Well, look who showed up!!

Now THAT’S more like it!!

Hey fellas! Glad you decided to join us Thursday evening. I guess cajun food wasn’t to your liking so you needed some good ol’ Tex Mex. I live in Michigan, I feel your pain! Gregg Popovich once said this about a slumping Tony Parker..”He needs to participate in his own recovery.” On a bigger scale, so did the Spurs in this series. After getting chewed up in the first two games like beignets on Bourbon Street, the Spurs turned it around in game 3 with a solid 110-99 win.

The key? Aggressiveness. As we discussed in my two previous installments of this Silver and Black manifesto, that was the main ingredient in that delicious stew we call the NBA playoffs. That ingredient was nowhere to be found in games 1 and 2. San Antonio looked old, slow and ready for the golf course while New Orleans was young, quick and ready to win a title.

In Game 3, the Spurs started out slow, down 8-0 early and it looked like another disappointment looming then all of a sudden, something clicked and the Big 3 were back. Tim Duncan had another solid game with 16 points and 13 rebounds. He only took 13 shots but he was finding open teammates and, for the first time this series, they were hitting shots. Also, something Duncan did different was he was not waiting for the double team to come, he got the ball and attacked. That’s the Timmy D we know, love and need!

Speaking of “look who showed up”….how about that Manu guy? Remember what I said in after Game 2….

Oh and Manu? Step the hell up. Right now. In the past, you have shined brightest when the brightest lights are shined upon you. Well, bust out the sunscreen hermano, because it doesn’t get any brighter than this.

And step up he did. 31 points and 6 assists in a return to the starting lineup. That move is reminiscent of the 2005 Western Conference Semis against Seattle. After losing Game 1 of the first round of the playoffs to Denver, Pop brought Ginobili off the bench in Game 2 and the Spurs won the next 4, against the Sonics in the next round SA won the first two then lost the next two in Seattle. Pop reversed his decision, started Manu, and SA won the next two and closed out the series. Look for Ginobili to start the rest of the series. Also look for Bowen to be on Peja again. Stojakovic went for 22 and 25 in the first 2 games but was held to only 8 on 2-7 shooting when Bruce locked up on him.

The story of the night however, was at the point guard position. Chris Paul and Tony Parker put on a duel for the ages. Parker finished with 31 points and 11 assists while Paul had 35 and 9. Both players dazzled us with an array of mad dashes to the basket mixed in with teardrops, fade aways and coming off screens to nail jump shots. They drew each other on defense but it turned out to be more like a game of “that was nice, but watch this!” Lucky for we fans of NBA basketball, Parker is 25 and Paul is 23 so we will be seeing them do this for years to come.

So what was it that the Spurs did better in Game 3 that wasn’t there in Games 1&2?

Shooting 48% from the floor helped including 11 3-pointers as did New Orleans only making 2 out of 11 from long range. SA finally out-rebounded New Orleans but only by 2. Less turnovers? Yes, the Spurs only had 10 but so did the Hornets. Did the dreaded free throw cucuy rear its ugly head? Definitely not! The Spurs only missed 4 out of 21 taken.

The difference was simple. Aggression…on offense and defense, especially coming out of the locker room at halftime. In the first two games San Antonio lead early in the third but ended up getting outscored 29-17 in Game 1 and 36-18 in Game 2. Thursday night, it was the Spurs who came out strong in the third and outscored the Hornets 29-22. The defensive rotations were crisp, the ball movement was fluid and instead of settling for jump shots (as we lamented in my previous two entries) the Spurs attacked the basket. Tony Parker, Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, it didn’t matter which one of the big 3 it was, they decided that they we through being pushed around inside. It was almost as if, the Spurs sent a team of dopplegangers to the Big Easy and the real team was waiting in the AT&T Center resting up. As sluggish as San Antonio looked in New Orleans, that was how sharp they looked back home.

So now what? Let’s not forget that SA is still down 2-1 and Byron Scott knows how to adjust to his opponent. They still have Chris Paul and the Spurs still do not seem to have a consistently successful way to guard David West. The one thing that Gregg Popovich is known for is finding what works and sticking to it, sometimes to a fault. They need that now. Don’t change anything..don’t get cute, just keep playing Spurs basketball. Rotate on defense, attack on offense, CP3 will get his but if Bowen can continue to lock up Peja and if someone can stop West at least once..this series can be all even.