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Pop adjust?,,,,,thats funny.
Ibaka's return is obviously a massive factor, but the Spurs have been getting outplayed even when Ibaka is on the bench..
Brooks finally benched his ty players(Sefolosha, Collison) in favor of players that aren't liabilities(Lamb, Adams)..limiting his players that killed his team's flow has played almost as big of a part as Ibaka's return, tbh..
Pop needs to adjust, too..he can't control the terrible energy and lackadaisical play of his team, but it's time to make some rotation decisions, particularly benching Belinelli and Mills, tbh..
Pop adjust?,,,,,thats funny.
All the minutes for Belinelli make no god damn sense. And putting him on KD.
SpursTalk said that backup backcourt was dog months ago...
Disagree. He did that in 2012 by massively altering the rotation and even inserting DeJuan Blair. The team completely lost its rhythm and floundered in Game 5. I hope he doesn't make that same mistake again this year.
Benching Belinelli and Mills, while swapping some of Splitter's minutes for Diaw, isn't considered "massively altering", tbh, they don't affect the major players..every minute counts, though..
Brooks' switch has led to stupidity from Pop, too..
Westbrook has been atrocious against Danny Green in this series, shooting less than 35% against him, but after Brooks finally benched Sefolosha(obvious move, he's no longer a rotation-caliber player) in favor of Jeremy Lamb's hideous, ostrich-looking ass, Pop decides to switch Parker and Green's assignments..
This results in Parker getting torched by Westbrook all night, as expected, tbh..
Why not have Parker guard Lamb, instead?..is Tony guarding Lamb really scarier than Tony guarding one of the 10 best players in the league and wearing himself out?
I don't expect Brooks to get any credit(since he's one of the worst coaches in the league, tbh), and I also don't expect Pop to receive any blame from non-Spurs fans or media..
he did tp got to the lane in different ways
minutes for belinelli was because manu got in foul trouble
Brooks' switch has led to stupidity from Pop, too..
Westbrook has been atrocious against Danny Green in this series, shooting less than 35% against him, but after Brooks finally benched Sefolosha(obvious move, he's no longer a rotation-caliber player) in favor of Jeremy Lamb's hideous, ostrich-looking ass, Pop decides to switch Parker and Green's assignments..
This results in Parker getting torched by Westbrook all night, as expected, tbh..
Why not have Parker guard Lamb, instead?..is Tony guarding Lamb really scarier than Tony guarding one of the 10 best players in the league and wearing himself out?
I don't expect Brooks to get any credit(since he's one of the worst coaches in the league, tbh), and I also don't expect Pop to receive any blame from non-Spurs fans or media... Green should be on Westbrook, that's obvious. Pop needs to leave Tony on Lamb or Jackson...
This is an underrated aspect of this series, tbh. It's not all Ibaka (which granted, it's a boost for them). The Thunder switched the coverages after Game 2 and are basically now playing the same way as Dallas did (switching P&R, staying with the shooters, extra effort rebounding, nullifying the medium 3, etc), with the exception that they have better athletes. It's obviously a scheme that works well considerably slowing the Spurs offense, as we seen in the 1st round.
The Spurs were eventually able to overcome it with a stellar game from the big 3, but it did take us to the brink. In one hand, it's good Pop has seen this movie before, and hopefully he's been analyzing how to counter. On the other hand, he really didn't have a "solution" in the first round, he basically hoped for the big 3 to take him over the hump.
The solution in the 1st round was Parker waking up + the Manu/Splitter pick&roll + exploiting Dirk on defense..
OKC has defensive flaws to exploit, but nothing egregious like Dallas/Portland, tbh..
- Westbrook is a poor off-ball defender
- Perkins is slow
- Ibaka bites for everything
- Butler sucks, but it's easy to hide him with Ibaka back
They gamble a lot and are undisciplined, Pop will need to figure out a way to exploit that..
As I mentioned before Westbrook's off the ball defense is suspect. He, like his former teammate Harden, often lose their man when he doesn't have the ball. Tony and Patty should be able to exploit this when they have someone else set up the offense.
Brooks has changed the series by sitting his old vets and playing the young energetic athletic lineups. Every time pop brings in a older vet, Brooks subs utes a young buck to harass them and their energy is overwhelming the spurs. Notice Collison butler and Fisher haven't been playing that much.
It's worked so far, you just hope experience will eventually win out, but not if pop makes no adjustments.
