MK Bower does NBA too? That guy is awesome, and I loved it when he covered the Rice Owls. Too bad the Owls don't deserve a beat writer of his stature.
Damn now I'm starting to feel hope that the Spurs can win one more le. It hurts so much more when they don't!
MK Bower does NBA too? That guy is awesome, and I loved it when he covered the Rice Owls. Too bad the Owls don't deserve a beat writer of his stature.
i know the stats say otherwise (before this game anyways) but i've noticed that the spurs give up a lot of open 3 pointers, and not just this game. so i was definitely surprised by that 3 point allowed ranking. the opposing players just aren't making any of them even though they are wide open. i think the stats will eventually average out and reflect my observation.
Great write-up.
A word of caution though: often the first 20 games of the season are just teams learning how to play with each other, and they get a lot more cohesive from now on. I hope we keep up this defensive pace, but I'll wait until the end of Jan to work out whether it's a mirage or not.
But thats a double-edged sword because the Spurs also get to know the opponent better each time they play them and are able to avoid mistakes they made in earlier games. But I doubt we will be able to hold OKC under 100 points next time ... the first time they were still suffering from Harden trade hangover ...
We're doing this without our best two perimeter defenders.
I would like to see TD/Splitter start and Manu start to make the offense work. That would give you the best defense combined with the best offense.
No idea how to even respond to something that's so asinine.
Count me in!
Bruno,
CIA Poop was quoted the last two seasons as saying we just didn't have the players to defend like before.
Are you seeing better effort from the exact same players or?
It can't all be put on the benching of Pops love bone Bonner, so who exactly is stepping up their game?
How much is SJaxs non-pussy/non conformist at ude rubbing off on others and helping bring back the D?
Could Parkers ceasing and desisting from hanging around rap pussies off the court be helping him focus on the court?
Tonight "exposed" spurs lack of a good pick and roll defense
i think the nba has moved towards a heavy pick and roll league
all the top teams run it as the #1 option
duncan still isnt mobile enough to hang with the younger kids so the defense needs to be switched for a standard man to man or switch
i think the spurs should try to trap
miami and the 76ers both do this without a true center and they are good defensive teams
only problem i see is that the spurs dont have the athletes to recover and it could lead to open 3s if the pass is made
but linsanity got destroyed last year because of miamis aggressive defense that lead to lins turnovers
i know spurs in the clippers series would hedge pauls picks with leonard and it gave them a lot of sucess
but part of it was griffins inability to do anything but dunk
It exposed nothing. We were without two of our larger wing players who can play a hard hedge to stop the PNR. Who do you think is easier to set a pick against -- Gary Neal, or Stephen Jackson?
So yeah. The Spurs shortcomings on defense when we are without two of our most physical wings are gone is not indicative of our team level defense for this season. I'm guessing 3s are going to also be a little harder to shoot over when it's a 6'8" guy in your face instead of Neal, not to mention the steals that KL brings to the table on D.
Looks like even Pop has taken notice.
It doesn’t necessarily require a Ph.D in advanced mathematics to be an NBA coach in 2012.But when the Spurs’ staff of paid number-crunchers presents Gregg Popovich with the daily statistical updates on the state of his team, it can certainly feel that way.
“It’s almost like integral calculus,” Popovich said.
The numbers often confirm what Popovich’s old-school eye has been telling him over the first two months of the season.
“We’re significantly better on defense than we were the last couple of years,” Popovich said. “That’s something we hope will continue as the season progresses, and not just be a blip.”
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursna...ve-resurgence/
The keys to the better D? Changing the rotations subtly. Tiago now starts with Tim so TD doesn't have to cover for an undersized PF. Kawhi has been given free reign as a help defender and a disruptor of passing lanes. He Who Must Not Be Named is no longer on the team.
The Spurs' new and improved defense strikes again.
The Rockets had 110 possessions. Obviously giving up 116 points isn't good but giving up 116 on 110 possessions isn't too horrible against a hot team. Especially since the Rockets got a lot of junk points late.
We played at their pace for most of the night, which was an interesting decision. Still outscored them.![]()
Spurs and Rockets are the two fastest paced teams in the NBA. (I never thought I'd type that sentence.) When these two teams meet, it's going to be an extremely fast game. The Spurs never slow it down anymore and the Rockets are even faster ... so it's an inevitability that there will be 100+ possessions.
Works out to an offensive rating of 105.4, which while subpar isn't anything to cry over.
I remember not too many years ago it was the exact opposite. Spurs/Rockets games would be lucky if both teams scored 150 combined.
LOL, Yao - Van Gundy slugfest against 4down SA.![]()
The sentence that the spurs are not going to slow down is not encouraging visualizing the playoffs
Except the Spurs still play good defense even in a slow-down game. In points allowed per possession they're top 5 or 6.
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