Stephen A. and Jalen Rose Thunder-Spurs Preview

[SA210]

http://espn.go.com/nba/preview?id=320527024

Stephen A. Spurs

Rose Thunder

[Basketball Power]

Tired of this shit, let's just start it



Spurs in 4

[SA210]

:lol Stephen A

"As disgusted as I am to say this, Tiago Splitter, reality is the dude is a big body that can get physical"

Would Pop decide to start Tiago, as he did against Lakers?

[Texas_Ranger]

no need to start Tiago. Against them I like Diaw, just get Ibaka out of the paint so Tim can play without someone blocking him.

[Basketball Power]

I want to see Duncan and Splitter on the floor a lot more, if we meet the Heat in the finals we would fuck them up with 2 7fters patrolling the paint

[tesseractive]

I want to see Duncan and Splitter on the floor a lot more, if we meet the Heat in the finals we would fuck them up with 2 7fters patrolling the paint

We'll mess them up even more by spreading them out with our offense and dissecting them like a frog. For that we need Diaw.

[dmon35]

geeez Stephen A's tune has done a complete 180 since the beginning of the season........in fact i think imma do a video with people putting down the spurs and then along witha 20 min highlight video of the playoffs...

[Andthentherewas21]

I want to see Duncan and Splitter on the floor a lot more, if we meet the Heat in the finals we would fuck them up with 2 7fters patrolling the paint

Doubt it with all the foul calls Lebron and Wade would get from the refs. Would just get Duncan and Tiago into foul trouble and force us to play really small ball. Better to keep one shot-blocker in, especially if Bosh is still out and they don't have a low post threat.

[tesseractive]

Terrible preview. Couldn't disagree more with the breakdown in that video. The key to a Spurs victory isn't "Tim Duncan is unstoppable," the key is that Duncan and Parker legitimately make everyone else on the team better, and as a result, the Spurs can beat you from all 5 positions, something OKC can't do.

[dmon35]

what they forgot to mention, is that all Big 3 on the Thunder, need to have good games in order to beat San Antonio. If just ONE of them has an off game, they lose. Thats not the case with the Spurs, either of the Big 3 can have an off game and still win.

[Kidd K]

The Thunder can't guard Duncan in the post. The Thunder have no one who can score on Duncan in the post or even out of the post.

We don't need to play two bigs at once since they don't even have good post scoring. We can easily get away with Diaw and Duncan out there. Diaw will lock up Ibaka and doesn't really need to score on him much. Duncan will destroy Perkins and force him to commit lots of fouls. Ibaka can't guard Timmy, he will get pump faked into so many fouls that they won't play Ibaka on him anymore.


I also noticed the only people who keep picking against SA are the dumb east cost analysts who doesn't seem very bright like Jalen Rose who always think talent > skills because their skills were average and mostly won on just athletic talent (and never won a title).

[spurspokesman]

:lol Stephen A

"As disgusted as I am to say this, Tiago Splitter, reality is the dude is a big body that can get physical"

Would Pop decide to start Tiago, as he did against Lakers?

We have a certain player on our bench that's big and loves to play physical and with the Thunder in particular. Might we have a sighting in this series. Interesting.

[mkurts]

We have a certain player on our bench that's big and loves to play physical and with the Thunder in particular. Might we have a sighting in this series. Interesting.

Bonner !

[Basketball Power]

Doubt it with all the foul calls Lebron and Wade would get from the refs. Would just get Duncan and Tiago into foul trouble and force us to play really small ball. Better to keep one shot-blocker in, especially if Bosh is still out and they don't have a low post threat.

Bosh's "post" game is non existent, he's primarily a jump shooting big

[tesseractive]

I also noticed the only people who keep picking against SA are the dumb east cost analysts who doesn't seem very bright like Jalen Rose who always think talent > skills because their skills were average and mostly won on just athletic talent (and never won a title).
I think it's because they're breaking the series down player by player starting with stars, rather than looking holistically at the teams.

Here's the most obvious (which is not to say correct) star-driven breakdown:

Best player: Durant vs. Duncan. Duncan was amazing, but Durant was the MVP runner-up. Advantage: OKC.

2nd best: Parker vs. Westbrook. Parker has the experience to give him an edge, but Westbrook had a monster year. Slight advantage: Spurs

3rd best: Ginobili vs. Harden. Harden's having a breakout year, while Ginobili's been injured, he's getting old, and he hasn't done much. Slight advantage: OKC

4th best: Ibaka is a monster shot blocker and rebounder who made the all-defense team. The Spurs don't have a clear #4 -- Leonard maybe. Advantage: OKC

Everyone else is role players.

