4 down Duncan 4-10. The system 0-5 and counting

[Brunodf]

:lol Panicked and played small ball rather than the regular rotation after game 3(1-3 record)
:lol Benched the best defender and rebounder with a 5 point lead, 30 seconds left to win the championship
:lol Played scrub Neal big minutes in the Finals
:lol Always trying to counter
:lol "We will focus on defense this season" play Green at PF in the Finals
:lol Outcoached by Erik Spolstra

[dg7md]

Hard to argue with these points tbh

[timvp]

The bad part about this cat is I get excited for a split second thinking it's a Bruno post.

[Brunodf]

The bad part about this cat is I get excited for a split second thinking it's a Bruno (http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/member.php?u=2449) post.
:lol You have no room, u wanted Blair in the starting lineup

[ChumpDumper]

The bad part about this cat is I get excited for a split second thinking it's a Bruno post.I have to admit I have more than once wondered "The hell happened to Bruno?"

[Kidd K]

Don't agree with the outcoached part. Spoelstra had LeBron and Wade. We got out-LeBroned and his SG didn't shit the bed repeatedly like ours did.

It's the Phil Jackson argument. How hard can it really be when the deck is already stacked in your favor? It would be like giving Mitch Kupchek credit as a great GM when most kinda realize he can only make most of those moves because he has a blank check by ownership every year. I can only give Spoelstra so much credit.

If anything Pop outcoached himself.

[hommeaetage]

Don't agree with the outcoached part. Spoelstra had LeBron and Wade. We got out-LeBroned and his SG didn't shit the bed repeatedly like ours did.

It's the Phil Jackson argument. How hard can it really be when the deck is already stacked in your favor? It would be like giving Mitch Kupchek credit as a great GM when most kinda realize he can only make most of those moves because he has a blank check by ownership every year. I can only give Spoelstra so much credit.

If anything Pop outcoached himself.

Phil might have had it easy, but there's no way he's putting Timmy on the bench on game 6. Also hate him or love him, I think he's mile ahead of Pop (mostly due to Pop stubbornness) in in-game adjustments

[KaiRMD1]

Don't agree with the outcoached part. Spoelstra had LeBron and Wade. We got out-LeBroned and his SG didn't shit the bed repeatedly like ours did.

It's the Phil Jackson argument. How hard can it really be when the deck is already stacked in your favor? It would be like giving Mitch Kupchek credit as a great GM when most kinda realize he can only make most of those moves because he has a blank check by ownership every year. I can only give Spoelstra so much credit.

If anything Pop outcoached himself.

Yeah, Spoelstra didn't really do any great coaching out there tbh. When you got a guy like Lebron on your team, you don't really have to do much. Pop fucked himself in the ass, simple as that.

[TheGreatYacht]

Phil might have had it easy, but there's no way he's putting Timmy on the bench on game 6. Also hate him or love him, I think he's mile ahead of Pop (mostly due to Pop stubbornness) in in-game adjustmentsCouldn't agree more. OP you should add to your little list the fact that Tony and Manu relied too much on pick n roll that it came back to haunt us against the Heat. We all got a little taste of what Manu and TP can do in ISOLATIONS and beating their man off the dribble during Game 5. I don't know why we had to rely so much on pick n rolls.

[Kidd K]

Phil might have had it easy, but there's no way he's putting Timmy on the bench on game 6. Also hate him or love him, I think he's mile ahead of Pop (mostly due to Pop stubbornness) in in-game adjustments

I didn't see all that many adjustments. I just saw Pop continue to make no adjustments throughout game 7. Continued to leave Battier open ALL NIGHT. Allowed the Heat to get off open threes all night. Allowed Wade to get within 8-10 feet of the basket practically uncontested so he could then get into his dead red range and do some circus shit and score almost every time. Told his team to give LeBron 2 body lengths of space to shoot threes (and he shat on us with threes). Continued to play Ginobili when he was clearly unraveling (should have been benched at any point within the last 5 minutes imo. . .AGAIN).

Then in game 6, Pop's gameplanning went full retard after the first 3 quarters. He completely blew it once the 4th started. Made at least 4 HUGE mistakes that I saw coming before they concluded. It was more Popovich sucking than Spoelstra being any good. When Pop allows completely uncontested threes merely to stop LeBron from driving (but not Wade), this is what happens. Heat get tons of easy points while the Spurs had to scratch and claw for them and Duncan end up totally gassed so he can't score at the end when everyone else is still shitting the bed.

