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I'm gonna try again!
Bump.
When I played poker I obviously wanted to win each hand I was in. Of course that is impossible and the bad players will win from you from time to time. The thing is, you actually liked to see bad players win and build up a good pile of chips.
Thats the point when they started playing with house money. They were running well and they would just play loose and wild. That works for awhile, but eventually they'd lose their stack and would keep playing loosely and would lose it all.
There's a kind of analogous situation to that in basketball. When everything is going their way the Griz can't miss. Sam Young puts up near career highs, OJ Mayo plays like he's not a bust, Zach Randolph tosses in 3 pointers, and Marc Gasol looks like a future all star. They're playing with House Money. Confidence is huge in basketball. You don't think as much, and you just act which turns out well when you're a finely tuned athlete and NBA player. You're playing free and loose. Things are easy.
Well, the Griz just lost a little bit of that house money. Now being down and falling behind in the 2nd doesn't mean you go home to play game 6, it means you go back to San Antonio to play the four time NBA champs in a game 7. You think about that and you're not as loose. All of a sudden that rim looks a bit smaller and you feel it all slipping away.
In other words, your nuts shrivel a bit and maybe you remember you're an eight seed. The Griz are a young team who only within the past week won their first playoff game in franchise history. Right up until the Neal shot they had gotten nearly every break in the series and had yet to take a real punch. Even the Ginobili shot seemed like another break that was going to lead to Memphis winning.
So lets see how well they do without some of that House Money. Lets see how they react to being punched right in the mouth. They're definitely going to feed off their crowd, but the stakes are much higher now and thats going to affect them.
The Spurs showed the heart of a champion tonight. Hopefully, the Griz will show the heart of an eight seed on Friday.
I'm gonna try again!
Bump.
Those jumpshots are going to harder to make for that young grizz team in game 6. WIth Parker looking great in OT, he can hopefully continue that going into game 6.
If Grizz still drain those FG's at the pace they have been, kudos, they deserve to move on..because those motherfckers are relentless. I like the Spurs chances tho of making this another close game in Mem.
Winner of game 6 wins series.
I with you manny. I said a few days ago that all the smack Tony allen and even Hollins was talking showed you they were calling it series a lil too early. And it would work in the spurs' favor.
Yes. It ing pisses me off that they cant seem to miss from 15-20 ft.
You're damn right, I've been talking about confidence as well. Spurs need to ride it as much as they can, they need to roll into Memphis with at ude, energy, and confidence after that win. It's surprising how much better you shoot the ball with confidence. Just look at how y some of the Memphis players are...it doesn't surprise me one bit that they've been hot as .
Make it rain on game 6!
I don't know. Spurs barely won a home game in OT where even Manu said he just got lucky on his last shot. Bonner and Jefferson shooting 2-8 combined from behind the arc. Still no answer to Z-Bo.
Don't get me wrong. I hope the Spurs win. But I'd be surprised if they do.
I think with the clutch 3 point shots we just hit, the confidence on the 3ball has emerged. I wouldn't be suprised to see the Spurs hit a nice streak of 3's if they can get some looks.
that's one of the reasons i want the Spurs to double on Randolph more than they have. make these unproven guys hit 3s under pressure. 3 consecutive misses or so could be the difference b/w young scoring 18 and 4.
Pardon me but I don't want OJ Mayo taking open 3s. He's not the next Kobe, but he can still shoot. Play Splitter more on Gasol while Duncan is on Randolph and the problem is reduced as much as possible.
no i agree with Mayo. I mean Young and Allen.
As far as Duncan & Splitter. I'm not so sure. In game 4 the offense looked bad when both those guys were on the floor together. Just not enough chemistry. Small sample size, but still... Splitter's role should be to play minutes where he played them he did tonight IMO.
I think Tony and Manu are going to be a lot more aggressive next game. The confidence is going to be higher for Manu,Tony,Neal, and Hill. The only thing I am worried about is Randolph because he is unstoppable.
Let him get his....stop everyone else. No ing 3's from Mayo, no ty mid range jumpers from Young, etc.
grizzlies have their excellent defense to fall back to. expect another grind out game.
Agree with that, the Duncan/Splitter lineup didn't look so great. Besides Splitter seems to do most of his damage against their second unit running the P&R with Manu.
I think the fact that the Spurs eeked out this win and broke the hearts of the Grizzlies shrivels their confidence even more than a blowout loss would. With a blowout loss the Grizzlies would think "Ehh, well we blew them out last game at home." But with a close loss in OT now they're thinking " , they forced OT with an amazing shot and then beat us down in OT, now what are we going to do?"
This.
The Grizzlies gave it their best shot but they hung on with Neal's dagger-three and couldn't recover in OT.
We played a crappy 3rd quarter and still won. A decent 3rd quarter and we win by 10 in regulation.
Whjle i agree Manny that Baboon Randolph is playing with house money, he does have skilz. Dice completely bit on the leg step fake he gave as if he was going to drive with 4 on the shot clock. When Dice backed up, it gave Baboon -I mean Randolph plenty of room to launch the go ahead jumper.
But yes i like your analagy and hope the Grizz cool off.
Grizzlies were playing with no pressure and as the 8th seed they had nothing to lose. For the first time, they will have some pressure in game 6. Even when you are the 8th seed, when you are up 3-1 at a point of a series, you had to win it. Grizzlies will enter in this game with something to lose that is not choking the series.
Grizzlies are a young team so their reaction is hard to predict but they could start to have some doubt in game 6 especially if they haven't a great start.
The key, I believe, is that the spurs have to take the lead early...they have to quiet the crowd at least a little and take a lead.
If the grizzlies are chasing the spurs for most of the game then I think the doubt/desperation/overthinking/mistakes,etc... will all begin to play a part.
If the grizzles start out hot and take a good lead and the crowd and players are pumped...it will be very,very hard to pull out a win.
Well you're nailed it on the head, it's a small sample size and they can't get worse. If you add Manu to that lineup, given he plays well with both of those players, I think it should be effective. Manu got Tiago some great looks last night and they have on some occasions during the regular season. They seem to understand each other.
Good post. Battier even said they're still playing with house money. That could easily become problematic for a young, inexperienced team, in the throes of their first real battle as a group.
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