The Detroit Pistons are the team to beat

You have some interesting points, but ...

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Originally Posted by timvp

2) Prince will make life tough for Manu. Manu hasn't really faced a good defender in the playoffs. Prince is a top three perimeter defender. He's long and will be able to bother Manu's shots.

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It takes practically an entire team to defend against Manu.

[QUOTE=timvp]
3) Rasheed Wallace and Ben Wallace are two of the better players in the league in regards to guarding Tim Duncan. Combined, they are no doubt the toughest matchup for TD. Rasheed is perhaps the best defender on Duncan, going back to his Portland days. Ben Wallace will provide great help side defense.

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Originally Posted by timvp

5) The Pistons are great at taking away three-point shooters. Thus, Horry and Barry will have limited impacts.

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Impede Horry and Barry enough to really affect the outcome? Better not leave Parker, Manu, Nazr or Tim to do it. Also, from what I can tell Horry has a higher basketball IQ than than anyone on the Pistons. He'll be able to sting them good.

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Originally Posted by timvp

6) Offensively, the Pistons have some mismatches. Bowen will no doubt be on Hamilton, leaving Manu on Prince. That matchup is a nightmare for the Spurs.

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The Spurs are smarter on offense. I see too many bad offensive decisions made by detriot; especially late in close games.

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Originally Posted by timvp

7) Pop's man-love for Larry Brown might lead him to not take the right approach to the series. He might be too worried about offended his best friend instead of just concentrating on beating him.

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Plain sillyness if you ask me.

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Originally Posted by timvp

All in all, Spurs fans need to settle down...

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Yes, please, tell me how to live.

I concur with timvp and will add that Miami concerns me as well. Both teams feature very good offensive guards coupled with very physical frontlines. Detroit is definitely the better defensive unit, though Miami isn't too bad themselves. The Spurs are vulnerable to teams with such a combo of backcourt offense and muscle up front. Detroit can execute Seattle's gameplan used in the last series to perfection.

It's one thing to produce a ton of offense when you're facing Phoenix and another when you are facing a top defensive unit and one with a ton of experience.

I don't know why some Spurs fans seem so surprised by this view. The Lakers took four straight from them last season in the 2nd round doing the same basic thing...play physical up front, clog the lane, brush off the Slovenian, rotate the ball out to the shooters, and run screen rolls for a guard and take a bunch of pull up Js off penetration.

Now's not the time to get overconfident Spurs fans. As easy as the WCF seems so far, should the Spurs indeed move on to the next level some of you are going to be in for a rude awakening.

This concludes my last ever post on the internets under any name.

Spurs will beat either Maimi or Detroit.
they are better offensively and just as good defensively.

I would put Bruce on Rip, he can run all over the court with him without getting tired.

Put TD on Sheed, he can go out to guard him on the perimeter like he did against Q. Or you can put Nazr on him, because Sheed really does not drive.

Put Nazr on Ben Wallace, he can stay in the paint and help out on anyone penetrating while TD is away from the basket. Or TD can guard him as well, either way is fine.

Put Manu on Prince.

Put TP on Billups.

This defense would pretty much shut down Detroit's offense and Detroit would have problems getting to 90 pts.

For statistic nuts PER
2 - Duncan - 27.64
14 – Ginobili – 22.80
30 – Billups – 19.45
39 – Parker – 18.40
43 – Ben Wallace – 17.82
48 – McDyess - 17.56
64 – Mohammed – 16.81
68 - Rasheed Wallace – 16.72
69 – Prince – 16.54
72 – Hamilton – 16.34
99 – Horry – 15.20
116 – Udrih – 14.60
121 – Barry – 14.32
151 – Nesterovic – 12.56
157 – Arroyo – 11.69
187 – Hunter – 9.80
188 – Bowen – 9.76

http://www.knickerblogger.net/stats/jh_ALL_PER.htm

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Originally Posted by picnroll

For statistic nuts PER
2 - Duncan - 27.64
14 – Ginobili – 22.80
30 – Billups – 19.45
39 – Parker – 18.40
43 – Ben Wallace – 17.82
48 – McDyess - 17.56
64 – Mohammed – 16.81
68 - Rasheed Wallace – 16.72
69 – Prince – 16.54
72 – Hamilton – 16.34
99 – Horry – 15.20
116 – Udrih – 14.60
121 – Barry – 14.32
151 – Nesterovic – 12.56
157 – Arroyo – 11.69
187 – Hunter – 9.80
188 – Bowen – 9.76

http://www.knickerblogger.net/stats/jh_ALL_PER.htm

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Check the playoff ones as well. There is a playoff PER page for every team.

Whoever is playing the best basketball is the team to beat...that would be the Spurs. Yes, it's true the Spurs have not made it past Phoenix yet, but you seem to have given the Detroit-Miami series to the Pistons, since you say they are right around the corner...Pistons might not be around the corner when we get there. The Spurs will not be intimidated by Detroit just because they are defending champs...the Spurs have been there TOO.

Recognize That

The logical question then to ask TIMVP I would think.


