At the end of the day. I firmly believe that adhering to the Mavs style of basketball is what cost this team.
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At the end of the day. I firmly believe that adhering to the Mavs style of basketball is what cost this team.
No, having two worthless centers cost this team.
They won us a title last year. Not using them cost this team.
Exactly how would it have helped to have someone out there with no real offensive game that can't guard anyone on the floor except the guy Timmy is guarding?Quote:
Originally Posted by eriks
Nazr and Rasho could not have kept up with any of the Mav's fast, agile players. Using them means the defense is no better, but now the offense has one less threat. Do you not SEE how bad the defense is when Nazr is in? He is useless in situations like these. And Rasho is simply too slow. Mavs would have breezed past us.Quote:
Originally Posted by eriks
Oh, and last year- the Spurs did not play the Mavs in the playoffs. And the team was a little different too, they played different. Comparing this year's Mavs and last year's is apples to oranges.
NopeQuote:
Originally Posted by PeterBurns
You not posting a bravatar pic of Stacie lost it for us...
:lol
Quote:
Originally Posted by CosmicCowboy
Insightful and accurate.
Yeah, Horry and Finley did a stellar job on defense. Rasho and Nazr clog up the middle. Dirk has a long history of pussing out when there are shot blockers in the lane and resorting to jumpers when someone like Shaq or Rasho, or anyone 6-11 and and above is in the lane. Much like when Bowen stopped him in the regular season (with Nazr playing decent minutes), that might have changed the pace of the game in the Spurs favor. I am already sick of hearing about this "new, aggressive Dirk" that the media is already pushing. He wasn't scared to take it at players that are 6 inches shorter than him. Wow.Quote:
Originally Posted by Melmart1
When I refer to last year in the playoffs, I refer to the Sun's series. I wouldn't say that those two teams are that different. I'm actually suprised at how quickly this board has turned on those two centers considering how little they played this series.
Fact: The longest stretch played by Nazr (11:59) was in game 2.
Which we lost. By a lot.
Now, I'm not blaming that loss on Nazr, but it certainly proved to Pop that if putting Nazr in for significant minutes isn't going to net you anything, it might not be a good idea.
We could've won last night. I don't think putting Rasho or Nazr in there gurantees you anymore wins, and could in fact lead to more losses.
As for this argument "Spurs don't play small ball." Wrong. We did it last year, and beat the Suns. We can play small ball, and we can win doing it. If we had won last night, I think everyone would be singing a different tune.
The fact we didn't just means we didn't. It doesn't mean Pop sucks, anymore than Manu fouling Dirk means Manu sucks.
I guess it doesnt even matter anymore. I'm just gonna not dwell on it. It happened.
There you go again, living in the past. Did you not see Dirk's performance this series? The man was a beast, plain and simple! He was completely unstoppable. He was afraid of NOTHING. He did not puss out. Playing Rasho or Nazr on him means that not only does he score, he gets an and-1 much more often. So then you sit your center and have to play- small ball. Six fouls to give does not work against this Mavs lineup, period.Quote:
Originally Posted by eriks
And Nazr playing decent minutes would have changed the pace of the game- and the outcomes as well. Spurs would have lost in 5, easily. Does anyone forget how many points he costed us the last time he played? It was something like 6 or 8 points in a minute's time. In a series with so many last-second wins, those 6 or 8 mean a helluva lot.
The thing the Spurs didn't do was match up against AJ's strategy. Many of you haven't forgotten the approach we used to defeat Phoenix a year ago when they employed a similar "small ball " approach, we countered with a "big ball" approach using two or three bigs at a time. Duncan killed Phoenix on the high-low that year, and that was the difference ultimately. We forced Phoenix to drive by playing tight D on the perimieter and Nash couldn't find passing lanes or couldn't get a shot off over our bigs. One of the bigger reasons we lost this series was very simple: rebounding. We got outrebounded in almost every game, if not every game this season and our defensive rebounding was horrible. You cannot give a team like Dallas two or three more chances, it is just too draining to play D that many times. The Spurs lost on the boards and I don't know how many times I saw Bowen and Parker trying to fight for a rebound with Nowitzi and Diop and they lost every time. Pop left Tim on a island too many times this season. I am not saying this strategy would have won the series for the Spurs but it couldn't have hurt.
