Malik Hairston
04-24-2014, 08:55 PM
- Spurs starters were dominant on defense, once again..
Similar to game 1, the Spurs' starters had virtually no problems against the Mavs' half-court offense, tbh.
Dallas shot 4-18 from the field against the Spurs' starting 5-man unit, along with 2 FTs and 1 turnover. Dirk Nowitzki could not figure out Tiago Splitter, as we saw in game 1, as he shot 1-9 from the field against Tiago. Even when Dallas scored, it was mostly FGA's that San Antonio's defense will happily concede, such as Shawn Marion 3s and Dejuan Blair floaters.
While the box score indicates that Marion and Ellis had a substantial impact in scoring the ball, neither did much in the half court against the Spurs' starters tbh.
- The bench got completely annihilated..
The Spurs' bench continues to struggle and looks overwhelmed against a Mavs' defense led by the shitty Devin Harris, Vince Carter and Dejuan "inevitable bankruptcy" Blair's fat ass.
The Mavs' shot a ridiculous 17-24 from the field against any Spurs' unit that featured at least 3 bench players, along with 4 FTAs(these units did force 4 turnovers, to be fair). It's going to be difficult to beat a team when they're scoring around 1.5 PPP against a bench that has not been able to counter offensively, outside of Manu Ginobili.
Marco "The Hooptie" Bellineli is one of the worst defensive players in the league, as most Spurs fans are aware of, and the Beli/Diaw pick&roll defense has been getting torched in this series, so far.
I understand Patty Mills' defensive style is relentless hounding and full-court pressure, but his positioning against Devin Harris has been atrocious. We'll see how or if the Spurs adjust in game 3, but I hope they didn't overreact to Harris' fluky 3-point shooting in game 1. Harris shot 30% from 3-point range this season and 33% overall on jump shots. He's not a good shooter from long-range, but he's a decent mid-range shooter, yet the Spurs continue to go over screens and give him the mid-range J.
Mills wasn't the only culprit, as Bellineli and Ginobili made the same decision against Harris.
This leads to a straight drive and floater(I only uploaded this instance of Mills vs. Harris, there are many others that display the same results): http://i.imgur.com/7lTIibj.jpg</a>
This leads to an easy Harris drive + pass to Blair for the layup: (http://i.imgur.com/7lTIibj.jpg%5B/img%5D)http://i.imgur.com/5ZAWoYt.jpg
Same decision by Manu allows Harris to drive, Belinelli is playing way too deep and leaves a 40% 3-point shooter wide open: http://i.imgur.com/vBazQZF.jpg http://i.imgur.com/xZc5Hu3.jpg
To be fair, I doubt Harris will keep this up, as he usually struggles with the floater he's been making in the first 2 games and he's generally just an overall, mediocre player. However, I'd be much more comfortable giving him looks from longer range and going under the screens, rather than the defender constantly trailing him and giving him the J or floater from 10-15 feet.
Another major issue with the bench defense is "the greatest coach of all-time" deciding to cover Monta Ellis(in his athletic prime) with a 36-year old Manu Ginobili(while that 36-year old also has to anchor the offense on the other end of the floorhttps://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/6lh797YTA-LYZIU2RA32QWqOMZmPx_8-RtUJrJvhZ3f-5PA7w3Vygj3cihyLdF5A05lcRMwZfpvCg4DejyiIXvJFiZ1NFv aKl_yFKPby3g=s0-d-e1-ft#http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/images/smilies/smilol.gif). Ellis shit all over Manu, as expected, going 3 for 3 from the field, assisting on 2 pick&roll plays, and drawing 2 fouls. To his credit, Manu forced 2 turnovers against Ellis, but why the fuck is Ginobili guarding Ellis in the first place, tbh?
At this point of his career, Manu is better suited to guard opposing SFs, which is something he has excelled at this season. The decision to have him guard Monta fucking Ellis, just so you can keep Bellineli on the floor, doesn't make any sense to me. Even with Leonard in foul trouble, there's no reason Danny Green, or maybe even Joseph, can't take the Ellis assignment.
