Kondor
Jul 24, 2009 May 31, 2012 25 12964
a fan of
San Antonio Spurs
Spartak, Moscow
Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova
Germany
Green Bay Packers
RSSUser Blog
Captain on the Rocks
by Kondor on Apr 11, 2012 2:20 AM EDT
on Pounding The Rock
Yesterday our Spurs lost a regular season game to Utah Jazz, and what I saw in that game made me worry. Let me clarify: I liked most of the game. I liked that Pop left our Big 3 to get rest at home. I liked our staring five, with three out of the five who were not even in the Spurs uniform until recently. I liked that the game was close all the way. I liked our run in the 4th, which was almost enough to put the game out of the Jazz's reach. I didn't like the refs, but I don't worry about them. I don't worry about out interior D that often looked like crap without Timmy. I don't worry about Patty's or Gary's shot selection. I don't worry about Boris's fouls. I don't worry about our bigs, Sexplots, deBeast, Coach B and the FatMan. I don't worry whether RJ would disappear in the playoffs again, because he disappeared already before the trade deadline. But I do worry about this line:
| S. Jackson(notes) | F | 31:32 | 2-13 | 1-5 | 0-0 | -15 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
@manuginobili as Twitter Phenomenon
Manu has now more than 1 million followers on Twitter. Thought may be not quite as impressive as my own 10,000 comments on PtR (just kidding :), it is still pretty mind-blowing number. Almost 400,000 of those followers are from Argentina, while another almost 25,000 are from San Antonio, TX. Unfortunately, the great nations of Kazakhstan and Papua New Guinea do not follow Manu at all. The map of Manu Nation can be seen here.
Pop's Philosophy Takes Over NBA; Coaches
Welcome a new member of the Coaches Pounders club.
Gallinari impresses Manu
Manu Ginobili @manuginobili
Now this is what I call a sweet dish! ~ Tremendo pase de faja de Gallinari. Belleeeeeza!
SPort's Ultimate Regular Season Team
by Kondor on Mar 14, 2012 8:32 PM EDT
on Pounding The Rock
For a while I have been interested to find out how teams' regular season record correlates with their playoff performance. My main motivation was a recent experience being pleasantly surprised with the Spurs during regular seasons and shockingly dissatisfied with their playoff performances. Before jumping to any conclusions I wanted to start from evaluating what a reasonable expectations should be. For that purpose I looked at the records of NBA teams both in regular seasons and postseasons:
32 comments
|
2 recs |
Tweet
D'Antoni Steps Down as NY Coach
Mike D'Antoni resigned Wednesday as coach of the New York Knicks, whose brief resurgence in a wave of Linsanity quickly gave way to a late-season skid that puts them in danger of missing the NBA playoffs.
Assistant coach Mike Woodson will serve as interim head coach starting with Wednesday night's game against the Portland Trail Blazers at Madison Square Garden.
Tale of Two Superstars
Nice discussion of young superstars with a nod to Timmy.
Martell Webster may need to learn from Gary Neal
"I don't know, I don't know if it was a mental thing, like I shot [a three] before that and didn't knock it down," said Webster, who missed a three with the score tied with 53 seconds left. "I just wanted to be aggressive, get to the rim, possibly get a foul. But I didn't.
"Most people probably would have pulled up for the 3-point shot. Yeah, I can see why they would. If I had to do it over again, I'd probably pull up for a three. Why not?"
HCA in the lockout season
by Kondor on Jan 16, 2012 4:22 PM EST
on Pounding The Rock
Western conference looks as open this year as ever in recent memory, and the compressed schedule makes playing on the road even more difficult than usual. In these circumstances, anybody can beat anybody, and home court advantage may be as important as ever. Of course, not every team can be a model of consistency winning every game at home while losing each game on the road (the only two teams to achieving this consistency so far are the Spurs and Milwaukee Bucks), number of the wins strongly correlates to the number of home games. There are numbers after the jump:
Blair effect
by Kondor on Apr 26, 2011 1:08 AM EDT
on Pounding The Rock
Start of 2010-2011 season was as surprising for us, Spurs fans, as its finish. Except that it was a pleasant surprise. Nobody expected us to start the season 51-11 beating the Lakers twice, Chicago, Miami by 30, playing @Boson closely all the way down to last possession, beating Dallas, OKC, Denver, Memphis. We won a ton of close games, playing smart, fast, team-oriented basketball that was fun to watch. Beside having the best (by far) record, we were also the only team that played the same starting 5 every game.