How would YOU beat the Pistons???


I honestly havent watched them, but the ay it sounds they practically dont have a chance.

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Originally Posted by myhc

oh come on, let's just go by who they played last year, not what if so and so played. even without malone, you'd still expect a team led by Shaq and Kobe to at least take a series past 5 games and they couldn't do it. 1 player would not have been the difference. give the pistons a little more credit than that. i guess it is true that if you don't have 1 certifiable superstar on your team and just a bunch of really good players, you won't get the respect you deserve.

tayshaun prince is not overrated. how can you call him overrated when he regularly shuts down the opposing team's best wing player? he is, IMO, as important, if not more so, as Ben Wallace in keying that great defense.

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Am I mistaken, or did Wade drop 40 on Prince last night? Detroit was not a better team than a "healthy" Lakers team last year...Malone absolutely would have made a difference. However, I'm glad it worked out the other way and the Lakers fell on their face.

"This defense would pretty much shut down Detroit's offense and Detroit would have problems getting to 90 pts."

LOL. Jim, I think that's the whole problem in the first place why people are worried about Detroit. It works both ways. Detroit's defense has just as good of a chance to shut down SPurs offense, and SPurs would have problems getting to 90 pts.

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Originally Posted by T Park

The logical question then to ask TIMVP I would think.


How would YOU beat the Pistons???


I honestly havent watched them, but the ay it sounds they practically dont have a chance.

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TPark, the Spurs know how to beat the Pistons. We beat them this season already and lost a close game to them in Detroit when TD played all of 1 min in the game and Manu played only 16 mins.

timvp is just spouting off what the media has been telling him...he is not thinking clearly.

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Originally Posted by 1Parker1

"This defense would pretty much shut down Detroit's offense and Detroit would have problems getting to 90 pts."

LOL. Jim, I think that's the whole problem in the first place why people are worried about Detroit. It works both ways. Detroit's defense has just as good of a chance to shut down SPurs offense, and SPurs would have problems getting to 90 pts.

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Parker, the Spurs offense is so much better than Detroits, it is not even funny.

The Spurs scored over 100 against them w/o TD in the game already this year.

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TPark, the Spurs know how to beat the Pistons. We beat them this season already and lost a close game to them in Detroit when TD played all of 1 min in the game and Manu played only 16 mins.

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How do you do it then???

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Originally Posted by T Park

How do you do it then???

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They play the way they have been playing.

They play their motion offense, they pass the ball around, inside out, around the perimeter and take the open shots.

They set picks, and drive to the hoop strongly like they did against Denver and Seattle, even though they will get hit, but they play their game.

Defensively, they chase Rip all over the court with Bruce, then Manu, they stay on Sheed when he is outside and they box out on the defensive boards.

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Originally Posted by Marcus Bryant

I concur with timvp and will add that Miami concerns me as well. Both teams feature very good offensive guards coupled with very physical frontlines. Detroit is definitely the better defensive unit, though Miami isn't too bad themselves. The Spurs are vulnerable to teams with such a combo of backcourt offense and muscle up front. Detroit can execute Seattle's gameplan used in the last series to perfection.

It's one thing to produce a ton of offense when you're facing Phoenix and another when you are facing a top defensive unit and one with a ton of experience.

I don't know why some Spurs fans seem so surprised by this view. The Lakers took four straight from them last season in the 2nd round doing the same basic thing...play physical up front, clog the lane, brush off the Slovenian, rotate the ball out to the shooters, and run screen rolls for a guard and take a bunch of pull up Js off penetration.

Now's not the time to get overconfident Spurs fans. As easy as the WCF seems so far, should the Spurs indeed move on to the next level some of you are going to be in for a rude awakening.

This concludes my last ever post on the internets under any name.

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Bye

Marcus has retired more often than George Foreman.

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Originally Posted by Jimcs50

Parker, the Spurs offense is so much better than Detroits, it is not even funny.

The Spurs scored over 100 against them w/o TD in the game already this year.

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Jim, I'm not saying Spurs offense is worse/better then Detroits. As you know, offense can only get you so far---until it meets defense! My point being that Detroit is just as good defensively, if not better, than the Spurs. Spurs are going to have a hard time scoring 100+ against Pistons in the Finals, and vice versa. It's easy to look at these past two games and marvel at the Spurs offense putting up 124 points and 112 points or however----Suns don't play defense!

As Timvp mentioned, we have matchup problems.

1) Parker vs. Billups, Tony is doing a pretty good job in this series against the league MVP with Nash, I don't know how well he will do against the Finals MVP--a guy who actually plays defense. Also, he's not going to get many layups with Rasheed and Ben in the middle. I'm not saying Tony won't have a few good games in there, but Spurs go as Tony goes (We're something like 23-3 when he scores 20+ points). It's a tough matchup. Please Arroyo--much quicker and stronger then Beno, another tough matchup.

2) Manu/Tayshaun: Any hope of us winning that series would rest on Manu. Tayshaun may be a great defender, etc, but if I've learned anything about Manu this year, it's that he will fight and give his 110% in every single game. I don't care who they throw at him, he'll find a way to get it done.

