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Come playoff time - Powell, Farmar, and Vujacic will barely play. You talk of hiding against bench players except for Fisher.
SA has smaller, less powerful. less athletic players at each key position you listed. That's trouble.
Tony Parker - Derek Fisher
George Hill - Kobe Bryant
Manu Ginobili - Kobe Bryant
Richard Jefferson - Ron Artest/Kobe Bryant
Tim Duncan - Pau Gasol/Andrew Bynum
Antonio McDyess/DeJuan Blair/Matt Bonner - Andrew Bynum/Lamar Odom
Really not that hard. Lakers have plenty of players we can hide our liabilities on if we need to (Powell, Fisher, Farmar, Walton, Vujacic).
Come playoff time - Powell, Farmar, and Vujacic will barely play. You talk of hiding against bench players except for Fisher.
SA has smaller, less powerful. less athletic players at each key position you listed. That's trouble.
First quarter of the NOH game they were good. The last 3 quarters we gave up 26, 29 and 28.
I agree we actually improved a bit against Chicago. We gave up 22, 25, 27 and 18. The first and last quarters being respectable.
We need to keep it around 20 on a consistent basis in order to match the defensive performance of Spurs teams that won championships.
On that topic, I agree with the OP that we can't do that with the players that have been getting the bulk of the minutes so far. What I don't know is if we need to get different personnel or simply letting Blair, Dice learn the system and maybe playing Hill more at the two, or Hairston would actually help.
Where's Finley on your take? You know he's going to play AT THE VERY LEAST, 15 minutes... Same for Bonner....
Play Finley/Mason against their shooters and bench. In the playoffs, Manu and Jefferson will be playing 35+ minutes anyway, so I doubt there will be much room for them anyhow, especially how George has been shooting/defending.
We don't really give up any power/athleticism/size in the 2 or the 4 matchup (Duncan/Pau and Manu-RJ-Hill/Kobe), the two most important matchups listed. We outquick you in the other 3 matchups (except center, where we have utility instead) while you outpower us. If you ignore the cluster that is the 2 and 4 positions, you get the Spurs winning the 1 position by a tremendous amount, the Lakers winning the 5 position, and a close match at the 3 (I'd say RJ wins but hey, if you think Artest is that good, its your call).
I think we matchup very well with the Lakers as is. The Lakers' usual frontcourt advantage is negated by the fact that we have the best big man on the court. Tony Parker is going to ravage the Laker PGs, especially with Ariza gone. Jefferson, Hill, Manu, Tony, Blair, and Duncan will rack up fouls on the Laker frontline. We are (or were) the best defensive rebounding team in the league against a team who boast offensive rebounding as one of its major advantages. Bonner's outside shooting, as well as Dice and Blair's midrange, will stretch the longer, slower Laker lineups out so Duncan and Parker can just attack the remaining big in pick and roll. We have excellent 3 pt shooters against a team known for blowing 3 pt coverages. Hill, Manu, and RJ give Kobe three distinct, difficult opponents who will give him different looks and styles, hopefully disrupting him; we have arguably the best Kobe defense of any contender, though really, only so much can be done.
...there are a lot of things going for us against the Lakers.
Last edited by the crimson blur; 10-30-2009 at 03:54 PM.
I agree.
It's not hard to put names next to each other and pretend that it somehow favors your favorite team.
If the Spurs are one-hundred percent healthy and playing at the peak of their game, they'd still have to hope for an Artest implosion, a significant injury, or just something that prevents the Lakers from being the Lakers to prevail, as it now stands.
The moves the Spurs made, as Pop stated, put them back in the game but it didn't put them in the proverbial driver's seat.
Kobe is the most dominant player between the two teams at this point and Pau, while still not Duncan, can play him even enough to where the Bynum and Odom tandem can really prove to be a difference-maker.
Jefferson's going to have a hard time against Artest, Kobe matches up well with Manu, and their front line is formidable enough to slow or nullify Duncan; Parker wouldn't only have to play like an All-Star but an MVP to overcome those facts.
I think in order for the Spurs to get by the Lakers, they need Manu to be that player he was during the '08 season; as much as I love Tony, Manu's the only guy I see capable of staring down Kobe as the closer. But if Manu's forced to guard Kobe and/or Artest for extended periods of time, I don't find that a likely scenario.
Whether you believe it or not, Hill and Hairston are the Spurs' two best perimeter, more specifically, on-ball defenders on the team. RJ lacks the quickness, Manu's a better weakside and team defender and Bogans, well, you could make an argument for him over Hairston, but I wouldn't.
Hill's a backup point-guard that not only won't get the minutes, but is much too small to see extended time on Kobe. I like the idea of RJ on Artest much more than Kobe, but that would put Manu on to Kobe, which doesn't seem all that ideal if Manu really is the key for the Spurs to get by the Lakers; like I said before, Tony might very well prove capable of doing what Manu's done, and he definitely is the one with the match up advantage, but I've just yet to be sold.
The Spurs' room for error, which has seemed to be the case over the last couple of years, is just very small.
I didn't just put names next to one another. Look at my last postI agree.
It's not hard to put names next to each other and pretend that it somehow favors your favorite team.
Based on talent alone? Chemistry, maybe. We still have to get there. But on talent and on paper, I think we match up well with them. I don't think an Artest implosion or a significant injury is required whatsoever for us to beat them. The fact that you even think that, especially this early, is depressing.
In the regular season? Probably. In the playoffs? We'll see. Never underestimate Tim Duncan.
See, we always seem to come to fundamental differences here. You can't nullify Tim Duncan. Thats not how Tim Duncan works. I'm also curious on what basis you go on in thinking RJ and Manu are going to do so poorly in their matchups.
I agree on Hill. Give me any reason to believe that Hairston is better than proven guys like Manu, Jefferson, and Parker.
He saw minutes on Kobe last season. And I firmly believe Pop will make a point of putting George in the rotation this season. He won't have to go out of the way to do it either, George will earn the minutes himself.
Wouldn't be exciting otherwise.
I think you're in denial. I also think you're in denial to the fact that Tim, while being a true warrior, a fighter and undeniably the best power forward to ever play the game, is also on the downside of his career. He needs all the help he can get on defense.
Our defense was great last night, our offensive flow was awful. We simply couldn't hit any shots.
Oh I know he is in decline. But at the same time, Tim just came off a 24.4 PER season (including injuries) and, more recently, a wonderfully dominant game. I know he could use help, but really, this is a guy who won with Fab Oberto, Elson, and a declining Horry just 2 years ago. His game hasn't fallen off a cliff, far from it, so I believe he can still be dominant defensively, especially since he does have better help than ever before.
If you are taking offense to my "never underestimate Tim Duncan" line, well, just think of every time you did.
...a first round exit. First ever on his career.
Was he hurt last season? Sure.
How do you try to minimize that happening again? Giving him help.
I already said that Duncan having help is an asset...all I said was that people are making too big of a deal of it; having Bonner at 25 mpg and Dice at 23 mpg rather than vice versa won't make a difference.
Whatever, we are going in circles now. Some people hold a more optimistic view of the season's outlook and others a more pessimistic one. We will see who's right by season's end.
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