Biggest reason the Spurs lost

[Supergirl]

What do you think is the biggest reason the Spurs lost?

[hunterxaz]

The Suns are a better team with better players/talent.

[Buddy Holly]

What do you think is the biggest reason the Spurs lost?

They spent the two years and a half sacrificing good defense and decent offense for shitty defense and shitty offense.

[m33p0]

-free throws
-lack of a good lock down perimeter defender
-rebounds
-3 point shooting
-no one other than tim, manu and tony wanting to win
-free throws

[polandprzem]

screens

[toki9]

Only Duncan, Manu and Parker showed up--and Duncan was too spent, Manu was probably bothered by the nose, and Parker was dinged up. But I don't think we could have won even if all 3 of them were 100%. We just didn't have enough players who were ready to go. Blair and Hill will get better with another year. Dyess was probably spent. And everyone else was craptastic.

[boutons_deux]

I think the weakness of Bonner, Mason, Bogans, the huge disappointment of RJ, discouraged, even unconsciously, the Big Three. I get the feeling they never relieved believed in this team.

And I think maybe Tim and Manu don't have the legs anymore to win a Mavs series then have enough left to take on just a PHX, and then a Lakers, and then Magic or Cavs, ALL without HCA.

I'm still amazed they beat the Mavs.

[Russ]

Dirk's flailing elbow.

[boutons_deux]

I think the weakness of Bonner, Mason, Bogans, the huge disappointment of RJ, discouraged, even unconsciously, the Big Three. I get the feeling they never relieved believed in this team.

And I think maybe Tim and Manu don't have the legs anymore to win a Mavs series then have enough left to take on just a PHX, and then a Lakers, and then Magic or Cavs, ALL without HCA.

I'm still amazed they beat the Mavs.

[cd98]

The difference was the three point line. Suns certainly are good enough to make those shots. But every game? Very unusual that everyone on your teAm does it 4 straight times.

And Suns hit every big shot in every 4th quarter.

[DMX7]

Lucky shots had NOTHING to do with it. They were better period.

[VBM]

Wide open shots = lucky shots?

[HarlemHeat37]

There are plenty of reasons, just look at the roster..

Duncan carried the team in the 1st half of the season, Manu carried the team in the 2nd half..Parker has been suffering through injuries all year..these guys are too old and have too much mileage to be doing ALL the lifting on this team..

Too much dead weight on the roster, too many holes..no perimeter defenders, no more shooters, no athletic bigs to help Duncan or to defend outside, too many soft players, questionable coaching, no depth, no athleticism. the coach prefers old veterans over young players..

I'm amazed that the Spurs made the 2nd round and beat a #2 seed..

[Death In June]

It's the same problem that this team had last year. The core is aging. The bench sucks.

[MannyIsGod]

10 v 6

[coyotes_geek]

Put me down for all of the first 5.

[TampaDude]

it's the same problem that this team had last year. The core is aging. The bench sucks.

+1

[dbestpro]

Write in vote for being out coached.

[ThePop]

Pretty much all of the above

[Kori Ellis]

The Suns are deeper and more resilient. And the Spurs don't have consistent 3-point shooters to spread the floor, so the spacing was messed up pretty much the whole series.

[ALVAREZ6]

Perimeter defense, no doubt. There were tons of reasons, but that is the biggest contributor.

Next would be the weak bench, which needs to be scrapped this offseason. But it's important to note that the Spurs managed to score a good amount of points in every game of this series. A better bench would have helped, but the points were there. They just couldn't slow down the Suns offense, primarily out on the perimeter and the pick and roll with Nash and Amare. A stronger bench would have just meant less Parker and Ginobili scoring and more role players, but it would roughly still equate to the same amount of points scored. Defense was just not strong enough to stop Phoenix, and that's why they were swept.

[B-Hath]

Where's "Lack of 3-point shooting"?

[Spurs Brazil]

Where's the option Suns is a better team?

[Brazil]

there is one obvious reason: the suns are a better team

[Brazil]

Where's the option Suns is a better team?

quicker than me

[Borosai]

Inconsistency from top to bottom.

[Supergirl]

I think the weakness of Bonner, Mason, Bogans, the huge disappointment of RJ, discouraged, even unconsciously, the Big Three. I get the feeling they never relieved believed in this team.

And I think maybe Tim and Manu don't have the legs anymore to win a Mavs series then have enough left to take on just a PHX, and then a Lakers, and then Magic or Cavs, ALL without HCA.

