Last night’s game can be summed up in one word.
Ewww.
First off, that is terrible grammar. Second, it is accurate.
This game felt like a high school game — a lot of craziness with a few oohs and ahhs that made it seem better than what it was. I wouldn’t have been surprised if there was a Homecoming Dance after the game.
With the final score, you should expect to hear plenty of excuses about the Lakers missing Howard, Gasol, Hill, Blake, Joey Crawford, Jackson, Magic, Worthy, Cooper, Rambss, West and Wilt (too far?). But we deserve it. We might as well sit there and take it after that.
As far as Pop was concerned, Kawhi’s defense was the only real game highlight and I tend to agree with him. He called our defense “raggedy,” and said he didn’t even know that team out there.
Ewww.
Manu said after the game that if they play like that against Memphis, they lose.
Ewww.
Neal’s corner three in the first corner rolled around the rim for a second and accidentally fell in. He shrugged his shoulders and sighed, admitting reluctantly that it shouldn’t have gone in.
Ewww.
Stephen Jackson lost his mind.
Ewww.
Parker had 6 turnovers. Some were unwatchable, like that junk at the end of the game. Whatever that was, the lady in the second row barely caught it.
Ewww.
Duncan. 8 Points. 7 Rebounds.
Ewww.
And the worst part of all…
Laker wife is sitting next to me on the couch and talking about the game. Here are some memorable quotes:
“Why is your coach so mad?”
“Who is that guy number 50 for the Lakers? I have never seen him before.”
“Wow, did you see Kobe make that shot?”
“Metta is doing so good!”
Or my personal favorite:
“Wow, I didn’t think we would actually be this close.”
Ewww.
Fortunately for me, her team is terrible.
I felt like the Spurs JV Team got lucky with this one. One of the best things that happened for us was Kobe hitting those two 3s back-to-back in the 3rd quarter, one from the “S” near center court. After he made that, I was pretty convinced he wasn’t going to pass for the rest of the game and I was almost right.
Sometimes you have to let players like Kobe, Russell Westbroke, Chris Bosh, Jason Terry and Gerald Wallace make a couple ridiculous shots. It boosts their confidence, but lowers their sense of reality. So let those shots fall.
Aside from the fact that they are pretty banged up, the Lakers are just hard to watch. They don’t like each other, they don’t know or believe in their offense and the gap between their best player and second best player may as well be a canyon. And Kobe knows it and shows it on the court.
Mike D’antoni is way too optimistic and I am not really sure what he does. He spends more time yelling, “C’mon man,” at officials and clapping his hands wildly than he does offering his team some real coaching. This team isn’t built for his system.
To quote Jon Barry, “World, Metta, Peace, Ron Artest, or whatever his name is,” is really the only person who was seems like he is trying. He picked up a few steals in the back court from us and kind of inspired Earl Clark to get in the act.
That reminds me, there is no reason we should have allowed 22 points to Earl Clark.
Ewww.
Our bright spots tonight? Well there weren’t many, but Manu had a couple sweet dunks, including one where the Lakers went to the hotdog stand instead of playing defense in the 2nd quarter. (Kobe and Nash were discussing relish and mustard or something).
I thought Jackson played great until he went all Pacer/Buck/Warriors on us. I love his game. He’s probably my favorite Spur other than Duncan. He isn’t as fast as he once was, but he even had a dunk tonight and finished with 14 points. Then he got ejected during a timeout after getting two technical fouls in a span of like six seconds or something?
Ewww.
Our most impressive players tonight were Leonard and Splitter. Kawhi had 11/3/2, but annoyed the daylights out of Kobe. Kobe pouted off the court at the end of the game and I can’t help but think it was half way because of Leonard.
Tiago had a solid 14 points and 14 rebounds. He looks like Kareem out there with that hideous hook shot. But I am thoroughly impressed with his hands this year. I wish that Sacre and Artest didn’t push him around so much, but what are you going to do?
While this game gave me much to brag about against the ever so beautiful Laker wife and the ridiculous number of Laker fans on my ship, the Jackson ejection, final score and Popovich scowl did nothing to make me smile. Were it not for Parker’s couple of jumpers and Manu’s big three, I would have been sleeping on the couch tonight.
Ewww.
Friday we play at Memphis. Hopefully, we won’t play to the level of our competition this time, because we might not win that one. Memphis is too good for that kind of game. It is too long of a season to develop a bad habit and we should nip it in the bud now. Expect a fired up group on Friday.
Fortunately, any win against the Lakers is always a good win. We should be able to beat them any time we play them this year. That is, until Steve Black comes back.
