Post Up: A Man Alive

Ginobili’s heroics lead the Spurs over the Nuggets.

by Adam Figman | @afigman

With John Wall sidelined, Devin Harris went to town. He didn’t shoot well from the field (7-25), but he got to the line 17 times, converting 14, and finished with 29 points and 9 dimes as he led the Nets to the W. The victory snapped an eight-game losing streak, and was the sixth-straight loss for the Wiz, who fell to 6-18. And things aren’t getting any easier; Washington has Miami at home tomorrow night. Should be fun.

Boston 102, Atlanta 90

The Rondo-less Celts went against the Joe Johnson-less Hawks, and simply put, Boston got a stronger effort from those that were healthy than Atlanta did. Ain’t much more to it. Every starting Celtic (plus Big Baby) scored in double figures, while, strangely enough, the only Hawks that go going were Marvin Williams (26 points) and Jeff Teague (18 points). That wasn’t cutting it—nor was Josh Smith’s 1 point off 0-8 shooting or Al Horford’s 8-point, 7-rebound night. Jamal Crawford, who’s been great in Johnson’s absence, was out with a sore back, and that certainly didn’t help the road team’s cause at all. Boston’s winning streak is now at 12, and there’s no reason it’ll slow down with home games against the Pacers and the Sixers in the next few days. So, that momentum thing really works.

San Antonio 113, Denver 112

First of all, THIS:

(H/T: @blazersedge for both vids in this post.)

Woah. I just ripped my shirt off, which means I need to hurry this recap up because it’s cold as hell in here. Those who stayed up late last night were treated to another great TNT matchup (after a bunch of stinkers, those national TV games are starting to pick up, huh?) between two West Coast powerhouses. The Spurs have been incredible—like, They might be the best team in the League incredible—but the Nugs stayed with them, matching their every move as the contest went down to the wire. With seven seconds remaining, down one, San Antonio ran an in-bounds play and found Manu Ginobili—fresh off destroying the Bucks with a buzzer-beating game-winner—who put in a runner on the left side of the lane to give the Spurs the lead with four ticks remaining. (God damn, how clutch is this dude?) Anyway, the clock approaching zero, Carmelo Anthony (who scored 31 points and grabbed 9 boards total) drove to the hole and drilled a floater in the lane…FOR THE WIN! But, no. (This feels familiar.) Melo also drilled Manu, who beat the Nuggets’ forward to the spot in the paint and drew a charge as time expired. The refs put 0.4 seconds back on the clock, and the Spurs inbounded the ball cleanly, sealing it up. It’s always a tough, bound-to-be controversial move to blow the whistle—for a charge, of all things—to determine the fate of an entire game, so some disagreement on the call is inevitable. I made the video the MOTN below, so peep it and let me know what you think. Call me crazy, but it looks like Manu got there and that it was a great decision by the ref. Your thoughts?

Actual Stats: Tim Duncan: 28 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal.

Moment of the Night:

Alright folks, I’m out. Judging by the amount of comments that have been pouring in, it’s been a hell of a week for pro basketball, meaning this job is easier and more exciting than ever. I don’t know if you’ve read about it, or saw it on TV, or heard about it on the radio, or talked about it with your grandmother, but there’s this game on ESPN tonight that you should probably check out. I’d recommend looking it up on the Internets if you haven’t been paying attention—you won’t be disappointed. (Google “basketball” or something.) But for real, enjoy the fun, SLAM Fam. See ya Monday.

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Tags: Atlanta Hawks, Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, Features, New Jersey Nets, San Antonio Spurs, The Post Up, Washington Wizards

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http://twitter.com/smileyoufckers Bryan

The anti New York Bias on this website is laughable.
http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

AllenP, how do you always make your comments look so damn organized, complete with paragraphs and such? And I find it hard to believe also that of the 20-something teams in the 80′s, not one of them had any interest in playing hard on the defensive end.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/408237-bryant-vs-jordan-theres-still-no-debate-jordan-is-king nbk

what anti-new york bias? saying they aren’t a contender, or elite is anti-new york?
http://slamonline.com Allenp

