The Spurs Are Sucking*

AP Photo/Eric Gay

*Sucking in relative Spur terms. They are sucking insofar as a defending champion and perennial contender can suck. We aren’t talking about the Knicks here.


As enthralling as those sluggish victories over the Knicks and the 76ers were, the Spurs have been in their general winter slump. It’s like bears hibernating, but far more painful to watch. It’s characteristic of the team (they generally pick it up on their rodeo road trip), but their malaise still reeks for all the fans out there that pay their hard earned dollar to see Ryan Gomes and Eddy Curry undress the Spurs’ defense. (Sidenote…do you think if San Antonio had better 1 A.M. hotspots players like Eddy Curry would be more likely to be hungover than posting nearly 30 points on Fabricio? Holt should invest in a club and put it next to the visitor’s hotel. Tell everyone Jay-Z owns it or something.)

So what are the central culprits in the Spurs’ recent sucktitude? Well, injuries are the obvious scapegoat. Brent Barry’s continued absence hurts the team more than people realize (although he's set to return), and Manu is still adjusting to having a club on his hand all the time. But I’d be amiss if I ignored other irritating trends…

Tony Parker’s overall shooting numbers are noticeably on the decline from the last two years. His 54.8% shooting in 2005 got the attention of the league, and he shot 52% last year while integrating his fancy new midrange jumper. This season? He wants to act like a badass and shoot 3’s...despite the fact that it takes away from the biggest strength in his offensive game and there are numerous better shooters on the floor at all times. In fact, he’s already taken about as many 3’s in 32 games this season (37) as all of last season (38). That’s more than one a game, and at 27% from behind the arc, it’s part of the reason why he’s shooting under 50% this season.

Another disturbing trend is Tim Duncan’s inability to get to the free throw line. He’s taking 1.7 less free throws a game since last season…which would be fine if his shooting numbers weren’t taking a slight dip too. He seems to wait for the double team to come too often instead of attacking his defender (much to the ire of Sean Elliott, who acts like he’s going to have an aneurism every time Duncan sits in the post with the ball for 5 seconds without doing a thing). I watched Duncan all game against the T-Wolves and he inexplicably kicked the ball out when he was being defended by Michael Doleac.

Finally, Popovich is toying with his lineups. It’s the little things like bringing Manu in for Bowen instead of Finley in the first quarter. Or randomly deciding Francisco Elson should sit the game out despite the fact that he’s starting to get into a rhythm with the second team. Robert Horry is also in full dinosaur mode, which never helps.

It’s a typical Spurs January, but keep in mind that they are still tops in their division.