The Fool's Gold of Yesterday's Blowout

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Originally Posted by benefactor

:lol

funny you say that...because i was just thinking about how he's trying way to hard to impress lj.

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+1

How many of those flat jumpers does Duncan have to make throughout his career for you to approve TS?

If you believe the Lakers are the worst matchup for the Spurs, do you also advocate "resting" Tony and Manu against them Friday? If Spurs beat them, LAL drops to 4th, setting up a 2nd round matchup with the SA. Memphis famously tanked last year to play the Spurs and it worked out for them. Should SA employ the same strategy? Spurs have a game advantage over OKC and the remaining games are very winnable. Can lose the Laker game and still finish 1st.

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Originally Posted by Vic Petro

If you believe the Lakers are the worst matchup for the Spurs, do you also advocate "resting" Tony and Manu against them Friday? If Spurs beat them, LAL drops to 4th, setting up a 2nd round matchup with the SA. Memphis famously tanked last year to play the Spurs and it worked out for them. Should SA employ the same strategy? Spurs have a game advantage over OKC and the remaining games are very winnable. Can lose the Laker game and still finish 1st.

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As far as I'm concerned, the Spurs proved what they needed to prove with the second game since they decided not to show up in the first game. Every game between now and the end of the season should be treated with equal importance and lineups determined situationally. If it's time to sit everyone against the Lakers, so be it.

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Originally Posted by Vic Petro

If you believe the Lakers are the worst matchup for the Spurs, do you also advocate "resting" Tony and Manu against them Friday? If Spurs beat them, LAL drops to 4th, setting up a 2nd round matchup with the SA. Memphis famously tanked last year to play the Spurs and it worked out for them. Should SA employ the same strategy? Spurs have a game advantage over OKC and the remaining games are very winnable. Can lose the Laker game and still finish 1st.

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I understand the argument certainly, but I still think more harm than good would come of it. Our magic number for that #1 overall seed is *only* four, so it's not quite in the bag yet, unless you want them trying hard to win at Phx the second-to-last game of the season and also having to beat the Warriors.

Also, I'm still holding out hope, however misguided, that they'll finish with a better record than Miami, which would obviously come into play should the two meet in the Finals. The Heat own the tiebreaker, so the Spurs would need to finish with one less loss to get it, and I think all things considered you still have to consider Miami the faves to come out of the East.

Looking at the Lakers and Clips schedules, I think there's a decent chance the Lakers can hold on to the 3 seed even if they lose to us on Friday. Clips still have road games left @Phx, @NY and @Atl, so hopefully they'll lose a couple. Lakers own the tiebreaker there, so they just need to finish in a tie with them.

Lakers might want to play us in the second round, but remember, that most likely means they'd get the Grizz in rd 1 and that's not an easy series for them at all.

When it's 3 blowouts in 3 nights, there's no fools gold involved.

I do agree that the Lakers are the worst matchup for the Spurs. But if the Spurs beat them again on Friday, I promise you the Lakers won't be looking to land in the Spurs' half of the bracket.

Spurs don't need to rest the big 3 to lose to the Lakers. That can happen regardless.

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Originally Posted by roycrikside

112-91 seems like a trouncing, but there's a good reason L.J. (TimVP) remains adamant that the Lakers are the worst match-up for us in the West, and I'm inclined to agree with him.

The Lakers for the most part executed their defensive game plan perfectly against the Spurs in the half court. The Spurs just beat it with an anomaly performance.

7-of-18 (38.9%) from 3 is fairly normal by Spurs standards, but by my count, the Spurs shot, and made, an extraordinary number of long-2s, defined as jumpers between 15-22 feet.

They were 19-of-28 last night (67.9%), which is an INSANE percentage. First off, if a defense gets the opponent to shoot 28 long twos, they're feeling wonderful about themselves, because it means they're keeping the opponent away from the paint, the free throw line and from more the more efficient three-point shot. But the average team shoots 40-47% from long two. To shoot at the clip the Spurs did is just something you tip your hat to and shrug your shoulders at, if you're Mike Brown.

Parker, specifically, was out of his mind, shooting 10-13 (76.9%) from 15-feet and beyond, and one of those three misses was from downtown, which as we all know is not his shot.

Duncan, meanwhile, was 5-7 (71.4%), which is obviously a great night for him since he shoots so many of those flat jumpers we cringe at.

Friends, we can't expect a night like that against the Lakers again any time soon. Instead of our usual 50-something points in the paint, we had to settle for 30-something because of the length of Bynum and Gasol. We got our fair share of lay-ups, but even most of those came on the fast break due to Lakers turnovers. Getting only 11 FTA attempts and having to count on canning 26 jump shots is no way to have sustained success against LA or anyone else.

