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yup thats exactly when everything shifted no reason for those guys not to play 40 mins
We had this game, literally had this game! Miami was exhausted, LeBron lost a step. Green and Leonard were owning LeBron, Green even swatted him. Then Pop, who can be the biggest momentum killer ever, takes out Leonard and Green and puts in Manu and Neal. Manu sucked tonight, but I understand putting him. But it was Neal who killed the team. immediately he left Miller and Ray Ray wide open and they made threes, and his man to man defense was a joke. Miami went on a run exploiting his bad defense and that gave Miami energy and they found their legs. I'm so upset with Pop right now that he did this. Leonard and Green deserve to have a few choice words to their team for this crap.
yup thats exactly when everything shifted no reason for those guys not to play 40 mins
Pop is dumb many nights
Pop needs to stop sending doubles to Lebron. Just let him get his and stay home on the wings!
Definitely seemed like everything went to after Green went to the bench with a few minutes left in the third.
Manu turnovers - Neal hesitation
That alone killed the spurs
What do you want him to do - play the starters 48 minutes. The 3 bench players (Manu, Neal and Diaw) sucked ass. Didn't matter when he subs uted them, they would've given it away. Plus Duncan was crap on offense, and Parker couldn't break down the Heat D. The only bright spots were Green and Leonard.
Manu did play bad, but he has to play with Gary Neal, making things harder for him. When Neal is in of course Manu's +/- will be bad because Neal can't play defense. Throughout this entire playoffs I've seen teams' strategy be to have whoever is guarded by Neal attack the hoop, and it was worked every time! So annoying to see Neal play!
Leonard was awesome tonight.
I love how people question Pop. Yeah he does some odd things and they work and sometimes they do not. Who you think as a coach would be anywhere near what he has done and continues to do with this team? No one!
Simple, not play Neal when the team needs to focus on defense, like they did tonight. Spurs were in the game in the 3rd quarter, but then Neal goes in and Miami, who is exhausted, goes on a run exploiting Neal's horrible defense, and Miami found their second wind. Does anyone not realize how huge it was that Miami found their second wind from that run?! If Spurs don't give up a run, they win this game. And the Spurs probably don't give up a run if Neal doesn't play.
Win or lose most Spurs fans don't want to see Gary Neal.
Playing Neal is a different issue. He's been doing that for the whole of the playoffs, not just tonight. He didn't do anything dumb in particular tonight - the whole bench sucked and would have handed this game to the Heat on a platter no matter when they checked in.
I agree that playing Neal has been a bad move from day 1 of the postseason, but that's a different matter. For some reason Pop doesn't trust CJ.
Neal is doing what he's told. Pop is sending him to double down on James and he can't recover when Lebron finds open guys. I know he's not the greatest defensive player but pop keeps sending him to double.
notice their large run started when gary neal came in. constantly gets lost on defense and pop leaves him in till they go up lyk 25. disgusting tbh.......... Miami played really really physical this game and the spurs weren't ready for it. Manu wuz a joke. Chris Anderson looks like shaq in 2000, Chalmers scrub ass lookin lyk Russel westbrook. This game wuz a big disappointment cuz they were in it till lyk 5 minutes left in the 3rd, then just LAYED DOWN.
I'm sure you would do a lot better. You know, with all your NBA coaching experience.
single covering LeBron would have been less devastating than the barrage of 3's from everyone else.
Oh I understand. The issue is we have like 2 wildcard players on this team that you just never know what is going to happen. Manu/Neal. Who else is going to take those minutes?
Neal is not the reason we lost. Fans around here like to micromanage and obsess over certain things. Tim played like , Tony played like , Manu was an abomination. The D was good through 2 and half QTRS that is about it tonight after that the whole team looked to me like they quit. . Pinning the loss on Pop for Neal is stupid when so much went wrong out there..
Exactly what I've been saying. Just like Amare in Phoenix.
Completely agree. Our lineup of Duncan, Splitter, Leonard, Green and Joseph actually got us back into this game in the 3rd quarter and gave us a lead. Basically we looked like the Pacers front line and were grabbing rebounds. Then all of a sudden, Pop went with Neal and Manu. Wtf? Neal and Manu had been terrible all game long and he comes in with those two when the existing lineup was working so well. This loss is all on Pop.
I really hope Neal explodes one of these games for like 30 points or something crazy. That way ANOTHER team will offer him a contract.
I truly hope he doesn't make it to next year. Being positive once every 20 games isn't enough for him to stay on the roster imo
Yes they sucked, but isn't in interesting that even with Duncan and Parker they were still in the game? As soon as Neal went in, that's the second the Miami run started.
Yeah it's all Pop's fault. He should've played Green and Leonard 48. Even worse he told Tony to play bad, Tim to play even worse, and Manu to play so bad it would be beyond description. Yep it's all Pop's fault.
Those two have been terrible all season together. And Pop puts them in the game together at the most crucial moment in the finals. Just boggles the mind.
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