Pros & Cons for OKC & LAC

Pros For Facing OKC

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1. No system and very predictable. We have WingStop to counter their one-two punch. We can also interchange the matchups and have Green on KD and Kawhi on Westbrook, which increases our defensive versatility.

2. Ref-reliant. With HCA, hopefully, they won't get as many food stamps here. Have WingStop guard the shot, and have the best paint protector in all of basketball to guard the penetration. They have no shooters to speak of.

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3. Tony can have a second round bye guarding Andre Roberson, perhaps the most one-dimensional basketball player in NBA history. If we don't rest him now, this would be virtual rest in my opinion.

4. Kyle Singler. Enes Kanter. Dion Waiters. That's not a bench, that's a group of guys that give me an aneurysm whenever I'm forced to watch them. Our second unit would upend theirs every game.

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5. Unclutch. If you think the Spurs choke, watch these guys in late game situations. They have negative IQs and simply start turning the ball over and taking bad shots due fatigue and exhaustion from all the minutes they play.

6. Mental Edge. Having beaten them two years ago, I don't think we fear them as much as we used to. In the season opener, they needed to be bailed out by Dion Waiters. With LMA fully integrated, I'm not worried. This will also give him confidence going into the next round.

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7. What do five Roombas, five cardboard cutouts, and five Marco Bellinelli's have in common? They all play better defense than OKC. Watching them continuously lose to tanking teams we beat without our stars makes me facepalm.

8. Head Coaching Edge. I don't think I... need to... yeah.

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9. Having Kawhi guard Westbrook will acclimate him on how to guard players quicker than him, and he'll have to learn what to do when GSW goes Death Lineup and Curry blows by him with no big man for help.

10. Having Kawhi guard Durant will acclimate him on how to guard players who can launch deep threes. You have to go over the screen, and this will help the coaching staff determine which scheme and which big man is most effective at defending this situation.

Cons For Facing OKC

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1. With KD's impending free agency, he's going to give it his all in order to try to win a championship and keep OKC's core together. If he's futile in his efforts, he might lean towards joining the Dubs, and no one would blame him. They always seem to play us hard.

2. While Tony can take it easy on defense, on offense he'll have to deal with the hounding of Westbrook and Roberson, who are extremely capable defenders and exceptional at fighting through screens. When Parker struggles, the team struggles.

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3. While Ibaka may be overrated, I don't undermine his paint protection. When Duncan or Boris are on the floor, Ibaka will be able to help off his man and force our backcourt players into shooting long 2s, which they will have to make.

4. Passing Lanes. We always struggle against athletic teams, and although this team may not have talent outside their superstars, they are athletic enough to initiate a turnover cascade when they need to, especially in the first half when they have energy.

(The Dubs don't have any super athletes and are defensively disciplined enough not to gamble. When OKC gambles it's either a steal or we capitalize, and Dubs won't give us those easy baskets off defensive errors because they don't make any.)

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5. Steven Adams. Whoever he guards will be shut down, including LMA. And whoever he spends the most time on during the series will most likely be bruised up when it's over. This will prepare the Spurs for Bogut, and not Draymond, which is why this is a con.

6. Monty Williams. He knows how to beat the Spurs, and he's going to use whatever worked for his Pelicans on us. Along with him is Maurice Cheeks, who was on the coaching staff of the 2012 team that beat us (IIRC SJax was looking at him in game 6 for the tech)

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7. While traffic cone and Enes Kanter are synonymous, his offensive game is one that can give both Diaw and West troubles, especially if his shot is going. When him and Westbrook play together, they put up GSW Death Lineup-like offensive ratings.

8. Games in Oklahoma. These guys were two stupid turnovers away from beating the defending champs at home. We may have HCA throughout the series, but the games in Oklahoma, as evidenced by games 3, 4, and 6 in 2014, will be tough, especially without Joey.

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9. The game(s) in which both stars have good games. It may not even happen, but if it does, whether they start magically playing smarter or tough shots go in, it won't be likely we will be coming out a W when this rare occurrence happens, same as with the Splash Bros.

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10. We may have our screamer, but I'd be lying if I said I could keep a straight face with this dude distracting me. Yeah, I'll only have to look at it for two quarters, but if this superfan knows anything, he'll understand that road teams pick the hoop they want, and Pop ALWAYS wants to have his staff across from the team on defensive possessions in the fourth. If this guy strategically buys his tickets so that he's across from us on offense in the fourth, some late game free throws will be missed. I know I'm reaching. I'm high, I'm sorry.

