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Man, it's kind of tricky to defend the clippers. Most of they're players are really good at flopping. Even that fat Davis can sell a foul.
Well, I think that was one of the most pathetic playoff performances in the Big 3-Kawhi Era. Heading into game 1, majority (including myself) thought that the Spurs would man up from their defeat against NOP and make a statement against the Clips on their home floor but instead they did the opposite. Shooting a horrendous 36.6% from the field (10/33 from threes) and 53.8% from the line. But despite all of the offensive struggles, they had the chance to steal game 1 away in the 2nd quarter when they took the lead courtesy of smooth-sailing offense led by Manu and Bobo. Unfortunately, they struggled to take advantage and their defense gave way to a Clippers run. And the Clips never looked back again.
What needs to happen:
-Mills should be the back-up pg because he complements the 2nd unit so well, with Manu and Diaw's playmaking paired with Patty's shooting they should be able to blow the game out in bench vs bench skirmishes. He should get the majority of the pg minutes while Parker is on the bench. There is just no compe ion. Joseph played 12 mins while Patty only played for 10. Imagine those 12 minutes being given to Patty, more threes converted, offense doesn't get stagnated etc etc. It's not like you will put too much of a burden on him, 22 mins for your best back-up pg is just correct without overthrowing the balance of your rotation.
-Green on Paul. I don't know why Pop does this tbh. Even against Ellis, Kyrie, Curry (elite pg's/sg's) he puts Parker on them. This is the playoffs, there should be no more ing around. Now I realise Pop did put Kawhi on CP3 earlier but it was too little too late and besides we know Kawhi is better off against stronger 2's and 3's while Danny is the more suitable defender for elite pg's and quick sg's. This should be a no-brainer for the so called best coach in the league especially when you have Matt Barnes on the opposing team's starting 3. You can hide Tony there, they can't exploit that since it would be too detrimental to their offence if they force a post-up with Barnes. Put Green on Paul, Kawhi on Red , and Parker on barnes.
-Kawhi post-ups and shooting off the double teams. This should be Kawhi's series. There's literally no one in the opposing team to guard him. He can bully them all day long if he wanted too and if he had enough touches. Simply put, you can't expect to win a playoff game when your best player just shoots 12 times and even more when the majority of those shots are ill-advised long jumpers. Pop should be on Kawhi's ass on both, demanding for the ball in the post and for shooting long inefficient jumpers. Given that he shot at a good rate of 7/12, I would love for Kawhi to just beast on the post this series and if the double team comes either DG, Manu, Mills, Bobo, Belinelli should be ready to make the 3.
-Do not be afraid of that poor man's Ibaka. Have this team not learned on "elite" defenders such as Jordan and Ibaka?They really pussy out when there's that one guy who can block/goaltend shots. It's all in their minds. So many bunnies missed by Tiago, Duncan, and Baynes, it's like they think they are going to get blocked every single time. It's even worse that we don't have elite penetration anymore to expose this kind of shot blockers like 2013 parker or prime manu. The more they clog the lane because our team are becoming pussies, the more they force us to make long contested inefficient jumpers.
-Freethrows and Shooting overall, I feel like these would fall eventually the same time Clipper s' shooting will fall back down to earth.
I think those are the things that can be improved quickly tbh. It's a matter of mixing up the strategy and not being mentally weak. These are the things that they can control and if they do, Spurs will win in 6 tbh. They sure don't look like a championship team but they also don't look like a team that would lose to a bunch of gots imho. Of course, none of that would matter if Tiago is really hurt/being his pussy self or if Pop continues to coach like how he's been coaching the past 2 games.
Man, it's kind of tricky to defend the clippers. Most of they're players are really good at flopping. Even that fat Davis can sell a foul.
I aggree about Patty. He needs most, if not all of CoJo's minutes, as long as he's being aggressive and knocking down his jumpers. I didn't understand Pop's decision to play CoJo so many minutes when patty was clearly feeling it, and we needed offense.
Parker being switched to guarding Barnes is an ok idea. It's probably the most popular (realistic) option. There really is no easy answer to the Parker vs CP3 situation. In a perfect world Parker could play CP3 to a standstill through the rest of the series, in less minutes. Not sure if that's really possible at this point, and I know he's not exactly the most popular player around these parts anymore.
Kawhi wrecking is a good idea in theory, I just hope he can do it in practice. he's not very experienced when it comes to facing hard double teams.
