Jesse Blanchard of 48 Minutes Of Hell took a very interesting look at the garbage time from the Spurs’ game against Houston on Friday.  Blanchard’s reason for examining garbage time was because it was on of the few times Malik Hairston and Ian Mahinmi got extended run in a meaningful game.  Here is an excerpt of the analysis:

Fans have been clamoring for an extended look at the Toros “Big Two” (their “Big Three” ended when the Spurs released Marcus Williams) for some time now, but did these performances merit an extended look?

Hairston is probably further along than Mahinmi in gaining a rotation spot, though one can still see why Popovich still hasn’t inserted him into the rotation. His team and pick and roll defense were exploited twice for backdoor cuts and once for a three-pointer.

Still, the Rockets isolated one of the league’s better scorers, Martin, on Hairston five times and came away with no points. Martin is considered an efficient scorer, even though his field goal percentage (9-24) can be terrible, because he can hit threes in bunches and gets to the free throw line.

Martin was 14-14 for the game from the line and the starting backcourt of Hill (6 fouls) and Bogans (four fouls in 14 minutes) each spent time on Martin contributing to that. Hairston, meanwhile, had Martin five times without fouling (no matter how hard Martin tried to draw one, or how bad he looked).

That is just a small part of such a fascinating post, so I highly recommend that you head over and read the full thing.

Also, this gives me a chance to let you guys know if you write/come across a Xs and Os post, don’t be afraid to send it over to me.  Sebastian@nbaplaybook.com.