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Well said.
Another series. Another 0-2 deficit. After blowing a 20-point lead in Game 1 against the Los Angeles Lakers, the Spurs didn’t put up much of a fight in Game 2. With the contest tied at 37-37 near the end of the first half, the Lakers went on a 9-0 run and never looked back. By the time the game mercifully ended, the Lakers had destroyed the Spurs 101-71.
For a young team that doesn’t have that much experience, the Lakers played about as good as humanly possible. All 11 players who went on the court for Los Angeles performed well. From Kobe Bryant all the way down, the Lakers were very, very good. Phil Jackson is coaching better than ever and the Lakers are playing better than any team in basketball right now.
The Spurs, on the other hand, played about as poorly as possible. Not one player had a good game. Both the offense and the defense were pathetic. With the way the Spurs played, I don’t know if they could have beaten any team in the NBA. The Lakers definitely deserve credit but the Spurs also played a major role in their own demise.
I don’t believe in making excuses during the playoffs but anyone who watched the Spurs play could see they are fatigued. I don’t know if they are physically fatigued or mentally fatigued, but San Antonio just didn’t have any juice in their battery.
In Game 1, I don’t think that game had too much to do with fatigue. The Spurs were running on adrenaline after their Game 7 victory and I think more than anything the players and the coaches just choked. In Game 2, it looked like everything caught up to the Spurs and they just didn’t have the needed energy.
Overall, it was a disappointing loss, to say the least. The Spurs now have to look to make history for the second straight series.
-Tim Duncan played decently. In 32 minutes, he had 12 points, 16 rebounds, four assists and only one turnover, while shooting 6-for-14 from the field. In terms of energy and effort, Duncan was one of the few bright spots. However, if Duncan is getting absolutely no help, there’s no way he can beat the Lakers by himself. I thought his determination waned, especially in the second half, but it was understandable with how the Spurs were getting destroyed. On the whole, I think Duncan’s play in the first two games of the series has been good to see. He struggled against the New Orleans Hornets but he has shown he’s capable of dominating in this series. Whether the Spurs will give him enough help to allow his domination to mean anything is the main question right now.
-Manu Ginobili had his second straight sub par game. He went scoreless in the first half and was generally just ineffective. On the night, Ginobili had seven points, two rebounds and hit 2-of-8 shots from the field. While he definitely didn’t play well, I do think he played a lot better than he did in Game 1. His defense was better, his decision making was better and he showed a few glimpses of athleticism in the second half. It seems as if the media is trying to place the blame on Ginobili for the Game 2 loss and that’s totally laughable. Ginobili only played 23 minutes and by the time he got rolling, the Spurs were already too far in a hole. He cleaned up a lot of his Game 1 errors and I was happy with the way he competed. Ginobili is obviously either hurt, fatigued, not playing well or a combination of the three but it’s unfair to blame the first two losses on him. I’m fully confident Ginobili will rise above and figure it out for Game 3.
-I was extremely disappointed in Tony Parker’s play in Game 2. It was obvious that Ginobili and the role players weren’t playing well early on but Parker never picked up his game. For the Spurs to beat the Lakers, Parker is going to have to play at a superstar level. In Game 2, he got outplayed by Derek Fisher. That’s unacceptable right now if the Spurs want to survive the Lakers. Parker is usually a compe ive player but he seemed to just roll over and die in Game 2. From here on out, Parker needs to play with more heart and will to win. He’s the youngster of the squad and needs to elevate his game when everyone else is playing poorly – not join them.
-Bruce Bowen was powerless to stop Bryant in Game 2. He defended pretty well but Bryant was better. Bryant caught fire in the last 18 minutes of Game 1 and that rolled right into Game 2. Between Los Angeles and San Antonio, Bowen needs to figure out a way to stop Bryant from looking like the purple and gold version of Michael Jordan. I do like how Bowen is keeping Bryant off of the line but he needs to somehow also harass his jumper. Giving Bryant his jumper right now isn’t going to work – and that’s what Bowen is trying to do. The good news is that the problem seems to be more tactical than anything else. Bowen and the Spurs need to adjust and force Bryant into areas of the court he’s not comfortable. Offensively, Bowen was good enough as he scored eight points on 3-for-5 shooting from the floor.