To me, the real positives from the win, besides (or rather because of) Pop's eureka moment of giving Blair a DNP-CD, were at the defensive end. Forcing the Lakers into 19 turnovers, limiting them to only eight offensive rebounds (Bonner!), allowing less than 50% FG despite their relatively low number of 3-point attempts (2-of-10) and keeping them off the line as well (11-of-11, yikes) were all far more significant accomplishments than anything Parker or Duncan did on offense.

But yeah, all in all, I'd be thrilled if the Spurs maintained HCA and the Lakers held on that 3 seed.

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Ok so we shoot closer to normal and win by 6 or 7 instead of 21, no big deal.

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Originally Posted by Horse

Ok so we shoot closer to normal and win by 6 or 7 instead of 21, no big deal.

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...You'd think.

The Lakers are really terrible at covering the pick and roll tbh. We'd probably be getting the same looks either way.

"Fool's Gold" is so played out tbh.

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Originally Posted by ohmwrecker

"Fool's Gold" is so played out tbh.

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For us it is...

I absolutely believe the Fakers - along with the Grizzlies - are the worst matchup for the Spurs. Those teams have the one kyptonite that makes the Spurs appear very mortal - they have big, tall, physical post players, who can score and dominate the glass from the low block . I knew that before opening this thread.

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Originally Posted by Yorae

fool's gold win or no, FTL!!!!!

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This applies to any season or situation.

Kobe will put up 28 "long 2s" of his own, while rendering Artest irrelevant again. Then you have that giraffe Gasol settling for "long 2s" when he has a huge advantage inside.

Lakers are soft, and Kobe only makes it worse. Welcome (and hurry) back Kobe!

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Originally Posted by donjuansdaddy

Thing is last week, Bynum didn't step up at all to defend the pick n' roll and Tony, Neal, Duncan etc. scroched his Lazy @$$ for just staying around the rim. Tuesday night, Pop ran Bynum's ass round early with Splitter and then, he pick the living shit of the Lakers guard knowing Bynum was tire and wouldn't step up on the pick. Lakers got burned bad.

The Spurs have shooters on this team. If you leave Neal, Green, Parker, Manu, Bonner, Leonard, Sjax etc. wide open for 15-22 fts, yes they are going to shot 50%+ or more from the floor. Spurs did the same thing to the Kings last night.

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I believe the nature of this season has forced Pop to make more adjustments which has helped him be more flexible. Hopefully he'll pull the plug on Bonner in the playoffs when necessary.

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Originally Posted by donjuansdaddy

Thing is last week, Bynum didn't step up at all to defend the pick n' roll and Tony, Neal, Duncan etc. scroched his Lazy @$$ for just staying around the rim. Tuesday night, Pop ran Bynum's ass round early with Splitter and then, he pick the living shit of the Lakers guard knowing Bynum was tire and wouldn't step up on the pick. Lakers got burned bad.

The Spurs have shooters on this team. If you leave Neal, Green, Parker, Manu, Bonner, Leonard, Sjax etc. wide open for 15-22 fts, yes they are going to shot 50%+ or more from the floor. Spurs did the same thing to the Kings last night.

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Yeah and he got Gasol a couple of times out on the perimeter and sent him stumbling over his own feet trying to keep Tony from getting a layup, so Tony popped in 15 to 18 foot jumpers on him. If the big comes out on Tony he blows by him. If he stays back, Tony will burn him with a short jumper. It doesn't matter who the big is. Gasol and Bynum both found that out. One other thing that no one is pointing out. Duncan and Bonner out rebounded Gasol and Bynum. Is there something else? YES Our bench outscored the Lakers bench, 45-24, 21 points. Was this game FOOL GOLD? Maybe but if you look at what the TEAM has done over the last 18 games. 16 - 2, one of the losses was a give away game and the other to the Lakers when the team looked like they didnt care. The 18-0 run in the lakers game was no fluke, defense was about as good as the team could play. Even an 80% effort like this and Spurs will dominate any team.

Shit load of fools gold these days.

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Originally Posted by DMC

Shit load of fools gold these days.

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No one would love to see a 4-0 second round sweep over these guys with four blowouts more than me. I'd love to be wrong. I'm thrilled with how we're playing right now, obviously.

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Originally Posted by DMC

Shit load of fools gold these days.

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I know it's sort of overdone, but I'm leaning towards, "Fuck yo fools gold, clown."

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Originally Posted by GSH

I know it's sort of overdone, but I'm leaning towards, "Fuck yo fools gold, clown."

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:lmao

I would say "If the Spurs shoot 61% at home they are going to blow out any team in the NBA" ... but F it, that was too sweet of a win.

I hope Laker Fan is forced to watch that second half on loop for the rest of eternity, tbh.

ElNono right bout dem Lakers :hat

I wonder if the Spurs can average 60% shooting against the Lakers in the playoffs.