How do you counter Boris Diaw guarding Parker, and the Suns now playing Tri Towers.

[sunspride]

put tim duncan on boris diaw.

[cly2tw]

Were you a Suns fan in 2005? Stoudemire was destroying the Mavs, averaging like 40 in the first three games. The Mavs switched Finley onto Stoudemire and Stoudemire went down to about 20-22 point per game, IIRC.

2005 Stoudemire was pre-microfracture and even more of an athletic freak. Finley guarded him better than anyone else in that year's playoffs, including Duncan, Nazr, Dampier, Dirk and Gasol.

Amare didn't have a back-to-basket game to speak of. By putting Finley on him, they lured him into doing something he wasn't used to. Amare is now better at that, at least against smaller players like Finley. But for some reason, he has not been shooting well the last couple of games. Pop will try Finley on Amare a couple of times, just like he'll try hack-a-Shaq until Shaq could make the FT.

[timvp]

If I'm the Spurs I bank on Diaw laying an egg in at least one of the next 3 games. Take your chances with that rather than try and retool your entire gameplan to beat the Suns.

The Spurs can bank on that but they should have a backup option if it doesn't pan out. That's where Finley on Amare comes into play.

Stoudemire has never really had trouble against smaller defenders. It might take Stoudemire a little bit to figure out how to attack a smaller, speedier defender if Pop decides to go that route, but it'll be disastrous in the long run.

Disastrous in what sense? Stoudemire being the focus of the offense for the Suns has resulted in the Spurs winning almost every time. When Stoudemire had 38 points last year, that was the Spurs' easiest win of the series. In 2005, the only time the Spurs lost was when Stoudemire didn't go buck wild. Same pattern this year.

Stoudemire can put up points but he's not a passer, he's not a playmaker and he doesn't usually dominate for 48 minutes. Stoudemire is a great offensive player but that hasn't transfered into wins against the Spurs.

You've got to be kidding me if you think Finley is the answer on Stoudemire, so that another big can move to Boris Diaw.

You want to defend Stoudemire with length and physicality. Finley has neither and is 35 yrs old. He's way shorter, slower, and older than Amare.

Oberto and Thomas are also shorter, slow and older than Amare. The Spurs don't have length and physicality to throw at Stoudemire outside of Duncan. The drop off from Oberto to Finley wouldn't be that great.

He wasn't holding his ground either, he was even backing down before he even got the body bump from Amare. Basically he was just giving Amare an escort to the rim. Pretty ing lame.

It's called adjusting. I doubt Finley entered Game 4 ready to guard Amare. Same with the help defense. But if you put Finley on Stoudemire and have the help scheme mapped out, the drop off is not that far from what the Spurs regularly do against him over the years.

[yavozerb]

How do you counter Boris Diaw and Raja Bell? don't change a damn thing. let see those 2 win the series by themselves.

agreed!!If these guys can shot >50% and average >20 pts a game then the suns deserve this series. Keep bowen on Nash, Amare will get his 30+ pts, and the spurs will win game 5.

[JamStone]

Make Robert Horry 8 years younger.

[Taco]

Make Robert Horry 8 years younger.

Activate Ian Mahinmi, he's got size

[ManuTastic]

Finley on Amare? Nope; that's switching no-defense Finley from a 20-pt scorer to a 40-pt scorer. Pass.

Why not put Bowen on Diaw? Finley can check Bell, Parker can take Nash. I know Bowen's smaller and lighter than Diaw, but dammit he's a better defender. Prediction: Pop starts Bowen on Diaw in game 5.

Pop quiz for Pop: what do you do when a team is penetrating and getting shots in the lane? Answer: Z-O-N-E. Thanks.

[Admidave50]

I agree that I'd rather see Amare than Diaw going off as Diaw has much much better passing skills. He needs to be shut down and he will be!

Then, that's ing Diaw we're talking about, he's not a supastar! He won't have these kinda performances each game, he didn't help much for France during the Olympics qualifications.

[Jimcs50]

Key to Spurs winning next game:

Hit your shots.

nuff said.

[bigdog]

DerMarr Johnson? He's about 6'9", long, and a decent defender.

I know he hasn't played, but we have Damon on the active list, and he doesn't play, so why not fill that spot with DerMarr?

The thing that killed us the most was Diaw's post up on the baseline. Finley allowed some space towards the baseline, and Diaw kept using that turnaround move to get easy shots.

Even if Bowen started against Diaw, with Finley on Bell and Parker on Nash, I still think the Bowen-Diaw matchup is an advantage for the Suns. Try out DerMarr Johnson. It's worth a shot. We still have 3 games


Either way I think we close out the series tomorrow night.

