It All Comes Down to This One Issue

[Blue-Lightning]

You might think it comes down to health, you might think it comes down to Tony Parker, you might even think it comes down to Manu returning to form. It doesn't. It all comes down to Tiago Splitter. With Boris Diaw out, it's relatively given that Duncan will still be highly effective, but Splitter will be required to go big minutes with few fouls. If Tiago joins Duncan in playing at a very high level - as we saw in the first half of the year - the Spurs will literally shut down the Lakers' engine, grinding their offense down to nothing (Nash is not going to be effective in his current state). The options behind Duncan and Splitter for guarding Gasol and Howard... they're not good.

Splitter plays well, we win. Splitter plays poorly, it's going to be close. That's it.

[Blue-Lightning]

Well, perhaps I shouldn't be a prognosticator. But then again, who could have seen Bonner outplaying Splitter in the first half. I'm still sticking with the original post in the second half though - I expect Howard and Gasol to post up A LOT more... we need Splitter playing much, much better... in this round and any others we can get to.

[Spurs4#5]

It obviously doesnt come down to splitter when he doesnt play great and we win easy...it comes down to team play amd ball movement.

[Brunodf]

Splitter played good D tbh, but his offense was bad

[TrainOfThought5]

i agree that big picture wise Tiago can get us closer to a championship (beating OKC and MIA), than anyone outside the big 3. his positive contributions will probably be critical, tbh.

[Blue-Lightning]

Splitter played great D in the second half, and that was definitely a part of the Spurs gaining separation. However, I think it needs to be understood that D'Antoni probably cost himself his job by not having his two bigs - the engines of his offense - play their strong game which is posting up down low. So with the coach running a gameplan which is obviously detrimental, and not running his offense in the best way possible, having Splitter guard against their strongest offensive option is much less necessary. I'm quite stunned that D'Antoni could not figure out the obvious as an NBA head coach.

[kaji157]

It comes down to the big three playing average to well and the others not sucking so much.
Incredibly we won today with most of the role players playing either bad or scared.
Props to cory Joseph and Bonner stepping up.
Anyways Green, Neal, Leonardand Splitter just proved how unproven players they still are. Too much dependable on the big 3 to carry them.

[angelbelow]

According to Mettaworldwar it really does come down to one issue:
"Sometimes you just lose. So its real simple, just don't lose."

[letmk]

Splitter played great D in the second half, and that was definitely a part of the Spurs gaining separation. However, I think it needs to be understood that D'Antoni probably cost himself his job by not having his two bigs - the engines of his offense - play their strong game which is posting up down low. So with the coach running a gameplan which is obviously detrimental, and not running his offense in the best way possible, having Splitter guard against their strongest offensive option is much less necessary. I'm quite stunned that D'Antoni could not figure out the obvious as an NBA head coach.

Maybe they can post down low more, but I don't think that's the big issue for this game. It's their shooters who need to make some shots.

Unlike when KB was playing, Howard and Gasol got decent amount of touching. Plus, Howard and Gasol made 10 combined TOs between them. Against two good defenders in TD and Splitter and helpers from time to time, you can't just post up for every half-court offense.