Way back when, I wrote this:

I wouldn’t be surprised to see Hill get a start in one of these games. A starting line-up of Duncan, Parker, Hill, Jefferson, and McDyess/Blair would be interesting. With his long arms, Hill can guard PGs all the way up to finesse PFs. Having him on the floor with Parker gives us another ball handler, and allows both to handle and play off the ball (remember, George was a 2 guard in college, and Parker plays very well off the ball). Manu could check in for Geoge about the 7-minute mark, then Hill could come back in for Parker near the end of the 1st/beginning of the 2nd.Just a thought, if you’re reading, Pop.

It seems as if Pop is reading, because that’s exactly what he did to start the game. And it seemed to be working beautifully, as we got off to a great start, jumping on them early and building a double-digit lead just minutes into the game.

Then it all started to unravel as the Rockets started chipping away at the lead. By halftime it was tied, and by the 4th quarter they had built a double-digit lead. Unfortunately, we were never able to get all the way back into the ball game.

I watched the second half of the game at a bar waiting to play a show. There were 40 TVs playing the Blazers-Celtics game (which the Blazers lost in heartbreaking fashion in OT), and one playing the Spurs game. I was shocked to see that the Spurs game was on; by the end of the game, I was pissed that it was on. I would have rather not seen that pathetic performance right before going on stage.

Since I watched the second half in a crowded, loud bar with no sound and plenty of interruptions, I’ll leave the recapping to Pop:

You got to play a lick of defense if you want to win in this league. Our defense against Utah and against Houston was very poor. 60 points in the second half against Utah and 61 in the second half tonight. That’s not going to win basketball games. It looks like the effort and all that sort of thing is great, but way too many mistakes…not enough focus…not enough execution. We’re scoring enough points to win games. We’re scoring more points than we’ve ever scored in our lives, but our defense is really sub-par and it’s killing us.

Timothy Varner over at 48MoH has written a great recap of the game that addresses several of the issues I was going to talk about. There seems to be an obvious correlation between our lack of defensive power and our over reliance on small ball, especially to close out games. It’s hard to protect the rim when Richard Jefferson is your PF. But it’s also obvious that outside of Duncan (and sometimes Blair, who really isn’t that big to begin with), we have no other big who really deserves crunch time minutes. McDyess isn’t getting it done; Bonner is still injured and not a great defender as it is; Ratliff, while a great defender, essentially handicaps us on offense. So what’s the answer? I don’t know. A trade? But is that even our biggest glaring hole? It seems like what we need more is a SF to back up Jefferson a bit more. I have more thoughts on this for a later post.

The other issue is Tony Parker, and more importantly his bum foot. With Plantar Fasciitis, there are no easy answers. We can try resting Parker for a game here or there, or maybe even a week or two. But for total recovery, he’s probably going to need at least 2-3 months rest. It took me(granted, not an elite athlete with a world-class trainer at my disposal) 3-4 months of complete rest with absolutely no activity to finally get over it. If 3 months rest isn’t in the cards for Parker (that would take us right to the start of the playoffs, if we’d even make it without TP), then what he is doing is all he can do: wearing the straussburg sock at night. I had to wear this damned thing every night for months.

It feels like something is broken, doesn’t it? We’re just not the team we’ve been nor the team we thought we’d be. Nothing seems to be working, and the mystique is quickly evaporating. No longer can we be counted on to pull out the crucial win down the stretch. Something needs to change, but I don’t know what it is. I hope to God that Pop and Buford do.

Looking Forward:

The home stand continues on Monday night as Chicago comes to town. The Bulls have been playing much better of late, posting an impressive win over the Suns in Phoenix last night (I also got to watch that game in the bar). You might remember that they kicked our butts in the second game of the year, as well. I would say a little payback is in order, but the way this team is playing, I have my doubts. At this point, I just want to see us win a game.