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people were getting in the paint too easily, Splitter had a lot to do with why they weren't getting those points as easily when he was playing.
Maybe he was out of shape?
people were getting in the paint too easily, Splitter had a lot to do with why they weren't getting those points as easily when he was playing.
...Blair didn't shut down Aldridge...the Blazers were just too stupid to see the obvious matchup problem and run isolations for Aldridge. And as mingus pointed out, the Spurs were getting raped at the rim with no shot blocker in the game.
The Spurs got lucky with that lineup in the fourth which led Pop to believe it was actually working. They should never, ever do that again.
Exactly. I don't really ever place a loss on a coach. I am just of the opinion that they aren't as important as the players. Sure, coaches can make some decisions that help or hurt a team, but the overall win or loss is on the players.
I actually thought it was the lack of play knowledge and bad free throw percentage. If so, I still want to see more of Splitter at the end of the game.
I don't know why it should surprise anyone. For two games, the guy with the hottest hand on the team was Novak. Next game he's a DNP. That's just vintage Pop, isn't it? I'm not saying he should have been moved into the starting lineup, but damn. At least put him in until he misses a shot or two.
The Spurs got lucky with that lineup in the fourth which led Pop to believe it was actually working. They should never, ever do that again.
Wow, a completely stupid analysis. The Spurs were getting raped at the rim? That's absurd. The reality is, the Blazers couldn't score against the Spurs in the halfcourt. Lol @ you actually believing you know better than the entire Blazers team and Nate McMillian. You're obviously a basketball genius that the Blazers should pick up right away. So what are you doing on Spurstalk?
The reality is, the Spurs were playing dominating defense for most of the second half. Aldridge couldn't do anything against Blair. Unfortunately, the Blazers were scoring off of the ample Spurs turnovers.
Obviously, you have an agenda, but Splitter on the bench is not even close to the reason the Spurs lost. They just choked it away on the offensive end.
lol the "so you know better than the coach" response. Way to channel your inner TPark.
They were getting raped...it's just that the Blazers didn't do it enough. They could have gone to the rim whenever they wanted they just settled for too many jumpers. It had much more to do with lack of taking advantage of matchups than it did with the Spurs defense.
I'm not sure where you get the idea that Aldridge couldn't do anything against Blair. They barely went to him. One of the few passes they tried to make to him was bad and Blair would up stealing it. I'm guessing this is what you consider Blair shutting him down. How many shots did Aldridge take against Blair in the 4th? Perhaps you should check the play by play and get back to me on that.
As I said before...the Spurs were lucky and it ran out as the 4th went on.
Lol, watch the game instead of looking at the play-by-play. Blair wasn't letting Aldridge get position and was all around being a pest. San Antonio was hardly lucky. They were up comfortably, playing excellent defense and then wet the bed. Give up the silly agenda.
splitter starting to be himself why wouldn't pop play splitter in the 4th....sometimes pop doesn't know what hes doing..pop needs to go back to the basics ;(
Splitter playing more in general and the idea that Splitter would have been the difference last night are two separate issues. I don't know if Splitter playing in the fourth would have won us the game, but I do think it's telling that Pop has given up on him. More and more it looks like he's only playing him because Tim is injured and once Tim returns Tiago will go back to the bench. Hopefully that's not the case because we need his presence. Why isn't Pop playing him? Who knows, probably just his pride. He's convinced himself that this isn't Tiago's year so he's probably going to stay with that.
Looking back I don't know why the we switched our starting lineup a few weeks back. Yeah Dice needed to play more but that could have still happened without starting him. I think benching Blair has thrown the chemistry off, and resulted in the awful Bonner/Blair combination. If Tiago started replacing Bonner's minutes I would be happy.
absolutly dissapointing. denver and portland games were awful at the end. other than that we played fine. splitter will be a key player in the future!
According to pop he needs to get 24 points, 19 rebounds, 7 assists, 6 blocks, and 4 steals.
Splitter easily could have made 16 points and 10 rebounds yesterday...
damn Pop!
This is the problem the last two seasons we've been on Pop for not riding the hot hand and now he is doing that, but with small ball, he just rode small ball way too long.
The previous two seasons Pop would go with strange rotation patterns and always sub someone out when they had the hot hand and we'd go cold and it would cost us games. This season Pop has done a better job of riding the hot hand except for certain situations such as small and Bonner. Pop rides small ball and Bonner way too long. It's good that he is riding the hot hand more, but he's overdoing it on a lame horse. Lame horse = small ball and Bonner. Never ride those two too long.
You can even go back to the second game of the season against NO where he rode that lineup that got us back into the game and never subbed the regulars back in.
Although it hurts the positive we can get out of these last 2 defeats is Splitter should be a valuable piece of the playoff rotation at least for the first 3 quarters. I'm not to worried about him playing in the 4th , As Timmy should finish games for us.
