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Allen also got open 3 after open 3, we were just lucky he missed...
You need a little bit of luck to win a championship, and LeBron cramping up, unable to play in the 4th was a huge break. It would be extremely difficult to win this series had we lost game 1. Pop needs to make adjustments, otherwise we may be seeing Thunder vs Heat in 2012 here. A shaky win followed by 4 losses.
Duncan/Splitter should not play together again. Duncan 33 minutes a game, Splitter takes the other 15. Twin towers only work if you have a stretch four who can hit medium range jumpers. Add Bonner to the rotation to stretch floors, he will have no problem guarding Lewis. We gave the Heat two 8-0 runs when we had both Duncan and Splitter on the floor. Spurs 2014 can not beat elite teams with defense, spacing is premium, beat them with offense. Defense will kick in once fatigue sets in on the other team from defending the Spurs passing game.
Kawhi does not need to take a lot of shots if he is guarded by LeBron, but he or anyone else for that matter must move non-stop without the ball to drain LeBron. You see in order to play small ball, LeBron bulked up quite a bit to guard power forwards and until he loses weight like Duncan did to save his knees, as he is getting older and getting more seasons on his belt, fatigue is a real issue for him. Same way we beat a much leaner Durant, we need to work LeBron both side of the floor. We have no real answer for their big three early in the game, we need to make sure they are running low on gas in the fourth quarter. When Duncan is not in the game, we need to play up-tempo to put more fatigue into LeBron. When Duncan is in the game, avoid 1v1 post-up's until extremely late in the game to keep Duncan fresh, feed Duncan with easy baskets off penetrations, he will get his via tap in's as well.
Parker/Manu/Diaw/Kwahi must relentlessly attack the basket once Spurs spreads the floor. Heat exterior defense is way stronger than their interior defense. Ibaka is not here! Green needs to stick to what he is good at and stop doing dribble penetration disasters, move without the ball, get open 3's and occasional fast breaks. It is perfectly OK if Wade chooses to lock him down early in the game, move without the ball, late in the game he won't be able to keep up. Belinelli should be used sparingly with either Green or Kwahi on the floor. Parker minutes should be hold to low 30's, give some extra minutes to Mills or even Joseph if Manu/Diaw are on the floor. Biggest improvement this year is Manu/Diaw can run the offense when Parker is not on the floor.
Reduce turn overs, play the passing game, tire them out, and take game 2! Ultimately it is all about the Spurs passing game. If we get it running smoothly with high assists, low turnovers, it doesn't matter what their big three does on the offensive end, we will tire them out and win eventually.
Finally, it is perfectly OK to yield points to LeBron/Wade on 1v1 plays as long as we make them work both ends of the floor. They will run out of gas if they try to go for 40 point plus games for a whole series. We survived Durant/Westbrook and in term of 1v1 ISO's, these were way stronger pure scorers. We need to lock down everyone else!
Last edited by hitmantb; 06-06-2014 at 08:50 AM.
Allen also got open 3 after open 3, we were just lucky he missed...
It wasn't a shaky win. Spurs still win with Lebron in the game. Momentum had already shifted at that point. Maybe they don't win by 15 cuz Lebron would have hit a few to make it interesting but as nobody was stopping Danny Green those last 5-6 minutes, give our guys some credit
Nice read.
I do agree however that much of the game was a sloppy mess that could be improved on, but those last five minutes was will to win imho
Pretty much hit on everything. I think their shooters will play better at home, so we need to make sure we're not leaving them open. We had a lot of good closeouts that resulted in misses, but we need to make sure we contest EVERY three, if someone isllis close. Can't just stand there and let them square up the basket
Limit the turnovers to less than 14, Spurs win this series easily
Just a slight difference of opinion. THe Heat defend the interior a tad differently from the Thunder. They just pack the paint and make it very difficult for the non-PF/C to shoot from up-close. Unlike the Thunder who rely upon their shot blocker to do the needful while defending the perimeter, the Heat send their PG/PF to blitz screens at the top of the key and if the guard gets into the paint, pack it. Defenders are athletic enough to close out if need be as well.
All this suggests that the Spurs have got to involve Duncan/ Splitter a lot more as there is no way the Heat can answer height even while packing the paint. Which is what Manu and Diaw did very well, passing to the big man efficiently and quickly at close to the basket getting Duncan easy looks there. Trouble was that Kawhi/Green/TP on the other hand were getting stolen/ causing turnovers aplenty when they tried the same strategy...and Splitter's passing wasn't good enough to confuse the Heat defense within the paint when Duncan played alongside.
The Spurs have got to play Diaw more along with Duncan/Splitter and expect Leonard to handle James well on his own.
Pretty much.
Agreed. Good point on the part that they need to make Bron and Wade work on the D. That is going to be big. Although you missed one thing, they should really give Timmy the ball every time he is on the floor. Whether he's going to shoot it or not, no one can guard him the don't have a good post defender.
the best line-up the spurs had for ball movement was the Duncan-Diaw-Ginobili-Parker-and either Green or Leonard, depending on how many fouls Leonard had on him at one time.
