Game thoughts: Game 1, tbh..

Terrific game thoughts and well written. Thanks very much.

I was expecting Portland to play much better than they did, and I was expecting them to make a run at us in the second or third quarters. I was amazed at how well the Spurs handled the blazers, but I agree with most posters in here…Portland will be back and will be much better and we will not always shoot as well as we did last night and they will not always shoot as poorly as they did.

Overall, though, the only real worry I have going forward is the fouls calls that LMA got. They were ridiculous, but that doesn't change the fact that my guess is that next game both LMA and Lillard will be told by Stotts to drive to the basket every time they get the ball. And if things go like they did tonight, that means our guys will be in foul trouble post haste. Tony Brothers is a waste of humanity as far as I'm concerned, but it doesn't mean he isn't doing what his bosses told him to do. And that is what concerns me.

Great stats and well written game thoughts! :tu

It was so good to see the Spurs look like the team we saw all season long. Dallas really messed with 'em. Portland is so bad defensively, I wasn't expecting that. I am very curious to see if Pop stays with Baynes in the rotation, reminiscent of the Laker's series last year. If Manu can have a strong game when Parker doesn't, Spurs will be tough to beat.

Great writeup. :toast

It's good to see some arc on Duncan's jumper too.

I was more wary of Portland than Dallas. I was not expecting the relatively easy win.

Game 2 is going to be a lot closer tbh. Blazers missed some easy looks in the 1st half and they were a bit shell-shocked the rest of the game.

They'll play better but I'm not sure they can fix their porous defense and lack of a bench in 48 hours tbh

Can't help wonder how much better Splitter would be if he would use his ARMS!!!!! WTF???????

Just goes to show Pop's wizardry at picking matchups from among his bench players. Did anyone here really predict Baynes would get any time last night after 6 minutes in the whole Mavs series? Granted he mentioned giving our bigs some rest after a hard Mavs series, but Baynes was a totally unexpected move by Pop and it worked out great.

Goddamn, Pop is a crafty old sunavabitch.

Excellent points.
Was nice to see Tiago and, surprise surprise Baynes do so well!

Home court advantage really helped. The Spurs got to stay in San Antonio so they managed to take advantage of the small one day break.

Portland is playing like they are just happy to advance to the second round. I expect them to settle down a bit. I saw a lot of sloppy plays both on the defensive and offensive sides. Only Aldridge seemed to get his act together. The Spurs defense were sometimes jumbled as well, leaving players open. Once the Blazers review the tapes, they'll know how many times they missed an open man. So offensively, the Blazers should be fine, but defensively, as long as the Spurs role players continue showing up, the Spurs will outgun the Blazers this series. The Blazers just don't have the players to match up to the Spurs bench.

Good write-up, Harlem. :tu

Props to Tony, that was his second really good game in a row. Him being aggressive and able to break down the opposing defense is key to the Spurs' success offensively. And mad props to Tiago. He has been a beast on defense so far in the playoffs, both one-on-one and team defense-wise. I was actually a little bit surprised to see the Spurs close out so well to the perimeter for contesting threes, but it's an important strategy against the Blazers.

As dominant as this win was for our guys, the quick start was helped by the fact that the Blazers couldn't buy a bucket pretty much from the opening tip. They won't always shoot this poorly or miss so many attempts at the rim.

:tu

Thanks again for the write up - keep them coming.

Like we discussed, this will come down to what's more reliable: Spurs PnR against POR or POR's ability to score on spot up's. Last night indicated that the Spurs answer (namely Tiago v LMA) is more reliable than POR's answer (Lillard/POR bigs in PnR defense).

This is a series in which rebound and TO's are huge. POR's defense precludes them from blowing the Spurs out if the Spurs take care of the ball and don't let POR get too many off rebounds/extra shots. Spurs won't win every game, but they should be in every game if they just focus on those two things. If they continue to run their offense and TP can continue to stay aggressive and hit his shot, Spurs should at least be in every single game.

Does Portland start going over those screens on TP? Gosh TP ate them alive last night with all that room. The Spurs are setting screens a lot lower also compared to last series it seems. Those jumpers that TP is hitting are about 1 or 2 feet closer than he was getting v Dallas.

TP is not Devin Harris - you can't just go under screens on him. He will get the same looks (minus some layups) by going under than he was getting trying to fight over. Not only that, if you back up too far, he is still able to take space and get in close.

The Spurs multiple actions, cuts and spacing is what makes that strategy tough. TP is so damn fast that while going under will help some, if you don't help off your man and Spurs continue to set great screens, it makes it hard.

Spurs can just opt to go more post up's as well.

Looking at highlights, Baynes straight up BULLIED niggas yesterday. If the refs keep letting him do that the Blazers are in trouble.

That was a great post and analysis. Thank you!