Pop is going to have to make a decision on having Bellineli on the floor IMO.
- Turnovers were the biggest reason for the loss, obviously..
As everybody has pointed out already, turnovers were the reason for the large deficit in this game. The Spurs were below the league average in turnovers this season, while Dallas was the 6th worst in generating turnovers, yet it was Dallas that used the massive discrepancy to their advantage last night, scoring a ridiculous 33 points off turnovers.
Originally, I had thought the turnovers were mostly due to poor spacing, but after watching the game for a second time, it was mostly sloppy passing and poor decisions from the Spurs, tbh.
On this particular play, the play is developing where Boris is going to be wide open for 3, as Dirk chooses to follow Splitter and leave Diaw. Rather than passing it to Diaw, Manu chooses to force it into Splitter, leading to a turnover and Mavs points: http://i.imgur.com/PJ9UiSP.png
- Manu was stripped way too many times, including 2 plays where he would have had a good look at the rim. He also lost the ball on his own 2 times IIRC
- Parker couldn't make his usual passes between defenders, particularly to Splitter, the Mavs had 3 kick-balls on Parker pass attempts, in addition to the turnovers
- Splitter dropped an easy pass from Tony on the fastbreak
- Diaw had a strange turnover where he drove from the 3-point line and barreled into 3 defenders
- Duncan had the worst turnover of the night, Tragic Johnson on the fastbreak, throwing it right into the hands of Monta Ellis in the Spurs' backcourt
- Danny Green had 2 absolutely awful turnovers in the 1st quarter trying to make passes that weren't available
- Screens were half-assed..
Splitter's screens are usually overlooked and an underrated trait of his game, but I thought his screens lacked physicality and energy in game 2. His screens for Tony against Marion were completely ineffective, Marion went right through most of them and it directly affected the Spurs' offense IMO.
His off-ball screens were also much worse than usual.
Ayres' screens were awful, he had an illegal screen and he couldn't help Mills get open on 2 occasions. If Pop is going to waste minutes on a 4th big, Baynes might be a better option(health permitting), as his ability to set screens is probably more effective than anything Ayres is providing the team.
- Dejuan Blair was the worst defensive big on the floor, as usual..
The Spurs ran 9 plays that directly involved a Dejuan Blair rotation/action, and they scored on 6 of the 9 plays. His rotations were terrible and his pick&roll defense was embarrassing, as usual. Unfortunately, Blair had 2 strips and a deflection(Diaw's fault on the deflection, poor entry pass to Tim) that led to points, but the Spurs should and will continue to exploit Blair when he's on the floor.
- Minute allocation..
It's the playoffs, a regular season rotation is not going to work, tbh. Leonard needs to play 40 minutes per game, he's 22 years old, especially when Monta Ellis is on the floor against the Spurs' bench unit.
Green and Leonard should be playing much, much more.
- Spacing is a huge concern..
The lack of spacing and rhythm on offense currently looks like it did earlier in the season when the Spurs' were slumping. The combination of Duncan/Splitter is eating space in the lane. The problem earlier in the season was not only Green/Leonard not making 3-pointers, but also Duncan's terrible mid-range shooting. The Mavs have taken away the looks from Kawhi and Danny, and Tim isn't even thinking about shooting the mid-range J.
Against other teams, the Spurs could go with Diaw or Leonard at the 4, but Splitter's success in guarding Nowitzki makes him a necessecity for the Spurs' defense in this series. They must deal with the spacing problems with their starting unit, rather than making a rotational switch IMO.
The Spurs opened the game with a nice play to open up Danny Green against a sleeping Calderon: http://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/assets/4349223/1_danny_triple.gif
They did not do nearly enough of this the rest of the game IMO, lazy screens and no energy. They attempted to run 2 more screen plays for Green in the 3rd quarter, but Calderon was able to contest both shots, as Splitter set lazy screens, as I said in my previous point.
