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Spurs can definitely match the small ball with Jackson or Leonard as a 4 and have 3 of our 4 guards in the game.
Many Spurs fans hate to see Pop give up during a "burn the tape" game. Honestly, had Pop been the coach of the Thunder after the Spurs run in the 3rd he likely would have would waved the white towel and gone back to the drawing board for game 3.
Brooks on the other hand, found a solution. He played a smaller lineup and proceeded to switch on the screens and pile into the lane. It was pretty effective for about 7 minutes there in the fourth but eventually the Spurs adjusted.
And thats the thing. Brooks found something that worked, and he blew it on a game where he was on the road and down 22. Its likely they will try that lineup more over the next 2 games, but Pop will have solutions for it. For one, having Neal in the game is going to make that game plan a lot less attractive. Neal will have an easy time getting shots off with his quick release and if you're going to collapse the lane he's going to get looks like crazy. While Green is capable of hitting that corner 3 at a good clip (as is Kawhi) there is no one on the team I trust more in that situation than Neal. Assuming Fisher is on the court, Neal is not a defensive liability (unless he just goes full re like tonight).
Brooks should have waited to make this adjustment. If you make it in a fresh game when you're at home you give yourself a much better chance for it to actually be useful in a win then if you try to toss it out when you're down 22. Your chances of success are so low when you're down 22 in the middle of the third that sometimes you should just give up and wait for a better situation.
Spurs can definitely match the small ball with Jackson or Leonard as a 4 and have 3 of our 4 guards in the game.
The problem for Brooks is that at this point he's probably fairly doubtful of what works or not against this Spurs team. He can't blow another quarter or so finding out if that small lineup will work. They're down 2-0, there's no time to around. They lose game 3 and this series is over.
even Diaw can play a 4, he was great tonight
He the fan on the hack a splitter
1)you're supposed to tell the refs you're doing it or they're just going to look at you like what the are you doing
2)He decided to have his guys take quick tough shots instead of efficient possessions, there's a reason they only made up 1 point
Ibaka in the 4th quarter: 2 steals, 3 rebounds, 3 points, no blocks, one goaltend. Not impressed.
Brooks did this, along with hacking Splitter, because this was a must win for them (I know, every game is, but they now have to win 4 of 5 against a team that hasn't lost 4 in the last 50 or what not).
They can't stop this Spurs' offense, it's that good. The Spurs now impose their will offensively just as great as they once did defensively.
I don't disagree with that but it doesn't change the fact that outside of an amazing shooting performance from his role players he probably blew his best chance to win a game on a game where he was already down 22.
Instead of giving Pop something to adjust to and be prepared for he should have just mailed the game in.
The other problem is Chuckbrook is on the court, chucking up shots without any passing when they are down.
I really don't give any of the credit to the comeback on Hack A Splitter. For one, you allow Splitter to get into a rhythm and he'll revert to the near 70% shooter after he makes a few in a row. He's not someone who has struggled for years at the line and he's not someone who shoots 40-50% from there outside of isolated situations over the past month.
But really, even if Splitter only shoots 1-2 each time down, thats still a damn good rate of scoring. The Spurs increased their lead during the time frame. It really didn't work out in their favor.
The best part of the strat was when he used Durant to commit one of the fouls and then Durant picks up his fourth before the end of the third because of this. That was some seriously stupid coaching.
Sorry Manny, but you can't mail in playoff games... I know Pop has done it back in '09 when Manu was injured, and I really felt Pop didn't think we would win that series, but you just can't do it. Especially since Pop knows his job isn't on the line. Brooks doesn't have a contract for next season, IIRC. He has to start pushing all the buttons and soon.
Frankly, as I pointed out in the other thread, I though the Thunder getting in the bonus early had everything to do with their run. They shot freebies almost every time and obviously they were looking to draw fouls. A team that led the league getting there, knows what it has to do when they're in the bonus.
Brooks is still a young coach, trying things out. I don't expect super-savvy placement of his strategies at this point in his career.
The Thunder are still the Sonics at heart, pull some bootleg when it's not going your way in the playoffs.
Agreed.
He tries any of the things that got them back in the game (Hack a Split, Smallball, Switching every pick) for an extended period of time and they will get systematically picked apart and he's gonna have to look for something else.
^This.
There was one point in the 3rd (maybe the 4th, I forgot already) where they were already in the bonus and only had 1 team foul against the Spurs.
Its all about whether or not you put yourself in a better position to win a game by trying a new strat when down 22 or during a fresh game. If mailing in a game means you have a better shot to win the next one, then you sure as should mail it in. Playoffs or not.
How often are you going to come back to win down 22 against the Spurs on the road? Pretty much never.
Entire 4th Q of game 1 was played in small-ball mode, only Brooks made a poor decision and went with Perk rather than Ibaka.
Spurs "adjusted" after 7 minutes tonight because Green sat and Diaw came back on. In that 7 minute stretch Green had 4 or 5 open 3s and missed them all - he makes 2 of them (as we'd usually expect), and we're not even discussing this.
As for Neal, he has repeatedly sagged off Fish for 2 games now and I don't get it - his "help" isn't needed when everyone else is sagging anyway... hasn't Pop told him to just stick to Fish like glue? Why does he find it so hard???
I don't necessarily disagree he might not have a shot. But comparing to what Pop would have done, I don't think it's necessarily fair. Not just because of the coaching a en, but also because one of them isn't potentially losing his job after the season is over. You could already see that with the criticism in Game 1 for not playing Ibaka. Do you think anything like that would ever happen to Pop? No way in .
Of course it did. Thunder's comeback was all about the stupidity of putting the best FT team in the NBA in the penalty with over 9 to go in the 4th. As soon as that happened I said "uh-oh". Very dumb move on part of the 2nd team. Please don't do that again, Spurs. That is why one of your team rules is to avoid fouling, especially against these guys!
They were in the bonus with 9 min left in the 4th. Thats where all the points came from. They shot barely 40% for the game I believe.
All the Splat-a-Splitter did was make the game last longer. They went from 16 down to 16 down
Thats fair, but coaching out of fear of what the media says about you is less than ideal. I don't believe that is the case, in any event.
Sure, but that's the reality for 95% of the coaches out there... heck, now that Phil and Sloan are gone, it's probably the reality of every coach not named Pop.
well, scratch that... Del Negro got an extension
It's Chess vs. Checkers
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