Reply With Quote
He is going to look at the tape, say to himself, "I had plenty of time to power dribble and lay it up with my left hand."
That is the key with Ibaka: put a body on him.
While he missed the look, he was getting all the way to the rim posting Ibaka. Then the refs started letting them hack and any inside game was gone. He will brain fart like those misses but I would be chomping at the bit to try that again if I were him. Given even officiating Diaw and Splitter can post Ibaka. We know that now.
He is going to look at the tape, say to himself, "I had plenty of time to power dribble and lay it up with my left hand."
That is the key with Ibaka: put a body on him.
n splitter and his awful hands .atleast he didn't try and lay it up v ibaka
A simple pump-fake would have sufficed
In the first half Tiago scored on Ibaka with ease on a post up. Like others pointed out, all it takes is a pump fake. The key was spacing and going one on one. Later on spurs bigs were getting passes where the paint was already crowded. .Played into thunder strengths.
In a short sentence you captured the good and the bad with Tiago. Never seen a big get stuffed/blocked so often (not in just this game), but he does a really good job on working with Duncan on the defensive end.
That team effort and adjusment pop needs to make on offense starts with 2 players. KY and Manu.
Ibaka is an elite help-side shot blocker, but you're right that he's not going to block a post-up shot one-on-one nearly as easily.
Plus Minus is a newish stat and game plus minus has a lot of noise, but
+39 by Splitter last night is the best Spurs plus minus in a away game, and third best overall.
+41 Nestorovich 2006 against the Jazz
+40 Duncan 2007 against the Supersonics.
Maybe Splitter needs help from the same guy who once turned Adam Archuleta from a weakling to a freak specimen:
Splitter is a smart player who notices and feels the defensive positioning. Against the Mavs, late in the game, Dallas playing a matchup 2-3 zone, Tiago read the holes in the zone with a great cut and feed from Manu for a layup. The next possession, he hustled & grabbed a blocked shot, felt that he was in a seam and lofted a soft hook over a slightly out of position Dirk. That took the lead back up to 14 and caused Dallas to make a change.
He makes sound basketball reads and decisions most of the time. He deserves better than what he gets from NBA officiating crews. He is better when he plays with some fire and passion.
Splitter needs to find his Bill Laimbeer self.
One thing he needs to do this summer is work on his core strength he gets pushed around way to much for a center.
His core strength has improved markedly. He contorts his body when guys are pushing on him so it's easy to see. Watch his hips and core though. They stay anchored. Power is never going to be his game but he used to get pinwheeled and at times ragdolled. He is not a great leaper and has small hands so for example against Dallas would concentrate on blocking out and let Kawhi and Tim clean up the boards. We won the rebounding battle by 6 and pulled down 48 boards.
It's also important to note that while Dirk's jumper was on, he only got 19 points. Tiago and Leonard did a great job denying him the ball and forcing Ellis to beat us. Which he couldn't.
Dirk was scoreless in the first quarter when he was guarded by Splitter
he did most of his work in the 2nd I think when the Spurs went with Leonard on Dirk and he abused him
also in that gif above people like to post
notice how Ibaka is on his way down when Splitter threw a pump fake
his 2nd jump is so ridiculously good that he can get pump faked and still recover and contest a shot
not much Splitter can do there when he also wont get love from the official
Fuzzy, free...You guys, along with several others here, obviously "get it"
I don't disagree with him being smart but the fact of the matter is that on the offensive end when teams decide to just help off of Splitter it works as long as they can recover. Splitter is so completely unexplosive with his shooting that this works a lot and it really destroy's the offense. You saw that tonight.
He plays good defense against Dirk and no one can take that from him but he hurts the Spurs so much on offense when teams play off him that I believe its a net negative. At this point its on Pop to recognize this and just adapt immediately. Tiago sets great screens but it pretty much doesn't matter if teams play it properly because you can almost ignore him on the roll if you're fast enough to make up ground when the pass comes. And most playoff teams are.
Tiago's good screens help set up additional mismatch screens. The Spurs have a ton of plays where they do double and triple screens, and it all starts with Tiago Splitter. You're right about other teams being fast enough to make up ground, but when they get trapped and flustered in the triple screens, that's when Tiago gets a wide open dunk or layup sometimes.
Tiago straight up balling right now in the fourth. Wish he'd play like this more often.
Give the Golden God his props, Manny.
His D is solid tonight too but Dirk is just hitting every shot in his face. Nothing you can do about that. Best game of Tiago's life I think.
prahps
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
