# Game 4: San Antonio Spurs @ Chicago Bulls



## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

* November 7th, 2005 - 7:30 PM (Central Time)*
*San Antonio Spurs (2-1)* @ *Chicago Bulls (1-1)* 


*Previous Meetings:*

N/A


*Projected Starting Lineup: *










PG - Tony Parker (22.7 PPG - 4.7 APG - 3.3 RPG)
SG - Manu Ginobili (11.0 PPG - 3.3 RPG - 2.3 APG)
SF - Bruce Bowen (5.3 PPG - 2.3 RPG - 1.3 APG)
PF - Tim Duncan (19.3 PPG - 10.7 RPG - 4.3 APG)
C - Rasho Nesterovic (5.3 PPG - 4.3 RPG - 1.0 BPG)

*Reserves:*

PG - Nick Van Exel (7.3 PPG - 1.0 APG - 2.3 RPG)
G/F - Michael Finley (7.0 PPG - 4.3 RPG - 1.3 APG)
F/C -Robert Horry (7.0 PPG - 6.7 RPG - 2.3 APG)
G/F - Brent Barry (4.7 PPG - 1.3 RPG - 2.0 APG)
F/C - Fabricio Oberto (3.3 PPG - 2.7 RPG)
C - Nazr Mohammed (2.0 PPG - 1.0 RPG)
PG - Beno Udrih (1.5 PPG - 1.5 APG)


*Projected Starting Lineup: *










PG - Chris Duhon (14.5 PPG - 11.0 APG - 6.0 RPG)
SG - Kirk Hinrich (17.5 PPG - 4.0 APG - 2.0 RPG)
SF - Andres Nocioni (5.0 PPG - 1.5 RPG - 0.5 AST)
PF - Darius Songaila (6.5 PPG - 3.0 RPG - 2.5 AST)
C - Tyson Chandler (6.0 PPG - 9.5 RPG - 2.0 BLK)

*Reserves:*

G - Ben Gordon (18.5 PPG - 4.5 RPG - 3.5 APG)
F/C - Mike Sweetney (12.0 PPG - 4.5 RPG)
F - Luol Deng (11.5 PPG - 6.5 RPG)
G/F - Eric Piatkowski (11.0 PPG - 1.0 RPG)
F - Tim Thomas (4.0 PPG - 1.0 RPG)
PF - Othella Harrington (3.0 PPG - 1.0 RPG)
F/C - Malik Allen (0.0 PPG - 0.0 RPG)


This will be another tough game. Chicago is a tough, gritty team who lives on the defense first philosophy, and when you mix that in with some good talent you have yourself a winner. Like I said before the Mavericks game, Manu needs to be on his game tonight, no doubt about it. You can only expect Parker to score 20 a night without getting to the line, and yo never know who's going to score well for us coming off the bench at this point. It's time to exclusively feature Duncan on the block. I want to see him with around 20 shots tonight, and I want to see him get to the line a lot. Chandler is a very tough cover for Duncan, but Duncan can use his thickness to his advantage. I can see Parker struggling badly in this game, but hopefully I'm wrong. I think we'll win, but again, I won't be surprised if our offense struggles and we lose in an ugly game.


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## TheRoc5 (Mar 1, 2005)

ThE ROC SoIlD PlaN To BEAt ThE BUlLs
we need to win this game, we cant go 2-2 we have to get back on that winning start. i look for parker to have yet another great gm and duncan to be very soild. but the key factor is going to be manu with narz starting im hopeing we can seal the win.

Rebound- we have to get the boards to win this one, as were both deffense clubs
share the ball-very improtant key
no tos- have to keep the bal safe so bulls can get out on a fast break

x-factor of the gm-manu

im going to pick the spurs in a close one till the end
Spurs 93
Bulls 89

GO SPURS GO 3-1


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

From now on I'm going to do my in-game analysis in the fallowing fashion, explaining my thoughts and opinions of many aspects of the game:

Begining of Game:
Started off a little slow but the spurs have quickly picked up their pace, making their last 6 from the field and now have a 6 point lead. 

Starters: 7/10
Timmy's lookin healthy and still bankin those shots home, Tony's picking up where he left off the other night, Bowen's been excellent from the defensive end, Rasho's been his quitely effective self, and Manu's made two back-to-back three pointers but hasn't done all that much more. 

Bench: 0/0
No bench players have played yet.

Coaching Staff: 0/0
To early to make any judgments here.

