Brief Analysis of tonights game and what it means going forward.

[SPURt]

Pop is senile. Hes doing a great job though tbh overall. ..hes just a stubborn mother er..hes.probably not the best coach in the league anymore.

He gets really cute at times..still a great coach. Just needs to fix his guys and how they play late game.

The Hack-A-Crap worked against the Clippers in their last matchup, but I can't remember any games where that strategy worked outside of that. It takes everyone out of rhythm.

[sasaint]

- The spurs took this game seriously, no doubt so lets take the its only a regular season win BS out first.

- The spurs struggle in close games for a variety of reason but the biggest culprit today is Turnovers.

- The ball handlers today, particularly parker was so predictable that it allowed houston to defend the paint the way they did. Way too much predictable PnR/Pop with Tim and Lamarcus. Very little off ball screens for the starters. The offball screens today had zero convinctions and Purpose. Bigs the bed tonight, both the starters and the bench.

- The bench got ed anally by terrence Jones and I expect Draymond Green who plays minutes with the bench to exploit the lack of toughness that second unit has.

- The Spurs crunchtime execution is soo poor because of one obvious reason. THEY DO NOT HAVE a crunch time iden y. Unlike the older spurs that relied on Manu, Tim and to a lesser extent Tony..this team is still stuck between transitioning from Parker/Manu heavy crunchtime to allowing Leonard or LMA to make plays..Theyve been so poor the whole season.

- Pop has been ting the bed. He has been soo poor in terms of outbounds playcalling..

- Until they bulild an iden y in late game situations, they are going to conitune to be inconsistent on a possession by possesion basis.

- Disgusting how your best player is reduced to a bail out shooter.

- Green was actually awesome in the first half. But as evident LMA-Green just dont work on offense. It just does not. When the team is running through LMA green is basiclly a non factor since his Gravity is useless when LMA has the ball.

A very cogent analysis. I particularly like your crunch time analysis. In crunch time we were completely dysfunctional. However, I do take issue with your first point. We didn't take this game seriously enough to exert much effort, and Pop didn't take the game seriously enough to think about his strategy and play-calling very seriously. We were very disinterested.

[HarlemHeat37]

Aldridge and Green have terrible chemistry in every facet of the offense, tbh..

Green gets very little out of the Aldridge post ups..Green can't run the pick & pop with Aldridge..Aldridge gives the ball to Green and expects him to create like Wes Matthews, for some reason, not sure how he hasn't noticed that Danny can't dribble..

I know Aldridge is naturally a pussy and a beta, but he needs to be way more aggressive, rather than trying too hard to play "Spurs ball".. That era is over, tbh..

[Kawhitstorm]

Oh thats what I meant by predicable. Most teams run the same sets over and over. The point being is tha the spurs are deep and there is no reason to play the same way the other teams play.

That Danny-LMA and Tim-Pakrer two man games has to die already
..Jesus

I'm talking about crunch time, you can't have guys running around like chickens w/ their heads cut off & resorting to a bailout shot against a scrambling end of game defense. Give the ball to Kawhi let LMA set a screen & go from there, take Tim out & have Danny/Manu spotting up on the opposite corner w/ Tony cutting to keep the defense occupied. If Kawhi get trapped then pitch it to Tony & let him be the secondary playmaker.

[YGWHI]

but they don't have a 2 man game between them, or much chemistry, and on those occasions, Tim and Manu showed their age.

And Pop doesn't make any effort to facilitate that 2-man game, we didn't see calls to involve both...tbh.

Also, the Spurs actually have a weird tendency to ignore Kawhi's mismatches, he was guarded by Harden 7-8 minutes in the 3rd quarter and they didn't exploit it...

[SAGirl]

Cavs, dubs, LA, OKC are consistent in late game situations. It might not be pretty but the players know what they need to do, they know their roles etc. This team does not.

Agree with you on this.
It might just kill us if we don't figure out this one thing TBH because I really think we are very, very solid in most respects. Chemistry/iden y has been an issue against elite teams. Road games against good teams have been troublesome too, particularly when our bench struggles and it wasn't quite on fire tonight or defensively stout.

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[Biggems]

IMO, the basket played a big part in this game. In the first half, the Rockets struggled to make baskets. In the second half, it was the Spurs struggling to make baskets. Meanwhile, both teams seemed to have much more success on the opposite end of the court.

