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Good grades for the most part, tbh. Timvp is proud.
I understand he didn't want to destroy Patty's confidence, give him a chance.
but it should have been very clear after the first few drives that Patty wasn't up to it, or didn't get it.
Mills deserves a C- rather than D. He hit important shots.
Good grades for the most part, tbh. Timvp is proud.
Timely loss.
You could smell complacency all over the place.
As for the Thunder, I didn't really see anything different from last year.
Not a championship team by any means.
Going the no backup PG route against the Thunder would be both unnecessary and insane. The former because there's virtually no difference in firepower between Mills and Belinelli and the latter because unlike the Heat, who lack a PG with dynamic off the dribble scoring ability, the Thunder have two and either would easily destroy the lead footed Belinelli off the dribble.
As much as I hate to admit it, it's like I suspected in the off season: The Thunder have become underrated now. They're still one of the two best teams in the West and they still cause the Spurs more problems than anyone else in the conference.
Yeah, because that's the equivalent of filling two modest needs.
They could have got creative. There's plenty of mid level players they could have either easily freed up enough cap space to afford or put together a package to acquire. I'm not going to bother getting into names, since many were discussed ad nauseam in the off season and because you'd just dismiss them for one reason or another to justify your stance.
I meant their games against the Thunder, mainly on the road, in recent seasons. You either haven't been paying attention or are in denial if you think they're still a fluke.Yeah, the past two seasons we've been a horribly officiated quarter away from an NBA finals, and 20 seconds from a championship. If that's a fluke, then so is 99.9% of pro teams in history. Come on now. We just went to Game 7 against a Superteam. Now you call us flukes? That's some weak stuff, dude.
Spurs fan since DRob era, I think you guys are way too harsh on Pop, he is doing an absolutely amazing job to win with the team he has AND keeping minutes low for the big three. The team has really low talent compared to Miami/OKC, each has one of the top-two players in the NBA. As much as it hurt me (even today) to look back at the 28 seconds, Danny Green way overachieved that series and Spurs simply ran out of luck. Spurs will never win a le with Parker as the anchor (I know he won finals MVP in 2007 but that was only one series, Duncan was still the anchor), he is easily worn down by long defenders like LeBron or Sefolosha after 3 quarters. For all the Spurs struggles, Westbrook will never score 6 points again.
At end of games Spurs simply lacks the equivalent of a LeBron drive or Durant jumper. They really have to play perfect systematic basketball to win. And right now that system is broken because Duncan is nowhere near as good 2012/2013 versions. Unless he gets back to 2013 levels and Leonard takes the next step toward growing into the best player on this team. They have no chance beating a healthy Miami or Thunder team in a best of 7.
If I am Pop, I will take the gamble and give Kwahi 15-18 shots a game. Paul George was a nobody not long ago, give Kwahi enough shots, don't worry if he goes cold for a few stretches (just ask Durant, it is perfectly OK to shoot .400 on some nights, keep shooting!), he needs to be the #1 option on this team.
Last edited by hitmantb; 11-28-2013 at 07:25 PM.
Shut up, idiot. Nobody cares what you think.
Diaw did a fine job guarding Bron in the finals
Matt Bonner – +8 IN TWO MINUTES
ST posters still posting their ty takes, ignoring what is blatantly obvious. The numbers don't lie. Let Bonner Shoot #TheRedMambaHasRisen
NBA fans overreacting to a meaningless game in an 82 game regular season, as usual..
Spurs and Thunder are 2 of the 4 legit contenders in the NBA, they're going to exchange wins in this meaningless regular season, tbh..
You wouldn't say that if you knew who I was.
Sucks to be you, tbh.
There's no such thing as a meaningless game. You strive for the #1 seed. If you go into the playoffs facing off against a team with a higher ranking, assuming the majority of the time the home team loses a game, that would force the lower seed to win two road games. That can be a big deal if you're facing a good home team.
Spurs and Thunder are 2 of the 4 legit contenders in the NBA, they're going to exchange wins in this meaningless regular season, tbh..
It's a simple question. I asked you who you think the Spurs had a realistic shot at that would help against the Heat.
Sorry you feel that way, but that's a really weak response. Of course I'm going to advocate for my stance on things. You basically said, "I'm not going to contribute to this conversation because it's not worth it." So why even respond in the first place?I'm not going to bother getting into names, since many were discussed ad nauseam in the off season and because you'd just dismiss them for one reason or another to justify your stance.
I think missing wide open 3s repeatedly is pretty flukish. We missed a ton of open layups last night as well.I meant their games against the Thunder, mainly on the road, in recent seasons. You either haven't been paying attention or are in denial if you think they're still a fluke.
Cry Havoc,
I would tend to agree a little with the argument that the Spurs, for all their fantastic record so far, hasn't had answered the Heat question fully.
