I Hope They Can Get Up From That

[Ghost Writer]

Yeah, um, Pop should've never taken Duncan out with 5 and change in the 4th. He didso, simply because Stoudamire was taken out with 5 as well.

The smart money would've been to keep Duncan in and build on the lead.

Instead, they let the Suns creep back and then when Pop answered Amare with Duncan late in the game, Stoudamire used Duncan, who was afraid of committing his fourth foul.

I know Pop likes Finley, but he took too many critical shots late.

The Spurs choked and played into the Suns hands in the 4th quarter, surrendering to a fat pace that they could not keep up with.

So, once again, San Antonio does not make it easy on themselves.

I felt that the Spurs would lose this game, but not in this kind of fashion.

This was disheartening.

We'll see if their swagger allows them to come back or if they are all done.

Now they must win in Phoenix.

Here we go.

P.S.

That is why Nash is awesome and Bell is my kind of player. They are difference makers.









:cooldevil

[duncan228]

Duncan is also a difference maker.
He will get up. He always does.

[Cant_Be_Faded]

?? Duncan had 5 when he was taken out, but yes that was the stupidest move by Pop in the playoffs this year. I knew right then and there we were fucked.

Duncan himself ground the offense to a halt with 3 turnovers in a row. Then we have 4 turnovers in 7 possessions in the fourth, but still a 5 point lead. Pop takes Duncan out, and our players get totally locked down cuz we never had an offensive flow to begin with, THEN when he puts Duncan in, Phoenix sent an amazingly fast double team which confused duncan and led to zero points.

The next possession Duncan waited for the double team which never came (props to Phoenix D it was their only two good defensive possessions the entire night) and we got no points. Duncan's poorest fourth quarter performance since the Laker days, but Pop taking him out did not help any.

If I'm MVP Duncan I demand Pop leave me in.

[myhc]

i had no problem with pop taking tim out at that point. my problem was when amare went back in the game and i was screaming at pop to put him back in the game. he didn't and amare scores easily. tim comes in about a minute later but it was already too late. the momentum was all in the suns favor.

[GrandeDavid]

The Spurs put the onus on themselves. Duncan had some stupid feet shuffles, the team went Atlanta Hawks down the stretch, and Phoenix flat took it. Props to Phoenix. Game 5 is Wednesday, I'm sure the Spurs will be ready. They know they can win in Phoenix.

[Cant_Be_Faded]

Seriously, who here knew from the second Tim sat on the bench that Pop would end up putting him back in when it was too late?

It was so fucking painfully obvious.....we took him out with no offensive flow in the fourth quarter, then put him back in with the same stagnant offense.

We ran the Parker/Duncan pick and roll to near perfection, DUNCANS THREE TURNOVERS WERE EASILY MAKABLE SHOTS that he makes 99% of the time, the parker/duncan pick and roll was working excellent, then when Pop puts duncan back into the game, what do we do???????????????????


A Ginobili/Duncan pick and roll, relying on the one player who hasn't stopped stabbing us in the back since he fouled Dirk in 2006.
Why didn't we run one single parker/duncan pick n roll when Duncan came back in, it was working earlier in the 4th Duncan just slipped up....why a Ginobili/Duncan one?

It makes no sense, Duncan fucked us, but Popavich seemed to want to lose this game down the stretch.

[SequSpur]

Thanks for stating the obvious. I do believe most here watched the game.

The problem was fucking minutes. Pop continues to play his main guys 30-35 minutes while Phoenix in a must win game played its started 40+.

Jacque Vaughn fucking blows, Horry didn't get shit and then he inserts him in the game during crunch time.... WTf? Again, who the fuck is going to play.....

Barry was on fire, Ginobili didn't do shit, and why in the fuck did Elson get some run?

I have no fucking idea.

There is your game right there.

[Marcus Bryant]

Leaving TD on the floor with 5 and 5 to go is too big of a softball for Javie to pass up.

[ducks]

Duncan had only 21 points and 6 turnovers
HE LOOKED LOST
and spurs almost won

[florige]

I was wondering too why Duncan was on the bench so long. Oh well I know we can win in Phx so I'm not worried at all.

[Cant_Be_Faded]

I haven't seen a meltdown like this since the Laker days.

[Borosai]

The Spurs played like shit down the stretch. All they had to do was play smart, and match the Suns. Hell, play good defense and extend that lead too.

Instead, you have one-on-one basketball, lots of misses, and no defense. They gave this game away. Pathetic.

[Budkin]

We're going to see what this Spurs team is made of come Wednesday!

[davi78239]

I don't know. Usually, they comeback strong after a loss but my gut feeling has been telling me all day that the winner of this game will go on to win the series. I'm not saying that the spurs won't bounce back, but I just don't see it this time. You've just angered a hungry phoenix team that now has the homecourt advantage.

