Pop "I thought we had a lot of guys that played like dogs" and hill out for game 2

[crc21209]

He had four days rest from the time he tweaked it Wed to Sunday's tip-off. That didn't seem to do much good.

I don't think the ankle was bothering him really, I think it was more George being hesitant to drive or do anything that would put him at risk of re-injuring that ankle...that's what I saw out there. If you read on mysa.com's article, (since we cant post them here) he said his ankle felt fine...

[scottspurs]

Who ever said George was out Game 2?

If he is we have Garret Temple, its not like the spurs don't have options. Temple has proven he can beat Kidd off the dribble and it can only help hill to sit out a game and get that ankle as well as possible before game 3. This is a seven game series after all.

[Obstructed_View]

Putting in Temple isn't going to fix the Spurs' turnover problems.

[crc21209]

The OP claimed Pop said George is out for Game 2...which is pretty damn false..

[scottspurs]

Putting in Temple isn't going to fix the Spurs' turnover problems.

I think Pop is going to drill it into the heads of this team over the next two days that they need to take care of the ball. If the spurs don't take care of the ball in game 2 the spurs might be in trouble. That and rebounding is priority number 1 and 1a even more important than stopping dirk.

[rjv]

hard to use a role player as an excuse but against the mavs we need to have everyone healthy and if hill is not there we miss out on some defense, shorten the bench and surrender about 12 to 15 points.

[Dex]

Who ever said George was out Game 2?

If he is we have Garret Temple, its not like the spurs don't have options. Temple has proven he can beat Kidd off the dribble and it can only help hill to sit out a game and get that ankle as well as possible before game 3. This is a seven game series after all.

Popovich said it's unlikely Hill will play in Game 2 barring a great deal of healing between now and Wednesday.

Then again, this could be just like when Hill was "questionable" for Game 1. But I don't think Pops trying to shade tactics this time.

[Obstructed_View]

I think Pop is going to drill it into the heads of this team over the next two days that they need to take care of the ball. If the spurs don't take care of the ball in game 2 the spurs might be in trouble. That and rebounding is priority number 1 and 1a even more important than stopping dirk.

Well the Mavs did an excellent job of getting deflections last year, which led to a number of breaks. The Spurs don't seem to be any better at dealing with it this year. If that's going to be the case going forward, then it's impertaive that they minimize the damage and stop dribbling the ball off their own feet and flubbing passes that hit them in the hands.

[Doe]

In addition to O_V's point this Spurs team has been sloppy with the ball all season. I'm sure Pop's been drilling it into their heads, but it's not getting through. We can hope that Duncan doesn't have anymore unforced turnovers and perhaps Manu adjusts to the way they're playing his passes. RJ didn't have too many turnovers and I don't remember his, but I'd be willing to bet they were just due to him being a stupid/unfocused ball player so we can probably count on those next time as well.

[DubMcDub]

I bet Hill still plays...the kid is young and will have 2 full days of rest off that ankle..

I love internet doctors.

[duncan228]

Mavericks react to Popovich: After the Mavericks beat the Spurs on Sunday, a frustrated Popovich said, “We had a lot of guys who played like dogs.”

Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said he wasn’t surprised by Popovich’s statement.

“Pop will say anything at anytime,” Carlisle said. “He knows his team and he has his way of motivating those guys, so that’s how he does it.”

Nowitzki said that “it is what it is.”

“The coach has the right to call his players out,” Nowitzki said. “Nellie was never afraid of it, to call us out back in the day. I’m sure they’ll respond like they always do and they’ll give us a great run on Wednesday.”

- Brandon George / The Dallas Morning News

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...263b4b8aa.html

[ohmwrecker]

When you put dogs into the game, why would you be surprised when they play like dogs?

Tim, Manu and Tony can't play 48 minutes so, what other option is there?

[Shastafarian]

Tim, Manu and Tony can't play 48 minutes so, what other option is there?

Instead of using the left over fecal matter that is small ball, he should have played Dice and Blair more minutes to match up with the size of the other team.

Dice + Blair = 31 minutes

Bogans + Mason + Bonner = 44 minutes

I really can't understand why Dice didn't play more than 23 minutes.

[manu the best]

dogs= Jefferson, mason, bogans, bonner ..

[Sobe_Kucks]

Instead of using the left over fecal matter that is small ball, he should have played Dice and Blair more minutes to match up with the size of the other team.

Dice + Blair = 31 minutes

Bogans + Mason + Bonner = 44 minutes

I really can't understand why Dice didn't play more than 23 minutes.

[Ice009]

Instead of using the left over fecal matter that is small ball, he should have played Dice and Blair more minutes to match up with the size of the other team.

Dice + Blair = 31 minutes

Bogans + Mason + Bonner = 44 minutes

I really can't understand why Dice didn't play more than 23 minutes.

I was yelling in the game thread about Dice not playing much.

I said WTF is this Pop? This is NOT the regular season, surely Dice can play more minutes in the playoffs. I mean he could probably play 35 plus minutes. Freaking stupid coaching.

[DesignatedT]

Definitely want more Dice. Although he needs to learn not to bite for the damn pump fake every single time.

[spursfaninla]

Maybe I'm speaking on emotion and am overreacting to the one loss, but maybe this team's talent level is flat out overrated. They just look so over matched against so many teams. Particularly anyone with quality size, long wing players or forwards.

People can act like this was close all they want, but did anyone ever get the feeling, even when they briefly took the lead and were tied, that the Spurs were really in this game or in control of it? I didn't. It may as well have been a blowout because virtually everything was a struggle for the Spurs and it all looked so easy for the Mavs. And the Mavs aren't even that good. Spurs fans overrate them because the Spurs are ill-equipped to guard them and have been for some time, so they look like world beaters against the Spurs.