I'm still amazed they beat the Mavs.

I think that the FANS didn't always believe in this team. I don't think the Spurs stopped believing, not during the playoffs anyway. And RJ was not the 20 pt scorer he was in the past, but they never needed him to be. He was pretty decent this series, and in the last. He'll get better another year into being a Spur, and I do think he'll be back.

I hope Blair will get better next year, I expected more from him this year and esp against the Suns. Same with Dice, but he's on the downside of his career so I don't know if we can expect much more from him. Probably will be replaced by Splitter in the lineup and rotation.

Hill was solid most of the time, and he'll be even better next year. Bonner was decent against the Suns, after not doing much against the Mavs, but that's cause the Mavs actually play better defense. He may be back next year. But he may not, he's pretty replaceable.

Mason is obviously gone. I don't know what happened with him - he seemed like such a good fit for the Spurs 2 years ago, and had a lot of potential.

Bogans may be gone too. He should have been played more, because he was what we needed - a perimeter defender. But the fact that Pop didn't play him seems to suggest Pop doesn't have much confidence in him.

[VBM]

The Suns are deeper and more resilient. And the Spurs don't have consistent 3-point shooters to spread the floor, so the spacing was messed up pretty much the whole series.

Throw in the fact that RJ wouldn't creep out to the corner 3 area...he had to stay two feet in

[xellos88330]

I said everything except the lucky shots. Phoenix was outright better.

[alchemist]

There's so many reasons (excuses), the only legit reason the Spurs lost was because Phoenix was the best team. No doubt's about it.

[Supergirl]

I said everything except the lucky shots. Phoenix was outright better.

Man, I couldn't disagree more. Suns have done NOTHING to impress me in this series. The Spurs hit wide open shots, missed FTs, turned the ball over due to their own sloppiness...and the Suns hit contested shot after contested shot.

I really think the Suns were just playing to redeem them last 14,678 times the Spurs have beat their asses. And that they are in for a rude awakening in the next round. They are out of their league.

[Snik]

Part of it was all of the above, but the stats for tonight's game don't look all that bad really. They just took more shots than we did even though we out rebounded them 42-37. Part of it was the bench for sure. But really, it came down to just being consistently outplayed.

Let's face it, the Suns were HUNGRY!! And that is part of it too.

[Spurminator]

Never settling on a rotation at all this year.

[cd98]

Remember the '99 tear. Spurs had a very good team, but swept equally good Blazer and Laker teams. Why? For whatever reason we had several guys that clicked at the right moment and we steam rolled everyone.

Suns are on a tear right now. We'll see if those shooters who were hot and cold all year will stay hot in the second round.

[Supergirl]

Never settling on a rotation at all this year.

well, we settled on a rotation pretty quickly in the playoffs. Problem was it was a pretty short rotation. I think that may have played a big role, actually - it would explain why the Spurs got a lead, a decent lead even, in EVERY GAME OF THIS SERIES, and then ran out of gas in the 3rd or 4th quarters.

Dice, Parker, Manu, Hill, Duncan, Jefferson, Bonner. Those were the only guys who really got significant minutes. Pretty short rotation. Suns played with 9-10 guys, as did the Mavs.

Bogans, Blair, and Mason all disappointed.

[Supergirl]

remember the '99 tear. Spurs had a very good team, but swept equally good blazer and laker teams. Why? For whatever reason we had several guys that clicked at the right moment and we steam rolled everyone.

Suns are on a tear right now. We'll see if those shooters who were hot and cold all year will stay hot in the second round.

+1

[kuato]

What do you think is the biggest reason the Spurs lost?

Less scoring :P

[4>0rings]

Wheres the coach option.

[EIC]

All of the following (in no particular order):


Weak bench
Poor 3-point shooting
Tired/injured core players
Bonner
Slight fouls bias against Spurs
A little bit of overachieving by Suns bench (Dudley, Frye, and Dragic were all playing out of their minds)
Lack of heart
Poor perimeter defense
Sloppy play

[mavsfan1000]

Grant Hill's defense against Manu and his clutch shuts in pressure situations. But there are so many things you can go with.

