Game Thoughts- Thunder @ Spurs, tbh..

[Hoops Czar]

RC Buford said during the summer league last summer (and after the summer acquisitions) that they have a huge hol at the 3 position behind Kawhi. So it should come at no surprise that they're probably looking for a player in that position, and if there are any player movements, it will go towards addressing that. While the Kawhi injury probably will accelerate the search, this isn't particularly news. Seeing the Spurs modus-operandi, it's unlikely they'll knee-jerk and acquire any type of player at any cost.

They'll either sign a guy to a 10 day contract or they won't do anything

[wildchild]

Thanks HarlemHeat37 !

Marco Belinelli

Offense: C+
I didn't like Beli's offensive output tonight..he did good work off screens, but missed most of his looks from deep and has some poor turnovers that led to easy points for the Thunder..

Defense: B+
I actually thought this was one of Belinelli's best defensive efforts of the season, tbh..
He's a poor defender most of the time, so he should be graded on a curve, but other than a few lapses late in the game, I thought he defended well..he had 3 great strips down low against the Thunder's bigs, he forced a turnover against Durant, and Sefolosha missed both his isolation shots against Beli down low

I don't know why our "off-season goal" was Belinelli and not find a decent SF backup.

[Mikeanaro]

Get ready for a Parker, Marco, Bonner, Duncan, Ayres starting lineup. The truth is, I don't think Pop has ever planned for anything like this to happen so he's going to be running all his old faithfuls out there in hopes that they have some kind of chemistry but I doubt Thomas gets any significant playing time. As far as Kawhi goes, it's sad for him because he does not fit Pop's system, the Spurs have never had a wing player that was more than a role player. The Spurs have had some wings that used to be good but all they did was fill a role with the Spurs and hardly deviated from that. The offense is not centered around our SF getting the ball and creating or getting high percentage looks, it's an afterthought.

Other teams don't necessarily rely on a system in order to get the job done, OKC can set a screen for Durant and he can either attack or pull up and shoot which opens up shooting for other players but it doesn't mean that the role players on their team are stuck in a certain location on offense and can't deviate. Other teams have had the luxury of being able to just throw in scrubs who can shoot and they end up getting confidence because nobody takes them serious.

Agree, thats Pops fault, I remember Phil Jackson adjusting his triangle offense to work with a center (Shaq), different than Rodman and the Dobermans, but Pop uses his players as tools and there is no room for change his face goes red yells and everybody s their pants.
Even Riley figured things out with Shaq to win a ring in Miami, but Pop doesnt know how to take changes and sometimes I think when other teams look at Spurs players, all our guys have the word PREDICTABLE printed in their foreheads.
A few years ago we were old, last couple of years not so much and Spurs still are slow, those new younger legs are fat and lazy I guess.
Now we have kids manhandling our team, looks like the first time Schwarzenegger steps into that kindergarten, at least show some balls guys...

[Mikeanaro]

They'll either sign a guy to a 10 day contract or they won't do anything

You mean... like Sjax?

[Hoops Czar]

You mean... like Sjax?

They traded away a terrible contract for an equally terrible contract with one less year attached.
I don't have to tell you how they spent their savings. Sjax was a trade deadline deal, not to replace an injured player. They officially have zero SF's that can play on their roster. But when you're operating out of a kangaroo rotation, I'm sure Pop will get creative.

[spurs10]

Thanks!

[HI-FI]

Harlem, the goods.

amazing how the Thunder draft such punchable, y players, perhaps it's Presti's system he's looking for. Reggie Jackson looks like he belongs in District 9, bartering cat food to the aliens, but he's part of their arrogance. Plus, coupled with their biased officiating, they are by far the most hateable team in the league.

[hater]

the officiating was fine. The OKC Thunder is just a better team. Top to bottom. Plain and simple.

only homers will un-suscribe to this logic.

[FireMicoHalili]

Well whoever wanted a loss for a trade got half his wish granted

[team-work]

Thank you for the analysis.

Pop said after 2012 POs that the Spurs “reached their limits”, but I think last summer they really did that. If I did not jump the cliff after the near-championship, I won’t do so whatever happens now.

That said, I have very little hope the Spurs win it all this season.

