Kenyan Martin is officially forgiven
You remember two years ago when this team imploded and right at the center was a guy name Kenyan throwing a fit. Well I never quite got over that. I hate it when any player places himself above the team. I stopped hating him this year when he showed up to training camp with a body fat ratio of 13%, but I never really forgave him until last night.
Duncan who, MVP what? Kenyan held him to 7 for 20, stole the ball twice (including the crucial one late in the game), and 7 blocked shots. The mighty Spurs were held to 77 points. Before you tell me how typical this is, let me remind you, it was the Nugget’s defence. I know, doesn’t make a lick of sense. But it does beg a question for Popovich:
How do hold the Nugget offence to 80 points and lose?
01.44.2008 1:11 pm
What a great game. I was flicking back and forth between that and the Orange Bowl and aside from the regularity of exciting turnovers the Nuggets game was far more interesting.
You asked how the Spurs hold the Nugs to 80 points and lose. Simple really… four words…. Manu “Floppy Baby” Ginobli. With him out of the lineup the Spurs are missing a major scoring threat off the bench, and we still made enough mistakes last night (especially early in the fourth quarter) to lose the game if Manu were playing.
Still, we showed that we can play even with the Spurs when we have our full defensive compliment, and the last couple weeks with Kenyon at full health (he’s a freaking beast no matter who he’s guarding) and Marcus blocking shots like he’s swatting away flies has been spectacular. With our defense clamping down in the paint we can play with anybody and last night proved it.