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42319Quote:
Originally Posted by Melmart1
I didn't think this season was that long ago. Now that I'be noticed you took your cans off, I guess I better change my avatar.
Pop actually thought about Rasho in the first quarter last night when the Mavs were scoring so easily, but AJ kept going with a smaller and smaller line-up with Dirk as the biggest guy on the floor.
I will say, though, that it is not fair to paint Rasho and Nazr with one single stroke. They are very different players.
I trust Pop as one of the best coaches in the league. Period.
But I can't help but think of Gene Mauch, manager during the Phillies' monumental collapse in 1964. Down the stretch, the Phils were dropping daily in the standings. Mauch adopted a radical strategy -- a two man pitching rotation of Jim Bunning and Chris Short. In other words, he abandoned half of his rotation. It resulted in a collapse of historic proportions and Mauck has been the classic icon of "overmanaging" since then.
Did Pop overeact to the Mavs lineup change? Mauch never won a championship despite managing talented teams. Pop has already won three. To quote the late Lloyd Benson, Gene Mauch, you're no Gregg Popovich.
But the question does arise.
No doubt about it. I still think this is all Pop's fault.Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterBurns
Agreed. The reason for the change was to guard Nowitzki, who averaged 27 and 13. So would it have been worse playing the style that the whole team was used to for an entire season? I think not. The change in philosophy destroyed a great Spurs defense, one that is predicated on funneling shooters baseline where shotblockers could make up for a lack of athleticism on the perimeter. Rebounding, shotblocking, stingy interior defense- gone in this series. The changes wore out the starters, made a great bench in the regular season useless, and forced anybody not named Tim Duncan out of their comfort zone on offense and everyone, including Duncan, in a bad situation on defense. Popovich went away from the philosophy that won him three championships- against a team that he played four times in the regular season. What the hell was so different? Devin Harris starting? Please. Eight steps backward to take one step forward- Pop panicked after game 2 and we will never know what might have been.
Quote:
Originally Posted by romsho
That's the only truth. Spurs could have lost in 5. Or won.
We'll never know, because that's not what happened. But, we were up by 3 with 30 seconds remaining, and had the ball for the final possession.
You really can't ask for more than that in a Game 7...
Everyone is talking about Dirk. How Rasho in the game would mean Dirk could not be defended well... :lol :lol The guy had 35/20 every fucking game. How worse can it be? Come on - THINK, THINK, THINK! Another center in the paint would mean Spurs-Suns, I'm sure about it.
Anyway... we all talk about our players, how they suck... what about Popovich? I guess if a player sucks... why couldn't the coach suck too? Is he not human? Doesn't he make mistakes? I believe he does, doesn't he? And if makes mistakes, couldn't his mistakes cost us the series? Rasho's, Brent's, Nazr's mistakes/incompetence are not that important - because coach can play other players. But Pop's mistakes are lethal. Nobody can neutralize them. I always knew Pop is one of the worse in the league when it comes to in-the-game adjustments. But I always trusted in his adjustments between the games. Until now. He's a stubborn guy and it costed us a lot. Our players are ok, this team is a championship winning team with a right approach. Who here thinks this team is not capable of winning the title? Come on.
I said it from the beginning of the series. No Center = No Series. You can't win without a Center in the NBA.
The Spurs set a franchise record for wins this season and they played with a Center! Then Poopavitch decides to switch to small-ball for the play-offs?!?!? IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
patience.......
We have a seven footer in France that will be able to chase Dirk around when he comes here.
Witness Phoenix's finish in the cellar for proof.Quote:
Originally Posted by peskypesky
Id like for someone to give me the name of the bigman to play.
Mohammed stunk.
Rasho was worthless.
Who else?
And for the love of god do not say Sean Marks.
Mental mistakes at critical points of games cost this team. Up by three, you do NOT foul someone going for a layup (last night), and you do NOT throw the ball away on an inbounds (Game 4).
The Spurs lost 3 games they would have won last year (Games 3, 4 and 7), and it's because the Spurs made mental mistakes, and the Mavs played very well at the end of the game, executed and got exactly what they wanted. The Mavs deserved to win the series.
