How do we beat the Hornets??!

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Originally Posted by Warlord23

David West is a walking mismatch. Horry of 2 years ago would have been nice to have, nobody else one this Spurs team has the physical tools to guard West.

Pop is gonna put it all on Paul, like he did with Nash. Have Bowen wear him out, stay on the shooters and let Paul try and take as many shots; see if he can continue this for 4 quarters.

Their bench scares me. Pargo is shooting lights out, and Bonzi is of course a well-known Spurs killer. Specially if they've been following the Spurs-Suns games, Scott might try and use Bonzi like D'Antoni used Diaw: as an SF who gets the ball in the post against undersized defenders like Finley, Udoka or Manu.

Dazed and bobbyjoe are 100% right. Manu is the one mismatch who has to play at a high level. And Duncan has to perform like playoff Duncan. The Suns really made it a point to stay home on the shooters; NO may not resort to that all the time, so our role players have to knock down their open looks.

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SpursFan worries about Bonzi Wells way too much. He's just not the same player as the guy from 2 yrs ago, when he was playing for a huge contract.

Pargo has been hot but the Hornets bench is a notable weakness compared to benches of other contenders. Pargo's scoring and Wright's athleticism are about the only assets on that bench. Hilton Armstrong is a subpar reserve bigman. Bonzi hasn't panned out.

I'd be absolutely shocked if Bonzi had an impact on this series. The guy's been walking with a fork stickout of his back the last 2 years.

If Peja had been more successful as a playoff performer and against Bowen in particular I'd give the Hornets more of a chance this series. Spurs in 6.

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Originally Posted by bobbyjoe

SpursFan worries about Bonzi Wells way too much. He's just not the same player as the guy from 2 yrs ago, when he was playing for a huge contract.

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Actually, the only difference is that he's two years older and he fucked up and didn't sign said huge contract. He's a UFA at the end of this season, right?

Yeah, you stick a guy on Peja, and you LEAVE him there.

Perfect guy for Finley stay on.

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Originally Posted by T Park

Yeah, you stick a guy on Peja, and you LEAVE him there.

Perfect guy for Finley stay on.

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Finley doesn't stay on three point shooters. He's notorious for sagging into the lane and leaving them open. Doing that against a guy who's that much taller with a quick trigger is going to be really ugly.

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Originally Posted by Cry Havoc

I think Duncan and Parker will both give them fits as well. Their big men CANNOT stop Tim, and Paul cannot guard Parker (and vice-versa).

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Personally, I really dont really see Parker tearing up the Hornets.

Parker took advantage of the Suns perennial weakness. Poor interior defense and atrocious pick n roll defense.

The Hornets are not the Spurs or Pistons defensively but they are very solid. Their bigs play the pick n roll infinitely better than Amare or Shaq (who are 2 of the worst bigs in the league in terms of pure PNR defense). It's not going to be a layup drill for Parker like it was all series against Phoenix.

Paul's defensive shortcomings are also vastly overstated. I'd compare him to a Kobe Bryant or TMac in terms of defensive mentality: Someone who may take it easy too often but who turns it up when he really has to.

Duncan has somewhat of a tough matchup with Chandler (length and athleticism) but the Hornets have 0 other bigs who really can stay with Tim.

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Originally Posted by Obstructed_View

Finley doesn't stay on three point shooters. He's notorious for sagging into the lane and leaving them open. Doing that against a guy who's that much taller with a quick trigger is going to be really ugly.

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I meant Morris Peterson apologies.

I still personally don't see where the Hornets defense is so much better than the Suns. The Suns's tri tower scheme is way tougher to play and go against with Shaq in the middle than Peja, West, and Chandler.

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Originally Posted by T Park

I meant Morris Peterson apologies.

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Yeah that would work better. Especially if you could convince Fin to stay with his man.

The Hornets' defense looked really good, but it's hard to tell how good they are because the Mavericks were just so fucking inept.

