They beat Scott Brooks and Del Negro...
Warriors were sneaky good all season defensively - 4th in the League in DFG% - and that was mostly without Bogut. So, it doesn't alarm me too much that the Spurs struggled to score at times.
What gives me hope is this: since halftime of Game 2, the Spurs either won or tied 15 out of the last 18 quarters vs. GS. So, even though it may not appear we're playing at an elite level, those numbers don't lie. 15 out of 18 is extremely hard to do - especially after the way we played in the first two games.
It's the only explanation
I'll be quick because I want to finish the Grades ... but I couldn't resist responding...
He doesn't look spent? In Game 5, he came out on fire but then quickly went down hill. Tonight, he had no legs at all in the fourth -- to the point Pop benched him. If he's ever looked "spent" in his career, it's right now.
Hopefully he's spent because he is forced to defend about 80 pick-and-rolls a game -- but he definitely looks spent.
I disagree on all three counts. He has been limping and laboring since hurting his calf in Game 3. Tonight he had a major limp on his way back to the bench a few times. He fought through it but it's clear to me he's hurting. On top of that, he's been huffing and puffing so much that Pop has had to sub him in and out more than usual.
Again, hopefully it's just because this Warriors series was a peculiar one.
Manu looks somewhere between 80-90% basing it on how great he looked during that two week span in the regular season when he was dunking left and right. He doesn't look bad right now but he's also cautious about his stops and starts due to his hamstrings.
As I said, I'm worried their defense won't be utilized in this series.
Agreed. I can't express enough how thrilled I'd be at being dead wrong.
Lakers series 2.0
Shut down the paint by fronting with leonard and green and make the grizz shoot threes.
Am I the only one confident that Cory Joseph will spell Parker with some good minutes?
The Spurs and Griz split their 4 games this season, with the home team winning every game. Two of the games went to overtime, and a third was decided by just 2 points (a Memphis win). Only the Spurs managed a convincing win in the series, logging a 103-82 victory on Jan. 16.
In the January blowout victory, the Spurs were without Manu Ginobili, and in their OT victory in December they were without Kawhi Leonard. And in the Spurs' 92-90 loss on April Fool's Day, the Spurs were without Tim, Manu, and Kawhi.
In two of the four games, the Spurs tied Memphis for total rebounds. In one game, they out-rebounded Memphis by 1 board, and in one game the Spurs were out-rebounded by 4. In other words, the Spurs held their own in the rebound department, Gasol and Randolph notwithstanding. The Grizzlies did get more offensive rebounds that the Spurs in all four games, beating them by a margin of 2,2,3, and 5. But the Spurs still managed to outscore Memphis in the paint in their two victories.
The Spurs biggest problem against Memphis this year was turnovers, with the Spurs committing 16, 16, and 19 in three of the games. In their blowout victory, the Spurs only committed 13 TO's. If they take care of the ball, it's going to take away one of Memphis' biggest advantages.
Tony parker has scored 17, 25, 30, and 30 in each of the Spurs games against Memphis this season, on 36-71 shooting. Tony definitely looked beaten up tonight. I guess we'll see how much of that was the quicker defense of Golden State, and getting hammered against all those moving screens. There's no doubt that the Warrior's strategy was to stop Parker. But if Parker is healthy, I don't think the Griz have the personnel to do the same to him.
In the four games against the Spurs, Zach Randolph was just 21-58, while Gasol was 24-47. Someone started a thread about who is going to defend Randolph. The bigger question is who will defend Gasol?
The two big question marks, in my mind: Are the Big 3 really as gassed as it seems, or will they be able to play Memphis the way they have during the regular season. (Remember, they were without Manu one game, Kawhi another, and Manu, Kawhi, and Tim in a third.) And will the Spurs' role players step up to the level of the regular season?
I think you're right to have a healthy fear of Memphis. But based on what I see from their previous four meetings this season, the Griz aren't prohibitive favorites unless the Spurs turn out to be totally spent. And I think that after what Kawhi and Green have just been through, they are going to feel like the game is moving in slow motion. I fully expect them to bring Conley and Prince back down to Earth.
Last edited by GSH; 05-17-2013 at 02:42 AM.
How will Green and Leonard's defense not be beneficial when both can probably make life for Conley for stretches? If they can dog down Curry and Thompson the way they did I don't see how they couldn't give Conley fits. Park Tony on Allen or any other of their non shooters at off guard and let him conserve energy for digging down on the ball in the post and on offense.
Our defense tonight was really something to watch. If that continues and with our offense, I can't see us not at least making every game compe ive.
I'll go back and watch, but I disagree. Bewildered? Yes. Tired of having to chase the children around the play room? Undoubtedly. Ready to play a regular basketball team again instead of a gimmicky outside offense? Absolutely. Spent? No way. Spent is him coming out scoring 12 points in the first quarter last year, and being unable to get a free throw to the rim by the 4th quarter because his body's not used to playing more than 25 minutes. His offense has been terrible but I'm going to chalk it up to the opponent until proven otherwise.
