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Pop always says that "good defense leads to good offense". And he's right. But he leaves out the other side. When you play ty/stupid offense, it's the same as if the other team had played good defense. "Bad offense leads to good offense - for the other team."
Go back and look at the play-by-play of some of GSW's games. (I'm not going to take hours to get exact numbers - you can tell enough by looking.) When Golden State is forced to inbound the ball on the opposite end of the floor, they are mere mortals. Where they eat other teams alive is on missed shots and turnovers. (And defensive fouls, where they get to inbound on their end of the court + offensive boards of course.) They score at a much higher rate, usually within 8 seconds - often a lot less.
You want to beat the Warriors? Fix the damned offense. Every time our 3P shooters lay another brick, it's a high percentage chance that the Warriors will jam it back down their throats. Missing layups and crying for a whistle? The Warriors are off to the races. I don't know anything Pop can do about the bricks from distance, so I hope he as some wrinkle on the rest. Because the key to defending the Warriors, IMO, is making them play the length of the floor.
Since they are scoring a lot of the time before our bigs are even back and set up on defense, maybe change things up and scratch for some offensive boards? At least you stop the jailbreak some of the time.
When you're beat, foul before the shot and foul the out of them. No and-1's. And like Charles Barkley says, "See if he can drag his ass up off the floor and make the next one."
David West is one of the best guys in the league for baiting Draymond into losing his cool. Use it. Klay Thompson is a hothead, too. Use Kevin Martin for that - he's been around enough to understand how.
One thing's for sure - you can't beat Golden State at their own game. If the Spurs are going to post up, the bigs are going to have to be salty, and love the contact, instead of constantly looking for a whistle. They need to deliver their own punishment, instead of playing victim. The at ude needs to be - "If they bring a knife, I bring a gun." And every individual player on the team has to be thinking that way. That part's on Pop.
The Spurs did a good job of making the game ugly last night, and keeping it close. For 3 quarters. If they had come out REALLY physical in the fourth, and not let the Dubs' shooters into any kind of rhythm, they could have had a shot at the end. I think it's pretty clear that the Warriors are a better team, which means the Spurs are going to have to grit out a series with them. I believe they could do it, but every player on the team would have to want it badly and dig deep. They need some nasty.
Exactly! Thank you! Pop is playing the long game and was indeed using the game as an experiment. The first half we really got into them defensively. I think it was a great time to give Martin and Boban some burn to see what they looked like against GSW. When I went back and watched parts of the game I felt more confident than ever we can play these guys very tough in the playoffs. They were not planning their best, but definitely trying to win. 
Time to get healthy, start getting in the playoffs zone, and building momentum. If we play GSW in the WCF- go out there and leave all on the floor.
