Today we finish up the first rotation of the game. Everyone is still in the same place they were yesterday. Same exact players. Zach Randolph is no wider; Tim Duncan no thinner. Richard Jefferson no taller; Manu no less tenacious.
9:02 4-6
I was watching the Spurs-Knicks series a few weeks ago, and there were a couple hilarious Spurs possessions where no one was doing anything on offense, so much so that the announcers were vocally complaining before the possession was over. And then, with just seconds left on the shot clock, Tim Duncan still managed to drive to the basket or hit a high-arcing shot over his defender. It was really funny until I remembered this series, in which Zach Randolph did the exact same thing over and over. And his defender - usually that pinnacle of class (and legitimately skilled as a man defender) Antonio McDyess - could do nothing.
This was especially frustrating because McDyess was constantly competing with Z-Bo on every Grizzlies possession. Look at how he stands right in the paint here, flanked by Z-Bo at the low block above. He has held off Randolph once again, whom the Grizzlies had wanted to feed near the basket. Marc Gasol doesn't have any obvious targets inside or open, so he moves inside after swinging the ball to the guards.
Even though there are three bodies in the paint for the Grizzlies screening and trying to create mismatches, RJ, Duncan, and McDyess are not giving them an opening. Handling this situation correctly is almost completely a mental skill, and it's one that Tim Duncan - despite his obvious physical decline the last couple seasons - still excels at. Manu's tenacious positioning prevents an easy pass inside, in any case. The Grizzlies don't get anything out of this formation.
Sam Young comes to the left wing to receive a pass to try to convert with :08 on the shot clock: Short of Gasol immediately screening RJ, the Grizz are forced to make do with something involving Young and Randolph against RJ and Duncan on the left side. Since Sam Young isn't exactly a fantastic offensive option, he feeds Z-Bo and clears out. Randolph posts up on Duncan.
Randolph has enough length (and a high enough release) to create space for a contested (but clear) high-arcing shot against the Spurs' premier defender. The ball doesn't go in - and the degree of difficulty was higher than an open shot - but the shot had a good chance. And this, my friends, is the essential narrative of the series: Randolph had a soft shooting touch and could get his (reasonably efficient) shot off from just about any location on the court against any defensive pressure. Even ignoring his great offensive rebounding and his soft hands to finish, David Lynch's "Doughface" gave the Spurs nightmares worse than from "Eraserhead".
8:36
Collisions, collisions, everywhere, and not a shot to sink.
First Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker collide while Manu brings the ball upcourt. Parker is disoriented and awaits a corner three for the rest of the possession. Luckily for Tony the possession is a Manu-Duncan two-man game.
Manu passes to Duncan, who passes back and screens Tony Allen as Manu goes toward the free throw line.
You can't tell just from this picture, but Duncan's screen on Tony Allen straight-up levels him. It seems like a flop by Allen, but he also ran into Duncan pretty hard. Tough call. If you're keeping track, Duncan has leveled two Grizzlies so far. Obviously Duncan - a noted WWE fan - has been taking notes.
With his man on the floor and some space at the elbow Manu rises up for an open jumper above trailing Zach Randolph. The shot is close, but it doesn't go in. Maybe Manu was just having a bad shooting night. Or maybe his literally broken and sprained (and consequently splinted) right arm had something to do with it. By the way, Sean Elliott - who is basically the Spurs' really self-deprecating, dryly humorous, dulcet-toned version of Tom Heinsohn - kept making annoying allusions to Willis Reed in reference to Manu in this game. Of course, at the same time, we didn't know then the full extent of Manu's injuries, and so the comparison's a little more plausible now.
Anyway, Grizzlies ball.
8:25
This is kind of a broken play based on a tricky no-call . Tony Allen penetrates and pretty directly charges at Manu, but McDyess is streaking into the charge himself and all three tumble to the ground. While they're all falling to the ground (completely blocking the Spurs path to the open Sam Young on the left wing), Allen smartly kicks it out to Young, who drains a long two. Weird play.
8:15 6-6
After Dice and Z-Bo collide accidentally for a no-call, McDyess comes up to screen Tony Parker's man Mike Conley at the point. Parker uses this opportunity to draw the defense in with fast, weaving dribble penetration, as is his wont.
