Transition d
Can patty survive?
Simmons on curry? Would probably get lost on every pick
Do we make Barnes & iggy beat us?
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Transition d
Can patty survive?
Simmons on curry? Would probably get lost on every pick
Do we make Barnes & iggy beat us?
I like Boban against any low BBIQ bigs. GSW isnt his playground though. Theres too many smart players on the court.
I dont even see the point of testing out TP on Curry to start. We have far far too many terrible starts this season and cant afford to be slow out of the gates against GSW.
Play Green/Kawhi on Curry from the get go imo.
The tempo for sure
When trend was for NBA teams to push up tempo after Spurs 2014 success and Warriors 2015, Spurs took opposite direction this year and went back to slower tempo, defense first state of mind to basically counter Warriors... So yeah tempo, shoot out game or not, under over 100 points... More than the win or the loss what kind of score we will see some 115 110 or some 95 89
I'm interested in seeing what our defense looks like against this team, now that Timmy is out. Additionally, how will pop counter when they go small. I would love LMA and Diaw trashing Raymond in the paint. Again though I hope they saw what curry and Raymond did to Cleveland with regards to PnR. We have got to close out on the shooters and if steph brings it in the lane, maybe David west gives him a physical foul. We have got to be physical with this team to beat them, I want some nasty!
I want to see who the fourth big is going to be. People are assuming it's Boban, and it would be interesting to see him against one of the best benches in the league (if not starting), but I'm kinda hoping it's Anderson with Diaw starting. Kyle is a very good one-on-one scorer, and unless the Warriors put Iggy or Green on him, I think Kyle will have the advantage over his match-up. And he seems to be a good mid-range and post scorer, so it still fits with the Spurs' philosophy to punish small-ball.
And defensively he makes more sense against the Warriors' small-ball. An aggressive hedge against a Curry PnR would allow Anderson to use his length to bother Curry's shot. Sure, Steph probably drives with relative ease, but that's not what he wants to do typically, so if you force him to beat you that way, it gives the team more of a chance to prevent GS from running away with the game. With Kyle being a good shot-blocker and rebounder in his own right, I also don't know if the driving lanes will be more exposed than they would be by having Marjanovic out there.
How their others perform (outside of Green, Thompson and Curry)?
Guys like Livingston, Ezeli, Iggy, Barbosa, Speights...usually someone like this goes off.
- Curry's mouthpiece rotation. I don't mean the direction in which he flips it in his mouth. I mean how many mouthpieces he goes through each game and when he replaces the one he has gnawed. Each quarter? Every time he checks out?
- Raymond's chapstick situation. Typically when people breathe exclusively through their mouths, their lips tend to chafe. Thousands of years ago the neanderthals did not have the luxury of chapstick, and Raymond seems to have fairly healthy lips. What brand is he using?
-How LMA plays both in big and small lineups
-How Pop handles Curry
-If the Spurs can get away with Manu/Simmons guarding Thompson this year with how mediocre he's looked
-How the Spurs' smallball contends with theirs
I want to see how much Simmons is used against that dynamic backcourt.
I want to see if Anderson is used as a small-ball four combating Green.
And I want to see Boban. Because, Boban.
It will be interesting to see if Pop puts Green on Curry and Kawhi on Draymond. It would be similar to what he did against the Thunder in the 2014 WCF. It would be Pop essentially saying, "Okay, you can try doing the 1/4 PnR all you want, but then you're just going to be putting Kawhi on Steph."
There aren't really any good ways to counter that. GS could just go one-on-one, but Curry already knows Green can guard him in iso situations. They could post Draymond up on Leonard, but as we all know, Kawhi's actually a good post defender, and letting Draymond fill up on post attempts is a great way to force the Warriors the slow the pace and lower their efficiency. Running a 1/3 or 1/2 PnR makes it even more obvious that switching is the right choice. A 1/5 is harder to switch, but you don't fear the center roaming nearly as much, even though Bogut is a good passer for a big. So then you just have mismatches in Parker on Klay and LMA/West on Barnes. And so long as the Spurs cover up the three-point line, neither of those guys is going to beat you by themselves.
I wonder if Pop is going to give Curry the Steve Nash treatment by putting Parker on him . Sure he'll go for 40 points but as long as everyone struggles, it'll be more manageable.
Transition D for sure. If LMA will be a factor. How the team responds to pressure from the crowd. Can Kawhi continue his MVP case.
Great points - I saw someone bring this up on Twitter the other day and thought it made a ton of sense. I know everyone thinks the best way to slow them down is putting Kawhi on Curry, but stopping the Curry/Draymond PnR should be 1st priority. If Diaw/Aldridge is guarding Draymond, all it takes is a nice screen and Curry gets the matchup he wants. As you said, Green should be able to keep up with Curry in iso situations. He has a penchant for losing his man at times, but considering Curry is usually the one with the ball in his hands + the fact it's fucking Steph Curry, one would hope Danny wouldn't struggle with losing him off the ball.
Surely Pop has thought of this...question is how much (if at all) we'll see him utilize it in tonight's game.
Anyways, I think the pace will be a huge factor. When a team has as potent of an offense as GS does, and a shooter like Curry, the last thing you want to do is create more and more possessions (read: opportunities for them to score). Not to mention they're much more dangerous in transition than they are in the half-court. If the Spurs can dictate the tempo and play to their usual pace, that bodes well for them.
It'll be interesting seeing whether LMA can exploit Draymond. Draymond is an elite post-up defender, but Aldridge should have no problem getting his shot off considering he has 4 inches of height advantage.
I'm hoping to see the Spurs dominate the boards if the Warriors go small. If they're playing Iguodala/Barnes/Draymond, there's no reason Kawhi/Diaw/Aldridge or Kawhi/West/Aldridge shouldn't be able to secure a sizable advantage in terms of rebounding.
Lastly, I'll be looking to see how Tony plays while Bogut is out. It seems he's really affected by intimidating rim protectors (obviously this is the case for basically everyone, but Parker seems especially neutered when going up against guys like Ibaka/DJ/etc.). If they try playing Draymond at center, I want to see if Parker can exploit that and live in the paint.
If Tony can defend anyone. Or, does our best player have to expend tons of energy chasing their best player through endless screens.
How many easy baskets we can get in the paint is a big deal to me. Either through penetration or passing to bigs on the move.
Diaw is gonna be key imo.