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lets just watch Black Sails or better yet WAR AND PEACE and forget the warriors
expected loss, we have EVERYTHING to gain from it
lets just watch Black Sails or better yet WAR AND PEACE and forget the warriors
It's only January.
Apparently the wrong person started the game thread. That's about as non-basketball as reasons get.
Apparently the wrong person started the game thread. That's about as non-basketball as reasons get.
I doubt if the Spurs/Pop intentionally lost the game, but I actually believe there are some benefits to the Spurs losing big to the Warriors.
- It puts the Warriors squarely alone in the forefront and the Spurs back with everyone else.
- There's a lot of pressure chasing history (the Bulls). As we move closer to the end of the season, will the Warriors key players play those extra couple minutes per game in pursuit of the record? The Warriors will continue to get everyone's best game. Will they burn themselves out?
- teaching moment for Pop...it's a lot easier to coach/teach from a loss than a 14 game winning streak.
Completely agree. And those aren't the only benefits either.
In a way, the Spurs needed a loss lke this. They've been eviscerating opponents left and right, there was a danger of the team becoming complacent. After that devastating loss, you know the team will be on a mission to improve for the rest of the season as they seek to reach (and eventually surpass) the Warriors' level. Perhaps that Warriors game can be our Game 6 for this season.
The Spurs came into that game dribbling the ball off their feet, throwing it out of bounds and taking shots off the dribble. My wife watched with me for a few minutes and said, "Why aren't they passing the ball? This doesn't even look like the Spurs." That's not intentional. That's a team that's tight for a big game. This was a great test for them that they specacularly failed. Glad it happened before the playoffs. The last time the Spurs got this way was when they were backdoor swept by OKC.
Absolutely. Great post.
Just like on Christmas. Houston got up in their jerseys and physical and the Spurs got tight, which led to a lot of errors.
Back atcha. The physical play by Houston was the biggest reason for that loss. They were physical, but they were smart about it. The Rockets got called for 17 fouls, compared to 20 for the Spurs. That's pretty much even. But the Spurs only took 8 FT's, compared to 26 for the Rockets.
The Rockets were physical off the ball, denying passes, and keeping the Spurs from getting into rhythm. They committed a bunch of non-shooting fouls. The Spurs reacted, rather than forcing the action, and the majority of theirs were shooting fouls. The Spurs spent their evening putting up bad shots, because the Rockets never let them settle in on offense.
I disagree. The only difference between Christmas and last night is that the Spurs' shots actually went in. They got the same looks on Christmas but the ball rimmed out a lot. For some reason the guys doing the game gave the Rockets a lot of credit for their defense, but it's not good defense if you give a guy a layup and he misses it.
I agree with you to an extent, I just saw a hint of panic then and I saw a large dose of it against the Warriors.
Irrational on my part? Maybe. It was, admittedly, an eye test, but in both games the Spurs failed to even get into their sets much of the time, much less execute their offense the way they'd like to.
And instead of fighting back, they went into a bit of a s .
Something they're going to have to emotionally and mentally adjust to because the D is going to just get more intense when the playoffs start.
I hope Tim's up in LMA's ear constantly, planting seeds about the playoffs. Telling him tales of Championship heroics and the mental for ude it takes to win it all. I think he can do it, but nothing's certain.
I agree with the complacent comment, but there's nothing like Game 6. Nothing. Not .4, not losing as a 1 seed to an eighth seed, not a backdoor sweep and definitely not this game.
I can't post a recording of the game, but go back and look at the play-by-play. Remember the game. http://www.basketball-reference.com/...512250HOU.html
Did it seem like a night when good shots just weren't falling... or a night when the Spurs were chunking up bricks? I think it was exactly what tonight...you said - the Rockets got up in their jerseys.
Also, what other explanation do you have for the number of fouls being about even, but the Rockets taking 3X as many FT's? The Rockets were beating the out of them off the ball, and before they put up shots. And, yeah, I think that put the Spurs out of rhythm. And, once again, I think it was a uva good strategy.
I recorded the game. I actually went back and skimmed through it on Christmas and considered coming in and writing a blurb about it because the TV crew was giving the Rockets all this credit for defense when the Spurs just missed shots. I was of the opinion on the first and second watch that it was simply a night that shots weren't falling. The Spurs went 5-20 from three point range, most of them shots in rhythm off good passes. They missed a bunch of layups as well. The only reason anyone even looks at it is because the Rockets managed to win it, which was mostly thanks to two long threes by James Harden toward the end.
As for free throw attempts, I'm not sure how you forgot that they intentionally fouled Dwight Howard. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something. Are you saying that the Rockets fouled the Spurs a lot off the ball and think that's why the Spurs missed shots? EDIT: I went back and read, and yes, that's what you meant. I understand what you're saying, but I disagree that it was either a strategy or was the reason the Spurs missed shots. They simply came out flat, IMHO.
It was the Warriors game, where the Spurs came out overdribbling and underpassing, looking nervous and out of sorts on both ends of the floor, that you can say the Spurs chunked up bricks for sure. I disagree about the Rockets game. In fact, I didn't see anything different in the Rockets' defense in the second game, but somehow the Spurs managed to score 130 points on them.
I did see a change, though. The Rockets made an offensive adjustment and ran a few sets like the Warriors did inside, which led to a number of layups for them. The Spurs will need to shore that up for sure, because the Warriors absolutely exposed a weakness in the Spurs' defense.
I don't have it recorded, and was trusting memory. You know the game - I'll trust your read on it.
I'll say this, though. When you look at the fouls vs. FT's on both sides, there's a pretty glaring disparity. They got 18 more FT's than the Spurs, on basically the same number of fouls... in a 4 point game. If it wasn't intentional, it still worked out pretty good for them.
Well they hacked Howard and he went like 3-8. I think that's probably the difference. But it could also be an indication that the Spurs weren't very aggressive going toward the basket.
If teams start having success with a particular strategy to slow down the Spurs' offense, I'll begin paying attention. I'm much more concerned about the offense, as two teams in a row have managed to score points on the Spurs inside by cutting to the basket, and I'm not super concerned about it yet.
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