If this team is going to get back to being championship caliber again in the Duncan era, it's going to take more than tweaks. Yes, the individual talent, on paper, makes it seem as if they are close. But in reality, when they've all been healthy, this team has been a certified mess the vast majority of the time. The talent just doesn't fit together. You can make excuses (or, as some would call them, reasons) for this. We all know them and I'm not going to bother reciting them, but at the end of the day, they've had enough time together and it's not rocket science. This team isn't running a complicated, nuanced system like the Princeton or the triangle, they have mostly a two play offense. This is not about "learning the system", they just flat out don't fit together. No matter what the lineup is, there's almost always an issue or something they're lacking in it. It's a mess.

I hate to say it (and I'm not going to change my prediction), but deep down, I agree with mingus, in that we could see a similar series to last season.

We did not seem out-classed talent-wise when Hill was not injured and manu was playing well for most of the last month against the best teams in the league; then, our "dogs" were just fine. It does not have to do with talent. Mason and Bonner have mental blocks. Hill and parker are not 100%. unless those two are healthy, we are done. End of story.

[SpursNextRomanEmpire]

no more massooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn please pop


no more

[Obstructed_View]

Tim, Manu and Tony can't play 48 minutes so, what other option is there?

Developing young players over the course of the season and not trading away a quality veteran center would have been a nice option. In fact, simply keeping the rotations the way they were when the Spurs played well at the end of the season would have been nice. When Bogans and Bonner are the first two guys off the bench, is it really any surprise that the results are similar to when they were the first off the bench earlier in the season?

[crc21209]

I love internet doctors.

I love hopeless fans of teams who have never won a damn thing...

[DubMcDub]

I love hopeless fans of teams who have never won a damn thing...

Cool (irrelevant) story, bro.

[TD 21]

We did not seem out-classed talent-wise when Hill was not injured and manu was playing well for most of the last month against the best teams in the league; then, our "dogs" were just fine. It does not have to do with talent. Mason and Bonner have mental blocks. Hill and parker are not 100%. unless those two are healthy, we are done. End of story.

Those games were one offs. I agree with the part in bold, but I still say not only does the talent not fit together, but maybe it's overrated.

I'm not sure how overrated the talent level is, however I do know that this team achieved a certain level of mediocrity this season. And it doesn't matter much about injuries and chemistry. I've just felt all along that this team had declined to a level where they weren't bad enough to miss the playoffs, but they were not good enough to make a deep playoff run either.

The issue with the lack of size and length is very disconcerting because, as I said in another thread, it's not like Dirk just emerged as a superstar player. He's been a bad matchup for this team for several years. Factor in the length that the Fakers and Blazers have and it's quite mind-boggling why the FO hasn't properly addressed this roster deficiency. Meanwhile, Pop insists on going into battle with an over-the-hill (McDyess) PF and a slow, inferior, 3-pointer shooter (Bonner), who both masquerade as 5's, in a smaller and slower frontline.

Completely agree. It's actually inexplicable that they haven't addressed this issue, because it's been around since '06. Year by year, it's become more and more glaring as Duncan got older and older and they continued to surround him with smaller and smaller players. For the record, Blair is the one masquerading as a five. The other two are fours. Just because in the box score the Spurs list McDyess (and when he starts, Bonner) as a five doesn't mean they're fives. They don't perform the functions of a five and guard fours.

The '06 Mavs series changed the Spurs for the worse. After that, even though they had repeatedly won with it for years, size no longer became a priority. The Spurs completely overreacted to that series. I could see if the Mavs had owned them and beaten them relentlessly like the Spurs did the Suns, but to lose one series in game seven of overtime and then to alter your approach to the way you build your team? It made no sense.

[crc21209]

Cool (irrelevant) story, bro.

Go along and get to sleep.. it's past your bedtime little kid..

[hitmanyr2k]

Well the Mavs did an excellent job of getting deflections last year, which led to a number of breaks. The Spurs don't seem to be any better at dealing with it this year. If that's going to be the case going forward, then it's impertaive that they minimize the damage and stop dribbling the ball off their own feet and flubbing passes that hit them in the hands.

Popovich can drill his team all he wants. The fact is the Spurs have become as predictable as sun in the Sahara. Defenders sit on their passes because they've seen this before time and time again and there are no wrinkles to the offense. These days it's one guy dribbling while everyone else is stagnant. When Ginobili has the ball guys don't move. Same in screen and roll over and over. If Ginobili doesn't try to score the defender is waiting on that pass because they've seen it a million times before. Either Ginobili has to make a perfect pass or that ball is getting deflected or stolen. When Parker has the ball nobody moves. When Duncan has the ball nobody moves.

There was a time when the Spurs had motion in their offense. Everyone moved. Guys made back cuts to the rim. Even Ginobili and Parker used to work together There was a play I haven't seen in AGES where Parker used to run baseline and then fake like he was going to come up the middle of the lane and instead would make a quick back cut to the rim where Ginobili would hit him with a perfect pass for a layup. They don't do that anymore. I remember Oberto used to make back cuts to the rim and Duncan or Ginobili would find him for an easy two. Movement and back cuts are a lost art in the Spurs offense.

The Mavs in Game 1 looked like the Spurs from '07. Every damn player on that court was moving and cutting to the rim. There was nothing stagnant about them. Marion was cutting. Butler was cutting. Jason Terry said it and got in on the act late in the 4th cutting to the rim for an easy layup. If the Spurs don't get any movement in their offense and just depend on the same old they're done.