How does thunderfan feel about trying to win against a 31 vs 20 FT disadvantage?

[jARS mEsH sEt]

I'm not too mad. We'll be alright. Let it all out Spur fan. Live vicariously through other teams' victories over the Thunder.

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=227890

[TampaDude]

OKC has won exactly zero NBA world championships.

We could be a lottery team this year and still, as a franchise be better off than the Methlahoma City Thunderefs.

[Horry Hipcheck]

There is a forum wide cloud amongst your kind tonight. It goes farther than seedings, it's gotten personal for yall.

Don't put words in my mouth; all I've said tonight was that a loss in Houston by OKC would give the Spurs a chance to restore the 4 game lead they had before last night with 5 games left. You can light fires all you want, but you'll get more fodder out of robdiaz than you will me.

[RD2191]

Thunderup you're a got. off now.

[RD2191]

Don't put words in my mouth; all I've said tonight was that a loss in Houston by OKC would give the Spurs a chance to restore the 4 game lead they had before last night with 5 games left. You can light fires all you want, but you'll get more fodder out of robdiaz than you will me.

[Horry Hipcheck]

I didn't say it wasn't amusing fodder.

[Kawhi]

Mitc in meltdown mode

[RD2191]

I didn't say it wasn't amusing fodder.

[Mikeanaro]

[Horry Hipcheck]

[Arc]

My ideal standings were

1. Spurs
2. OKC
3. Rockets
4. Clips
5. Portland
6. GSW
7. Dallas
8. Memphis

Spurs have dispatched this iteration of the Grizz countless times with ease in the last 12 months, Dallas could give OKC fits in the first round. Let the Clips walk through Portland to face the Spurs, which is a better matchup for SA than Houston. Meanwhile OKC gets past Dallas to earn a dance with the Rockets, another tough out, before ultimately advancing to the WCF. Or, Houston straight up knocks them out.

But Houston lost the race for the 3 seed long ago.

portland is probably going to fall to #6, making it GS vs houston in the first round.. the winner of that series will be a toss up. houston won the regular season series 2-1, but the two games GS lost iguodala was out..

if GS plays houston in the first round and beats them.. and OKC loses to clippers.. we'll have a tough road to the finals, but not the toughest.. and it's against teams we match up very well against.

[TheGoldStandard]

It's like taking that first sip of a cold soda when you're really thirsty... the burn just tastes so good.

[RD2191]

[exstatic]

OKC is faster in transition than anyone on the Spurs roster. The trick to beating OKC is to eliminate transition entirely. The Spurs' defense works best when it's set, and in order to be set OKC needs to play the ball from out of bounds. The Thunder like to trap the point at the top of the key, where Parker traditionally likes to set up the offense, and force TOs there or right inside the 3. From there, the fast break has the minimum amount of distance to cover and the defense has the entire court to make up, limiting the amount of help that can be provided. We saw bits and pieces of the Spurs anticipating the fast break last night, it's why there was never anyone under the basket to collect a rebound - everyone was already moving downcourt to prepare for a Westbrick or KD blitz.

The Thunder offense doesn't rely on organized pieces moving to confuse a defense - KD, Westbrick, and Jackson are pull-up shooters and only need to be given space to fire. The Spurs offense, on the other hand, thrives on confusing defenses when not in transition. OKC tends to overwhelm the Spurs because 1) they never ing miss, eliminating fast break opportunities, and 2) they cut off the extra pass by closing out on shooters quicker than most other teams OR by attacking the point before the play is even run. The fact that they can't seem to commit fouls against the Spurs certainly doesn't help.

They also play the corners tightly, leaving a BIG ass hole right in the middle of their defense. It's still hard to attack the rim, because Ibaka is QUICK to react, but you can make the defense rotate by flashing to the open space and making a pass, and if you can rotate them once, you make another pass to do it twice. You get your open shots. I half think that's why Pop didn't play Ginobili. He didn't want to tip their hand before a possible WCFs rematch, and Manu is GOING to find and exploit that hole. Boris can do it too, if he's playing the 3.

[Horry Hipcheck]

portland is probably going to fall to #6, making it GS vs houston in the first round.. the winner of that series will be a toss up. houston won the regular season series 2-1, but the two games GS lost iguodala was out..

if GS plays houston in the first round and beats them.. and OKC loses to clippers.. we'll have a tough road to the finals, but not the toughest.. and it's against teams we match up very well against.

I'm not convinced the Clips can take out OKC. It'd be a compe ive series, but OKC almost feels like a lock for the WCF. IMO.

[r0drig0lac]

[Horry Hipcheck]

They also play the corners tightly, leaving a BIG ass hole right in the middle of their defense. It's still hard to attack the rim, because Ibaka is QUICK to react, but you can make the defense rotate by flashing to the open space and making a pass, and if you can rotate them once, you make another pass to do it twice. You get your open shots. I half think that's why Pop didn't play Ginobili. He didn't want to tip their hand before a possible WCFs rematch, and Manu is GOING to find and exploit that hole. Boris can do it too, if he's playing the 3.

