Someone Convince Me The Grizzlies Shouldn't Be The Overwhelming Favorite in the WCF

[elec99]

The Grizz's main weapons are:

Free Throws - anywhere from 20-29 fta a game, and they are a superior ft shooting team.
Rebounds
Personal Fouls on opponents

This all revolves around zbo: He'll get rebounds, putbacks, and in the process get your bigs in foul trouble.
Even when zbo doesnt score well, they can still win because of the rebounding, fts, and fouls.

And then Bayless, he's their younger version of manu.

Yes gasol is dangerous, but in a contained way for the most part: He takes face-up jumpers, and turn around fadeaways from the baseline. You need length against him, more so than strength.

If you can contain zbo, and defend bayless, we have a very good chance of winning.


I am more optimistic about our defense. We can stay with younger and faster players in gsw, and now we wont exactly have to chase players off the 3 pt line. Plus we wont have to guess who's going to go off (curry, thompson, no wait barnes and jack,). It's all the usual suspects here. It's all about having the strength to force zbo into shots rather than layups, that way you limit their rebounds and your fouls.

If you fall behind on this team its much more difficult to catch up because the pace is so much slower.
But what the spurs have shown is that even with manu and tp shooting poorly we can find others to score, they're gonna be guessing on the defensive end on whos going to go off, not us.

But the grizz will win or lose depending on the play of zbo, and that doesnt necessarily mean his scoring, just his overall play.

[G-Nob]

Keep in mind, since Game 3, the Spurs have played phenominal team defense. Love, love, love the defense. Pop has really stressed the defense more so this postseason than of recent years and the team has bought into it as you have pointed out in the play of Danny Green. I cannot see why the Big Island and Green cannot put their stamp on this series as they did against GSW. On the other side, the Grizz could not have drawn a better opponent in the last round than OKC. Beyond the injuires, Sepa was not himself and OKC did not have a lockdown defender, allowing Conley and Zbo to go off. Part of OKC's demise was also mental. The wind left their sails when Westie went down. I don't care what anyone says. OKC never recovered from a morale standpoint after that.

The motherload of Mem's shots come from Conley and Zbo. I don't expect the Spurs to stop them but I have full confidence Pop will find the necessary combo to at least slow them down. Gasol one-on-one with Duncan will thrive. But as the Spurs showed against D-Ho, they can provide enough team disruption on him to make things difficult. With full attention to those three, you force guys like allen, prince and bayless to become volume shooters. I see a lot of wide open looks for those three on the perimeter and I'm sure the spurs will take that all day long.

When people evalute playoff matchups, they always look at the offensive side of the ball. I feel that defense will rule for both of these teams. This will be the best defensive team the grizz and spurs will face. Limit turnovers and stay focused on rebounding. Offense will find a way, even if both teams are in the 80's. I believe that is the kind of series we have to look forward to, and I will be thrilled if the Grizz are held to 80's/low 90's in each game.

[spursince#99]

Oh ye of little faith. It amazes me how weak minded and fickle many of you fans are. Lets not forget, OKC was in each and every last one of those games with a sure chance to win 1 if not all but couldn't hold on due to a couple of free throws being blown by Durant. However, Durant didn't play well at ALL, nor did Kevin Martin, and neither did Ibaka. Keep that in mind.

























ing clowns smh born quitters

[SouthernFried]

<Grizz fan.I think the Spurs could win this series but I just don't see Duncan surviving it.

You could make a lot of good points about why the Grizz win this...but, this point is just stupid. No offense.

[SouthernFried]

The biggest reason Spurs should win this?

They are considered the underdogs. Nothing motivates Tim, Manu and Tony better...than being dismissed.

[rexb]

I think ZBo will have a field day against the Spurs bigs. He dominated the OKC frontcourt of Perkins, Ibaka and Collison. Plus they have Gasol. The Spurs have Duncan, Splitter, Diaw and Bonner which kind of scares me. The quickness and length of Prince, Allen and Conley could not be under estimated as well. Also, Pop can no longer use his hack a bad free throw shooter, Zach? I don't think so. To think, Grizzlies have a better chance beating the Heat IMHO.

Good thing with Spurs is that they are healthier at this point of the season compared to the previous seasons which is great! The past few years, it was either Parker got injured, Manu got injured or Duncan not 100% so they've fallen short. This year they now have young players with more experience role players in Green, Leonard and Splitter. If the Spurs continue to execute their offense, keep up the spacing so Manu and Parker can go to the lanes, and the shots are falling for Green/Leonard/Neal then the Spurs have a chance. Also, the X factor is Bonner, ha ha..if he hits even one 3 pointer on a game, the Spurs will win that game! Looking forward for this series and hoping Spurs go to the finals and beat the Heatles.

[ManuTastic]

TimVP, you said it yourself:

"5. Leonard and Green just came off of a GREAT defensive series -- but Memphis does their damage on the inside. There really won't be anyone for those two to shut down. Thus, it'll be much more difficult to impact the series."

Now look at the other side of that coin: since they don't have to stick tight to great perimeter players, they'll have much more la ude to dig in and help double the post monsters. Basically I agree with the board consensus: pack the paint, pack the paint, pack the paint. Grizz can't shoot over the top.