Right, the two of them dealt with Amare Stoudemire and Ben Wallace last year, but somehow would have been worthless on the court against Erick Dampier and DeSagana Diop.Quote:
Exactly how would it have helped to have someone out there with no real offensive game that can't guard anyone on the floor except the guy Timmy is guarding?
Fucking brilliant.
How the fuck would you know? they never got to play except in one game (2) where everyone on the team sucked. Yeah, that's a fair place to assess judgment.Quote:
Id like for someone to give me the name of the bigman to play.
Mohammed stunk.
Rasho was worthless.
Who else?
If everyone who sucked in game 2 deserved to be benched for the rest of the series, we wouldn't have had enough left to field a team the rest of the way.
Typical Tpark. We lost this series because Pop tried to play the Mavs style of ball instead of playing the Spurs basketball that got this team three titles and 63 wins this year.
If the Spurs want to get back to the top, they can't afford to wait too long.Quote:
patience.......
We have a seven footer in France that will be able to chase Dirk around when he comes here.
typical aggieQuote:
We lost this series because Pop
You're right -- if we could only have found an answer to Dampier and Diop, this series would have been completely different. :rolleyesQuote:
Originally Posted by Aggie Hoopsfan
If you put Rasho/Nazr on them, that means you have Tim on Dirk, right? I guess Timmy fouling out is no big deal as long as we can get Rasho out there.
Or do you have Timmy chasing some little guy around the perimeter, miles away from the paint?
You're brain (if you have one) is firmly lodged up your ass. If the Spurs can't beat Dallas while playing with Nazr/Rasho, please explain this FACT:Quote:
Originally Posted by strangeweather
In the two regular season games in which San Antonio beat Dallas, Rasho/Nazr combined for 40+ minutes. Please explain to me how this was possible?
In March, Adrian Griffin was still starting for them, and you could sub Popovich in and guard him just fine. Defending Griffin is a little different from defending Devin Harris.Quote:
Originally Posted by peskypesky
Funny, take away what those two guys contributed in game 7 and the Spurs win by double figures.Quote:
You're right -- if we could only have found an answer to Dampier and Diop, this series would have been completely different.
Did you even watch the games, or are you just too stupid to understand that we got killed on the glass and in points in the paint?
Still waiting for your candy ass to talk hoops, any time you want to get down to x's and o's and personnel decisions and talk shop, you're more than welcome.Quote:
typical aggie
Until then, STFU. Saying Rasho and Nazr were horrible when they played a combined 27 minutes in 7 games in this series shows how fucking stupid you are.
Actually, we owned their asses in points in the paint in at least some of the games -- Game 7, for example. But yeah, we were getting beat on the glass all series. But unless you play 6 on 5, you can't put in a rebounder without having him guard someone.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aggie Hoopsfan
And again, we had Timmy on Diop and Damp -- just who is it that you think provides a more imposing defensive presence that could have shut these guys down? And who do you have Duncan guarding?
Even when we won the game, we lost offensive rebounding 12-4. :lol i hated those offensive rebounds. It's the small ball thing, there is no doubt about it.
Playing SPURS basketball would mean that we lose something and gain something. Would we lose more or gain more? Hmmmmm.... hmmmmmm.... 63 ........ hmmmmmmmmmmmmm .... 63 ........ really hard to tell. :elephantQuote:
Originally Posted by strangeweather
Dude, there were times in this series where Avery had Dirk, Dampier, AND Diop on the court together.
We never countered with anything other than Tim and Horry, and got bitch slapped on the boards. Fucking weak.
Dallas was getting whatever they wanted on offense all series long anyway, who gives a fuck if we end up with one of our guys on a small or Dirk.
Last year we put Nazr on Amare, let the guy score 40 a game (just took caution not to give him three point plays), and smoked Phoenix.
Put Nazr or Rasho on Dirk, tell them not to give up the three pointer, and move their feet the best they could while beating the shit out of him with elbows, hips, etc. whenever he came into the lane.
Pop basically pussed out and catered to Avery's matchups all series. The last time that happened was back when he catered to LA, funny how that worked out all the same.