epitaph of the regular season or two
by Kondor on Apr 16, 2011 10:55 AM EDT
on Pounding The Rock
2010-2011 regular season was not really a season for the Spurs - there were 2 seasons, as different as Caribbean vacation and day in office, Miami and Minnesota, Eva Longoria and David Stern, etc. etc. During the first season we have seen the best start in the franchise history, healthy and stable starting five, happy Pop after Dice's winning tip in, and trashing of Miami's big 3 by Coach B. The Miami game was the perfect finish for the perfect season, with insane record of 51-11 and all us as speechless witnesses. It was way above and beyond our most optimistic expectations at the start of the season, and it was just absolutely unbelievably great.
Vote for the worst end-of-game play
by Kondor on Feb 13, 2011 11:51 PM EST
on Pounding The Rock
Hilton Armstrong got some heat from PtR for his steal and 3-pointer at the end of the Wizards game against San Antonio. Here is the link, go to about 8:30 minutes mark to watch Armstrong's play. Hilton was severely criticized for his play as a classless dickhead. While Armstrong's play was hardly a class act, it is also hardly exceptional in its stupidity. In fact, it reminded me some other recent play of one of our own most beloved players. The striking difference between the two plays to me is that the second play could cause a serious injury. Of course, in both cases the outcome of the game has been already decided. So, which one was worse, the Wizard's steal and 3-pointer or Ass of Steel's dunk? Please, make your vote.
41-8
by Kondor on Feb 4, 2011 4:32 PM EST
on Pounding The Rock
If we continue like that, we'll finish the season at 82-16.
12 comments
|
2 recs |
Tweet
Learning from San Antonio
The Nets look to the Spurs's example as an inspiration for their franchise.
over 1 year ago
Kondor
11 comments
5 recs
Manu for MVP!
Every serious actor in Hollywood or on Broadway likes to work in ensemble casts. That, they’ll contend, is where they get their greatest satisfaction and where their best work gets done. Side-by-side with other accomplished thespians, they can put the story, the writing and the directing first and truly bring their art to life.
The veteran Argentinian swingman has lots of help in San Antonio: Duncan, Tony Parker(notes), Richard Jefferson(notes), a kick-butt bench crew and Coach of the Year favorite (for now, it says here) Gregg Popovich. And yet Ginobili can still go out in a span of barely 24 hours and remind everyone how important he is, and how different things might be for the Spurs if he were gone or injured.
Bron to Hollywood?
by Kondor on Jun 4, 2010 7:14 PM EDT
on Pounding The Rock
I hate Bronomania, but I got quite excited about one particular scenario, which has Bron
going to LA. It is LeBron’s sing-and-trade for Kobe. Here is why they would do it:
-
Cleveland would get something instead of getting nothing for Bron.
-
Bron would get the winniest coach in the NBA who has proven himself as a supreme
coach of egomaniacs, plus the great team and, may be the most important for him,
the bright lights of Hollywood. Besides, chasing Kobe out of town should be a major
ego boost for him.
-
LA will get the best player in the world, who is younger than Kobe and already plays
better.
-
Phil Jackson will get another superstar to coach and win with.
-
Kobe will get another major motivation to win more championships.
-
NBA will get a great story for the fans to follow.
-
Nike will have more puppet commercials.
So, what do y'all think? Is this absolutely crazy or what?
Matt Barnes will be available
We could really use a nasty defensive-minded small forward in the next season. From where I sit Matt Barnes would look great in the Spurs uniform. I am not sure we can afford him though.
winning in the NBA
by Kondor on May 31, 2010 2:18 AM EDT
on Pounding The Rock
This year Finals are set, and I'd like to share what I think about winning in the NBA. Winning the Championship is tough. Every year 30 teams want to do it, and only one is raising the banner in the end. Here is how the champions do it:
1. Building a team around a superstar.
on the ways of losing
by Kondor on May 12, 2010 8:27 PM EDT
on Pounding The Rock
There are ways of winning in the NBA and there are ways of losing. I'll leave it to lucky Lakers fans to discuss the winning and will concentrate on the losing instead. I don't mean anything deep, just would like to discuss in what manner a particular game may be lost or win.