[bigdog]

Key to Spurs winning next game:

Hit your shots.

nuff said.

True. Shots weren't falling all night. The Suns stopped the pick and roll, and the post up with Duncan didn't really work.

I want to see some ball movement. The more we move the ball, the more open shots we will get. Getting some players coming off of screens would help too, just like we had been doing with Finley the first couple of games.

[Taco]

Activate Ian Mahinmi, he's got size

Who would you rather have activated as your 12th man

Mahinmi or D.Stoudamire

[Xylus]

I have a feeling D'Antoni, like the doofus he is, will start this lineup on Tuesday:

Nash
Barbosa
Bell
Stoudemire
Shaq

Instead of the Tri-Tower offense:

Nash
Bell
Diaw
Stoudemire
Shaq

[Str8Ballin]

you're probably right xylus.

[senorglory]

I think Spurs lost this game because Duncan was off. This team cannot compensate for a mediocre showing by Duncan. Had Duncan converted first quarter attempts, Suns would not have had all the fast break points, Spurs would not have gotten into an insurmountable hole-- entire texture of game changed. Duncan shot 6 for 18 on the game. Anyone have first quarter stats? I'm pretty sure they were horrible.

/I could be wrong.

[Trainwreck2100]

I have a feeling D'Antoni, like the doofus he is, will start this lineup on Tuesday:

Nash
Barbosa
Bell
Stoudemire
Shaq

Instead of the Tri-Tower offense:

Nash
Bell
Diaw
Stoudemire
Shaq

I'm thinking he goes with the latter, but the better coach would have already gameplanned for that and when you need your coach to make an adjustment it won't be there

[roycrikside]

Manu's had a stellar season, better than Timmy and Tony, I guess I just raised my expectations too high. I just feel that Tony and TImmy have played much better than Manu this series but I guess that's normal, I just forgot he is a 3rd option.

This is ridiculous. I can't believe people are slamming Manu now. He is shooting 50% for the series. He shot 50% in Game 4. He only got 8 shots and played only 21 minutes. Manu doesn't call the plays and Manu doesn't decide how much the coach plays him.

I think what most people here refuse to admit is that when Tony has it going, Tony likes to look for Tony's shots. He obviously had it going in Games 2 and 3 and consequently he thought he could be the man again in Game 4. Diaw's length seemed to bother him and he didn't really adjust.

I think if the Spurs want to win this series in 5 Pop will have to tweak the game plan a little and use Manu more. Run the offense through him more and run pick and rolls with him and Tim more. Bell's length is not a problem for Manu and he has shown in this series, consistently I think, that he can score on him if he's given the opportunity.

I'm not blaming Game 4 on Tony. Every single Spur took a vacation that game and they obviously weren't very interested in winning. But if we don't change our offensive strategy at all, Game 5 could easily be a loss as well.

But anybody suggesting that Manu is struggling or MIA or whatever is being an idiot. He's hitting half of his shots, but his teammates and coach aren't using him enough. He didn't even get a three point attempt last game.

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

Who would you rather have activated as your 12th man

Mahinmi or D.Stoudamire

You do have a point there...

[td4mvp21]

This is ridiculous. I can't believe people are slamming Manu now. He is shooting 50% for the series. He shot 50% in Game 4. He only got 8 shots and played only 21 minutes. Manu doesn't call the plays and Manu doesn't decide how much the coach plays him.

I think what most people here refuse to admit is that when Tony has it going, Tony likes to look for Tony's shots. He obviously had it going in Games 2 and 3 and consequently he thought he could be the man again in Game 4. Diaw's length seemed to bother him and he didn't really adjust.

I think if the Spurs want to win this series in 5 Pop will have to tweak the game plan a little and use Manu more. Run the offense through him more and run pick and rolls with him and Tim more. Bell's length is not a problem for Manu and he has shown in this series, consistently I think, that he can score on him if he's given the opportunity.

I'm not blaming Game 4 on Tony. Every single Spur took a vacation that game and they obviously weren't very interested in winning. But if we don't change our offensive strategy at all, Game 5 could easily be a loss as well.

But anybody suggesting that Manu is struggling or MIA or whatever is being an idiot. He's hitting half of his shots, but his teammates and coach aren't using him enough. He didn't even get a three point attempt last game.

Tony needs to be the number 1 option. No one on the Suns can stop him. No one. They focused their entire defense on him in Game 3 and he put up 41. I want the ball in Tony's hands most of the game. I do think Duncan needs to be utilized more in the low block and Ginobili needs to have more then 8 shots like he did last game. But yeah, the Spurs are doing something right offensively.