Reply With Quote
Thanks to the Grizzlies lack of shooters (Pondexter's 5 treys were a fluke), I feel more comfortable with the Spurs building larger leads against them than I did with the Warriors.
Like I said in another thread: throw out the shooting, if Memphis is sitting on 72 with 5 minutes left, we're going to win most of those games.
You can't control shooting, but you can control defense and defensive effort. That's why Pop hangs the Spurs hat on it, and has for 16 years.
Thanks to the Grizzlies lack of shooters (Pondexter's 5 treys were a fluke), I feel more comfortable with the Spurs building larger leads against them than I did with the Warriors.
Timvp, two things.
1) I don't imagine in my wildest dreams the Spurs will have any problem having appropriate fear. They are well coached, they remember all too well the comeback the Thunder laid on them last year, and they are very aware that a game 2 loss completely undoes what happened in game 1. As Parker said in the post game, "we haven't done anything. There's a long way to go." With a muted French sigh and eye roll.
2) it's all about adjustments. The Spurs committed their bigs to defense and rebounding, as soon as the Grizz started rotating out on Duncan after the mid 1st quarter. The bigs don't have to score big if they can hold down Gasol and ZBo like they did. Now if the Grizz figure it out and get their bigs going, the Spurs will have to counter adjust. If the Grizz start taking away the 3, the Spurs will have to go back to feeding the bigs and try to get their bigs in foul trouble. It's going to be interesting.
Spurs lost focus in the 2nd half and let the score get down to 6. Fortunately Memphis is not explosive offensively, so those lags may be hugely expensive, but that shouldn't happen again.
We didn't win with threes, they just made it comfortable. We won by suffocating their stodgy offense to death, one possession at a time. We turned Gasol into a large white Diaw who refused to shoot most of the time.
I think Pop won't let them get too comfortable after this game. Last year's WCF and the Game 2 against the Warriors should prove motivation enough to not let up tbh.
Why not? Bonner is our all star and look at how he totally outplayed Dwight in the first round series.
GOing from Warriors threated offfense to Grizzlies offense has to help the mindset of the defense for the Spurs, and the job much easier on the perimeter.
Timvp seeing it for what it is, without all the distractions from homerish takes and the desire to lean one way. The Grizz have everything you want for a big run other than knock down 3pt shooters. Tell me something they don't have. Anyone who thinks that this is the year defense doesn't win championships is smoking something.
The top 3 defensive efficiency teams are still active: IND, MEM, SAS. Miami is 7th.
When you flip the coin, only the top offensive efficiency team, Miami, is still active. The Spurs are 7th. Memphis is 18th.
We've got the defense, they don't have the offense. Do the math.
Smothering defense might not be enough without a decent offense (IND and MEM). But we will see what happens in the conference finals and then again after the finals.
I know that one win doesn't mean we dominate them all series....however I saw enough to believe that the needle has indeed moved. From The posts on here in the last few days you would think that the game would at least have been close today. Lets be realistic with our own capabilities even despite how good the grizzlies are. Our defense against the lakers front line is coming in handy now. Our shooting is coming back around. It had do given our horrible shooting in the second round. In my opinion the needle has moved and the Spurs are a force because they are clicking on both sides of the court now.
Pretty much. I think the GSW series showed that even without offense the defense will keep us in games. I think that's the biggest difference between Spurs teams of the past few years. The defense was still a work in progress last playoffs.
This tbh. It's not like "it's just that day" kinda thing. Our guys were wide open the whole game.
That said, GSG. Spurs in 5.
When the Spurs offense is clicking, it's too strong for the Grizzlies' defense. Will the offense be this good over the course of the series, though? It's been inconsistent so far against inferior defenses - what will happen against an elite defense like Memphis'? That's the big question.
Serie is far from over tbh
Game 1 was a mighty fine win and it was so entertaining to watch. But Spurs have to come into Game 2 with the same mentality and energy level. And they will.
HOYA here. Just as the Warriors were an overall weaker team who posed matchup problems, the Grizzlies are a strong team with whom the matchups favor the Spurs.
Spurs in 5.
Yes, GS wasn't a weak defensive team at all, but their strengths with a dominant post defender and shot blocker and length on the wings to put on Parker (who aren't no tread left old Prince) were a tougher defense against what the Spurs want to do. Plus the GS offense or even just the threat of it put pressure on the Spurs shooters/offense that Memphis can't unless the Spurs just start turning it over like crazy.
Matchups tbh
Griz would be closing in on 3's on game 2. Time for the bigs to get busy inside. Even Diaw needs to pound Zach inside and get him working both sides of the court. I like Splitter defense. But somebody needs to close in on Gasol on those 20 footers. He can make those. All in all, Spurs played great and should keep the foot on Grizz neck. That said I didn't like the foul on Bayless late in the game. No freebies. Just good old beating please.
They're probably going to try not to give up any threes next game and see if we can beat them inside. Spurs gotta be ready and keep it up.
I never came into any series as a fan looking at any of that past stuff, different teams and different days and time, new chapters written no matter what happened this year, last year or ten years ago on this 0-2 or 1-1 or 2-0 stuff! Write a new chapter and hopefully a positive one!!!!!Yep, the last time the Spurs were up 1-0 in the WCF, they lost four of the next five and lost 4-2.
The last time they were up 2-0 in the WCF, they lost four in a row and lost 4-2.
The last time Memphis was down 0-1 in a series, they won four straight and took the series 4-1.
The last time Memphis was down 0-2 in a series, they won four straight and took the series 4-2.
Time to change all the above.
It's not just 'knock down 3 pointers.' It's have no perimeter game at all.
Conley is shooting 38%. That is beyond ty especially when you consider how often he is taking layups. Allen is a brick in a basketball jersey and Prince is the embodiment of TOSB. Just don't double off Pondexter and crowd the paint. You saw it happen.
Our bigs give Randolph fits. A lot of his misses cannot be attributed to him playing a ty game. He cannot shoot over the top of them and our guys don't go for ball fakes. That's why he was chucking 20 ft in the air and getting blocked.
And for having 'everything you could want' they could not keep our guys out of the lane on pnr. It was either layups or WIDE WIDE OPEN 3's.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
