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Blazers.
Of course.
The odds of you saying that....
Hmmmmm
Or the Lakers being 22-4 at home could have something to do with it?
Blazers.
Of course.
The odds of you saying that....
Hmmmmm
You live with the 3-ball, you die by the 3-ball. This team still cannot create enough offense for itself if their 3-ball isn't falling. As usual, these missed 3-pointers compound their demise by creating instant transition opportunities for the opposition.
Unlike the Celtics, the Spurs, as currently constructed, do not have enough offense firepower and defensive pressure needed to attack the Fakers. They simply cannot match the Fakers length and ahtleticism. Fakers are quicker to the ball, quicker to rebounds. Spurs are simply not good enough defensively to take away anything the Fakers do well. Then they compound matters with careless turnovers, bad passes and poor decision-making.
Last edited by SenorSpur; 01-26-2009 at 12:45 AM.
I thought the article was pretty good. timvp you should read the article... and offer us a rebuttal if you disagree with it...
Disappointing loss but not unexpected. The Lakers were too good to lose this game. I was hoping we would pull it out but oh well, we still have a very good team.
The season just got interesting, imo. This loss just reinvigorated my love for the Spurs. Like every year, I just hope we have a healthy squad going into the playoffs.
Yeah, things get tough when they go cold from the perimeter. The Lakers have the size to bother TD and TP when they attack the rim. The Spurs defense is simply not as good as in year's past.. too many open shots, too many trips to the FT line for opponents.
5-23 from where we love to shoot from. And Timmy having no help what so ever in the paint. Today we were to slow and to short.
One of the other reasons for the loss today: lack of ball movement. It seemed the Lakers were chasing Tony and Manu all over the court and pressured them into making bad decisions and costly, momentum-swaying TO's. Even Finley was taking shots off of the dribble one-on-one when his game at this point focuses more on shooting off of screens and such. The ball just never really moved from side to side or touch many hands on the Spurs' team during one possession. Combine that with Manu and Mason (primarliy due to early foul trouble) not shwing and this was a recipe for disaster. Pop will definitely look at the film and correct this moving forward.
Last edited by NewJerSpur; 01-26-2009 at 12:33 AM.
The Lakers played pretty decent D but they weren't in the passing lanes as much as Rosen makes it seem. I do think the Lakers bothered the Spurs' rhythm a bit, but there were so many open shots the Spurs just clanked.
He was accurate regarding Kobe's D on Manu but it also took energy from him to do so. The real defensive star today for the Lakers was Lamar Odom. He really clogged the lane and he bothered shots, both in the half-court and hustling back in transition. He was the perfect help defender and he should be given that credit.
Have to admit this one wasn't the usual Rosen hate-fest. He didn't even mention David Robinson once.
Decent articles from McDonald and Rosen within the space of 24 hours? What are the odds?
The Spurs have to make their shots. It was literally LAUGHABLE the way the Lakers were not even contesting their shots - and the way we were clanking them. All they did was sit in the paint and let us shoot. The same strategy that beat us in 2004. What angers me is that this Spurs team has great shooters and is much improved from that 2004 team. Also, I noticed Parker and Ginobili were almost scared to make any contact. They should have at least made contact to try and get to the line. They can make tough shots with contact but they shied away from the basket hardcore today.
So Solid D, how tough is it gonna be for the Spurs to win a series against the Lakers with the way the current roster is made up? Do you have confidence that Pop can get this team to playing Spurs like D come May?
This loss is somewhat frustrating in the sense that the first half was played at the Spurs tempo (although LA did break 50 points by halftime)
I will say that if they could mount a furious run after a major turning point in their season with the coaching/front office changes that they have just made (ala the Golden State Warriors after their 2006/07 trades that propelled them into the postseason) I would like to see the T'Wolves topple both the Suns and Mavs for that #8 spot to press the Lakers a bit before their 2nd round bout. Sure Minnesota is young and still not the most disciplined team as a resutl of their youth and inexperience but they are athletic and are playing with more or a (wolf-like) hunger under McHale. They've got a long way to go and I know the west will be tough to crack this year, but they are playting on a different level than the rest of the bottom feeders. Watch out Blazer fans.
I still think the Spurs can beat the Lakers if they play nearly perfect and they are healthy. The nearly perfect means fewer breakdowns on defense. Finley, Mason and Bonner have made plenty of mistakes both in their half-court D and their transition cross-matching. Example, Bonner not sticking to his transition assigment to protect the rear, since he was back first and allowed Ariza to score.
All that said, this ended up being a "watch and learn for next time" game for the Spurs.
Do I think the Spurs need to add a player? Yes, absolutely, and the answer is not Austin Croshere...as much as I respect his experience. Some may say Ian Mahinmi could really help if he were healthy, but I'm not sure he would have made a difference because of his propensity for fouls. There aren't any Bigs out there who can help at this juncture, without disrupting the team by moving a key role player. I'd like to see the Spurs give Hairston another shot and see if he can bring some scoring, hustle and energy. Udoka can play tough D but he's not giving the Spurs any punch to their offense.
Pop's got some coaching to do to get this team playing good enough D to beat the Lakers or any serious contender.
Their DEFENSE was the reason we went 5-23 from beyond the arc? Funny, I thought it was all the WIDE OPEN 3's we missed today..
Agreed. However in a game like this, the Spurs margin of error is small - very small. They can ill-afford even one quarter of cold-shooting, careless turnovers and defensive breakdowns - much less an entire game. They have to be absolutely perfect in order to win against this team. It's a a tall order.
The deep ball kept us in the game during the 1st half, but when the shots weren't falling the Lakers didn't allow us to get much else and it didn't help that neither the ball nor any bodies were really moving on offense.