[r0drig0lac]

holy , I agree with this guy

[100%duncan]

The only saving grace is we're still 25-6 and all of our losses have come on the road against mediocre-good teams

[sasaint]

Lamarcus and Kawhi actually do pretty well together. Surprisngly. The spurs just dont feel like its a viable option. They are predicable in crunch time. Very predictable.

Wait, I thought your initial post was about lack of crunch time iden y (= dysfunctionality, = UNpredictability)? They are still in the process of moving from Tim/Manu/Tony end game to Kawhi/LMA end game. WE don't even know what we are doing at crunch time; how can we be predictable?

[Kawhitstorm]

I know Aldridge is naturally a pussy and a beta, but he needs to be way more aggressive, rather than trying too hard to play "Spurs ball".. That era is over, tbh..

Kawhi is ready to be the man but Pop doesn't want him to dominate the ball & refuses to let him run PnR/PnPs. Tony/Manu would have to die in a car accident before Kawhi is handed the keys to run plays besides isolations.

[apalisoc_9]

Aldridge and Green have terrible chemistry in every facet of the offense, tbh..

Green gets very little out of the Aldridge post ups..Green can't run the pick & pop with Aldridge..Aldridge gives the ball to Green and expects him to create like Wes Matthews, for some reason, not sure how he hasn't noticed that Danny can't dribble..

I know Aldridge is naturally a pussy and a beta, but he needs to be way more aggressive, rather than trying too hard to play "Spurs ball".. That era is over, tbh..

I just said the same thing in the other thread bro. Hes such a huge beta. Aldridge needs to understand the personel around him. Pass the ball to parker or Leonard or go to work instead of that two man Green-LMA game. Fuking pussy even passes up open shots to do a two man game with Green.

[TD 21]

- The Spurs crunchtime execution is soo poor because of one obvious reason. THEY DO NOT HAVE a crunch time iden y. Unlike the older spurs that relied on Manu, Tim and to a lesser extent Tony..this team is still stuck between transitioning from Parker/Manu heavy crunchtime to allowing Leonard or LMA to make plays..Theyve been so poor the whole season.

It's somewhat based on transitioning, somewhat based on the fact that neither Leonard nor Aldridge can create for others or get to the line. It also doesn't help matters, that the lineup lacks three-point shooting, particularly if Leonard has the ball in his hands.

It's the same, old problems with this team. Not only the loss, but the manner in which they lost was so predictable, that I predicted the exact way it would happen in the "they should sweep the four game home stand" thread. We're now going on a season and a half of this.

Tonight was also a perfect example of why I continue to harp on the need for a Neal/Belinelli type. Pop should have seen this coming, had Butler in uniform and played at least one of Bonner or him.

[Kawhitstorm]

Agree with you on this.
It might just kill us if we don't figure out this one thing TBH because I really think we are very, very solid in most respects. Chemistry/iden y has been an issue against elite teams. Road games against good teams have been troublesome too, particularly when our bench struggles and it wasn't quite on fire tonight or defensively stout.

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LeBron/Wade/Bosh couldn't closeout games during their 1st season as the Heatles so I'm not surprised the current Spurs are struggling esp. when Tony is milk carton status. LMA is Bosh status (spot up for 3s in crunch time) so Manu/Tony need to hand the keys to Kawhi just like Wade did for Lebron.

[Kawhitstorm]

I just said the same thing in the other thread bro. Hes such a huge beta. Aldridge needs to understand the personel around him. Pass the ball to parker or Leonard or go to work instead of that two man Green-LMA game. Fuking pussy even passes up open shots to do a two man game with Green.

At this point I wouldn't mind starting Simmons since he has good chemistry w/ LMA aka can dribble/make plays. Danny should just play w/ Bobo/Manu.

[SAGirl]

damn, 2 faced as on the internet. You were just hatin on this dude when he left now you are excited he is back....

I liked this review and let him know.
I am not like you... hate spewing out all the friking time.

[sasaint]

Make no mistake the clippers will be a tough nut to crack and as well as the thunder. If they dont get a good cushion against these teams before 2 minute mark they are most likely losing.

Cavs, dubs, LA, OKC are consistent in late game situations. It might not be pretty but the players know what they need to do, they know their roles etc. This team does not.

Obviously, even the Rockettes know what they are going to run, too. But how can we be "predictable" if WE don't know what our roles are?