And howabout Robert Horry? When Phil ran him as a starter in 2003, he played horribly. Three years older this year, he looked worse. Why is that surprising?
Nazr and Rasho combined for 27 minutes in the series. How the fuck can anyone say what they would have done? Horry was giving us nothing and we were getting killed in the paint and on the glass.
Sooner or later, you put in a damn big and see what he can do.
Pop coached himself straight out of this series by scrapping his system, and then our defense and rebounding went to shit because we were asking four guards to try and play PF on the glass and in the paint.
Lame.
If you can't find fault in Pop's game plan for this loss then you are a fucking idiot.
Dallas was 87.3% from the field for the first 17-18 minutes in a Game 7 on homegotdamn court.
Dallas outrebounded SA, they outhustled, they scored at will.
The game plan was fucking wrong from the beginning of this series and post loss, the game plan is still fucking wrong.
Manu Ginobili has no fucking brains. I am not an NBA coach, but I fucking know that you don't foul on a layup when you are up by 3 with fucking seconds left in a Game 7.
This whole fucking postseason smells like Popovich dogshit. You can jack off to the 3 championships or you can be proactive and boo this dipshit out of town.
Pop is fucking stupid.
So true. The first part shows Pop's incompetence with ingame adjustments. The part where you talk about elbows is actually a good one, too. I've seen some great stuff when Dirk played for Germany. The opposing teams didn't have a guy to cover him, but instead they put a banger or two on him. He was just supposed to get him nervous&tired. And sometimes it really worked well. He can get lost and he can't hit a damn thing. He just runs outside 3-point area and forces shots. But you need to reach that level, you need to work on "kill Dirk" tactics. We didn't stop him did we? Then put a banger on him. He fouls out? Put another one.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aggie Hoopsfan
Actually, in the last 3 games we were making a ton of critical stops down the stretch. If the Mavs had had an extra open guy that we couldn't guard, we never make it out of Game 5, even if we do get some extra rebounds.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aggie Hoopsfan
So you want Pop to take Rasho and tell him to play Dirk in tight man-to-man so there are no open outside shots, and then to stay out ahead of him when he penetrates, bumping him all the while? If Rasho were a 7-foot Bruce Bowen, that would be a terrific idea.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aggie Hoopsfan
[QUOTE=Aggie Hoopsfan]Pop basically pussed out and catered to Avery's matchups all series. The last time that happened was back when he catered to LA, funny how that worked out all the same.
Horry didn't give us much. We used him less and less as the series went on, which is why Finley was starting. But neither Rasho nor Nazr was much of a weapon this year. Rasho isn't that great a rebounder or defender. Nazr has better potential, but his mistakes were excruciating all season long -- he's not a smart player.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aggie Hoopsfan
Don't get me wrong -- if we had a good center, I would be 100% in favor of putting him in and ramming him down the Mavs' throats. But we had Rasho and Nazr instead.
Or you stick with the game plan, try to tweak it and see if your guys can come through. Despite our expansive shopping list of needs for this offseason, they almost did.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aggie Hoopsfan
It couldn't be worse than it already was. Check out Dirk's stats, will you? :lolQuote:
Originally Posted by strangeweather
Pop's "game plan" is why we're talking about the off-season today. Scoreboard.Quote:
Or you stick with the game plan, try to tweak it and see if your guys can come through. Despite our expansive shopping list of needs for this offseason, they almost did.
:lmao
WORTHLESS?????? 63 WINS ?????? :depressedQuote:
Originally Posted by Melmart1
"Pop basically pussed out and catered to Avery's matchups all series. The last time that happened was back when he catered to LA, funny how that worked out all the same."
Could it be......The Teacher STEPPING aside for his STUDENT?
in either case, life goes on and the Spurs are OLD...... have to face this.... Time to start dumping the FAT!!!!!!!!!
I question a lot of what Pop did in this series. He seemed like he was completely out-coached, the guy was just clueless. His strategy was a total contradiction to what he's all about.
Going small, not playing D, especially transition D...I was so sick of that series, I'm actually glad it's over. I couldn't take NBA basketball anymore, and those lame ass refs didn't help the cause either.
