Well, pretty much nobody is stopping a motivated Andrew Bynum, which is why the Lakers have refused to give him up despite his injuries and at ude. He's that good. Pau Gasol is a really good player but he's neither intimidating nor all-world. They make a good pairing. Duncan and Splitter together simply helps level the field a bit.
It's true. Pop has been petrified of the Lakers for a long time. I do think there's a little Jackson mystique to it though.
As far as Duncan, he didn't look scared yesterday. He just couldn't hit anything outside of 3 feet.
Parker was funny tho, saying Bynum didn't affect his shots.
I don't get how or why Pop is going to get petrified of Mike Brown.
i dont think the spurs r scared just not as good lol
the first win zbo played
Well, at this point, it's not Phil, it's not Kobe (which would have been my second guess). Couldn't have been Jack, since the game's in San Antonio.
Does Jeannie travel with the team?
Jeanie is probably with Phil in Montana.
tbh this kind of reminds me of 2007 Golden State-Dallas. During the regular season Dallas won 67 games but couldn't figure out Golden State.
Dallas rested all of their starters late in the season in a nationally televised game at Golden State and got blown out of course which helped GS immensely in their fight for the 8th seed. A lot of people said, "Well if Dallas would've just beat them that night, they wouldn't have had to deal with them in the 1st round". At that time, deep down, I think Avery was scared of Golden State and did what many people think Pop will do against LA. Rest his starters, pretending like he doesn't care, in order to avoid the embarrassment of losing with your best players out there.
I don't think AJ was scared ENOUGH of Golden State, or he'd have tried to win that game. His at ude was "We're the number one team; eveyone else can adjust to what WE do." which 99.9 percent of the time is the right at ude. The Warriors were just a historically bad matchup for them.
Pop used to preach "approprate fear". It's since been eclipsed by actual fear.
That's honestly the only thing I really hate Phil Jackson for.
Ever since Pop went away from defense first he starts getting owned by defensive coaches. He's become a poor man's version of Mike D'Antoni.
World Peace played an unbelievable game so that plus 30 boards from Bynum....hard to overcome. Lakers played a good game. We will win tonight.
To make matters worse he tried adjusting to them in the playoffs.
I thought he never adjusted to them at all.
+1
If we lose in some humiliating fashion to the Grizz tonight I will worry.
He went small and started Nowitzki at center and brought Damp off the bench which they never did all season. A lot of people said "Hey, you won 67 games, make the other team adjust to you". That's why I think it was obvious that Avery knew deep down that it would be a nightmare matchup and he didn't want to give GS confidence in winning that late regular season game against a full Mavericks team.
GS was the only team Dallas didn't beat all season and they went on a serious tear towards the end of the season. Avery was scared
Such a weird season for the Mavs...their final record (including playoffs) was 69-19, and 7 of those losses were to the Warriors. That Dallas team was beastly too, but they just had the unluckiest draw in NBA playoff history.
I remembered that Mavs team tearing through with numerous 15+ win streaks after starting 0-4. Oh well they finished like they started.
Spurs should have started fouling Bynum like mad. Instead, they let their get pushed in like prison s. I'm extremely disappointed but the show must go on.
They were doing that all game
Tim Duncan and Blair had 1 foul each, Bonner zero, Splitter 2.They were doing that all game
They were handsy but they should have been bodychecking him to the floor. Especially DeJuan. Dude should use all 6 fouls guarding Bynum.
It seems like the Spurs' players and coaches tried to go into that game pretending it was just another regular season game. You can tell the media that and you can tell the fans that, but the players know it isn't true.
The intensity that the Heat and Thunder showed against each other is a result of two teams recognizing the psychological importance of certain "statement" games. The Lakers came out wanting to prove something. Mike Brown wanted to prove he isn't re ed and/or worthless, and every player on his team wanted to prove they can dominate the Spurs when they "turn it on", especially in San Antonio and especially without Kobe. That's the mentality they brought last night.
In the meantime, Pop pretended his current player rotation would suffice, and Duncan, Parker and Ginobili walked out onto the court expecting "just another regular season game." Stephen Jackson and Danny Green knew differently and played like this game actually meant something. They weren't scared or intimidated because they recognize they have a lot to prove.
I think the effort was there from Tiago, and overall I don't think he played poorly. Lately he's been playing like he's up to the challenge of earning every possible minute out of the 5-bigman rotation. In reality, he actually earned those minutes a long time ago, so I can only imagine he's frustrated with his current role.
Regardless, the Spurs better hope they avoid the lakers this postseason. The Spurs are at a huge disadvantage physically so the only way they would have a chance in that series would be with a psychological edge. And as of right now I wouldn't count on that.
My man, JaG.
It was interesting year. The Mavs got the unfavorable matchup and the Spurs got mostly favorable matchups and the Horry hip-check incident.
Spurs go into games like business as usual. But that's not going to get it done in the playoffs. They're going to have to play their hardest 4 out of 7 games. There will be no easy games in there. That's the problem I have with Pop taking it easy during the regular season. During the season good depth and playing bad teams allows you to get by with business as usual. That formula won't work in the playoffs.
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