As for the rest, Parker and Manu are in better shape physically than they've been in the playoffs for years. Parker has a bruise that's going to heal further between now and Sunday, and rest days for Manu are only going to help his hammies. Both are making great decisions with the ball, and it's moving to everyone. We don't need heroics from either of them, particularly as well as Green and Kawhi are playing. If they trust the system, they're going to win this series.
This is another series where the Spurs' ability to take care of the ball and rebound is going to determine the outcome. Leonard could very conceivably feast offensively in this series, and Green is going to be open a lot. If he shoots with the same confidence he's been playing with, Memphis won't be able to generate enough possessions to make up for it because they don't shoot threes at all.
Even if Duncan and Parker are tired, they have 2 days off before game 1, and a couple days off before game 3. Come in fresh and take care of business from the start.
A gassed Parker doesn't have it in him to nail 2 3s late in the 4th, especially on a terrible shooting night. He had to exert so much more energy on defense working to not give Curry any comfort space inside of 30 ft, or when not guarding Curry getting worked in the post banging with Barnes. Couple that with having to play against the length of Thompson all series and it was a hard series matchup for him.
This. I do want to emphasise that the Spurs are getting quite at the level they played when they were at their best earlier this season. And that makes them favorites (slightly or a little bit more) against the Grizzlies despite the latter's much vaunted defense.
Not only did he have to defend those PnR's, he got the beaten out of him by all the moving screens. I didn't say anything until the Spurs closed them out, but Tony is like a boxer who has had an opponent laying on him for 12 rounds. It tires you out.
Was he gassed at the end of the game? That corner 3 he made near the end rotated about 1 1/2 times on the way to the basket, and I don't think he even raised up onto his toes to shoot it. That's a guy who's gassed. The fact that he had the stones to even take the shot was amazing. And he had enough time to get both of his feet under him, and use whatever was left of his legs. But it wasn't much. He doesn't normally shoot knuckleballs from beyond the arc.
I fail to see how Green or Leonard can't be utilized against Mike Conley and Pondexter or play the passing lanes and distrupt Zbo and Gasol....
Spurs paying 1.70, Griz paying 2.40. I'm not saying Spurs are gonna lose but those are some nice odds on the Griz from a neutral stand point.
Your post is absurd for about 15 different reasons, but lets tackle them one by one. How well Duncan plays on offense really has nothing to do with who he's facing, which I realize is rare. Still, with all the pick-and-rolls the Spurs run, regardless of whether they face the best defensive team in the league or the worst, everybody gives Duncan that same 15-17 foot open shot. It's simply a matter of whether he knocks them down or not. If he hits enough of them, then people jump out at him and then he just pump fakes and gets to the rim. He's scored consistently on Gasol in the past and had a couple of big games against the Grizzlies this season, averaging 20 and 13 on nearly 53% shooting.
Neither Gasol nor Randolph are elite shot blockers. They have size, but Parker can still shoot his floater over them. Conley is good defensively, but Parker can still get to the hole and dish, even if he can't consistently finish. Like Duncan, for him it's all about whether he can hit that jumper. He'll get plenty of them.
Ginobili ruined Allen's two years ago playing with a broken arm. No, he's not the same player now, but, again, the initial defender doesn't matter all that much against Manu since he always relies on that screen anyway. With Manu it's about how well a defense plays as a team to cut off his penetration and how they play him on the pick-and-roll. I'm not saying he's going to have a big series vs. the Grizzlies or anything, but how well he plays will depend more on him and the Grizzlies bigs than Allen, tbh.
People haven't been very patient with Tiago even though he had a pretty bad sprained ankle. They wanted him to be 100% from the first game back. If you've been paying attention, he got better and better as the Warriors series went along and both his stats and the Warriors offensive stats reflected that. By the end, Pop relied on Tiago, not Tim down the stretch and we still won. No, Tiago is not physical, and he's not a great rebounder, but he's a very good defender as long as you don't pair him with Bonner. I think this series will be a great test for him, but it could be his coming out party.
Not having to do as much on their guys will just allow them that much more opportunity to freelance and disrupt Memphis' offense. Leonard, in particular, could wreak a lot of havoc with his ridiculous wingspan. Leonard could be the key guy in the series because if Pop wants to switch things up to go small, there's nobody on the Grizz to handle him, really. If Green doesn't play well, then Pop could turn to Manu more and he'll have the freedom to play Ginobili since there's no perimeter guy to wear him out on defense. More Ginobili on offense is never a bad thing. The Spurs have the THREE best wings in this series. That's a ridiculous luxury and it's ridiculous for you to dismiss that.
And two of them won't play, duh. This isn't 2011. We're not this soft, punk-ass team that has to rely on RJ, Bonner and a broken down, undersized Antonio McDyess. We've got a second legit big in Splitter and some girth at the very least (and pretty quick feet) in Diaw. Again, if the bigs falter, we can go small. You can call the 2013 Spurs a lot of things, but they're not soft.
Pop has shown already Neal's leash will be very short. If he's not getting it done it'll either be a three-man rotation on the wings or possibly even McGrady, who's got size. We're not gonna depend on Neal to win or lose us games. Really, you're freaking out about the 9th and 10th men in the rotation.