Well if it couldn't get any worse, we should have just had Dirk's defender leave him to double someone else. :rolleyesQuote:
Originally Posted by BgT
Outcoached big time.
The guys we played didn't win, so by definition the guys who didn't play are better? By that logic, we should have started Beno, Kiwi, and Oberto side by side with Rasho and Nazr.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aggie Hoopsfan
With a lineup that big, we could dominate.
Quote:
Originally Posted by strangeweather
I'm sorry you don't understand this, it's about drastically changing the lineup that won a franchise record number of games in THE MIDDLE OF THE PLAYOFFS
Honestly, we were lucky we didnt lose in 5, if Dirk hadnt fucked up that put-back (OF COURSE HE GOT THE REBOUND)
That's not by definition. Your logical thinking is very bad.Quote:
Originally Posted by strangeweather
If you have 84, 48, 65, 80, 72 selected.... and you could choose between additional numbers 54, 51, 30, 18, 10, 40 - what would give you the highest sum of 5 numbers? Certainly not replacing all five of 84, 48, 65, 80, 72, right? If some further calculations need to be done, let me know.
I could understand Popabitch screwing up one game trying small ball just to see how it goes, but for the entire series? This guy had his head between his legs to not see what everyone else does.
The guys we played during the regular season won 63 games. The guys we played last year in the Finals won an NBA championship.Quote:
The guys we played didn't win, so by definition the guys who didn't play are better? By that logic, we should have started Beno, Kiwi, and Oberto side by side with Rasho and Nazr.
With a lineup that big, we could dominate.
By all accounts, most people with half a brain would consider those two facts as proof positive that what we had was working.
Ever heard the saying 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'?
It wasn't broke. Pop was a dumbass for fixing it.
Stick to Window Shopping.Quote:
Originally Posted by Melmart1
:wtfQuote:
Originally Posted by Melmart1
OK fine, I'll give you Nazr...that dude seriously is worthless, he can't catch for fuck.
But Rasho could have helped in most series. Which centers around the NBA would you want on the Spurs that would have helped the Spurs a lot against Dallas?
It was a tough situation, Dirk creates so much trouble for the defense that we have to go small, and Tim obviously has to cover the center in the game.
How would you approach the situation?
Putting Tim on Dirk and having out worthless centers on Dampier/Diop, resulting in an early Tim Duncan foul trouble? or, would you have tried one of the worthless centers on Dirk, straight up, and let Dirk torch them?
If vampires really existed, would they live on the moon?Quote:
Originally Posted by BgT
This isn't a question of replacing one or more known values with others. It's a problem of counterfactual conditionals, and unless we start travelling to alternate universes, we will never know what might have happened if we had tried different strategies.
Saying it must be better or that it couldn't possibly be worse is just foolish.
To see how it goes? :lmao Small ball is his new religion! You can't get away from it, that would be sin.Quote:
Originally Posted by manuginobili20
You started with this "absolute" crap and replacing all of our starting five...Quote:
Originally Posted by strangeweather
If something doesn't work, you are supposed to try something different. Pop didn't do that and this is his mistake. If he would switch to our normal game for 15 minutes and it wouldn't help - fine. But he didn't do that so why don't you talk about "alternate universes" to him?