[mingus]

lots of problems as to why the Spurs didn't get it done, but the two biggest are lack of three-point shooting and a perimiter defender. not having a shooter playing the 3 is key when your whole offense is predicated on Manu's and Parker's ability to drive and kick. no perimiter defense to stop FUCKING GORAN DRAGIC resulted in a game 3 loss. i never felt confident in this team offensively this year without a shooter at the 3 because i know how important it has been for us. it's not so much the actualy buckets that were made by Bruce Lee in the past as much as it was the threat of them, which resulted in better spacing, something that the Spurs didn't have this year. the 3 point shot is soooo important. the Spurs inability to get back into games this year when they were down by 10-14 points pointed to shitty 3-point shooting. in years past, we could cut into deficits like that with great outside shooting in a matter of minutes. we could aslo stretch leads.

Hubie Brown mentioned it earlier in the year in one of the broadcasts. the thing that seperated this team from the ones in past is outside shooting in terms of offense. they'll have to find guys that actualyl fit instead of going for guys with big names like RJ.

[DubMcDub]

Spurs were tired from a tough physical series with the Mavs. Suns got to roll through a Portland team missing half of its roster.

[Chieflion]

Weak bench. Our big three are comparable to Nash, Amare and Richardson, at least on par against them. However, the Pheonix bench has hustle, energy, more talent than the Spurs bench.

[mavsfan1000]

Spurs were tired from a tough physical series with the Mavs. Suns got to roll through a Portland team missing half of its roster.
Spurs had 3 days off before playing the Suns. They got tired by playing such a fast tempo team since they don't play their bench much. The 4th quarter is when they hit the wall imo.

[DubMcDub]

Spurs had 3 days off before playing the Suns. They got tired by playing such a fast tempo team since they don't play their bench much. The 4th quarter is when they hit the wall imo.

I'm not talking about short-term fatigue. I'm talking about the long term effects of playing in a physical series after spending the last 1-1.5 months of the season going balls to the wall just to ensure a playoff spot. Three days rest is irrelevant.

[sabar]

Suns are a better team.

[EIC]

I'm not talking about short-term fatigue. I'm talking about the long term effects of playing in a physical series after spending the last 1-1.5 months of the season going balls to the wall just to ensure a playoff spot. Three days rest is irrelevant.

I totally agree. This was a fairly faced-paced series, too. All four games inside of one week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday.

[mavsfan1000]

I'm not talking about short-term fatigue. I'm talking about the long term effects of playing in a physical series after spending the last 1-1.5 months of the season going balls to the wall just to ensure a playoff spot. Three days rest is irrelevant.
Yeah they did go all out with Ginobili playing way too many minutes. He was great but he was not pacing himself for sure. Except for game 1, the spurs played every game very well from the beginning. Just couldn't sustain that intensity. I think it has to do with Pop's lack of confidence in Mason, Blair, and Bogans. Can't blame him but it was obvious the starters were playing too much.

[SenorSpur]

The Spurs probably because of a little bit of all those things. Phoenix beat the Spurs in a variety of ways and with a variety of people at different times. Their bench was superb. The Spurs weren't dominated, as much as they were simply outmanned, outhustled and outwhipped by a deeper team - who, by the way, played the entire series without their starting, defensive-minded center (Robin Lopez).

This Spurs team has flaws. We saw it all season. The company excuse was "the team simply hasn't gelled", or "they're still trying to integrate new parts". All of this sounded good. However the fact was the team was very mediocre. As HH mentioned earlier, the Big Three simply has way too many miles and age to expect them to carry this team night after night. I really feel bad for Duncan, who has been saddled with the sole responsibility for carrying the bulk of the load on the frontline, with minimal help. It's been that way for a couple of seasons now and there's no excuse for it. The same for Tony and Manu in the backcourt.

When the Spurs won, they were able to do so, with ample contributions from the role players. When they didn't get those contributions, we all saw the negative impact. It's disheartening to see the rest of the squad routinely play "hot potato" with the basketball, while looking for the Big Three to carry every possession. It's truly amazing they were able to beat the Mavs in the first round.

I credit Pop and RC for making bold moves to improve the roster over this past offseason. At the same time, I curse them for hanging onto Bonner and Mason through the season and not shipping their asses off in February in order to upgrade the team. For not having a suitable, athletic running mate for TD, at the PF spot to help provide rebounding, shotblocking and scoring. For convincing themselves that simply plugging him in would compensate for the lack of an athletic SF and help the team defense. The fact is RJ isn't a bad player, he's just a bad fit on this squad. He's an open court player, playing on team, whose style is predominantly half-court oriented.

