This thread is not designed to anger people who are already hurt about losing so please don't take it that way, but it is in response to all the irrational anger ("fire Pop!", "trade Timmy!", "trade Tony!", "trade the entire team!", "burn down the AT&T centre!!!") that is currently dominating this forum.
Are you really surprised by these results? I'm not in the slightest. We were a first round flame-out waiting to happen, as I and a number of other more rational fans pointed out a fortnight ago (and were unreasonably castigated for it). I'm not happy we're losing, I'm as disappointed as anyone, but I'm not surprised nor angry about it - in sport, as in life, there is always a loser, and sometimes it has to be us.
Exhibit 1: no Manu.
Exhibit 2: a less than 100% Tim.
Exhibit 3: no 2009 SPAM in evidence.
Exhibit 4: a team reliant on hot 3pt-shooting to win.
Exhibit 5: a coach confused by his own rotations (ie. desperately juggling his players to find any kind of consistently functional rotation).
I could go on with more evidence that was available to all weeks ago, but who needs to? Losing to the Mavs as we have been is absolutely no surprise whatsoever. Does it hurt? Sure. Is it a good reason to behave like a bunch of petulant 3 year olds? Not in your life.
Disappointed expectations are often the cause of emotional pain - release yourself from expectation, examine a situation rationally, and you can usually avoid this sort of nonsense. Then again, this is an internet forum, so I shouldn't be surprised by the garbage that gets flung around...
I'm surprised they didn't even come to play in Game 3.
Talent wise (with or without Manu) the series should probably be 2-2. I thought it would be extremely compe ive. The Spurs are getting beat by the Mavs role players... the Mavs stars having even played that well yet. The Spurs role players haven't done anything in the series.
True
Their role players are killing ours. Mason, Bonner, Finley, Thomas and Gooden are terrible. I'd not mind to see all the go in the off season
I checked you predicted the Spurs to win the series.. do as I say and not as a do......This thread is not designed to anger people who are already hurt about losing so please don't take it that way, but it is in response to all the irrational anger ("fire Pop!", "trade Timmy!", "trade Tony!", "trade the entire team!", "burn down the AT&T centre!!!") that is currently dominating this forum.
Are you really surprised by these results? I'm not in the slightest. We were a first round flame-out waiting to happen, as I and a number of other more rational fans pointed out a fortnight ago (and were unreasonably castigated for it). I'm not happy we're losing, I'm as disappointed as anyone, but I'm not surprised nor angry about it - in sport, as in life, there is always a loser, and sometimes it has to be us.
Exhibit 1: no Manu.
Exhibit 2: a less than 100% Tim.
Exhibit 3: no 2009 SPAM in evidence.
Exhibit 4: a team reliant on hot 3pt-shooting to win.
Exhibit 5: a coach confused by his own rotations (ie. desperately juggling his players to find any kind of consistently functional rotation).
I could go on with more evidence that was available to all weeks ago, but who needs to? Losing to the Mavs as we have been is absolutely no surprise whatsoever. Does it hurt? Sure. Is it a good reason to behave like a bunch of petulant 3 year olds? Not in your life.
Disappointed expectations are often the cause of emotional pain - release yourself from expectation, examine a situation rationally, and you can usually avoid this sort of nonsense. Then again, this is an internet forum, so I shouldn't be surprised by the garbage that gets flung around...
True Kori, but then our role players have been all over the place for a month with all the crazy rotation shuffling, and Pop's blindness when it comes to some of his players.
As for not coming to play in game 3, do you mean effort? I think the effort was there, but that we couldn't buy a bucket (0/6 from 3 to start the game, 1/13 at the half), they effectively packed the paint, TP's pull-up wasn't falling, and Tim's knees were on a bad day. Sometimes the other team is just a lot better than you are on the day. that's what it looked like to me. Then again, you were there, so I defer to your wisdom.
No I didn't. Checked where? I said a number of times that I HOPED we'd win the series, but that we were likely a first round flameout. I also said that making the 2nd round would be an overachievement for this team. Want me to dig up the threads?
Don't accuse me of hipocrisy because I am very careful to do exactly what I say, and I'm certainly not one of the irrational idiots calling for the guillotine.
The role players' performance right now (other than Hill not getting time) is not on Pop. Bonner and Finley are getting plenty of wide open looks off Tony's penetration. Mason is just horrible. I know people blame it on him being slid to PG, but he just hasn't done his job. He's atrocious on defense. Just absolutely horrible. As professional basketball players, you have to be ready to play no matter if you are playing 4 minutes or 34 minutes. Look at Bruce Bowen... he got his minutes f'd all season, but when he steps on the floor, he's good to go. The other guys are playing well, no matter how many minutes they are getting.True Kori, but then our role players have been all over the place for a month with all the crazy rotation shuffling, and Pop's blindness when it comes to some of his players.
As for not coming to play in game 3, do you mean effort? I think the effort was there, but that we couldn't buy a bucket (0/6 from 3 to start the game, 1/13 at the half), they effectively packed the paint, TP's pull-up wasn't falling, and Tim's knees were on a bad day. Sometimes the other team is just a lot better than you are on the day. that's what it looked like to me. Then again, you were there, so I defer to your wisdom.
And nope, there was no real effort in Game 3.
really ? talent wise, without manu, i see the mavs, on paper, really better than us. TP said it many times too.
i hoped defense, poise, clutchness would help us. it doesn't.