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Originally Posted by Obstructed_View

Actually, the only difference is that he's two years older and he fucked up and didn't sign said huge contract. He's a UFA at the end of this season, right?

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Yes he did screw up the contract situation and he is an UFA this year.

But since then he put on a lot of weight and became lazy. He's known it's a contract year for a while and would have turned it on already if he still had it in him.

The guy averaged 5.0 PPG on 15 minutes a game in the Mavs series...He's basically just washed up at this point.

If he turns it on this series, he truly is a Spur killer...

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Originally Posted by bobbyjoe

Yes he did screw up the contract situation and he is an UFA this year.

But since then he put on a lot of weight and became lazy. He's known it's a contract year for a while and would have turned it on already if he still had it in him.

The guy averaged 5.0 PPG on 15 minutes a game in the Mavs series...He's basically just washed up at this point.

If he turns it on this series, he truly is a Spur killer...

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He's almost always been lazy, he's almost always been out of shape, and he's almost always been a Spurs killer. The fact that the Spurs got shredded by Boris fucking Diaw in the post is not a good omen.

Hey...it wasn't like Bonzie was tearing the league up 2 years ago when he turned into Wilt Chamberlain against us....his stock was extremely low at that time as well. I don't care what he does against the rest of the league...he's been murder on us.


Outside of Udoka Bonzi is a mismatch nightmare for us especially on the glass. The #1 weapon we have to combat him with in rebounding now is Kurt Thomas....hopefully he'll be a difference(as he was in this series).


Oh...and Parker lit Paul up at times this season...flatout blew Paul's ass off the court. Basically neither one of them can defend the other. Difference is? The Spurs have Bruce Bowen to slap on Paul...that is going to be a mental challenge for Paul as much as anything else....Bruce wears on guys in series, just wears them down...Paul is going to have his work cut out for him on both sides of the ball...unlike Parker.

Bruce will never tell anyone that he remembers that bullshit suspension, but he does. If Paul goes the whole series without taking a swipe at Bowen, I'll be impressed.

To me the two keys of this series are :
- Matching up with West. He is a matchup nightmare for Spurs, too mobile for Spurs bigs and too strong for Spurs wings.
- Manu's health. Spurs have 3 days off before the first game. Let's hope it will be enough for Manu to heal.

If Manu is healthy, I like Spurs chances. Spurs in 6.

qick ones

Spurs are damn predictable on offense (and Finley got 3rd bad game in a row)
Spurs got history of stopping one man team


I will watch the NO game to have more info about their play.
They made Mavs look like and old fricking 7 seed team

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Originally Posted by Bruno

To me the two keys of this series are :
- Matching up with West. He is a matchup nightmare for Spurs, too mobile for Spurs bigs and too strong for Spurs wings.
- Manu's health. Spurs have 3 days off before the first game. Let's hope it will be enough for Manu to heal.

If Manu is healthy, I like Spurs chances. Spurs in 6.

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How long do groin injuries generally take to heal? I remember reading that it takes about 1 to 2 weeks, but he have just 3-4 days until the next game. Would that be enough time for it to heal? Could this persist at every step until the summer since there is always the possibility he could re-injure before it fully heals? Knock on wood, he heals fully in the next three days *tap* *tap*.

It sucks that the media, neither local or national, isn't reporting on it in greater detail.

It makes Sunday's loss all the more regrettable.

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Originally Posted by Bruno

To me the two keys of this series are :
- Matching up with West. He is a matchup nightmare for Spurs, too mobile for Spurs bigs and too strong for Spurs wings.

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Stop Paul and you pretty much render West a nonfactor IMO..ditto Peja. If the primary ball handler is struggling...so will everyone else. It's going to be the same with the Lakers and Kobe.


And Oberto whupped David West's ass earlier this season..surprised no one remembers that.

