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Hard to argue with these points tbh
Panicked and played small ball rather than the regular rotation after game 3(1-3 record)
Hard to argue with these points tbh
The bad part about this cat is I get excited for a split second thinking it's a Bruno post.
I have to admit I have more than once wondered "The happened to Bruno?"
Don't agree with the outcoached part. Spoelstra had LeBron and Wade. We got out-LeBroned and his SG didn't the bed repeatedly like ours did.
It's the Phil Jackson argument. How hard can it really be when the deck is already stacked in your favor? It would be like giving Mitch Kupchek credit as a great GM when most kinda realize he can only make most of those moves because he has a blank check by ownership every year. I can only give Spoelstra so much credit.
If anything Pop outcoached himself.
Phil might have had it easy, but there's no way he's putting Timmy on the bench on game 6. Also hate him or love him, I think he's mile ahead of Pop (mostly due to Pop stubbornness) in in-game adjustments
Yeah, Spoelstra didn't really do any great coaching out there tbh. When you got a guy like Lebron on your team, you don't really have to do much. Pop ed himself in the ass, simple as that.
Couldn't agree more. OP you should add to your little list the fact that Tony and Manu relied too much on pick n roll that it came back to haunt us against the Heat. We all got a little taste of what Manu and TP can do in ISOLATIONS and beating their man off the dribble during Game 5. I don't know why we had to rely so much on pick n rolls.
I didn't see all that many adjustments. I just saw Pop continue to make no adjustments throughout game 7. Continued to leave Battier open ALL NIGHT. Allowed the Heat to get off open threes all night. Allowed Wade to get within 8-10 feet of the basket practically uncontested so he could then get into his dead red range and do some circus and score almost every time. Told his team to give LeBron 2 body lengths of space to shoot threes (and he shat on us with threes). Continued to play Ginobili when he was clearly unraveling (should have been benched at any point within the last 5 minutes imo. . .AGAIN).
Then in game 6, Pop's gameplanning went full re after the first 3 quarters. He completely blew it once the 4th started. Made at least 4 HUGE mistakes that I saw coming before they concluded. It was more Popovich sucking than Spoelstra being any good. When Pop allows completely uncontested threes merely to stop LeBron from driving (but not Wade), this is what happens. Heat get tons of easy points while the Spurs had to scratch and claw for them and Duncan end up totally gassed so he can't score at the end when everyone else is still ting the bed.
Small ball was the biggest factor, i've said it before, guards just stand in the corner, bigs set screens/move without the ball.
Our small ball played isolation only on offense and couldn't get stops/rebound on defense.
Small ball was their game, and Pop played it for some reason
What made me more upset was the fact that despite all the turnovers and watching the offense go stagnant with pick n roll, they kept doing it over and over against the best pick n roll defense in the league. Whatever happened to the days in the spurs playbook where they used to have cuts, backdoor passes, curls, and other variety in their playbook?
i agree. we should go back to prime duncan.
freakin idiot
I think the Spurs lost this more than the Heat won. I said after the end of last game that hoping to keep the same rotation was a plan of failure for Pop. He needed some more energy of the bench since they were the older team. It's pretty ridiculous how coaches keep making the same mistakes in game 7. Doc Rivers did the same thing in '10. If you've got the older team that won't work.
Developing Tiago or Baynes in the post is crucial as a way to prevent teams from using small ball. Spoelstra's switch to small ball really won them the le. I said after the game 5 win that trying to play better small ball than the Heat wasn't a recipe for winning especially on the road. It takes too much out of the Spurs defensively without the bigs to protect the paint.
Good points
It's time someone holds that mother er Pop accountable. And I mean the local media. I'm a Pop guy allday long but you don't blow game 6 without trying to blow it. Then last night I can not get over how weird his coaching was.
Yep. This is what I saw. Pop ed up royally. The in game adjustments were not there. LeBron was clearly hot, and we continued to give him space.
No Bro Ticket 760 and WOAI....are licking his nuts......Game 6 should have been a foul shooting contest!
The problem is Pop has no accountability. Accountability is a good thing.
That's why so many teams hire local sports reporters to coach for them -- because local media are really the best in the world at judging coaching strategies.
I get your sarcasm, but if you're really trying to defend Pop's rotation and in-game adjustments for these last two games, I can't take you seriously.That's why so many teams hire local sports reporters to coach for them -- because local media are really the best in the world at judging coaching strategies.
god dammit guys stop throwing pop under the bus. The only mistake he might've made was to sub out TD. However, we don't even know if TD would've gotten that rebound as he would've rotated out to lebron just like diaw did. You guys complain about playing green and neal. Well, who the are we gonna play? Diaw was getting killed by lebron's jumpers, the big 3 can't play 40 mpg. Tmac can't even score in garbage time.
For those of you that complained about taking away lebron's space. Well isn't that what we did in game 6? He scored what 16 pts in the 4th in the paint. If we collapse, battier was there to knock down the 3's.
Spoelstra is not a better coach. All he did was lebron/wade isos the entire game along with a few lebron/chalmers pnr. You and I can draw that up.
My only thing about Game 6 and Tim being pulled out was I think it was directly after Bosh took out his legs from falling into his knee. I don't know if Will told Pop he wanted to check on Tim while the Spurs had the lead and play offense to defense switch for 1 possession.
Curious...had the Spurs have won Game 6 because Parker, Ginobili, or Leonard made that 1 FT it would have taken, then would this thread even exist?
The system is fine, the players have to execute. But even then, sometimes you could do things perfectly perfect AND STILL LOSE. In my time here on the planet, I've witnessed so many instances of situations like that. Down by 2 in a Football game, ball is on the 25 yard line and you send out your perfect kicker to kick a field goal he's made time and again. He kicks the ball and whiffs it to a returner by the posts and he catches and runs it all the way back. Do you blame the coach for that?
Love my Spurs...STILL THEY RIDE!
How is small ball their game? We've used small ball fairly consistently this past season with Jackson and later Leonard playing PF. Pop even said in February or March that he expected to use small ball. He used it against GSW to perfection and you weren't complaining when Parker and Manu to combined for 50 points. We have better small ball personnel. They have the best player on the planet and another HOF and even a dinosaur all on the court at the same time. Our lineup is more balanced. Parker had a Hamstring injury, Manu was apparently woke up and realized he was old, and Green fizzled out after hitting 26 3's in the 1st 5 games. We had some rough luck.Small ball was the biggest factor, i've said it before, guards just stand in the corner, bigs set screens/move without the ball.
Our small ball played isolation only on offense and couldn't get stops/rebound on defense.
Small ball was their game, and Pop played it for some reason
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