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I'll be more worried about Blair defending the Lakers when Pau gets the ball.
Offense against them looks great - I don't see ANYONE around here complaining about small ball anymore.
I, along with probably every other Spurs fan, thought that DeJuan Blair would never be much help against the Lakers. Blair tends to struggle against length and there is no team longer than the Lakers. Blair also doesn't do well against stretch power forwards and in Lamar Odom the Lakers have one of the best in the business. Thus, Tiago Splitter and Antonio McDyess are better suited to combat what the Lakeshow bring to the table, right?
Now, after watching Blair have so much success against the Lakers in the first matchup this season, I'm not so sure.
The Spurs beat the Lakers due to superior speed and using a scrambling defense to disrupt their offensive attack. Blair, in this type of gameplan, actually fits best.
Against Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum, the Spurs don't have much of a chance against either once they catch the ball on the post -- no matter who is defending. But Blair showed an ability to make it difficult for the Lakers to enter the ball to the post, which may ultimately be the best type of defense to use against that duo's length.
Last year, the Lakers gobbled up Blair's shot attempts around the basket. This year, he's better able to score from a few feet away from the rim, which seems to have made a big difference. The Lakers length isn't as intimidating for Blair if he can consistently hit floaters and other touch shots in the lane.
This could very well have been an aberration but it's also possible to make sense of it. The Lakers are big and long. Instead of trying to match that size and playing into their hands, isn't it better to try to take the Lakers out of their comfort zone? Forcing L.A. to try to adapt to a faster, more powerful attack may be the better idea.
What does SpursTalk think? To beat the Lakers when it counts, will the Spurs ultimately need Splitter and/or McDyess to match their size? Or does Blair, despite the questionable fit, give the Spurs the better chance of winning?
I'll be more worried about Blair defending the Lakers when Pau gets the ball.
Offense against them looks great - I don't see ANYONE around here complaining about small ball anymore.
Suns did the same thing in the playoff but failed.
I think that the Spurs have a lot of options against the Lakers' length now. If this game is a precursor to what the Spurs will do, it tells us that they will use the scrambling defense option against the bigs and force Kobe to take shots by sucking the Lakers into a fast break game. But if the Lakers don't bite and go about setting their triangle offense, thats when the Spurs can counter back in a traditional sense through Duncan, Splitter/ McDyess in the low post and Parker, Ginobili, Jefferson, Hill combine in the perimeter.
And I am confident about the latter - Duncan won't have a bad game like this often and will be more effective both in defense and offense against Gasol and Splitter will learn to hang with the uber-bigs like Bynum and McDyess has the experience to do the needful.
I think the BBall IQ of the team is strong and they can react based on the situation in defense. It was always there before, but what was missing was the offensive plug, which has been nurtured this season quite well.
Am confident that the Spurs can hang well with the Lakers and even manage to overcome them, based on evidence today.
I'm glad this year we have more options. Playoffs series are all about adjustments so we'll need the toughness of Dice, Tiago size and Blair speed and energy.
Yesterday I was surprised how little they went to Gasol and Bynum on the post. I think team D did a good job denying them the ball but I expect LA using their bigs more in the next matchup.
I was very happy to see Blair playing with that energy. I think he's been playing bad and forcing a lot of things this season and I hope yesterday game will be the one he'll build going foward
Blair played great, team defense was great. But there will come a game against the Lakers where egomaniac Kobe Bryant looks more for his 7-Footers and the ending could be different. But if Blair struggles, we can always go back to Dice and Tiago ... I'm confident as ever.
Knowing Phil Jackson, I'm sure that he'll have some convincing counterpunch to small ball and Blair come February 3rd. I'd like to see the Spurs mix it up a little, i.e. use some size and also employ the swarming smaller lineup. Of course rhythm then becomes a concern. I suppose Sean Elliott said it best regarding the New Year's resolution, which is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it". The Spurs and Lakers go at it three more times before the Playoffs, so I'd probably stick with the gameplan that worked yesterday. But like I said, I'm sure that the Lakers will have a counter ready.