Seriously speaking Splitter is our best back-up to Timmy at the 5. In fact our only back-up at 5. Let's be honest Blair, Bonner and Dice are not centers. period !
Getting Spliiter into our playoff rotation is much more important than a win or two in the regular season. Were not going to look back at this loss and say that's why we din't win the ring. It is highly possible however to blame not getting Splitter in the playoff rotation as the reason for failure in the playoffs.
The way I see , If were not good enough to win 6 of our last 10 games and keep Home court advantage ( even with TD missing half of the games) , then were not good enough to compete for a ring , it's that simple.
He wasn't in, because it made too much sense. If he had thrown up 30/20 on 15-15 shooting, thrown in 5 blocks and held Aldridge scoreless, he still wasn't going to play in the fourth.
He's clearly the third (possibly second) best big on the team. He's now rebounding at a quality rate as well and Blair is slipping. That was the one thing he had on Splitter. But with that disparity shrinking, there is officially no excuse for Blair to play at Splitter's expense in the playoffs.
The reason Splitter wasn't in the game is nothing but the most ironic revolution of the season to date. Popovich would rather have someone in the game that knows more about the playbook than someone that may be a physical advantage. He wants to coach the defense in crunch time and not have to be concerned with someone turning the wrong way or taking a step to far on offense. In other words, he wants the offensive execution to be in place when the game is on the line. There lies the irony, since he and his two amigos made about four offensive faux pas in the last two minutes on offense, and to put the cherry on top the three of them combined to F up the last play on defense. Time to move on folks.
That's understandable and I'm sure most of us understand why Pop is not playing Splitter in the 4th quarter, but if I could, I gotta ask Pop why did he play a rookie Tony Parker, rookie Manu, Nazr after the trade deadline?The reason Splitter wasn't in the game is nothing but the most ironic revolution of the season to date. Popovich would rather have someone in the game that knows more about the playbook than someone that may be a physical advantage. He wants to coach the defense in crunch time and not have to be concerned with someone turning the wrong way or taking a step to far on offense. In other words, he wants the offensive execution to be in place when the game is on the line. There lies the irony, since he and his two amigos made about four offensive faux pas in the last two minutes on offense, and to put the cherry on top the three of them combined to F up the last play on defense. Time to move on folks.
When you HAVE IT, YOU HAVE IT and you GOTTA PLAY THAT PLAYER.
Manu and Nazr both really didn't play until the second half of both those seasons. Sure Splitter missed training camp, but so did those guys and they played.
I don't understand why Pop has changed from those Championship years. He had to take some risks, but for some reason he will not do it anymore. It's like he doesn't want his players to play on instinct, instead they all gotta be in the right place at the right time and take a step in that direction or this direction. That's not what basketball is all about. You gotta play with a bit of instinct. It can't all be about the system and about the system only above all else to get court time. Bonner is a perfect example of someone who should know what Pop wants him to do, but yet he keeps ing up time and time again. He has no instinct.
Last edited by Ice009; 03-26-2011 at 09:59 PM.
I think Pop also said something along these lines about Splitter about a month or two ago "It's not fair to the other players"
Well I say, was it fair to David Robinson to start a rookie Tony Parker over Antonio Daniels? Was it fair to David Robinson to play Manu after he missed the first few months of the season? You BET YOUR ASS IT WAS FAIR as D-Rob ended up with a Championship and those moves 1 and 2 seasons apart contributed to that.
Pop has definitely gone soft.
I hope to Pop doesn't start pulling back the reins on Gary Neal. When Neal is in the game and Manu comes in it's like the ball gets taken out of Neal's hands. When Manu took the last shot against Denver with a hand in his face Neal was less than 10 feet away and open. I know Ginobili has carried this team to great heights, but part of that now could be recognizing the strenghts of a teammate like Gary Neal.
I try not to focus on Bonner. He's like the sun! You know it's there but you can't look because it hurts your eyes. I know the Spurs can't have an entire team of 12 million dollar men, but Matty is about a 2 million dollar player. I really think the Front Office is trying to upgrade the position. Speaking of no instinct, the only way that Novak could up on that inbound pass was to throw it where nobody could touch it.
So true - if the play wasn't there he could have simply tossed a bounce pass or soft lob towards the basket. Worse case scenario would be that the Blazers have to make a 3-quarter court length shot. We take our chances in overtime.
Jeez, it was harder to that play up than it was to do the right thing.
Such a massive fail by all involved that pretty much destroyed my faith in this season.
Can't you guys in SA start a campaign to have "Play Splitter" signs all over the arena in hopes that Pop will play him? Don't want to contemplate the playoffs with Blair/Bonner while Splitter sits on the bench.
Here's hoping he gets lots of PT against Gasol/Randolph tonight.
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