-Michael Finley started and played 21 minutes as Pop elected to move Ginobili to the bench. Finley responded with another dud. He scored eight points on 3-for-9 shooting and provided no defense, rebounding or anything else that could have assisted his team. That said, he did play a lot better than Game 1 – so hopefully he’s headed in the right direction. Playing horribly pathetic to playing like crap is an upgrade, after all.
-I guess Game 1 was a mirage when it came to Fabricio Oberto. In Game 1, he looked capable of defending Lamar Odom. In Game 2, Odom destroyed him and Oberto was ineffective in just about every aspect of the game. In 22 minutes, he had four points, two rebounds and hit just 2-of-7 shots from the court. It was a bad time for Oberto to play his worst game of the playoffs.
-Jacque Vaughn played 17 minutes and didn’t help matters. The bad news is the Spurs look like they’ll be stuck playing Vaughn the rest of the series. In the first two rounds of the playoffs, Bowen could just switch over and become the defensive point guard when Parker went to the bench. In this series, Bowen has to be glued to Bryant – so Vaughn has to be used as the backup point guard. If Ginobili is used as the backup point guard, he’d have to defend the Lakers point guard – which obviously wouldn’t help any fatigue issues he may be having. Vaughn will just need to play better and somehow spark the team.
-Brent Barry played 16 minutes and was pretty decent. The problem with Barry is his injured calf has limited his mobility to the point he can’t defend. Offensively he’d be extremely helpful. Maybe Pop will go with Barry and live with his defense – but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
-Ime Udoka played 16 minutes and was once again erratic and showed poor shot selection. Udoka teased Spurs fans by playing great at the end of the Hornets series. He now seems to have regressed back to the untamed version of Udoka we saw during the regular season and the Suns series. He finished Game 2 with six points, five rebounds and three assists, but shot just 2-for-8 from the field. His lack of athleticism doesn’t make him a great match against these Lakers.
-Robert Horry played 14 minutes and did more harm than good. Although he played pretty good defense, he missed all five of his shots offensively and appeared to be a step slower than usual. It’s tough to say whether the Spurs should keep playing him or if they should look for another option.
-Kurt Thomas only played nine minutes and doesn’t look like a player who will be too helpful against the Lakers. His lack of mobility makes it impossible for Pop to play Thomas and Duncan at the same time. In theory Thomas would do well against Pau Gasol – but that hasn’t really proven to be true on the court.
-Damon Stoudamire played nine minutes of garbage time and responded by going 0-for-5. At least he didn’t try to make any waves by actually making a shot.
-Pop definitely has his work cut out for him. The Spurs got run out of the building and are now staring at playoff elimination. Pop has a fatigued team that is at a major speed and athleticism disadvantage against the Lakers – and the fatigue is making those disadvantages worse.
It’s tough to be too critical of Pop when it was the players who didn’t show up. Unlike Game 1, a few coaching moves weren’t going to save the Spurs on this night. Perhaps Pop’s pep talks could use work but other than that, Game 2 doesn’t fall on his shoulders.
In the Hornets series, Pop made the needed adjustments between Game 2 and Game 3 – and those adjustments ended up working perfectly. The Spurs were able to dig themselves out of the 0-2 hole because they basically scrapped their original gameplan for a totally different gameplan.
Against the Lakers, it’s not that simple. There are no glaring strategic mistakes being made by the Spurs. That said, I do think the Spurs need to make some changes before Game 3:
1. Establish Duncan early. Against the Hornets, the Spurs got away from relying on Duncan for offense. In this series, they need to get back to playing through Duncan. The Lakers don’t have anyone who can guard him and Duncan can hopefully put the Lakers in foul trouble early.
2. Keep the pace slow. This goes hand in hand with establishing Duncan. If Duncan is dominating in the low blocks, the Lakers can’t get out and run. However, on the other hand, the Spurs need to run off of the Lakers’ turnovers and any long rebounds.
3. Parker has to attack. In this series, Parker needs to take over. If he’s not shooting 20+ times per game, he’s not doing his job. He has a quickness advantage against everyone on the Lakers. Even if he’s missing at the rim, Duncan is by far the best rebounder on the court and can score off of Parker’s misses.
4. Start Ginobili. I know Ginobili isn’t 100% but Pop has to start him. As lame as it sounds, the Spurs need to avoid the Ginobili versus Sasha Vujacic matchup. Ginobili can score against Vladimir Radmanovic. Additionally, Ginobili needs a good start at home to get him flowing back in the right direction.