The Spurs need Leonard on the floor more than he was, and I don't know what they do to get him some help, but the second-team all NBA defensive SF was unable to guard James without being called for a foul. He can be such a big part of our offense that we need to figure out something about that, because you can count on James coming into the second game 'running and gunning' because of the grief he is being given for cramping out in last night's game.
If Splitter is on the floor, Ginobili needs to be on the floor with him, because Ginobili is so much better than anyone else at getting the ball to Splitter in a position to score.
Ginobili was a monster at the beginning of the game, but clearly wore down in the heat and fatigue of the second half. It seems to me that we may just have to live with that contribution from him. If he can give us one stellar half, we may just have to let him be a ball distributor in the second half and be thrilled to get it.
Even though we had some bone-headed turnovers, a lot of our turnovers were caused by the Heat playing our passing lanes, which is exactly what they should have done. They are very disciplined on defense and it showed. I don't expect them to stop doing either of those things - playing our passing lanes OR being very disciplined on defense. Bottom line - we need to move the ball faster and earlier in each possession. Too often last night we brought the ball up and took too long to decide what to do, and then when a pass was actually completed, the pass recipient didn't move or pass fast enough to beat the Heat's defensive rotations. The line-up I described above was the best one all night to combat the Heat's aggression in the passing lanes.
Defensively, we really were NOT disciplined in staying on their three point shooters. We were terrible, in fact, and Bellinelli was worse than anyone else at it. It seems as though our guards are told to help rebound, and when they do, they are out of position if the Heat get the offensive rebound. That may be a trade-off the coaches have decided on purposely, (we out-rebounded them by 10) but it sure leaves their guys open if we DON'T get the rebound. It also slows down our own game getting back in transition.
I was pretty disappointed all game that we brought the ball up as slowly as we did so often. That is on Parker, I think, who we have to accept is not going to be a huge factor in these games. He is not playing badly, but he is not playing all that well, either.
These Finals seem to be owned by Duncan and Ginobili and for their sake, I hope they can bring it home.
Good take. The only thing i disagree with is giving Duncan 33 min a game. I would like to see Duncan get more like 28-30 min and have soft serve take the rest. Even though Splitter has NEVER converted a 3 point play, the guy was money when we needed him
If green starts off the game the he finished, there is no way they can beat us tbh...
Plus the turnovers killed us which gave them extra possessions and helped them with that lead in the fourth. If we take care of the ball, we are unbeatable. It would help too if KL comes out strong in the beginning of the game. He looked a little shook.
Cut turnovers down by 12 and the Spurs win game 2 by 15 points.
Turnovers:
Leonard - 4
Duncan - 5
Splitter - 4
Parker - 4
Ginobili -2
Diaw -1
Green -1
Bellinelli -1
Here's a suggestion, don't jump then pass the ball! Why do the Spurs players, specifically Manu, some of Diaw, and Parker love to jump over the double-team/trap and then pass the ball? Every Heat player is then telegraphed where the ball will be going or we throw it out of bounds! It's unbelievable how we turn into the jump-passing team!
On games with a two day break ahead I think it's okay to give Duncan the extra minutes. Fortunately that happens two more times. And ditto on the cutting down on the turnovers talk.
This is very true....PnR Manu/Splitter is eye candy. I'm a Splitter fan but wouldn't mind Diaw start because of this.
Just dont be a bunch of turnobili's, dare lebron to shoot more but dont let him get used to it (if that makes any sense)
I had a friend over who likes bball, likes the Rockets, and he was trashing Danny all night, saying the Spurs need get him out of the game. I kept telling him that he is a shooter and his shots will fall, that Pop wants him to keep shooting if he has an open look. When he scored 8 straight points, I told him I told you so, that I know my Spurs players. I knew Danny would start hitting them given the opportunity. He has a great shooters stroke, just as Ray Allen, and you do not want them to get looks at basket, even if they have missed 3-4 straight prior.
Green wont be left open in game 2...IIRC this happened last year when green hit 3's in one game and the next game he wasnt left open....
Do not fix the A/C.
Will LeBron come to friend Danny's Championship victory party?
- Involving Kawhi early. I'm not as high on Kawhi's offensive ceiling as most around these parts, but the Spurs need to get him involved down low otherwise he becomes a bit of a ghost out there. The added bonus is it makes LeBron play some defense and you never know, maybe he will pick up a couple of early fouls which is always a positive.
- The ball handler on the PnR will need to adjust. A couple of ball fakes at the big man rolling/flashing into the middle combined with some weakside action to free up shooters as the defense overcompensates to the middle should help. Either way, the decision has to be crisp and fast by the ballhandler. Much, much easier to say than do though.
- I know Pop wants to keep the Heat moving and doesn't want to allow the defense to dig in and get the Spurs into late shotclock situations, but the Spurs simply have to get the ball to Duncan down. Not often, but more than they did. They really, really have no one to guard him.
- Fight through off the ball picks that Miami sets for Allen. They have to trail him and force him to shoot off the dribble. Spurs got extremely lucky a couple of times with Allen, he won't miss that many open shots again. To be honest, I can't believe this even happened.. just ing stay with him.
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