[Pistons < Spurs]

What an absolute bitch move by Horry. He completely lost his mind on that play. No excuse. No defense for his actions.

Unfortunately, his actions do nothing but feed the 'dirty' fire that the Spurs have been burned with the last few days. While his actions don't fairly represent who he is ... nor who the Spurs are, it gives nothing but more ammo the the Suns and others who have been piling up on the Spurs.

But that was not the reason for the loss. You can pint at a number of 'iffy' foul calls or non-calls, but to me that's passing the buck. The Spurs had this game in hand. But they gave it away. They need to take accountability. I don't want to hear no weak shit about officials.

Where was the D in the second half? Everyone was so happy about shots falling that they didn't give it their all on the other side. 64 points in the second half? Are you kidding me? A 16-3 Phoenix run to finish the game?

And wtf was wrong w/ Tim Duncan? He had a number of stupid plays that really cost the team. Why not take the 8 foot Jumper? Instead you lean over towards the hole, allowing a defender to squeeze under you, and put the decision in the officials hand. Dumb. Then there was a couple of travels to boot. Gotta play smarter.

And while I don't typically believe in blaming Pop for all tings bad, I had to question quite a few moves tonight. Why is Finley taking a 19ft fadeaway when you NEED a basket? Why was the offense so predictable in the closing moments? Why was Timmy on the bench? Why did the tempo speed up so much in the last 6 minutes of the 4th?

This should have been a Win. No doubt about it.

But...it's only 2-2. Not that big of a deal. Timmy stayed on the court for awhile after the game. Just had that look on his face. He knows they gave one away. He's already thinking about getting the next one in Phoenix. This series is not over.

I really wish no one would get suspended from the Suns team. They broke the rule, and deserve it, but it still taints the series. But that's out of our hands. The L will decide.

Disappointing night. But there's still 2 more games...maybe 3.

I just still can't believe Horry lost his composure so badly tonight. tsk tsk tsk...

[GrandeDavid]

The Spurs will win this series in six.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

What really fucked us was in the second quarter when we had the lead up 5 with the Suns reeling, and Parker shredding them.

Then Pop calls timeout, puts in Vaughn, kills momentum, and Vaughn turns it over two straight trips and blows a jumper and gives Phoenix all the momentum.

Game over.

[SequSpur]

What really fucked us was in the second quarter when we had the lead up 5 with the Suns reeling, and Parker shredding them.

Then Pop calls timeout, puts in Vaughn, kills momentum, and Vaughn turns it over two straight trips and blows a jumper and gives Phoenix all the momentum.

Game over.

exactly.

[Pistons < Spurs]

The Spurs played like shit down the stretch. All they had to do was play smart, and match the Suns. Hell, play good defense and extend that lead too.

Instead, you have one-on-one basketball, lots of misses, and no defense. They gave this game away. Pathetic.
Exactly. What the hell were they thinking? They were minutes away from being up 3-1....instead they turned it into a huge choke job ... and a circus.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

I haven't seen a meltdown like this since the Laker days.

Yup, I thought we were past these sorts of meltdowns.

Let's face it, everyone thought, with 9 mins to go up 10 with TD coming back in that we'd give it to TD and cruise the rest of the way. No siree, not today!

That was the worst 4th Q Duncan has played in... forever? And as soon as Timmy got in trouble, everyone else froze like little girls (excpet Fin who hit 2 money 3s). That's okay, he'll play an awesome game 5, count on it.

Also, Pop called the same play over and over at three different times during this game, and what happened? Mini-slumps each time. YOU CANNOT CALL THE SAME PLAY MORE THAN TWICE IN A ROW IN THE NBA OR IT WILL BE BROKEN UP! SHEESH, HE SHOULD KNOW THAT BY NOW.

And what happened to our D? We locked them down for most of the game, and just when we need to scramble and put it all out there we get soft. I hope the players watch that 4th quarter and motivate themselves from it, because it was pathetic. This truly does feel like 2000 or 2001 all over again, although this time we do still have a chance to pull it out, and if we don't then fine, we don't deserve to go any further. :devil

Everything is on the line in game 5. Manu'd better hit more than 1 of the wide-open looks he gets, or we're toast. He looked good for a while there, then just kept bricking everything... ugh.

What a fucking nightmare... :pctoss
and I could feel it in the making when all those idiots were saying "we got this" early in the 3rd Q. Then, in the middle of our hot streak some chumps mentioned the series being over. :wtf At the time I wrote that we would inevitably go cold, and they would get hot, then we'd see whether we had the nuts to ride it out, and I was right on, and we didn't have it. But the jinxers didn't help. You NEVER, EVER call it before it's done. :rolleyes

Well, we just lost an easy road to the WCFs, because there's no way they win 3/3 to get there. Now we're in a shit-fight to the death, and i bet we lose Horry for next game... wtf was he thinking??? Worst play Rob has made in his entire career.

