duncan228
06-11-2007, 04:37 PM
Didn't see it posted. Got some good stuff.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/6910788?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=73
Time to look at Spurs' legacy?
Mike Kahn
FOXSports.com
We are left with a couple of major questions and a handful of minor ones to offer the few who watched the Spurs pound the Cavaliers 103-92 in Game 2 instead of the Sopranos finale.
Are the Spurs this good? Or are the Cavs so bad any number of Western Conference teams would run roughshod over them?
The answer is somewhere in between; and certainly isn't enough to capture the imagination of the general public, but is very relevant to the NBA nation.
Unless something unusual happens in the rest of the series, they're finished playing in San Antonio. The Spurs figure to win at least two of the three in Cleveland this week for their fourth title in nine years and third in five. The latter is the more impressive part and will force us to start looking at the trio of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker historically.
Parker continued his track on the Finals Most Valuable Player award with 30 points Sunday, following his 27 points and 7 assists in the 85-76 Game 1 win. The score of neither game really reflects how much Parker dominated with his quickness with the ball and getting his hands on so many others.
But that's only because Duncan, already a three-time MVP winner in the Finals and now widely considered the best power forward in NBA history (if not quite one of the top five big men), continued his quiet dominance with 23 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists in Game 2. As always, he does what is necessary to win in his inimitably smooth and unspectacular manner at both ends of the floor.
The wild card, however, is Ginobili, who finished Sunday's game with 25 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists while squelching the Cavs' furious rally with a 4-point play and only 2:24 left in the game. While Parker's game has grown every year since he began and Duncan is somewhere in between death and taxes for every opponent, Ginobili is the one who makes them special. The Argentinean's wiry strength at 210 pounds on his 6-6 frame is magnified by his inalterable energy, radar for the ball at both ends of the floor, and amazing shooting ability from any angle. Many believe he should have been the Finals MVP in 2005 after the Spurs beat the Pistons, but he didn't earn the media votes because of the way commissioner David Stern had been gloating over the internationalism of the Spurs.
But that's just a minor detail in this story. What is far more relevant to the Spurs' growth is the way taskmaster coach Gregg Popovich incorporated both Ginobili and Parker to fit a system that is now far more explosive offensively and brilliant defensively. But just as Parker has continuously gained a steadiness of hand, Ginobili has bounced in and out of the starting lineup — this year finishing the second half of the season as sixth man.
"I'm fortunate because Manu is all about team and doesn't moan and groan about coming off the bench," Popovich said. "With the arrival of Tony (2001) and Manu (2002), the biggest change was for me probably; I had to let up control. Where most of us like to be in control, or at least think we're pulling the strings for the most part, I learned quickly that they had more to offer by being in random situations than I did by trying to control things with things I concocted on paper that in reality didn't do a whole lot but looked good on paper. So they taught me to release the reins a bit, and their play, their random play and their aggressiveness, their passion on the court meant an awful lot. So that was really the change.
"You know, it quickens the pace, it adds more creativity on the court, and people enjoy playing with them and people enjoy watching them. So that probably is what changed the most."
Toss in the brilliant job Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford have done filling in the blanks with defensive wizard Bruce Bowen, the astounding all-around contributions of Robert Horry (on track for his seventh title ring after 5 points, 9 rebounds, 5 blocks and 4 assists in Game 2), plus guys like Michael Finley, Brent Barry and Jacque Vaughn, along with various big men, and you certainly have the best franchise of this century.
As for the Cavs, well, they earned their spot in the Finals on a fortunate draw of the injury-riddled Washington Wizards, an aging and injury-depleted New Jersey Nets team, and a version of the Detroit Pistons that they proved is finished. But when you consider it wasn't until the fourth quarter Sunday that young superstar LeBron James surpassed his turnover total for the series with field goals, something isn't right.
James not only has limited quality help from his teammates, but from the coaching staff. Good defense beats good offense, but the opposite is also true, and the Cavs have none of that. They never get him the ball on the move out of a halfcourt set unless somebody on the defense falls down. They don't utilize the high-post, low-post shooting and passing skills of aging 7-3 Zydrunas Ilgauskas to open up the game. And enough of this stubbornness from Mike Brown about starting Larry Hughes at point guard; his foot has rendered him useless (2 points, 2 assists and 5 rebounds in 44 minutes of the two games combined) — let rookie Daniel Gibson play.
In other words, this is a mess and everyone can only hope that the energy of going to title-starved Cleveland and its delirious fans can alter what appears to be the inevitable course of this series.
Then again, you have to wonder what would have happened had the Spurs stumbled in the bizarre series with the Phoenix Suns, and either the Suns or the Jazz were playing the Cavs right now. Or what if the Mavericks — the 67-win team that had the No. 1 seed — hadn't collapsed to the Warriors in the first round? And just for good measure, consider all the tools the Nuggets brought to the table.
That's not to say the Cavs couldn't beat any of those, but the pronounced difference between the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference continues to grow — particularly with the two superstars of this coming draft (Greg Oden and Kevin Durant) headed to Portland and Seattle.
OK, all of that is a given. Narrowing it down to Game 3 Tuesday at "The Q", we are left with one big question:
Did the Cavs' 30-14 run in the fourth quarter help them or the Spurs more in preparation for Tuesday night?
I'll stick with the Spurs. It allows Popovich to focus on the fourth quarter in game preparation as opposed to the Spurs giggling their way through the film session in a setup to get smacked after two such easy wins.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/6910788?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=73
Time to look at Spurs' legacy?
