Challenges for the Spurs against Suns?

[greens]

Now, that we are on to round two of the playoffs...What sort of challanges do the Suns pose for the Spurs? I know we beat them in 05 pretty easily. But lately, the Suns have been getting pretty hot with their shooting. Plus Barbosa is doing exceptionally well right now, scoring a lot...Amare is in perfect health right now...Also the Suns now have Raja Bell. I think the team is obviously better than the one in 05.

Bowen will probably still defend Shawn Marion. Tony Parker will be on Nash. Tim Duncan will handle Amare. But who will guard Barbosa?

Anyway, what kind of problems would the Suns team pose for us this time around? Could the Spurs beat them in 5 or 6? I think so. It will be a close series but I still think the Spurs defense is what will get it done...Still, this series will be extremely difficult. And I guess according to the media, the Suns are the favorites in this series...Any thoughts?

[Obstructed_View]

It was a good thing having AI in the first round as a warmup for Baboso. I think they'll use much the same defense on him. I wouldn't be shocked to see a little bit of Fin on Nash, allowing Parker to cover Baboso as well.

[greens]

It was a good thing having AI in the first round as a warmup for Baboso. I think they'll use much the same defense on him. I wouldn't be shocked to see a little bit of Fin on Nash, allowing Parker to cover Baboso as well.


Yeah, that would work. I'd also expect Bowen to switch between Marion and Nash...especially, at the end of the fourth quarter...

And Finley's defense is pretty good. As is Tony's.

[WalterBenitez]

Barbosa? we can't stop ... that boy is faster than anyone in our roster, we could make a zone to let him go behind 3's arc, asking to start missing.

We need to excel our Defense to slow down those runners.

[BillsCarnage]

The Suns have been built to matchup w/ the Spurs in the PO's ever since being bounced in the WCF's 2yrs ago.

The keys for the Suns are to shoot 50% or better.. Even if the game is slow they still need to hit their shots and the timely shots too. The Amare/KT rotation on Duncan will be determined by the flow of the game. If the Spurs are controlling the pace I'd look for KT to get a lot of PT.

The Suns will get out rebounded, but that will be offset by hitting their shots.

The Spurs need to play Amare physical. That's the one thing i noticed he had problems w/ this year; the physical play inside. If Oberto and Elson play tough inside it will be problems for the Suns as that'll free up the perimeter defenders to go to town.

Even though the season series was 2-1 Spurs, I consider it more 1-1-1.. The first game could have gone either way had Duncan or Bell been able to hit FT's at the end. But the Spurs ended up winning a close one in OT.

Game 2 the Suns put the pedal down and ran the Spurs out in the 4th quarter.

Game 3, the Spurs controlled the pace and the Suns couldn't hit the ocean standing on the beach. The Spurs never really "ran away" w/ the game though.

They've both been focused on this series once the seeding was all but set and I'd expect nothing less than a 6 games, likely 7.

The Semi's in both conferences will essentially be the conf finals as the 4 best teams are playing.

[Gaddabout]

The keys for the Suns are to shoot 50% or better..

If you can't point to a single quarter in which the Suns shot 50% or better against the Spurs this year, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt on your game key. As it stands, I think that's akin to asking the Suns to limit Duncan to five rebounds or Tony Parker to single-digit points.

I think the Suns shot 44% for the season against the Spurs, and the Spurs shot 40%. It's been some ugly offense between these two teams, even in the game the Suns won.

[dbreiden83080]

The Suns have been built to matchup w/ the Spurs in the PO's ever since being bounced in the WCF's 2yrs ago.

The keys for the Suns are to shoot 50% or better.. Even if the game is slow they still need to hit their shots and the timely shots too. The Amare/KT rotation on Duncan will be determined by the flow of the game. If the Spurs are controlling the pace I'd look for KT to get a lot of PT.

The Suns will get out rebounded, but that will be offset by hitting their shots.

The Spurs need to play Amare physical. That's the one thing i noticed he had problems w/ this year; the physical play inside. If Oberto and Elson play tough inside it will be problems for the Suns as that'll free up the perimeter defenders to go to town.

Even though the season series was 2-1 Spurs, I consider it more 1-1-1.. The first game could have gone either way had Duncan or Bell been able to hit FT's at the end. But the Spurs ended up winning a close one in OT.

Game 2 the Suns put the pedal down and ran the Spurs out in the 4th quarter.

Game 3, the Spurs controlled the pace and the Suns couldn't hit the ocean standing on the beach. The Spurs never really "ran away" w/ the game though.

They've both been focused on this series once the seeding was all but set and I'd expect nothing less than a 6 games, likely 7.

The Semi's in both conferences will essentially be the conf finals as the 4 best teams are playing.


To me the Spurs will win this thing in 6 because when the game is on the line in a 7 game series you had better have a good half court defense. Spurs is the best in the league and the Suns while somewhat better than it was in 05 is still not very good.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

The last game we played this year, where we controlled the tempo of the game, we actually put Finley on Marion, but with the benefit of having Bowen's cliff notes on defending him.

That allowed us to sick Bowen on Nash, and wear him down.

I expect the same this time around.

[Spursfan101]

History shows that Nash never really kills us (knock on wood). So we have to contain the X-factor...Leandro Barbosa!

[greens]

The last game we played this year, where we controlled the tempo of the game, we actually put Finley on Marion, but with the benefit of having Bowen's cliff notes on defending him.

That allowed us to sick Bowen on Nash, and wear him down.

I expect the same this time around.


Yeah, that could work again. But who did Parker end up guarding if Fin was on Marion and Bowen was on Nash? I must have missed that game...

And yes Barbosa is the X-factor...maybe Gino can guard him?

[Man In Black]

It's a given that the Spurs are going to dictate pace. They will seek to limit fastbreaks and open 3 point shots. Best way to do that is use a 2-pronged attack against Steve Nash. How do you cut the head off of a snake? Easy, you make him actually work on the defensive side of the ball. Parker's ability to drive, attack, and penetrate forces Nash to expend energy that he wants to save for the offensive side of the ball. The other thing is that using a combination of Bowen, Parker, sometimes Jacque Vaughn and Ginobili and Fin on Nash but with this wrinkle added in. Just like the last game played in regular season, the Spurs sought to limit the perimeter but instead of kickin all the points to Stoudamire, they attempted to limit his touches as well and force Steve Nash to score all the points. Steve Nash ain't Jordan, ain't Kobe, ain't going to score enough points by himself to beat the disciplined Spurs.