My point all along was that anybody who says that they know exactly how an different lineup would have done is full of crap.Quote:
Originally Posted by BgT
What about Nazr's 11-minute, 4-foul performance in Game 2 did you think required further scrutiny?Quote:
Originally Posted by BgT
And we even have three guys that could pretend to defend Dirk. Dirk would score the same amount of points (I think so because of FT's normally have bad influence on team's/player's tempo + no 3-pointers) but we would have much better situation in rebounding. Even without the defender in the paint, with tactics like that, there would be less chance for missed shot + offensive rebound after (missed !!) second FT.Quote:
Originally Posted by ALVAREZ6
That was Game 2, check some other stats for our team... You would just put Nazr in the game and tell him to bang Dirk. Let him shoot FT's, he's good at hitting them but I wrote in the previous post, why I think it would be better for us to play like that. And before someone jumps at me "Dirk shot a lot of FT's and it was baaaad" - the fouls were done by guys that we really need doing other stuff: Manu, Tim even Bowen. these guys got fouled out or came into huge foul troubles and you can't play your A game with 5 fouls (or 4 earlier on). If Rasho or Nazr get 5 fouls - who gives a fuck? Replace him with the other one and there is still Fabricio, he would be a good Dirk banger.Quote:
Originally Posted by strangeweather
Your plan is to give a 90% FT shooter a free pass to the line all night? :wtfQuote:
Originally Posted by BgT
Read the whole post(s) what would other benefits of this be. And obviously he wouldn't be fouled at every shot. Instead some shots would be heavily contested (even our big guys would make a successful defense from time to time, that's obvious) and resulted in easy miss. Also Dirk is 55-60% from the game, whish is a lot. Not to mention that half of his missed shots were rebounded and scored. Also how many and-1's Dirk had? Seemed like 5 hundred to me.Quote:
Originally Posted by strangeweather
And there is always psychology. Dirk wouldn't be happy about banging him all the time. Also other Mavs players get better momentum when Dirk (or anyone else) scores from the field (esp. driving in and/or dunking) comapred to making FT's.
Our whole team sucked in game 2. Using your logic, we should have finished the series with Marks, Beno, Oberto, Barry, and Bowen.Quote:
What about Nazr's 11-minute, 4-foul performance in Game 2 did you think required further scrutiny?
OK, but a strategy predicated on fouling a lousy free throw shooter like Shaq rarely works. Even if there are ancillary benefits, trying it on one of the best FT shooters in the league just seems suicidal.Quote:
Originally Posted by BgT
It's seems a lot like a team deciding that they won't contest any of Duncan's shots in the post, in the hopes that Duncan will get tired and our perimeter players will get cold without some shots.
The point isn't to put Dirk on the line. It's to knock the shit out of him when you have to foul him instead of having to have Duncan step aside while he goes in for a layup because TD can't afford to get in foul trouble.
Yeah, that's never worked before, LA only did it to us twice and now the Mavs did the same :/ After seven years, you'd think Pop would figure it out.Quote:
It's seems a lot like a team deciding that they won't contest any of Duncan's shots in the post, in the hopes that Duncan will get tired and our perimeter players will get cold without some shots.
Dirk shot a lot of FT's during the series. Did we play hack-a-Dirk tactics? I don't think so. He would have gone to the FT line a couple of times more. The difference would also be that our important players would not be in foul trouble. Plus the other benefits I wrote before.Quote:
Originally Posted by strangeweather
The bottom line I wrote like 50 times is, that they couldn't do worse on Dirk, he was killing us.
Well, RC's a fellow Aggie, so maybe if you submit your resume, we'll finally get a coach that understands basketball.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aggie Hoopsfan
Maybe so, because it looks like our coach is regressing.
Here is the stat to end all conversations on this topic.
They had 25+ More Offensive Rebounds in this series...
Do the math.
The math says that's a lot of second chance points. The math also says the small ball sucks. :lolQuote:
Originally Posted by PeterBurns
Wait - there were also some third chance points, the math apologizes.
Yes - Pop was a moron for giving his team with a good chance to win every game (except #2). What a jackass for thinking his experienced, playoff-tested team would be able to pull out a victory in crunch time! What have the Spurs ever done to make him think they were capable of that?! :rolleyes
PLEASE FIRE POP!
Cubes is always on the lookout for our 28th assistant coach...
Like Pop said, if there was a Game 8, Spurs probably win. Cut the guy some slack.
After all, any idiot can make a team the winningest in basketball for a decade, but it takes a supergenius to refuse to make any adjustments in the playoffs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aggie Hoopsfan
The team he was playing 48 minutes per game actually nothing, you got that right. It was some other team that had 63 wins in the regular season, and a couple of titles.Quote:
Originally Posted by jamezyjamez
just face it...POP F*CKED IT UP
That doesn't help us. He should be the one facing it. He saw nothing wrong in this series, so we are fucked now. Pop already started to put together a small ball team. No centres and only one PF, TD. That should work. :lolQuote:
Originally Posted by spurs_in_7
Your idiot went away from what made him the winningest coach in basketball and tried to play small ball.Quote:
After all, any idiot can make a team the winningest in basketball for a decade, but it takes a supergenius to refuse to make any adjustments in the playoffs.
