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Its purely game planning. They've been funneling guards more to the rim post all star break. The spurs played a more neutral game plan in terms of dealing with the guards before that...
It could be to prepare for the warriors. I dont know.
I know the Spurs have been stellar this season defensively but it is a bit alarming how certain teams are able to have a red carpet to the rim against us. Very little resistance in the paint. Duncan has been great manning the paint but he only plays 25-30 minutes a game. It was a layup drill in the second half for the Raptors today.
Its purely game planning. They've been funneling guards more to the rim post all star break. The spurs played a more neutral game plan in terms of dealing with the guards before that...
It could be to prepare for the warriors. I dont know.
I don't want to point finger but I will--> D west is no rim protector. He does what he can't but he gets killed. Lamarcus at center is better but it's not as good as him and TD together bc the drop off to D west is huge. Our guards were also getting blown by in the perimeter a lot or getting switches with the big. But really a huge part of the paint points were bad transition defense. Norman Powell is a freak athlete and he outran guys coast to coast.
Im more worried about the spurs offense tbh
Defense is fine. Generally, even with the Diaw/West pairing, the Spurs have been elite at defending the paint. It also helps that in the playoffs Duncan will play more minutes. The problem has been offense; outside LMA/Kawhi you have no one that can consistently be a factor. If that doesn't change the Spurs are in trouble.
Spurs seem to love giving away the layup!
Been a problem all year. Good guards penetrate and you see more dunks this year than I recall ever seeing before against the Spurs. That's why the Clippers worry me more than just about anyone else. It hasn't hurt us as much, because of the focus on small ball and 3 point shooting throughout the league. We're actually pretty good on Perimeter D.
Pairing Boris and West is the worst. I almost think I'd prefer to see Boban paired with either of those 2, than having them together.
Happens when you have traffic cones like fat head on the team who can't guard the perimeter for , their assignments get to the rim with ease and Tim has to guard 2 different guys.
David West, dudes a horrible rim protector. Gave up a ton of easy layups and was (-7) last night. Ouch
A lot of it looked like bad rotations and people not aware of where the help was at or the big not rotating. These problems were amplified by their athletic wing players. I'm not overly worried about it though.
As many pointed, not worried about defense. the Spurs have shown ability to find right formation to lock down at will against elite teams this past couple of weeks..it is the offensive drought outside the Big 2 that looms large..the games against GSW/OKC shoul have been +15 blowout the way we smothered the out of the two best offensive teams in the NBA, but our shooters brick-a-thon prevented that from happening..see Clippers game 4th quarter to get reverse result...Spurs become nearly unbeatable when Green/Mills/Manu knock a couple down..
There are many things to be worried or being pessimist about the Spurs, despite the record...
We have maybe the best interior defense in the league; and the Warriors aren't going to beat us on twos.
Stop talking basketball. You are embarassing
As long as popovich stays away from the Diaw/West/Mills combination in the playoffs, we'll be good
We shall see. He stuck by them all RS, but I think he just couldn't afford to overplay TD in the RS with the knee soreness and all. In the playoffs it's different.
Pop barely played Diaw against the Raptors and that makes me think about Chinook's points on Pop streamlining big men rotations.
It might have been a test for D west. He was played against the Raptors as a 4 and paired with TD and LMA at that spot. I think Pop was testing how reliable D west was at the 4, since he's been played as a 5 most season. It is a speculation of mine bc Diaw was coasting and terrible in his minutes and he might just have gotten himself benched, but it could also have been Pop experimenting with D west at the 4 more. It remains to be seen. D west was getting blown by guards for layups all night defending PnR.
For the past 15-18 years, Pop has had two main defensive rules. 1) Don't let anyone shoot a three-point attempt from the corner. A defender from the angle never helps on penetration because that would leave the corner man uncovered; 2) The player with the ball can never penetrate to the middle of the court. Their goal is to always direct (or funnel) him to the baseline.
The new players have been slow to ingrain all of the interior help movements into being their natural inclinations. They are not supposed to "funnel guards", nor anyone, "to the rim."
With that said, the Spurs have ranked at or near the top in lowest opponent 3-point % and in lowest FG% within 5 feet of the rim. Opponents who are effective mid-range shooting teams have fared better against the Spurs.
Like the Clippers, our nemesis and the last OKC game Russel was posting up and killing us with midrange shot after midrange shot.
Yes. The Clippers do a pretty good job of scoring mid-range, also.
Here are the current rankings in Opp. FG % for each distance grouping:
< 5 ft. - 1st (T)
5-9 ft. - 21st
10-14 ft. - 13th
15-19 ft. - 12th
20-24 ft. - 2nd
west is very reliable at the 4. I'm not talking about their offense, I'm talking about DEFENSE. With those 3 on the court at the same time, that's an invitation for non contested layups
I was talking defense too. West has ever slow feet to defend the PnR. He was getting blown by in that Toronto game even giving guys space
However Diaw got injured. That was unknown at the time so I speculated D west was getting reps as a 4. Turns out he got them bc Diaw was out for the rest of the game.
This past game against the Jazz he struggled dealing with Trey Lyles bc he can shoot the 3 and put the ball on the floor. He fouled Lyles trying to contain him while dribble penetrating.
I like D west and I am not flaming him here, he's just not as agile as he used to be and it shows.
Same sentiment here. West is great but he doesn't have the foot speed to defend the paint.
Very worried
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