Game Thoughts: Spurs @ Hornets Game 2

[Lebowski Brickowski]

Spurs have been overachieving for years as an organization. You can't expect to meet a DAntoni in every series to make it easy for you guys.

Same "We're the more talented team" lie I've been hearing for 5 years.

[1Parker1]

One positive thing the Spurs can try to do and take advantage of is get Chadler in foul trouble. You take him out and that should open up the paint for Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili. Also if u manage to shut down Peja with Bruce on him, that takes away 2 of the Hornets top 4 offensive/defensive strengths.

[MoSpur]

One positive thing the Spurs can try to do and take advantage of is get Chadler in foul trouble. You take him out and that should open up the paint for Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili. Also if u manage to shut down Peja with Bruce on him, that takes away 2 of the Hornets top 4 offensive/defensive strengths.

Now you're on the right track.

[1Parker1]

Now you're on the right track.

I still find it hard to imagine the Spurs winning 4 of 5 against this team, but I do think they can make the next two or three games at least close.

What I don't like is the effort that was wasted in games 1 and 2. After the first half, both games were still winable. Instead Spurs didn't show up...after watching that, I don't think they even deserve to win.

[michaelwcho]

[QUOTE=Warlord23;2468945 Scott has basically followed the 2004 Laker playbook, double Tim, pack the paint and dare the shooters to beat us.
[/QUOTE]

Teams work their a--ses off to get open 3's. We get them by design and can't knock them down. If we would just hit a normal percentage of open jumpers, we would be even with this team at the least. But how do you win when you can't even do that?

Assuming we don't get this together and win, a few solid shooters would seem to really help for next year.

[DDS4]

Good read, as usual.


Defense:

Tony on CP3: agreed
Bowen on Peja: agreed
Thomas (and defense by committee) on West
Duncan on anyone near the rim
Udoka on Bonzi (Udoka should only come in when Bonzi enters the game)
Finley on air


Offense:

We NEED a legitimate 3-point threat (Brent needs more minutes)
The Hornets' defense overpursues the basketball. We need to make them pay for that with some solid passing and pick-n-roll.
How about playing Duncan from the high post?



I also agree that Pop is trying to micro-manage the team. Stop being so damn gimmicky and just get back to basics.

2nd. And it's not like TD hasn't seen a double team before. We actually want the double team to come because it frees up the shooters. However, everyone's hesitating.

[MoSpur]

I still find it hard to imagine the Spurs winning 4 of 5 against this team, but I do think they can make the next two or three games at least close.

What I don't like is the effort that was wasted in games 1 and 2. After the first half, both games were still winable. Instead Spurs didn't show up...after watching that, I don't think they even deserve to win.

I agree with that. The Spurs Big Three especially seem to have lost interest once they're down and seem to whine more than anything. Especially Tim Duncan. However, Pop will pull out the "soft" card or something to that nature and the Spurs will roll in Game Three. Take it one game at a time.

[hater]

I still find it hard to imagine the Spurs winning 4 of 5 against this team

remember 3 of those 5 games are at home

[slowchild25]

I think Game 3 and the rest of the series will come down to a coaching move. Pop must, must, must switch the defensive assignments. Pop has to put Parker on Paul and Bowen on Peja Stojakovic. If he doesn’t, this series is over. The Hornets will either sweep or win in five.

If Pop does make that switch? It’s a whole new ballgame. Bowen has a great history of shutting down Stojakovic. In the first two games of this series, Stojakovic has 47 points. The Spurs just can’t beat these Hornets if Stojakovic is scoring that much. Paul and West are difficult enough to defend. If you add Stojakovic averaging 23.5 points to the equation, it becomes impossible. The good news is that Bowen can shut down Stojakovic. And while Parker isn’t going to slow Paul much, nobody is going to slow Paul much.

http://myespn.go.com/nba/truehoop

TrueHoop reader Tim e-mails about the Spurs: "The must adjustment -- one that I think could bring the Spurs back into the series -- is to change Bruce Bowen's defensive assignment to Peja Stojakavic. If Chris Paul can't be stopped, the Spurs are better off taking away the Hornets best game-changing scorer, which Bowen could easily do. Let Paul score, but enough with the uncontested Stojakavic threes. The Spurs are typically lauded for closing out on shooters, and yet they're getting bombed from deep this series."

That you?

[phxspurfan]

I would come up with this lineup to start the game:

Parker
Bowen
Udoka
Thomas
Duncan

Then I bring these off the bench:

Ginobili
Barry
Finley
Oberto
Horry

To start the game, I match up defensively this way:

Parker - Peterson
Bowen - Paul
Udoka - Stojakovic
Thomas - West
Duncan - Chandler


Defensive Strategy:

I instruct Bowen to go UNDER ALL PICKS by Chandler, and play 1-on-1 defense all game. I don't double Paul and don't attempt to trap him. He's too good at dribbling out of traps to find open players. I instruct everyone to stay focused on boxing out their assignments and tracking loose balls after they come off the rim.

