^ What he said.
Seriously guys we've seen this game a 1,000 times. We knew the Mavs were going to give full effort, the Mavs would get the home cookin, and we just won 3 straight giving our max intensity. I even told my Mavs friend that they could win by double digits. Why? Because Pop recognizes what team he has that night and shuts it down if he knows its a lost cause. Outcome...lots of bench minutes, strange line-ups, and rest for the players that need it.
Pop likes to play mind games. He was putting guys in that should never have been on the court because he wants the Mavs to feel like we are making drastic changes......when we actually aren't. Pop knows when his team HAS IT and tonight he knew early that they DIDN'T HAVE IT. Just watch his demeanor on the sideline. When Pop wants to win he is ferocious....tonight he was very relaxed.
Game 6 we will come out of the gates bent on putting the Mavs away. The energy will be there since nothing was expended tonight.
Quoting yourself is tacky, but to answer your question, if I were coaching them Tim and Manu wouldn't have even been in the arena for Game 5. I don't think they broke much of a sweat out there and I expect both of them to have a lot of juice in their legs for Game 6. They're smart guys and they know that for all intensive purposes this is their Game 7. They're going to leave it all out there on Thursday.
Seriously you wasted more time on this "analysis" and certainly more effort and energy than the Spurs did playing the game. What about this was surprising to you or to any of us IN ANY WAY? Didn't you predict a Game 5 Mavs blowout before the series started?
Let me make it VERY simple so even you can understand what happened out there. Tim and Manu saw early on that RJ and Dice had no fire or desire to compete whatsoever with their dumb turnovers and lackluster defense/rebounding. Probably the two of them, (plus Pop) came into the game skeptical anyway since they knew the Mavs would come out with all guns smoking, but once they saw that they weren't going to get any help from the other starters, they quickly mentally checked out as well.
As for Tony trying hard, Tony scoring late in the second quarter blah blah blah, big deal. Guess what Bud, TP, for all his lukewarm endorsements of Pop and the move, DOES NOT WANT TO BE ON THE BENCH. He's made that pretty clear, I think. He was playing like he has something to prove. He was also pretty freaking awful in the 1st quarter, but I guess you forgot about that, lost in the afterglow of his good spurt before the half.
He's still not sticking close to three point shooters and J.J. Barea was kicking his butt, but woohoo, 19 points for Tony.
I don't know why you bothered to write about a game where Pop played Mason 28 minutes. That should tell you (or anyone) all you needed to know about how seriously he took the game. I said all along that Tim and Manu should be rested in Game 5 and here they practically were. This was a glorified scrimmage for them (albeit a poor one).
They're both going to come out a lot better in Game 6. The last two guys I'm worried about on Thursday are Tim and Manu. Relax, we got this.
That was a pretty good rant until the last line. That was soft.
So, yeah Manu plays bad on purpose. TP scores points because he's a bad teammate. Pop should have given up before the game started. Fantastic takes
Good to see that Manu plays one of his worst playoff games of his life and his main supporters are here to have his back and deflect blame. The CoM is damn loyal.
Seriously, I'm somewhat concerned with Manu because it seems like his energy level is on the decline in this series. Hopefully I'm wrong and he has a classic Manu performance to put this series to bed in Game 6. A game like he had in 2007 in Game 6 against the Suns would be quite nice
I miss the days when every ing game we did not have to worry about fatigue and energy levels.
Well the good news is Ginobili isn't being bashful about the way he played tonight. First line of his postgame interview "Well, I really played like crap today" and didn't make any lame excuses.
First step to the road of success is acknowledging failure.
Timvp put as much effort into that as Spurs tonight.
Their inability to hit the 3 consistently is definitely something to be concerned about moving forward. Their spacing tonight was atrocious and the congestion they're having to play in would be significantly lessened with a credible 3-point attack. Problem is, they really don't have the 3-point shooting in their rotation players. (Legitimate rotation players, that is.)
Without that spacing the Spurs are even more susceptible to Mavs' transition game through deflections and turnovers, which has been the key to Dallas' success. And if the Spurs aren't hitting the three, their margin for error is much smaller without the usual separation the 3-point shot affords a team -- which means they've got to be even more efficient offensively and effective defensively. Manu and George knocking down a few each would go a long way in helping the cause.