Scrappiness is the biggest strength of his game. Frankly I'd be a lot more worried about playing him against an offensive juggernaut team we have to match hoop for hoop than a rugged defensive team. This is Joseph's kind of party.
The Spurs starting five is the best defensive quintet in the league. It's kind of a secret because they only played 31 games together due to various injuries and only a 364 minute sample size, but their work together has been staggering. They allow 41% field goals, 32% from 3 and hardly ever foul. They're ridiculous. In fact, when you focus on just the 8-man rotation and throw out Bonner and Neal, the Spurs are as good as any defense in the league and probably better.
As far as offense goes, it's kind of amusing for you to harp on lack of ball movement when the team had 57 assists the past two games. The Spurs have MUCH better three point shooting than the Grizzlies. Also, Memphis struggled to run away from a one-man Thunder team whose best passer was Durant. Both Parker and Ginobili are way better passers than him and Duncan is far more of a post threat than anyone the Thunder had. Memphis' offensive limitations will insure that no matter how well they play, they won't really run away from the Spurs and we'll always be in games against them. One good run (which the Spurs always have in them) and we'll be tied or ahead.
You are making the mistake of judging them based on your most recent memories, and the most recent play of the Grizzlies and are not taking into account a number of factors.
1. The Spurs, the big three in particular, were EXHAUSTED down the stretch of this series, because the schedule of it was obscene. They played 6.3 games in 11 days, with four cross-country flights in between and a ridiculous Sunday afternoon tilt after a Friday night game. If Game 4 was played at night I have no doubt in my mind, none whatsoever that the Spurs would've won it easily and taken the series in five, and you'd have looked at them in a completely different light.
The Grizzlies on the other hand had more rest within their series and less travel, with short flights between Memphis and OKC. In this series the Spurs will get more breaks between the games and again the travel won't be as much of an issue, so the Spurs will look fresher.
2. You're also discounting the opponents. We beat (dominated really) a good Warriors team in the last four games of that series, the same Dubs who beat a very good Denver squad. While I agree that the Warriors weren't much of a squad for most of the regular season and that their coach Mark Jackson is mostly an overrated hype man, they lucked into their best team by having David Lee -- just an atrocious defender -- get injured vs. the Nuggets. If Lee had played big minutes vs. the Spurs our offense would've looked a lot better and really, in all likelihood we wouldn't have even faced the Warriors but rather the Nugs.
The Grizz on the other hand, grinded out four wins against a one-man team. Durant is very good, but he was playing with a pretty shoddy supporting cast and those games still went down to the wire.
3. You're severely underestimating Pop. I rail on Pop sometimes too, but I at least give him enough credit that I strongly doubt he's going to just stand there and let Randolph and Gasol run roughshod over the Spurs inside, especially when that club doesn't have a legit perimeter threat. The doubles will be comin' L.J., oh they'll be a comin.' If the Grizzlies are going to beat us, it will have to be with the shooting of guys like Bayless, Pondexter, Allen and Prince. We're not going to just let them set up camp inside the paint. That's silly. Both these teams are so well-founded defensively that they're going to make each other go to plan C, D, or E for points. The further down the list it goes, the better off we are, because we have better depth in scoring than the Grizzlies do, better shooters and better passers. Good ball movement is the enemy of any top-tier defense and the Spurs don't lack for guys who are ready and willing to pass.
4. We'll have home court advantage. Not something I'd dismiss so easily if I were you. Yeah, the Thunder got us in Game 5 and the Warriors in Game 2, but it's still better to have it than not. At the least the Spurs are always good for one massive run behind their home crowd every game.
5. Finally, we've got the ultimate motivator in revenge. The Grizzlies think they're the biggest and baddest team out there. We get to show them that the 2011 series was mostly a fluke. Ginobili had one arm and Leonard, Green and Splitter weren't around back then. The team is radically different. Again, I said it before, you can call these Spurs a lot of things, but they aren't soft. They're not going to be punked by some team that's "more physical." As we saw last season, if these Spurs lose, it will be to some club who flat out has more offensive talent and athleticism. That's not the Grizzlies.
Lol so the Grizzlies beating a westbrook-less OKC makes them more tested? That's not a major achievement IMO
Some thoughts about why spurs should win this series.
I see conely or allen on Parker.. Parker shouldnt have much problems with this.. He should destroy the paint in this series.
Zbo will have trouble against spurs bigs.
Zbo - Splitter /Diaw
Gasol- Timmy
Conley-Leonard
Prince-Green/manu
Griz Bench-Spurs Bench?
If they are limited to outside shooting then this should be a short series..
Spurs vs Griz regular season 2-2 (spurs are longer and smaller than Griz)
Looks like a pretty decent match up.. Spurs look to have the edge if they can shoot decent... (Spurs need to get healed up)
Spurs in 5..
Not too mention a Clippers team that was running on fumes...Memphis is one of the more overrated teams in some time tbh...
Going to bump the out of this when the Spurs win in 5
Get ed Timvp. Spurs in 4
Roy's convincing post is so far superior to mine it's re ulous tbh.
Spurs will probably lose to the Grizzlies but timvp is overrating them quite a bit here. The way he talks about them, you'd think they were the Miami Heat.
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