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double post.
if pop is going to bench hill for his pics on the internet, what's he going to do about this one of himself:Quote:
Originally Posted by temujin
http://www.ripoffreport.com/images/r...melessflip.jpg
Well I just got back from San Antonio about 2 hours ago. It was my 1st playoff game since Game 1 of the 03' series against Phoenix (where Marbury hit that ridiculous prayer 3pointer to win the game.)
A couple of observations from Game 1:
1. TD was playing at Playoff TD level.
2. Fin was absolutely getting killed by Howard, which led to Pop benching him...and Pop playing too much of Ime and Bowen together. If Pop is going to play Ime or Bruce out there...play ONE of them only with either Mason or Fin. The Spurs need a good mix of O and D.
3. Bonner was absolutely just horrible tonight. More Thomas and Gooden, less Bonner PLEASE.
4. TP was OK, that's it...just OK. We need him to be the superstar who's carried this team all year.
5. Bruce...still has it. Enough said.
6. Hill needs to get some burn seriously. He could get some time on Barea or even Terry. He is that good defensively I think.
7. This game was not lost by letting Dirk or Terry score on us like crazy. It was won by little annoying points by Barea, Bass, and Dampier. If you limit those 3 assholes the Spurs will take this series.
8. TP's defense on Barea in the 4th was not so great. Barea was able to get into the lane whenever he wanted and was shooting jumpers over TP as he watched...maybe he was tired I don't know....
9. Spurs need at least SPOT points here and there from a couple of role players...whether it be Kurt, Ime, Bonner..whoever. 4-8 points a game from each will go A LONG WAY.
10. How in the hell does Mason or Ime get stuck on Dirk? Seriously...those 2 have absolutely no chance against him...and I saw it a couple of times in Game 1. NO WAY should we see either of those 2 on him at all. Bruce needs to get more time on Dirk, or TD, Gooden, hell give Oberto a chance too.
6 games to go. Anything is possible.
Basketball is a team sport.Quote:
Originally Posted by NewJerSpur
A game of two teams is like a war.
You need an army to go to war.
To get a team (army) you need disciplined individuals.
That's the Spurs philosophy and it's no coincidental that Pop comes out of the Army.
In the Army you have rules that are rigid.
Actually, that's what I like about the Spurs organization.
We just noticed that from the moment Hill was exposed (literally), the attitude of Pop changed. We don't know whether there is anything else.
At any rate, rigidity here borders stupidity.
Hill is obviously a gem, pulled out of nowhere.
Spurs are already backed against a wall.
They need Hill.
Period.
If Popovich needs to make the "rules" point any further, he will loose the series, and most likely will loose Hill.
Rigid things, when they get too stiff tend to break down.
:toastQuote:
Originally Posted by mingus
Where's that bottle of red of his winery?
That was the most depressing aspect of the game. Neither Nowitzki nor Terry did anything spectacular, still the Mavs were tearing us a new one. Duncan's performance was the bright spot in a nightmare of a game. If Tim can continue playing at that level, we are far from done in this series.Quote:
Originally Posted by timvp
Like you said, though, gotta get Game 2.
I only hope there's an honest debate of ideas between the coaches as to how to react for game 2. It seems like Pop has been surrounded by a bunch of yes men, or at least coaches that aren't capable of forcing Pop to see new perspectives. Hopefully, I'm wrong.
This makes me miss PJ even more.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Truth #6
I know I'll probably get flamed here by those that think our young players are scrubs but this has been the main reason for my frustrations over Pop's decisions this year.
It's because of match ups with a team like the Mavs that I felt Pop should have tried to groom in the youth in more. There is no doubt Hill and Malic would have been very helpfull here had they been groomed into the team.
This is all "coulda shoulda, woulda" though and we don't have this as an option. So its kind of moot at this point but it does hurt thinking about it.
Now if only we had Pops! j/k! =P
Pop already announced that these playoffs aren't for Hill. I doubt he will eat this words, or sit Bonner.
Even in those few 4th qtrs when Spurs played some defense this season, they didn't play defense for 3 qtrs. "Its' Hard Work"
I doubt the Spurs can simply turn on defense now. Team defense clicks as much as team offense. Both take time to click. Trying to get defense clicking in the playoffs is too late.
well, few thoughts after seeing the game:
- Tim had a good game but he wasn't dominant. don't know how his knees are but he was able to bring a solid game without being the dominant force he can be though. the most frustrating part is that he missed at least 3 easy layups and 1 wide open mid range jumper.
-Tony had a good game (24-8) but he wasn't the superstar the spurs need him to be. He missed some easy layups to begin the game too.
reading some post, i thought he was destroyed by barea. that's simply false and absurd to say so. iirc barea scored only three of his six basket on tony, that's hardly getting destroyed. on defense, he had some favorable whistles to draw charge.
that being said, that would be stupid too to deny he brought some good things from the bench for the mavs and he proved again he isn't afraid to play against tony.
i don't think either that Tony can defend and carry the load on offense for 42 minutes. i prefer him playing 35 and be fresh for the 4th. he's not Wade.
- for Tim and Tony, the same conclusion could be done: good game but not enough.
-Bonner seems to be the main cause of the loss. he's not. he played only 18 minutes. he was basically useless on offense with 1 (missed) shot but he defended dirk very decently. the worst part is his awful rebounding.
but Bonner main problem seemed to be the confidence. if it seems clear that bonner should not see more than 20 mpg, i still think he could drain some 3 with keeping doing a decent job on dirk. that would be awesome. anyone who expect more from Bonner, as Pop is doing, is a fool.
- for the mavs i believe the main problem they gave us was the Dampier/Bass duo. we're talking of a 14 ppg/55 % duo in RS. in game 1, they were a combined 24 points-80 % duo. too much and unexpected.
if the spurs could have a 24 points-80% game from KT and Bowen, who are too two non usual scorers, we would be in good position too.
- oh, and last thought, not really a scoop: we miss manu.
:flag:
I didn't drink enough. :pctoss
I wouldn't have such a problem with Bonner getting abused by Dirk if he provided something on the other end to help negate his defense.
Finley did his best with Howard but he's just too good to slow down. But Finley at least grabbed some rebounds and provided offense.
Bonner wouldn't even have to provide offense if he attacked the glass.
Oberto wouldn't have any better luck guarding Dirk but you can damn sure bet he'd fight with Damp for the boards.
Losing Game 1: Inside the Numbers
April 20, 2009 11:19 PM
TrueHoop reader Trent has been doing some research:
After hearing all weekend about the importance of Game 1 because the winner of Game 1 goes on to win the series 78.8% of the time, I decided to look further into that stat this morning before I realized that John Hollinger had written about this exact same thing.
As he didn't go into much detail about his data, here are some things I found interesting after looking at my own numbers (which go back to 1971 and only include best-of-7 series):
•Teams with home court advantage that have lost Game 1 have gone on to win the series 44.3% of the time (significantly better than the 21% that most people assume).
•Teams with home court advantage that have lost Game 1 but won Game 2 have gone on to win the series 53.2% of the time, but teams with home court advantage that won Game 1 and lost Game 2 went on to win the series 65.2% of the time (possibly because of the difficulty of winning back-to-back games against the same opponent).
•Since 2003 (the first year in which best-of-7 was played in the first round), the Spurs have had a knack for losing Game 1 of the opening round. Or more specifically, they have a knack for winning championships after losing Game 1 of the first round, having lost in 2003 to Phoenix and in both 2005 and 2007 to Denver.
http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/...e-Numbers.html