These are mostly 1st half thoughts, tbh, as the 2nd half was mostly a stat-padding period for Portland.
- Tony Parker was absolutely disgusting in this game, he set the tempo and rhythm for the Spurs in the 1st quarter. The Blazers were one of the worst teams in the league at defending pick&rolls during the regular season, as well as isolations, and Tony completely exploited them tonight. They have had trouble defending PGs all season, and when Parker is feeling good, he's still easily as good as any PG in the league.
It's evident that the Spurs, Parker in particular, were going to attack Portland's 28th ranked pick&roll defense all night. While Tony's mid-range jump shot was inconsistent, he hurt Portland in multiple ways, whether it was getting to the rim, or passing it to an open Duncan for the J, which he did for 4 of Duncan's 5 first half field goals.
In the first half, the Spurs scored on 67% of Tony Parker pick&rolls, ridiculous efficiency.
At the end of the first half and for most of the 2nd, Wes Matthews defended Parker, to no avail. Matthews is a poor isolation and pick&roll defender, he doesn't possess the lateral speed to defend Parker. The Blazers lack decent perimeter defenders, not one of them rates positively in any credible defensive metric.
Defensively, this was the best effort I saw from Parker all year. He guarded Lillard and did not give him any room to operate, and defended well around screens, which is especially impressive when you consider his energy being exerted on the other end.
- The Spurs clearly made a concerted effort to limit Portland's 3-point attempts, which is the heart of their offense. San Antonio has struggled to defend spot-up shooting all year when Duncan and Parker are on the floor together, but that was not the case tonight, with Parker's previously mentioned defensive energy, and Duncan displaying good mobility.
The Blazers took only 5 3-pointers at the half, which is less than half of the attempts they typically average in the 1st half of games. Of those 5 attempts, only 1 was an uncontested shot.
- Tiago Splitter is probably the most underrated defensive player in the league, but he won't be underrated for long if he continues to defend this well against the elite big men of the league. Splitter has been the best defensive player for the Spurs since last season, and he's one of the only big men in the league that can effectively defend both the post and the perimeter.
Lamarcus Aldridge only scored on 30% of the plays that directly involved Splitter as a defender, in the first half.
- The biggest liability for the Blazers was easily Damian Lillard, and the Spurs exploited his poor defense. In the first half, San Antonio scored on 71% of the plays where Lillard was the primary/secondary defender. Whether it was Parker attacking him, Leonard posting him up or Belinelli going through screens, the Spurs seemed to make it an emphasis to attack Lillard.
- Another defensive weakness for Portland is their post-up defense, where they ranked around 25th, and points in the paint, where they ranked 28th. The Spurs ran 5 post-up plays in the 1st half and generated points on all 5 trips(I'm including a play where they missed, but Baynes got the rebound and scored due to Portland being out of position).
- The bench finally looked like it did during the regular season. The Blazers did not exploit the Spurs' bench, defensively, like the Mavs did, nor did they get them off their shooting spots. The Spurs struggled against Devin Harris and Vince Carter's penetration/shooting, along with Blair's energy.
If Portland is going to allow the Spurs' bench to play their usual minutes, with success, they have absolutely no chance of winning this series.
- The Blazers looked completely unprepared for this game IMO.
:Poor defensive effort. They barely fought through screens, they allowed backdoor cuts, they didn't cut off passes. It was as if the Blazers had never seen the Spurs play basketball before
The Blazers had just played a series against a Rockets team that was one of the 3 most ISO-oriented teams in the NBA this season. The Rockets have arguably the least complicated offense in the league, and Portland played tonight's game like they were still up against those Rockets.
:Stotts decided to use Lillard on Parker, which completely backfired from the start. It wasn't until the end of the 2nd quarter that he decided to make a defensive switch. While I don't believe Matthews or Batum can guard Parker, they would certainly be an upgrade over Lillard.
:The Blazers barely put Duncan in pick&roll position, as we saw Dallas do with Ellis. Even when they did, it was with Batum as ball-handler, which isn't nearly as scary as Lillard. When Duncan was in the play against Lillard, they ran mostly off-ball plays where he would roll into the paint for after catching the ball, which is playing directly to Duncan's defensive strengths. Tim barely had to move in this game, defensively.
I expected a lot of the same sets that the Warriors used with Curry against Duncan in last year's playoffs, a lot of high pick&roll and switches, but the Blazers thought otherwise, I suppose. A lot of this was poor reads by Lillard, to be fair, where he either took off before Lopez's screen was even set, or he over-penetrated into Duncan.
