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Splitter and Kawhi need to remain agressive. I love just how they continue to demand the ball. Now if only they play Baynes instead of Blair
this. i was thinking this watching tiago tonight. he keeps serge at home a little bit more, and ibaka really can't get up there and block shots the way he uses his body.
Splitter and Kawhi need to remain agressive. I love just how they continue to demand the ball. Now if only they play Baynes instead of Blair
He uses the rim and backboard to protect his shot quite often
I think the first of his consecutive threes was some kind of a wake up call and the second one a turning point for the team. I hope he remembers these plays in the Postseason.
While I'm also not a believer in NBA conspiracies, the whole OKC situation is troubling.
Stern and Clay Bennett are great friends. To me, that's a conflict of interest. I don't think a single second that Stern is giving some kind of instructions to help Thunder but the human nature pushes NBA employees to please their boss even without realizing it.
When Abaka punches Griffin in the nuts and isn't suspended, I can't rule out that the NBA discipline committee had in their mind "let's not be too harsh with Abaka because he is a member of the Thunder, a franchise our boss likes".
It's the same thing with some NBA refs, they know they are being constantly evaluated and that if they make an error in favor of OKC, it would be less a problem that an error in favor of Spurs because Stern likes OKC.
Cool story. Surely you can link me to a post where you said this was an obvious Spurs win before the game. TIA.
Sig worthy.
Yeah, I don't believe in conspiracies or even the pseudo conspiracy you laid out ....... but something is going on. To beat OKC, a team has to overcome between 5 to 10 horrendous calls. I've never seen anything like it.
Though, yeah, Stern and Bennett literally being best friends doesn't help conspiracy theory debunkers such as myself.
The NBA has already been implicated in these exact types of conspiracies within the past 10 years. Maybe people don't like the word "conspiracy" but please read this and tell me what else to call these allegations:
learned from Referee A that Referees A and F wanted to extend the series to seven games. Tim knew Referees A and F to be 'company men', always acting in the interest of the NBA, and that night, it was in the NBA's interest to add another game to the series.http://assets.espn.go.com/media/pdf/.../donaghy03.pdftop executives of the NBA sought to manipulate games using referees
Do all the people falling into the non-conspiracy camp believe Tim Donaghy is a liar? Or that the 2002 Lakers/Kings series was not fixed? It's your prerogative to ignore the overwhelming evidence, but to me that's just naive. And if it has happened once it has happened again and most likely continues to happen since nobody has ever paid a price for it, but only made themselves obscenely rich.
For reference, that's what Bennett emailed to Stern during the SonicsGate (I already posted it in another thread a couple of days ago):
you know how I feel about our relationship both personally and professionally. You are among a very few, notwithstanding our relative brief actual physical time together that have significantly affected my life. I view you as a role model as an extraordinarily gifted executive, a deep and compassionate thinker, and a person with a rare and unique charisma that brings out the best in everyone you touch. You are just one of my favorite people on earth and I so cherish our relationship
actually Abaka seems to consistently rebound above his averages vs SA
something SA needs to clean up
contenders still have guys who can outrebound SA
Cue Sunsfan pointing out that Holt has generally been on Stern's good side yada yada.
Completely negated by Pop acting like a Euro team club manager rather than a regular patsy coach, though.
Some thoughts from another thread.
I think we can all agree thats time to unleash the beast that is Kawhi Leonard.I think the spurs took some notes from the heat. They were playing rough defense on durant,and harassed him every time he had the ball, even at half court. They were frustrating him, and made him make a lot of decisions with the ball.
With each passing game, Kawhi continues to make me question what his ceiling is. His dribbling,jumpshot, and fundamentals just looked so fluid and he's becoming more confident each game. I find myself constantly wanting the ball in his hands just to see how much of much of load he can carry us on offense. I honestly believe he has the talent, smarts, and work ethic to be a top 10-20 player in this league.
If we beat OKC in a series it's going to be because the medium 3 step up to the spotlight.
If you believe in 'stars' getting calls then you believe in an NBA conspiracy. It obviously skews towards teams with 'stars' like OKC or the Heat and hinders good teams like Denver or Indy. That is pretty much a given.
I think it's not about whether the NBA officiating skews calls towards a group but rather what the group is. Is it just Lebron and Durant or is it also Miami and OKC as well?
I believe that it's imperative that Pop (and everyone else for that matter) makes it a point to keep Leonard highly involved going forward. For the Spurs to win a championship, he might have to turn into a star this season. The only way that happens is if he keeps getting fed.Great points on which I'm hanging my hopes for the post-season. What else is there that's different from last season? Hopefully the Big 3 can hang tough and Tiago and Leonard can turn the corner and make a difference, right now.He (Tiago) was by far the best bigman on the court, in fact. If he can play like he did tonight consistently, the Thunder suddenly don't matchup very well against the Spurs.
Another hopeful moment that I pray we build on rather than letting it get lost in the fog of Pop's game-to-game tinkerings....a turning point in the first half was when Pop kept his big lineup on the court even though the Thunder went small.