1. A nail-biter. There are games between evenly matched teams when the outcome is decided during the last minute, sometimes during the last possession. Our championship contending Spurs in 2003-2008 had quite a few series when a nail-biter decided the series. In 2004 we lost game 5 on a ridiculous 0.4s Fisher shot, in 2006 we lost in overtime of game 7 by Dirk's free throws and in 2008 we lost game 6 when Barry could not make a buzzer-beating 3-pointer and didn't get a foul on Fisher.
2. A blow out. Lesser teams tends to get blown out of the games in the playoffs and even blown out of the series. We got blown out several times in the first round of 2009. We also got blown out in the game 5 of the 1st round this year, but then we proceeded to win the game 6 and the series. Sometimes blow outs go back and forth as in games 1-4 of our Finals against Detroit.
3. Losing the lead. Sometimes teams get a big lead, and then other team comes back and steals the game. Losing a large lead tends to hurt a team psychologically, so it usually leads to losing a series. The Lakers mounted large come back against Portland in the game 7 of 2000 playoffs, the Heat came back in the game 3 against the Mavs and never lost again in those Finals. This year, Phoenix came back several times against us, including converting 18 points deficit into 14 points win in the game 3. For me, losing the large lead is the worst possible loss in basketball, especially in the playoffs.
What do you think?
Done deal?
Manu Ginobili underwent a physical Thursday afternoon that revealed no concerning health issues, the last significant hurdle he had to clear before completing his three-year extension with the San Antonio Spurs, league sources said.
The deal binds Ginobili to the Spurs through the 2012-13 season. He will make $11.9 million next season, a raise from his current $10.7 million. The final two years of the extension call for him to earn $13 million and $14.1 million.
Jared Dudley knows how to stop Manu Ginobili
about 2 years ago
Kondor
12 comments
1 recs
The San Antonio Spurs and guard Manu Ginobili have agreed to a three-year extension worth $38.9 million, a league source confirmed Wednesday.
The deal is the maximum the Spurs are allowed to offer Ginobili under the current collective bargaining agreement, based on Ginobili's current salary and age (32).
Overpaid vs. the Best Bang for the Buck
by Kondor on Mar 18, 2010 1:26 AM EDT
on Pounding The Rock
Statistics is in vogue recently. Talking heads tell us from the TV screen that the teams that pay more for the statistical analysis are more successful in the NBA. PtR wizards draw shot diagrams and enlighten us about PPS and the expected FG percentage of our favorite players. Being unable to contribute anything substantial, I feel nevertheless that I cannot stand completely idle. Recent and in particularly today's performance of several Spur players brought a new wood to the fire of the discussion about our most overpaid player. While RJ seemed to be an early run-away favorite for the MOP title, he has now competition not only from Mase and Bonner, but also from certain members of the Big 3. I am trying here to support this discussion with some relevant statistics.
This season, our Man and his team
by Kondor on Mar 12, 2010 7:04 PM EST
on Pounding The Rock
As for many (most, all?) of us, this season has been a one heck of a roller coaster for me so far. It is hard to make sense out of the team we have. Still, this is something we are all trying to do, so I'll give it a try as well ... For a decade, we have been a Timmeh's team. We were boring, we played defense, we were big bad Spurs, we won more games than anybody else. We always knew that we were going as far as Tim would bring us, and Tim brought us to four NBA Finals, which we won, all four of them. It was a good ride, but it's over. Tim's team was beaten badly in last year playoffs by our archenemies. This year we have something different. We became Manu's team. Of course, Manu was very important for Tim's team. But his play was the icing on the cake.
On the state of the Spurs
by Kondor on Jan 28, 2010 2:45 AM EST
on Pounding The Rock
Nice win today against Atlanta, though the biggest difference from the previous game against Chicago was that the Hawks did not go out of their minds and did not shoot above 70% for the most of the first half. As the result they (Hawks) were down 22 at the half instead of being +2 as the Bulls. Anyway, a win is a win, and we'll take a solid win against a good team any day. Now at least a three-game losing at home is over and we can look at what we have seen from the Spurs so far this season.
Ugly. I'll start from ugly, so it would be better at the end.
67 comments
|
6 recs |
Tweet
Showing 1 - 25 of 25