[exstatic]

They'll either sign a guy to a 10 day contract or they won't do anything

Who will they cut? They're at 15 on the roster. That was Mal Thomas.

[DapDaGenius]

Wow....they really look like there is something wrong with them.

[HarlemHeat37]

the officiating was fine. The OKC Thunder is just a better team. Top to bottom. Plain and simple.

only homers will un-suscribe to this logic.

I agree the officiating was fine, I wasn't blaming the officiating, I was pointing out that biased officiating is what fans expect when their team is playing against OKC, as Spurs fans learned in the 2012 playoffs..

[benstanfield]

I think last night exposed the fact that the Thunder start two black holes on offense, Safalosha and Perkins. We all knew Perkins sucks on O, but it is clear that Sefalosha is just a D guy, not a 3 and D guy. I think come playoff time this will be more exploitable than people are expecting. Remember last year against the Griz when the Spurs made Tony Allen and Prince basically unplayable by ignoring them? Against the Thunder starting 5 we have the luxury of playing 5 on 3 on defense. I think Pop knows this. People want us to put Green on Jackson/West and Parker on Thabo, but that effectively negates our advantage as Parker is not a great help defender. What if we put Green/Manu on Durant and let Leonard play free safety against Sefalosha? KD had what, like 8 TO's last night? I think Leonard could average 5 steals per game in a PO series like that, and it would mitigate our lack of rebounding, especially if we trap the Thunder PnR really hard and make them kick it out to a non-star. I think the Thunder are a flawed team, really. You can't start two players that only play on one side of the court.

[Chomag]

Pop had a little too much to drink Sunday night and forgot that he played Thomas on Sunday, probably doesn't even remember the kid

lol This!

[Chomag]

Well whoever wanted a loss for a trade got half his wish granted

Nah, just like many posters here they now have the excuse of injuries. So they will still beat on weak teams to make their record look better then what the state of the team really is.

[elemento]

My thoughts from yesterday's game

Ginobili is still a very good defender. Obviously he can't play tight defense 100% of the time because of his age, but he is still very good, defending either the SG or the SF spots.

SA is still a rebounding team without Duncan on the floor. It was painful to watch that midget small-ball SAS team getting completely destroyed by OKC BIGs.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

Can we please see a lot more Malcolm Thomas moving forward? Spurs don't have much to lose at this point.

[Floyd Pacquiao]

god pop is a stubborn asshole. he would rather roll with 3 small guards and make cojo guard durant, while we have a young 6'9 athletic ridding the pine. fck corporate knowledge pop, give a young a chance...

[024]

Even though Jackson embarrassed Parker, the biggest problem is still the defense on Durant. Durant was pretty much unstoppable and the only reason he stopped attacking was because Jackson was dominating. Even if someone guarded Jackson well, there was still no one to stop Durant. From the first quarter, Leonard's defense on Durant was pretty bad. A simple screen and Leonard disappears, leaving Durant wide open.

The Spurs desperately need another 3 defender. Durant didn't even look like he was trying much and managed to still steamroll the Spurs. Ginobili helped a little but the Spurs need another body to throw at Durant if Leonard isn't up to the task (don't know if he would have gotten better later). Putting Marco on Durant was desperate and dangerous. If Jackson wasn't destroying the Spurs, Durant would have stepped up and gone for 45 points.

[Baam]

Thanks HarlemHeat37 !




I don't know why our "off-season goal" was Belinelli and not find a decent SF backup.

That's so dumb, obviously they wanted a second Manu after Manu shat the bed in the Finals to have an option but when you look at the roster it was really a dumb move...

[r0drig0lac]

AK47 would have been great tbh

so would derrick williams or aminu

[shazork]

Please, enough with the "tbh" and "imo"s! They're implicit.

[ElNono]

Please, enough with the "tbh" and "imo"s! They're implicit.

tbh, they're fine... IMO, tbh

[Horse]

You couldn't have picked a worst night to call out the officiating seeing as how OKC was called for 25 fouls to the Spurs 17 and the Spurs actually had 6 more FT attempts, Durant got to the line 6 times because he was actually fouled 6 times. 0-3 vs the Thunder. Unless they play 6 times this season, I don't see them breaking even.

And you obviously didn't watch the game. I still can't figure out why a cavs fan comments on basketball?