Spurs-Nuggets Game

I watched the first half of that game last night? Anybody else?

It looked to me like two teams running helter-skelter without any real efforts at defense. A bazillion 3 attempts by Denver. Ty Lawson, who looked so good against Boston, didn't stop Parker from doing anything he wanted to do. After watching the workmanlike efficiency of the Celtics versus Atlanta, this looked like bedlam.

I just looked at who they've played, to-date. Their 3 losses came from NO, Dallas and the Clips. Their victories seemed, at first, to be mostly against weaker teams: Indiana, GSW (2x), Minny (2x), Portland, Cleveland, Houston, Milwaukee, Clips, Phoenix, Philly but some of them have been against Utah, Orlando, Chicago, Atlanta, OKC and last night against Denver. So, they have enough wins against .500+ teams to say they're legit, but I just don't see how, based upon the first half last night.

bob

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Bob,

I didn't see last night's game, and I've only seen bits and pieces of other games, so I can't really say what's going on down there. Of course, that doesn't stop me from commenting anyway.

The score of last night's game was very un-Spurs-like, but then they are scoring at a higher rate than you'd usually expect -- 106.1 per game, good for 5th in the league. I guess they have figured out how to beat you when they let a little bedlam happen.

The most remarkable stats I see for them are 3-pt shooting and FTs.

3-pt shooting:
Spurs - 218/531, 41.1%
Opponents - 152/374, 40.6%

FT shooting
Spurs - 511/651, 78.5%
Opponents - 379/518, 73.2%

So they shoot a LOT more 3-pt shots than the opposition (531 vs. 374), and they've made almost as many FTs as the opponents have taken (511 makes vs. 518 attempts). That, to me, is an unusual and normally unexpected combination, because a team that shoots a lot of three-pointers normally doesn't get fouled as much because of all those outside shots. They must be driving a lot when they're not shooting threes. Ginobli, the definition of bedlam, leads the team in FT attempts by a wide margin with 145, and he also leads the team by a wide margin in 3-pt attempts with 165. They obviously have a collection of solid players, but it looks like Manu may have the most impact of anyone on their offense (which means they could be at risk for a big drop if he gets hurt).

As for looking unworthy of their lofty status in last night's game, maybe it's an anomaly. The Celtics have been dominating at times during their current win streak but have also looked mortal at other times. The last two games have been squeakers for the Spurs, but they won by 17, 16, 17, and 25 the four games before that. If you'd watched one of those games, you might have a different impression of how good they are.

Outside