I too think that Pop wanted to avoid showing the Thunder how he'd attempt to handle their system this close to the POs. It's not "the reason" OKC beat the Spurs last night, but it fits within Pop's mentality and still allowed him to give the bench ample minutes against a full strength Thunder team.

[Arc]

I'm not convinced the Clips can take out OKC. It'd be a compe ive series, but OKC almost feels like a lock for the WCF. IMO.

the clippers lead the series 2-1 right now, with one more game to go. main reasons why the clippers match up so well with the thunder, is because the clippers get just as many free throws if not more, and they have guys that are even more athletic. it'll be a fun series to watch, that's for sure.

[tmtcsc]

OKC is faster in transition than anyone on the Spurs roster. The trick to beating OKC is to eliminate transition entirely.

Correct - Limiting turnovers is most important. OKC is great at capitalizing on them because of the reasons you listed. Too fast for us to deal with. So, take care of the ball, make crisp passes and don't get too cute or sloppy when dribbling.

OKC tends to overwhelm the Spurs because 1) they never ing miss, eliminating fast break opportunities, and 2) they cut off the extra pass by closing out on shooters quicker than most other teams OR by attacking the point before the play is even run. The fact that they can't seem to commit fouls against the Spurs certainly doesn't help.

Having Manu 2014 on the floor will help. i can see him bringing up the ball during the playoffs to save TP the trouble of contending with the traps. Also, SPURS & Co. need to eliminate Ibaka's ability to block shots by giving more ball fakes or attacking at better angles to draw fouls.

[jARS mEsH sEt]

List of NBA teams ranked by free throw attempts per field goal attempts. Guess who's last.

http://www.teamrankings.com/nba/stat/fta-per-fga

[jARS mEsH sEt]

1	Houston	0.387	0.412	0.345	0.411	0.364	0.310
2	LA Clippers	0.351	0.361	0.319	0.371	0.332	0.288
3	Sacramento	0.332	0.312	0.314	0.341	0.323	0.271
4	Minnesota	0.315	0.219	0.198	0.321	0.309	0.305
5	Brooklyn	0.314	0.286	0.431	0.332	0.298	0.300
6	Denver	0.310	0.333	0.272	0.302	0.318	0.310
7	Toronto	0.304	0.349	0.520	0.320	0.288	0.274
8	Miami	0.301	0.263	0.182	0.301	0.302	0.299
9	Okla City	0.300	0.330	0.284	0.307	0.291	0.332
10	Charlotte	0.297	0.327	0.443	0.295	0.299	0.310
11	Phoenix	0.296	0.327	0.423	0.306	0.285	0.234
12	Indiana	0.291	0.283	0.304	0.294	0.288	0.310
13	Detroit	0.289	0.295	0.301	0.295	0.284	0.282
14	New Orleans	0.288	0.382	0.608	0.294	0.282	0.248
15	Chicago	0.288	0.272	0.192	0.271	0.305	0.263
16	Portland	0.270	0.244	0.212	0.260	0.279	0.250
17	Utah	0.269	0.276	0.176	0.283	0.255	0.281
18	Cleveland	0.269	0.253	0.308	0.273	0.264	0.265
19	Atlanta	0.268	0.356	0.361	0.288	0.249	0.250
20	LA Lakers	0.264	0.244	0.208	0.259	0.269	0.340
21	Philadelphia	0.264	0.258	0.313	0.272	0.255	0.200
22	Milwaukee	0.263	0.246	0.123	0.261	0.265	0.237
23	Dallas	0.259	0.286	0.244	0.290	0.227	0.242
24	Golden State	0.253	0.149	0.118	0.243	0.264	0.255
25	Orlando	0.253	0.294	0.253	0.259	0.246	0.197
26	Boston	0.251	0.249	0.370	0.245	0.256	0.266
27	Washington	0.250	0.257	0.292	0.261	0.239	0.261
28	Memphis	0.245	0.175	0.063	0.255	0.236	0.276
29	New York	0.244	0.282	0.286	0.266	0.223	0.254
30	San Antonio	0.243

The first (left) column is 2013-2014.

[Mikeanaro]

That shows how good our team is but we need more calls something decent not a ref team of course.

[jARS mEsH sEt]

That shows how good our team is but we need more calls something decent not a ref team of course.

I'd be happy with simply getting our expectation value for calls.

Going by those numbers, our expectation value for free throw attempts against OKC would've been .23*(88) = 20 free throw attempts
OKC's expectation value for free throw attempts would've been 23.

[look_at_g_shred]

That loss last night is moot in regards to the standings. Spurstalk, you may now take your seat.

[jARS mEsH sEt]

^ I don't think anyone here is worried about losing the number 1 seed. That wasn't really the concern about last night's loss.