No-man's land..

[HarlemHeat37]

I've repeated this at some point in every series, why are the Spurs perimeter defenders always caught in no-man's land?..

Neal, Ginobili and Green are the primary culprits, particularly Neal and Ginobili..Ginobili is a gambler, so that's expected, but Gary Neal is always fucking sleeping on shooters..

Is this a fundamental flaw in the Spurs defense, do the helpers over-help the interior?..

[Ice009]

Patrick Mills and Neal being caught in No Man's Land have lead to GIANT runs for teams this whole season.

This is why I was so happy when I thought that Pop cut Neal out of the rotation half way through the Goldenstate series.

[Ice009]

Gary Neal is still out there. LOL. Does Pop think Neal is going to score 30 points in the quarter?

[Floyd Pacquiao]

its pop's pussie ass game plan, pack the paint and leave 3 point shooter wide open.

[Ice009]

Cory Joseph would have at least stuck on the shooters and not give Heat players wide open looks.

You've just given Miami GIGANTIC MOMENTUM.

[HarlemHeat37]

It has been a problem in every series, not just against Miami, so it can't be attributed to fear of Lebron, tbh..

Last series they kept allowing Pondexter to dominate on spot-up jump shots, despite being the only shooter on the floor for Memphis..same for Klay Thompson in game 2, where the Spurs kept doubling Harrison Barnes and over-helping on scrubs like Draymond Green..

[GSH]

A lot of it is because our interior defense needs help.

[Ice009]

A lot of it is because our interior defense needs help.

Yeah true, that is pretty much a major reason for it, but certain players like Gary Neal just can't recover anywhere near quick enough to get back to the shooters.

Do the Spurs need to win all three home games to win this thing. Do they have any chance of winning another game in Miami?

[Johnny RIngo]

Cory Joseph would have at least stuck on the shooters and not give Heat players wide open looks.

You've just given Miami GIGANTIC MOMENTUM.

Cory Joseph sucks too though. Fact is our bench isn't that deep. Blair is a POS that doesn't deserve playing time. DeColo was a waste of time - he'll never be a useful player in the NBA. Patty is just as bad as Neal. Baynes/McGrady were late pickups that have no chemistry with the team. Bonner is Bonner. That leaves Ginobili and Diaw as the bench unit which isn't enough to beat a team like the Heat.

[apalisoc_9]

A lot of it is because our interior defense needs help.

Leonard did a pretty god job covering james in the post and the heat don't exactly have good post up players to guarantee a help so i doubt that's the case.

[HarlemHeat37]

Using help defense as a reason is fine, but the problem with that logic is that Neal and the other occasional culprits aren't even in a position to help, most of the time..

They are in no-man's land, watch the tape, it happens way too often..

[spurraider21]

Let me preface this by saying that Neal played a god awful game, and is lucky he hit some of his shots early to make his box score number seem not so horrible.

But a lot of the time it seems everybody here bashed on him for being in "no man's land" when guarding Miller. The truth is, he was rotating towards the paint from the weakside, which is the right play when LeBron was driving in. Problem is, LeBron's phenomenal passing is what did him in. When he can throw laser cross-court passes with precision, it kills us, and today, pretty much all their shooters were on. Sure, Green was nuts for us in that first half, but for them, Allen and Miller were money, Chalmers was scoring, Bosh was hitting his jumpers.

I thought our defense throughout the game was fine until the end of the 3rd quarter. We struggled mightily on offense, and with the way our defense was holding for the majority of the game, we should have had a lead. Parker/Duncan/Ginobili/Leonard were all inefficent on offense, though I think Kawhi gave ridiculous effort while crashing the offensive glass and playing solid D on LeBron. In game 1, Duncan carried us in the middle quarters, and Parker came through late. This time, none of them came through, and Manu seemed to get worse after each offensive possession. Started fine, then got worse and worse. Regroup, and take game 3 at home. We're easily capable

[timtonymanu]

One of my concerns coming into the series, tbh.

Miami isn't Memphis or the Lakers. They will make you pay if you leave them open for 3. The Spurs should have learned their lesson when they played Golden State.

[crc21209]

It's frustrating as hell, because usually Neal leaves his man to go stand in the paint and do nothing. He's literally just standing in the paint and then once his man catches the ball he starts to go out there and by the time he gets there the shot is going in the basket..

[siraulo23]

yes and no

there are some plays where neal/green/manu would sag off shooters when they really have no reason to, they sag off no action from miami, theyre caught trying to defend both players, thats their help strategy and im not sure how i feel about it

now the chalmers/lebron pnr/ i have no idea how they defend that, they absolutely have to help and you just gotta pray they miss some shots

[therealtruth]

A lot of it is because our interior defense needs help.

How much help does our interior defense need? When has Neal ever helped defensively?

[siraulo23]

miami is capable of winning the series with 3 pt shooters or if the spurs take that away they're capable of winning the series with lebron and wade...

i'd rather keep the shooters in check but it's a tough call

[therealtruth]

Cory Joseph would have at least stuck on the shooters and not give Heat players wide open looks.

You've just given Miami GIGANTIC MOMENTUM.

I think Pop's going to have to use the defensive gameplan from the Warriors series for the shooters while still locking up the paint for Lebron. I don't think Neal was really useful in that series.