Totally.
I had the same thoughts about the Hornets being the most dangerous team we'll face (they are by far the worst in terms of matchups, and Paul/West is currently as hot as you get).
I also totally agree that it's time to throw doubles at West from all angles to put him off kilter. The game we beat them late in the season we got West off-balance early and they never recovered.
Better come out with something clever next game, because these guys will be a very tough beat from 0-2.
I hope the Spurs guards set up Duncan and create shots for him.
Three keys that the Hornets are using very well
1) Stop Tim Duncan at all costs and let the other starters beat them. The Hornets aren't even worried about the Spurs bench. It really messes up the offensive flow of the Spurs because Tim hurries his shots and hurries his kick outside.
2) Jannero Pargo. Inserting Jannero Pargo with Manu means that Manu (with his lingering groin issues) has to keep up with the lightning quick Pargo. Manu's legs gave out on him and he couldn't make his shots. His forrays into the paint also were ineffective because he couldn't get any lift. If you watch Pargo, he just runs around the court making Manu chase him around.
3) Bonzi Wells. Bonzi pretty much just stood there and laughed at Finley guarding him. Finley has no chance against Bonzi.
The Hornets have a two player bench but they're very effecitve. Speed is killing the Spurs, all these Hornets are quick footed for their position.
Last edited by Allanon; 05-04-2008 at 05:52 AM.
I liked the lashing of Tim Duncan's performance. He really did suck.
I agree with you. They better get him more involved and make better passes. They sometimes tend to move away from him and completely exclude him from plays which really ruins his rhythm. Well, he actually didnt have any today but then again you know what I mean. Also, Manu and Parker shouldn't stop being aggressive and I think they should've attacked the rim more than they have taken jumpshots.
I think we should also try Ime on Chris Paul to alternate with Bowen.
But most importantly, I think the Spurs really need to work on their offensive plays because this is the only year I've seen them struggle on offense for long periods.
It's right. Yet, at the same time, Spurs scored in early offense when there was spacing confusion by the Hornets for some reason. In set half court, Spurs could hardly score. That's really a dilemma.
You know, when you come down to hit, Spurs lost because a really bad offensive game and bad adjustments.
If the following happened Spurs would have won by double digits:
-Duncan gets his confidence level up early. Although the double-teams did work at first, he did get some good looks, but they just wouldn't drop. His confidence level was low the whole game and you can tell at his body language at the FT line.
-Rotate Horry and Thomas off of Bonzi and West. It's pretty damn obvious that Finley cannot guard either of them, so stop trying to put him on them. Everytime West got the ball and Thomas guarded him, West had to give it up. Horry is quick on his feet as well and he has those long ball-stealing arms. I want to see Horry and Thomas get a little bit more time. Even Udoka should get a shot at guarding at least Bonzi. Udoka and Bonzi are about the same size.
-Penetrate MORE! Yes, it's great that Bowen made those 3's early on but you don't need to keep dishing it to him at the arc every chance you get. Have Parker and Ginobili penetrate as much as possible. When Parker got Paul in foul trouble I was happy as because I thought Popovich would keep sending Parker straight as Paul, but he didn't.
-Stop giving up rebounds. I was so disgusted with the first 3 minutes of the ball game. Hornets missed like crazy but they got so many offensive boards. Buckle down and get those rebounds. No second chance shots!
Tim did suck. Big time. Get your head out, Tim. Please.
Tony was much better than you give him credit for, TimVP. He looked like the only guy out there who could play in this game (except Bowen and Finley).
The 20-min timeout was really bad for Manu; it threw him off his rhythm entirely. Sucks, but a streaky shooter like Manu is very vulnerable to like this.
Next game, we have to try Duncan on West. The last game of the season, Tim did a great job against a similar type player: Boozer. Let him try it again. Anyone who thinks West is just going to start missing 12-footers because we want him to (Pop, this is for you) is nuts.
And I agree: more Barry, LOTS more Udoka, and less Horry.
And no more hack-a-Tyson, m'kay? It was a great move against Shaq, but against Tyson it just makes us look desperate.
PS. At halftime, least someone explained to the fans there that booing the opponent for no reason is the sign of being a classless . I could not believe that .
Udoka should be able to slow down Bonzi and keep him off the boards, and occasionally throwing Ime at West or using him for doubling makes sense. Why he didn't play today I'll never understand.
JV should chase Pargo around.
And we have to attack their bench bigs - Ely and Armstrong are garbage.
Why Spurs heck a Chandler???
Couple things I saw last night...
I think Bruce Bowen shooting the ball so well in the first half actually hurt the Spurs in retrospect. When Tim is double-teamed and the defense collapse inside, it's the right play to kick it out to open shooters, but Bruce shooting so many shots is probably what the Hornets wanted. I'm sure they didn't anticipate him to shoot lights out. But, it took the ball out of Duncan's hands in that first half. And, the chances of Bruce maintaining that shooting throughout the game and in the second half were slim. What it did was never allow Tim to get into rhythm offensively.
David West is a lot better than I ever thought. I don't know if he was particularly exceptional last night, but his midrange game is crazy good. He also has a pretty decent handle for his size on his dribble drives. He had a behind the back dribble in traffic that got me saying wow. And, that somewhat running half hook also shocked me. Spurs don't really have a guy to match up with him. I agree with Kenny last night that the Spurs may have to put Duncan on him more.