Mike Kahn
FOXSports.com
We are left with a couple of major questions and a handful of minor ones to offer the few who watched the Spurs pound the Cavaliers 103-92 in Game 2 instead of the Sopranos finale.
Are the Spurs this good? Or are the Cavs so bad any number of Western Conference teams would run roughshod over them?
The answer is somewhere in between; and certainly isn't enough to capture the imagination of the general public, but is very relevant to the NBA nation.
Unless something unusual happens in the rest of the series, they're finished playing in San Antonio. The Spurs figure to win at least two of the three in Cleveland this week for their fourth title in nine years and third in five. The latter is the more impressive part and will force us to start looking at the trio of Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker historically.
Parker continued his track on the Finals Most Valuable Player award with 30 points Sunday, following his 27 points and 7 assists in the 85-76 Game 1 win. The score of neither game really reflects how much Parker dominated with his quickness with the ball and getting his hands on so many others.
But that's only because Duncan, already a three-time MVP winner in the Finals and now widely considered the best power forward in NBA history (if not quite one of the top five big men), continued his quiet dominance with 23 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists in Game 2. As always, he does what is necessary to win in his inimitably smooth and unspectacular manner at both ends of the floor.
The wild card, however, is Ginobili, who finished Sunday's game with 25 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists while squelching the Cavs' furious rally with a 4-point play and only 2:24 left in the game. While Parker's game has grown every year since he began and Duncan is somewhere in between death and taxes for every opponent, Ginobili is the one who makes them special. The Argentinean's wiry strength at 210 pounds on his 6-6 frame is magnified by his inalterable energy, radar for the ball at both ends of the floor, and amazing shooting ability from any angle. Many believe he should have been the Finals MVP in 2005 after the Spurs beat the Pistons, but he didn't earn the media votes because of the way commissioner David Stern had been gloating over the internationalism of the Spurs.
But that's just a minor detail in this story. What is far more relevant to the Spurs' growth is the way taskmaster coach Gregg Popovich incorporated both Ginobili and Parker to fit a system that is now far more explosive offensively and brilliant defensively. But just as Parker has continuously gained a steadiness of hand, Ginobili has bounced in and out of the starting lineup — this year finishing the second half of the season as sixth man.
"I'm fortunate because Manu is all about team and doesn't moan and groan about coming off the bench," Popovich said. "With the arrival of Tony (2001) and Manu (2002), the biggest change was for me probably; I had to let up control. Where most of us like to be in control, or at least think we're pulling the strings for the most part, I learned quickly that they had more to offer by being in random situations than I did by trying to control things with things I concocted on paper that in reality didn't do a whole lot but looked good on paper. So they taught me to release the reins a bit, and their play, their random play and their aggressiveness, their passion on the court meant an awful lot. So that was really the change.
"You know, it quickens the pace, it adds more creativity on the court, and people enjoy playing with them and people enjoy watching them. So that probably is what changed the most."
Toss in the brilliant job Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford have done filling in the blanks with defensive wizard Bruce Bowen, the astounding all-around contributions of Robert Horry (on track for his seventh title ring after 5 points, 9 rebounds, 5 blocks and 4 assists in Game 2), plus guys like Michael Finley, Brent Barry and Jacque Vaughn, along with various big men, and you certainly have the best franchise of this century.
As for the Cavs, well, they earned their spot in the Finals on a fortunate draw of the injury-riddled Washington Wizards, an aging and injury-depleted New Jersey Nets team, and a version of the Detroit Pistons that they proved is finished. But when you consider it wasn't until the fourth quarter Sunday that young superstar LeBron James surpassed his turnover total for the series with field goals, something isn't right.
James not only has limited quality help from his teammates, but from the coaching staff. Good defense beats good offense, but the opposite is also true, and the Cavs have none of that. They never get him the ball on the move out of a halfcourt set unless somebody on the defense falls down. They don't utilize the high-post, low-post shooting and passing skills of aging 7-3 Zydrunas Ilgauskas to open up the game. And enough of this stubbornness from Mike Brown about starting Larry Hughes at point guard; his foot has rendered him useless (2 points, 2 assists and 5 rebounds in 44 minutes of the two games combined) — let rookie Daniel Gibson play.
In other words, this is a mess and everyone can only hope that the energy of going to title-starved Cleveland and its delirious fans can alter what appears to be the inevitable course of this series.
Then again, you have to wonder what would have happened had the Spurs stumbled in the bizarre series with the Phoenix Suns, and either the Suns or the Jazz were playing the Cavs right now. Or what if the Mavericks — the 67-win team that had the No. 1 seed — hadn't collapsed to the Warriors in the first round? And just for good measure, consider all the tools the Nuggets brought to the table.
That's not to say the Cavs couldn't beat any of those, but the pronounced difference between the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference continues to grow — particularly with the two superstars of this coming draft (Greg Oden and Kevin Durant) headed to Portland and Seattle.
OK, all of that is a given. Narrowing it down to Game 3 Tuesday at "The Q", we are left with one big question:
Did the Cavs' 30-14 run in the fourth quarter help them or the Spurs more in preparation for Tuesday night?
I'll stick with the Spurs. It allows Popovich to focus on the fourth quarter in game preparation as opposed to the Spurs giggling their way through the film session in a setup to get smacked after two such easy wins.