whos going to guard king James?

[ivanfromwestwood]

Blair? Diaw? Can't be Green or Manu. Should we play zone?

[SanDiegoSpursFan]

Splitter sometimes guarded him when Brazil played the U.S.

[TDMVPDPOY]

stop the other 4 clowns, let lebron have his...close down the passing lanes and the shooters...

im not concerned with wade, dude is a fkn scrub TOSB

[timvp]

The best defender to throw at LeBron right now is definitely Ginobili. The question is his stamina.

[JRHernandez88]

I really wanted to see how Jack would do against him. I guess Ginobili & Green will have to do.

[ivanfromwestwood]

He going to post up Manu and Green every time. Lots of double teams leading to him getting lots of assists. He's to big for Manu.

[DejuanorwhatDude]

With no SFs on the roster right now, no one should expect to win this game. James will find ways to exploit the mismatches against him whoever is guarding him.

[timvp]

He going to post up Manu and Green every time. Lots of double teams leading to him getting lots of assists. He's to big for Manu.

Has anyone ever beaten Manu by posting him up repeatedly? I don't recall that ever happening.

Posting up Manu is like trying to put a cat in a bath. He'll put up a fight like his life depended on it. Even if a player is successful at posting him up once or twice, they usually give up because it's not worth the aggravation.

[Dex]

Has anyone ever beaten Manu by posting him up repeatedly? I don't recall that ever happening.

Posting up Manu is like trying to put a cat in a bath. He'll put up a fight like his life depended on it. Even if a player is successful at posting him up once or twice, they usually give up because it's not worth the aggravation.

:lmao

[ivanfromwestwood]

Lol. I love your optimism. I want to see Blair guard him.

[letmk]

Has anyone ever beaten Manu by posting him up repeatedly? I don't recall that ever happening.

Posting up Manu is like trying to put a cat in a bath. He'll put up a fight like his life depended on it. Even if a player is successful at posting him up once or twice, they usually give up because it's not worth the aggravation.

I agree with this only to some extent. I think Lebron will have success posting up on Manu. But I think it's more efficient for him to just blow by an aged Manu.

Edit: So if Lebron doesn't post up on manu, it's because he has better choice, not because he can't do it against Manu. Manu can hold himself up against KB on the low post, but not Lebron. Just too big.

Anyways, if it's in transition or even half-transition, nobody from Spurs can stay with him. Not even close. In half-court, besides Green and Manu and tons of double-team or trap, I suspect Pop will be use Diaw on him. Diaw has been playing quietly well at SF, it's time to see if we have one more option thrown at Lebron even assuming we have Leonard & Jack.

[sananspursfan21]

Kawhi!!! Doh, wait...

[TDMVPDPOY]

diaw will have some minutes on him

[PÒÓCH]

Patty MIlls

[SpursRock20]

http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/LeBron+James+Matt+Bonner+QJEn08IK7i1m.jpg

[quentin_compson]

If we only had Finley for this matchup ...

[TimDunkem]

Gary Neal, so we have an excuse when LeBron drops 40.

[baseline bum]

The best defender to throw at LeBron right now is definitely Ginobili. The question is his stamina.

:depressed

Wow, I remember in the WCF when Pop tried to play Manu on Kobe, and King James is 3x the player 2008 Bryant was.

[spurraider21]

Has anyone ever beaten Manu by posting him up repeatedly? I don't recall that ever happening.

Posting up Manu is like trying to put a cat in a bath. He'll put up a fight like his life depended on it. Even if a player is successful at posting him up once or twice, they usually give up because it's not worth the aggravation.
indeed. and don't forget manu's hollywood abilities

[Manufan909]

Has anyone ever beaten Manu by posting him up repeatedly? I don't recall that ever happening.

Posting up Manu is like trying to put a cat in a bath. He'll put up a fight like his life depended on it. Even if a player is successful at posting him up once or twice, they usually give up because it's not worth the aggravation.
Taking your analogy further, Lebron is like someone dressing up in chainmail to wash their cat.

I'd like to see Blair on Lebron for the first 5+ minutes. We saw what he was able to do with Carmelo, maybe he'll be able to have the same effect on Lebron. I know Lebron is the superior player, but hopefully Blair makes him work on D AND scores on him too. He tried that on Carmelo but couldn't get anything to fall, iirc.

[Raven]

i'm guessing green... zone should be ok too, but he'll destroy us anyway.. still going for the win though

[LkrFan]

Put this guy on him:

http://static.neatorama.com/images/2012-05/matt-bonner-haircut.jpg

:lol

[capek]

James will guard James. :king

Seriously though, I expect Gino to be on him in the minutes that count. and timvp called it first--as usual--I'm thinking Gino's performance might shut up some of the loader forum malingerers.