Chris Paul cannot check Tony Parker. Tony has to try to get him in foul trouble. Paul didn't shoot the ball well, but getting him in foul trouble will definitely impact the game.
Pop used that hack-a-Chandler last night and it really surprised me. Now I haven't followed the Spurs as closely as you guys but this is the most I've seen Pop micro-manage playoff games ever. When the Spurs are up and the other team scores just two baskets in a row in the second half, it seems like he calls a timeout. I'm sorry if this is cynical for you Spurs fans, but even despite beating the Suns in 5 with what appeared to be relative ease, it almost seems that Pop is micro-managing every possession of every quarter of every game to take as many advantages as possible almost because he thinks the Spurs really need it this year. Seems like he's not that confident about the Spurs being able to win without that micro-managing and without exploiting every single resource and advantage. Maybe it's just that I hate the hack-a-Shaq stuff so much and I could be wrong, but that's almost what it feels like when I saw him do it to Chandler last night.
Hmm, I've seen this same game a few dozen times before, against Denver, Phoenix, Dallas. Seattle (even), Los Angeles as well. I sat at mid-court in Salt Lake City a year ago and saw a worse thrashing by the Jazz. Now that was intimidating as all . A bit more composure by Timmy, fewer shots falling here and there, and this s a different game and all of you would be praising the out of our Spurs.
Hold your criticisms until the Hornets beat us at home. My guess is that we'll lose on Monday, too, and then it will continue back and forth until the seventh game. And that's when the cream rises to the top.
Talk about whining. Must be be prevalent with everyone associated with the Spurs.
Thing is Hornets don't have to beat the Spurs at home. The Hornets are the team with four home games in this series.
I pretty much agree with all of that.
What's killing us (besides Tim not showing up) is not having the right guy to defend West. West will torch our centers and is too big and mobile for Bruce. We could put Tim on him, but I'd bet that West would welcome that matchup.
We don't match up well with this team.
Someone compared it to the 2006 Mavs. I think they're more like the 2006 Kings.
Or, it could be that we're witnessing the emergence of a really great team.
Simply put, the Spurs played like and got blown out. No surprise there. Told y'all it was coming.
If they actually show up for the full 48 minutes, they can beat this Hornets team.
The only question is, will they?
We will all see on Monday night.
GO SPURS GO!!!
If we can beat Nash-Stoudemire and we've beaten Williams-Boozer, surely we can beat CP3-West.
Gotta get that win on Monday night. Got to.
Pop was thouroughly outcoached last night and he treated the game as if it were a regular season matchup with absolutely no in game adjustments;
--Hack-A-Tyson??? Was that really neccesary with the Spurs up 7 and the Hornets missing shots as it was?
--Double teaming Duncan? How about putting Brent Barry on the floor a little early along with Finley, Ginobili and Parker in the 3rd quarter when the Spurs couldn't buy a shot?
I actually think the Spurs best strategy against these Hornets may be similiar to what they did against the Suns in 2005. Let West get his as they did with Amare, force Paul to become more of a scorer, less of a distributor, and concentrate on shutting everyone else down (Peja, Bonzi, Pargo, etc).
Oh and a bigto Tim Duncan last night who let Melvin Frickin Ely own him in the paint and outhustle him for offensive rebounds.
The constant whining by him, Parker, and Ginobili has got to stop.
Oh and maybe this doesn't belong here, but Bruce Bowen has got to be careful against Chris Paul...dude is a slick actor. That fake "bump" in the 3rd quarter had me so pissed. He also trash talked with Bowen later in the game and when the ref turned to him, he acted all defensive as if he wasn't the one that initiated that .
I'm really not sure which one was worse last night. Us getting the living crap beat us of us in the second half by the Hornets. Having to listen to my asshole co-worker who happens to be a Chris Paul fan everytime Paul or anyone else for that matter dunked or got to the rim yell "get off of me". (It was really bad when Paul almost single handily juked the entire team late in the 4th) Or the fact this seems earily fimilar to 06. The only bright spot was we did control the 1st half. But Dallas also did in their first game against them. Hopefully this doesn't get as ugly as I think it can get. We looked lost last night.
CP3 is a smart guy for such an inexperienced NBA player. He knows what works and what he can get away with. Im not saying i agree with it but most teams in the NBA have 1 or 2 players that are like that and are crafty.
Spurs should bounce back but if they dont then this one will be over. If the Hornets are up 2-0 rolling into SA then i am pretty sure their confidence will allow them to steal 1 of 2 in SA.
We'll be fine. If we get our together and play Spurs basketball monday we'll win. But we can't afford to around and lose this one.
The fact that tim duncan was garbage last night is exactly why i'm not worried. Now if he had played Duncan ball and we still lost...then I would be afraid.
Hornets look like a better team to me and there's no shame in losing to a better team. However, the effort has got to be there and Tim for as great as he was in game 1 against phoenix was equally as bad last night. Can a true superstar do that?
Tony, Fin and Bruce(of 1st half) were the only ones that showed up. IMO Tony's turnovers happened late when the game was out of hand. Manu played with half a brain. Tim was as TIMVP described, a spoiled brat and left his team to dry.
NO is a horrible matchup for the Spurs and we will need a miracle for the spurs to pull this one out. Again, no shame in losing to the better team.
Last edited by 2centsworth; 05-04-2008 at 11:05 AM.
oh my God are you serious? It's one game. Calm down.
This fan base has the backbone and fight of Dirk Nowitzki sometimes. One loss and they are ready to wave the little white flag and jump off a cliff.
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