You could see the ugliness coming. Early start in Toronto, two things that have historically boded poorly for the Spurs. Throw in a pesky Raptors team that is better than their record indicates, and this game had sloppy, frenetic, disjointed, and ugly written all over it.
Since we (mercifully) got the win, let’s focus on some of the good things from this game:
–Boris Diaw showed a rare offensive aggression, looking to score and be more than just a facilitator. While he is an incredible passer, it’s when he looks to score that he becomes a more dangerous player. If the defense doesn’t know what he’ll do, both options become more viable.
–Danny Green played great defense down the stretch, particularly on DeRozan, another SF having a field day on our SF-less team. My favorite stat, though? A team-leading 9 rebounds.
–Speaking of rebounds, I liked the way our wing players fell back and helped to rebound. We still gave up way too many second chance points, but 7 rebs for Neal, 7 for Ginobili, 9 for Green, and 6 for Parker are positive trends.
–Parker turned in another superlative game, his 3rd in a row. Ginobili was also, again, very Ginobili-esque, particularly in the second half. If they are both close to finding their rhythm and Duncan continues his quiet greatness, this team will be every bit as good as last year’s team.
A quick turnaround for a game against the winless Wizards tomorrow night. It will be interesting to see what Pop does with the line-up and with minutes, given the monster minutes played by most of our key rotation guys today. The earlier start should help with recovery. I think we’ll go deep into the bench, but that every player will still play. And I think we’ll still win.
