Spurs - Wolves 30/12/09

Une petite victoire facile , pour travailler les automatismes .
Ils se sont fait plaisir , et ils nous ont fait plaisir .

Gino a fait un super match .

Citation :

"When you see [Ginobili] hustling and trying to make extra passes, it's contagious and we're a better basketball team when we play like that," Mason said. "When one guy does it, other guys want to do it. The next thing you know you have guys who almost have triple-doubles like Manu tonight. It's just fun basketball to play like that.

Franchement c'était le allstar game hier soir. Offensivement ça fait vraiment très longtemps que je n'ai pas vu une telle euphorie. Ca fait plaisir et c'était vraiment très joli à regarder. Les wolves ont quand même réussi à s'accrocher et le score n'est pas si exagéré que ça, ça aurait pu être pire quand on voit la qualité offensive des Spurs hier.
C'était peut être du à des relachements défensifs par moment ou trop d'euphorie en attaque et on loupait du tout cuit avec une passe en trop ou un move risqué. Malgrès ça on a vu que par moments les Spurs ont su hausser le niveau en défense et se montrer plus agressif.
Après Manu nous a fait le show, il était partout, mais alors partout. Des interceptions, des passes de malades en passant par des 3 points, il leur a fait la totale. Jefferson a pu montrer son efficacité en contre attaque, Mason était affuté, Tim n'a pas eu à forcer le talent tellement il était facile et TP a fait un match très correct bien que son shoot extérieur ne voulait pas rentrer.
En tout cas ça m'a fait plaisir de voir jouer les SPURS comme ça, faut voir si ce genre de match peut créer le déclic et faire que la cohésion s'améliore en tout cas, j'ai l'impression qu'on est sur le bon chemin. Bon faut relativiser, ce n'était que les Wolves en face, mais tout de même, il y a du mieux!!!
GO SPURS GO

Spurs' Ginobili shaping up nicely
By Jeff McDonald - Express-News


The passes come zipping from every direction, and in every way imaginable.

No look. Behind-the-back. Over-the-shoulder. In traffic. With English.

If there's one thing DeJuan Blair has learned early in his rookie season with the Spurs, it's that when Manu Ginobili is directing a fast break, expect the unexpected.

“He can throw it off his back, hit it off his foot,” Blair said. “He can do anything. He's amazing.”

In the Spurs' 117-99 trouncing of Minnesota on Tuesday night, Ginobili did everything but sell popcorn.

In what coach Gregg Popovich called one of his Argentine guard's best all-around games, Ginobili had 14 points, nine rebounds, 10 assists and three steals, narrowly missing the first triple-double of his career. Improbably, his overstuffed stat sheet didn't do justice to the havoc he wreaked on the Timberwolves.

With Ginobili in the lead, tossing the ball around the AT&T Center like a live grenade, the Spurs enjoyed a season-high 29 fast-break points en route to their ninth win in 11 games.

“We really moved the ball well,” Ginobili said. “When we do that, everybody feels good, and everybody hustles. It's a different mood.”

Spurs forward Richard Jefferson scored 24 points, a team-leading total that matched his second-best game of the season. Tim Duncan added a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double. Roger Mason Jr. had 18 points, including 10 in the second quarter as the Spurs (18-11) began to turn the game into a laugher.

All of it was obscured by Hurricane Manu.

There were times when it looked as if Ginobili had a homing device in the back of his head. He seemed bent on getting all of his teammates in on the tail end of a SportsCenter highlight.

In the first half, he hit a trailing Jefferson with a no-look touch pass for a dunk. After a steal, he found George Hill with a length-of-the-court, over-the-shoulder fling that, to the uninitiated, might have looked like an 80-foot hook shot that only went 60.

Later, he hit Blair with a behind-the-back job while falling out of bounds, the ball finding the Spurs' big rookie so unexpectedly that he was surprised he'd caught it, even after he did.

It was as if Ginobili were a Globetrotter, and the Timberwolves (7-25) were the Washington Generals.

“He has a lot of tricks in his bag,” Hill said. “When he's out running the break, you know to keep your head up. He'll throw it through his legs, with backspin. He throws all kinds of stuff.”

