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All of the above.
In light of the Spurs being so dangerously close to the brink of elimination, I have a question for the Spurs community. To what do you attribute the cause of the Spurs recent struggles?
Age?
Fatigue?
Desire?
Overconfidence?
Lack of motivation?
Lack of mental toughness?
3rd Quarter Blues?
Superior opponent?
Coaching?
All of the above.
You forgot to add mental toughness
3rd Quarter ups. That's all. We lead going into the half, why can't the Spurs put in a similar half for the 3rd and 4th periods.
Exactly!! It's that F'ing simple!
none of the above.
answer: 3rd quarter lack of focus on gameplan
Tim Duncan is surrounded by old, slow, immobile teammates in the front court. Teams that have athletic front courts can exploit this. It's suprising the Suns weren't able to except for the fact that hack-a-Shaq may have played a bigger role than people initially gave credit for in that series win.
Even if the Spurs were to get past the Hornets, you will find similar problems against the Lakers or the Jazz. Who on the Lakers is Kurt Thomas and Oberto going to guard? Gasol or Odom? On the Jazz, if Kurt and Oberto guard Boozer, you want Duncan running all over the perimeter chasing Okur's three point shooting?
The Spurs desperately need an athletic and mobile front court big man to help Duncan out.
...and have for about 2 seasons. Just because the team won a le last season doesn't justify the absence of such a skill set.
I have confidence for next year..cap room, Splitter coming over and Mahinmi continuing to improve..hopefully we win this year, but it's not like the run is over if we lose..
Very true. The Spurs winning the le last year despite the lack of front court depth is a testament to how good Duncan, Parker, Ginobili and the rest of the team played and how Pop coached. But, the older Horry and Oberto get, the problem becomes more and more glaring. Maybe Mahinmi can contribute next year. Maybe Splitter is the key. But, while some Spurs fans remain infatuated with a long small forward or a back up point guard, the biggest issue for the Spurs for the last 2-3 years has been front court help for Tim Duncan. It's amazing the Spurs have had as much success as they've had with Tim Duncan carrying so much front court responibility.
I've made this point in another thread but I think it needs to be reiterated here. The fact of the matter is, I think we've all underestimated the hornets and how good they really are. Most people on this board want to blame the spurs and only the spurs for their struggles against New Orleans. However, in point of fact, the Hornets are a wonderful basketball team. They are one of the best defensive teams in the NBA (easily the most overlooked and underrated aspect of their game) and have a legitimate top five NBA player in Chris Paul. They won 56 games (just as many as the spurs did) and have now blown the spurs out 5 times this season. Maybe it isn't the spurs age, lack of intensity, lack of effort, overconfidence, joey crawford conspiracy, etc (any other reason you want to come up with) that has the spurs in this 2-3 hole and facing elimination on thursday night. Maybe it's just the fact that they are playing a great basketball team who is every bit as good as they are. (and maybe even a bit better) You know what I think? I think if the spurs go on to lose this series (still a big IF in my mind) they have nothing to be ashamed of. They will have lost to a wonderful basketball team with many more playoff runs in it's future. I think it's time for spurs fans to wake up to this obvious reality.
I think the spurs can still win this series. But if they don't, give credit where credit is due and stop berating your team for losing to a team who just might be better than them.
Superior opponent
spurs fans are the worst in the league when it comes to saying they are simply not as good as the opponent that is going to send them home.
the mavs are not as good as the hornets and to their credit agreed that they were simply not as good as the hornets. on dallas mavs.com it was accepted they were over matched.
the spurs are not the team they once were, and are not as good as the hornets.
the spurs had a great run but its winding down now.
i do not expect to see a single spur fan here to say the hornets are just better.
my comparison to the mavs is not really fair because the spurs is all san antonio has, so its probably harder to accept the teams decline, whereas dallas has other sports teams with championships (cowboys 5 and stars 1)
the hornets are all new orleans has if you dont count lsu since they arent pro, so it might be the same for us when we start to go south, but we are very young so we should be pretty good for some time.
It is amazing. Funny as this may sound, I was hopeful that the the acquisition of Melvin Ely last year would've provided such a backup PF for Duncan. Obviously, he failed to impress.
I still believe that winning the le gave the FO the justification NOT to improve the depth on the roster. A decision that can now be questioned.
lack of reliable gameplan
desire would be #1 IMO.. its hard to maintain that fire to win and the hunger after you have had so much success...
However, the aint over yet
I say a little bit of everything w/an extra side of no offensive execution.
For your information, Jason Terry, just two days ago on his local radio show, proclaimed that after watching the Spurs/Hornets series, he was even more convinced that the Mavs were "better than the Hornets." Obviously, you have to consider the source of such an utterly brain-dead comment like that, but it still constrasts your point.
There's no way for you (a Hornets fan) to know the talent infusion the Spurs have planned for next year and beyond. The Spurs are one of the more shrewedest organizations for drafting and developing international talent. They simply need to their homework here on the domestic front. That said, I will offer you this, as long as Duncan, Parker and Ginobili are together, this team will be a contender. So don't be so quick as to hold a memorial for the Spurs.
In the NBA, the best team usually wins a 7-game series. No team can lose four times in a 7-games series and proclaim that "even though we lost, we're still the better team". That's just stupid. Who ever emerges as the eventual winner of this series will be considered the better team. It's that simple.
Until the Hornets get that 4th win, this is all premature ejac.
So now the team needs Francisco Elson....
terry is a punk. i dont hold anything he says in very high regard. i was more referring to what was being said by fans on mavs.com. (i think is what i said)
really? so by the time they are 40 you guys should have 4 more championships? you can offer me that bit of info but you maybe should re-evaluate the logic (or lack of) in that statement.
this is probably true, but among the population of this site, the eventual winner of this series will NOT be considered the better team. check the posts in this thread so far. most are saying anything but the hornets are superior.
For me, the decline of Robert Horry has been huge. When I watched Boris Diaw score repeatedly in the post I thought how Horry in his day would have shut him down. And now watching West, I have the same feeling. Forget the offense lacking, Horry was a very good defender....I guess I underestimated how quickly his game has disappeared.
I think most of this just comes down too a great opponent that knows how to play us and gives us match-up problems.
Matchup Problems
Quality Opponent
Focus
Thou hast smote the nail head soundly, sir!
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