As frightening as it may be, Duncan may have to take a few more mid-range jump shots, tbh. His shot has been unreliable all season, but the Spurs' starting unit needs spacing, especially since it doesn't appear that Pop is going to divert from pick&roll Parker-ball.
- Lack of post touches..
Other than turnovers, nothing disappointed me more than the lack of post touches from the Spurs.
The Mavs' defense's worst attribute this season was their post defense, where they ranked 17th in the league. They have struggled heavily against Tim Duncan in the past, including game 1, where they had no answer.
The Spurs had only 7 post touches in game 2. Not 7 shots, but 7 touches:lol (I'm exluding Splitter's 2 post shots, since they were broken plays). Tim Duncan only had 5 touches in the post, with only 1 shot attempt. Out of those 7 post touches, the Spurs scored 6 times.
The first instinct is to assume Duncan was either double-teamed or passive, but after watching the game, that simply wasn't the case. The Spurs were not patient in getting Duncan the ball, opting to go elsewhere rather than waiting for Tim to fight for position. Other than 1 bad turnover, every Duncan post touch resulted in a score or a foul for the Spurs. The Mavs only double-teamed Duncan on 1 occasion, where Tim passed it to Splitter under the rim for an easy layup.
Boris Diaw had 2 post touches, he scored on both.
The Mavs' are clearly content with allowing Duncan, along with Diaw or Splitter, to beat them inside. For some reason, the Spurs didn't comply. I don't think there's any excuse for only 7 post touches against a poor interior defense, tbh, especially in a game where the perimeter creators were unable to get to the rim or set up teammates for easy baskets.
TL: DR
- That many turnovers in a single game, mostly unforced, against the 6th worst turnover-generating team in the league is highly unlikely to occur again, tbh. This was the primary reason the Spurs lost.
- Only 7 post touches all game is inexcusable, I expect the Spurs to run it down low more often in game 3.
- Mavs have been awful against the Spurs' starters in the half-court.
- The Spurs bench play, Pop's minute allocation and the poor spacing is my only concern for the series. I don't believe the Mavs can play much better than they have so far IMO.
Similar to game 1, the Spurs' starters had virtually no problems against the Mavs' half-court offense, tbh.
Dallas shot 4-18 from the field against the Spurs' starting 5-man unit, along with 2 FTs and 1 turnover. Dirk Nowitzki could not figure out Tiago Splitter, as we saw in game 1, as he shot 1-9 from the field against Tiago. Even when Dallas scored, it was mostly FGA's that San Antonio's defense will happily concede, such as Shawn Marion 3s and Dejuan Blair floaters.
While the box score indicates that Marion and Ellis had a substantial impact in scoring the ball, neither did much in the half court against the Spurs' starters tbh.
- The bench got completely annihilated..
The Spurs' bench continues to struggle and looks overwhelmed against a Mavs' defense led by the shitty Devin Harris, Vince Carter and Dejuan "inevitable bankruptcy" Blair's fat ass.
The Mavs' shot a ridiculous 17-24 from the field against any Spurs' unit that featured at least 3 bench players, along with 4 FTAs(these units did force 4 turnovers, to be fair). It's going to be difficult to beat a team when they're scoring around 1.5 PPP against a bench that has not been able to counter offensively, outside of Manu Ginobili.
Marco "The Hooptie" Bellineli is one of the worst defensive players in the league, as most Spurs fans are aware of, and the Beli/Diaw pick&roll defense has been getting torched in this series, so far.
I understand Patty Mills' defensive style is relentless hounding and full-court pressure, but his positioning against Devin Harris has been atrocious. We'll see how or if the Spurs adjust in game 3, but I hope they didn't overreact to Harris' fluky 3-point shooting in game 1. Harris shot 30% from 3-point range this season and 33% overall on jump shots. He's not a good shooter from long-range, but he's a decent mid-range shooter, yet the Spurs continue to go over screens and give him the mid-range J.
Mills wasn't the only culprit, as Bellineli and Ginobili made the same decision against Harris.
