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Spurs fall to Sonics, time to start worrying

Spurs fans, it is time to start worrying.

San Antonio didn’t just lose three in a row. They were blown out by New Orleans, lost a winnable game at Utah and lost to the Sonics 88-85. These are the same Sonics that had lost 14 in a row and are 10-35. Oh yeah, the Spurs also were a couple plays away from losing to the Miami Heat before all that. In case you didn’t know, the Heat are 9-34.

Even without Tony Parker, who is sitting indefinitely with a bone spur in his left heel, the Spurs should have won. They held a 10-point lead in the third quarter but let the Sonics, who are a horrible fourth quarter team, come back and out execute them. Seattle outscored them 25-19 in the fourth and Kevin Durant, who had 26 points, hit a wide-open jumper with 32 seconds left to take the lead. Then the Spurs failed to execute and lost.

Of all the things that worry after this game, two stand out: Durant’s 26 points and only two Spurs scoring over 20.

Durant’s production worries me because the Spurs used to shut down guys like him. For all the talent he has, Durant hasn’t played well lately. In January he is shooting 38.6%. Against San Antonio he was 9-of-19. Bruce Bowen is still a great defender, but not consistently anymore. Michael Finley also blew numerous rotations. How can the Spurs allow Durant to get wide-open for the winning shot? Everybody in the building knew Durant would get that ball.

The lack of production from any other player also worries me. Tim Duncan had 27 points on 10-of-21 shooting and Manu Ginobili had 29 points on 10-of-17 shooting. Fabricio Oberto was the only other player to score in double figures with 12, which is highly unusual for him. It feels like no player besides the Big Three, which is now down to two, can score more than 20 points. You know why? Because it hasn’t happened in a month. Only three players besides the Big Three have broken 20 points in a game: Finley, Bowen and Matt Bonner. The last time it happened was Finley’s 22 against Minnesota on December 30th. All totaled, it has happened six times. Last night the Boston Celtics had four different players score over 20 and not one was named Paul, Kevin or Ray. It’s not good when you need three different players to score 20 points a night to even have a chance, and one of those players is now injured.

With the ways things are going, the Spurs could easily find themselves on the outside looking in at the playoff picture. There are seven games left on the Rodeo Road Trip and the second half of the season is harder.

The Spurs could also turn things around and be just fine.

However, the former is looking just as likely these days.

Joey: Finley for letting Durant have such an open look at the end. However, he isn’t the only one who deserves blame.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 30th, 2008 at 2:09 pm and is filed under San Antonio Spurs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.