11/8 Spurs 111 - Suns 106 Game Thread

ace3g wrote:its weird, our centers always seem to have strong games against the Suns


Oberto 10-10 20 pts, 8 boards, 1 stl, 1 blk

It's not that weird. The Suns are a doughnut team...no center. They play 6'9" PF Kurt Thomas, or 6'8" SF Diaw, or 6'9" PF Stoudamire at the 5. Oh, and the fact that they triple Duncan helps.

they are going to cause me heart troubles if they keep up that kind of play. I am ready for another Knick style blow out.

Looks like I was off a basket, I had no idea how cheesy the Sun's defence was, I really hope you guys can fix Tim Duncan's free throw woes.
You can never win another ring without making the foul shots.

Good win, I hope you saved some juice for the rest of the month.

we all know what the spurs will be doing come playoffs............

oberto awesome game! tony parker even hit a 2 THREES!

Isn't it great that a fan of a team on 8 game losing streak has the balls to come in here and talk smack? Kudos to you mouse! Just fresh off a Clippers beat-down no less.

You know if you want to hop back on the Spurs bandwagon there just might be room.

We all know the Cuban-lead Mavs won't be winning a championship anytime soon.

Spurs bounce Suns in OT
By The Associated Press
Thursday, November 9, 2006


SAN ANTONIO - Tony Parker scored 29 points, and Fabricio Oberto added 22 on 11-of-11 shooting to lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 111-106 overtime victory over the struggling Phoenix Suns on Wednesday.
The Spurs (4-1) scored 10 of the first 12 points in overtime. Tim Duncan added 26 points and 14 rebounds. Oberto also added 10 rebounds for his first career double-double.

The Suns (1-4) went 2 of 6 from the floor during overtime while San Antonio hit 5 of 7.

Steve Nash had 20 points and 11 assists, and Raja Bell added 20 points for the Suns. Amare Stoudemire added 16 for Phoenix in 15 foul-plagued minutes.

Suns Thriller Turns Less Than Thrilling

The Suns were handling the Spurs throughout first and third but came up short in the other quarters including overtime, yet played extremely well. Amare's debut start was NICE and he is going to bring the dimension that this team needs to go far. His court movement was all but perfect in the first as he became the recipient of many a Nash highlight pass in a position to stuff the synthetic roundie through the net. The man single handedly created work for poster printers everywhere, on more than one occasion. Thanks to Amare some kid has a job to do, if only for an hour or two.

I thought he would get handled by the Spurs bigs but he was quick and effective. He then got into foul trouble before becoming the unfortunate benefactor of some shotty reffin.' Barbosa also felt that pain when he was cut across the wrist by the dirtiest man in the lig, Bruce Bowen (can someone please hurt this man?) off a drive where he was then called for an offensive foul. Before Amare fouled out he managed more of the game he displayed in the first half, also adding some silky jumpers and easy buckets. Some of it was due to rust but like the rest of the team, he got tired.

Boris Diaw was quiet again and I'm not enjoying that, especially since he's weighing down my fantasy team. San Anton is a difficult matchup for him so I expect he will respond better tomorrow against a good matchup, Dallas. Boris torched this Dallas squad in the past season's Western Conference Finals and they are actually playing worse than we are at this point, thankfully. I did notice Boris at least tried to actively look for his shot tonight but the ones from Alamoland were the better team this evening, this early in the season. The Matrix did a lot of standing around tonight and wasn't much of a force offensively.



Talk about shots, Raja got his mojo back before hitting the huge shot to get us back into it late in the fourth quarter and Steve was hittin' circus shots all over the place. Raja then took some contact from a layup attempt and got to the line where he hit one of two to send it to overtime. I forgive him for missing the second freethrow since he alone dug us out of a six foot grave deep in the fourth. Speaking of Raja and graves, my baby's mama said she thinks Raja is a "cool" name and that "it sounds egyption." So, whatever that means.



I think we proved something tonight. We took a big step forward in terms of getting the team up to optimal shape and performance. Our rotations were much better, not perfect, but Amare will be entirely more effective playing the role he did this evening. I would like to see Coach Mike play Banks more when we get cold and ball movement stalls, like in the fourth quarter and into overtime. He may still be a raw athlete but I like that he is incredibly quick and can get layups in traffic, much like Barbosa, but more blatant. Banks can be a great spark for our team while letting Steve rest; he only played 34 minutes tonight in an overtime game. profound.

San Antonio played well tonight so I tip my hat to them. They had Tim Duncan to go to in crunch time at the end when we got sloppy and tired. If Amare is in the game maybe we win. If we bring someone off the bench as a spark when we get really cold in the fourth maybe we win. We have to find a balance of jump shooters and scorers in the rotation who can get to the hoop regardless of contact. I like where we are heading and I like our chances tomorrow.

Man, in the fourth when Bell was at the free throw line, I was like miss one, at least miss one!
He did.
OT was awesome, wish the Spurs would have played like the whole 48 minutes of the regular session. All well, all that matters to me is that they got that W.

Blondie wrote:Suns Thriller Turns Less Than Thrilling


I thought he would get handled by the Spurs bigs but he was quick and effective. He then got into foul trouble before becoming the unfortunate benefactor of some shotty reffin.' Barbosa also felt that pain when he was cut across the wrist by the dirtiest man in the lig, Bruce Bowen (can someone please hurt this man?) off a drive where he was then called for an offensive foul. Before Amare fouled out he managed more of the game he displayed in the first half, also adding some silky jumpers and easy buckets. Some of it was due to rust but like the rest of the team, he got tired.