But maybe the most important thing moving forward is health. Tim and Manu have both fallen off over the last two games and one has to wonder if it's fatigue-related. Tim's problems are well known and the extended minutes combined with the fact that we saw some of his best play in a while after having significant rest, only to see him have these last two outings with only a day off in between ... it doesn't take much to make the next logical step. And with Manu he's just looked a little flat on his shot and a little slower on the ball -- even a little loose and clumsy at times. Manu's apparently been having trouble sleeping with the broken nose and it's bound to effect his breathing and play to some degree, but something just isn't right. I've said it before, but if Tim and Manu's problem is fatigue ... the Spurs are S. O. L. -- it'll only get worse from here.
Too many people here have been acting like the Spurs are dominating the Mavs..these games have been relatively close for the most part, they haven't been dominant..these teams are pretty much even..the Mavs weren't going to lose this game..as others have said, this was a classic Spurs blowout in a series where nobody cared..
The loss doesn't concern me at all, but there are some adjustments that do concern me..
-The adjustment on McDyess has me scared..the same way the Spurs adjusted to Kidd and took him out of the game, Dallas did the same thing to Dice..as we've seen all year, McDyess has no offensive game outside of his automatic J..when you make him put the ball on the floor or make him pass, he struggles..Dallas ran him off the jump shots in this game, and he panicked..this led to multiple turnovers and broken plays for the Spurs offense..
The key will now be for McDyess to adjust or for Pop to adjust and get him some plays to get in a rhythm..
-Obviously Ginobili and Duncan concern me at this point..Ginobili more than Timmy..Duncan is taking A LOT of bad shots and has lost his aggressiveness, so I'm sure he'll come out aggressive and angry after 2 sub-par performances and in a must win..Duncan always does his best work in close out games..
Manu concerns me more, because we don't usually see him lacking energy like this..he's not as active, he's turning it over too much, his outside shot is broken..it has me concerned..maybe it's fatigue, or maybe the nose is affecting him..
The fact that the rest is shorter now and could be affecting them does concern me a little as well..
Other than that, I'm not concerned..I've been harping on the 3-point shooting, but that won't change, we don't have the weapons..the Spurs will come out with better energy and compete next game though..hopefully they stick to what got them here, which was pressure defense, denying Dirk and rotating on Kidd..
Also, obviously avoid playing Mason as much as possible..he really could be the worst player in the NBA at this point..
It also looked like the Mavs have decided to use Kidd more in the post. A few years ago that might've worried me but call me skeptical -- even if he did have some success tonight. Obviously the Mavs are aware of the Spurs' gameplan with Kidd (chase him off the 3), so I'll be interested in seeing if they look to do that in Game 6 -- if it picks up some fouls on Tony and George it might actually be worth it.
i'm not optimist that we will win this series, now that Butler got going i don't think we have enough to beat the mavs, i think we going home after the series.
Last edited by kobyz; 04-28-2010 at 01:32 AM.
A couple of things nobody mentioned about that disaster of a first half:
The Spurs were unbelievably sloppy setting picks. A lot of the time they just moved out in the direction of the play and stood there. There was no attempt to get out in front of the play, and get some solid contact on the defender. As a result, we had a of a time getting any separation. That won't get it done.
The Spurs were also very sloppy with their passing. People have been talking about that 3P shot that Bonner airmailed. But if you look back at it, the pass to him was way off the mark. He had to lean out to get the ball, then pull back and get his balance before he could line up the shot. By that time he had someone right on top of him. And that didn't happen just once or twice. The errant passes kept guys from being able to make the corner going to the basket, forced players to give up shots that would have been open, hosed passing lanes, etc. It's easy to make another player look bad, when you force him to reach for a pass like that.
I may re-watch the game, if I can stand it, to try and figure out how the Mavs managed to be in our passing lanes so much. They obviously had a game plan for it - they got 14 steals in the game, and they weren't all in garbage time. 14 freaking steals. I'm trying to remember the last time I saw a team get that many.
Someone mentioned Tim moving sideways as he attempted a shot. i saw him do it more than once. If I didn't know better, I would say it looked like their shot blockers got into Duncan's head. It's beginnnig to look like Dirk got into Manu's nose.