Its a 50-50 series vs okc regardles of home court. That thanks to d harden trade. Thank d lord for d harden trade
What a truly awesome game to see live. I purchased these tickets back in January, so when TP went down recently I was pissed that I wasnt going to see a 100% healthy Spurs team against the Thunder. But, the guys in silver and black STILL pulled it off. Here are some observations I witnessed up close and personal tonight:
1. As timvp already stated, the reason we won tonight was because of Splitter, Leonard, and Green. Tim played well, but not at an elite level. Manu was decent, but nowhere near the level we need him to be at...
2. When the Thunder pulled out to a 12-14 point lead in the 1st. I thought we were screwed. Especially with all the calls that OKC gets. Once OKC jumped out to that lead, Pop used an "interesting" lineup of all bench players with Neal, Manu, Jack, Blair, and Diaw. I thought this lineup was going to be an epic fail but these guys brought some energy and helped slow OKC's momentum a bit.
3. Once Neal checked in and I saw him matched up against Westbrook, I thought Pop was nuts. But like timvp said, maybe it was a secret Pop move to try and force Westbrook into hero mode, which may actually benefit the Spurs. While Neal's D isnt anything to brag about, he actually brought some energy om the offensive side of the ball, which we hadn't seen for awhile.
4. Kawhi Leonard is AWESOME to watch in person. He plays his heart out on the defensive end. While he may not be able to stop Durant, he can sure make it tough on him. I love the way Kawhi played on the offensive tonight. He wasn't TOO aggresive, but he was smart and made plays when he needed to. I wanna see him get more touches and more plays run for him. He could be a HUGE piece to making a deep run this year..
5. Splitter and Green were HUGE tonight. Splitter was throwing all kinds of moves in the post against Ibaka, and they worked. Tiago isnt the same player from last year at all. He's taken his game to another level and looks really confident. Green also looked like a different player compared to last year's WCF. He fought hard on the defensive end, didn't let his man get too far from him, and he made some huge 3's in the 2nd qtr when the Spurs made their comeback.
6. Jack played pretty well in my eyes. He does things that don't show up in the box score (ex. Forcing Durant into a backcourt violation). He was solid on D and always brings just the right amount of toughness and physical play to the game. You can tell he's a passionate player who has love for the game and wants to win. He was the one urging the crowd on to make more noise in the 2nd qtr when the Spurs were mounting their comeback.
7. The Thunder are going to miss Harden when the games matter the most. Westbrook is a very good talent, he just isnt a true point guard. At times he would bring the ball up and not even look Durant's way. When Westbrook has his mind made up that he's going to shoot the ball, there isn't a person who is going to change his way of thinking. I think Harden was the main X factor that killed us last year. He's a dual threat who can take the ball to the hole and score at will, and also break down the defense and find the open man. You can tell the Thunder are missing that aspect to their team now...
8. I always knew the Thunder got a "favorable" whistle, but DAMN they get some crazy stupid calls. Westbrook knows all he has to do is drive into the paint, throw his body into the defender, and he'll get the call. It's annoying, and kind of a pussified way of playing ball if you ask me. I feel that half the time Durant and Westbrook are only looking to get the whistle and don't even really think about making the shot. They easily got 7-8 questionable calls tonight, and 5-6 that were blatantly in the favor. (Ex. Dutant dribbling into Kawhi as he's sliding his feet into good defensive position.
9. The crowd was jacked tonight and really into the game from the opening tip off. Great game to be at..
Manu was attrocious. When u get stared down by parker in a suit you know you are ing up
First bad move by Presti TBH.
Damn, so happy we won this. I've been overseas but checking in here to see what's up. Thanks for write ups timvp. Sounds like Manu is giving us a better contract next time because of his continued dropoff, sorry Nono. I am near the lands of you and manus forefathers so sorry for Mexican jokes.
great to hear kawhi is blooming before our eyes. as for his midrange moves, having massive hands has some real advantages.Bruno, u think it could be that stern really the bed by moving a team out of Seattle to a smaller market, therefore he wants to justify his decision? That or he wants to make Durant into next household figure. But something is clearly going on with the officiating.
Everyone shouldn't forget that the Thunder were playing their 4th in 5 nights with all but one being an away game. I think Pop should start developing Baynes for the possibility of TD or Splitter getting in foul trouble in the playoffs. I have zero confidence in Blair/Bonner being able to help for even a few minutes in a crucial playoff game.
Great win tbh. Gotta give em credit considering how bad it looked early. But we still have a lot to improve on.. rebounding especially. We can't give up that many offensive rebounds come playoffs.
He did the best giving that the owners didn't want to pay Harden the max.
The Spurs were missing their best player.
Great read from timvp. Spot on.
I have two thoughts;
#1) The time when Green hit a couple of threes, Splitter making a great pass to Kawhi for a 3 while Fisher tried to sneak behind him - followed by the Kawhi steal and left handed dunk - was the best little stretch of Spurs ball all year.
#2) This Pop - hasn't been seen much. Pop was in a fiery mood and Pop was one of the most "compe ive" spurs all night. If this Pop shows up in the playoffs - I like the Spurs chances. I am his biggest critic - but I call em like I see em - and Pop's fire was necessary to the rest of the team - and forced them to compete.
Not matching up small to OKC - was the Pop that had also been missing. Great job last night by Pop.
Miami is 18th in the NBA in FTAs and they are 10th in FTAs allowed..
Denver gets a ton of calls and Indiana is known to get away with murder on the defensive end due to reputation, similar to the Bulls of the past few years..
Poor argument, tbh..
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