Spurs Game 4 2012 vs Game 4 2014...

[Amuseddaysleeper]

(taken from another board, and maybe the guy is reaching.....but I figured it'd be worth posting for the hell of it. You tell me.)



The Spurs are on their last leg, or so they’d like us to think. Train was right (a couple of days ago) when he said/predicted Pop would pull a rope-a-dope against the Thunder in game 4. And the rope-a-dope continued well into the postgame comments, with Manu all but conceding the series: “They’re too big, too fast, too athletic. It will take a perfect game to beat them.

Sure, we’ve won big games like this but we’ve also lost them. Etc, etc.” Is this all a strategy to inflate the Thunder’s ego and confidence to the point where they overlook the tired, old, slow and predictable Spurs: a team whose key players are well past their NBA prime? Maybe. If Pop, a military man and a history buff, learned anything from that series two years ago, it’s that the Spurs lost that series when they lost game 5. From the end of game 3 (in this series) to the midway point of game 4, you could already see Pop planning for game 5. He not only rested his starters (something he didn’t do in the previous series) but he also forced the Thunder to play theirs (and that’s to say nothing of the psychological mind games/warfare going on between Pop and his players, and the Thunder).

In that series two years ago, the Spurs were down to the Thunder by 10-12 points for most of the 3rd quarter (in game 4), but Pop went for the win in that one, and it cost him dearly. Not only did the Spurs lose that game, but the starters logged heavy minutes. Game 5 came two days later (just like in this year’s series) and the Spurs lost that pivotal game, in a close contest. In a series that is tied 2-2, the winner of game 5 wins the series about 80% of the time.

[urunobili]

http://ak.picdn.net/shutterstock/videos/3020401/preview/stock-footage-jerusalem-november-christian-pilgrims-light-candles-in-the-church-of-the-holy-sepulchre.jpg

[FromWayDowntown]

Mind games don't matter if you don't bring some intensity and aggression to the battle. I expect the Spurs to play with a whole lot more urgency in Game 5 than they did in Games 3 and 4, though in all honesty, it would be difficult to match the lack of urgency they displayed in OKC. If they don't all the rest in the world and any overconfidence on the part of OKC will be completely irrelevant. (and I don't buy for a second that OKC will be damaged by overconfidence; I'm not sure that guys who are as confident in themselves as those guys are can ever really get overconfident).

The point about Game 5 being pivotal is absolutely true. Harden's huge 3 at the end of Game 5 in 2012 killed that Spurs team. They hadn't really played well enough to win that game; they were down 12 to start the 4th and seemed to be just running in mud and got as deeply behind as 13 when Harden made an and-1 with 5:17 left. But from 101-88 down, they got all the way back to 103-101 with 50.9 seconds left. Harden hit that monster 3 with 1.9 left on the shot clock and pushed the lead back to 5 and ended the game. OKC had 27 points in that 4th quarter (Harden and Durant had 21 of them (12 for Harden, 9 for Durant)), shot 53% from the field in that quarter, and made 4-5 from behind the arc in that quarter (including Harden's 3-3).

[FromWayDowntown]

Thinking back on that game -- f'n Daequan Cook.

[myhc]

Thinking back on that game -- f'n Daequan Cook.

I forgot. What happened?

[Budkin]

Not having Harden will prove to be the difference tonight.

[DarrinS]

Thinking back on that game -- f'n Daequan Cook.

Damn, that was obscure. Had to go look him up. :lol

[Amuseddaysleeper]

Mind games don't matter if you don't bring some intensity and aggression to the battle. I expect the Spurs to play with a whole lot more urgency in Game 5 than they did in Games 3 and 4, though in all honesty, it would be difficult to match the lack of urgency they displayed in OKC. If they don't all the rest in the world and any overconfidence on the part of OKC will be completely irrelevant. (and I don't buy for a second that OKC will be damaged by overconfidence; I'm not sure that guys who are as confident in themselves as those guys are can ever really get overconfident).

The point about Game 5 being pivotal is absolutely true. Harden's huge 3 at the end of Game 5 in 2012 killed that Spurs team. They hadn't really played well enough to win that game; they were down 12 to start the 4th and seemed to be just running in mud and got as deeply behind as 13 when Harden made an and-1 with 5:17 left. But from 101-88 down, they got all the way back to 103-101 with 50.9 seconds left. Harden hit that monster 3 with 1.9 left on the shot clock and pushed the lead back to 5 and ended the game. OKC had 27 points in that 4th quarter (Harden and Durant had 21 of them (12 for Harden, 9 for Durant)), shot 53% from the field in that quarter, and made 4-5 from behind the arc in that quarter (including Harden's 3-3).

:tu

Tried supressing that for years.

Game 6 hurt even more. 20 point lead, SJax on fire, and then that fourth quarter was god awful officiating.

[FromWayDowntown]

I forgot. What happened?

Sefalosha picked up his 3rd foul with about 9 minutes left in the second quarter of that game and the Spurs pulled to within 3 with hope that Parker's then-nemesis was leaving the game for a while.

Enter Daequan Cook at 9:05 of the Second and here's what happened next:

09:05 SUB: Cook FOR Sefolosha
09:05 MISS GinobiliFree Throw 2 of 2
09:04 Harden REBOUND
08:55 Splitter Violation:Kicked Ball
08:55 Timeout: Official
08:43 (29-34; -5) Cook 13' Jump Shot (Harden)
08:19 (31-34; -3) Jackson 14' Jump Shot (Leonard)
07:57 (31-37; -6) Cook 24' 3PT Jump Shot (Westbrook)
07:36 (33-37; -4) Splitter 1' Layup (Ginobili) 33-37 -4
07:18 (33-40; -7) Cook 23' 3PT Jump Shot (Westbrook)
7:00 (36-40; -4) Ginobili 26' 3PT Jump Shot (Jackson)

The Spurs got 3 straight scores immediately after Sefalosha left the game (and while Durant was sitting) and still managed to trail by more than they had when Sefalosha left the game. By the time Durant returned at the 5:11 mark (replacing Cook), the Thunder had actually stretched their lead to 7.

Daequan Cook didn't turn that game, but he made 3 straight big shots to keep his team afloat when they needed it. He'd made 1 shot in the entire series before that stretch.

[Shastafarian]

He'd made 1 shot in the entire series before that stretch.
This is the part I remember. I remember thinking how unlikely it was for him to have the same impact as sefalosha.

[TheGoldStandard]

Mind games don't work against teams that don't rely on savvy and intelligence to win games. It's like trying to insult a wall.
Spurs win tonight if they grow a pair

[crc21209]

The mind games and getting the Thunder to be overconfident I'm not so sure about, but I do believe Pop threw in the towel early with his thoughts on tonight's game already. He could have easily left his guys in there to make a run, but if they came up short again trying to make a big comeback, they would be exhausted both physically and mentally for a Game 5. I think it was easy for Pop to pull the plug when he did when he saw the lack of energy the starters were playing with.

[Spurs21Fan4Ever]

I agree Pop only thought about game 5, and Brooks was being dumb by playing Westbrook 46 minutes. I know he's young and a freak athlete, but no matter what, at this point in the season, that will make your legs tire. I don't expect him to have a huge impact tonight like he did last game. Also, I hope this team learned that Ibaka is an overrated defender and the Spurs are making him better than he really is. Yes Ibaka is a great shot blocker, but he's also greedy and if you take advantage of that, then you can make him a non-factor.