This leads to a straight drive and floater(I only uploaded this instance of Mills vs. Harris, there are many others that display the same results): http://i.imgur.com/7lTIibj.jpg</a>
This leads to an easy Harris drive + pass to Blair for the layup: (http://i.imgur.com/7lTIibj.jpg%5B/img%5D)http://i.imgur.com/5ZAWoYt.jpg
Same decision by Manu allows Harris to drive, Belinelli is playing way too deep and leaves a 40% 3-point shooter wide open: http://i.imgur.com/vBazQZF.jpg http://i.imgur.com/xZc5Hu3.jpg
To be fair, I doubt Harris will keep this up, as he usually struggles with the floater he's been making in the first 2 games and he's generally just an overall, mediocre player. However, I'd be much more comfortable giving him looks from longer range and going under the screens, rather than the defender constantly trailing him and giving him the J or floater from 10-15 feet.
Another major issue with the bench defense is "the greatest coach of all-time" deciding to cover Monta Ellis(in his athletic prime) with a 36-year old Manu Ginobili(while that 36-year old also has to anchor the offense on the other end of the floorhttps://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/6lh797YTA-LYZIU2RA32QWqOMZmPx_8-RtUJrJvhZ3f-5PA7w3Vygj3cihyLdF5A05lcRMwZfpvCg4DejyiIXvJFiZ1NFv aKl_yFKPby3g=s0-d-e1-ft#http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/images/smilies/smilol.gif). Ellis shit all over Manu, as expected, going 3 for 3 from the field, assisting on 2 pick&roll plays, and drawing 2 fouls. To his credit, Manu forced 2 turnovers against Ellis, but why the fuck is Ginobili guarding Ellis in the first place, tbh?
At this point of his career, Manu is better suited to guard opposing SFs, which is something he has excelled at this season. The decision to have him guard Monta fucking Ellis, just so you can keep Bellineli on the floor, doesn't make any sense to me. Even with Leonard in foul trouble, there's no reason Danny Green, or maybe even Joseph, can't take the Ellis assignment.
Pop is going to have to make a decision on having Bellineli on the floor IMO.
- Turnovers were the biggest reason for the loss, obviously..
As everybody has pointed out already, turnovers were the reason for the large deficit in this game. The Spurs were below the league average in turnovers this season, while Dallas was the 6th worst in generating turnovers, yet it was Dallas that used the massive discrepancy to their advantage last night, scoring a ridiculous 33 points off turnovers.
Originally, I had thought the turnovers were mostly due to poor spacing, but after watching the game for a second time, it was mostly sloppy passing and poor decisions from the Spurs, tbh.
On this particular play, the play is developing where Boris is going to be wide open for 3, as Dirk chooses to follow Splitter and leave Diaw. Rather than passing it to Diaw, Manu chooses to force it into Splitter, leading to a turnover and Mavs points: http://i.imgur.com/PJ9UiSP.png
- Manu was stripped way too many times, including 2 plays where he would have had a good look at the rim. He also lost the ball on his own 2 times IIRC
- Parker couldn't make his usual passes between defenders, particularly to Splitter, the Mavs had 3 kick-balls on Parker pass attempts, in addition to the turnovers
- Splitter dropped an easy pass from Tony on the fastbreak
- Diaw had a strange turnover where he drove from the 3-point line and barreled into 3 defenders
- Duncan had the worst turnover of the night, Tragic Johnson on the fastbreak, throwing it right into the hands of Monta Ellis in the Spurs' backcourt
- Danny Green had 2 absolutely awful turnovers in the 1st quarter trying to make passes that weren't available
- Screens were half-assed..
Splitter's screens are usually overlooked and an underrated trait of his game, but I thought his screens lacked physicality and energy in game 2. His screens for Tony against Marion were completely ineffective, Marion went right through most of them and it directly affected the Spurs' offense IMO.
His off-ball screens were also much worse than usual.
Ayres' screens were awful, he had an illegal screen and he couldn't help Mills get open on 2 occasions. If Pop is going to waste minutes on a 4th big, Baynes might be a better option(health permitting), as his ability to set screens is probably more effective than anything Ayres is providing the team.
