Utah's super big lineup.. how do the Spurs react

[baseline bum]

Karl Malone, as told by Hope & Change posters:

[ElNono]

Spurs '07 run was probably the easiest... especially because of Utah making the WCF...

'03 was pretty tough though... considering we had to out the 3 peat Lakers with Kobe, Shaq, Horry, etc...

'05 Pistons were a tough as nails team too...

[ElNono]

Favors 8.3 PPG against the Spurs this season really tell the story.... for the Spurs...

[CitizenDwayne]

Oh definitely: for example, their 2007 Run. The played the Utah Jazz in the WCF. Lets compare this teams roster, to a team that the Jazz had to play in the WCF in 97:

Spurs WCF opponent, 2007:

PG: Williams
SG: Fisher
SF: Kirilenko
PF: Boozer
C: Okur

Jazz WCF opponent, 1997:

PG: Maloney
SG: Drexler
SF: Ellie
PF: Barkley
C: Olajuwon

You forgot the most important part.

2007 Spurs=NBA Champions
1997 Jazz=Lost to Bulls in Finals

[TE]

SO does this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZXeOD7REOo

our big guy dunks on your big guy and that's a sign of things to come

[ElNono]

SO does this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZXeOD7REOo

I really liked this one:

http://www.nba.com/games/20111231/UTASAS/gameinfo.html

and this one:

http://www.nba.com/games/20120220/SASUTA/gameinfo.html

and this one too:

http://www.nba.com/games/20120408/UTASAS/gameinfo.html

[CitizenDwayne]

If this is all that you gathered from my post, then, quite frankly, I don't know what to say.

Last time I checked, that's all that matters

[MannyIsGod]

Karl Malone, as told by Hope & Change posters:

[ElNono]

6'7 Blair against Utah this season:

26.3 mpg, 15 ppg, 7.3 rpg

6'10 Favors against the Spurs this season:

26.0 mpg, 8.3 ppg, 5.8 rpg

Savior Favors has a lot of work to do, tbh...

[MannyIsGod]

Favors 8.3 PPG against the Spurs this season really tell the story.... for the Spurs...

TBH that's a huge drop from his gigantic MVP like 8.8 points average against everyone. Spurs must have found some way to control his dominance.

[MannyIsGod]

My favorite part of that picture series is the Joseph Smith save us.

[ElNono]

Haha, this has been some decent fun, though. In all honesty, the Spurs are a damn-good team this year. Well coached, excelling offensively, deep at nearly every position, a bench that can outlay some starting teams, and a good home court. As much as I hate the Spurs (and trust me: I ing hate them) I would still rather have this team win, than the Lakers, Clippers, Heat, Bulls, Knicks et al. If the Jazz are eliminated, Ill be rooting for the Grizz first, and for the Spurs second (unfortunately).

Y'all are still gonna get swept by the jazz starting tomorrow night, though.

Well, except when you all throw bottles, coins and from the stands, you guys have classy fans, tbh... And I have to say I always appreciated Sloan...










Enjoy your 4 playoffs loses this season...

[baseline bum]

^ Sounds more like the net for the series tbh.

[CitizenDwayne]

Favors stat line prediction for tomorrow



37 minutes






7 points




6 rebounds






2 Blocks






0 Steals






0 Assists

A little more realistic

[ducks]

Favors stat line prediction for tomorrow



37 minutes






31 points




16 rebounds






11 Blocks






3 Steals






2 Assists

maybe in 4 games and more minutes

[ElNono]

^ Sounds more like the net for the series tbh.

Actually, what you want to bet he not only not get to 11 blocks for the series, but grandpa Duncan will have more blocks than him when the series is over...

[ElNono]

12-4 seems about right.

But the same applies with you guys. This is a decent forum, though it does carry its fair share of town-idiots. Same applies to every fan base though, I suppose. Id probably say that Pop is a top 5 all time coach no-discussion, and could be somewhat-easily debated into the top 3.

It's jungle here... but the variety is enjoyable if you have a thick skin...

Frankly, we have had really good posters come around here and stick after trash talking like this...

I still remember BRHornet, who came over with his 'son' schtick and to this day he's hilarious to read.

[ElNono]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiGIbsc3oxE Its gon' be a longass night for Duncan.

lol Gortat...

[TheSkeptic]

Haha, this has been some decent fun, though. In all honesty, the Spurs are a damn-good team this year. Well coached, excelling offensively, deep at nearly every position, a bench that can outlay some starting teams, and a good home court. As much as I hate the Spurs (and trust me: I ing hate them) I would still rather have this team win, than the Lakers, Clippers, Heat, Bulls, Knicks et al. If the Jazz are eliminated, Ill be rooting for the Grizz first, and for the Spurs second (unfortunately).












Y'all are still gonna get swept by the jazz starting tomorrow night, though.

What did you do to start all this?

I haven't watched the Jazz all that much this season but I do think you guys have a pretty decent team. As I'm sure you're already aware, your frontcourt is good, Harris is a talented player, and Hayward looks pretty solid imo. Your team seems to hustle and play physical ball as well which are traits that I like to see.

