Some of us have been telling you this all season.A MIRACLE IS NOT A GOOD THING TO HOPE FOR! If it takes that then we are as good as done IMO! I wanted to play good hard ball and some D and maybe a le would come, the fact some are hoping for a miracle now is just not good at all! Shows you all year the record had us fooled and the reality of the situation is rearing it's ugly head nowThe deficiencies are showing up and other teams figuring this running Spurs team out! Thats what it seems to me. I hope I am wrong, I hope it takes no miracle to win it all.
"Segment of games" should probably mean the entire regular season. As much as this forum has dumped on regular season warriors such as the Suns and Mavs, you'd think folks would look at our record with a little skepticism.
Pop has given only lip service to improving our defense and rebounding. There's no pressure for him to, really - no one expected our record this year, so when we flame out in the PO he can play the "aw shucks, I'm so humble" card and let the champagne corks fly.
Neither. This is simply a league in which things change from game to game.
Heck, you could say the Celtics are in a slump right now.
My main disappointment is that it now looks like that coveted SAS-PHX first round matchup isn't going to happen after all.
The Spurs are sucking and it makes me sad.... this is the time of year where they should be peaking, not sucking.... anybody who disagrees and thinks this is not an issue needs to dummy up.
There should be a bit of a sense of urgency because the playoffs are just around the corner, and we can't ride a hot Manu Ginobili anymore cuz he's cooled off.....
We should be beating the elite teams....or at least competing, but insead we're gettin blown out of the water..
If you disagree, then you're probably just too young to know what time it is....
defense wins chapionships.
Exposed: live by the 3, die by the 3.
Ladies and gentlemen, your 2006 Phoenix Suns.
Disagreed. We are looking like the team that beats us last season's playoff - 2010 Edition of Phoenix Sun.
3 pt - checked
Deep bench - checked
Lose to a better defensive team - probably.
Agreed. I wouldn't demean a Pop team by comparing it to a D'Antoni team. The 2010 Gentry version of the Suns however are a fair comparison. Apart from the depth and shooting, there are other similarities:
- Both had a trifecta of average big men next to their star big man. The Spurs rotate Dice/Bonner/Blair to pair Duncan while the 2010 Suns had Lopez/Frye/Amundsen next to Amare.
- Both teams paid lip service to focusing on defense but didn't have the personnel to pull it off
Didn't choose either one . This team has a comfortable lead in the standings and a deep bench . The biggest hurdle they faced after the allstart break was keeping up their top pace and finding the motivation in maintaining it.
Spurs starters are letting this team down with Manu taking lead because they are expecting their bench to come in and take over. The way Manu's playing, it seems he's only wants to step up in the second half - against good teams it's too late. Bynum called it and we saw it today. They are quitting waiting for the next easy team to play against.
Agreed. I stand corrected.
exposed obviously. But this is the best thing that could possibly happen. Still have #1 locked up and at least we are getting exposed BEFORE the playoffs.
still 15 games to try to improve the D.
the live and die by the 3 myth is dumb. The spurs are not shooting more 3s than the other teams, sometimes you guys prefer forget facts.
And no if Pop places Tiago over Bonner it won't change spurs destiny@thinking playing Tiago vs. Bonner is the difference between a fifth ring and a second round exit.
Spurs are on a bad sequence it doesn't mean this is the end of their chances like when we beat Miami by 30 it didn't mean awas locked.
Overreaction is stupid behavior.
Before the slump I was worried about our rebounding issues and I think this is our biggest problem even if it is not the reason of our loss against Miami.
Spurs are contenders like Boston and Dallas, Lakers are favorites. The last 5 games don't change the picture like the previous 50 were not an indication of the spurs being the favorites.
It's really funny to read all the pessimist guys.
Some of them like above says regular season record doesn't mean a , but criticizing the losses against Miami and Lakers(Both of them was regular season loss of course.)
The other teams are going to step up when the play-offs comes. Yes it's obvious. But why don't you think that Spurs will do the same thing? Parker will drive much more aggressively, Manu will defend like a hungry monster and Tim will going to start what he can do. RJ and McDyess will also play harder in defense. Yes we have some unproven guys like Blair and Neal, some proven chokers like Bonner.
But we have a good core. We won't give up so many offensive rebounds, because Manu and Parker will help to rebounds. We're a good regular season team, but we're not a bad play-off team too.
At the moment all the teams except Spurs need regular season wins too much. Lakers need, because giving up home-court advantage in a 7 games series against Dallas is too bad. Dallas needs for the same reason. Miami needs, because they're trying to take 2nd place in East for home-court advantage in 2nd round. Bulls is pushing hard for Eastern le. Spurs is very near to take first place in whole play-offs and don't need to be very hot at the moment. We should just win 10 of our 15 remaining games and stay healthy. That's all we should do.
I doubt Pop replaces Blair with Splitter this late in the season. Especially because Blair's energy can be a difference maker.
