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Spurs 93 - Lakers 101
Starting Splitter
The Spurs and Lakers had a memorable trio of regular season games last season. In the first matchup, the Lakers bigs pounded the Spurs on the inside. If you remember correctly, Andrew Bynum grabbed an astonishing 30 rebounds.
In the next two contests between the two teams, the Spurs bounced back and pounded the Lakers both times. To combat the size of Los Angeles in the middle, Pop started Tiago Splitter next to Tim Duncan.
While the Lakers now feature Dwight Howard instead of Bynum, I think Pop should go with the same alignment that worked so well last year. Even though Splitter has struggled this season, he should get the call to start next to Duncan to help control the backboard and avoid any colossal mismatches.
If not Splitter, then it should be Boris Diaw starting next to TD. DeJuan Blair shouldn’t even be an option. That’d be suicide.
Defensive Rebounding
Historically during the Pop Era, the Spurs have always been a great defensive rebounding team. In fact, the leaderboard of the best defensive rebounding teams of all-time is littered with Spurs team. Last season, San Antonio not only led the league in defensive rebounding percentage, they posted the 13th best mark of all-time.
This season, the Spurs are 20th in the NBA in the rebounding. It’s been a stunning fall -- and one that can hopefully be attributed at least partially to the small sample size.
Tonight against the Lakers, the Spurs will get a great test to see if they should panic about their lack of defensive rebounding. Los Angeles is currently the best team in the league when it comes to defensive rebounding. Unless the Spurs make it a priority to hit the defensive glass, this could get ugly.
Depth Matters
If the Spurs are going to win tonight, the bench will likely have to play an important role. Although that is true most nights, it’s especially true against the Lakers. San Antonio is right near the top of the league at bench scoring, while L.A. is at the bottom of the NBA with the Blazers. And as we witnessed against Portland last game -- a contest that saw the Spurs go on repeated runs when the bench units squared off -- a bench advantage is a wonderful weapon in the regular season.
Predictions Wanted
Gain a spur below your username by correctly predicting the score of tonight’s game in this thread.
Spurs 93 - Lakers 101
Spurs 104 - Lakers 97
dejuan blair will have 10+ rebounds .... & lead the game in rebounds
107-96 Spurs
Spurs 102 Lakers 99
Spurs 96 - Lakers 91
107 - 92 Spurs
Spurs 101
Lakers 92
Would love to see a Tim/Splitter starting combo. I do like that Pop seems to be giving those two more minutes together this season.
Spurs 104
Lakers 100
Spurs 101, Lakers 95
Spurs 97
Lakers 91
Spurs 95
Lakers 88
Spurs 100
Lakers 96
Manu looks good to go.
Spurs 107
Lakers 99
Last edited by timtonymanu; 11-13-2012 at 09:44 PM.
I thought Blair carved up the Lakers with Pau and Bynum. At one point he was supposed to be a change-of-pace kind of energy matchup.
Spurs over the Lakers 112 - 103
Chris Duhon is starting for LA. That's a fantasy game for Tony, right there. , maybe even Nando and Gary too.
Spurs 106
Lakers 103
Spurs 109
Lakers 97
Spurs 103
Lakers 99
Spurs 101
Lakers 96
^damn, beat me by a minute. didnt even see it. spurs 101 - 97
Spurs 89
Lakers 105
Spurs 87
Lakers 96
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