:Portland attacked the Spurs' best defender(Splitter) in isolation more than any other play they ran in the first half, rather than attacking the weak points of the Spurs defense.
Overall, Portland lives and dies by the jump shot, and tonight was a game where they could not shoot. This will not happen every game, and there will be a game or two where the Spurs will defend very well, but Portland will shoot lights out from 3 against contested defense. Lillard was a complete non-factor in this game, which will virtually always result in a Portland loss.
Defensively, while Portland will make adjustments, they just cannot defend the Spurs when Parker is playing at peak level. They can't defend the pick&roll, and they're playing the best pick&roll team in the league. They don't have any viable perimeter defenders. They can't defend the post, and Diaw/Leonard will continue to kill them, as long as they remain aggressive.
Welcome to the playoffs Marco Belinelli!!!
you said blazers in 6
Malik Hairston can you give me a source on that stat for Splitter guarding LA?
Spurs in 5. Portland will win game 3 or 4 at home but that is it.
and thanks for that Harlem.
thanks
Good points. I will only add that Pop deciding to go with Baynes is also a great move for this series. Yes, he'll be hard-pressed to get 10 points again and might even struggle to get 10 total points the rest of the series but his ruggedness and ability to grab some rebounds and set good hard screens off the bench will wear on the Blazers. His seven rebounds were just as impressive as his scoring tonight and against the best rebounding team in the league, no less.
Spurs played the way they should have the entire Mavs series, and exploited Portland's weaknesses. Splitter played great D on LMA, even if Aldridge ultimately finished with more than 30 points (the most he's scored against the Spurs all season). We all know Portland won't shoot this poorly for long, and the Spurs won't defend as aggressively. The Blazers won't roll over and die.
Game 2 should already be viewed as a must-win, I think despite the throttling the Spurs administered tonight there's a large possibility they drop Games 3 and 4.
Thanks for the grades, Harlem.
This was a great start to the series for the Spurs. On to Game 2.
Large possibility is a bit much. We can lose games three and four but let's have a little faith in the team.
Baynes was phenomenal tonight..
I thought Pop would consider him against Dallas when the Mavs' were disrupting the Spurs' lanes and taking advantage of poor screens by Splitter at times, and especially Ayres..Marion was easily getting through screens when he was guarding Parker earlier in the series, I thought Baynes' powerful screens could have helped, but Pop opted to go with Ayres, for whatever reason..
Nice to see that he went with Baynes over Ayres/Bonner, as it proved to be effective, obviously..
He even guarded Aldridge very well on the 2 possessions where they were matched up..I fully expect refs to call him for cheap fouls against him in the future, though
Actually that was you you stupid defeatist idiot.
...And that was actually a really good writeup imo fwiw
Excellent analysis, per par, tbh....
Tbh.
I have quite a bit, but we saw a terrible performance from the Blazers tonight. The Spurs are talented enough to waltz right through Portland. But realistically, the Blazers are going to play better and the Spurs are probably going to plateau a bit. I don't think this series being 2-2 going into Game 5 is in any showing a lack of faith.
After the game, both Damian Lillard and Robin Lopez commented on how the Spurs are a much scarier animal than Houston
Lopez mentioned how the Rockets only attack in isolation looks, and the Blazers weren't ready to defend the Spurs motion offense..
Good points on TP's defense, by far the best I've seen him play all season.
If POR allows Beli to be an above average defender against Batum, they're done tbh. But they'll come out with a better effort in Game 2 and should hit a higher clip. I just don't think they have an answer for the Spurs defensively.
Thanks Malik!
And Batum on Green in the first quarter. That was weird because Leonard exploited matchup against Matthews and he was more comfortable playing on the post than in the second half when Stotts decided put Batum on him.
I'm glad to see Tiago playing at a high level. I expected Pop would put Tim/Boris on Aldridge like he did in the RS but he changed the defensive assignments and it worked really well.
Green seemed completely unprepared to guard Lillard, which is somewhat worrying for the later games in this series. The good news is that it seemed more mental than physical. His effort on Matthews left a lot to be desired, since Wes seemed to bully Danny a little bit. It actually made sense for Pop to cross-match his wings with Portland's wings. Green was great on Batum, which may be enough for the Spurs to win most nights. Leonard also made Matthews a non-factor, which combined with Batum's ineffectiveness, would definitely sink the Blazers if it continues.
Great writeup! How did you get all of those stats?
and props on doing it without the .. tbh schtick, nice change of pace.
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