At least until the next game. :(

[ChuckD]

I think the more Important question is "who is going to guard the Spurs?". I read recently on either 48moh or PTR that they have dropped from 4th to 25th in defensive efficiency this season.

[Russo21]

I'd like to see what Grizzly Blair can do against the league's best.

He's the only guy on our roster that can match LeBron for size, weight and strength. LeBron 6'8" 250lbs. Blair 6'7" 270lbs.

LeBron will easily outmuscle everyone else we have especially with Jax and Kawhi out which i assume they'd both take on the roles when back with the team. Green is a skinny tweener, same with Manu. Throw Blair out of the frying pan and into the fire and see what he can do. If he gets torched, well LeBron torches everyone else so that'd be nothing new. He could find a new calling as a defensive stopper on big strong wings like the LeBrons and Melo's of the world. It's worth a shot.

[Norris Cole]

:lol At anyone on the Spurs staying in front of James or guarding him in the post.

[dunkman]

LeBron is gonna get his, no matter who's guarding him. With Jack out, it will be Diaw.

[TampaDude]

Let LeBron get his and shut down everyone else. It worked great in 2007. :hat

[lefty]

Danny Green since Jax and KL are out

We can have Manu on Wade

[Chinook]

I think people are still thinking of James as a wing. The dude's a power-forward now (by choice admittedly). Diaw/Blair/Splitter/Bonner(!) will guard him. That will leave Duncan one-on-one against Bosh. The only time Green/Ginobili/Anderson guard him will be when the Heat go big. Otherwise, they'll be on Battier. I'd go big with Duncan(Splitter)/Splitter(Blair)/Diaw(Bonner) to force Miami to take one of their shooters off the floor.

[Hoops Czar]

The best defender to throw at LeBron right now is definitely Ginobili. The question is his stamina.

Doubt it happens. Green is your best bet. The Spurs certainly can't afford to allow Ginobili to get into early foul trouble. Without a big game from him, the Spurs don't stand much of a chance.

[spurraider21]

I think people are still thinking of James as a wing. The dude's a power-forward now (by choice admittedly). Diaw/Blair/Splitter/Bonner(!) will guard him. That will leave Duncan one-on-one against Bosh. The only time Green/Ginobili/Anderson guard him will be when the Heat go big. Otherwise, they'll be on Battier. I'd go big with Duncan(Splitter)/Splitter(Blair)/Diaw(Bonner) to force Miami to take one of their shooters off the floor.

While James does operate from the block a lot more than the past, don't let the position title fool you too much. Durant spends PLENTY of time at the power forward position and is still a wing player. LeBron is still primarily a wing player, and I believe he gets something from 20-30% of his points out of the post. I don't have the exact stat but its somewhere in that range. If they put Splitter or Duncan on him, he will just backpedal out to the three point line and take advantage. Same with Diaw. He could probably post up on Bonner pretty easily with his fakes and quickness.

[timvp]

I think people are still thinking of James as a wing. The dude's a power-forward now (by choice admittedly). Diaw/Blair/Splitter/Bonner(!) will guard him. That will leave Duncan one-on-one against Bosh. The only time Green/Ginobili/Anderson guard him will be when the Heat go big. Otherwise, they'll be on Battier. I'd go big with Duncan(Splitter)/Splitter(Blair)/Diaw(Bonner) to force Miami to take one of their shooters off the floor.

Battier is injured, first of all.

Pop might defend LeBron with a power forward to begin the halves but that's about it. When it comes to money time, Pop will either go small or have one of his bigs defend one of their spot-up three-point shooters.

Diaw and Blair can't (and won't for more than ~10 minutes of the game at most) defend LeBron.

[Chinook]

Battier is injured, first of all.

Pop might defend LeBron with a power forward to begin the halves but that's about it. When it comes to money time, Pop will either go small or have one of his bigs defend one of their spot-up three-point shooters.

Diaw and Blair can't (and won't for more than ~10 minutes of the game at most) defend LeBron.

So Battier is injured... I guess they'll find another wing to put in there. If they go small (or rather back to normal), I still think the Spurs should go big. Everyone on this planet knows that's the way to beat the Heat. If Diaw and Splitter can put up good performances like they have at times recently, the Spurs will have that advantage. I don't think the Spurs would go big if they had Jackson and Leonard, but they don't and Pop's response has been to play Diaw at the three for at least some minutes. If the Heat stay with James at the four, then going small would mean Green or Ginobili as a power-forward. I think that's much more absurd than having Diaw and help.

