The Thunder with Serge Ibaka have compeltely annihilated the Spurs the last two games. Tony Parker, other than a great start to game 4, has looked 40 years old. Tim Duncan was pushed around by Kendrick Perkins and was even stomping around and screaming at teammates and coaches. Manu Ginobili was a ghost. The question becomes, what can we do about it? I believe there are some things that can be fixed. Here is what every rotation player must do going forward:
Tony Parker - It is time. Tony Parker must become the MVP candidate he was for much of last year. He cannot give us less than 20 points and 5 assists. He has to be attacking, drawing defenders, and making them pay with good passing and scoring. It is also very wierd to me we have not seen much action with Tony Parker off the ball in OKC. We need to be running Westbrook through tons of screens every possession. I do not like iso-Tony against this team.
Danny Green - Danny just has to do what he does. Make some threes and don't try to do too much.
Kawhi Leonard - The Thunder really pulled away at the end of the second quarter, and Kawhi was su iously on the bench while Durant went on a personal 8-0 run. Kawhi needs to play every single minute that KD does. On top of this, he has to go back to giving us 12-15 on the offensive end. He is one of the few Spurs players who can finish over the top of a shotblocker, and we desperately need that.
Tim Duncan - Paging Tim Duncan. WE NEED YOU. Hopefully Tim Duncan is still capable of a throwback performance, because the Spurs desperately need him to start playing like an all-star again. Does he have a 24-16-3 block game in him? If he does, it has never been as needed as Game 5.
Tiago Splitter - This is not the series for you. I suspect a starting lineup change. You've played great all year, but you get exposed against smaller, athletic teams because you are incapable of scoring on your own.
Manu Ginobili - I WANT SOME NASTY. Manu, go in there and play fearless, reckless basketball. Attack the rim. Give us a throwback dunk over Serge. We could also desperately use your ability to draw some fouls against the OKC big men. Manu has been a much better player this year than he was last year, and we have leaned on him throughout the season. He needs to have a vintage Manu game. Time to show up Manu.
Boris Diaw - I loved what we saw from Boris once Pop threw in the white flag. He was aggressive, fearless, and he was our vocal leader out on the floor. He annihilated KD in the post when the Thunder were small against us down the stretch. I suspect we see Boris starting next game, and playing 30+ minutes.
Patty Mills - I believe Patty is still the backup PG. However, he's got one half to prove he is capable of doing what he's done all year: make shots. He has been terrible this series shooting the basketball, and has been absent. However, Patty Mills is a guy who is capable of giving you 10 in a quarter. I think he has the potential to be a wild card for us in Game 5. I think if given the chance, he can still step up and make an impact.
Cory Joseph - You played well and with alot of heart, and I respect that. However, our problem is offense in this series, not defense. Patty Mills is the significantly better offensive player. I wouldn't be surprised to see Cory playing over Patty in game 5, but I'd prefer to stick with Patty.
Pop/General thoughts - We have got to do some stuff to neutralize their athleticism. We've got to get people moving, and moving ALOT. Whoever Westbrook is guarding, you've got to run him around and take advantage of his natural instinct to jump passing lanes. We did a great job of this in game 1-2 and stopped doing it in games 3-4. We need to run alot of our offense through Boris. When Serge is guarding him, he can take him away from the hoop and use his pump-fake arsenal to get him in the air at the hoop. Against KD, he is quicker and stronger than KD and embarrasses him on the low block. Start Boris over Tiago. We need to see alot more passion, energy, and flat out WILL TO WIN. We have to play every possession with controlled desperation and ferocity that we have not seen yet.
We can still win this. Time to see if we are worthy of being champions.
The Spurs win Game 5 by 15-20 points...I am not concerned in the least....even with what i saw in OKC.....it will be a close game 6 tossup either way....and if the spurs lose this series it will be in game 7....I don't see the spurs being in "worry" mode...why should they be?...many thought this series would likely go 7 and it's not surprising that OKC has looked good at home.
Play like games 1-2
Us or them?
It's pretty obvious who I'm talking about.
I wish Spurs had a pest like Stephenson to hackle Westbrook the entire series.
Lebron isn't cracking under the pressure but I am sure Westbrook would snap.
Imagine Bowen on Westbrook, Bruce would drive him totally nuts.
I'm sorry Greggor, but surely you meant to include the 30 minutes for Marco Belinelli?
Pay off Adam Silver so his refs call the game evenly.
Ball movement, Spurs were playing team ball for the opening minutes and built a lead, were able to get back on defense and defend and contest shots. Then they decided that they wanted to ice the ball and just stand around waiting for someone to set a screen while everyone else stood around. They want to get to the rim but they have Tiago and Tim at the block clogging the paint, someone sets a pick and then shuffles back into the paint cutting off lanes.