On nights like this, when Ginobili can dominate a game by making just five field goals, general manager R.C. Buford must feel like locking up him to a long-term contract extension — and signing Ginobili's pending twins for good measure.

Tuesday's performance was Ginobili's third good one in a row and one of the first times he looked more like the game-changing dervish he was earlier in his career, and not the injury-plagued player he's been for the past season and a half.

“He looked,” Popovich said, “like Manu.”

Ginobili's wrap-around to Blair gave him his season-high 10th assist with 6:02 to play, moving him as close as he'd ever been to a triple-double. Popovich left him in the game a little longer than usual to allow him to grab a 10th rebound.

Minnesota, which had shot below 40 percent for most of the game, responded by making four of its next five shots. With 4:52 left, Popovich pulled Ginobili aside and asked if he'd like to stick around for a chance to finish off the feat.

Ginobili declined. Even when it seemed as if he could do anything, it didn't mean he had to do everything.

“I guess the triple-double is a big deal in the States,” Ginobili said. “For me, it's not. I was not going to force it.”

Jefferson holds his own against bigger foes
By Mike Monroe - Express-News


With power forward-center Matt Bonner on the shelf with a broken bone in his right hand, Spurs small forward Richard Jefferson has found himself matched up defensively with power forwards for significant stretches recently.

The list of big men Jefferson has banged with in the post includes Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge, Milwaukee's Hakim Warrick, New York's Al Harrington and, on Tuesday night at the AT&T Center, Minnesota's 6-foot-10, 250-pound Kevin Love.

It is not always the physical mismatch it appears. Jefferson on Tuesday more than held his own against Love. He also blocked a shot by 6-10, 265-pound Wolves center Al Jefferson early in the second quarter, then swatted another by Love a few minutes later. The official statisticians ruled the ball had slipped out of Love's hand before Jefferson knocked it aside, turning it into a turnover on Love, rather than a block for Jefferson.

Though only 6-7, Jefferson said he has had plenty of experience defending bigger players.

“No, blocking the bigs' shots isn't part of my defensive game,” Jefferson said, “but I'm long enough and athletic enough, and it's just a matter of being in the right spot to help out Timmy (Duncan).

“I played center in high school, and I know how to block shots. I jumped center in college, and I've played some big-man roles.”

Jefferson also had one of his most efficient offensive games, scoring 24 points on 10-of-17 shooting that included four 3-pointers on seven attempts.

He's No. 2: At halftime, it was hard to say which of the Spurs' backup guards had asserted himself more: Manu Ginobili or Roger Mason Jr.

By the time the Spurs had put the finishing touches on their 117-99 victory, their third straight, Ginobili's near triple-double had focused him squarely in the spotlight.

That was fine with Mason, content that he is re-establishing himself as a key contributor after ceding his starting role to Keith Bogans.

Mason continues to show he has ability beyond being a spot-up shooter from long range. He finished with 18 points, making four of seven 3-point shots.

“I'm just continuing to evolve as a player and realize I can get past my guy a lot of times and try to make the extra pass,” he said. “It's contagious. When one guy does it, then another guy wants to do it, and the next thing you know, one guy almost has a triple-double, like Manu tonight.”

Voilà ce que je veux voir en défense !!!
On a vu des rotations, des contres, peu de panier facile pour les wolves...

Et puis en attaque c'était régalade !
Cette adresse à trois points entre RJ, Mason et Gino, que du bonheur...
Voir le banc faire un petit écart en première mi-temps, ça me fait grave plaisir.

J'espère que Fin va vite revenir et être dedans dès son retour.

En tous un pur régal pour les yeux même si on a laissé un peu trop rebond off aux wolves...

En espèrant que ça soit le début d'une longue et belle série...

J'avais oublié de parler du super jeu de passe. Quelle fluidité !!!
Bon certes ce n'est pas la première défense de la ligue mais quand même...

Ça fait plaisir de lire des choses comme ça. A confirmer contre un prétendant maintenant... C'est le gros problème de cette équipe cette année.

quelqu'un a le game? on peut le DL quelque part?
merci et si on se voit pas d'ici là BONNE ANNEE EPERONNE!!