I wonder if the Spurs could steal the keys to the Staples Center for a couple of nights so they could shoot around in there.
Going from the Crossroads Highschool gym to Staples might have something to do with our shooting woes. Though Austin Croshere would have felt right at home since he went to Crossroads. Maybe he is the answer against the Lakers. J/K
In other words, we have no chance of beating them. Even when we're at our best, we still fall asleep for a quarter or two.
Last year marked the death knell of SPAM. The Lakers and Celts have raised the bar, it's no more a matter of sleepwalking through the regular season. Actually, I think SPAM has been dead since '05. We got lucky in '07 that the Mavs were knocked out.
WOW...it must be the economy! Are you folks really Spurs fans? Nah, I didn't think so. Some here are sounding like little wimps who run from a fight. Pop's Spurs have done it this way since he found the magic button to push during the 1999 season. He is smart enough to know that you don't play playoff basketball this early in the season. You'll be gasping for oxygen by April/May and dead on your feet come June. He saw last season when New Orleans took us to the limit in 7 games, watched in horror as guys 6'7" and taller were sleeping on the floor of their jet on the NO tarmac only to wake up stiff as a board, then fly into LA later that day and basically go straight to the Staples Center where we played on adrenaline for 2/3rds of Game 1 and then hit the wall in the last 1/3rd of the game. Pop saw what many of us saw...a Spurs team worn out with fatigue and a useless Manu. That is not making an excuse at all. We just were not young enough or athletic enough or refreshed enough (oldest team in the league) to overcome certain things. LA was totally rested and they beat us fair and square but, they were not the better team. Just like we were the better team when we lost the 7 game series to Dallas the year when Miami came from 2 down and won 4 straight over the Mavs to take the NBA crown. We would have beaten Miami because of many factors...a whole lot more Finals experience against a team that had only one player who had played in a Finals game...Shaq! And last year our guys were a much better match up in the Finals against the Celtics. Timmy has owned KG in playoff games. Had Manu not had the ankle injury we would have matched up better at all positions including the bench. But, it wasn't meant to be!
So here we are losing one (1) stinkin' game to the Lakers on their floor with them wanting it more than our guys after we beat them earlier this month. But, one game does not a season or a championship make. Go back and look at the records of teams in the last 9-10 years of playoffs. I don't know if one team during that time that ended up with the best regular season record even made it to the Finals. It is that way in all sports. You want to be 'HOT' and firing on all cylinders going into the playoffs, not in January. During our 4 trophy years we lost the regular season battle to many of the teams we played in the playoffs, only to run them out of the building in the playoffs.
If you're giving up at this point then you ain't anything more than a quitter. Who knows maybe Pop and RC have a super trade in the works....such as Ime, Ian, and Jacque for Kobe, KG, LeBron or maybe getting Kareem, Russel, Bird or Michael out of retirement. Heck maybe they're getting younger by the hour like that Brad Pitt (Angelina is HOT, HOT, HOT!!!) movie. OK, seriously, give our guys a chance...at least till the end of the regular season. If they disappoint you at that point then raise , send Pop or Peter Holt an email (like that will make a difference) or join the military and go shoot a bunch of al Qaeda and Taliban between the eyes. That'll make you feel DAMN good.
A 35-35 head-to-head record over a ten year period cannot determine which team owns which.
While we are not on Lakers level yet, we should not demean ourselves as if we are the Kings!
The PJ/Kobe duo have a winning record over Pop/Duncan. Just saying.
For the Idiots who want to compare themselves to the great Dinasties of the NBA:
Lakers - Spurms comparison:
Have played 11 times head-to-head in the Playoffs with the Lakers winning 8 of the 11 contests. Ouch!!
Phil Jackson - Gregg Popazit head to head comparison:
Jackson owns a 4-1 advantage over Popazit, 18-8 if we count game by game in every series.
So there is no doubt who is the Lakers !!!
Whoever wrote that stupid article needs to check the data before posting bogus information.
And this will probably hurt the most:
Pissed poor Spurs fans:
PLAYOFF HISTORY: (Not Counting Last Years Playoffs)
The Spurs and Lakers have met in seven times in the playoffs with L.A. holding 20-10 advantage in games played … in the 2001 NBA Playoffs the Spurs were swept by the Lakers who went on to win their second straight NBA le… the Spurs swept the Lakers 4-0 in the Western Conference Semifinals on the way to winning the 1999* NBA Championship .the Lakers swept the Spurs out of the first round in 1986 and 1987 … in the 1983 Western Conference Finals the Lakers defeated the Spurs 4-2 and in the 1982 Western Conference Finals L.A. swept San Antonio swept San Antonio 4-0
very true. Duncan is destroyed by every good big this season more than ever. if any spurs' big can defend the best bigs in the league, we're in trouble.Duncan has always been an excellent help-defender, but only a slightly above average man-to-man defender. Accordingly, both Bynum and Pau Gasol were able to create extremely makeable shots whenever they took TD into the pivot.
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don't know this guy, if he's usually biased or not, but he's right here. i can't see how we can beat LA in the PO, even i still trust the Spurs to find a way.The Lakers are deeper, quicker, and slicker than the Spurs
Is it at all possible, then, for San Antonio to best the Lakers should they meet in the playoffs?
Absolutely.
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If all these eventualities are possible, they're also highly improbable. The X-factors, however, are the Spurs' resourcefulness, ability to elevate their collective performance in the clutch, and most importantly their championship experience.
but i really don't like this team's habbit to surrender against a better opponent. we basically won in PO when we were better but why not try when we're the real underdog. if we give up games like this in PO against LA, it will make me sick.
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