Can the Heat Guard TP?

[Calispursfan11]

I have heard multiple takes on this, but most of them appear to be that Chalmers, Cole and James will shut TP down for the bulk of the series. Really? If TP is healthy I don't think he can be shut down for an entire series. Stretches maybe, but he is pretty unstoppable this year if 100%. Discuss.

[SpurSpurSpurs]

There are only 3 players who can guard TP. Danny Green and Kawhi Leonard and the other is Thabo Sefalosha. Fortunately, 2 of them are in our team and the other has gone fishing. LBJ, Chalmers and Cole cannot stop TP9. #fact

[dbreiden83080]

Rondo torched these guys last year all series in the ECF including 44 in game 2.. These so called experts have short memories..

[hooperflash]

If Cole busts out his falling techniques leading to a foul (which he used on Whi-Whi) , then we'll have a problem , tbh.

I haven't paid too much attention to Super Mario's defense.

i hope Lebron's offensive output can somehow suffer trying to play shutdown defense on Parker.

Overall the Spurs have to annoy the hell outta Lebron, how they did D12.

[dbreiden83080]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N90C-mdaVzQ

Are we supposed to believe Tony can't do this?

[SA210]

I just hope if they decide to lay wood on Tony, that he plays harder.

[Calispursfan11]

I would like to think these shut down TP takes by the experts are hot air but it seems pretty consistent. I can't believe they have a basis for it though with how Rondo destroyed the Heat. TP is better than Rondo offensively by far if you don't count assists.

[racm]

The Heat guard Rondo by turning him into a scorer. The thing about Tony is that he's good at both scoring (unlike Rondo or too-passive-until-the-4th CP3) and passing (unlike Westbrook).

So the Heat's best option is to hedge since neither of the starting bigs are athletic enough to get a lob pass - though he can always pass it to Green/Leonard and run off screens.

[Prime Time]

I never understood why people think LeBron will "contain" Parker. I get the notion people claim this because of what LeBron did to Rose a couple years back..... Tony Parker isn't Derrick Rose, they have 2 completely different styles.

1. Rose is a pure slasher. He'll take the ball at the top of the key and drive inside for a fancy finish/pull up jumper.
2. Parker relies heavily on off-ball movement. He'll use screens consistently before getting the ball... This post season, he's ONLY been taking ISO/Pull up shots whenever there's a slight opening, that's been a HUGE improvement to his game. IMO, With that type of play he becomes MUCH harder to guard. Thus why once Parker got his legs under him, he made Thompson/Conley look like average defenders. Last year's Parker could have easily been contained by those two.

Frankly, I hope LeBron guards him. Because Parker will definitely make LeBron use every ounce of energy he has by chasing him around the court. And another factor; Due to LBJ's bulky frame, I don't think he'll get past multiple screens well.

[boutons_deux]

We've seen Heat double team/trap Pacers' pic'n'roll and perimeter ball handlers. I figure that's how they plan to stop TP and Manu, since they really have no effective big men to protect the basket.

[Calispursfan11]

We've seen Heat double team/trap Pacers' pic'n'roll and perimeter ball handlers. I figure that's how they plan to stop TP and Manu, since they really have no effective big men to protect the basket.

But George Hill is no TP tbh

[AFBlue]

No. Spurs have made adjustments to the double off high PnR and will get Tony looks off other sets. I also look for Tony to pick his spots and matchups when he'll be hyper-aggressive at going to the hoop. The player and the system are better because of that OKC series last year.

[SAScrub]

I think the Spurs are ok with the Heat (or any team) focusing their defense on one player. Obviously TP is great, and needs to play well for SA to win, but the Spurs' biggest advantage will be inside. Tim Duncan will need to be a dominant player just 3 or 4 more times in his career. It'll have to be old-school, inside-out basketball. Tiago Splitter will be huge on the screen and rolls.

And if LeBron wants to chase Tony through 8 screens a possession, we'll take that too.

[Horse]

That shit is hilarious! Look how well memphis and their 3 allnba defenders did against Parker. These days when he's healthy there is no stopping him. We have so many more shooters than the pacers and much better spacing. We keep our regular precision and attention to detail and we will carve them up.

[Mugen]

The help defense is just as important in containing Parker as the individual D.

Sure, LeBron's length and quickness will bother him but good screens and smart decisions can nullify that if the help defense is slow to react and our shooters are on.

Bosh is solid as are the other Heat bigmen but I'm not sure if they can replicate what Ibaka/Perkins did last year. If Green/Leonard shoot like they did in the Memphis series than I'm not sure the Heat have an answer for our offense tbh.

[EVAY]

No one is unguardable.

The Heat can guard TP under the following scenarios:

1. If our perimeter shooters are not making their shots so TP has to provide all the offense along with Tim, then the Heat can pack the paint and force TP to take only jump shots which will mess with our spacing or get him called for offensive charges,

0r

2. The Heat can successfully disrupt our passing game by playing the passing lanes well, scaring our guys into holding the ball for too long, again disrupting our offensive flow.

Or
3. Our screeners get called for moving screens so much that again, our spacing gets screwed up because our guys get too timid.

Any of the above scenarios can seriously impede TP's ability to score. If any of them happen (and they might, depending on how the games are called and how our young role players respond to their first ever NBA Finals appearance - remember none of them have been there before and ALL of the Heat's guys have been), then our bigs have tp pick up not only the scoring but the ball movement as well. They are able to do that, but it remains to be seen if they will actually accomplish it if necessary.

We have to remember that TP scores within our movement system as well as everyone else does, and if you successfully block our movement, you can mess with our rhythm shooters.

[TheRemix]

No..

[TE]

A lot of overconfidence in this thread tbh...I hope you all are right tho

[tesseractive]

We've seen Heat double team/trap Pacers' pic'n'roll and perimeter ball handlers. I figure that's how they plan to stop TP and Manu, since they really have no effective big men to protect the basket.
We annihilated Memphis's attempts to trap, because they opened up other opportunities elsewhere on the court.

[cd98]

Hard to say. They did a good job on him this season without their superstars, when they played in San Antonio, but he was coming off an injury. We just don't have a lot of games to rely on when considering how these teams match up.

[hater]

yes they can. Chalmers is no slouch and they have Battier and other bodies to throw at him. They most definitely can guard TP better than we can guard James.

[AchillesHeel]

If Wade continues to play this poorly the Heat are f'd, tbh.

No one can really guard TP effectively given that Heat have to do everything to stop TD from dominating them, leave TP,Leonard and Manu open and Spurs end the series in 5, tbh.