Offensive Strategy:

I don't change much. On 4-down, I instruct all open players to shoot the ball if they're open, and play for fun. I don't apply too much pressure to do everything right, just let them keep a good finesse offense going and send 3 back on transition defense when any Spur shoots a 3.

[roycrikside]

I think Game 3 and the rest of the series will come down to a coaching move. Pop must, must, must switch the defensive assignments. Pop has to put Parker on Paul and Bowen on Peja Stojakovic. If he doesn’t, this series is over. The Hornets will either sweep or win in five.

If Pop does make that switch? It’s a whole new ballgame. Bowen has a great history of shutting down Stojakovic. In the first two games of this series, Stojakovic has 47 points. The Spurs just can’t beat these Hornets if Stojakovic is scoring that much. Paul and West are difficult enough to defend. If you add Stojakovic averaging 23.5 points to the equation, it becomes impossible. The good news is that Bowen can shut down Stojakovic. And while Parker isn’t going to slow Paul much, nobody is going to slow Paul much.

The strategy from here on out defensively has to be to force Paul to win games by himself. Take away Stojakovic and Morris Peterson. Send only minimal help towards West. Contain the rest of the role players. If Paul goes for 45 points to carry his team to victory, you tip your hat and go on vacation.

Offensively, the Spurs desperately need their three-point shooters to find their range. The Hornets are packing the paint defensively and daring the shooters to win the game for the Spurs. So far, the shooters haven’t been able to keep the Hornets honest. It doesn’t really matter what type of offensive set the Spurs run – be it Duncan in the low block, a pick-and-roll or an isolation – the Hornets are packing the paint on everything and leaving shooters open. The shooters need to be ready to take the shots and actually want to shoot the shots. The Hornets won’t stop packing the paint until the shooters show up.

The bottomline is the Spurs find themselves in a daunting 0-2 hole. To climb out, it starts with a Game 3 victory. Make the needed adjustments. Stick together. Gut out Game 3.

Believe.

I wish it were that simple. But Peja isn't getting the majority of his points burning Manu or even Finley. He's getting them on broken plays, transition, offensive rebounds where it's passed to him, things like that. In regular half court offense they haven't run all that many plays for him. And he killed us when we went zone. One thing the Hornets do very smartly is put Peja on the weakside and kind of get the Spurs defense to sleep and cheat by forcing so much of the action on the strong side, and just when they sag too much, there's Peja wide open, with a big like Chandler setting the screen on his defender.

[SPARKY]

Right. So you stick Bowen on Predrag and tell him not to leave his man.

Parker on Paul with Tony going under the screens. Keep Paul out of the paint.

[SpurOutofTownFan]

Big problem is their inability to shoot open looks. That has been the nemesis specially in the 3rd quarter. If they can keep it close entering the 4th quarter than I believe they can win just by means of experience in crunch time.

All these games, the Hornets haven't been faced with experience-testing situations where they could be down by 2 and there's only 2 minutes left in the clock in the 4th quarter. The Spurs have to been able to contain them until the last minutes of the game and beat them there when they start getting nervous and insecure.

Beating them in Game 3 is a must with the crowd firing on all cylinders. They need to take that iness out of their hearts, start second-guessing themselves. The hornets knew they had to win those 2 games at home or a split would kill them. They did their job now it's time for the spurs to do their, take the momentum to their throats and backdoor sweep their asses.

[polandprzem]

First it was West as a priority to stop, now it's Peja.
The beauty of the Hornets team is that every player can go off and make a big impact on the game. It can be one game but it's all what NO needs. They do now have a comfort of losing two games and still be ahead of th spurs with HCA

[ducks]

do you trap paul and get the ball out of cp hands?

[ManuTim_best of Fwiendz]

do you trap paul and get the ball out of cp hands?

No, you trap CP by the inbounds pass,
CP will start panicking and kicking and screaming in the trap, fall on his back pointing at both Manu and Fin saying he was fouled..

Refs will ignore him, until CP3 starts rolling around like a cranky four year old, in one direction 15 feet til' he reaches Bruce Bowen's heels forcing Bruce to try to avoid stepping on him.

Refs will reward him with free throws. Bowen fouls out.

[jcrod]

I'm all for Manu in the starting lineup. It's time to use everything in the arsenal. I'd like this rotation in Game 3:

Thomas - 35 minutes
Duncan - 42 minutes
Bowen - 40 minutes
Ginobili - 38 minutes
Parker - 42 minutes
Barry - 24 minutes
Oberto - 19 minutes

If there's foul trouble, maybe you trot out Finley or Horry ... otherwise, go with this seven.