There were a lot of missed opportunities in the offseason (because of various cir stances). The first was the failure of the AK47 courting, and perhaps other minor options who could have been useful such as Omri Casspi for e.g. Also, a little of belligerence in trying to trade Bonner (or waive him before his salary was guaranteed) could have done a lot more to shore up Kawhi's backup option. If they had possibly offered Bonner's contract along with Nando's/Baynes' perhaps, they could have landed Ariza. Perhaps they did and it was rejected. But overall, I think the Spurs went for a more safe, but sub-optimal strategy of merely replacing Neal & Blair for Belinelli & Ayres. Not that this was a bad move, but they could have perhaps done better.
It's almost safe to say that the Spurs suffered from the turning of the worm, that their incredibly high shooting percentage finally began to return to the mean, however the truth is that the Thunder closed out on shooters (as made evident by how many passes were required before the after-the-buzzer shot attempt was made at the end of the 3rd quarter). Danny never really got a clean look. When he received a pass from Tim, it was often at his ankles. Tim's passing is almost as bad as his shooting recently. There was no ball movement from side to side because the Thunder wouldn't allow it. The 2nd unit never got going for the same reason.
So though some of the woes were shooting (the final score indicates we played decent defense in keeping them below 100pts) those woes were caused as much by their defense as by our poor shooting. We did keep Durant in mortal territory, and off the FT line for the most part. RW was completely ineffective. Unfortunately, they also have a good bench.
Belli won't be playing backup PG, it will be Manu or Patty. Belli will have to cover Lamb, which he can do. You're overrating Reggie Jackson after one game. This is a guy that averages 10ppg and shoots 24% from downtown. There's nothing "dynamic off the dribble" about him. You have to pay attention to him, and protect the basket, but he's no Harden. I don't agree they're underrated. I think most everyone agrees they're a solid team. They just don't have the same talent level that took them to the Finals, and so there's always going to be some doubts.
On paper is all like that, and you always strive for that top seed, but the reality is that one bad game (or one good game from the opponent) can throw everything up in the air. See: Golden State series last season.
The reality is that if you're a worthy team, you have to be able to win on the road. I know the Spurs have said they value seeding, but they also value a lot of other things, like rest and health.
They played hard last night, even if it wasn't always pretty. They played to win, and they came up short. It's not like they threw the game. It's still November, no time to go full on paranoid just yet.
what is the deal with the role players/scrubs from the Thunder?
Ibaka, Fisher, Collison, and now Jackson all have had a "Jesus Jordan" game against the Spurs.
Unless you're my mother, boss, or lawyer I really don't care who you are. Now go "relieve" history.You wouldn't say that if you knew who I was.
Sucks to be you, tbh.
If I'm not mistaken the Spurs had matched their best start ever at 13-1 after winning against the Pelicans... it was pretty clear to me that the next game would be a loss
Thanks for the notes as I couldn't watch this game. Ibaka needs to be curbed with a few vicious dunks (the kind where he is getting tea-bagged). We need an enforcer-type big man, be it Baynes, Ayres or somebody else (as it's pretty clear Tim, Tiago, Boris or Matt don't fit this role).
The spurs strategy is to force the opposition into shooting lots of midrange jumpers - typically the most inefficient shot in basketball. Unfortunately, the thunder are great at these shots. Hope popovich doesn't simply expect them to start missing these shots.
At least the Jailblazers lost to Phoenix. so we gave up no ground there.
The poster I responded to wanted Marco to play more. Unless you're playing Marco and Manu at the guards and Diaw at SF (with Bonner and Ayres as the bigs) I'm not sure how it'd work. Diaw got to cover Lebron because the Heat play small ball, the Thunder not so much.
Spursfanfromafar named some and there were others I'm sure you heard mentioned numerous times during the off season.
That's what everyone always says when their team losses. The reality is, there has been a trend to the games these two have played the past three seasons, especially when the Spurs have been on the road.I think missing wide open 3s repeatedly is pretty flukish. We missed a ton of open layups last night as well.
It's not that the Spurs can't beat them in a series, it's that they didn't bring in player(s) who could help do so and instead of putting space between them and the Thunder, they've ensured that it'll be a 1A, 1B type scenario.
In essence, what I'm saying is, there's only room for five perimeter rotation players to play against them (a sixth can get spot minutes). The fifth spot comes down to Belinelli and Mills. Since Mills has a much better chance to adequately defend either of their PG's and offers equal or greater shooting/scoring, it makes sense to go with him.
Who cares what his ppg is? He plays 20-25 mpg (when they're healthy), with two of the highest usage players in the league. He's not great, but he's clearly emerging as one of the better penetrating PG's in the league.
seems to me the spurs considered how close they were last year and didn't want to fiddle with things too much.
seeing how timmy has struggled, i wonder if they should have played it a little bit riskier. being too safe and careful leads to stagnation
I think Belli will get some of Danny's minutes if Danny isn't "on". That's why I don't think this is a Mills/Belli equation.
For one, you know what kind of damage he can do to you on average. He's not a 3 point shooter nor a high assist guy. Not really concerned about him, tbh.
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