Poor Suns. I saw plenty of blown calls both ways. How about Parker getting hammered inside, missing the layup, and setting up Phoenix for a free fast break? How about Duncan getting hit in the head? How about the fact that Barbosa should have gotten a flagrant foul for flagrantly attacking Ginobilli's prominent beak?

As for Stoudemire, he was playing out of control...kind of like a guy who hadn't played much last year. It's not that surprising that he fouled out.

This one hurts
Injuries, missed opportunities cost struggling Suns, who drop to 1-4 with loss
Paul Coro
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 9, 2006 12:00 AM


SAN ANTONIO - Blowing big leads in the first three losses brought heartache. This one hurt all over.

Falling to 1-4 with a 111-106 overtime loss Wednesday to San Antonio was painful from the start, when Steve Nash suffered a hip sprain, to the end, when Raja Bell's midsection ached twice from missing a possible game-winning free throw in regulation to falling in overtime to a rib cartilage injury.

And even with Nash's and Bell's status unclear for tonight's home game with Dallas, the club's worst start since an 0-13 start in 1996-97 and a sixth straight regular-season loss in San Antonio, there was plenty to feel good about.

Phoenix had found itself. Starting Amaré Stoudemire harkened back to some of the thunder from when San Antonio last saw him scoring 42 points and grabbing 16 rebounds in 2005.

In his first start, Stoudemire made 8 of 11 shots for 16 points and six rebounds in 15 minutes. It was a short night because he fouled out and had his defensive struggles, volleying lane-filling dunks with defensive lapses.

"It's going to be the same (tonight) without fouling out," Stoudemire said. "I think (starting) really helped out."

Bell's three-point struggles vanished as he hit 5 of 8 three-point tries on a 20-point night. Phoenix led 95-89 before San Antonio rallied in the last 2:15 of regulation.

The crushing blow came when Bell fouled Tim Duncan for a three-point play on a beautiful zigzag play with an assist from Fabricio Oberto, who punished Phoenix for ignoring him by making all 11 of his shots. The Spurs led 101-97 with 10.8 seconds to go after Duncan made a free throw but Bell hit a three-pointer from the corner to pull the Suns within one.

After Duncan missed two free throws, a play designed for Leandro Barbosa to get the ball and look for Shawn Marion cutting to the rim crumbled but Bell wound up isolated against Oberto and got fouled driving with 1.5 seconds to go and the Spurs ahead 101-100. He made the first and missed the second, sending it to overtime where Phoenix could not get a stop.

"Unfortunately, I might've counted my chickens before they hatched," Bell said of his missed free throw as ice was wrapped around his midsection. "I was shocked because it felt good. The ball was feeling good coming off my hand. I knew it was in the basket."

A postgame X-ray showed that Bell did not break a rib. Stoudemire already was long gone on a missed call. The Spurs should have had a shot clock violation when Brent Barry's shot failed to catch rim with 4:17 to go in regulation but Tony Parker grabbed the ball and Stoudemire fouled out with the lead still at six after Parker's free throws.

"A couple of plays were questionable," Stoudemire said. "I feel like I was playing pretty good defense on Tim. But he was struggling so the officials got him going. I guess that happens when you're a superstar in this league."


http://www.azcentral.com/sports/suns/articles/1109sunsgamer1109.html

Spurs' Duncan atones for missed FTs
Mike Monroe - Express-News Staff Writer
Web Posted: 11/09/2006

Tony Parker winced when Tim Duncan missed two free throws with 6.3 seconds left in regulation Wednesday night against the Suns, leaving the Spurs up by only one point.

His shoulders slumped when Suns guard Raja Bell, a 79 percent free-throw shooter last season, was fouled in the act of shooting with 1.5 seconds left.


Two makes by Bell, and the Spurs would have been in danger of losing a game that would have been secure before Duncan missed two foul shots.

But Bell let Duncan off the hook when his miss left the score tied at 101, headed to an overtime the Spurs controlled to secure a 111-106 victory.

"When Timmy missed those free throws," Parker said, "I was thinking, 'Well, it was a great comeback, but stuff happened.' But Raja missed one, too, and we won in overtime, and Timmy made big shot after big shot."

Indeed, Duncan's 26-point, 14-rebound performance was his best of the young season. Duncan had six assists, too, four of them to center Fabricio Oberto, who made all 11 of his shots in what turned out to be a historic performance.

Even Duncan's 6-of-9 free-throw shooting was acceptable, save for the bad timing of the two misses at the end of regulation. Duncan's three misses were the only foul-line failures for the Spurs, who made 22 of 25.

"We shot (free throws) great as a team," Duncan said. "I missed those two down the stretch that could have iced the game for us. But we showed a lot of character recovering from that and playing well in overtime and finishing the game."

Duncan was at his best in the fourth quarter. The Spurs recovered from a nine-point deficit with 5:25 remaining to take a 101-97 lead with 10.8 seconds left when Oberto hit Duncan with a slick bounce pass for a layup that became a three-point play. Duncan scored seven straight for the Spurs as they took their first lead since the opening minute of the second half.

On back-to-back possessions, Duncan scored on bank shots from tough angles over Phoenix's Kurt Thomas, one of the league's better low post defenders.

Duncan said the Spurs knew they could come back on the Suns as long as they toughened a bit defensively.


"With them, you have to understand there's a lot of possessions," he said. "They're going to not use the whole 24 (seconds). In that respect, we're going to have opportunities if we just get a stop."

The key "stop" turned out to be a gift from Bell.



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mikemonroe@express-news.net