Last night, against the Houston Rockets, the San Antonio Spurs dropped their sixth straight game, losing in overtime. While the first five losses weren’t really anything to worry about considering the injuries and the opponents (the first four had all or some of the Spurs’ big three sitting out, the fifth loss was to the Boston Celtics), this one was a little more worrisome.
With the Lakers breathing down the Spurs’ neck for the first seed and while playing a non-playoff team, the Spurs were really going for the win, but they were unable to get it due to a number (nine to be exact) of really bad mistakes made in the final minute of the fourth quarter and throughout overtime. Mistakes that you don’t really see Gregg Popovich coached teams make:
Mistake 1: Turnover In The Backcourt
Up by three points with 1 minute left in the game, the Spurs play fantastic defense, forcing the Rockets into a tough shot that is missed. After securing the rebound, the Spurs could have realistically ran the clock all the way down to 30 seconds looking to get a basket and turn it into a two possession game. The Spurs never get that chance because of some sloppy play. Manu Ginobili throws a pass to Tony Parker without really looking. This forces Paker to tap the ball to Tim Duncan just to avoid a turnover. Duncan quickly gets the ball to George Hill who now has to rush the ball up the court to avoid an eight second violation. As soon as Hill crosses the half court line, he is trapped, the ball gets deflected, and it leads to a turnover. Once that results directly into a fast break opportunity for the Rockets. This turnover all comes down to the lazy pass thrown by Ginobili. If he hangs onto the basketball and brings it up himself, a turnover probably doesn’t take place.
The Chicago Bulls found themselves in a tight game against the Charlotte Bobcats last night. Late in the fourth quarter we saw two different mistakes by two different point guards that played a part in the Bulls’ loss:
The first mistake is made by C.J. Watson, who overdribbles the basketball in this clip. Watson starts by bringing the basketball up as the Bulls get into their set. It’s a staggered screen for Watson and then a pindown for Kyle Korver. The play works and Korver comes open at the top of the key. One problem, Watson doesn’t even look towards Korver because he is too busy being occupied with his dribble. Eventually, Watson gets bailed out by a great move from Boozer on his catch at the foul line, but he misses the dunk.
Against the Rockets (and some former Knicks), the Knicks ran out to a pretty big lead, but the Rockets were able to climb back in it. Part of it was because the Rockets are a pretty good team, but the Knicks helped out big time. The Knicks made a couple of mental errors that lead to easy baskets for the Rockets:
Poor Outlet Passing
On two separate occasions, the Knicks turned the ball over in the backcourt. The first comes after a Rockets three pointer:
Now, both J.R. Giddens and Chris Duhon are at fault here:
This is because Trevor Ariza is hanging around and it should have been noticed by either guy (or at least 1). This is something that a lot of teams do to get the ball out of the PGs hands, but it rarely turns into a steal. However, Giddens grabs the ball out of the net and just tosses to where Duhon is without looking. For his part, Duhon floats away from the basketball as it comes to him instead of meeting the ball and ensuring the catch. The Rockets went from being down 14 to being down 9 after this. This was a huge 5 point swing in this game as the Knicks went from pulling away to trying to hang on to the lead.