As unexpected and devastating as this sweep, at the hands of the Suns, was, it could be a blessing in disguise. It will mandate even more significant and bold roster changes for next season.

[BadMotorscooter]

No physical defender.

[DubMcDub]

I totally agree. This was a fairly faced-paced series, too. All four games inside of one week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday.

Yep, and the Suns offensive system doesn't allow players to rest much on defense.

[LakerHater]

THIS GUY!

http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/5f/fullj.d8b8e59c710634786f8cf1c2f0221a9f/d8b8e59c710634786f8cf1c2f0221a9f-getty-98763558ce001_suns_spurs.jpg

[Capt Bringdown]

Role players have been talked about ad infinitum. As I see it, the Big 3 concept is kaput.
Tim and Manu can't be counted on, due to age, they're too hot and cold.

[pjjrfan]

How about all of the above. The Spurs lacked defensive cohesion, shooters, health, focus, especially from our big 3, one of the flaws of this team has been that throughout the year our main guys were the ones who would commit unforced turovers. Fast guards gave us problems, and once Tony went down, moving Manu to the starting lineup killed our bench although the team played much better. But once we got to the playoffs the lack of punch from our bench really hurt us especially against the Suns.

[MmP]

I'd put a surprise factor as well, I think Spurs overlooked Suns.

[kromediablo]

Manu should have passed that last shot to george hill. georgie was swing behind manu with dudley held up and grant hill was cleared beyond the freethrow line...i mean seriously manu should have passed that last shot!

[Gagnrath]

I didn't get to watch alot of the suns games due to my lifes scheduling but saw part of all of them I put most of the issues down to the same things that have hurt the spurs all year.

1. Lack of an athletic power forward. Duncan with his decreasing mobility is basically a center full time now. McDyess isn't particularly mobile either and for some reason Bonner disappears for the play-offs. Blair wasn't bad for a rookie but wasn't great either and against some teams struggles a bit with being undersized. An athletic powerforward with some speed to get guys at 15' and out and chase faster forwards and outside shooting centers is needed and has been for awhile. Bonner is a situational player, Blair is going to end up being a super back-up in the NBA for most of his career but doesn't have the size to start night in and night out. Duncan having to fight inside all season basically alone has hurt him as the season has gone on over the last couple of years and I think probably took a year or two off of his career. It also makes the guards life easier having mobile size to pick up guys on picks, and provide help defense on drives.

2. Lack of a small forward position. Jefferson put up pedestrian small forward numbers in the play-pffs, wasn't a total no show but for his pay checks you'd expect better. He also doesn't have a real full time back-up. Bogans is small for the position, and has no offense. Jefferson getting huge minutes and not having effective out-put on either end is a big problem. If he has a big game at either end great spurs win games otherwise they don't.

The Defense was questionable both on the perimeter and stopping drives.... I blame it on a lack of interior speed necessitating lots of switches on defense. Seeing more zone might have helped with this.

Lack of shooting, the spurs weren't hitting free throws, this is sort of a team thing timmy was top offender but everyone i think shot below season average for the series. The three point line was also a problem, bonner is a big part of the spurs spacing outside and he disappears in the play-offs, Manu was understandably bothered by the nose, and Parker was worse than usual. Bogans and hill weren't great but not terrible otuside in the suns series either..

[rudwick]

No interior defense. (All year. Tim is no longer fast enough to play good team defense.)
Blew their salary room on RJ who doesn't fit the system.
No perimeter defender. (Bogans not as good as even an old Bowen)
Lack of perimeter shooting. (RMJ sucks since last year playoffs. No Finley)
Poor coaching. (Too much smallball. Didn't develop Mahinmi or Hairston)

[Supergirl]

Spurs' big 3 were just fine, not sure where the accusations they didn't do enough were. Except, I think you can argue that they didn't have the stamina to hold leads, which they had in ALL FOUR GAMES. That comes down to fatigue and mental toughness.

Spurs played basically a 7 man roster in the playoffs, and that's a pretty short bench. Spurs need a deeper bench next season.

I actually wonder about the idea of Duncan shifting to full time C for his last 1-2 years. He's still a hell of a defender, an excellent passer, but he's obviously not as athletic when it comes to jumping and running as he once was. Perhaps rather than playing a C with him, as he's preferred to do all his career, we should pair him with an athletic PF. We'll see if we don't see a lot more Blair-Duncan front courts in the next season.