They put a bunch of hard "playoff fouls" on Parker when he went to the rim. But they did something else that made a big difference in the flow of the Spurs defense. I re-watched a couple of quarters, and slowed it down when the Mavs were on offense. During the time that I watched, I only saw one of the Mavs set a pick without moving. They were sliding out and drilling the defenders trailing the ball, and carrying them way off the play. But they were also clearing out a lot on the weak side. I saw a number of times where the Spurs were "a step slow" because they had been cleared out of the play. At times they almost looked like football halfbacks making lead blocks. They would clear a Spur out on the weak side, then roll a shooter into the space for a wide open look. On one play, I watched Dampier block Ginobili solidly back into Jefferson, and Terry dropped in for a wide-open 15-footer. It wasn't anything you could call a pick, but it tied up two Spurs defenders.
I'm not ing about the Mavs, or about the refs. The Mavs were aggressive, and it was obviously a good game plan for them. I'm just saying that the Spurs are going to have to find a way to counter that. It may involve some flopping, and/or a call to the league office. If they can suck out a few calls early, it may force the Mavs to adjust.
Are you serios ?
Mavs made two smart adjustments
A) Haywood starting in place of Dampier. Either his teammates don't trust him, or he just isn't aggressive, but with Damp out there the Mavs play 4 on 5 on the offensive end.
B) Aggressively attack the basket. The Spurs were running guys off the 3 point line in game 4 without much worry of anyone putting the ball on the floor and attacking the basket. We were able to get away with Duncan and McDyess closing out on shooters, simply because the shooters didn't seem to realize taking the big man off the dribble was an option (for Kidd it might not be anymore)
Haywood seems to be less invisible offensively, and Butler and Marion seemed to be a little more aggressive in going to the hole. I hope the Spurs can bait Dallas into contested 3's/long 2's again come game 6.
Veteran observation
yea with that p&r it was unbelievable that spurs could not pass the ball, the lanes were closed and if the first pass went through, that was it. Horrific ball movement. Haywood is more mobile center. No Dampier and dalls p&r defense looks better.
I expect a ing beat down on Thursday. I will be pissed off for a week if they don't win by 20.
If our guys didn't get get royally pissed sitting and watching the second team get worked in the 2nd half, we don't deserve to win the championship.
I said in the game thread we should start TP. No one was interested though.
Steve Smith said that maybe it's time to start Tony again or at least get him out there early next game. I think I would agree.
TP has been the most consistent Spurs player in this series. Manu and Tim have played 3 very good games and two piss poor games whereas TP has been consistent for 5 games.
TP has shown last season in the playoffs and this season that he is here to play and will not back down. I really do appreciate what TP brings to the team.
How did Roger Mason Jr make the NBA? Is there some Pizza Hut contest loophole I don't know about because I want to play on the Spurs too.
Mason Jr. is worse than I even thought. I said last season around January or February he's going Hedo on us and I was wrong. He's worse than Hedo ever was. Looks like everyone has now come to that conclusion.
I also said it was nothing to do with the switch to PG, whereas a lot of people made that excuse for him. I will say though that his hand might be affecting his shooting, but the rest of his game is non existent anyway so there is no need to play him.
Malik Hairston was starting to get some steam going at the end of the season too, but Pop still plays Mason Jr anyway.
I don't like at all Spurs throwing away a playoff game like that. Both teams are so close that it isn't smart not to use every little opportunity to win the series.
Spurs are still in the driver seat but I hope this iness won't bite them in the back.
Do you think TP should maybe start Bruno?
I agree, not happy at all with the game. Absolutely dog of a performance from the Spurs. Pop already used the dog comment, but this performance was a lot worse than that one.
I will continue to let him on the bench. Don't overreact after one loss. However, if the start of the game is bad for Spurs, pop should call quickly a timeout and put Parker in. Spurs were at -10 when Parker entered in the first quarter yesterday, it was too late.
All I have to do is nod again here....
Couldn't have said it better myself...
This plus 10000000
I can go with that. He has to have TP in quickly if the offense is to start with. If we're doing stupid stuff and not attacking then TP should be put it a lot quicker.
Also, Pop needs to call more time outs quicker to steady the ship.
don't u think celebrating it at home seems to be better than doing it away in Dallas? Obviously we didn't pull out our full power last night and the 103-81 definitely wasn't the true reflection. Easy win predicted for game 6.
we must seal the deal or else we are out in 7 at there place
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
