Dipship31
05-19-2007, 04:45 PM
While the casual NBA crowd is hating on this series, the people who appreciate quality basketball could really see something special. Pop and Sloan matching wits for what hopefully should be at least 6 games. Awesome matchups on paper with Boozer/Duncan, Ginobili/AK, and Deron/TP. Solid role players as well on both squads with Finley, Millsap, Oberto, Harpring, Barry, etc. Some keys to each team's potential success in this series:
Utah's keys:
-AK needs to be the player he was last series. I don't expect the offensive output he was able to lay on GS, but we could really use his handful of blocks a game that hopefully lead to some transition points. Easy points are gonna be near impossible for us to get this series, but our best bet at them is with AK making a play on the D side.
-Solid bench production. Many times throughout the year the starters have looked flat out of the gate and the bench being led by Harpring and Millsap have completely changed the game's momentum when they come in. There's gonna be multiple games this series where we come out way flat and we'll need that spark from the bench.
-Memo needs to stretch the defense. Memo had really good games against you guys this year and we'll need him again. If he can catch some fire from outside we should have some lanes to get inside and most likely dish when Duncan commits.
Spurs' keys:
-TP is the deciding factor IMO this series. Deron has struggled against these speedy PG's and there might be no one better in using their speed at the position than TP. If he can penetrate into the lane consistently and score or dish to open players he and the rest of the Spurs should have tremendous success.
-Make the open shots because well, they'll be plenty of them. That's our gameplan. We'll try to make you beat us by hitting long 2's or 3's. Neither team wants to get into a jump shooting contest, but the option will be there for you guys. It sure worked for us against the Warriors, but they were just massive chuckers and you guys are just better shooters anyway.
-Rebound the ball. Part of why we have so much success is a lot of 2nd chance opportunities and we did lead the league in rebound discrepancy. Keep us off the offensive glass and keep the total rebound numbers very close and we will be in trouble.
Should be an awesome series that should be execution at it's finest. We gotta steal one of the two games to have a chance I think which will be quite difficult to do since we haven't won there in almost a decade. Our best bet will be Game 1 hoping for some kind of SA fatigue, but I'm not banking on that at all. In fact, our rest could really do us some harm because we're a young team and we really didn't need the rest anyway. I think we play better staying in rhythm and was evident in Game 1 against GS, we had less than 48 hours to rest and we looked sharp as hell. Coming out flat does scare me, but we just need to play our game and hope for the best.
Utah's keys:
-AK needs to be the player he was last series. I don't expect the offensive output he was able to lay on GS, but we could really use his handful of blocks a game that hopefully lead to some transition points. Easy points are gonna be near impossible for us to get this series, but our best bet at them is with AK making a play on the D side.
-Solid bench production. Many times throughout the year the starters have looked flat out of the gate and the bench being led by Harpring and Millsap have completely changed the game's momentum when they come in. There's gonna be multiple games this series where we come out way flat and we'll need that spark from the bench.
-Memo needs to stretch the defense. Memo had really good games against you guys this year and we'll need him again. If he can catch some fire from outside we should have some lanes to get inside and most likely dish when Duncan commits.
Spurs' keys:
-TP is the deciding factor IMO this series. Deron has struggled against these speedy PG's and there might be no one better in using their speed at the position than TP. If he can penetrate into the lane consistently and score or dish to open players he and the rest of the Spurs should have tremendous success.
-Make the open shots because well, they'll be plenty of them. That's our gameplan. We'll try to make you beat us by hitting long 2's or 3's. Neither team wants to get into a jump shooting contest, but the option will be there for you guys. It sure worked for us against the Warriors, but they were just massive chuckers and you guys are just better shooters anyway.
-Rebound the ball. Part of why we have so much success is a lot of 2nd chance opportunities and we did lead the league in rebound discrepancy. Keep us off the offensive glass and keep the total rebound numbers very close and we will be in trouble.
Should be an awesome series that should be execution at it's finest. We gotta steal one of the two games to have a chance I think which will be quite difficult to do since we haven't won there in almost a decade. Our best bet will be Game 1 hoping for some kind of SA fatigue, but I'm not banking on that at all. In fact, our rest could really do us some harm because we're a young team and we really didn't need the rest anyway. I think we play better staying in rhythm and was evident in Game 1 against GS, we had less than 48 hours to rest and we looked sharp as hell. Coming out flat does scare me, but we just need to play our game and hope for the best.