Officials: 9/10
No complaints, but no one's pefect.

Overall Game: 7/10
I've been pretty happy with the Spurs so far, but I know they can play even better, especially Manu.


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## TheRoc5 (Mar 1, 2005)

wow great start from the spurs 33 pts in the first qt, now we pick up the defense and stay consistant this gm is ours. duncan is doing real well


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

First Quater:
Started off a little slow but the spurs quickly took control of the game and now rest on a comfortable lead, but Chicago is still within shooting distance. It is, afterall, only the first quarter. And let's not forget about their opener against the Bobcats.

Starters: 7.5/10
Timmy: 8/10 Dominating this game
Tony: 9/10 Still wheeling and dealing
Bowen: 7/10 His defense has been amazing and has also given us a three
Manu: 7/10 2 of 3 from the free throw line, but still hasn't done much more.
Rasho: 7/10 He's been Rasho

Bench: 9/10
They really didn't have much of an impact so far, but Nazr did make the final basket of the quarter with less than 5 seconds left.

Coaching Staff: 0/0
They haven't really anything major to judge yet.

Officials: 9/10
No complaints, but no one's pefect.

Overall Game: 8/10
They've been playing very well so far, but Chicago's still in this game, and Manu needs to do better.


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

Manu's actually picking it up, but I'm more excited about NVE! He's just been amazing in the very little time he's been in! Let's hope he keeps it up! :clap:


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## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

Wow, we actually have posts during a game thread? I'm amazed. 

The ball movement has been great thus far, and that's exactly how you counter a good defense, with ball movement. 


50-42 at halftime, Duncan is having a great game thus far.


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

*First Half: *
San Antonio: 50
Chicago: 42

*Spurs Player of the Half:*
Tim Duncan
5-7, 12 Pts, 7 Rebs, 3 Assists

*Bulls player of the Half:*
T. Chandler
4-7, 9 Pts, 7 Rebs, 1 Assists

*Starters:* 8/10

Timmy: 9/10 Pure Domination 
Tony: 9/10 Playing like we all know he can
Bowen: 7/10 Awesome on the defensive end, average on the offensive
Manu: 8/10 Definitely playing better than before.
Rasho: 7/10 Doin the rarely notice little things that have helped us get this far.

*Bench:* 8/10
Nazr's, Finley, and Horry have all been alrite, but NVE has been downright amazing.

*Coaching Staff:* 7/10
They must be doin somethin rite to have us playing this well, still nothing major has been done in this area yet though.

*Officials:* 7/10
They've been consistent atleast. A couple of missed minor calls for each team, but nothing major.

*Overall Game:* 7/10
Everyone's playing pretty well so far, but we've let Chicago back into this game, so we're just ganna have to pick up the pace if we want to keep this lead.


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## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

We just need to keep the inside-out approach. Pound inside to Duncan, and throw in the occassional pick-and-roll and the offense should be fine.


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## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

Parker is looking damn good right now. He's getting deep into the paint whenever he wants and is finding the open man every single time. Manu has clanked 2-3 wide open looks that Parker created for him, so Parker could be looking at 10+ assists right now instead of the 6 or 7 he has. 

The defense is doing very well right now. No easy looks for Chicago.


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## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

Check that, 3 easy looks in a row for the Bulls, and now it's a 5 point game.


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

The spurs fall apart towards the end of the third quarter, letting the bulls catch up to within one. Hopefully this and1 by Nazr will help stop their run.


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## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

Damn, what a horrendous finish to that quarter. Gordon torched us in that little brief stretch, and now it's a freakin 1 point game. I'm not liking how Pop uses our entire 2nd team. Yeah, we have good depth, but it really helps to have Parker or Duncan out there at all times. Manu is killing me right now. He played a very poor 3rd quarter.


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## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

2 point game about halfway through the 4th. Parker was out for a long period of time, and our offense struggled during that stretch. Mohammed has 13 points tonight and has finished pretty strong at the basket 3-4 times, so I've been impressed with him.


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

KokoTheMonkey said:


> Damn, what a horrendous finish to that quarter. Gordon torched us in that little brief stretch, and now it's a freakin 1 point game. I'm not liking how Pop uses our entire 2nd team. Yeah, we have good depth, *but it really helps to have Parker or Duncan out there at all times.* Manu is killing me right now. He played a very poor 3rd quarter.