The New York fans are crazy.
What bias?
People are giving Miami hell about playing subpar teams, and New York has played the easiest schedule in the league.
People are wondering if San Antonio can be a true contender without the ability to stop the Lakers bigs, but Knicks fans are arguing they can give one of the contenders in the East a tough first round series without being able to get a single clutch stop against Boston despite a hobbled Rondo, no Shaq and No Jermaine O’Neal and no Delonte West.
Amare is basically telling the world Chris Bosh can’t hold his jock, New York media and fans are saying they never even wanted LeBron that much and he’s a coward anyway and the rest of the world is biased?
Come on Bryan, let’s be real.
It’s nice that Amare is beasting and showing that he is a LEADER. I’m impresses because I knew he was a beast, didn’t know if he was a leader.
It’s nice that Gallo is rounding into form, it’s nice hat Wilson Chandler is balling, it’s nice that Raymond Felton has discovered the joys of playing fo Mike D’Antoni as a point guard. It’s good that the Knicks are competitive so far.
But this early in the season it’s crazy to be talking about playoff performance for that team, or even touting Amare as the freaking MVP, in my opinion. He ain’t doing anything new. It’s only new because people really and truly thought Steve Nash “made” him.
JTaylor21

I think that the majority of teams in the 80s placed a bigger emphasis on trying to outscore the opponent to win and the lakers and celtics were the perfect example of that, hell even the mid 80s Pistons were more of an offensive team then they realized that they didn’t possess the kind of offensive weapons that the lakers and celtics had to win agaisnt them, they decided to focus more on becoming a smash-mouth defensive team, if they hadn’t the celts and lakers would have ran them out of the building. It’s a fact that the late 80s pistons team were the only championship team that focused on defense first.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

Enigmatic
There were some good and interested defensive teams back then. The Celtics, the Pistons, the Sixers did all right at times. But, the level of attention to defense, and the level of control over offense that we see today was not there back then.
Also, I just hit enter. When I hit enter, it makes a new paragraph.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/408237-bryant-vs-jordan-theres-still-no-debate-jordan-is-king nbk

not for everyone else Allen, for some reason we can’t create paragraphs, indents, new lines, nothin.
http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

There were some outstanding defenders in the 80′s too.
Dennis Johnson
Dennis Rodman
Joe Dumars
Just to name a few
http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

Word. Especially when Allen compares two sets of stats. They always come out all pretty looking. Everyone else tries to do it and it looks like crap.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

In 83/84 the two lowest scoring teams were the Cavs and Hawks at around 102 ppg.
The Cavs took 7,200 shots
The Hawks took 6,800.
The pace of the 80s was ridiculous. The Hawks shot .474 from the field, the Cavs shot 46 percent.
The league average for shot attempts was 7,200. The field goal percentage was .49
Last year, the league average was 6,700 shots and .46 percent shooting.
Given the diffusion of talent, the increase in three point shots, and the larger players, it seems like the sheer number of shot attempts is the biggest difference between the two leagues. And when you watch games, it’s obvious.
Coaches were far more comfortable letting their teams play back in the day. They didn’t orchestrate every possession, and they didn’t have a hit when players took open shots early in the shot clock. Nowadays, if you take an early shot, even if you’re open, you get pulled quickly. Totally different game.
http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

Back to the so-called “anti-New York bias” though.
Too many New York fans on here are too gassed up about their team.
As a Bulls fan, I love my team but I know it’s a long shot for us to win the title.
This year.
I’d love for us to have more than one player in the ASG.
But it probably won’t happen.
I’d love for Rose to win MVP. But unless the Bulls end up with at least the third best record in the L, it probably won’t happen.
Knicks fans meanwhile, not all mind you but too many
Swear they’re contenders this year.
Swear Amare should be MVP
Swear Felton should be an All-Star
Swear Fields should be ROY
Swear they’re a good defensive team
Come on though!
JTaylor21

I always wonder what players that played in the 80s numbers would look like if they were playing today. Due to today’s slower pace and good teams placing more of an emphasis on D, I would bet that their numbers go down ever so slighty. That’s why I have a very hard-time believing that MJ would avg. 40ppg (let alone scoring 100) like some people claimed. The man is nice but nobody is 40ppg nice.
http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

And yes, I’m biting AllenP’s commenting style worse than Jay-Z’s been biting Biggie’s rapping style. My apologies, Allen. It just looks dope. You can call me a shark if you want (word to Rae and Ghost)
http://slamonline.com Allenp

Lol. I don’t care.
JTaylor
The foul rules would make things easier, the fact that star players take an even larger percentage of shots would make things easier in a way too. If mike wanted to average 40, or 10 points a quarter, he could get there. That’s three to four field goals a quarter, plus some free throws.
I can’t bet against him doing that on command.
JTaylor21