Pros For Facing LAC

(KD faces the Dubs in the second round, gets beaten, and then there's no way he signs with them as that would be the ultimate beta move of "can't beat them, join them".)

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1. Unlike OKC, the Clippers have a system with plenty of motion and PnR's. Although their level of execution and preference for double PnR's is slightly different than GSW, this will undoubtedly be a better preparation for the Dubs than OKC ever will be.

2. Danny Green. I love him just as much as Chinook, so I have complete confidence in his ability to be our best CP3 (point guard) defender. Whenever I see CP3's shot from game 7, luck is the first word that enters my mind, not bad defense.

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3. No true small forward. Jeff Green, Wesley Johnson, Moute, the corpse of Paul Pierce are all liabilities and weak links. Although Kawhi struggled against them last year, I think he's ascended to a point where he should be able to drop 20 a game against these guys.

4. Revenge is a dish best served holy shit I'm so hungry right now. Anyway, Spurs do well in retribution/redemption situations, and even though LMA won't understand it, the rest of the team will play with fiery intensity.

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5. Unlike OKC, the Clippers don't have a player that can drop 40 unless CP3 or Blake go bonkers, and the likelihood that they both go off is slim. I trust in our team defense to limit everyone else and not get manhandled by the Clipper superstars.

6. JJ Redick. If anyone can prepare somebody for Klay Thompson, it's this guy. He runs through so many screens and has a quick release, and if we find something that works against him, we most certainly will be able to use it against Klay.

(Unless the solution is Mills, since Mills was effective against Ray Allen in the 2014 Finals, and I think in spurts he'll be able to chase JJ around, but Klay is another beast if you're talking about face up defense.)

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7. CP3. Although he isn't the marksman that Curry is, he is still one of the most cerebral point guards in the game. Whereas Westbrook makes his mark driving to the basket, CP3 is a distributor who can score at will shooting the basketball, and therefore more like Curry.

8. The 1-4 PnR. Just like with Curry and Green, the Clipper CP3/Blake combo is just as unsolvable a mystery. You can't switch, trap, or ICE. I think this will be a good time to fire test how LMA and Boris are able to guard on the switch, since Duncan and West will be eaten alive.

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9. Hack-a-Jordan. My personal opinion on this strategy is not score-related, but momentum related. It doesn't matter to me whether the Spurs are up or not, but if the Clippers are scoring in bunches, you have to hack in perhaps its final year of existence.

10. They don't have that great of a bench unit, and I'm not scared of them at all when CP3 is off the floor. Austin Rivers and Shaun Livingston belong in different universes, but I guess if Rivers takes Mills' lunch money again, we can rely on (M&M) Miller & Martin now.

Cons For Facing LAC

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1. A refreshed Blake Griffin. He's supposed to come back late March, now that his hand is healed, his quad is bothering him, plus he has that 4 game suspension to serve. Chemistry issues notwithstanding, he's a Spur Killer through and through.

2. Clippers will play Memphis in the first round. No Gasol, no Chalmers, just a team playing hard since it has nothing to lose or play for. They will sweep or beat them in five games, and will enter the second round with an indirect first round bye.

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3. The Clippers don't really have anyone Kawhi can shut down, since CP3 is too quick and Blake is too big. Although he can acquire some rest guarding Jeff Green, the big picture is that our best defender has no one he can be utilized against.

4. Some games we will see J-Crossover, and some games we will see J-Crawful. When the former is present, it is veritably impossible to beat this team since he can carry the bench unit when CP3 and Blake are resting.

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5. Mental Edge. CP3 feels like he has the clutch gene against us, and that one shot put them over the hump in terms of transitioning from a pretender to a quasi-contender. If someone believes that they can beat you, then they will play out of their minds to do so.

6. Coaching. This Doc Rivers guy ain't no Billy Donovan. He'll make adjustments, call appropriate timeouts, substitute the right guys, you name it. Even if he isn't largely responsible for the X's and O's, he will motivate the hell out of his guys and they will play hard for him.

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7. No legitimate backup center. Yes, we will most likely stagger the minutes of LMA and Duncan in order to cover up this deficiency, but with Jordan playing around forty minutes or so, you can count on rebounding (offensive and defensive) being a big issue.

8. DeAndre Jordan. Athlete, paint protector, post defender. What if he neutralizes LMA? How do you guard Lob City? What if he makes his free throws? Because Pop resorts to hacking in the first place makes me believe we have no answer for him.

