1.- Dirk and jet combined for 1-10 at halftime and the game was tied; proving we can hang with them, despite our best offensive players not having a good half.
2.- Dirk and jet, again shot 7-25 from the field and we still had a chance to win it.. If jet and dirk have to shoot a combined 28% for us to lose against the Spurs or any other elite team, I LOVE our chances... Those 2 guys usually play pretty well against the spurs anyways, they had an off night shooting the ball
3.- Kidd's defense on Ginobili was spectacular... If he can continue to provide that kind of shut-down impact defensively on ginobili, that's 1 less weapon we have to worry about... Ginobili shot 6-20, inlcuding 1-7 from 3 pt line for 17 points in over 38 minutes of play for a of -11.. After the tear that he's been on lately, I doubt it was just an off-shooting night, especially considering how he's torched us in the past many many times.
4.- Brandon Bass looks like he can give some decent minutes at the C position and go against Duncan. Although he can't contain him all that much on defense, he is quick enough to move laterally and stay in front of duncan and make him shoot over his 6'9'' frame... His advantage though is on th offense. If he can pull Duncan out of the paint like that and give the mavericks some points at the C position and in the paint against Duncan and even put a few fouls on him, it will solidify our best when brickhouse stinks it up like he usually does.
5.- The spurs big three still have to put up big nights offensively to beat us. I know Parker didn't have a good game tonight, but thanks to Stackhouse's defense on Finley during the 3rd qtr., he got away from us and got the spurs back in the game, so he virtually had Parker's point production tonight... I don't know that Finley goes nuts again like that...
6.- Our bench seems to be deeper than SAs at the moment.
7.- Bowen was a factor offensively tonight; he scored 14 points (10 above his average) and the spurs needed every one of those points to win.
8.- We still rebound the ball better than SA
9.- We went from 22 TO's against Chicago at home, to 11 TO's against the Spurs on the road, so we're taking better care of the ball
10- We outscored the Spurs in the paint.
and last, but not least:
11.- This is only our 5th game together. We still have over 20 games left to jell and get our chemistry going... Assuming we have no injuries or setbacks, this team is only going to get better form here on out. We are not a "finished product" yet...
Just trying to find positives after tonight's debacle. If I keep thinking about kidd's face on the bench in crunch time, I will throw up this time...let's get some positive thoughts going!