You're going to have to forgive us here in the early season for a bit. If we don't report on trends that are developing, we're ignoring what we're seeing. If we do tell you what we see, we're over-emphasizing games that are so young in this season that they can't even legally get into a screening of New Moon. Basically, that's my way of imploring you to remember that we do take these things with a gigantic mountain of salt, but here's what happened. And trust me, the Spurs are going to want to brush this one off.
The San Antonio Spurs consider themselves a championship contender. Loaded with talent both young and old, they consider themselves ready to compete with the Lakers for the Western Conference crown. But to do so they'll need to get the highest seed possible to face weaker opponents in early rounds. And in order to get that high seed, they'll need to win back-to-back games on the road. On Thursday they looked like that might be more of a challenge than they're ready for at this early stage, as the Spurs fell to the Chicago Bulls 92-85.
It was a night where the Spurs shot 19 percent from 3-point land, shot only 42 percent overall, and were beaten on the offensive glass, 15-8. But the most glaring thing you came away with in this game was that for a team that was supposed to have reloaded to get rid of that "old, tired" description that's hung around them for years, even when they were winning championships, the Spurs were blown away by the Bulls' speed, energy, and athleticism.
Tim Duncan did what he does, scoring 28 points on 19 shots with 16 boards and 3 blocks, a simply sublime performance. But Manu Ginobili was the only other Spur in double digits with 12, while Tony Parker shot 4-11, Richard Jefferson 3-9, and Roger Mason 0-4. Rookie sensation and instant hype machine DeJuan Blair had only 6 points and 4 rebounds in 12 minutes, good for a rookie, but close to what he'll probably produce night in and night out.
The Spurs were unable to close off penetration lanes, unable to block out Joakim Noah and Luol Deng (10 offensive rebounds combined), and unable to lock down Derrick Rose, who finished with 13 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists with just one turnover. The Bulls consistently were able to produce quality ball rotations leading to open three pointers. If the Bulls had shot better than their putrid 19% from the arc, the difference could have been greater. As it was, Luol Deng looked capable of filling in some of the gap from Ben Gordon's departure, Derrick Rose looked like he was progressing, Joakim Noah is a top 10 center in the league right now, and Kirk Hinrich provides both shooting and defensive toughness with quality minutes.
Perhaps most startling is that the Spurs, normally so resolved mentally, could have such a flat night so early. Just last night they walloped the Hornets, running them ragged and dominating them defensively. But against a Bulls squad who arguably have a better roster 1-10 than the Hornets, the Spurs looked not only slow and languid, but lost.
I'd expect an unpleasant conversation happened in the locker room after Thursday's game and that the Spurs will answer. But the loss might also be best served as a reminder to the Spurs not to believe the hype, and that like they always preach, they've got to keep pounding that rock with the hammer if they want to collect the one for the thumb.
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I'd be worried if it happens on a regular basis. Sometimes guys have to get in a grove and comfort zone and that could take maybe 20 games for some players into a season.
Ridiculous. This was the 2nd game and Pop has 7 new guys. If you watched the first game carefully, everybody was deferring to other guys-kind of like one of the Dream Team's games against lesser competition. The Hornets played right into the Spurs hands on opening night. As Pop kept rolling out player after player, it got in their heads. Spurs were stoked in front of the home crowd as well. The Bulls almost took out the Celtics last year-they are a good team and they know each other and have their system down. These guys (the Spurs) don't know each other. I think the most anyone played in game one was 24 minutes. These guys are still figuring out spacing, defensive assignments, figuring out each other. That kind of thing makes a team look slow as guys are thinking about where they are supposed to be more than playing in the flow. The biggest clue that this isn't a 'big' thing is Pop's post-game response-dude was joking about eating bratz-no stress, no gravitas. The Spurs will be up and down for the first 20 games. Pop knows this and isn't stressed about the first month and a half. He's still trying to figure out his rotation, what guys work best with others...and if you notice, last night Pop played four guys 32 plus minutes, something he doesn't need to do with this depth. Reason: He's showing all these newbies more of the system on both sides of the ball and sending a message about Spurs B-Ball-you have to earn your minutes. It was typical Pop-after a cakewalk over the Hornets, Pop sends a counter message to his guys that they best make the most of whatever time they get and be ready to roll whenever called upon. Pop only cares about being healthy and firing on all cylinders when the playoffs come around. When they get to the playoffs, he'll have his rotation set, the guys will know their assignments and the Spurs "Corporate Culture" will have sunk in. No worries. We're more than loaded and Pop will have this team in perfect shape come playoff time. This wasn't a 'back to back' issue. If the Spurs had spread the minutes out like they did game one, might have won. Pop was getting some extra work in for some guys while sending message to others early on-don't believe the hype, go out and earn it. Come on now, writer guy-you should know how he rolls and how the Spurs function.
Former Spurs assistant coach Brown has similar problems with the Cavaliers. Shaq is new, their Tony Parker isn`t married to cutie Eva Longoria, but he`s new, Moon is new, West, who started last season, probably won`t this, hasn`t played yet. Though the biggest problem for the Cavs is they wisely didn`t start Varajao preseason, but so far have started him regular season, telling themselves he improves their half court defense. Maybe, but he slows their full court offense and defense, and can`t shoot from mid range any better than Shaq or LeBron, so hurts them there, which always gives the opposing team missed shots to ignite their fast break offense. Running and gunning aren`t everything even in the regular season, but they help. Spurs seem to be trying to hand Bynum the starting all star center job, pretending Duncan is a forward, Bonner a center, when it is the other way around. But Bynum seems not to want to be an all star, scoring, but not rebounding, not playing defense. The Spurs have an excellent chance to overtake Denver for seocnd in the west. The Bulls should probably start Miller with Noah, speed isn`t all that counts, size helps, too.
Love those Spurs... :)