The fact that most of the talented mavs players (dirk, terry, kidd) aren't even playing great, is making our 3-1 deficit even more hard to swallow.
Haven't played that well? That's the understatement of the century. The two guys that absolutely CARRIED us all year have been totally nonexistant. We have yet to see a single typical game from either Jet or Dirk.
For example, 3 weeks ago:
"Sell, which I hate to say.
Tim is badly hampered by his knees and it is particularly affecting his help D, which means the team D is shot, Pop has the rotation all wrong, the team is confused by all the tinkering and has lost its chemistry and self-belief, and the West is as deep and strong as ever.
I see a first round flameout against someone like NO or Utah, although of course I'm not giving up and will continue to barrack for the team until the season is over."
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthre...=121677&page=2
So, what are you talking about again? Oh, trying to misrepresent me. GTFOH.
That's why I'm mad. Because some senile ing moron sabotaged the season. Obviously, the Spurs weren't going to win the championship this year without Manu. However, equally clear is that the Spurs are a MUCH BETTER basketball team than the ing garbage ass Mavericks. To lose to that team is embarrassing beyond words. Popovich.
And I'm not even going to mention the completely idiotic decisions by the front office the past few years. Also, Pop's fault.
I think that's by design. Dirk gets swarmed by triple teams every time he receives the ball. I think they're kind of overplaying Dirk a bit. The role players are stepping up because they are getting good looks with the attention geared towards Dirk. That and Josh Howard is really punishing you guys for the attention given to Dirk and Jet.
Jet sucked today, but I don't know what you want from Dirk when he gets swarmed with triple teams. It's not working for the Spurs, because our supporting players continue to punish them for overplaying Dirk.
It is Pop's fault if he chooses to play horrible role players, Bonner, Finley, and Mason, over good role players, Hill and Bowen.
Your predictions cheif ........
Code:EASTERN CONFERENCE 1. Cavaliers vs. 8. Pistons Cavs in 4. 2. Celtics vs. 7. Bulls Bulls in 7. 3. Magic vs. 6. Sixers Magic in 5. 4. Hawks vs. 5. Heat Hawks in 7. WESTERN CONFERENCE 1. Lakers vs. 8. Jazz Lakers in 5. 2. Nuggets vs. 7. Hornets Nuggets in 7. 3. Spurs vs. 6. Mavericks Spurs in 6. (Final game: Spurs 93, Mavs 89) 4. Blazers vs. 5. Rockets Blazers in 7.
I'm surprised. We should be tied or be up. The Spurs aren't as bad as they are playing. If the role players give us anything today we'd be tied 2-2. We should be getting out in th esecond round, not the first.
Apart from Parker and this year to a substantially lesser extent Duncan, Spurs don't have another player that can create his own shot worth a damn. Maybe to some extent Gooden.
Take away any teams three best, in the Spurs case Duncan, Parker, Manu, and I doubt there's a team in the league with less ability to create than the Spurs.
I'm not surprised.
The Mavs' role players are greater than what the Spurs have occupying the bench.
The reason we need to triple team is because he's guarded by some Bonner dude, or some Finley dude, both of which can't defend worth .
I believe their plan was to let Josh Howard get his (mainly because Bowen can't guard everyone) but some players on the Spurs aren't playing D at all. It's not because they are helping out, doubling on Dirk/Terry -- they are just sucking and letting their man go or late on rotations. The Spurs poor defenders (Mason/Bonner/Fin) can be better than this.
Yeah I'm mostly referring to Jet, but sometimes you have to be a superstar and lower that shoulder and make plays like he did on that 4th quarter drive. I don't see any reason why he couldn't have done that more. Not saying he's supposed to have a great numbers series while getting swarmed, but he definitely needs to be more agressive. Pull that 2nd and 3rd defender ALL THE WAY off their men, instead of just trying to sneak over for the steal or trap.
A lot of times the right play is to give up the ball. At least where it comes to Dirk, the Spurs have done a good job of denying him his preference for setting up shop near the FT line.
...all of which entirely misses the point of this thread, which was in response to the irrational anger being thrown around.Your predictions cheif ........
Code:EASTERN CONFERENCE 1. Cavaliers vs. 8. Pistons Cavs in 4. 2. Celtics vs. 7. Bulls Bulls in 7. 3. Magic vs. 6. Sixers Magic in 5. 4. Hawks vs. 5. Heat Hawks in 7. WESTERN CONFERENCE 1. Lakers vs. 8. Jazz Lakers in 5. 2. Nuggets vs. 7. Hornets Nuggets in 7. 3. Spurs vs. 6. Mavericks Spurs in 6. (Final game: Spurs 93, Mavs 89) 4. Blazers vs. 5. Rockets Blazers in 7.
Oh, okay, the predictions thread. WGAF about the predictions thread. I'm hardly going to go for the other team now, am I? I never tip against the Spurs because it feels wrong to me (if I tip the Mavs and they win, how am I meant to feel about that?) - support the team until the end, regardless of whether you feel that losing is inevitable.
The point is, long before that thread (as I have linked you to above, and I could find another 5 threads where I say the same thing), I realised that we were done and mentally prepared for the fact that we weren't likely to go anywhere this season. It is no great surprise to me, or a number of other posters, that this is not our year, and we were all criticised for spelling out why back in the last two weeks of the season.
Whose troll are you anyway?
Bruce is always the consummate professional
What I'm saying is he needs to be more aggressive and force a 2nd and 3rd defender to step up more often before he gives it up. That should set up some wide open shots or cuts.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