If the Spurs can get out of there own way, spread the floor or at least create space to move the ball and people are willing to slash and cut then we can get the scoring opportunities that we need to win. However, and this has been a major problem, around the 6 minute mark the Spurs put in Manu and it kills ball movement, he likes to stand at the top of the key and wait for a pick and either shoots a 3, tries to drive and get himself going etc but at the expense of everyone else standing around. This leaves Tony to just stand around at the corner as if that was a threat so his defender plays off him, and again they clog the paint.
If the players are rolling don't worry about the minutes just play them until they need rest then you can insert Manu but at the same time Patty needs to come in or Cojo so they can spread the floor properly. Also if a player is hot, don't pull him out at the next time out. Time after time "Player X" will hit a few shots and get going and then Pop pulls them because "minutes" it's disgusting. Perhaps the real strategy should be Pop getting tossed.
When you give up 40 to a player defense is a problem. I want to see more Cojo, Mills can't stop westbrook and he sure can't out free throw him.
I re-watched the first quarter (thats all i needed to see) and saw plenty of mistakes that are correctable with smarter play and effort.
Two of the worst offenders of our demise were Tiago Splitter and Kawhi Leonard. Splitter got the block party started when he challenged Ibaka and got his weak floater-hook thrown back. What's worse is that he had 4 defenders around him and plenty of open teammates on the perimeter. If I'm not mistaken, it resulted in a transition basket for OKC. Diaw was guilty of the same thing later in the quarter.
There was also a play where he and Tim looked like they were in slow motion watching a teammate's 3 pointer make its way toward the basket. They had no urgency to hit the glass at all (Tiago actually walked toward the basket) and just watched the ball fly through the air. As a result, no one on the Thunder even needed to expend energy blocking two of our tallest guys out.
Even though Kawhi Leonard knocked down a couple of 3's early, he finished the quarter playing like . He was bad on defense and took terrible shots with no teammate in rebounding position. I'm sure it was enough for Pop to chew him out royally. Defensively, he left Butler alone in the corner to help when KD got past Diaw on a drive to the lane. KD passed to Butler - Manu switched over from Westbrook to help on Butler - an Butler passed it back to Westbrook for the open 3. -- WIDE OPEN 3. No one was in position to help Manu and quite frankly Manu probably shouldn't have switched.
On another shot, Leonard had KD guarding him and decided to settle for a forced, out of rhythm 3 ptr from the corner. He could have easily driven to the basket for an easy bucket and/or foul.
Add in a sloppy pass by Green to Parker which ignited a fast break and you are down by 6 at the end of the first, never to lead again.
It was just dumb, careless basketball. OKC did a terrible job of covering our 3 pt shooters and just hovered around the paint. It looked like they were playing a zone.
If the Spurs get back to playing smart basketball they will be fine. Ibaka didn't beat them in game 4, they beat themselves by playing stupid, scared and uninspired. They looked overwhelmed and didn't respond well to OKC's aggressiveness. OKC wasn't great, they just played harder and with more purpose.
I hope the Spurs accept the challenge and come out inspired and ready to punch back (figuratively speaking).
Last edited by tmtcsc; 05-29-2014 at 01:40 AM.
Splitter needs to blow in ibakas ear
CoJo or Danny Green should be on Westbrook all game and Kawhi, Danny or Manu need to be on Durant all game. No more Beli on Durant or Mills on Westbrook.
Kawhi needs to find his balls.
damn scrub
Nothing we can do. Blowout loss. Thunder in 6.
Heat in 5.
I've seen people suggest Bonner coming in as a stretch 4. Why not Austin Daye, he's younger and has a higher release point. At least have him in uniform versus Jeff Ayres!
I assume 95% of the place would be pulling for Lebron over Durant in the NBA's dream matchup.
Completely agree. No reason why you'd have Ayres in uniform if you already have Baynes in a similar role (who is much better right now) or even Bonner if you just want to do hack-a-Perkins/Adams. Daye in garbage time is much more interesting to me than Ayres whose shot would get him laughed out of the YMCA.
We need MVParker again ala Dallas Game 5. Also Green should play much better at home and I expect Kawhi to break out of his slump as well.
Not sure if this has been posted but its worth a read: There's no quick fix for the Spurs against the Thunder
Game 7 parker would be alot better tbh..
Parker needs to stay the away from guarding Chimpbrook that's for sure! Parker gets gassed guarding Wetbrook and is overmatched physically. That is compounded by age difference between the two.
Parker should only be in the game if we can hide him defensively on Jackson/Fisher/Butler in that order. Possibly Lamb. If one of those 3-4 guys are not available for Parker to guard, he needs to find the pine and quickly.
Spurs need to watch game 7 against mavs
Spurs need to play like it's Game 7 against the Mavs.
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