Your idiot is fishing, golfing, or tasteing wine, but he's done coaching for 3 months.
That's the bottom line.
You'd think he would have learned from what happened when he tried to play at Phoenix's tempo last year. Shame on him.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aggie Hoopsfan
Well, I hear Larry Brown is available. He never changes his approach.
you guys might have a point if nazr was actually capable of being productive this year/postseason. he had his chances and sucked it up, bad. he cannot protect the paint. i think rasho may have been decent in spots, but he didn't get the time. the nazr we saw last year in the playoffs is long gone. pop is here until duncan retires, sit back and get used to it. we simply didn't have anyone who could guard dirk effectively for long stretches besides bruce, and we had to shuttle him around to try and cool down whoever else caught fire.
I think the problem was that Josh Howard had fantastic performances in the 1st 3 games. Rasho and Nazr could not guard a very athletic, quick and long player like him. It wasn't until Pop took Bowen off of Dirk and on put him on Josh Howard, that he started to struggle. Had Pop kept the Bigs in there, Josh would have had a career series. U figure, Dirk's going to get his points regardless, but u can't let J.Ho score 26pts a game. The Spurs just didn't have the athletes to matchup with Dallas this year, period. Let's not forget, this series may not have been as close as it appeared had Terry played in game 6. I truly believe that Dallas would have won in 6. SA had an opportunity to take advantage of that and couldn't. However, the Spurs are still a top 3 team. They just need to get younger and more athletic in the offseason and they'll be right back in it next year. Don't hang ur head too low. U still have the best big man to ever play the game and despite what critics say about his age and foot, he is by no means fading. In fact, I thought Duncan had his best performance in a series ever against Dallas.Quote:
Originally Posted by ambchang
this series could have also easily been spurs in 6 with 3 different bounces, or mavs in 4, spurs in 5, and so on and so forth. the series ended up every bit as close as it appeared. neither team was clearly superior to the other.Quote:
Originally Posted by BigD1
You are one dumb son of a bitch.Quote:
You'd think he would have learned from what happened when he tried to play at Phoenix's tempo last year. Shame on him.
Starting lineup last year vs. Phoenix:
Parker
Ginobili
Bowen
Duncan
Mohammed
Starting lineup vs. the Mavs:
Parker
Ginobili
Bowen
Duncan
Horry or Finley
Seeings you're a fucking idiot:
The Spurs played small ball with two seven footers last year and won. The Spurs played small ball with Tim Duncan and four guards this year and lost
Pop's a great coach, but he got worked in this series. Quit being so fucking dense.
Pop went with Small ball cause in the 2nd game he got torched like a Roman candle in a hot ashes.......
Trust me, he saw the film and realized pretty quickly that Nazr, Duncan, nor Rasho could handle Dirk or Howard on the defensive end. The thing that he didn't count on in the end was that none of his guys could handle Dirk on the defensive end.
You have to realize what Dallas was doing in game 2 to see what Pop had to do. Dallas primarily runs 2 plays for most of the game, the high pick, or a Dirk Iso at the top of the key. That's all they pretty much run I'd say %80 of the time. Pop knew that's what they were going to do by game 2, but the way they ran with Harris vs Griffin wasn't stoppable with Rasho in the game. Dirk would pick for Terry or Harris Nazr switched, now you have Parker on Dirk and Bowen on Terry or Harris doesn't sound bad yet does it. Now in the switch the guard has time to get in the key just slightly sucking in the Defense and now Terry or Harris can go to the wing to Howard or Stackhouse who is either gaurded by Nazr, Duncan, or Rasho, but if for some reason that mismatch isn't available he just dumps it back to Dirk and Dirk drains the jumper from the top of the key or if the Spurs bring a double he kicks to a guard who is being guarded now by a big. That guard can now shoot over the big or drive to the hole now guarded by a bunch of guards....
Pop had no choice really, Dirk is the ultimate defensive killer, he's simply like no other player to ever play the game. He's an above average shooting guard that happens to be 7' tall and can rebound as well as just about anyone in the league. Dirk's offensive skill set is so amazing but dare I say even if he were 6'5" he'd still be a starting guard in the NBA.