However, when Bonnor is not hitting the three, he is a complete liability. Why Pop didn't give Splitter some minutes in the second half until the game was over is beyond me. Why Pop has decided to sit Splitter the last couple of games when he could have played minutes against the Kings, Rockets and Pistons is beyond me. Everyone knows this team needs to beef up on the front line, everyone but Pop apparently.
Neither. Just settling down to get ready for the playoffs.
The 3 point myth is another story. I'm laughing to everyone who says Spurs lives by 3.
Spurs shoots 20.5 three points every game is 9th in this field.
http://espn.go.com/nba/statistics/te...GoalsAttempted
Our rival Dallas shoots 21.1 three points every game and 6th. Eastern conference conternder Orlando shoots 25.6 three pointers every game and they're NBA leader. Lakers and Miami are not too behind of us, they shoot 18 three points every game and they're in 14th.
That's why, Spurs is not too dependent to three point shoots. They're shooting well and they're NBA leader in 3 point percentage; but they're not attempting three points too much.
Three point shooting is not the reason they lost. Atleast half the Spurs attempts from outside were good looks, some wide open, plus i only remember one or two tough attempts from Manu and Neal.
The tone was set early with a whole lot of missing from the perimeter. Miami took advantage on D. Driving to the rim became harder for Spurs penetrating guards as the heat closed out fast on the perimiter. You could call it gambling on one of the best 3 point shooting teams in the NBA. Just hitting some of those early three's forces Miami to stick to their men, instead of closing out.
This team is too good from the perimeter to not attempt them. Spurs get the same looks again, they will come up trumps.
Our slump has been exposed.
Exposed in a slump
Voices of reason have no business in this thread....
i dont see anywhere in that quote where it says play bonner over blair. i see play splitter over blair, witch i cant see hurt for the last few games of the regular season. at least give him some minutes and let him get used to performing. besides, the blair-bonner matchup is terrible. wouldn't hurt to try splitter-bonner, or splitter-blair.
The real problem with the offense centers around Duncan. His offensive rhythm has been terrible all season. That was in part to Pop conserving his minutes and the other part is because he was deferring his offense to allow the wing players more opportunities to score.
I always felt that needed to be the case the first half of this season. Seeing what happened to Tim last after he carried the Spurs up until the all star break and then started to run out of gas. You knew Pop had to come up something new this year. He did and it help get us this far. Now Pop needs to give Tim the ball and say "Hey you are the man here no matter what anyone says and now you have to carry us from here on out". I don’t care if we lose a few games but Tim needs to get that offensive rhythm in the block and maybe start getting a few double teams. I was hoping Pop would have started this after the all star break but he probably just wanted to ride this out.
Splitter starting next to Duncan would help defensively but it will not change the fact the Spurs cannot put the ball in the hole when the defenders pack the lane and rotate out on our wings.
regular season champs!
for sure i thought duncan would have woken up by now. however, he seems permanently asleep. we will see in the first round of the playoffs if duncan is really done.
http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.c...o-worry-about/Is the Spurs defense becoming something to worry about?
Kurt Helin
Monday night’s blowout win showcased what Miami can do on defense. They dominated the usually efficient Spurs offense — fighting for spots on the floor that the spurs like, sticking with shootings at the arc, generally just throwing them off their game.
But at the other end of the floor Spurs defense may be as big a story — heading into the playoffs it is slipping.
My man Matt Moore broke out the defensive efficiency numbers (points per 100 possessions, the best way to rate defenses) over at CBS’ Eye on Basketball and it’s the kind of thing that Gregg Popovich should be concerned about (although a lot of things concern Popovich, he’s just one of the few coaches capable of still focusing on the big picture through it all).
But they also entered Monday night’s game against Miami having averaged giving up 102 points per game in March, as opposed to their typical mark of 97. Their season defensive efficiency has been a solid 101.1. In March? The Spurs have averaged a 108.5 defensive efficiency, including marks of 117 to Memphis, 112 to the Lakers, 114 to Detroit, and the abomination, a 122 mark to the Heat. For reference, the worst team in the league, the Cleveland Cavaliers, average a 110 defensive efficiency. So in a supremely small sample, this month the Spurs are surrendering a defensive efficiency that would be the worst in the league if spread over the season.
This is still the Spurs, nobody is reaching for the panic button. This could be as simple as a team coasting into the playoffs, taking its foot off the gas, resting its vets more and that showing up on defense. The Spurs offense remains one of the league’s best and it is getting them wins. They will have home court throughout the playoffs (barring a total collapse), so they can get right in the postseason.
Except that in the first round of the playoffs they are likely to get Memphis or Portland (maybe New Orleans can fall to the 8 seed), and if that is the case there will be no easy bye to the second round. The entire bottom half of the West is teams playing well right now.
If the Spurs defense remains an issue, that at the least could mean an extra game or two in the first round, something every team wants to avoid. At worst, it’s an ongoing defensive issue that could derail their le hopes.
It’s just something to watch heading into the playoffs. You know Popovich will be.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