Both corners (Manu and RJ) are completely open now. Both Sam Young and Tony Allen have left their post to cover hip-hop sensation Parker. Since the defense is more strongly shaded towards the right, Parker takes the path of least resistance and kicks it out to RJ in the left corner.
Now, if you didn't know, the corner 3 was kind of an RJ staple this season, as you can tell from one of the greatest moments in the history of the league:
Ah, but not this time, Richard. He takes a good shot. It just doesn't fall.
Above, we see the ball at its apex, just getting ready to bounce from the rim back to the left block. Sigh. I guess the Spurs will get nothing out of this fundamentally solid possession. The Grizzlies are probably going to win the game, because San Antonio can execute perfectly and come away with nothing. There's no way Tim or Tony or anyone else on the Spurs has a chance to get that offensive rebound with Z-Bo and Marc Gasol right there.
And then, as Bill Walton might say, comes "one of the great offensive rebounds in the history of basketball." Seriously, check it out: Manu rebounds not only out of his area, but against a center. He doesn't just establish position, he leaps wackily into the space where the ball will fall before it can reach Gasol's hand. You saw where Manu was in the last picture (when RJ's shot was at its apex); he was 5 or 6 feet outside the paint, on the other side of the court. Look at how far he's traveled and how much he's re-positioned his body in just two seconds. Remarkable. If he can just call a time-out or pass the ball out for a reset, Manu will have completed one of the great "David vs. Goliath" sequences in the history of the league.
Oh, I guess instead of securing control for a reset of the possession, he's just going to turn away from Gasol and make a three-quarter turn towards the basket to draw the shooting foul from Zach Randolph and fall on the ground with a broken, sprained, splinted arm. Wait, what? What is happening? Where am I? I'm so disoriented just thinking about this play. Goliath shrugs.
"Shine on, you crazy motherfucker."
I suppose it goes without saying that he made both free throws.
7:49 6-8
Kind of a weird set-up for both teams. The Grizzlies have their front court stationed at the top of the key, both with the power to screen Tony Parker for Mike Conley. This is kind of deceptive by the Grizzlies. The play originally looked like a PNR for Conley and Gasol, but Z-Bo came over to set the pick.
Whatever the case, Gasol heads towards the elbow forcing Duncan to stay with him, and Conley goes to the right wing on a Z-Bo block. The deception misleads McDyess, and he and Parker both commit to Conley, leaving Z-Bo wide open.
Though Z-Bo ended up missing this shot, he is obviously a credible midrange threat and this could have been a costly mistake by McDyess. Good play by the Grizz, and the first real defensive mistake of the game by the Spurs.
7:32
Sam Young - who has been the least important player on the floor thus far - finally does something substantial and positive for his team. Sam Young: an inspiration to us all.
It's another Tony Parker penetration play (they must call plays in twos, I suppose).
Tony kicks the ball out to Richard Jefferson at the right wing, who starts to fire up another open shot.
But Sam Young - Jefferson's man - closes out well enough that RJ has to pump-fake and drive left into a tangle of bodies. Since Jefferson is quite a bit worse than Tony at driving and the bodies in the paint are the same, Young's close-out has effectively neutralized Tony's drive.
Jefferson still manages to break through Young, the first line of defense. But as he's passing Young, Sam manages to put an arm out to pry the ball loose. In the ensuing scrum, Marc Gasol and RJ both laid claim to the ball and the refs (to the visible bafflement of all the Spurs players and coaches) called a jump ball.
7:20
This goes against everything I've fought for on this blog, but...in this play Richard Jefferson wins the tip against Marc Gasol (who so far has really been burnt by every Spurs player except Dice). RJ's small victory was for me hard to admit, but it's ridiculous enough to put a smile on my face. Tim Duncan gets the ball off RJ's tip, thus keeping the universe tethered to sanity.
Tim and Tony do a pick and roll on the right side of the court. Marc Gasol doesn't cover the league's bread and butter play especially well on this possession, and like McDyess before ends up covering the guard. Parker makes a neat bounce pass to Duncan who pump-fakes Z-Bo once and then finishes for an easy drive.
