HarlemHeat37
01-27-2009, 10:20 AM
what happened to us this year? where's the Spurs basketball we're accustomed to seeing? I'm not speaking from a success standpoint, but from a stylistic standpoint..
pace-wise, we're playing faster than previous years, but not by much..however, it's altered by the extremely slow pace we played at while Tony and Manu were out of the lineup..so if you eliminate that part of the season, we aren't playing Spurs-type basketball..
we're now ranked 4th defensively, since we've clearly stepped up in the past few weeks, although there is still serious work to be done if we want to reach the top 3(Boston, Cleveland, and Orlando are significantly ahead of the next 3 teams, which is us, the Lakers, and Rockets)..
so we need to slow the games down and play Spurs basketball..the D obviously needs to step up a little more, but that's obvious..the other part hasn't been talked about..where's the physical play? we used to be known for that..we were never as physical as we were made out to be by the media, but where are the "dirty" Spurs? we used to eat up soft teams..where did it go? I used to love hearing other teams fans and the media calling Bruce dirty, calling Horry dirty..that's how basketball should be played..
we're still one of the most mentally tough teams in the NBA, probably #1 in that aspect..but this team used to get inside other players heads with the physical play, and subtle cheap shots..Bruce is still great at it, as we saw in the Nuggets game vs. Carmelo, but even he has toned it down a little..
where are the pests on our team? let's see some flopping..where are Manu and Oberto to get in other teams heads by flopping? it seems like the Lakers are the ones that do this now, when we're supposed to be that team..where are the cheap shots to Nash, Amare, David West that we used to see from Robert and Bruce?..Kurt Thomas is obviously a tough guy, but where's the physical play? he's been doing it his entire career, but he doesn't do it here..why wasn't Kurt pushing Gasol around? why didn't Bruce take a shot at Kobe's injured finger?..
the Lakers are still obviously a soft team, anybody can see that..look what Boston did to them in the finals..KG setting illegal screens, trash talking, pushing them around in the frontcourt..Pierce flopping everywhere..they got in LA's heads and pushed them around..it's what we used to be..
it's funny that the Celtics emulated the Spurs, as KG has said in the past..but now it seems like we're the ones that need to emulate the Celtics and go back to the old Spurs way..grind out basketball, flopping, dirty play/cheap shots..that's how basketball is supposed to be played, especially in an era full of soft pussies like the NBA has been this entire decade..
pace-wise, we're playing faster than previous years, but not by much..however, it's altered by the extremely slow pace we played at while Tony and Manu were out of the lineup..so if you eliminate that part of the season, we aren't playing Spurs-type basketball..
we're now ranked 4th defensively, since we've clearly stepped up in the past few weeks, although there is still serious work to be done if we want to reach the top 3(Boston, Cleveland, and Orlando are significantly ahead of the next 3 teams, which is us, the Lakers, and Rockets)..
so we need to slow the games down and play Spurs basketball..the D obviously needs to step up a little more, but that's obvious..the other part hasn't been talked about..where's the physical play? we used to be known for that..we were never as physical as we were made out to be by the media, but where are the "dirty" Spurs? we used to eat up soft teams..where did it go? I used to love hearing other teams fans and the media calling Bruce dirty, calling Horry dirty..that's how basketball should be played..
we're still one of the most mentally tough teams in the NBA, probably #1 in that aspect..but this team used to get inside other players heads with the physical play, and subtle cheap shots..Bruce is still great at it, as we saw in the Nuggets game vs. Carmelo, but even he has toned it down a little..
where are the pests on our team? let's see some flopping..where are Manu and Oberto to get in other teams heads by flopping? it seems like the Lakers are the ones that do this now, when we're supposed to be that team..where are the cheap shots to Nash, Amare, David West that we used to see from Robert and Bruce?..Kurt Thomas is obviously a tough guy, but where's the physical play? he's been doing it his entire career, but he doesn't do it here..why wasn't Kurt pushing Gasol around? why didn't Bruce take a shot at Kobe's injured finger?..
the Lakers are still obviously a soft team, anybody can see that..look what Boston did to them in the finals..KG setting illegal screens, trash talking, pushing them around in the frontcourt..Pierce flopping everywhere..they got in LA's heads and pushed them around..it's what we used to be..
it's funny that the Celtics emulated the Spurs, as KG has said in the past..but now it seems like we're the ones that need to emulate the Celtics and go back to the old Spurs way..grind out basketball, flopping, dirty play/cheap shots..that's how basketball is supposed to be played, especially in an era full of soft pussies like the NBA has been this entire decade..