slip away. Still, a mostly well-played game against probably the best team in basketball.
2. Darko!
His stat line didn’t look like much — 8 points and 7 boards — but Darko Milicic looked better tonight relative to expectations than any other Griz player. The Griz don’t need Darko to be a star. They just need him to be what he was tonight: A good rebounder (7 in only 28 minutes is solid work), an efficient scorer (4-6 from the floor), and, most importantly, a presence in the paint defensively. Darko did about as well as you could expect on Tim “The Best Basketball Player in the World” Duncan, playing solid, physical D most of the night and even blocking him clean late in the game. After a sketchy preseason, this was a good opening performance for the big guy.
3. Rudy, Take 1
Our cover boy this week didn’t have a huge game, but he was okay, scoring 16 points on 7-15 shooting (one miss a 40-foot heave to end the game) and grabbing 6 boards in 28 foul-plagued minutes. He dominated in one brief stretch when the Spurs foolishly asked Matt Bonner to guard him one-on-one. (What would look more enticing to Rudy Gay — Beyonce in bed or Matt Bonner in a defensive stance?) His outside shot was off and he made a couple of bad decisions. Subtly, though, he played good defense against Manu Ginobili in the second half. It might sound odd to praise the defensive effort on Ginobili on a night where the herky-jerky Argentian poured in 30 points, but Ginobili scored 18 of those in the first half, when Gay rarely (if ever) checked him and 7 of those at the free-throw line down the stretch when the Griz were fouling intentionally. Ginobili only scored 5 points in the second half during normal play, with Gay guarding him much of the half.
Still it wasn’t an ideal Rudy Gay game for this reason: Combined blocks, steals, and dunks: 0. When Gay is playing well, you expect lots of all three of those. One problem tonight was that foul trouble kept Iavaroni from using Gay at the power forward as much as he’d like.
The Jacob Riis Report: You want a scouting report on Matt Bonner? Here it is: DO NOT LEAVE HIM on pick and pop plays. He will sink the 3. On the other end, isolate him and attack him, NO MATTER WHO HE’S GUARDING. There. File that away for future reference.
Tip-Ins:
It seemed a little odd that Casey Jacobsen was not only the first player off the bench for the Griz tonight but that he came into the game late — rather than Juan Carlos Navarro, who was 3-4 from downtown — when the team needed a three-pointer. Navarro had been a little wild, with 4 turnovers in 17 minutes. But JC certainly seems like the more dangerous shooter.
Attendance tonight: 17,538. Not quite a sellout, but not bad. On the other hand, Pau Gasol won’t be giving away 500 tickets to every game.
I tend to rag on Damon Stoudamire, but he is the most experienced point guard on the team and by far the best shooter at the position. Both of those factors worked in his favor tonight.
The biggest problem against the Tim Duncan-led Spurs? Not getting pounded on the boards, but getting beat on the perimeter, where the Griz allowed too many wide open looks. Iavaroni cited defense on pick-and-pop and drive-and-kick plays as one of the team’s biggest areas of needed improvement.