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9. Defense and IQ. They're going to play disciplined defense. They aren't going to take that many stupid shots. They will double Kawhi in the post. We've amassed so many victories in a league devoid of parity, it's time to see how we handle someone on our level.

10. Pace. GSW is 2nd, the Clippers are 13th, and we are 23rd. So not good preparation for the Dubs in this regard, especially if you add three point shooting into the mix. Anyhow, we'll have to keep the turnovers to a minimum since 13th is still respectable.





TL;DR: I want the Clippers. The Thunder won't prepare us for GSW as much as the Clippers will with their motion-based offense. GSW doesn't iso-ball so why should we want to face an iso-ball team and then get blindsided by Kerr's (motion on steroids) Flow system?

Solid read.

On the KD free agency, I don't see how he can bolt to the Warriors if OKC falls to the four and he loses to GSW. It's one thing to bolt in FA. It's another to bolt to the team that just beat you.

That only happens in soccer.

Good thread, though i disagree with conclusion :lol

Clippers series is going to take a lot out of our guys (that screen-heavy offense iwill tucker out Kawhi/Green before we even get to GS) ..That they are neck-and-neck with Thunder in the standings with Blake missing a whopping 32 games shows you the quality of that team as much as we try to shit on CP0/Tom Rivers..

OKC won't have either Monty or Cheeks this year, so one of your point is not valid anymore. :)

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Originally Posted by szkorhetz

OKC won't have either Monty or Cheeks this year, so one of your point is not valid anymore. :)

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I read somewhere that both would return after an "undetermined amount of time." Cheeks with his hip surgery and Monty with his thing. If both are out definitely (for the playoffs), then thanks for the heads up! :toast

All analysis aside I want to play the Clips. Just for revenge... Spurs like revenge.

The pros of facing the Clippers sound more like cons to me tbh. I'd much rather face OKC.

Spurs won't lose to the clips 2 years in a row. Plus instead of a hobbled splitter, we have LMA who will make Blake work defensively.

Thunder are a sinking ship with KD halfway out the door. Give me them and we beat them in 5.

Good read, not a fan of the logic in your conclusion though. I wouldn't choose the Clippers because they "provide more preparation" for the Warriors. The only logical reason to want to play the Clippers rather than the Thunder is the revenge factor. There is no question in my mind that the Thunder are an easier series for us.

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Originally Posted by bklynspursfan

Spurs won't lose to the clips 2 years in a row. Plus instead of a hobbled splitter, we have LMA who will make Blake work defensively.

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I agree, plus a healthy TP, more experienced/all around better Kawhi. Thunder would still be an easier out but I think Spurs beat either one without too much trouble

The Warriors opponent is irrelevant, as neither of these teams has any chance of beating them..this is the NBA, not the NFL..

Damn, that's an OP.

The Spurs-Clippers matchups are always entertaining, too, fandom aside..



Despite the Spurs losing, this was one of the best basketball games I have ever watched, tbh..

I think while preparation is important that this team benefits a lot more when they are well rested.

OKC is not as physical as LAC, tires you less and most likely is easier to beat for us, give me that.

Lets see how we do tonight.

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Originally Posted by HarlemHeat37

The Spurs-Clippers matchups are always entertaining, too, fandom aside..



Despite the Spurs losing, this was one of the best basketball games I have ever watched, tbh..

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Interesting thing to note, but the Spurs last two championships (2007, 2014) were won the season after the team lost a game 7 in the playoffs (2006, 2013).

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Originally Posted by Ditty

Thunder are a sinking ship with KD halfway out the door. Give me them and we beat them in 5.

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That's what timvp said in 2012.

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Originally Posted by UNT Eagles 2016

That's what timvp said in 2012.

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timvp also said the Grizzlies would beat the Spurs in 2013, picking series' isn't his specialty:lol

I'll take the thunder for the chance to shut down that entire franchise for good. We don't want any part of JJ Reddick, he would definitely be a con.

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Originally Posted by timtonymanu

Interesting thing to note, but the Spurs last two championships (2007, 2014) were won the season after the team lost a game 7 in the playoffs (2006, 2013).

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That's b/c Tim can't be denied after losing a 7 game series.:wakeup

:lol can't believe anybody is afraid of OKC, tbh..

