Boston 90, San Antonio 83

[recap] [box score]

Spurs fans were left grumbling over their team's performance last night. I think Boston can take credit, to an extent, for San Antonio's shooting (42 percent from the field, 2-of-16 from deep), as well as a great number of their 18 turnovers. Boston can't take assert that they had any influence on San Antonio's free throw shooting (an awful 7-for-17), and had the Spurs knocked down a few more freebies, it might have had a different outcome.

Of course, it might have been an easier win for Boston if not for Spurs rookie DeJuan Blair, who threw up an 18/11 on 9-for-11 shooting, with five offensive boards. Like many people, I was stunned when he fell as far as he did in the draft this summer, and he's proved all of us right. He's going to be a handful, if not a beast, in this league for as long as his problematic knees hold out. I might be able to forgive passing on using a first-round pick on him and thereby giving him guaranteed money, because of his injury history, but there's no excuse for not snapping him up immediately in the second. San Antonio's other major offseason acquisition, Richard Jefferson, hasn't found a rhythm with the team yet, but Blair was the Spurs best player, hands down, Thursday night. If I have one critique of him, it's that he doesn't use his strength enough to go through people with the ball on the way up for his shot. He's very short for a post player, and he does a lot of double-clutching to avoid shotblockers. I'd like to see him seek out that contact more and get a few more and-ones, but man, that guy is going to be good. Super relentless on the O-glass, too.

A couple of you pointed out to me, before I noticed, that Brian Scalabrine and Matt Bonner spent a lot of their court time guarding each other. Quite a treat to watch these two red-haired, perimeter-oriented-despite-being-six-foot-nine-and-unathletic-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-NBA veteran forwards go at each other, even exchanging baskets during one sequence. Really, switch these guys' uniforms and I don't think anyone notices.

Next game is tonight at Oklahoma City in a really tricky second game of a back-t0-back. I haven't gotten to watch a ton of the Thunder this year. I saw them play the Clippers live here in LA, and they seemed to content to stand around and throw up jumpers, making just enough to win in a very listless performance. On the other hand, they've blown out Orlando at home and have road wins in Orlando, San Antonio, and Utah already this year. It's going to take a hell of an effort to beat Kevin Durant & Co. tonight on tired legs.