Defense wins championships

[ElNono]

and lose them too...

I'm tired of reading about the Manu's bashing, the Pop getting outcoached, and the it was a foul/no foul in the last play...

They're all excuses.

We gave them 20+ points in second-chance/turnovers opportunities. If we had hustled on defense and only given them half of that, we win comfortably, this would be best of 3 series and all this bitching would be non-existent.

Game 2 was the only game where we got outplayed. We were right into all the other ones.
We need to nut up on D, and play hard every game remaining.
And if we come up short, is going to be what we didn't do on defense, not all the other excuses I hear.

[Killakobe81]

Amen ...

[FromWayDowntown]

I'd argue that, more than defense, it's stops that win championships and last night, the Spurs got relatively few stops. You don't get a stop if you don't get a rebound. That was, I think, the most disappointing thing about Game 4. The Spurs did a good job contesting shots and forcing bad shots -- they defended shooters well, I suppose -- but they didn't rebound the ball worth a damn. Defense includes rebounding.

[Say-Townbball]

yup. We got out hustled last night...I'm sick of all the whining and excuses myself....

all the factors that are "excuses" could've meant nothing if the Spurs played with a sense of urgency...

This isn't the first or second game of the first round of the playoffs....so I dunno why they played that way.

With that said, we can have hope while we still have a chance.

Go Spurs Go

[Ghazi]

Offense wins championships too. th Spurs offns, just isn't very good this year.

not countitng them out yt though

[SenorSpur]

No matter how good you defend, if you continue giving the opposition 2nd chance opportunities, you're not going to win.

[brettn]

Watching the Lakers grab offensive rebound after offensive rebound drove me fucking insane last night. Just a complete lack of effort on the boards.

[1Parker1]

I'd argue that, more than defense, it's stops that win championships and last night, the Spurs got relatively few stops. You don't get a stop if you don't get a rebound. That was, I think, the most disappointing thing about Game 4. The Spurs did a good job contesting shots and forcing bad shots -- they defended shooters well, I suppose -- but they didn't rebound the ball worth a damn. Defense includes rebounding.

Finley himself in the 7 minutes he played gave up about 3 or 4 offensive rebounds. Oberto was terrible with the boards as well.

What's more telling is that in the last couple of minutes, all of a sudden the Spurs played with the desperation and urgency I thought they would have all game long. That's why they got all those loose balls and quick shots to get it within 2. Lakers played that way all game long.

[Ghazi]

effort? or variance?

[ElNono]

I'd argue that, more than defense, it's stops that win championships and last night, the Spurs got relatively few stops. You don't get a stop if you don't get a rebound. That was, I think, the most disappointing thing about Game 4. The Spurs did a good job contesting shots and forcing bad shots -- they defended shooters well, I suppose -- but they didn't rebound the ball worth a damn. Defense includes rebounding.

The Lakers offensive rebounding did us in. And it wasn't their bigs I'm talking about. I'm talking about Kobe, Farmar, Radmanovic, Vujabitch, Walton, etc snagging offensive rebounds. For stretches in these playoffs (not just this series) I feel TD is the only one cleaning up the glass. It's like the other guys just expect him to do it or something.
Oh well, I'm sure that will be a point of emphasis for the next game.