Originally Posted by
ambchang
Man, was that a dominant defensive team or what? The Knicks offense was pretty much crap, with only Houston and Sprewell able to create their own shots, and Sprewell pretty inefficient at that.
KNICKS
Larry Johnson should have a piece of the Finals MVP award. Before Kenyon Martin, there was Larry Johnson; Duncan shut him down so badly that I felt bad for him. He couldn't do ANYTHING inside, and his shot was just off outside. Used to be a dominant player, but lost almost all of it due to his bad back, then his sprained knee. On defense, he just got embarrassed by Duncan over and over and over.
Dudley was pretty much the only person who can defend Robinson or Duncan with some degree of success, but his offense was ridiculously bad, that the Spurs were putting Mario Elie on him, or sometimes just totally ignoring him.
Camby was an active body around the court that could fight for rebounds against the twin towers, but he got outmuscled so badly, that his defense on either was useless most of the time.
The tandem of Charlie Ward and Chris Childs was goodd, even great defensively, but pukingly bad offensively. Neither guys can finish, and they were not great with running an offense either.
Kurt Thomas was the only guy who came out to play. He had a couple of good games early on, but once the twin towers figured him out, he was nowhere close to as effective. But he set great screens, nailed the mid-range jumpers consistently, was tough on the glass, and played rugged defense. I am not sure why Van Gundy didn't start Thomas over Johnson.
Sprewell gambles a lot on defense, but was quick when his man got the ball. His stop and pop was amazing. Most people won't even attempt those shots, but he was nailing them. Fun player to watch.
Houston got underrated a lot, he can create for himself and others, he competed night in a night out. He is worth nowhere close to a $100+ million contract, especially not 10 years ago, but the Spurs had great difficulty containing him. He can drive, shoot the 3, and was deadly from mid-range. Sean Elliott deserved a lot of credit for putting the clamps on him and doing a very effective job.
Van Gundy was one stubborn man. His rotations and game plan changed little over the course of the series despite being pummelled by the Spurs over and over and over. On the other hand, the talent level was so wide apart, there really wasn't anything he could have done to win the series. The Knicks played with a lot of heart (especially the elimination game), was well prepared defensively, and Van Gundy deserved a lot of the credit.
Spurs
Sean Elliott didn't play that well offensively, but he was fantastic on defense. He deserved a lot of credit for slowing down Sprewell without sending him to the line for easy points. He didn't nail his shots that well, but he was being aggressive, taking them when available.
Mario Elie was like a ball of fire! He played inspired. His defense was tough and physical, and his offense of timely. It seems like every time the Spurs needed a momentum changing basket, Elie nailed it.
Avery Johnson was quick as a bolt of lightning. He really wasn't that much slower than Parker, but he couldn't hit an outside shot to save his life (well ... except the championship winning shot). Since Ward and Childs was just horrendous on offense, I am not sure if it was Avery Johnson playing that good of a defense.
Jaren Jackson was absolutely uselss when his outside shots were not falling. His ball handling was even worse than a 2003 Bowen, but at least Bowen had the sense of getting rid of the shot when he didn't have an outside shot. His defense was slow footed. But when his shots were falling, there was nothing that could stop him.
Only the Mavs could have let Steve Kerr destroy them (2003). You can see Childs and Ward's eyes light up when they see Kerr.
Malik Rose was all energy. He was wreckless out there, providing a totally different dimension to the Spurs team. He made tonnes of mistakes, and when he in for Robinson, the Spurs offense and defense suffered greatly. But then again, totally unfair to compare any player to the great 50.
Robinson lost most of his quickness during his prime years, but he was still the quickest guy on the floor outside of Sprewell and Johnson. That man was really amazing. However, the one thing that he could not do that Duncan could, and this really is what I felt didn't allow Robinson perform poorly in some of the playoffs in the past, was that he couldn't finish as well when he was bumped. These were normally fouls in the regular season, but the playoffs is another story. Robinson would take multiple hits to his arms and body before missing the shot. His defense was amazing. Granted Knicks didn't exactly had a fearsome frontline, but it seemed like Robinson was defending 2/3s of the court sometimes, his rotations were crisps and quick, just shutting down the whole lane area.
Duncan was so much quicker back then, you can even say that he was athletic. His decisions with the ball improved as years went on, but his offensive repetoire was absolutely unmatched back then. He can nail the 20 foot jumper, he can drive, he has an assortment of post moves, and he read his defenders very well. On defense, he was quick and rotates fantastically. I still say Robinson was the better defender, but Duncan wasn't really that far off.
Pop was patient and believed in his system. He would ride out scoring droughts, and quickly corrected mistakes on defense.
After watching these games again, it seems like the 99 Spurs were the best of the 4 championship teams
