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Well, FYI, I asked God why She did that and She said she thought it was time you learned to value baby women.
Guaranteed, huh? Boy did you get that one wrong! The big crybaby had almost as many turnovers as points tonight.Guarnteed Chris Paul lights up DP
The answer was yes, apparently.
Well it happened. If you answered YES to the thread's ultimate question you were correct.
Uh, yeah...a blowout win is definitely possible...
Man I was shocked at how poorly LA started this game. From the very beginning, where I expected LA to come out with piss-and-vinegar after Game 2, it was the Spurs who came out strong and physical and quick, and pretty much never let up.
I was totally wrong in my prediction and was THRILLED watching the game develop the opposite of what I expected to happen. I just kept laughing watching the game. It was so much fun.
Doc Rivers had an explanation for what happened to the Clippers in his post game interview. He said that he had seen this happen to his team 3 or 4 times during the season, when they had started missing shots and then their defense stopped. I thought that was a fascinating explanation. He was basically saying the opposite of what the Spurs preach all the time: that defense gets your offense going. Rivers was saying that the offense, for his team, gets its defense going.
Remarkable - but total fun for Spurs fans to watch!
OP's selfie:
OP's selfie:
I also think he was wrong. The Clippers didn't play defense worth a almost from the opening tip. Jordan got that nice block on Parker and Splitter picked up the rebound and flicked it to Danny for the first points of the game, and that was kind of it for them. The Spurs had a number of WIDE open shots that they just missed, otherwise they'd have been up 30 in the first half.
I don't know if the Clippers had decided to focus more on Kawhi -- a massive fail -- or if they just didn't have it. It's hard to give the Spurs too much credit when the opponent just rolls over like that. Probably can expect a big emotional start for the Clips on Sunday to try to salvage their season.
It blows my mind. The Clippers in LA were constantly in our faces, making hard rotations to close out on shooters, and generally just being pests.
Then we go to San Antonio and the Clippers look like it's a regular season game. They're lazy on rotations, don't help each other, and generally matchup 1 on 1 with Kawhi after seeing the double really limit him in Game 1.
Do teams really need home court to play hard on defense? It's baffling. They played like they don't even care about leaving our shooters wide open. The first quarter was like playing against an Eastern Conference team.
It was like a team that quit. I certainly don't expect to see that again from them.
Yeah, but in the first quarter? It was bizarre.
Did you see blake? Looked like a ing dead person before the game even tipped off. They were ing tired.
Hope some Spurs fans throw a big party at their hotel tonight and crank up the music!
Mariachi outside their hotel.
I think I heard people were making lots of noise during last years finals trying to keep the heat awake.
Who'd have thought 2015 Tim Duncan would have more energy than all of those guys after an overtime game? Not me.
I don't think they quit. I think it was probably a legit adjustment not to have them so aggresively trapping. I know dummies like Billups and Barkley didn't see it, but the Spurs created a ton of great looks even with that trapping. Doc probably realized that and thought: "well, if we are using a ton of energy and they are still getting good looks, switch to a less energetic scheme".
It's just that it made it even easier. Spurs are just beasts at getting good looks and Clips were probably tired from playing so hard on defense.
Clippers just looked both tired and defeated from the opening tip, I think that OT loss at home really got to their heads. They still doubled Kawhi but the Spurs were smart enough to keep him on the perimeter instead of the low block and Kawhi would just dribble out of it and make a play. Spurs had their number all night and Griffin especially looked like a corpse from playing such heavy minutes due to no bench.
J/k? Behing every joke is a little truth. If just about all men had their way, there'd be nothing but men, and all their sons would be out gayin' it up with each other out of lack of options. And ST posters would all be callin' each other gay for legit. Almost makes me wish it on the misogynists, Evay!
If it was a legit adjustment not to have them so aggressively trapping, I would guess it was because they were so gassed at the end of the second game, probably as a result of having spent so much energy on defense and playing so many minutes. The Clips lost the second game in the last few minutes because they were manifestly out of gas and unable to focus as they had earlier in the game. Clearly their lack of bench contributed to that, but I was still surprised that they were so slow out of the gate.
Folks complain sometimes about the extent to which Pop sits players, but it sure looks like it is a pretty smart strategy for the long haul. Tim played so many minutes in game 2, some as much as some of the Clippers, and he was quieter in Game 3 than he had been, but we had lots of other players who stepped up because they could. The Clips had no one to go to who had much energy.
Still, wouldn't you expect that they will try that ferocious trapping in game 4 to avoid going down 3-1? If so, and if they are still tired, they aren't going to be able to trap without fouling. Then the question will become whether or not the fouls get called.
They did look a little tired/defeated early on. I think they knew better than what the media spun it. It was spun as though they let one get away, but the reality was The Spurs were in control of that game for the vast majority of it, including crunch time. Only by a great effort, a little bad luck on The Spurs behalf, an offensive drought and some bad decisions at the right moments by The Spurs, and a flop/questionable foul by Patty do the Clips even have a chance in that game. They thoroughly out-played in overtime, but they had been marginally outplayed for 20/24 minutes of the entire second half, it seems.
Deep down, they had to know they were lucky to even get a CHANCE to dodge that game two bullet, and they still got shot. They know that The Spurs were in control that game, and can be in control the next time they're in LA, too. And that was with The Spurs playing pretty mediocre.
To me the seeds of game three were planted early in game two, not late. They had to get the feeling that we might just be a little better than them.
Agreed. I thought the game was going to get out of hand a lot faster than it did, as our shooters were standing behind the arc with no one within shouting distance of them. It was pretty ridiculous some of the looks we were getting. I think it was 8 points going into the half and the Clippers announcers were saying that "as bad as they were playing they were still in it only down single digits" but that score betrayed what was going on defensively, for sure, and if things kept going like that it would be difficult for us not to blow it wide open...just came a little later...
Last edited by littlecoyotecoin; 04-25-2015 at 06:00 PM.
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