See you in a few days. :depressed

[Udrihlooms]

Horry shouldn't have done that.

He just made D'Antoni's life easier. He fired up the Suns on our way to Phoenix. Bonehead Horry! Phoenix will come out firing next game. More importantly, we gave them confidence. The refs will also be scrutinizing our moves all the more after Horry made credence to the claim that we're "dirty"!

And he also put the crowd into a frenzy against us. Stupid, idiot Horry!

Still, I hope we can still take the next game and game 6. I have a very bad feeling if we go Game 7.

[Roxsfan]

Horry shouldn't have done that.

He just made D'Antoni's life easier. He fired up the Suns on our way to Phoenix. Bonehead Horry! Phoenix will come out firing next game. More importantly, we gave them confidence. The refs will also be scrutinizing our moves all the more after Horry made credence to the claim that we're "dirty"!

And he also put the crowd into a frenzy against us. Stupid, idiot Horry!

Still, I hope we can still take the next game and game 6. I have a very bad feeling if we go Game 7.

what do you expect from a former rocket :rolleyes :p:

[Udrihlooms]

what do you expect from a former rocket :rolleyes :p:


Yes, Horry, a former Rocket made us look like the Mavs as we choked away a pivotal game 4.

That 4th quarter was a giant choke job, and if we lose this series, we will always look at that quarter as the turning point of this season.

[Jdspur20]

Yeah, um, Pop should've never taken Duncan out with 5 and change in the 4th. He didso, simply because Stoudamire was taken out with 5 as well.

The smart money would've been to keep Duncan in and build on the lead.

Instead, they let the Suns creep back and then when Pop answered Amare with Duncan late in the game, Stoudamire used Duncan, who was afraid of committing his fourth foul.

I know Pop likes Finley, but he took too many critical shots late.

The Spurs choked and played into the Suns hands in the 4th quarter, surrendering to a fat pace that they could not keep up with.

So, once again, San Antonio does not make it easy on themselves.

I felt that the Spurs would lose this game, but not in this kind of fashion.

This was disheartening.

We'll see if their swagger allows them to come back or if they are all done.

Now they must win in Phoenix.

Here we go.

P.S.

That is why Nash is awesome and Bell is my kind of player. They are difference makers.









:cooldevil


if these guys can come back from .4 and win the title, nothing can stop them from getting back up.we've been in a 2-2 situation before.

[mikekim]

This game was a shame to lose (obvious, I know)...

Seriously, we missed so many chances to break the game open though. Wide open threes by manu and brent (and maybe finley?) that would've pushed the lead up to 13 if just one of them went down and more if more than one went down...

We broke away but we were never able to get into "run-away with the game" level...and we were on the brink of doing so. I'm tellin' you, one of those 3's goes in, or manu's missed scoop in the lane around that time a little later, and I seriously think we're talking about a great spurs win and 2005 deja vu moments...

I want to give the suns all the credit in the world (w/ none of the animosity that most all of us spurs fans feel to varying levels) for never folding and taking the game from us. It will be an intense series and I think the spurs will be pushed even closer to the brink after a suns win in game 5 (yes, I think they pull it out...granting that no suspensions occur for them of course, which is iffy I guess). But I think in this case, unlike 04 vs. the lakers, Spurs will have more than enough fight left in them to pull out a very memorable series.

(then Utah will pound us and tenderize us for Detroit in the finals......but that's looking too far ahead....forget all this and just read the above...)

[Budkin]

This seriously reminded me of Games 1 and 5 of the 2003 WCFs.

[lrrr]

Spurs didn't want this game bad enough. Rebounding differential of -10, against PHX! Defense wasn't sharp in the second quarter.

They weren't ready mentally for this game. They will be next time. And they'll win too. The Spurs always seem to relax after taking a lead in a series. They end up winning most of them, but it blows for the fans!

[Budkin]

Man I thought we played sharp as a razor for 3 quarters... the 4th was simply a debacle...

[Ghost Writer]

Pop lost the chess match.

I hate when he plays "countermove."

He should've played to win...that means ya keep Duncan in with the 5 fouls and the lead.

Not take him out and dare the Suns to catch up.

Oh, and guess what?

The Spurs still need a quality backup PG since, um, Terry Porter?

[milkyway21]

Pops game plan sucked in the last minutes of the game. What was he thinking?

Duncan must not sit too long on the bench. I don't know but Detroit losing consecutive games to the Bulls might happen to us too if we're not ready.

Spurs outrebounded by the Suns in the next game must not happen again.

[T Park]

The Spurs still need a quality backup PG since, um, Terry Porter?

I was gonna say Negele Knight.....