7:11 6-10
Four more possessions in this rotation. We're almost home.
Conley and Gasol try to run a PNR against Parker and Duncan. I'm not sure why, but Duncan (see him on the right elbow above) seems to be giving up too much space to Gasol. He seems to be focusing on denying Randolph from getting the ball near the basket with single coverage and cutting off Conley's penetration. However, Gasol's midrange shot is credible, and I think Duncan could be better served moving a few feet forward to mitigate it. Then again, he is Tim Duncan and I'm some guy on the Internet. Also, (and you can't see it from the images) Gasol has a very quick release on this shot. So it's not bad defense at all.
More glaringly for the Spurs, though, I don't think Richard Jefferson is doing anything for this play. He's standing in the paint by the left block, which is great for getting a long rebound, but couldn't he at least be giving Sam Young the time of day? Or, if he's not going to treat Sam Young as a credible offensive threat, couldn't he be making some sort of pass harder or giving something more to McDyess and Duncan? Especially considering he's not helping all that much even when Randolph and Tony Allen rotate to the left side:
In any case, Duncan gives up enough space for Gasol to take a sparsely contested free throw...
...which Gasol promptly misses. Luckily for the Grizzlies, Zach Randolph's presence bothers the Spurs rebounders (Dice, RJ) enough that they lose it out of bounds. This is a pretty bad possession for the Spurs. The Grizzlies don't score, but they get a good shot from Marc Gasol (finally, right) and they get the ball back.
6:47
With a full shot clock the Grizzlies go to a workaday standard once Conley is reset right of the point. Tony Allen cuts through the paint along the baseline and then runs back along the paint to the left elbow. Meanwhile, Z-Bo, who is standing right next to Allen's path, puts down an arm to block Allen's man, Ginobili: not unlike a parking ramp's gate or a selectively permeable cell membrane.
This half-screen by Randolph gives Allen space to receive the feed from Conley and have some room to begin a drive past Ginobili:
Allen blows past Ginobili and finishes easily at the rim, even with Duncan there. I suppose this was a savvy calculation by both Allen and Duncan: Duncan with the silly offensive foul a few minutes back, not wanting to pick up his second foul (against the contact-happy Allen) in the first rotation, and Allen realizing this and taking advantage.
6:39 8-10
Uh...Manu drives into four Grizzlies in the paint and draws a foul on Mike Conley in the chaos and confusion. Then again, with Manu it's hard to call anything chaos: "There is a long way between chaos and creation," as Paul McCartney famously said on a solo album. In any case, Manu misses both free throws. All or nothing with this guy, right?
6:35
Last possession of the first rotation before Coach Popovich calls a timeout for the Spurs. I think the timeout was just because he wanted to spell his players: The final possession featured Mike Conley leaping into a shot over Tony Parker from the free throw line. It seemed like a low-percentage shot that you would live with even with a great shooter like Chris Paul or Steve Nash.
6:22 10-10
Wrap Up of Parts 1 and 2:
The Spurs played nearly flawless basketball on offense (Duncan's senseless charge the only real mistake), and quite well (if not perfectly) on defense. The Grizzlies played pretty well on both ends themselves, though with much more questionable shot selection, hitting long and contested twos and kind of letting plays develop into desperation feeds to Z-Bo. Manu and RJ's open shots weren't falling; on the other hand, neither were Gasol's or Z-Bo's. Manu has once again established to me how essential he is to the Spurs - being pretty crucial on almost every offensive possession. Duncan's defense is a step slow from its historical perfection, but in this rotation he still made life difficult for PNR tandems, the Grizzlies' big men in man defense situations, and anyone trying to go into the paint. Richard Jefferson and Tony Parker were both doing their couple gimmicks extremely well and McDyess played his many little roles admirably. Tony Allen was fantastic on both ends, Mike Conley was not a liability. Finally, Sam Young was a supreme liability on offense, but he created a crucial turnover and played decent defense. Both teams created mismatches really solidly and exploited them just as well. Overall, they were supremely evenly matched in this rotation, even using an extremely similar playbook. The Spurs were executing better but the Grizzlies had more mismatches.
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