We don't know them. Therefore, far from being predictable, we are totally dysfunctional and chaotic at crunch time in these close games.

[apalisoc_9]

Kawhi is ready to be the man but Pop doesn't want him to dominate the ball & refuses to let him run PnR/PnPs. Tony/Manu would have to die in a car accident before Kawhi is handed the keys to run plays besides isolations.

This os why late game situations is so cringy. Sometimes you will see Parker or Manu differ to kawhi but Pop is such a stubborn mofo its evident at times Manu-Parker-Leonard struggle becausd they dont know what the to do. They know Leonard is a much superior player but pop has his playcalls tol so they're always stuck in between.

I believe it was in the Dallas game late in the fourth when Parker passed up an open shot to pass the ball to leonard. The 1st to 3 quarter roles are in conflict with the late game roles that it s them up royally.

[Kawhitstorm]

This os why late game situations is so cringy. Sometimes you will see Parker or Manu differ to kawhi but Pop is such a stubborn mofo its evident at times Manu-Parker-Leonard struggle becausd they dont know what the to do. They know Leonard is a much superior player but pop has his playcalls tol so they're always stuck in between.

I believe it was in the Dallas game late in the fourth when Parker passed up an open shot to pass the ball to leonard. The 1st to 3 quarter roles are in conflict with the late game roles that it s them up royally.

The power struggle is real, it won't be long before Kawhi chokes a in the locker-room. I wouldn't mind if Kawhi renegade & started calling his own plays ala Kirby/Rondo/Lebron.

[steeledl]

I liked this review and let him know.
I am not like you... hate spewing out all the friking time.

Just keep it real..... don't be talking about him acting glad he is gone and then excitedly welcome him back.

[Galileo]

LeBron sucked in prime time today too.

[apalisoc_9]

It's somewhat based on transitioning, somewhat based on the fact that neither Leonard nor Aldridge can create for others or get to the line. It also doesn't help matters, that the lineup lacks three-point shooting, particularly if Leonard has the ball in his hands.

It's the same, old problems with this team. Not only the loss, but the manner in which they lost was so predictable, that I predicted the exact way it would happen in the "they should sweep the four game home stand" thread. We're now going on a season and a half of this.

Tonight was also a perfect example of why I continue to harp on the need for a Neal/Belinelli type. Pop should have seen this coming, had Butler in uniform and played at least one of Bonner or him.

Leonard has shown flashes of creating. I think they are convinced he can. They are probbly going to go with die and live with Leonard in the 4th team once everyones roles settles in.

I agree about having another three pointer.

[sasaint]

Kawhi is ready to be the man but Pop doesn't want him to dominate the ball & refuses to let him run PnR/PnPs. Tony/Manu would have to die in a car accident before Kawhi is handed the keys to run plays besides isolations.

Unfortunately for us Kawhi is our best player in every aspect of the game. I am torn. As long as he is a 45% 3-point threat, I'm not sure I,want the ball in his hands to run PnPs and such. It is a real dilemma until/unless Danny comes around.

[SAGirl]

A very cogent analysis. I particularly like your crunch time analysis. In crunch time we were completely dysfunctional. However, I do take issue with your first point. We didn't take this game seriously enough to exert much effort, and Pop didn't take the game seriously enough to think about his strategy and play-calling very seriously. We were very disinterested.

I think some guys were disinterested... not all. Kawhi and LMA were balling, but Tony/Tim looked bad to start the game.

Do you feel like Tim is starting to show his age TBH? At times he does look old, there is always the defensive effort, but offensively I thought Timmy started off poorly.

Game was lost beyond just the crunchtime execution. We had many mistakes and empty posessions. Tony was bad most of the time I saw him.

I saw a brief stretch of the bench when they were engaged. Simmons made some plays. Obviously I missed 2 entire Q and some of the 4th Q. .. that is why I am so interested in others' reviews and appreciate opinions (that are not pure hate threads, more like observations and criticism.)

[apalisoc_9]

The power struggle is real, it won't be long before Kawhi chokes a in the locker-room. I wouldn't mind if Kawhi renegade & started calling his own plays ala Kirby/Rondo/Lebron.

I dont think Manu minds at all though nor timmy. Parker and Pop is the weird cat..But i wouldnt be surpirsed to know if Pop is doing these in purpose to fully start running Leonard in the fourth.

Pop is such a weird dude. Plays a lot of mind games so he can get his..