3) Tim/Rasheed: Actually, now that I think about it, we'll probably win at least one game in which Rasheed gets thrown out after 2 techs :) This matchup depends on how Tim's ankles hold up, Tim is clearly the better player, but Rasheed's a good defender and can put up 20+ on any given night also.

4) Bruce/Hamilton: Cancel each other out. That simple. I have full faith that Bruce can control Hamilton, he may have a game or two where he gets hot, but other then that...It would help if Bruce made some corner 3's at the other end however.

5) Nazr/Ben: I don't expect Ben to score 21 pts against us :) Actually, I think Rasho will be a big help in this series with his defense.

You know, now that I think about, Pistons don't look that scary. It's a coin toss, could go either way, IMO. Hopefully it goes our way.

Parker, Spurs have better D. They gave up less points this year and they play 2/3 of their games against the West who play a lot better offense than the shitty East.

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Originally Posted by spvrs

It's going to be a battle if Spurs meet the Pistons. I will say what I'm most worried about is RWallace, I saw that play where Tim sprained his ankle and RW slid his feet under there on purpose.

Plus after playing the Suns, who aren't physical and don't like playing defense it's going to be like night and day. Remember what happened to Seattle in Game 1, even the players where saying 'we aren't in sacramento anymore...'

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I don't buy this. It's not like they haven't played any physical series before... Hell, even the Sonics took us to six after making that comment!

I honestly don't know who would win a Spurs / Pistons matchup. With only 2 games in the regular season, it's impossible to predict.

The Pistons have the best starting 5 in basketball and their bench is underrated. There is no question they have the necessary tools to beat the Spurs in a playoff series.

Damn, timvp, I was about to post something along these exact same lines after Detroit-Miami game #1, but I didn't want to have to deal with the storm I knew would follow.

The three toughest matchups are Billups, Prince, and Rasheed.

A Detroit-SA final would be where we would miss Devin the most. In crunch time you have to stop Billups, and I don't know if TP can physically do that. Bruce would be a good matchup, but I don't want TP on either Hamilton or Prince, either. It would be nice to have Brown to throw in the mix.

Prince is so versatile and will be the first guy we face who can give Manu a tough time at both ends, and he could conceivably be used to harass any of TP, GRob, or Barry on the defensive end, too.

Rasheed, as we all know, is one guy who can capably guard a healthy TD for stretches without help from double-teams, leaving Ben Wallace to float in the paint.

The Spurs offense has struggled all season, often lost, against every team that plays physical and pretends to play defense, esp interior defense.

(see Spurs loss @MIA,
see Spurs butt-ugly narrow W vs Clips @SBC,
see Spurs loss @MEM,
see Spurs offense collapse when ambused by Raptors offense in L @TOR,
see 4 losses in 04 WC semis vs Lakers).

The Spurs offense vs no-defense/no-stop Suns looks like the 21st Century ShowTime Team.

I guarantee the Spurs offense will not look ShowTime against Heat with Shaq and Zo in the paint, and their front court keeping ours from driving (as they did @MIA loss), and esp no ShowTime against Pistons.

Against physical/defensive/paint-denying teams, the Spurs have shot as badly as the Pistons did last night, around or under 40%.

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Originally Posted by boutons

The Spurs offense has struggled all season, often lost, against every team that plays physical and pretends to play defense, esp interior defense.

(see Spurs loss @MIA,
see Spurs butt-ugly narrow W vs Clips @SBC,
see Spurs loss @MEM,
see Spurs offense collapse when ambused by Raptors offense in L @TOR,
see 4 losses in 04 WC semis vs Lakers).

The Spurs offense vs no-defense/no-stop Suns looks like the 21st Century ShowTime Team.

I guarantee the Spurs offense will not look ShowTime against Heat with Shaq and Zo in the paint, and their front court keeping ours from driving (as they did @MIA loss), and esp no ShowTime against Pistons.

Against physical/defensive/paint-denying teams, the Spurs have shot as badly as the Pistons did last night, around or under 40%.

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The Spurs were not healthy against Denver.

They are at full strength now.

I expect SA to sweep Detroit or Miami.

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Originally Posted by Jimcs50

The Spurs were not healthy against Denver.

They are at full strength now.

I expect SA to sweep Detroit or Miami.

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I expect that you will be completely wrong.

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Originally Posted by tlongII

I expect that you will be completely wrong.

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never!!!!

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Originally Posted by boutons

I guarantee the Spurs offense will not look ShowTime against Heat with Shaq and Zo in the paint, and their front court keeping ours from driving (as they did @MIA loss), and esp no ShowTime against Pistons.

Against physical/defensive/paint-denying teams, the Spurs have shot as badly as the Pistons did last night, around or under 40%.

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Actually, vs. Miami, Shaq and Zo on the floor at the same time will help the Spurs a LOT, Parker and Manu will run them to the ground.
Besides, Shaq's defense isn't all that great, Manu and Tim can pick and roll him all day.