5. Cut down the rotation. The Spurs need to go back to a seven or eight man rotation. In the first couple games, Pop has used a ten or eleven man rotation – and that’s just too many players. Pick your two or three bench players and let’s roll, Pop.
6. Make Bryant work. The Spurs are allowing him too many easy jumpers so far in the series. Make Bryant dribble and create on the move. His jumper is automatic right now and then that fuels the rest of his game. He doesn’t make many mistakes these days but when he does, it’s almost always when he’s on the move.
7. Transition defense. When the Lakers go on runs, it’s usually initiated by fast break points. Los Angeles will get a dunk or a three-pointer on the fast break and then the floodgates will open. The Spurs need to get back on defense and force the Lakers to beat them in a halfcourt setting.
8. Rebound. The Lakers are bigger but the Spurs have the ability to dominate the glass. Lost in the wreckage of Game 2 is the great job the Spurs did on the defensive glass. That needs to remain a factor in the Spurs' favor.
9. Keep shooting. The Spurs need to knock down shots to win this series. Hesitating is worse than a missed shot, especially versus the swarming defense of the Lakers. Let it fly.
10. Keep the faith. This obstacle looks difficult but all the Spurs need to do is take Game 3 and then this will be a series again. Put the Lakers on their heels. Show them some adversity. When it's all lollipops and daisies, it's impossible to stop these Lakers. But let's see what happens if the hit a bump in the road.
The bottomline is the Spurs are in a familiar hole. It’s going to be difficult but I think this Spurs team can do it. They’ve played their best during adverse situations all season long.
Get up off the mat. Get Game 3. And then we'll truly see what both teams are made of when times aren't easy.
1.
Believe.
Well said.
Nice work, timvp.
I've been waiting for this for a long time, you're the voice of reason in this time of crisis where most of the people have gone crazy here.
If Manu gets healthier, we're more than capable of beating the Lakers. People tend to forget that we almost win in Game 1 despite of Manu's poor performance.
I expect Tony and Manu to be much more aggressive in the next two games!
gg
(next one, that is).
thanks as always timvp... i thought your pointers for game 3 are key...
Thanks for the calm, sane thoughts timvp.
So in other words, the Spurs still have a chance?
Ok.
(What a long-winded, rhetoric-lovin' Ho)
I agree with this one, and thought the Spurs should never have put Manu back on the bench. When I thought about it a bit, I figured Pop was anticipating a letdown game for Manu due to fatigue. But if Pop continues to keep Ginobili from getting starter minutes, we will lose because of lack of firepower. I say start Ginobili as well -- if you're going to lose, might as well lose with your best players playing the minutes, and not your scrubs.
great recap dont listen to the illogical Laker fans that was a fair, honest assessment of game 2 with great thoughts on game 3 I expect the next 3 games to be wars ...like Game 1 ... if lakers can steal one at SA than i say La in if not it's going 7 and that would favor you guys but i dont see Kobe letting us lose this series ...
Bowen was powerless. Got to love it. The Lakers are a team. They play as a team. How do you expect Bowen to stop a team?
I too have a lot of respect for the Spurs because of what they've accomplished over the years too. The Spurs just have no clue how to stop the Lakers. One game in San Antonio... That's the best they will do.
BTW, timvp is a very knowledgeable poster.
Good Post!
Great post as usual timvp.
How do you reconcile the seeming fatigue and lethargy with your recommendation for an 8-man rotation?
Yup, that's the ticket.
The only thing I disagree with you about concerns game 1. Sure, there was an element of choke, but the collapse also looked like fatigue to me. They had all the energy in the world in the first half then hit a brick wall about 6 mins into the third.
Anyway, finger's crossed for tomorrow!
PS aka USAPA BTW, it's timvp and Kori's site! And yes, the hombre knows basketball.
Good question and that's what makes this situation tough. The Spurs are fatigued but they can't win this series without fighting through that fatigue. Either the Spurs catch a second wind somehow or they're done.
If Pop tries to make it a matchup of both team's ten-man rotations, the Lakers will win because they're deeper. The Big Three plus Bowen are all going to have to play 35+ minutes if the Spurs have a chance.
As great as Kobe is these days, the two things I feared most coming into this series were fatigue and Phil Jackson. I still have to rate those as the two things standing between the Spurs and the Finals.