Unclutch

Multiply the ESPN's BPI odds on each remaining game and the Spurs have a 13% shot of finishing undefeated at home. I'd take the under on that assuming things will be out of hand for the 1 seed by the last two games.

Okc is a 2 man team t bh.

They are an easier matchup than Worriers or Clitters. I hope we face them.in the 2nd round

Shot 40 % (4-24 from 3) out-rebounded 44 to 56...and still won by 8..

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Originally Posted by HarlemHeat37

:lol can't believe anybody is afraid of OKC, tbh..

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Porker was horrific & still outplayed Singler.:lmao

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Originally Posted by Kawhitstorm

Porker was horrific & still outplayed Singler.:lmao

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Bro, if Singler was Black, he wouldn't be in the NBA, tbh:lol..they need to fill the White American quota..

This nigga is not an NBA player, let alone a rotation guy..

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Originally Posted by spursistan

Shot 40 % (4-24 from 3) out-rebounded 44 to 56...and still won by 8..

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Funny how the Spurs seal the win w/ offensive rebounds:lol

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Originally Posted by HarlemHeat37

Bro, if Singler was Black, he wouldn't be in the NBA, tbh:lol..they need to fill the White American quota..

This nigga is not an NBA player, let alone a rotation guy..

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Clippers have a shot at beating golden state so rather face okc n if we face clippers n they're the 3 seed they don't face Memphis

I dunno how OKC gives the Warriors such a hard time. I guess that open, "run 'em gun 'em" style fits their game better. Clippers are the much harder opponent for us, and I don't think it's even close.

:lol okc and clippers

Cleveland doing us a favor today

Will the thunder even make it out the first round tbh?

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Originally Posted by Spurs9

:lol okc and clippers

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Clippers feeling the weight of absent Blake Griffin

http://scores.espn.go.com/blog/los-a...-blake-griffin

"[Playing without Blake] gets real tough. [The Cavs] have three, four guys out there that [in a] low shot clock can bail you out," Paul continued. "Just all that tension that he brings opens it up for all of us."

Full strength Thunder down 4 at end 3rd Quarter to Clipper team without CP3/Deandre/JJ Redick/Blake Griffin :lol..Jamal Crawford going raw in OKC D..

Austin rivers with 30 at Okc

Blake Griffin could be back this Sunday..IF he could regain his early season shape (he has about 10-12 games between reg season-R1 playoffs prep), Clippers could give the Warriors hell....

full squad Thunder going to lose to jeff Ayers and Clippers 3rd stringers at home :lmao

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Originally Posted by spursistan

Full strength Thunder down 4 at end 3rd Quarter to Clipper team without CP3/Deandre/JJ Redick/Blake Griffin :lol..Jamal Crawford going raw in OKC D..

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Doc made the right decision in resting CP3 b/c he was going to end up burning out in the 2nd rd. Good thing Patty/Porker won't have to face Austin Rivers/Crawford.

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Originally Posted by spursistan

Full strength Thunder down 4 at end 3rd Quarter to Clipper team without CP3/Deandre/JJ Redick/Blake Griffin :lol..Jamal Crawford going raw in OKC D..

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We've seen this many times over the years. Teams playing that short handed, especially good ones, can look decent, in small doses, because the remaining players are often fired up to play far more prominent roles than usual. Meanwhile, for the opposition, the game loses it's luster.

I wouldn't read any more into it, than I would the Lakers blowing out the Warriors or the Spurs blowing a 23 point lead to the Hornets. It's a long season and a volatile sport (the way the game is played today).


The pro Clippers crowd continues to not see the forest from the trees. The Clippers may well be the more difficult match-up and the better overall team at this point, but the Spurs play with far more confidence against them than they do the Thunder and though the Clippers reciprocate that, it's not to the extent that the Thunder do.

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Originally Posted by TD 21

The Clippers may well be the more difficult match-up and the better overall team at this point, but the Spurs play with far more confidence against them than they do the Thunder and though the Clippers reciprocate that, it's not to the extent that the Thunder do.

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How did you extrapolate that again?........Let me guess, from 2012 when Harden was a 6th Man.:lmao

Even when OKC swept the Spurs during the regular season in 2013-14, it was b/c Reggie Jackson torched Patty.:sleep

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Originally Posted by Kawhitstorm

How did you extrapolate that again?........Let me guess, from 2012 when Harden was a 6th Man.:lmao

Even when OKC swept the Spurs during the regular season in 2013-14, it was b/c Reggie Jackson torched Patty.:sleep

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From watching the games.