I agree with this. Why does he continually play Thomas low minutes. If Pop doesn't switch Bowen to Peja, i don't know what to think. He's either brillant or freaking stupid and stuburn with his ways. Why he hasn't made the switch is beyond me.

Second round series has always been Pop's and the Spurs downfall. He's 5-4 in second round series. Which makes me believe they go in unprepared and relaxed.

It also seems the PHX series took too much out of them even though they won in 5. They just look so damn so and tired out there.

[ManuTim_best of Fwiendz]

He's either brillant or freaking stupid and stuburn with his ways. Why he hasn't made the switch is beyond me.

Second round series has always been Pop's and the Spurs downfall. He's 5-4 in second round series. Which makes me believe they go in unprepared and relaxed.

As evidenced by the non-practice "play with some hustle"

Complacency has been one of the Spurs in all of Timmy's years, worst vulnerability. Since Manu joined the core, we've seen less of it, (but sometimes even he's fallen under the team's complacent spell) so maybe Pop does get complacent or overly set in his ways, when he's accomplished a win or series win (he felt justified with small ball against the Mavs because they won some games with it...forgetting they were very very tough games), and his leadership in complacency trickles down to the team.

Can't count Pop out yet though, he's got another two days to figure something out and turn this series around coaching wise. I hope he proves us wrong and shows he's grown as a coach.

[sprrs]

-After being out of the rotation in Game 1, Ime Udoka was back in the rotation in Game 2. While he did a good job defending Bonzi Wells, his offense was so poor that he likely will find himself back on the bench for the rest of the series. The Hornets left him wide open on the perimeter and he just looked uncomfortable trying to hit the open looks. In 25 minutes, Udoka finished with seven points, five rebounds, two assists, two steals and two turnovers, while shooting 3-for-9 from the field and 1-for-6 from three-point land. His defense and rebounding helps but his inability to shoot in the playoffs has really hurt his overall value.

He was doing more than Finley was doing with at least some defensive production.

I agree that they can still pull it out though, Pop just needs to switch Bowen to Peja and play Barry in more then two minute spurts. It's obvious that Paul's still going to get his even with Bowen on him, so we might as well use him to shut down Peja.

[timvp]

Does anyone think that CP3 will allow this hornets team to lose 4 of the next 5?

This is the same Hornets team that was in the driver's seat to win the Western Conference and choked it off. They had a two game lead on everyone but then lost three of four games down the stretch, including a must-win game against the Kings. The Hornets also almost lost to the Knicks in that stretch. I respect CP3 and the Hornets but it's not like they have an impeccable record of not folding. If they can't close out the regular season with a two game lead, it's too early to concede this series with a two game lead.

[timvp]

I wish it were that simple. But Peja isn't getting the majority of his points burning Manu or even Finley. He's getting them on broken plays, transition, offensive rebounds where it's passed to him, things like that. In regular half court offense they haven't run all that many plays for him. And he killed us when we went zone. One thing the Hornets do very smartly is put Peja on the weakside and kind of get the Spurs defense to sleep and cheat by forcing so much of the action on the strong side, and just when they sag too much, there's Peja wide open, with a big like Chandler setting the screen on his defender.

Watch Bowen defend Peja much? Peja is a player you sprint to on transition and never leave under any situation. Bowen knows this and has shut him down repeatedly in his career.

Finley and Ginobili for some reason don't understand that you can never leave Peja. I don't care what is happening on the court, you sprint to Peja and stay on him. If you don't allow him to get in rhythm early, he's a lot less dangerous as the game goes along.

And in one-on-one situations, I've never seen Peja successfully just walk in for a layup like he's doing against Finley and Ginobili. The chances of Peja isolating Bowen and then going in for a layup after an elementary move is about 0%.

[DarrinS]

I agree with Timvp about shutting down Peja.


Game 1: 101-82 (19 pts), Peja got 22 pts
Game 2: 102-84 (18 pts), Peja got 25 pts


Peja simply cannot be allowed to have that much production.


Shut the er down.

[DarrinS]

Also, Peja's +- is stupidly high (and series leading)

+17 in game 1
+32 in game 2

[timvp]

http://myespn.go.com/nba/truehoop

TrueHoop reader Tim e-mails about the Spurs: "The must adjustment -- one that I think could bring the Spurs back into the series -- is to change Bruce Bowen's defensive assignment to Peja Stojakavic. If Chris Paul can't be stopped, the Spurs are better off taking away the Hornets best game-changing scorer, which Bowen could easily do. Let Paul score, but enough with the uncontested Stojakavic threes. The Spurs are typically lauded for closing out on shooters, and yet they're getting bombed from deep this series."

That you?

Good guess but no that's not me. I'm surprised Abbot still watches basketball now that the Suns have been eliminated . . .

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

Honestly, I think if Pop doesn't make the switch to put Bowen on Peja the Spurs are in deep doo-doo.

I'm having smallball flashbacks from 2006.