If you break down a series like this after mostly watching the Spurs only in the playoffs and not being an expert on the team, this is an easy series preview to end up with, even though it's both shallow and wrong -- which is to say, OKC might win, but this kind of breakdown isn't going to tell us why.

[SA210]

geeez Stephen A's tune has done a complete 180 since the beginning of the season........in fact i think imma do a video with people putting down the spurs and then along witha 20 min highlight video of the playoffs...


I wanted to do something like this to, but have at it. I wanna watch it.

:tu


I'm gonna work on a different vid though on the Spurs, a different subject.

[Obstructed_View]

I don't remember anyone saying "As disgusted as I am" or "I hope I'm wrong, but I pick X team" before. Ever. Until this year.

[dmon35]

I wanted to do something like this to, but have at it. I wanna watch it.

:tu


I'm gonna work on a different vid though on the Spurs, a different subject.

what i got so far....i still gotta add israel guti

24wHtVo9UMQ

[DMX7]

I respect my Magic 8 Ball's opinion about 10x more than Stephen A. Smith's.

[Russo21]

geeez Stephen A's tune has done a complete 180 since the beginning of the season........in fact i think imma do a video with people putting down the spurs and then along witha 20 min highlight video of the playoffs...

would love to see you put that together. Didnt Stephen A Smith laugh like a moron earlier this season just at someone saying tiago's name? Stupid fuck.

[Kidd K]

I think it's because they're breaking the series down player by player starting with stars, rather than looking holistically at the teams.

Here's the most obvious (which is not to say correct) star-driven breakdown:

Best player: Durant vs. Duncan. Duncan was amazing, but Durant was the MVP runner-up. Advantage: OKC.

2nd best: Parker vs. Westbrook. Parker has the experience to give him an edge, but Westbrook had a monster year. Slight advantage: Spurs

3rd best: Ginobili vs. Harden. Harden's having a breakout year, while Ginobili's been injured, he's getting old, and he hasn't done much. Slight advantage: OKC

4th best: Ibaka is a monster shot blocker and rebounder who made the all-defense team. The Spurs don't have a clear #4 -- Leonard maybe. Advantage: OKC

Everyone else is role players.

If you break down a series like this after mostly watching the Spurs only in the playoffs and not being an expert on the team, this is an easy series preview to end up with, even though it's both shallow and wrong -- which is to say, OKC might win, but this kind of breakdown isn't going to tell us why.

Yeah. . .the "everyone else is role players" is pretty much why they're wrong. The Spurs "role players" are a LOT better than OKC's.

I do agree that Harden/Ginobiili matchup favors OKC. To be honest, Harden is better than Manu right now, and it's really not "slightly". . .it's a lot since Manu really hasn't been right since the start of the season. :( Manu really has to "improve" on what he's been doing lately to turn it into just a "slight edge" to OKC. If Manu was playing like he was last year, then he'd be better than Harden. . .but right now it's looking like Manu won't get back there. . .so we might's well just chalk that up as a loss right now. Hopefully he'll be closer to full form by the Finals (should we get there), but I think it's unreasonable to expect Ginobili to turn back into Super Ginobili this series. He hasn't looked like it yet.

Durant's better than Duncan now, yeah, but Duncan's better than any frontcourt player the Thunder have. Duncan will likely be played andby Perkins most of the series, and I think it's safe to say Duncan will destroy Perkins on both ends of the floor. Duncan is better right now than Perkins ever will be. He's just not that great (overrated due to "BSPN"). But yes. . .Duran't stats will be higher.

Westbrook/Parker, I agree with that assessment. That should be a huge matchup all series, and it's being marketed that way too. The cunning of Tony Parker vs the pure athleticism and explosiveness of Russell Westbrook. They should have some nice duels in the series. I look forward to it tbh.


Actually, it'd be better if we just compared position depth vs position depth. Like. . .

SG: Ginobili and Green vs Harden and Sefolosha (and Cook). I think green is easily better than Thabo, but Manu needs to step up to make that positional matchup favor us. Right now I'd say it favors OKC because Manu's production is down so much. Our potential production here, however, is higher than theirs.

PG: Parker and Neal (and Mills) vs Westbrook and Fisher (and Ivy). Honestly, I think this favors us too. Parker and Westbrook is close, but I like Neal a lot better than slow Fisher.