What happens in crunch time depends on how players defend James in their minutes throughout the game. If Diaw is holding his own, he's probably going to stay on him. If Green or Ginobili can hold off James in the post, they'd get the nod. I see either James getting Diaw in foul trouble or Diaw doing a good job on him. If the Spurs use Green for that role, I just think James crushes him. If at all possible, I'd like to see Green/Ginobili defend Wade so that Neal doesn't have to.

[DAF86]

A crazy thought: Everytime a big is matched-up defensively against a Guard/wing everyone expects the quicker guy to take advantage of the bigger slower guy but everytime I watch that rarely happens.

Common sense says that guards should drible right pass (past?) the slower guy but the big guy usually gives a lot of room for that not to happen so that provokes the smaller guy to take a jumper but the despite the space given the bigger frame allows bigmen to still challenge the jump-shots and if the small guy tries to force the action inside he usally just gets blocked the fuck out.

I would like to see a stat that shows the % of efficiency that an offense has when a perimeter player attacks a bigmen, I'm sure it wouldn't be as good as most would expect.

[DMC]

No can guard Lebron. Lol Blair, I guess someone wants to see some highlight reel dunks and see Blair foul out by the half.

[xtremesteven33]

Pop is the master of schemes so I dont doubt he would have a great gameplan on guarding Lebron. Its just a matter of execution.

[Frenchie]

I think Pop will rest the Big 3 and let Miami win against the Spurs B-team. The main game is tomorrow against Orlando. If we win, the road trip is succesfull and we don't need to fight in a B2B after this long trip. Even with fresh legs, I don't know if the Spurs can beat the Heat without Kawhi and SJAX...

Against LBJ, we don't have enough weapons to answer him right now.

[Stabula]

To sit the big three and not even try to be competitive sets a bad precedent methinks. To give up before tip off against the reigning champs is not the correct mindset for any team with championship aspirations.

[SaTo]

Dale Ellis.

[BatManu20]

This is a question every team faces every single night.

[Spurs da champs]

^ That's stupid, especially considering the two biggest,strongest (ideal LeBron defenders) wings we have are injured, this game is gonna be a demolition.

[Obstructed_View]

I distinctly remember Lebron destroying the Spurs with his three point shooting, and then the rest of the team getting equally hot and turning a large defecit into a blowout win. The weakness of this Spurs team is chasing penetrators and allowing easy dunks off passes or offensive rebounds. Lebron will get his points, but it'll likely be his double-digit assists that's the reason they beat the Spurs.

[Obstructed_View]

To sit the big three and not even try to be competitive sets a bad precedent methinks. To give up before tip off against the reigning champs is not the correct mindset for any team with championship aspirations.

Pop ducking big teams was cute when he had a psychological advantage over Mike D'Antoni and the whining Suns. He's just a fucking pussy for doing it with other teams over the last few years, and it results in a coddled team that chokes under pressure.

'Yes, it's a regular season game, and yes, it fucking means something, and yes, we're going to go give it our all and see how we measure up.' should be the mindset.

[Chinook]

Part of the idea of starting Battier this season was to relieve James of the burden of guarding players like Boris Diaw from the opening tip -- and then going down and plaxying point guard. It would be a surprise if Spoelstra started James on opposing power forwards, even if it is for a couple games.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/miamiheat/post/_/id/16097/dont-call-lebron-james-a-power-forward

I found this interesting for the discussion in this thread. Pop may decide to use a wing on James for defense, but I wonder if Blair or Splitter could wear James down by banging in the post for the first few minutes on offense. Diaw being a bigger scoring threat recently might make him a good matchup for LeBron as well. A tired Lebron may not want to use his advantage in the post as much as he would normally. Then, Green/Ginobili would have a much better shot.

[timtonymanu]

James Anderson FTW :lmao

[DejuanorwhatDude]

lol

[Chinook]

Yeah, nevermind my plan. But Blair and Diaw could still make Anderson's job a little easier.

[Raven]

:lmao

[SpursRock20]

Anyone know what our starting 5 looks like tonight?

If I had to guess:
Mills
Neal
Anderson
Blair
Splitter
(we lose)

[TheSkeptic]

Anyone know what our starting 5 looks like tonight?

If I had to guess:
Mills
Neal
Anderson
Blair
Splitter
(we lose)

I agree with you that we're losing the game but I think Diaw starts.