I truly hope that come February 3rd Tiago will be more acclimated on the court. Its nice that he grabs a board and blocks a shot from time to time, but man is it painful to see that T-Rex floater he tosses up. Chip needs to work hard on his shot.
Well obviously one game is not enough to draw conclusions but one could most definitely make an observation that playing faster tempo gives the Spurs a much better chance than trying to match the front court size of the Lakers ( barring a trade ).
I'm not convinced Blair would be able to play this well consistently throughout a whole series, but I do believe he can help against the Lakers despite of his size disadvantage, especially against Gasol, who isn't known for being very tough.In a 7 game series, though, the Lakers would find a way to counter and adjust to his strengths and weaknesses. Duncan also found it hard to work inside on offence without a stretch big next him and we all know that PJ will clog the lane and let the Spurs shoot from 3 as much they want.
This leads me to the conclusion that even though we can't fully rely on any of our bigs, save for Duncan, to perform consistently, they could use each of them in specific situations to take advantage of the Lakers, so I think our best chance to neutralize their front court advantage would be to use the one thing we have over them in that department - depth. We have 5 bigs who can produce, while they only have 3 and they play them to death. We need to use that and throw fresh legs as often as possible. We don't need and can't count on Blair having 17 and 15, but if each of them contributes a little in the right situations, for example Bonner hitting a couple of 3s, Blair getting a few offensive rebounds, Dice hitting a few midrange Js, then it'd all add up to a nice team effort and would give us a good chance against them.I'd also like to see them throw double teams at them often and like timvp said, just make it difficult for them to get the ball to their bigs down low.
I'd say the same thing about our perimeter players as well - use the depth, use the fresh legs and run at them as much as possible, we've seen it work against the Lakers, as they're one of the slower teams and their transition D is not impressive at all.
quick help defense and playin physical down low...pau gasol will just let you through no questions ask
whatever
We need them all. And IMO we need the size of Splitter.
McD is fast enough and his footwork is great.
So as long as Blair can give some energy even off the bench I'm in. LA gonna play big anyway. If it's 1stQ or 2nd or 3rd or 4th does not matter.
On defense Blair has to use his body (low center) and quickness to keep Gasol and Bynum out of deep post position. If he lets them get too low, there is nothing he can do. He matches up really well with Odom and Artest (if the Lakers play small). The best thing that I saw last night was that Bynum is to slow laterally to defend Blair. I don't know if that is due to him not being in shape or still injured, but it is clear that Blair is too quick for Bynum.
Hopefully, Blair's game last night is an indicator of things to come. I would like to think DeJuan had a big boost to his confidence (I saw his post-game interview on NBATV and he was beaming) and he has a statement game he can build on.
I want to be careful not to be too excited because Bynum is just coming back and is not 100% and Gasol hasn't been playing well lately, but at the very least, Blair will not be the non-factor against the Lakers that some had thought he would be.
The Spurs aren't the Suns. They can play a two-way game.
Something I noticed last night about the Lakers: They were looking for easy buckets. That's great, but when your shot isn't falling you need to alter your gameplan.
Gasol and Bynum did not set one repost near the lane all night that I can recall. It was a pass into the post, and either a shot, or a pass back out to the 3 point line if the Spurs ran a double at them. They usually rotated the ball around and ended up taking a tough shot from 17 feet out or farther. They should have reset the post-player and tried to work the ball in, especially when Kobe was clanking everything.
Now, this could be key, because we could have Blair continue to force them out of the post, and make LA force tough passes that are interceptible at their bigs. If Gasol or Bynum does get a good position inside, run a quick double team at them, force them to pass out of the post. As soon as that happens, either have Blair push them back out of the post, or switch and have him front the post player if the ball is rotating slowly or stagnating.
One of the Lakers biggest weaknesses is that they don't have ANY great passers, and only a couple of decent ones in Kobe and Gasol. If we can continue to force them to make tough passes in the post, we can live with the points they get from Blair's size because it's going to lead to turnovers as well.
The key to the interior defense last night was the very active perimeter defense. When you can take the guards and Kobe off their game and pressure their dribble and passing angles you can limit what they can do getting the ball in the post. George Hill was key, as was Manu and Parker.