And certainly, we need to make the freebies. The Spurs were definitely intimidated by Jordan's presence in the paint, and it showed. Honestly, he looked like he deserved the DPOY after tonight's game. let's hope the Spurs don't play so scared in the paint on Wednesday.
Clippers just held serve and that's expected of them. I agree with your points, but the Spurs just missed a ton of shots that they can make while sleeping. If the Spurs lose Games 3 or 4, then the series is over. I'm pretty confident the Spurs will take Game 2.
That CP3 flop was ing horrible so I wouldn't say they are good at it
Understatement of the season tbh....
They get the call most of the time. They don't fool us but they can fool the refs and that's all that matters.
I could have call out flopping, clippers bull shooting etc2 but those are things that the Spurs couldn't control tbh. If that apefrican spear chucking flopper Crawford beats you then you don't deserve anything.
kawhi post ups won't work if he is being double teamed by the big and there isn't enough shooters.
They would need to run the post ups when Diaw or Bonner is playing..They need to add more shooters too..Green, Patty, Manu, belli ( limited minutes)..
This is not Josephs series...Tiago would be useful with the 2nd unit.
That is actually a pretty interesting idea tbh Diaw in the starting line-up and Tiago in the 2nd unit. Pop has done this after alarming losses the last playoffs Game 5 OKC, Game 3 Heat.
Agreed. The chance to win the series increases proportionally with Leonard getting more touches to be predominant on the offensive end.
Nobody can be aggressive offensively without the ball in the hands.
Operating in the post and pass out of double team to the open man is something Kawhi can do if Pop gives him the opportunities and the ball, but I'd like to see some of his mid j in this series, he hit 2 tonight and they looked so good in most of games of Spurs winning streak.
Last edited by wildchild; 04-20-2015 at 03:50 AM.
The thing with the spurs offense during their winning streak was that they looked for Kawhi in the post almost all the time he was in the floor and they established his presence early. I dont get it, its not like he's inefficient. His post game is money esp against barnes/red .
Kawhi got double teamed quickly and aggressively whenever he got the ball in the post, however they pretty much got nothing out of kawhi's post game and thats on Kawhi and the team, Kawhis gotta be more decisive, quicker with his decisions and if he kicks it out, the recipient of the pass has to shoot the ball or attack quickly before the defense can recover
I agree, this is a Patty Mills series, not joseph's. Pop can still play joseph in spurts but Mills has to be the primary backup pg
Look at it this way: If we played like that against Dallas, we would've lost to them, too.
One crappy game does not end the series. Win Game 2 and we got this .
Gotta hit our wide open 3's and make our FT. I don't expect Verde to go 3-18 again.
what pisses me off is when they start chucking up 3 threes without a condom.....
Best take so far, imho.
Doc is doubling Leonard every time he touches the ball. Obviously a good strategy for them, it worked. I dunno if Kawhi is good yet at dealing with double teams...we're gonna find out tho. lol. Green, Mills, Diaw, HAVE to hit their shots. THey didn't tonight. Green missed some wide open three's right at beginning, and that's when I knew we were in trouble.
Basically, this game was an ugly mess. Seriously. But, I didn't expect the Spurs to sweep LA. On to next game...and I have a feeling it's gonna be totally different. We only need 1 in LA
What about Crawford?
Seems like he is getting his rhythm back.
shots will fall. spurs will win. so sayeth the law of averages.
I like to watch Pop sometimes during the games to see how he's interacting. There are games he is up and actively coaching and engaged and dialed in like (etc: see OKC game 6 last year)
Then there are games like last night where he is somewhat engaged, but not really into it like you'd think for a playoff game. It makes me think (though obviously he'd love the win) that sometimes he does stuff just to feel out the opponent. Take their first/best hit and see what they need to do to adjust in the next game.
It could just be in my head, but I've seen this before. Even in certain regular season games, he is more actively engaged than others. Hopefully, Game 2 goes better. There was some obvious rust that hopefully was shaken off. A lineup change could come earlier w/Diaw starting or Bonner, but I guess time will tell.
I would love to witness Pop responding to this theory.
Me too tbh
Seriously though, there are games where he is just extremely tuned in. I can't find that vid/gif from that Game 6 in OKC, but he was up, showing how to guard WB and keeping him in front of you. The motion was funny, but he was just so focused.
Can't even defend crawfords jumpshot without him falling down
Right Perspective is, Game over.
This is too old of a team now being run down by more athletic and superior Clips.
Gotta admit it. Parker will get owned easy.
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