Yeah. That was a horrible move taking Parker out. Luckily he's putting him back in, hopefully it's not to late to get things back undercontrol here.


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

Horry fouls out rite after making a great defensive play. Let's hope we don't miss him too much here.


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## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

We're going to lose this game. Chicago has played very well late in this game, and we just can't get a bucket. Duncan is almost non-existent offensively, he's not even getting touches every time down the floor.


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

KokoTheMonkey said:


> We're going to lose this game. Chicago has played very well late in this game, and we just can't get a bucket. Duncan is almost non-existent offensively, he's not even getting touches every time down the floor.


Can you hold your pessimism until after the game? I've got faith in Parker. He'll get us through this game!....I hope


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

Timmy ties the game up with two free throws (he's been really good from the line tonight) and then gets us a defensive rebound rite afterwards, and then makes an amazing pass to Nazr while be quadruple-teamed to give us the lead!


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

Duncan with an amazing block, but Chicago gets the ball back and scores.


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

Chicago calls time-out. Spurs up by 2 with 24.2 seconds left. Duncan's really come through in the stretch. Come on, guys! Just one more (hopefully) defensive stop!


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

Damn! Chicago ties it. Spurs have 16 seconds to do somethin here. I don't wanna go into OT, so we beda score here!


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

What the hell was Ginobilli thinking?!!? We had two spurs wide open on the perimeter and he does....I don't know what the hell he did, but he did it! Damn...what the hell we he thinking!? We're going into OT....


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

OT's about to start.

lol we're only at page two on our thread and the Chicago one is already on page 13. That's pathetic :laugh:


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

Finley hits a three! Spurs up by 5! Bulls call timeout.


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

Pop tries to call timeout but Parker waves him down and steals a basket.


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

Manu actually does something! Gino steals the ball, eventually resulting with Duncan giving us a 7 point lead :banana: 

uCash has the spurs at +6, so hopefully we keep this lead :biggrin:


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

Spurs win! Spurs win! But more importantly, Koko was wrong! Koko was wrong!

Spurs- 104
Bulls- 95
Final- OT


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## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

Tony Parker was freakin awesome tonight. How about those 10/12 free throws? You can tell that he hasn't a different approach to. He use to get up there and rush his free throws, but he takes his time and looks at the rim before shooting. That's good to see, but hopefully he can shoot at a good percentage in the long run. 22 points and 9 assists, and that could have easily been 12-13 assists had Manu not clanked on several wide open attempts. Duncan was very good tonight, as always. He's still not getting that many touches, but he's still putting up big numbers. Mohammed was very good tonight as well. Another performance like that and you can pencil him in the starting lineup. 


I don't like being negative after a good win, but Manu didn't play all that great tonight. I will say this, he never stopped giving it his all on the defensive end, and it shows with his 13 rebounds and 3 steals, but 6 TO's and he missed several wide open looks. I'm sure he will be alright in the long run, but as for now he's not 100% healthy right now. He's still giving it his all, but my expectations for him are very high after the way he played last season. 


Oh, and Kirk Hinrich is not a better basketball player than Tony Parker.


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## Guth (Feb 23, 2005)

I couldn't watch the game (what else is new) but from what it sounds like, we have a lot of stuff to work on. I think it would be very easy to say "Well, we just had 2 games where we didn't play very well. That means we are screwed." However, I think that would be very irresponsible.

It is a long season. Pop knows its a long season. Everyone else in the NBA knows that it is a long season (except for Darko...but, I am not sure that he knows a lot of things). What I am trying to say is that we are going to have 78 more games to figure out where guys fit and what their roles will be, and games like this one, and even the Mavs game are neccesary to learn that.

We can build on this. A win is a win, and we are still one of the best teams in a close game, as far as I am concerned. Do we have stuff to work on? Absolutely. Do I trust Pop to know what those things are, and act accordingly? Absolutely. Is it a little silly that I am making a post like this 4 games into the season? Probably. All I know, is that come May, the Spurs are going to be there, and it will be because of games like this.


