Sure, but the emboldened bit is the strange part. Given all the evidence suggesting danger, strange that you ignored it completely.
I can understand Timmy. He is 35.
I can understand Manu. With one arm.
But i can't understand Tony !! He is 28. Experienced. Finals MVP before. But what the is the 17 TO in this series? Also he makes Mike Conley look as an 10 time allstar..
Sure, but the emboldened bit is the strange part. Given all the evidence suggesting danger, strange that you ignored it completely.
You also called it in 2003, 2005, and 2007.
Because every team has good things about them. It's pretty clear the Spurs are the better team overall, but MEM is playing great and the Spurs are playing terrible.
While I saw some problems, the Spurs losing a series to the 8 seed is something catastrophic.
The reason I still have a glimmer of hope and the difference between this year and last year is that the Spurs had no answer for the Suns' style of play (hence being swept) and got rolled most of the series. 3 out of 4 of these games have been close and although the Grizz have played well on both ends of the floor the careless TO's by SA and the inexplicable looseball advantage by Memphis has told a good portion of the story.....the defense by the wings has to be better on the cuts/backdoors to the basket, that was a clinic tonight.
Man I was thinking about it, if I lived in San Antonio I'd do whatever I can to get tickets for Game 5. This might be the last time we ever see the big three suit up together.
Hope the fans show up in force and cheer them on like it's the last time, win or lose.
what about the supporting cast?
what about the coach?
IMO the big3 still has 1 or 2 years left, but with a REAL supporting cast!!!!
Guys like RJ or Bonner with their salaries are hurting the team more than anybody...
They are the only overpaid players on the team
RJ has 3 more years (!!!!) and no team is crazy enough to take him...
Bonner is not and will never be a PO player...
Our role players are the reason memphis can focus that much on the big3!!!
remember when we could rely on Bowen, Horry or Jackson??![]()
It was a good run!
it was a great run!
all i know is that manu ginobili and tim duncan are truly hurting. they realize theyre on the back end of their careers...its tough getting oldi feel for them, it was good while it last, all good things come to an end eventually..
Duncan can't do it on offense, but he can still deliver on defense. Time to give up any idea of four down and win this series the way they won most of the games this season, but this time throw in some twin tower defense and the occasional high/low.
Spurs in seven, es.
I will be in SA this weekend, and mark my words, if the ing Spurs force a Game 7 you can bet your ass I will be there for it!![]()
Some post-game quotes. Post-game video:
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=178110
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/recap?gid=2011042529Grizzlies grab 1st ever 3-1 series lead over Spurs
By Teresa M. Walker
Whatever Memphis coach Lionel Hollins said to his team at halftime worked very, very well.
The eighth-seeded Grizzlies outscored San Antonio 30-15 in the third quarter, turning a 2-point halftime deficit into a 104-86 rout Monday night of the Spurs for a commanding 3-1 lead in their opening series.
“It was an incredible performance in the third and fourth quarter,” Hollins said. “We outscored them 30-15 and from the second quarter on, our defense just kept getting better and better.”
San Antonio led 50-48 at halftime, and Grizzlies guard O.J. Mayo said Hollins lit such a fire in his team with telling them exactly what he wanted them to do that they couldn’t wait to get onto the court.
“We’re not playing too well in so many words,” Mayo said. “That’s the clean version. And we need to get it together, and play with a lot of energy and play like we’re a desperate team. All year he’s been preaching that the desperate team usually wins, and we didn’t look very desperate that first half.”
The Grizzlies already had made franchise history by winning their first playoff game in Game 1 and added their first playoff win at home. Now they are a game away from becoming the second eighth seed to knock off a No. 1 seed since the NBA expanded to a best-of-seven series and join the 2007 Golden State Warriors.
“I know a lot of people didn’t expect us to be here,” Grizzlies guard Mike Conley said. “It’s not like we were expected to be up 3-1 at this point. In our locker room, we’re just playing it game by game. We want to come into San Antonio looking to end it there. We’re focused and want to be able to move onto the next round.”