I think the Spurs need to do what they did in this game:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2008022324
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore...gid=2008022324

I think a ton of pick and roll with Timmy and Manu, Timmy and Tony. Also, moving the ball well is crucial (26 assists in the above game). Transition defense is important. Bruce Bowen on Peja is also very important. As is TP on Chris Paul. Also good defense on West. I don't know how Kurt will match up, but he just needs to get his rebounds and keep up with a solid defensive effort. The Big Three need to score. Most of all, mental toughness. The Spurs do not have the home court advantage, so they need to play smart and tough.

Spurs aren't a team that will let home court influence the way they play. That's why they're so good and never need to be #1 seed to win. The issue of having home court will affect the non-experienced team more. If Spurs get 1 out of the first 2 (or better yet, both), then Hornets will probably begin to crumble.

gr8 thread! it will all come down to the D.. i don;t expect David Weszt to have a huge series against us after being so hot in the regular season.... his percentages against us should start going to normal... i call Spurs in 6 yet again TP will be the man... :)

Stats for Bonzi Wells

Player ---- MP -FG% 3P% FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TO PTS
05-06 SAC 32,4 0,46 0,22 0,67 2,7 5,0 -7,7 -2,8 1,8 0,5 2,4 -13,6
07-08 NOH 19,9 0,49 0,33 0,66 1,0 2,3 -3,2 -0,8 1,1 0,4 1,2 -8,8

Playoffs
Player -------- MP FG% -3P% FT% ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PTS
05-06 SAC(6G) 41,5 0,60 0,62 0,65 4,2 7,8 12,0 1,3 0,8 0,3 4,2 -23,2
07-08 NOH (5G)16,6 0,41 0,00 0,00 0,4 2,0 2,4 1,2 0,6 0,4 0,60 -4,0

He really killed us in 2006 :wow

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Originally Posted by brettn

I'm alot more confident heading into this series then I was against the Suns, even without homecourt.

That whole team runs through Chris Paul. The Spurs have proven over the years that they have the ability to slow down players like him (nash, kidd, etc). Without Paul, Chandler doesn't get his numbers. West will probably get his, but he's reliant on his jumpshot at times and if it's not falling, he struggles (see game 3 vs mavs). So I respectfully disagree with you, I think if you shut down Paul, you shut down the team. Will this be easy? No. But I have confidence in bowen's on the ball defense and the rest of team's help defense to throw him into a funk of sorts.

On offense, I really feel like we have a huge edge. I don't see anyone on that team capable of stopping timmy, although I might be underestimating Chandler as a defender here. Either way, Timmy has a habit of getting the other team's big men into trouble which could take Chandler, and maybe even West out of the picture. So then you put Paul on Parker and who do you have that can slow Ginobli down? Pargo? Peterson? Again, I might be underestimating their abilities as defenders but I still don't see it happening.

If anything concerns me about this series, and it might be silly, it's that they have bonzi wells coming off the bench. Last time I remember playing him in the playoffs when he was with the Kings in 05 I believe, he absolutely wrecked shop against us. If he's on his game I can see him providing match up problems for us all over the court.

Either way, homecourt or not, I feel like we'll steal 1 of the first 2 in New Orleans, and close the game out in 6 at home, possibly even 5 with a little luck.

Looking forward to it!

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I agree with you and think the better question is " How do they stop us?"Parker is outscoring Cp3 so far in the post season and Duncan will eat Chandlers' lunch. Throw in a little Manu and hope Finley and the rest can contribute, and they'll have a harder time matching up with us than vice versa. Forget about what happened in the regular season. This is the Playoffs.:ihit:lobt::flag::nutkick:

Just get Paul ejected each time and Spurs win will be a piece of cake. :lol

I'm thinking Bowen on CP3 also. He's the head of the snake so we need our best defender on him.

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Originally Posted by T Park

I personally don't think, defense wise the Hornets are as good as the Suns

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Really? Hmm Maybe thats why we swept the Suns and split with the Spurs. We just better get to learning how to play defense then.

We need Princess Pimp to predict a sweep for the Hornets