The San Antonio Spurs’ Manu Ginóbili is a statistical freak: he has no imbalance whatsoever in his game — there is no one way to play him that is better than another. He is equally efficient both off the dribble and off the pass, going left and right and from any spot on the floor.

From The No-Stats All-Star, which mostly discusses one of a few non super-stars I wish played for the Spurs, Shane Battier.

Dave Berri's statistical look at the Spurs this season: Eva Longoria and the Declining Spurs

Details the decreased efficiency of Parker, and shows the other players causing problems for us.

Notable negative impact players this season have been:

Robert Horry
Francisco Elson
Jacque Vaughn
Damon Stoudamire
Bruce Bowen (though just as much as every year, as Bowen's impact doesn't show up in Berri's model)

Players playing worse (but still somewhat positive) this year:

Tony Parker
Michael Finley
Matt Bonner

Check out this post on True Hoop:

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-22-127/The-Box-Score-Tells-the-Story.html

Not sure how long it'll stay up live, but the Yahoo sports box score for the Golden State game had Robert Horry listed as DNP - Old Age!

Comedy gold, even though Horry was out due to an injury.

Here's a site with automated calculation of David Berri's Win Score, by team or player: http://www.jasonchandler.com/basketball/

Here's the link to the Spurs:
http://www.jasonchandler.com/basketball/teamstats.php?team=sas

Hope people find this to be an interesting point of reference in addition to Hollinger's PER.

Tim Duncan played the first quarter like an NBA Jam player that was "on fire".  After that, it was all over.

With TP out, and Manu's shot busy playing a guest role on a popular television program about being stranded on an island, it was good to see the old Tim Duncan who could dominate a game on his own.  The 15-foot bank shot was back in full force, and Timmy owned the Rockets in the post too.

Jacque Vaugn, starting in Tony's place, went 4-5, and Beno, as Jacque's backup, went 4-7 (2-2 on triples), with 3 assists on no turnovers.  Maybe there's hope for Beno yet.  Elson played, well, and Finley succesfully dropped in some shots to finish out the major scorers.

For the Rockets, most notable is that, without Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady had 21 pts, but they were all in the first half.  He completely disappeared in the 2nd half.

Since I forgot I was supposed to do the write-up for the game until mid-way through the third quarter, the rest of my notes are from the end of the game:

Most exciting play: With the shot-clock winding down, Bowen throws up a prayer in an attempt to hit the rim, and instead it somehow actually goes in.

Most entertaining moment: The Rockets are so desperate for help, they try to send their mascot in during play.

Both teams had their bench players in with 6:00 minutes left in the 4th, where we got our first Melvin Ely sighting.

It was such a solid win that the game itself was kind of dull after the first quarter, but I'd perfectly happy with a lot more boring games like that.

Why didn't we keep Devin Brown, or pick him up while he was looking for work?

David Berri's win-score shows Devin Brown as the third-most effective player for the Hornets: http://www.wagesofwins.com/Hornets56.html

While the Spurs struggled for quality play from the bench, former Spur Devin Brown was looking for work.   But now we're entertaining thoughts of bringing in a 41-year old Scottie Pippen.  Will Pop' ever learn to get past his bias for veterans?

Manu Ginobili should be an All-Star starter, and Tim Duncan shouldn't...

Continue reading this post »

It looks like our Spurs aren't the only team that manages to lose to the worst teams in the league:

"Hawks -- yes, Hawks -- stun Pistons"
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/basketball/nba/02/07/bc.bkn.pistons.hawks.ap/index.html

Is this just a matter of not taking the competition seriously?  I suppose the Pistons can afford it a little better than the Spurs, since Detroit has no counter-part to Dallas breathing down their neck for 1st place in the Division (or even Conference).