Conley had 15 points and seven assists. Darrell Arthur added 14 points off the bench for Memphis. Tony Allen had 12, Randolph and Mayo 11 apiece.
These are the same Spurs that won 61 games in the regular season. They opened up very energetic, shooting well and even had their first halftime lead in this series.
They finished the game with their starters on the bench for the final 5:43 with Spurs coach Gregg Popovich trying to rest them for Game 5 on Wednesday night in San Antonio. Now the Spurs will be trying to avoid their second 4-1 opening series loss in three seasons.
“Obviously, the whole team is very frustrated,” Spurs guard Tony Parker said. “I mean we go through a whole season and get that first seed, and now we’re just one game away to be eliminated so it’s most important for us to focus on Game 5. That’s the most important thing to get Game 5 and try to get another chance to get a win here.”
Parker led the Spurs with 23 points with only four in the second half. He also had seven turnovers. Manu Ginobili had 14, Gary Neal 11, and George Hill and Tiago Splitter 10 each. Splitter, a rookie from Brazil, had not played previously in this series.
Tim Duncan had six points on his 35th birthday.
The first three games had been tight with Memphis winning by no more than three points. The Spurs won Game 2 by six.
This time it was a rout once the Grizzlies took control by outscoring the Spurs 30-15 in the third quarter for the first time in this series.
Ginobili called the loss surprising and disappointing. He expected the Spurs to bounce back both emotionally and physically after losing Game 3 but saw the Grizzlies have that edge, especially in the second half. Ginobili said he didn’t see the fire to come back after the Spurs fell behind by double digits.
“We looked bad. They are a young squad. They are playing at home … for many of them the first time playing in the playoffs, so they had all the juice and we didn’t,” Ginobili said.
Memphis opened the second half with a 14-0 run with Gasol’s two free throws at 11:04 putting the Grizzlies ahead to stay at 52-50. Sam Young’s dunk capped the run at 7:41 of the third for a 62-50 lead. The Spurs, who shot 55.3 percent in the first half, missed their first five shots and were 6 of 15 from the floor. They also had seven turnovers in the quarter.
The Grizzlies had every fan up and waving the rally towels handed out, cranking up the noise with every Spurs’ missed shot or mistake. Arthur ended the quarter by hitting a pair of jumpers to put Memphis up 78-65 at the end of the third.
When Arthur dunked at 10:13 of the fourth putting Memphis up 83-67, Popovich took a timeout. It didn’t help as Arthur hit a shot at 8:51 pushing the lead to 85-67.
The Grizzlies went up 94-74 on a 3 by Shane Battier who was wide open in the right corner with 5:43 left. The celebration began in earnest in Memphis.
Popovich credited the Grizzlies with staying aggressive and physical. But he said Memphis played all 48 minutes, while his Spurs played only the first 24. In the third quarter, the Spurs imploded turning the ball over seven times and fouling way too much to give Memphis its first edge at the free throw line in this series.
“They put their foot on our neck and they never let up,” Popovich said. “They did a great job.”
Memphis already had become only the seventh No. 8 seed to go up 2-1 in the NBA playoffs since the league expanded the postseason to 16 teams in 1983-84, and the Grizzlies are just the third team to do it since the first round expanded to best-of-seven for the 2003 playoffs.
Battier said he’d feel better about being up 3-1 if it were against someone other than the Spurs.
“They are very capable of winning three straight in a playoff series. All we’ve done is held homecourt. Now, these guys should expect the toughest game of their career, come Wednesday,” Battier said.
The Grizzlies had another electric crowd, just their sixth sellout of the season, and fans buzzed with a sense of expectation instead of mere hope for a win that surrounded this team when the Spurs swept them out of the playoffs in their first postseason trip in 2004.
The Spurs opened the game by hitting eight of their first 10 led by Parker who scored eight of the first 10 points. Memphis came out forgetting its strength is going inside to Randolph and Gasol, and Randolph set that tone by taking a long jumper as the Grizzlies’ first shot. He missed, and they wound up outscored 16-6 in the paint for the quarter.
San Antonio led 26-21 after 12 minutes, the first time in this series the Spurs had outscored Memphis in the first quarter.
