Dude waits 4 games in to finally play Splitter after getting butt ed by the Z Bo and Gasol, and decides it's a good idea to have Hill and Neal guarding guys twice their size while he's got two legit SG's rotting on the bench. They got posted up on ALL series long, not only that but they were getting rebounded on like crazy by the person they were boxing out because they were too short to grab the rebound. Guys like Battier didn't even have to jump to secure the rebound, their guards and forwards literally held their hands up in the air and reached over them.
If Splitter plays in the first 3 games this series would be over by game 5 with the Spurs as the victors, if Green or Anderson get any PT, this series would've been over 4-0. You'd think that Pop would recognize this pattern but for whatever reason he didn't. When your team is severely undersized and they're getting raped it's common ing sense to put some bigger guys in there to limit those bigger guys instead of keeping your small guards in there who they're just going to keep on abusing.
We lost because Tim Duncan is no longer Tim Duncan.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Jeff Van Gundy had one of the best lines I've heard in a very long time. Character wins regular season games, but talent wins in the playoffs. That's the bottom line with this Spurs team.
all good points
Danny Green might've been a factor in this series, but we never got to see him.
After four years of Pop's re ed decisions, the only real surprise is how anyone is still surprised.
The Spurs lost because Popovich was too stubborn to utilize his team to it's full potential! This Spurs team was at it's best when it played as a team, when it got contributions from EVERYONE.
There is absolutely no way in Memphis' Gs/SF's go crazy on the Spurs if Anderson or Green were guarding them. They were successful because all they had to do was back down the Spurs' undersized guards, or grab rebounds over them like nothing. That was the MAIN problem right there, if you put a big body on them like Green or Anderson that problem is solved.
You saw how big of a difference Splitter made when he finally got PT. Without him they'd have been absolutely DESTROYED today, this series would've been over last game if he hadn't gotten PT. As soon as he came in he was already helping out the Spurs when they were down by like 14, setting screens for people to score, deflecting balls and creating turnovers, scoring a bit, grabbing some boards etc.
Seriously...
Bonner on Randolph or Gasol.
Blair doing the same until he got benched.
Going under the screen on Mayo every single time...
Every arm chair coach said at the beginning of the season. Bonner, bring in Splitter.
It takes this face turd all year and 4 playoff games to realize that.
The inexplicable one was watching Arthur ass rape Bonner for six straight games without an adjustment.
Yea, it was a shame Pop prevented Splitter from dominating this series by not playing him sooner.
the things that annoy me:
1) Under utilization of splitter and neal
2) Abandoning the rotation and style of play used for most of the season
3) bonner being used as anything other than a 3pt specialist, and not realizing that he would be a huge liability in the PO as always
4) managing minutes all year to keep everyone fresh for the playoffs, but when the playoffs come sitting his best players for important stretches of the game.
Its not pop's fault that manu got injured in the last game of the season, but in the end they played neither strategy- none of the big 3 got a good rest before seasons end chasing HCA in the finals (even though they had the west locked up), but they still entered the playoffs out of rhythm/rotation/momentum from pop's tinkering...
giving up size (and by extension, offensive boards) was extremely frustrating, and again they played neither strategy- they let both randolph/conley/gasol AND the role players (young, arthur, mayo, battier) destroy them
Splitter wasn't going to save this series.
He just isn't that good.
The roster wasn't good enough to be a legit contender.
60 win fluke season. Happens all the time, knowhutimsayin'?
The regular season is different than the playoffs.
60 win seasons and playoff flameouts have happened before.
You cannot go far with a weak frontline in the playoffs.
1st seed losing to the 8th seed has only happened 4 times in NBA history. This scenario doesn't happen frequently like you are implying.
i haven't seen top team to play last two minutes with so many bad decisions. As they could't decide to foul or not
Right. Tim Duncan no longer being in his prime is the sole reason the Spurs lost this series, and the inconsistent play from key players and re ed decision making from the coach had absolutely nothing at all to do with it.
It's really too bad that Duncan fell off so badly in the playoffs after a 61 win season where he was the focal point of the offense and scored 20 po...what? Nevermind.
Drama queen
Popapologists are as dedicated to his bad coaching as Popovich is dedicated to ginger t-rex-arms one trick pony big men.
i agree what was said about pop. there is no other team in the world(not just the nba) that mcdeyss would be playing 35 minutes a game for in the playoffs. i just don't see it.
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