If the Lakers hadn't turned into the Kobe show I'm not sure how effective DeJuan would have actually been against Pau/Bynum. I hope we'll always get this type of game, but eventually the Lakers have to adjust, and we'll know then if DeJuan can handle it. Whether he can handle it or not, it still makes sense to have Tiago ready to play a lot more minutes just in case.
I think you also have to look at what did the Lakers not do.
Odom was still wide open from the three point line, but no one on the Lakers got him the ball. Gasol played uninspired and flat footed and did a horrible job boxing out. Bynum was unstoppable when he got the ball down low, but they just did not give him the ball enough. Finally, the team lost its composure with Fish trying to be an inforcer and Kobe shooting like he is on the playground. If the Lakers get back to sharing the ball the question would be, can Blair still have an impact on the game?
A lot of folks have compared Blair to Malik Rose.
Malik used to play Shaq way better than made sense on paper.
Yes, Blair's quickness can be a factor, but he needs to back off if their bigs get it too deep in the post, especially Gasol. I don't know what Bynum's career numbers are, but if he continues to shoot free throws like he did last night, come playoff time hack-a-bynum will be in full effect.
Much is said about the Spurs matching the length of the Lakers, but what about the Lakers matching our back court? The best guard rotation in the league IMO.
I expect the Lakers to adjust and feed the out of Gasol and Bynum in the post next time. No reason to think the offense and rebounding were aberrations, unless the Lakers' big men were taking their defensive possessions off out of frustration.
I'm interested to see how they do now that they've been embarrassed and have something to prove.
I hope that Blair can play like this consistantly and Splitter to get more comfortable with his game so we have various options to throw at their bigs.
Best case scenario: they have to react to our big lineups instead of us having to react on Pau, Drew and Lamar.
He certainly got their attention now. That said, I think his gambling on the entry pass (effective this game), can be easily countered with some attention to detail by the passer, and can quickly turn into silly fouls. His rebounding can be an asset, on both ends.
Meh. He's gotta duplicate this performance more than a few times consistently in order to make me a true believer. Seems to me that Blair is a double edged sword really. When he's focused, there's not much that can stop him. Problem is, he's easily distracted from the ultimate goal.
Add to this that Odom seemed very passive last night and Gasol was just having an off night, and you'll understand why I'm reserving judgement for now. I do agree that his performance is very encouraging though.
I guess its a good thing that Spurs>Suns then.
Blair's effectiveness later in the game goes back to Timvp's comments applauding Pop's changes after the game started. During the first quarter, everybody was watching DeJuan Blair get killed on rebounding and generally look terrible. Duncan was missing virtually every shot he took, and Blair was unable to rebound any of his misses, so L.A. just kept increasing the score with Kobe taking all of the L.A. offense for himself.
One of the good things that resulted from Pop's taking the scoring onus off of Duncan (since he wasn't making them and L.A. just kept getting the ball) was that Duncan could set picks for other offensive threats and get in position for rebounds if they missed. He (Duncan) didn't do such a good job on the rebounding until much later in the game, but giving the offensive onus to Blair in the post and letting Tim play support really, really confused L.A., and it was a credit to Pop to have seen the need for it, to Tim to go along with it, and to Blair to understand what was needed and make it happen.
I was thrilled to see Blair go outin the first quarter and dreaded seeing him come in in the third, but the adjustments had been made and they worked. Let's face it, folks, Parker's game last night opened up a lot for any big of ours who could score. Duncan couldn't and Splitter looked too tentative, but he passed well a couple of times and ended up with numbers not too far off of Duncan's in many fewer minutes.
Is McDyess' back hurting him? I saw him with a heat pad early in the game.
IMO, we negated the length of the Lakers w/ superior help-defense & ....wait for it....spreading the floor offensively (not just talkin' 3's, people). If DB is hitting jumpers, the defense has to play honest & that opens up the paint. Spurs seem to have very active hands this year, allowing for a lot of fast breaks.
This is not your "old & slow" Spurs team.
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