This series is over. Five games max. The Lakers have Parker figured out. They are daring him to shoot the jumper and then collapsing on him when he drives. With Parker and Ginobili both ineffective the Spurs have absolutely no chance.
You might be right but I just don't see it that way. It's not like the Spurs went from doing good and then slowing ran out of gas.
The Spurs were doing good and then Pop took Bowen out of the game. At that moment, the Lakers went on a 14-0 run in like three minutes. That run was due to Pop's error and the team panicking, IMO. I don't believe that all of a sudden at six minutes the Spurs got tired out of the blue.
Maybe the Spurs didn't have the needed energy to come back late in Game 1 but it looked more to me to be a continuation of their stagnated play which began when they panicked in the third. Plus, their defense remained pretty good in Game 1 and a tired team can't play solid defense into the fourth. Game 2, on the other hand, the Spurs just didn't have it.
You're right that the collapse was triggered when Bowen sat. AHF nearly had a stroke in the game thread, and I was thinking "WTF are you doing Pop?"
It just seemed to me that they were a step slow from there on in - every loose ball went to the Lakers, rotations were slow, they couldn't get to the rack, etc. At the time I thought it was the inevitable letdown from the huge game 7 win in NO, combined with the travel, lack of quality sleep and quick turnaround. You might be right. It's academic at this point anyway.
an average of 6.5 minutes hardly proves this fact.
i'd kill for a 4 day lay off like the one the spurs had before game 7... jesus.
I wanted to add many things in here, but I'd rather stay short.
Spurs played like amateurs, nuff said. They were killed!
And I would like to ask you, if anybody of you saw the movie Kill Bill, I guess most of you as it was classic Tarantino.
What happened in that movie?
The main character was killed, well at least it was what (the killers) thought.
She somehow came back with revange and with the vengance.
So I say
KILL PHIL!
And I would appreciate the photoshop
1. That didn't work out too well in game 1 now did it smart guy. Lakers only need to stop 2 of 3 in Parker, Duncan and Ginobili. Where are the other Spurs points going to come from if nobody from the team comes to show up which has been the case in the first 2 games?
2. Lakers only run when opportunity is presented. The triangle offense is based on timing and rhythm in a half-court set. 4 of the Laker starters are excellent passers and know how to run the triangle, with Radmanovic being suspect. The Lakers are the most efficient scoring team in the NBA i.e., they got the most points for every possession on offense. That's been consistent throughout the whole season, playoffs and it's not going to change any time soon.
3. Parker will stop going into the lane once he gets slapped hard a couple of times. He will then settle for jumpers and won't set up other Spurs as much which plays into the Lakers hands.
4. Please look at game 1 again. mmmk thx 'bye.
5. Spurs are an old, slow and tired team. So you want fewer Spurs to play more minutes against a younger, quicker, more athletic and deeper Lakers team? Good logic there Sherlock.
6. Refer to the 1st half of game 1.
7. Refer to 4
8. The Jazz outrebounded the Lakers 5/6 games and the Spurs outrebounded the Lakers in game 1. The Jazz have gone fishing for the summer and the Spurs are down 2-0.
9. Please do. The Spurs haven't outscored the Lakers yet and the Lakers have proven they can slug it out as in a low scoring affair like game 1. If the series against the Hornets and the first 2 games against the Lakers are any indication of Spurs shooting prowess i.e., having long stretches without scoring, the Spurs will get smoked yet again. If the Lakers get out in front by double digits in game 3 and sustain it for any significant length of time, the series is over 'cause the Lakers actually play defense unlike the Suns.
10. You're smoking crack if you thought game 1 was lollipops and daisies for the Lakers. Desperate times lead to desperate measures from desperate people. The actions of desperate people will lead to many mistakes from which the Lakers will undoubtedly take advantage. The Lakers are well-coached and well-prepared against the Spurs. Losing a game or two against the Spurs won't faze the Lakers because just about every player on the roster paid his dues during the 2005-06 & 2006-07 playoffs. Those losses have galvanized this particular Laker TEAM. And having the best closer helps. Sorry, your prayers aren't getting answered.
This Laker team isn't going to get blown out in the playoffs. They have shown they can come back from huge deficits whether playing at home (vs Spurs game 1) or away (vs Jazz game 4). If game 3 is close and the Spurs win, they will have over-exerted themselves too much. The Lakers will then pounce and finish the series.
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