[Brunodf]

Couldn't agree more. OP you should add to your little list the fact that Tony and Manu relied too much on pick n roll that it came back to haunt us against the Heat. We all got a little taste of what Manu and TP can do in ISOLATIONS and beating their man off the dribble during Game 5. I don't know why we had to rely so much on pick n rolls.
Small ball was the biggest factor, i've said it before, guards just stand in the corner, bigs set screens/move without the ball.

Our small ball played isolation only on offense and couldn't get stops/rebound on defense.
Small ball was their game, and Pop played it for some reason:bang

[hommeaetage]

Couldn't agree more. OP you should add to your little list the fact that Tony and Manu relied too much on pick n roll that it came back to haunt us against the Heat. We all got a little taste of what Manu and TP can do in ISOLATIONS and beating their man off the dribble during Game 5. I don't know why we had to rely so much on pick n rolls.

What made me more upset was the fact that despite all the turnovers and watching the offense go stagnant with pick n roll, they kept doing it over and over against the best pick n roll defense in the league. Whatever happened to the days in the spurs playbook where they used to have cuts, backdoor passes, curls, and other variety in their playbook?

[spurraider21]

i agree. we should go back to prime duncan.

freakin idiot

[therealtruth]

I think the Spurs lost this more than the Heat won. I said after the end of last game that hoping to keep the same rotation was a plan of failure for Pop. He needed some more energy of the bench since they were the older team. It's pretty ridiculous how coaches keep making the same mistakes in game 7. Doc Rivers did the same thing in '10. If you've got the older team that won't work.

[therealtruth]

:lol Panicked and played small ball rather than the regular rotation after game 3(1-3 record)
:lol Benched the best defender and rebounder with a 5 point lead, 30 seconds left to win the championship
:lol Played scrub Neal big minutes in the Finals
:lol Always trying to counter
:lol "We will focus on defense this season" play Green at PF in the Finals
:lol Outcoached by Erik Spolstra

Developing Tiago or Baynes in the post is crucial as a way to prevent teams from using small ball. Spoelstra's switch to small ball really won them the title. I said after the game 5 win that trying to play better small ball than the Heat wasn't a recipe for winning especially on the road. It takes too much out of the Spurs defensively without the bigs to protect the paint.

[Brunodf]

Developing Tiago or Baynes in the post is crucial as a way to prevent teams from using small ball. Spoelstra's switch to small ball really won them the title. I said after the game 5 win that trying to play better small ball than the Heat wasn't a recipe for winning especially on the road. It takes too much out of the Spurs defensively without the bigs to protect the paint.
Good points

[Horse]

It's time someone holds that motherfucker Pop accountable. And I mean the local media. I'm a Pop guy allday long but you don't blow game 6 without trying to blow it. Then last night I can not get over how weird his coaching was.

[superbigtime]

I didn't see all that many adjustments. I just saw Pop continue to make no adjustments throughout game 7. Continued to leave Battier open ALL NIGHT. Allowed the Heat to get off open threes all night. Allowed Wade to get within 8-10 feet of the basket practically uncontested so he could then get into his dead red range and do some circus shit and score almost every time. Told his team to give LeBron 2 body lengths of space to shoot threes (and he shat on us with threes). Continued to play Ginobili when he was clearly unraveling (should have been benched at any point within the last 5 minutes imo. . .AGAIN).

Then in game 6, Pop's gameplanning went full retard after the first 3 quarters. He completely blew it once the 4th started. Made at least 4 HUGE mistakes that I saw coming before they concluded. It was more Popovich sucking than Spoelstra being any good. When Pop allows completely uncontested threes merely to stop LeBron from driving (but not Wade), this is what happens. Heat get tons of easy points while the Spurs had to scratch and claw for them and Duncan end up totally gassed so he can't score at the end when everyone else is still shitting the bed.

Yep. This is what I saw. Pop fucked up royally. The in game adjustments were not there. LeBron was clearly hot, and we continued to give him space.

[Gervin44Silas13]

No shit Bro Ticket 760 and WOAI....are licking his nuts......Game 6 should have been a foul shooting contest!


It's time someone holds that motherfucker Pop accountable. And I mean the local media. I'm a Pop guy allday long but you don't blow game 6 without trying to blow it. Then last night I can not get over how weird his coaching was.

[therealtruth]

No shit Bro Ticket 760 and WOAI....are licking his nuts......Game 6 should have been a foul shooting contest!

The problem is Pop has no accountability. Accountability is a good thing.