AllenP, I feel ya but can do that in all 82 gms? That’s highly unlikely, you have to take account just how much slower and less shots teams take today compared to the 80s and early 90s. Kobe when he avg. 35ppg, he took over 2,000 shots making 978 and took over 819 fts and making 696 while taking 518 3pts and making 180 of them. That would mean that MJ would have to either make 100 more shots than the 1098 he made in his 37ppg season or take 200 more fts than the 972 he took in the same season. That is an impossible amount of shots or fts for any one to take and make in this slowed-down era.
http://www.need4sheed.com Tarzan Cooper

Enigmatic is kinda the exception, as hes never been too overboard, but chi fans calling ny fans crazy for their outrageous claims is funny.
JTaylor21

Also MJ’s lack of 3pt shooting in his mid-tweties would make it that much harder for him to drop 40 in every game.
http://www.bulls.com Enigmatic

I’ve been prone to hyperbole too, Tarzan. Over the summer I once stated that Derrick Rose would be better than Dwyane Wade this year. I think Eboy called me “Enignoramus” or “Enigmatism” after I made that comment.
What can I say? I was p*ssed about LeBron joining the Heat and not us.
But I hear what you’re saying. I never understood why people can’t be both die-hard fans of their respective teams and realists at the same time.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

Ok Knicks fans. Ok.
http://www.need4sheed.com Tarzan Cooper

Enigmatic, I must have missed that one. Emidddleagedman can come up with some funny names sometimes. …. I must admit, rose has played better than I thought he would. HOWEVA!, I assumed boozer would be there from the start, thus taking the ball out of roses hands for post ups. Without boozer, rose is their only creator, so he did his thing. All that said, I see the bulls as being just outside of being a title contender. Rip hamilton might be just what they need. But then again, rip is like 33 right?
http://slamonline.com Allenp

Gallo is sneaky athletic. That wasn’t a charge though.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

Man the amount of attention wade and bron command is crazy.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

Yo the refs are getting a little shaky.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

You know you are good when you have 30 and a near triple double and the announcers are praising someone for good defense on you.
Bryan

Allen, as I said yesterday which you and NBK chose to ignore, I am not calling them contenders to anything except to make the playoffs. IMO Amare leading the Knicks, the same Knicks who have been awful for ten years to a winning record puts him at the top of my MVP list. The Knicks being just a middle of the pack team is a huge leap from where they were the last seven seasons. They are winning winnable games which is what good teams are supposed to do. Using the game against the defending EC champs as a measuring stick is ridiculous. Paul Pierce apparently is and has been for some time now pretty clutch. Who was stopping that play? And while we’re where were the almighty Celtics clutch stops? You can continue to argue with me that they’re not contenders because that’s the card you choose to play to overlook the improvement that they actually have made, and I will continue to think there is a bias against an improving team because all you people want todo is point out their flaws.
monkeyball

Manu is a Hall of Famer. Has this been discussed already?

Oh, and those referee calls… damn! Clearly it’s a David Stern-led conspiracy to insure the Spurs play in the Finals. Everyone knows how much the NBA front office loves that.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

Bryan I didn’t even think we were discussing them as contenders. You said nobody wanted to play y’all in the first round and I think that is crazy. Every contender would be perfectly happy playing the Knicks in the first round and would handle them easily. If the celtics had been healthy the game wouldn’t have been that close.
http://slamonline.com Allenp

Last comment. If you get stops the Knicks wont return the favor and then you win. If the Knicks don’t score they don’t win.
http://Slamonline.com Nbk

Noone said they wouldn’t make the playoffs. There is no bias to being realistic. And they aren’t contenders for any kind of championship. But they may get as high as a 4 seed if chicago struggles without Noah. MVP candidate is your own opinion
JTaylor21

Amare destroyed KG and the bos defense for 39/11 and was .2 second away from beating them but struggles mightly against Bosh and mia’s defense. Just maybe people will start to see that when Mia is firing on all cylinders, they are very very scary. Also who in the NBA mixes great scoring abiltiy with great passing abiltiy better than Bron? No one is even in his league with regards to all-around ability.
Pharoah

KG wasnt guarding him most of the game though

Post Up: A Man Alive

Ginobili’s heroics lead the Spurs over the Nuggets.

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