BTW, the Mavs never really played "small ball", our lineup primarily was 2 7 footers, 2 guards, and a lengthy small forward.
2 point guards = small ball. avery went small in game 2.
It was that 1st quarter.. they scored 37 points...
There was a Basketball Clinic and the Spurs where the patients...
Nah 4 guards and a center is small ball. Lots of teams play 2 small guards in their back court and it's considered conventional, Knicks, Detroit isn't far off with Rip only weighing 100lbs, Houston, Toronto.Quote:
Originally Posted by leemajors
Actually I was thinking about putting Rasho on Harris. :rolleyesQuote:
Originally Posted by BigD1
Dirk deserved the season MVP and is a offensive monster this year, especially when the Spurs let him drive left, which I still can't understand, but that's another story. However, Bruce didn't make Dirk pay on the other end. Against Phoenix, Dirk will probaly have to primarily guard Marion (21.9ppg) and I think we'll see just how deserving Dirk is of the playoff MVP award.Quote:
Pop had no choice really, Dirk is the ultimate defensive killer, he's simply like no other player to ever play the game. He's an above average shooting guard that happens to be 7' tall and can rebound as well as just about anyone in the league. Dirk's offensive skill set is so amazing but dare I say even if he were 6'5" he'd still be a starting guard in the NBA.
Nah this year Dirk won't have to guard Marion this year, I think he'll be on Tim Thomas and Damp will be on Diaw, Howard on Marion, and the guards will take whomevers left.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nbadan
I didn't even have to check who wrote the post you've quoted, I knew it was Mavs fan. :lolQuote:
Originally Posted by Nbadan
Stick to the topic.Quote:
Originally Posted by SequSpur
All you people (Sequ included) were bashing Rasho and Nazr all season, how they sucked, were too slow, wouldn't dunk, had bad hands, butterfingers, etc. Now all the sudden they would have been our playoff saviors? Classic!
I agree with the whole "dance with you brung ya" theory but if they change the music...you have to adjust. The Spurs didn't lose this series because of the absence of Rasho and Nazr.
Sorry. When you said that we should stick with what won for us in the regular season, I didn't realize that you think it's okay to throw tempo and playing style out the window as long as we do it with exactly the same lineup.Quote:
Originally Posted by Aggie Hoopsfan
I suppose that Pop should also have known that trying to slow Dallas down was utterly pointless because tempo isn't very important in basketball, unlike lineups, which should never, ever be changed for matchups.
I am still pissed at Pop
forgive, sounds good
forget, i’m not sure i could
they say time heals everything
but i’m still waiting
i’m through with doubt
there’s nothing left for me to figure out
i’ve paid a price
and i’ll keep paying
i’m not ready to make nice
i’m not ready to back down
i’m still mad as hell and
i don’t have time to go round and round and round
it’s too late to make it right
i probably wouldn’t if i could
‘cause i’m mad as hell
can’t bring myself to do what it is you think i should
Don't bother bringing up inconvenient facts to the likes of them. You'll only confuse them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Melmart1
Different thread, applicable here. Not that it will make any difference...but hey, one can hope...
Quote:
Originally Posted by FromWayDowntown
The second time I'm asking the same question.
If Pop WAS forced to play small ball, why didn't he use either Nazr or Rasho when Tim was on the bench? Do you really believe that Horry was the best option to play center in those (rare) minutes?
Yes...because a lot of the time Dirk was on the floor then. That was the problem. If they had gone with Dampier and 4 smalls, then fine...but they didn't.Quote:
Originally Posted by SlovenianGuy
Can we end this debate once and for all?
Nazr and Rasho had NO ONE to guard! Maybe, MAYBE, we do a little better on rebounding, but we lose offense, AND we put Tim in foul trouble early.
GET OVER IT ALREADY!
In case you haven't noticed it, there's a trend in the NBA, where teams are going with smaller, more athletic players. AND, it appears to be working. We need a long, athletic player (and Elton Brand type) to put next to Tim.
TO REPEAT: Rasho and Nazr wouldn't have done jack shit for us.
Thank you.