SF: Leonard and Jackson vs Durant and one of their taller SGs (they don't have a second real SF, so their SG production slightly overlaps into here, which technically should be considered as wateing down their SG production a little). I'd say this easily favors them, but our rebounding and defense out of this position are good. It's just the scoring out of here that sucks. None of our SFs will be good defenders. Ginobili plays SF when we play small, so we get a little bit of runoff from there here like when OKC plays Harden at SF and Durant at PF for their "potent small lineup".

PF: Diaw and Bonner (and Blair) vs Ibaka and Collison. I'd say this is a wash, and pretty even. Ibaka has more impact of defense, but if he's matched against Bonner who floats around the perimeter, it either A: diminishes Ibaka's defense, or B: leaves Bonner open to drain threes unless he chokes again like the last few seasons in the playoffs. If Blair gets time against OKC (kills them throughout his career), our scoring here and our rebounding both blow away OKC's production out of the PF spot. Duncan also plays PF with Splitter at C on occaision, which massively favors our frontcourt imo.

C: Duncan and Splitter vs Perkins and Mohammed. Do I even need to go there? Duncan destroys Perkins nasty style, and Splitter is better than Mohammed who's old, slow, and shorter than both of our centers.



Basically. . .when you look at the depth, I think our frontcourt is a lot better on both ends (especially on offense), and our backcourt at least matches up well defensively at every position, but we're definitely getting killed at SF when it comes to offense. Not to mention if Manu isn't up to snuff, we're losing out offensively from the SG spot too. So we're going to need Duncan and Splitter/Blair to step up if Manu doesn't. Or we need our "other guys" to hit those threes.

[Dingle Barry]

It depresses me that Smith gets paid handsomely to talk about basketball. I don't understand it at all.

[tesseractive]

It depresses me that Smith gets paid handsomely to talk about basketball. I don't understand it at all.

No, he gets paid handsomely to entertain people on TV. There's a world of difference.

Though, yes, basketball is the nominal topic.

[Dingle Barry]

There's nothing entertaining about vehemently spoken ignorance.

[tesseractive]

There's nothing entertaining about vehemently spoken ignorance.

I don't find it entertaining either, but the ratings don't lie, so someone does.

[LakerHater]

Stephen A. hate Rasho & now Tiago... is he racist!??

[Sean Cagney]

Stephen A. hate Rasho & now Tiago... is he racist!??

Maybe he is just stupid! I heard Ashton Kutcher dissed him at a game saying who was that there? So maybe he carries it on even more now lol. http://www.lipstickalley.com/f19/stephen-smith-gets-dissed-ashton-kutcher-390291/

[T Park]

:lol @ "Hes a guy that can get physical"

Yeah Stephen he cant defend nor rebound nor score.

Of course this is the same guy that declared David Robinson wasn't "Black enough" to win a title.

Hes a rodeo clown. Plain and simple.

[SA210]

what i got so far....i still gotta add israel guti

24wHtVo9UMQ

Man, I can't wait to see the rest.

Awesome! :tu

[therealtruth]

Blair has had success against the Thunder in the past. I easily see Diaw and Splitter filling that role. They're both better finisher than Blair.

[FkLA]

Why does this idiot keep implying that Tiago is a scrub when hes probably seen him play maybe once or twice all year? From the way he describes Tiagos game you can tell he knows little about the guy other than the fact that hes not black.

[Rummpd]

My name is Jalen Rose, I was a limited NBA sort of star, I am a inane analyst, and most tellingly, I am a friggin Moron.

[ViceCity86]

Jalen Rose picking the blacker team.What a shock.Just like Jemele Hill.
Stephen A pick Thunder all season,but Skip Bayless scared him.

[100%duncan]

Stephen A Smith is the ultimate faggot.

[ViceCity86]

Jalen Rose on Spurs advantages
1.HCA
2.Coaching
3.Experience

Basically like saying ugly girl has a good personality.He also loves Thunder bigs alot more than Spurs bigs.

Jalen Rose tipping scale for OKC- He doesn't know how Spurs can hide Boris Diaw from the Thunder.LOL

[Knoxxx]

Smith just confessed to a man crush on TD, they both have Virgin Island roots.

Bowen went crazy telling SA to shut his mouth even though both picked Spurs in 6.

Minutes ago on SportsCenter, crazy stuff...

[TacoCabanaFajitas]

Smith just confessed to a man crush on TD, they both have Virgin Island roots.