[spurraider21]

Manu is bound to have better shooting nights

but seriously, this Memphis team is near identical to the one we played in 2011. Replace Battier with Prince, throw in Pondexter for Mayo, and add Bayless. Parker is a better player than he was in 2011, Timmy is in much better physical condition that he was that year, Manu as we all know was severely banged up then. A big difference for us is the replacement of RJ with Kawhi, the added minutes to Splitter, and the addition to Diaw. I can see us coming away with this. What I like about this series is that we can afford to go on a dry spell here and there of offense, but it would be OK because the Grizz wouldn't be scoring much either.

[dbreiden83080]

Thanks for depressing us all.. I am going to take a nap...

[phxspurfan]

I wont be surprised if the Spurs won:

- Spurs are more battle tested than they were last year. They just closed out a hot playoff team while their top 3 players shat the bed. On the road. It takes resourcefulness and defense.
- Spurs just used coaching and effort to shut down a top offense. Grizz are a lot like last year's Jazz. Good inside but not a top offense.
- Spurs are relatively healthy. Guys may look crappy but they are healthy. They may not all drop 25 a game but we may not need that since the Grizz will be holding games to the 90s.
- Grizz used a simple defensive strategy to beat the Chimpbrookless Thunder, and got to focus on only one threat. We can use their overconfidence to take an early series lead.
- If we take an early series lead, I think we put it away in 5 or 6. This Spurs team remembers the Grizz beatdown of a couple seasons ago, and guys who were powerless then like Manu and TD will come out firing now.

[lovetp9]

no matter what,
GO SPURS GO !!

[TJastal]

Spurs in 5, taking games 1, 2, 3, 5

[Knoxxx]

They can't shoot 3s. Conley and Pondexter are the only credible 3 point threats and they don't shoot them as much as GS does.

And Baynes is always an option.

Right on who does Memphis have that can score? Spurs in 5 or 6. We have plenty of bigs we can throw at Gasol and Randolph. Golden St whipped what had been a very hot Denver team to advance. Yes we could have played better, but they deserve credit. If we were playing our best we'd be sweeping all these fools and maybe take 5 to dispatch Miami. Instead we will take the two Ms in 5-6 and 6-7 games, respectively and the trophy will look just as good in the case regardless.

[dbreiden83080]

Look at it this way which do you prefer? The young and insanely talented 3 headed monster that was OKC last year or Memphis this year? Memphis is solid all the way around and great on D but there is no superstar on that team we have to panic about. OKC basically had 3 Superstars. I think this will be a long tough series but honestly Miami is not playing that well and they are in for a tough series with probably Indiana also..

[rjv]

i guess this is why pop is a coach and timvp isn't

[Knoxxx]

I wont be surprised if the Spurs won:

- Spurs are more battle tested than they were last year. They just closed out a hot playoff team while their top 3 players shat the bed. On the road. It takes resourcefulness and defense.
- Spurs just used coaching and effort to shut down a top offense. Grizz are a lot like last year's Jazz. Good inside but not a top offense.
- Spurs are relatively healthy. Guys may look crappy but they are healthy. They may not all drop 25 a game but we may not need that since the Grizz will be holding games to the 90s.
- Grizz used a simple defensive strategy to beat the Chimpbrookless Thunder, and got to focus on only one threat. We can use their overconfidence to take an early series lead.
- If we take an early series lead, I think we put it away in 5 or 6. This Spurs team remembers the Grizz beatdown of a couple seasons ago, and guys who were powerless then like Manu and TD will come out firing now.

My recollection was neither Duncan or even more so Ginobili were healthy/right for that series. In addition, Parker has a score to settle with Conley. Remember what happened after the all star game when he had a score to settle with Paul 31-4 I think was that score.

[dbreiden83080]

And Heading into the regular season this year if somebody said that "OKC will play Memphis in the playoffs without Westbrook or Harden" Who is picking OKC? I would not have..

[SpurPadre]

Also Manu doesn't have a BROKEN ARM

2011 One-Armed Manu is better than healthy but older 2013 Manu, tbh, unfortunately. In that series, Manu still managed to average 20.6 PPG. Does anyone see him averaging that this time around? I still like our chances in this series but the "Manu is healthy now" argument doesn't hold water.

[dbreiden83080]

2011 One-Armed Manu is better than healthy but older 2013 Manu, tbh, unfortunately. In that series, Manu still managed to average 20.6 PPG. Does anyone see him averaging that this time around? I still like our chances in this series but the "Manu is healthy now" argument doesn't hold water.

He missed game 1 and the series went 6.. And we have KL now.. Manu doesn't need to put up 20..

[EricB]

They also don't have a Vazquez nor a Battier. Two huge reasons the spurs lost

[rascal]

Just wait until the Spurs drop game 1 how quickly the false optimism in here will turn.

[SpurPadre]

He missed game 1 and the series went 6.. And we have KL now.. Manu doesn't need to put up 20..

True, he doesn't need to put up 20 in this series but that's not the point. KL will be the key x factor in this series for sure, though. While his post up game still needs improvement, he's starting to expand his repertoire and has been playing with more confidence. Again, I like our chances.

[Rummpd]

Spurs simply the better, more experienced, talented, and deeper team - what is there to say other than that?

Grizz have beat wounded teams and not in an impressive fashion - LOL at the all the media spinning for them and Spurs fans believing the BS

[rascal]

They also don't have a Vazquez nor a Battier. Two huge reasons the spurs lost

They have Prince now.

[rascal]

True, he doesn't need to put up 20 in this series but that's not the point. KL will be the key x factor in this series for sure, though. While his post up game still needs improvement, he's starting to expand his repertoire and has been playing with more confidence. Again, I like our chances.

Prince will shut down Leonard.