[tesseractive]

It's time someone holds that motherfucker Pop accountable. And I mean the local media. I'm a Pop guy allday long but you don't blow game 6 without trying to blow it. Then last night I can not get over how weird his coaching was.
That's why so many teams hire local sports reporters to coach for them -- because local media are really the best in the world at judging coaching strategies. :tu

[hommeaetage]

That's why so many teams hire local sports reporters to coach for them -- because local media are really the best in the world at judging coaching strategies. :tu

I get your sarcasm, but if you're really trying to defend Pop's rotation and in-game adjustments for these last two games, I can't take you seriously.

[spursmvp]

I get your sarcasm, but if you're really trying to defend Pop's rotation and in-game adjustments for these last two games, I can't take you seriously.

god dammit guys stop throwing pop under the bus. The only mistake he might've made was to sub out TD. However, we don't even know if TD would've gotten that rebound as he would've rotated out to lebron just like diaw did. You guys complain about playing green and neal. Well, who the hell are we gonna play? Diaw was getting killed by lebron's jumpers, the big 3 can't play 40 mpg. Tmac can't even score in garbage time.

For those of you that complained about taking away lebron's space. Well isn't that what we did in game 6? He scored what 16 pts in the 4th in the paint. If we collapse, battier was there to knock down the 3's.

Spoelstra is not a better coach. All he did was lebron/wade isos the entire game along with a few lebron/chalmers pnr. You and I can draw that up.

[Man In Black]

My only thing about Game 6 and Tim being pulled out was I think it was directly after Bosh took out his legs from falling into his knee. I don't know if Will told Pop he wanted to check on Tim while the Spurs had the lead and play offense to defense switch for 1 possession.


Curious...had the Spurs have won Game 6 because Parker, Ginobili, or Leonard made that 1 FT it would have taken, then would this thread even exist?

The system is fine, the players have to execute. But even then, sometimes you could do things perfectly perfect AND STILL LOSE. In my time here on the planet, I've witnessed so many instances of situations like that. Down by 2 in a Football game, ball is on the 25 yard line and you send out your perfect kicker to kick a field goal he's made time and again. He kicks the ball and whiffs it to a returner by the posts and he catches and runs it all the way back. Do you blame the coach for that?

Love my Spurs...STILL THEY RIDE!

[cd021]

Small ball was the biggest factor, i've said it before, guards just stand in the corner, bigs set screens/move without the ball.

Our small ball played isolation only on offense and couldn't get stops/rebound on defense.
Small ball was their game, and Pop played it for some reason:bang

How is small ball their game? We've used small ball fairly consistently this past season with Jackson and later Leonard playing PF. Pop even said in February or March that he expected to use small ball. He used it against GSW to perfection and you weren't complaining when Parker and Manu to combined for 50 points. We have better small ball personnel. They have the best player on the planet and another HOF and even a dinosaur all on the court at the same time. Our lineup is more balanced. Parker had a Hamstring injury, Manu was apparently woke up and realized he was old, and Green fizzled out after hitting 26 3's in the 1st 5 games. We had some rough luck.

[cd021]

:lol Panicked and played small ball rather than the regular rotation after game 3(1-3 record)
:lol Benched the best defender and rebounder with a 5 point lead, 30 seconds left to win the championship
:lol Played scrub Neal big minutes in the Finals
:lol Always trying to counter
:lol "We will focus on defense this season" play Green at PF in the Finals
:lol Outcoached by Erik Spolstra

All 6 of points are incorrect.

-Splitter went M.I.A he was shockingly bad. You can't even defend playing him in that series. Joseph wasn't ready to play backup PG. It made sense to cut them back or exercise them out of the rotation. There should be no controversy about that.

-Dating back to when Diaw signed, Pop has done this in order to switch and better defend P&R's. Diaw was jamming up GSW's P&R in game 1. The better argument is why Pop didn't play Parker and Duncan at the start of the 4th to maintain a 10 point lead.

-Neal played well in the 1st 3 games. After waiving Captain, who did you think we were going to play De Colo? You need at lead 5 wings to play small ball for long stretches. When he is on he can be counted on to space the floor and buy minutes for Parker or Manu when they are resting.

-Pop hand Spo on the ropes heading into Game 2, Game 4 and Game 6. Not sure how Pop was always on the defensive. Going iso and killing them with Parker and Manu going off the dribble forced Lebron on Parker and occasionally Manu. Packing in the paint forced starting lineup change that shall Miller inserted into the starting lineup and Haslem minutes drastically cut.

-When did Green play PF in the finals. He was switching on to Lebron. Diaw or Leonard were always on the floor. In the first 3 games. Green defended him for like 10 minutes at SF. We had the 4th best Defense in the NBA and played fantastic defense in the post season.

-Pop wasn't outcoached Lebron figured out how to dominate and did. Wade played well. Battier hit 6 3's that's not being out coached

That is all.