When has Pop ever out coached a better team in the playoffs? Hasn't happened in a while. He's hoping and praying the Thunder go cold or get tired.
1. Parker can wake up if Pop takes him off of Westbrook and puts Green back on him. Parker will then have more energy for the offensive end. However, in order for Tony to have a better chance of getting in the paint maybe Pop should...
2. Start Diaw to try and take Ibaka out of the paint a bit. Even if Boris misses a midrange or long J, he's more of a perimeter threat than Splitter is. And if this move happens, then that means...
3. Manu and Splitter can run the pick n roll off the bench.
Ya, I edited my post to expand my answer..
They're gonna have to divert from the Duncan/Splitter combination and go with Diaw or Kawhi, tbh..
We all want Kawhi to drive more, but its impossible when he's playing with Duncan/Splitter, as Ibaka is just sitting in the lane and waiting, tbh..
Pop is gonna have to make Ibaka's man move more with quick cuts/space out, along with attacking Westbrook off the ball with Parker cutting/screens for Danny Green 3-pointers..
Also, when Durant is at the 4, Diaw needs to get the ball every time, tbh..I'd like to see the same thing when Butler is guarding Kawhi(assuming he isn't playing with the Duncan/Splitter combo, which just doesn't work in this series)..
Yeah, but they do have some. Especially when Scotty goes small, something he loves to do. The Spurs just have been extremely undisciplined attacking in the last two games.
It's like OKC throws a punch and we go running the other way trying to punch back in the next play with some hero .
They're obviously a different team than Dallas, and they're much better covering the pick & roll than Dallas is. But Pop needs to figure out a way to make guys like Tiago, Green and Kawhi be more effective on offense. If we can't get some relatively solid production from those guys for two more games, we're not going anywhere.
And ya, I agree with running Manu/Splitter pick&roll off the bench, it was one of the biggest adjustments of the Mavs series..
Pop needs to go to a Parker-Manu or Parker-Mills lineup a little more. It will take the pressure off of Tony handling the ball so much. A Parker-Ginobili-Green-Leonard-Duncan or Diaw lineup would be perfect to counter OKC when they play small ball..
I don't expect Pop to run 3-point plays for Green, since he rarely does, but Leonard is being completely wasted by playing with the Duncan/Splitter combination that forces him into becoming a jump-shooter, tbh..
Leonard is supposed to be the biggest difference from the 2012 Spurs, yet the Spurs have been putting him on the floor in lineups that eliminate his biggest offensive strength(the interior game)..he can't drive with Ibaka camping in the lane(because Duncan and Splitter are on the floor together)..
Everybody is begging for him to attack, but they're ignoring the fact that the Duncan/Splitter combination kills the spacing against OKC and allows Ibaka/Perkins to camp out in the lane..Leonard can shoot Js, but that's far from his strength, it completely wastes his ability as a player..
KL needs to stop shooting contested jumpers. I thought he was going to have a great game in 4 but he killed himself. The home crowd should give the Spurs some energy. I think Parker needs to be on Lamb and Jackson when they play. Neither player is going to take shots from Westbrook. I would be okay benching Tiago quickly if he continues to play so weak. Diaw looks to want to play and Baynes is a better rebounder.
Spurs keys to winning the next game are rebounding and limiting transition points. They do both of these things and I think the Spurs win.
Pop is slowly adjusting because he wants the players execute his game plan at a perfect level, it's not about the plan can fail, in his mind the players don't play like the plan requires.
The guys said "we'll play better" "it's all we can do" because that the message they receive "the system is good, you're playing bad, you need play better, trust in the system".
And it worked and was successful for years.
We can ask ourselves now if it was the system or was Duncan -young and healthy- and Tony and Manu.
Other seasons Pop could afford to wait and doesn't make quick and big adjustments because the Big3 dominated.
Now this scenario is completely different and extremely dangerous, and the Spurs need the small adjustments which make all the difference.
What are the chances Pop will actually start Diaw and put Green back on Westbrook?
Parker on Westbrook is dumb because Parker is already expected to do so much for the offense, he would be completely gassed on the other end having to chase Westbrook.
It's gonna be incredibly annoying if Pop doesn't make this adjustments until Game 6, at which point it will be too late.
Most people want the 4th/5th offensive option in regular season take the leap in playoffs.
Sadly, Pop didn't involve consistently Leonard in the offense during all season...it would have been useful for him and the team now.
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