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## TheRoc5 (Mar 1, 2005)

yes what a great gm im so happy we won, 3-1 now gota do better though. that gm should have been a blow out on our part but our defense is lacking intensity. as long as we won im ok though. parker and duncan were just awsome, i think i was right ez, i guarenteed parker will be an allstar this yr and in 4 gms he sure looks like it. 3-1 GO SPurs GO


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## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

There's not that much to work on Guth. There's some early season rust that's showing, but for the most part Ginobili's play is the only thing that needs to improve at this point, and there's no doubt that will. One other thing that needs work is Duncan's touches. Parker is playing very well right now and is killing defenses, but Duncan needs his share of touches. We went away from him and Chicago immediately got back in the game and stayed competitive with us the rest of the way. Once Manu gets healthy, everything should be fine. I didn't see the Dallas game so I don't know what went wrong there, but in this game there wasn't too much stuff to be negative about. 

I'll apologize to Manu. The dude plays his guts out, but I couldn't help but to curse him out a lot tonight. For some reason he doesn't look comfortable out there on the floor, so I don't know if that's due to his injury, or if it's because it's early season rust. Whatever it is, he'll get over it.


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## FreeMason Jr. (Jul 12, 2004)

TheRoc5 said:


> yes what a great gm im so happy we won, 3-1 now gota do better though. that gm should have been a blow out on our part but our defense is lacking intensity. as long as we won im ok though. parker and duncan were just awsome, i think i was right ez, i guarenteed parker will be an allstar this yr and in 4 gms he sure looks like it. 3-1 GO SPurs GO


You were right. If he keeps this up, there's no question that he deserves to be there.

BTW, Guth, we really didn't play all that bad the entire game IMO. We started out pretty strong but just fell apart halfway through the third. There's not really much we can improve on, besides finishing I guess. Sure, Manu didn't play all that well again, but this was probably his best game this season so far.


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## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

TheRoc5 said:


> i guarenteed parker will be an allstar this yr and in 4 gms he sure looks like it.



It's extremely early to talk about that right now, but he has undoubtedly looked like in All-Star through 4 games. He's really distributing the ball well right now, and he's attacking and finishing at the rim with ease. Nash will be the starter, and then there's Baron Davis, Mike Bibby, Jason Terry, and maybe Sam Cassell (That's a stretch), but aside from that Parker is easily above anyone else in the West. Bibby has really struggled so far, and he's playing with a healthy Brad Miller and a new addition in Abdur-Rahim, so his numbers might go down from last year. If Baron Davis stays healthy and the Warriors hover around .500 he'll make it for sure, but if he misses a lot of time and Golden State plays so-so, Parker could be a shoe-in. 


It's still really early in the season, I know, but I just wanted to get that out. I'm very excited with how Parker is playing right now, and we just need Manu to get into the mix and we'll be looking fine.


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## cpawfan (Jun 20, 2004)

Why is Horry getting so much PT this early in the season?


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## Guth (Feb 23, 2005)

KokoTheMonkey said:


> There's not that much to work on Guth. There's some early season rust that's showing, but for the most part Ginobili's play is the only thing that needs to improve at this point, and there's no doubt that will.





ezealen said:


> BTW, Guth, we really didn't play all that bad the entire game IMO. We started out pretty strong but just fell apart halfway through the third. There's not really much we can improve on, besides finishing I guess.



See, this is why I love this board. I can not see the game, infer something that I heard, and then come here and find out what actually happened from people who saw the game. Stupid Mediacom not carrying the League Pass package.


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## KokoTheMonkey (Aug 4, 2003)

cpawfan said:


> Why is Horry getting so much PT this early in the season?


Well, it pretty much has to do with the production out of the Centers. Duncan is playing 38 minutes a game thus far, so Horry's not getting minutes at the expense of him, so he's getting minutes from Rasho, Mohammed, and Oberto. I figure that Horry will get minutes early on until Oberto is ready to play consistent minutes off the bench. Speaking of that, Oberto didn't even play last night, probably because Mohammed was playing well.


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## mr_french_basketball (Jul 3, 2003)

*San Antonio Spurs @ Chicago Bulls : My ratings*

The first game I could watch from the Spurs this year 

Co-Players of the game : Tim Duncan and Tony Parker

Duncan : 8/10
Very solid game on both side of the court

Parker : 8/10
Took over in the overtime, and showed great composure at the FT line

Nazr : 8/10
Took what the game left to him, and converted each occasions

Manu : 7/10
Showed lot of energy with not so much success. I espect Manu's game to be back soon.

Bowen : 7/10
Good job

Horry : 7/10
Showed some heart

VanExcel : 6/10
Did the job distributing the ball (6 assists)

Rasho : 5/10
Difficult night in defense, but not a so bad game overall

Finley : 4/10
Never found his rythm


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