Greivis Vasquez had an ugly turnover at the end of the first quarter, just losing the ball. Hill took it and scored to make it 26-19. Vasquez, the second-year pro out of Maryland, rebounded by hitting his next three shots to start a 9-2 run. Mayo capped it with a fast-break layup for a 30-28 lead in the second.
Parker came into the game 15-of-44, and he hit all seven shots in the first half and his four free throws in helping the Spurs lead 50-48 at halftime. But he missed his first shot in the third quarter, a 3-pointer, at 9:58.
NOTES: The Spurs now have lost 15 of their last 18 postseason road games dating back to Game 4 against Phoenix in 2008. … The Spurs are 0-5 in series with Duncan when they trail 3-1. … The Grizzlies led the NBA in forced turnovers with 16.5 per game and steals with 9.40 per game. In this game, they had their best performance of this series forcing the Spurs into 17 turnovers that they turned into 20 points. Memphis also had eight steals, three by Allen. … The Grizzlies went 23-3 in the regular season when holding opponents to 90 points or fewer.
you Parker. you giant sack of . thsi whole damn team.
Gotta find someone else that can drive!!!!
Since tony balls shriveled up!
Yeah, it's all Pop's fault. Seriously... go yourself.
Ya know What...
SPURS SUCK TONIGHT!!!
What we saw tonite was a team that quit on their coach. Mainly because the coach is a fool.
TP is turning the ball over because he is playing with lineups that don't know him and he doesn't know them either.
Only a fool like Pop thinks you can win playoff games with the bench. I guess he was resting TD and Manu for next year's coach. Because if the Holt cares for the fans of San Antonio they would put old yeller down. Pop is done.
GODDAMMIT!!!
Thank goodnes Im drunk!!!!
I had to leave the game at half time to go to work and now I just came back and watched the game, well, I don't think it was a game I watched, more like the murdering of the Spurs.
Anyway I said all season Bonner is a choker, called Hill mentally weak and was pretty much wanting Splitter to be in the rotation from day 1. Correct on all accounts IMO.
Spurs can still win this series though. Don't discount Memphis getting nervous if we get game 5. I'd start Splitter in game 5 and keep going with that lineup. Bring McDyess off the bench, dump Bonner completely out of the rotation and put Blair in instead. Blair and McDyess off the bench would be better. That's the way to go. Dial up the starters minutes too.
Series is definitely NOT over. GET GAME 5.
Why thank him? The er should have done it months ago.
I'm pretty sure someone suggested we trade TP for Rudy Gay and Conely a couple of seasons ago. Would you do that trade now?
I'm pretty sure Hollins wrote a very, VERY detailed article about the Spurs in Sports Illustrated during our 2003 championship season breaking down the Spurs defense. He knows our defense inside and out, and that is the AWESOME Spurs defense, this version of our defense he would have had no problem at all breaking it down. Recalling that article during the regular season when we lost to them reminded me that the Spurs are going to have trouble with a team coached by him because he knows us pretty well.
I've been pissed at this change since 2009 when Bruce was benched. Pop looks like a total fool right about now. Looks like Bruce, myself and a few others were right and Pop was wrong.
Exactly. The thing I recall the most is that 2001 series against the Lakers (I'm sure u remember that?) where Pop fielded a team that couldn't do anything but shoot threes. I can't believe the clown couldn't remember that series as an example of what can happen if your shooters are locked down and can't do anything else.
Never build a team around 3 point shooting and no defense playing chokers. Pop has made some stupid decisions.
A lot of the fans in this thread as straight up pussies. I can't believe almost everyone has tossed the towel. Like you just said, you gotta look at it like this : With 2 out of 3 games at home you would be absolutely stupid to toss in the towel.
Last edited by Ice009; 04-26-2011 at 02:54 AM.
Well done you.
Spurs came out in the third as though they didn't expect the Grizzlies to try to win the game. The Grizzlies came out in the third as though they were trying to win a playoff game. That's the difference.
Spurs in 7.
Tron movie is better than Spurs
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