Bowen went crazy telling SA to shut his mouth even though both picked Spurs in 6.

Minutes ago on SportsCenter, crazy stuff...

lolwut. I didn't see this, what happened?

[Dr. John R. Brinkley]

:lol @ "Hes a guy that can get physical"

Yeah Stephen he cant defend nor rebound nor score.

Of course this is the same guy that declared David Robinson wasn't "Black enough" to win a title.

Hes a rodeo clown. Plain and simple.


I agree.

I think the ultimate problem is just ESPN that pushes these basketball shows into such buffoonery. It's like they have to diminish their intelligence just to have controversy.

I wonder if everyone tries to emulate Charles Barkley...the thing is he actually speaks his mind truthfully and just happens to be funny/obnoxious instead of the other way around.

[Brutalis]

geeez Stephen A's tune has done a complete 180 since the beginning of the season........in fact i think imma do a video with people putting down the spurs and then along witha 20 min highlight video of the playoffs...

That's like 10 hours of material you'll have to edit down. :lol

[SA210]

what i got so far....i still gotta add israel guti

24wHtVo9UMQ

I'm dying to see the finished product :lol

[dmon35]

I'm dying to see the finished product :lol

lol the intro is the easy part. hard part are putting together all the highlights. I gotta convert my DVR videos to my computer and then edit them out. lol patience my good man...patience. ill show you the finished intro though when done.

[SA210]

lol the intro is the easy part. hard part are putting together all the highlights. I gotta convert my DVR videos to my computer and then edit them out. lol patience my good man...patience. ill show you the finished intro though when done.

Oh no rush man, I edit myself, I know the beast it is lol, I'm just saying I'm eager to see it. And I understand there is probably a lot of good video that hasn't even happened yet that could go into it.

Take your time. :tu

:flag:

[Spurs21Fan4Ever]

"Perkins will be able to play with Duncan 1 on 1." LOL at Jalen.

[Vito Corleone]

just in the two pages of this thread I've seen better analysis of this game than these two morons have provided.

But

As we all know, they aren't there for analysis, they are there to build up the game and give us reasons to watch it

[Obstructed_View]

When Bowen started out as an analyst he was so bad I couldn't watch him. Considering how much I adore the man, that's seriously bad. He's now the best basketball guy on the entire network, bar none.

[FkLA]

Can anyone provide a clip of the Bowen/Stephen A. discussion ?

[YoMamaIsCallin]

:lol Stephen A

"As disgusted as I am to say this, Tiago Splitter, reality is the dude is a big body that can get physical"


Always has those biased glasses on against white players. Sad really. Hurts his analyses. He can't see that basketball is basketball no matter where you come from or what color you are.

[SA210]

Always has those biased glasses on against white players. Sad really. Hurts his analyses. He can't see that basketball is basketball no matter where you come from or what color you are.

Yup

[SpurPadre]

I don't remember anyone saying "As disgusted as I am" or "I hope I'm wrong, but I pick X team" before. Ever. Until this year.

I know...yesterday, I couldn't believe Chris Broussard on ESPN, saying he hopes he's wrong but he thinks the Spurs will win and no one at the desk, not even Magic, questioned him saying it.

[SpurPadre]

I agree.

I think the ultimate problem is just ESPN that pushes these basketball shows into such buffoonery. It's like they have to diminish their intelligence just to have controversy.

I wonder if everyone tries to emulate Charles Barkley...the thing is he actually speaks his mind truthfully and just happens to be funny/obnoxious instead of the other way around.

The ESPN NBA analysts are mostly guys who prop up the team that can play "street ball" with players who act "ghetto" and proclaim how better they are than others. It's the "in thing" and that's what they want to help market. Flash over substance but acting as substance.

[pikkiwoki]

"Perkins will be able to play with Duncan 1 on 1." LOL at Jalen.

This is the same clown that called Grant Hill an Uncle Tom.

His opinion means fuck all.

[GSH]

geeez Stephen A's tune has done a complete 180 since the beginning of the season........in fact i think imma do a video with people putting down the spurs and then along witha 20 min highlight video of the playoffs...

I'd re-think that. If you go back to the beginning of the season, most of the Spurs fans on this board were 180-degrees from where they are now. And I'll confess to being one of them.

[SA210]

I'd re-think that. If you go back to the beginning of the season, most of the Spurs fans on this board were 180-degrees from where they are now. And I'll confess to being one of them.

I believed. Only concern i had was whether Pop would give Tiago a chance or fix the Big situation. Glad he did.