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There are no great defenses in the West. There's always that.
First thing to say is I know we have a very good team and very deep. Our D isnt great, but adequate. However Im really worried about the playoffs, because the D normally gets better and its alot more half court .
I worry because of this. Will this negate our atvantage in scoring? I feel good about our chances, but worry because I dont recall a time when a great offense won out versus a great Defense.
Thoughts?
Yoda
There are no great defenses in the West. There's always that.
game 1 round 1 is gonna be huge. Spurs need to put a stomping and early. And come out scratch free.
Not sure if there is a team in the NBA not worried about the playoffs.
Obviously they all are, my point is that the playoffs are normally a half court game, and were not as good as we think we are in the half court.
Yoda
Depth is extremelly overrated for the playoffs.
Very balance team with low minutes on their stars it's nice and all for the regular season but won't do for you in the playoffs.
Either Duncan and Ginobili have an extra gear to go or it will end soon.
Not sure if there has ever been a team in NBA history with the mix of star talent and quality depth that we have, so to say it's overrated when you really have nothing to compare it to isn't fair.
Tbh, I think all Spurs fans are worried to some degree. That's why there's been relatively little celebration despite the fact that the Spurs are on one of the hottest streaks the NBA has ever seen. And yeah, it probably doesn't help that the Spurs are winning with offense and historically they've won championships with defense.
I do think everything will depend on Tim's level of play. If he is playing like he is today, the D will be good enough, in O he is also playing great which opens up everything for TP.
By definition a good Tim in PO will bring a good TP and a good TP will open up the games for our shooters. The rest will follow. If on top of that we get some Manu's magic we should be fine to reach the WCF at a minimum.
For the rest I stick to the plan, WCF would be already good, the rest would be bonus. I just remember that a couple of months ago everybody would have been happy with that achievement.
False, Spurs are still a great half court team.
I'm just thankful to have Jack and Diaw here with RJ gone. These are key components we were missing last year.
Exactly. The Grizzlies are probably the best defensive team in the West. The Lakers are too slow. I don't think it will be a problem till we are facing the Heat or Bulls in the Finals.
They Spurs basically outscored the Suns in the 2005 WCF. I think it comes down to against not so great defenses they should be able to outscore while getting enough stops. Against great defenses they're going to have to rely more on their defense.
The main reason for the lack of celebration is last year's epic disappointment. However, given that the 2011 Spurs finished the regular season 4-6, and the 2012 Spurs will finish at least 8-2, there is reason to believe that this year is very different.
Still, after last year's experience, I think most people aren't willing to celebrate anything until we win a playoff series or two.
I'm more worried about the Spurs ability to hold their own on the glass against a bigger frontline than I am about the Spurs running into an elite defense.
Seems to me like the common thread in Spurs losses this season has been getting killed on the glass.
Biggest threats to us are still LA and Memphis, but we have shown that we can beat these guys. I am kind of with everyone else about being cautiously optimistic and taking it one series at a time. I think most Spurs fans looked passed Memphis last year. Everyone was stunned until we saw the matchup problems after the fact.
Outscoring your opponents in playoffs is underrated
Correction, they finished 4-8.
they truly sucked the last 3 weeks, that was why Manu was in last meaningless game because Spurs were trying to get some mojo back.
I wouldn't say they're "winning with offense" at this point. It's definitely their biggest strength, but since they acquired Jackson and signed Diaw, the defense and rebounding have progressively improved. And with Duncan's minutes inevitably increasing, both should continue to. Also, Diaw replacing Blair in the rotation and Neal's minutes inevitably decreasing, should help the defense as well.
To me, tbh, there's still defense around. This is Gregg Popovic we're talking about. But still despite the nice offense, defense is still there. Otherwise we couldn't have top best teams: Celtics, Lakers, etc.
And they've lost trips to the Finals because of lack of offense, and they've won the Finals because someone knocked down some timely shots.
It goes both ways. We can look at the final score and pin it on defense, but we all remember the years we couldn't make a shot to save our lives, and we remember the years we got some help off the bench from Kerr, and that big game by Jax, and those key shots by Horry. That's offense.
Of course, it's useless if we cannot get stops.
I would agree with you that we were winning with offense, but we are winning with defense as well. I watched the replay of the last few games. The closest game in the 8 game win streak was 10 by Memphis. The last 8 games we have won by an ave of 20.75.
Against Phoenix we led 32-9 with 3 min to go in the 1st quarter.
Against Golden St we led 39-24 at the end of the 1st and made it 21 by the half.
Against Lakers 1 we had the 18-0 run, could that have been a little D?
Against Sacramento, we slowly pulled away from the Kings who played their best game in the 1st half. If you want to see defense, check out the 4th quarter Spurs D.
Against Lakers 2, we had the big run in the 3rd. Went from 6 up to 18 up in 7 1/2 mins.
Against Cleveland, we played the bench(10 players played at least 19 mins and NO Timmy). Bench took the lead at 4 min left in the 1st and never looked back.
Against Portland, we showed them that the beatdown of our bench was not nice. We put a beatdown on them. A 75 point turnaround.
I dont know if it is good D or what, but we have had a lot of runs where the opponents have done nothing or very little to slow us down.
Am I worried? Not really.
Spurs will win the
Maybe Pop is on a crusade to not make us boring! Yeah right, The average fan much less the media yawn an prolly only give us a cursory glance if the Spurs won 20 in a row...
The consensus is that we are still slow and boring even tho its a secret that Spurs fans know is far from the truth...
Actually, we need to lose that game...have every time we've ringed.
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