- Dejuan Blair was the worst defensive big on the floor, as usual..
The Spurs ran 9 plays that directly involved a Dejuan Blair rotation/action, and they scored on 6 of the 9 plays. His rotations were terrible and his pick&roll defense was embarrassing, as usual. Unfortunately, Blair had 2 strips and a deflection(Diaw's fault on the deflection, poor entry pass to Tim) that led to points, but the Spurs should and will continue to exploit Blair when he's on the floor.
- Minute allocation..
It's the playoffs, a regular season rotation is not going to work, tbh. Leonard needs to play 40 minutes per game, he's 22 years old, especially when Monta Ellis is on the floor against the Spurs' bench unit.
Green and Leonard should be playing much, much more.
- Spacing is a huge concern..
The lack of spacing and rhythm on offense currently looks like it did earlier in the season when the Spurs' were slumping. The combination of Duncan/Splitter is eating space in the lane. The problem earlier in the season was not only Green/Leonard not making 3-pointers, but also Duncan's terrible mid-range shooting. The Mavs have taken away the looks from Kawhi and Danny, and Tim isn't even thinking about shooting the mid-range J.
Against other teams, the Spurs could go with Diaw or Leonard at the 4, but Splitter's success in guarding Nowitzki makes him a necessecity for the Spurs' defense in this series. They must deal with the spacing problems with their starting unit, rather than making a rotational switch IMO.
The Spurs opened the game with a nice play to open up Danny Green against a sleeping Calderon: http://cdn0.vox-cdn.com/assets/4349223/1_danny_triple.gif
They did not do nearly enough of this the rest of the game IMO, lazy screens and no energy. They attempted to run 2 more screen plays for Green in the 3rd quarter, but Calderon was able to contest both shots, as Splitter set lazy screens, as I said in my previous point.
As frightening as it may be, Duncan may have to take a few more mid-range jump shots, tbh. His shot has been unreliable all season, but the Spurs' starting unit needs spacing, especially since it doesn't appear that Pop is going to divert from pick&roll Parker-ball.
- Lack of post touches..
Other than turnovers, nothing disappointed me more than the lack of post touches from the Spurs.
The Mavs' defense's worst attribute this season was their post defense, where they ranked 17th in the league. They have struggled heavily against Tim Duncan in the past, including game 1, where they had no answer.
The Spurs had only 7 post touches in game 2. Not 7 shots, but 7 touches:lol (I'm exluding Splitter's 2 post shots, since they were broken plays). Tim Duncan only had 5 touches in the post, with only 1 shot attempt. Out of those 7 post touches, the Spurs scored 6 times.
The first instinct is to assume Duncan was either double-teamed or passive, but after watching the game, that simply wasn't the case. The Spurs were not patient in getting Duncan the ball, opting to go elsewhere rather than waiting for Tim to fight for position. Other than 1 bad turnover, every Duncan post touch resulted in a score or a foul for the Spurs. The Mavs only double-teamed Duncan on 1 occasion, where Tim passed it to Splitter under the rim for an easy layup.
Boris Diaw had 2 post touches, he scored on both.
The Mavs' are clearly content with allowing Duncan, along with Diaw or Splitter, to beat them inside. For some reason, the Spurs didn't comply. I don't think there's any excuse for only 7 post touches against a poor interior defense, tbh, especially in a game where the perimeter creators were unable to get to the rim or set up teammates for easy baskets.
TL: DR
- That many turnovers in a single game, mostly unforced, against the 6th worst turnover-generating team in the league is highly unlikely to occur again, tbh. This was the primary reason the Spurs lost.
- Only 7 post touches all game is inexcusable, I expect the Spurs to run it down low more often in game 3.
- Mavs have been awful against the Spurs' starters in the half-court.
- The Spurs bench play, Pop's minute allocation and the poor spacing is my only concern for the series. I don't believe the Mavs can play much better than they have so far IMO.