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I knew this was coming lol
I know Spurs fans have four ways of coping with defeat: 1) Blaming Bonner 2) Blaming the refs 3) Blaming small market bias 4) Blaming Pop
Since Bonner barely played, the refs were pretty damn fair and no other conspiracies make sense at this point, we're left to blame Pop as a coping mechanism. But I just don't see how it makes sense to blame him.
A) Subbing Duncan out when you're defending against three-pointers is something he's done for the last five years. And over that time, I'm willing to bet the Spurs have defended last second three-pointers better than any team in the league. It didn't work last night in the end but, damn, it took two cruel bounces (and friendly fire going for the rebounds) on the initial misses to break down the defense. This wasn't comparable to Vogel benching Hibbert because the Pacers weren't defending against three-pointers in that scenario. If the Spurs were up two points and Pop benched Duncan in that cir stance, I'd have my pitchfork in hand ........ but they weren't. You're up three, you put a lineup that can switch everything and you force a contested three-pointer. Everything worked other than the bounces off the misses.
B) Benching Parker late is something I disagreed with in real time, especially since the Spurs weren't calling timeouts to put him back in. However, after the game Parker said he was cramping up. If TP can't go, then yeah you have to take him out. Not much to complain about there.
C) You don't bench Manu Ginobili. How many times have we seen him suck for 95% of the game before coming up big at the end? He's done that so often that it's expected at this point. Manu is a player you want on your team when the going gets tough. Sure, he didn't play well last night (yeah, that's being kind) but you don't bench him. Only hindsight would tell you he should have been benched.
D) It's easy to say TD should have been force fed more in the second half. But this season, we've seen a lot of examples of 37-year-old Duncan only having the wherewithal to play great for half the game. This is far from the first time that has happened. It's possible he could have done more in the second half with more touches -- but far from assured. A more likely scenario is his historic first half used up everything he had to give -- on the offensive end especially.
Everything else is just nitpicking. If the Spurs hit one more free throw, got one good bounce, had one inch of difference anywhere in the last 25 seconds ... nobody would be blaming Pop for anything. We'd be the happiest fvcks on earth. But because of that flukishly terrible ending, a lot of us are looking to place blame. Pop, in this scenario especially, is the easiest target.
Speaking of which, I don't think blame should ride with any one person. This was a team collapse if I've ever seen a team collapse.
-Duncan didn't do much in the second half or overtime.
-Parker almost reached Kobe territory (6-for-23 is better than 6-for-24, thankfully).
-Ginobili didn't have the best game of his career.
-Leonard missed the free throw.
-Green didn't shoot straight.
-Diaw got too excited on D in the fourth and started playing LeBron too closely.
-Splitter is suddenly the word's tallest midget.
-Neal made Neal type mistakes.
-Pop could have done a better job coaching but his mistakes are on par with everyone else's.
Team loss. A Mufukn' team loss. Suck it up. Quit the whining. Dry the tears. Move on. Win Game 7.
That's all there is to do at this point.
I knew this was coming lol
Any response or copers gonna cope?
You won't be saying that tmrw when the Heat are running a train on the Spurs.
co-signed.
I felt like crap last night, but so much better this morning. We dominated 95% of the game and then ran out of gas and imagination when they hit desperation mode.
This team will figure out a way. I like the way they've responded after each loss in this series. There's only one Heat line-up that's been doing well against us, but not even that line-up can play 48 minutes.
What, no meme?
You're off your usual stuff today.
Parker ball-hogged, Manu turned it over, we missed free throws, etc. But it makes perfect sense to blame Pop for the stupid he did.
I need timvp to save pop
pop has taken duncan out at end of games for switching all year
I want to know if pop wanted a timeout when kl handed the ball to manu or he wanted to roll with it to nto let heat get set
nah... benching td near the end was a foul up of epic proportions.
Good
splitter on court = no rebounding heat 2nd chance pts...................... play blair...................
splitter had 2 key baskets
I pretty much agree. I am not really upset with the subs utions.
#D is what I was most upset about. Even if Duncan got a little tired or didn't have it anymore it would still have been nice to give him a couple looks down the stretch of the 4th and in OT. The Spurs ended up with some pretty piss poor possessions late in the game. Not going to Duncan at all doesn't make much sense to me.
i think both but manu saw the opening and took it.
manu travelled on that play, btw.
Pop was playing the odds.
Sometimes you make a great bet and lose.
Sometimes you make a dumb bet and win.
Over time, I'll trust Pop over any tinhorn (like me) that posts on a website.
Finally a premise I agree with. Been a while since there has been something other than verbal diarrhea coming out yo mouf.
Can't blame Pop. As sucky as Manu has been, you go down with who brought you there. He's earned that. All the other points about Pop's decisions were fine. Some hindsight nit-picking is ok, but overall, Pop had them in a great spot.
I don't agree with the "team" loss. Sure, players had moments that were not great (like the ones you listed) but only one had an entire game with nothing positive. Manu Ginobili is the only reason that matters when it comes to the blame game and he deserves every last drop of blame coming his way. timvp - any response?
Last edited by DPG21920; 06-19-2013 at 06:50 PM.
For the life of me, I'll never understand why NBA coaches don't intentional foul when up 3 in an end game situation.
I've heard it rationalized because the most your opponent can score is 3, while there's a risk they can potentially score 4 (made freethrow + offensive rebound leading to a 3 point shot) if you put them on line. But I'd be willing to bet big money you have much better odds of winning the game by intentionally fouling and forcing your opponent to make a pressure freethrow and get the offensive rebound off the purposely missed second FT than just letting them shoot a 3 to send the game into OT, which always seems to favor the team who makes the big game tying shot.
Bosh should've been tackled once he grabbed that board. Or James, a known shaky FT shooter, should've been put on the line.
Touching. If the score wasn't 94-89 when Duncan was benched, there might be some logic to it. As lame as your predictions?
There's no way TD would have made a difference for the first 3 which LeBron bricked.
I was thinking about some of this today... we just had a tough break... you need a bit of luck too to go your way to win a ship, talent only takes you so far... And we've had some good breaks this run... injuries on other teams, series-swinging shots, etc...
Just hoping that wasn't Heat's fortune overriding ours, tbh...
Almost had them. You could see them about to break. Tears welling up in Kang's eyes. Then he hit that 3 . . . but I saw it. I saw that team on verge of accepting defeat. It can happen again.
Pop...blaming him makes perfect sense.
indubitably
I don't blame Pop. If he'd been in they probably hit the 3 straightaway.
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