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Tiago was too slow to contest most of them.
Are they sustainable, tbh? When you have KD on your team, I guess any long jumper Abaka takes is a shot the opposing team wants.
tbh, the next time he makes 3 in a row I'm gonna burn my TV set...
Tiago was too slow to contest most of them.
Over a 4-5 game stretch, yes and he buried the spurs. Over a 8-10 game stretch, no and they got buried by Miami.
If Obaka hits those again in another playoff series then the Spurs oughta shake hands and walk away. That's just being the better basketball player tbh.
He's not a bad jump shooter, I don't know why a lot of us are so confused he's draining them when he is wide open.
Doesn't he shoot more than 50% on long twos?
Ive said it 3 times today and I'll say it again. Ibaka is top 20 in the entire league in volume of shots from 16-23 feet and of those top 20 volume shooters, he's #2 in FG percentage. Basically, he's about as good as there is from this range. This is not a fluke. He does it game after game after game after game. Yes they are assisted, set shots for the most part. A result of defensive attention on KD and Westbrooks penetration and increasing desire to share the ball. I think there's a certain percentage of fans that still do not realize how good of a shooter is. They see him do it one game and think it's a fluke. He does it night in and night out.
If he can extend that range all the way to the 3 point line, then NBA = fcked
Miami was also playing much better perimeter defense than the Spurs were/are though. I'm wondering if Pop might have to consider having a wing come out on him like with Jax--> Dirk. If they can somehow disrupt Ibaka to the point where he either has to shoot from long distance or put the ball on the floor, the Spurs will be able to solve at least one of their defensive problems against the Thunder.
Don't see it happening honestly. Not in this offense. He will occassionally take a corner 3 but he's not shooting many and not hitting many either.If he can extend that range all the way to the 3 point line, then NBA = f
Putting Jax on Serge is only a viable option if the Thunder stay big with Perk/Ibaka. Once the Thunder go small with KD at the 4, the Spurs literally have no way of guarding the pick n pop with Serge. Tim doesn't have the mobility to help on Westbrook/durant while still getting back to contest Ibaka regularly.
A Spurs/OKC series hinges on Ibaka hitting that jumper, ever more so now with Harden gone. Last season, he couldn't miss and there was literally nothing Pop could do to counter. The same holds true for this season I'm afraid but we'll see.
In the two Spurs wins in last year's playoffs, Abaka shot 4/14.
In the four Spurs losses, Abaka shot 24/34
Abaka shoots from that range about as well as Duncan. So, yeah, he's going to knock down his share. But shooting 80% or whatever he's shooting against the Spurs as of late on jumpers is fluke-ish. The Spurs can survive if he's knocking down those shots at 45-50%. It's when he starts off 5-for-5 or 6-for-6 on jumpers is when it becomes difficult to deal with.
Really is a complete team. Will be interesting to see if they can get to 70.
The Spurs still left him wide open and he made them pay. SMH
Thunders are also blessed with no injuries.
I may be misremembering but I do vaguely recall a very specific type of zone defense that could be used to counter that somewhat if the Spurs opted to stay big when OKC went small but I don't remember exactly what it's called. Basically the final effect of that particular zone was that it mitigated serious speed disadvantages, forced people out on the perimeter (no duh), and also made it easy for a team to utilize its size by crashing the boards (obviously because the bigs were still in).
Back when the Raptors had Jermaine O'Neal, they used it a few times when they ran line-ups that included Jermaine O'Neal, Chris Bosh, and Andrea Bargnani. Of course except for a few possessions, the Raptors would usually fail to execute it properly but in theory something like that might be Pop's best shot when the Thunder go small. The one thing I remember is that it was kinda complicated for players to learn on the fly. I'm sure guys like TD and Manu would be able to pick it up waaaaaay faster though.
Take it with a grain of salt because I'm probably remembering this wrong.
Pop tinkered with a zone after Dallas rang but it just never really panned out. Zone would be tough against OKC as they have Westbrook who can penetrate and break down the D plus the Spurs would get murdered in the rebounding department as you alluded to. They can have one of the wings help on Serge but i doubt TP/Manu are gonna bother him much plus you leave Kmart/Thabo/Durant open from outside.
He had a monster game, have to give him his props. 20/17??
I've never seen Pop run the type of zone I'm talking about -and he doesn't seem to run very much zone anyway. It had a very distinct name. My Google skills are non-existent but I'll see if I can find something...
Note: Still can't find the specific one. I have a memory of reading about how it was used most often in International ball but I guess I was dreaming. Lol. That said, a match-up zone that includes sending a wing out to deal with Ibaka where necessary isn't that bad of an idea. Odds are Westbrook may end up being a problem but he can at least be goaded into taking dumb shots on the perimeter. OKC is a favourite against the Spurs so at the very least it can't hurt to experiment with different ideas and then play it by ear. It would require some creativity though because the idea would be to force Ibaka out of where he's comfortable while giving up contested mid-range 2s against their actual shooters.
Seems like it would take faster perimeter players than the Spurs have though...I'll let Pop worry about it to be honest because Thabo on TP is another issue that needs to be addressed.
Last edited by TheSkeptic; 12-17-2012 at 11:36 PM.
Burning your TV set will NOT make Abaka miss any jumpers. Just stop it. It makes you look stupid as a poster and as a person.
This
" Fluke jumpers "
Lol butthurt Spurs fan
You didnt own me, bro. But regardless that wasnt a serious shot at you, I was mocking another poster with that post tbh.
http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=194237
I thought this was going to be another 30 page back and forth, but I'm glad it isn't coz I have to take a flight in 5 hours or so, tbh...
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