That said, they seem to lack experience overall and they're nowhere near San Antonio's level either way this year. Barring injuries and the like I do expect them to continue getting better though.Of course I could be completely wrong on all this since I've probably only seen about 5 or 6 games in total this season. So obviously you'd know better.

As for the "super big" line-up (I'm not sure they're all that tall)...I'm not convinced that it would disrupt us all that much. I would worry a bit about Favors running Bonner off the perimeter but maybe that'll be what the redhead needs to get going.

I'd think that our ball movement would be enough to generally offset it and since the Spurs don't really crash the offensive boards I don't know that Utah's (sort of) size advantage would make all that much of a difference where our offense is concerned...

It could be a problem on the defensive boards though. I'm guessing Millsap would be the one playing the 3 ? Unless that line-up really does end up beating us badly on both ends I'd be surprised to see Pop attempt to match that up with something like TD/Diaw/Spitter. I should think Kawhi or Jax would get the first shot at him.

Does anybody know if the Jazz use a different defensive scheme with this line or if they do the same thing except bigger?

[slayermin]

Indiana Jones is a Jazz fan.

[T Park]

WTF

Indiana Jones references are always welcome however...

[TheSkeptic]

You've pretty much nailed it, actually.


A lot of people don't really understand why the 3 bigmen-rotation is doing as well as it is, albeit in a small sample size. Main reason that I, along with many other Jazz fans, have determined, is the presence, and the increase of minutes for Derrick Favors. When Favors is in the game, the pick and roll isn't NEARLY as effective. On the flip side, Al Jefferson might very well be one of the worst pick and roll defenders I have ever laid eyes upon, with exception to David Lee. When it comes to offense, it all hinges on Millsap's ability to exploit his matchup at the three. You have all brought up the fact that Millsap doesn't really have great games against Blair. Millsap playing at the three might aid this in some regards- especially seeing as Leonard is a rookie, and Millsap draws more fouls than any other player (don't get me wrong, I know how solid of a player that Leonard has been this season- fact of the matter is, he's still a rookie, and Millsap could get him in foul trouble). Personally, I think that Millsap can match up decently against Leonard or Jackson, on paper. This coming to fruition in-game will be one of the keys for the Jazz to keep this series compe ive, offensively.


The "super-big" comment stems moreso from the weight of the players, in my opinion, coupled with Derrick Favors's 9'2" standing reach. Thats a lot of height, IMO.


Answerng your question, at this stage it is a bit ambiguous. Favors and Al don't always guard their positional counterparts, but Sap generally guards the three position. What some of you may not know, is that Millsap is quite a damn-good on-ball defender. At one point this season, he was guarding Eric Gordon in crunch time, in an Iso situation.



EDIT: What pushes the Spurs over the edge, in my opinion, is the presence of Manu Ginobili, and Matt Bonner. In the end of the day, Tony Parker and Tim Duncan aren't what worry me. Its the two aforementioned Jazz-killers that give me nightmares at times like these.

Matt Bonner . We're hoping that he gets it together this year but Bonner doesn't really shoot all that well in the playoffs. Maybe Diaw is the stretch 4 you should be worried about? As for Manu...no disagreements here.

Well yes, I would assume out of your super big line-up that Favors would probably be the best defender on the pick and roll for obvious reasons. I may be misremembering but he seems pretty quick. How do you expect him to do against our pick and roll players specifically? What's his offensive game like?

This is again where my ignorance is showing because I didn't realize Millsap was a player that draws a lot fouls. In theory I see where you're coming from on Leonard but that rookie has surprised and impressed us all this year. If Millsap does get to the line a fair amount then it wouldn't surprise me if it forced the Spurs to adjust at some point. I'm not going to write it off as a bad match-up until I've seen it in action though.

Generally speaking, Pop really doesn't like playing our bigs together so I should think he'd let our wings try and sort him out first.

Oh really? So would Millsap end up guarding, say, Manu at certain points then? What's his team defense like overall? If he's as good as you're telling us on the ball that could actually be an interesting development.

Edit: Blair's probably out of the rotation. He can score against Millsap but his defense...

We're most likely going to see Diaw taking over his minutes.

[slayermin]

WTF

Indiana Jones references are always welcome however...

The way they talk about Favors, it reminded me of Indy talking about Marcus Brody.

[phyzik]

This Jazz fan is still a minor blip on the radar for the true ST trolls to take the bait...

Elnono is already regulating, you dont want the big guns coming in.

Im not one of them either.

Give it until after game 1 or 2 and the empresarios of ST trolling MIGHT make an appearance if Jazz fan can step up their game.

[ElNono]

This Jazz fan is still a minor blip on the radar for the true ST trolls to take the bait...

Elnono is already regulating, you dont want the big guns coming in.

Im not one of them either.

Just killing the hours, tbh... can't sleep... Spurs are going to kill me one of these days