Spurs’ Supporting Cast Lets Them Down In Game 1 Loss To Mavericks

Last night left no doubt that San Antonio’s Big Three is ready for the playoffs. The trio of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker combined for 71 points in last night’s loss to the Mavericks, showing that they’d be a problem for Dallas the entire series.

The only problem? Nobody else showed up. The rest of the team combined for just 23 points, with only Antonio McDyess scoring above 10. Naturally, the Spurs couldn’t seal the deal and secure a key road win against a hot Mavericks club.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich noticed his supporting cast’s lack of production and responded to it in typical Gregg Popovich fashion.

“We’ve got to have a few more people step up and play worth a damn,” he said. “I thought we had a lot of guys that played like dogs.”

Too harsh? I don’t think so. McDyess played solidly, with 10 points and eight rebounds, but that was about it, writes SB Nation’s Spurs blog Pounding the Rock.

Dice might be old and slow, but you just have to love that the man shows up for big games, no matter what. As for the rest of the team, it brought back memories of last year’s playoffs when the role players again dug themselves a bunker and stayed there, choosing to blindly lob grenades at the enemy that were waaaay off target. Still ailing or not, George Hill’s defense and production is sorely needed to offset Jason Kidd’s effectiveness. And, as one of my friends told me, Richard Jefferson should stop stealing money.

The lack of production from Hill and Jefferson was most staggering. Hill was clearly still feeling the effects of his ankle injury, laboring through 17 minutes without scoring a point or getting an assist. But at least Hill has an excuse. Jefferson has no excuse for his Game 1 stinkfest (four points on four shots in 32 minutes). Then again, Jefferson’s had no excuse for being so terrible all season, so I guess last night’s bad performance shouldn’t be too much of a surprise.

The Spurs need these guys to step up if they want to avoid a repeat performance of last year, when they fell meekly to the Mavericks in five games. If they don’t, it’ll be yet another early exit for the Team of the Decade.