Spurs winning this series really just comes down to two things.
1.The Spurs ability to contain the penetration of Houston's guards.
2. LaMarcus is the third best player in this series. Will he play like it?
Green's ability to stay with Houston's smaller quicker guards is going to huge. Let's hope he has a better series shooting the ball this time around.
So dumb. The dude averaged 33 and 8 in the first round. 30 and 11 in the regular season. Yeah, he has FT seeking behavior but he's still an amazing offensive player. The Rockets attempted the most threes ever so yes they do space the out of teams.
The Spurs have historically struggled at Chicago. Butler standing in the corner isn't the sole reason why the Spurs lost.
- Especially considering Aldridge will probably play a lot of center, which makes it easier to put Capela on him than Anderson (don't have to worry about getting caught in cross matches in transition) and Nene, the only one who should be able to adequately defend him, is now basically splitting minutes with Capela
- Spurs don't have the wing depth (5 of top 10 players are bigs) to play Leonard much at power forward, particularly with Ginobili slumping or showing further signs of decline . . . with Gasol possibly only playable in non Harden minutes, Bertans becomes important
Though I had a feeling they'd lose to the Thunder last season, I haven't officially picked against a healthy Spurs in a long time, but I'm going Rockets in 6, too. Harden's wrist injury somewhat derailing his season would be encouraging except for the fact that they're not as dependant on him as they've been in the past.
Betting against a healthy Spurs in the WSCF.
Betting against a healthy Spurs in the WSCF.
SPURS in 5 Pop owns Dantoni
Cant wait for game one of the second round
This:
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Hahahahahahaha!
Jon Snow rules!
- I think they're going to win this series by limiting possessions and being an opportunistic Fast break team. The Rockets are going to play the same way, bombard the threeball but in general some of their players have struggled greatly in the last three months. Ryan Anderson to be specific not only has struggled against the spurs but against most teams.
- I'd like to See Kawhi Utilize the post more and take closer shot in half-court situations. If Aldridge is posting up, i'd crash the offensive board. Again the Grizz, thought I don't have the exact numbers..Kawhi' offense was almost exclusively on the PnR..Which should be fine, but more post ups would be nice.
- Also, unless its David Lee who is fantastic at getting the ball to the perimeter guys after a defensive board...I really want Leonard and Parker to be opportunistic reboubders. Grab mpre defensive boards on those long threes and attack.
rockets are quicker than the grizzlies, spurs will have to defend even better. memphis got 3s off, houston shoots them more.
still haven't made up my mind yet though... just things to consider.
Yeah... I can't understimate Kawhi though. He's playing at a real MVP level at this point.
Really, I guess this is the part of the season that as I pointed out b4 one has to kind of be a fan... that the bigs will have an easier time and don't lay the goose egg Pau put in Game 6 on the road for example and that Lamarcus will be more efficient. I don't even like Lamarcus offense tbh... but Spurs need him to be scoring. Then I would have liked to see Pop ride the hot hand, specially with the bench, but it's just unknown.
It would be dumb to play Kawhi at the four with Anderson and Bertans on the roster. But if they did want to do so, they could easily expand Green's minutes or run with two PGs. The Rockets play with three small guards in their rotation; unless Danny and Manu both have consistently excellent games, we're going to see quite a bit of Parker/Mills.
Kyle is also very good at that, probably the best in the team now that Duncan retired. Doesn't matter if he doesn't play though.
The iden y of this team has changed in the postseason to one of the most paper tigerish teams I can remember on defense. Obviously it's not Kawhi/LmA, but the guys Pop has had out there for an offensive punch.
I hope Pop gives a chance to others and then go to his version of the "death lineup" offensively with Lee/Tony/Patty only if he has to. I'd like to see Danny have a good series. If his shots are falling it just makes everything easier.. but it's unknown. Manu also... it's just unknown what you will get with him. And Dedmon, I'd like to see him get a chance too, but again it's at this point not like one can expect him to play well.
Frankly, I wish Pop was more flexible from the start bc this team is right now extremely unpredictable in terms of who is going to show up...
Jesus that 2014 playoff LA was a monster against Houston..looks like a s of that version now
Playing with 0 expectations vs championship expectations.
I don't disagree but the I think the Spurs expected the 3 pt shooting percentage to come back to down to normal. It just never happened. Also the Grizz big created so much havoc down low it occupied alot of effort and energy.
I anticipate focusing on the three point shooting to be a high priority against the rockets.
I voted Rockets in 6, but since then I rewatched the RS games. They can't guard Kawhi nor have a player to slow down LMA. Only one good game from Parker and one from Gasol and it's Spurs in 5, TBH.
Sirius XM NBA Weekend Edition with Howard David and Howie Cee are both giving the series to the Rockets. Typical.
harden plays under more control this series i think. i think part of him was trying to outplay westbrook the last round.
he can get his teammates some EASY looks. he needs to understand how valuable that is.
no one is playing on that man-on-a-mission level like kawhi though...
I think I was reading on cuckfans that haren has a wrist and ankle injury. I need to see more information on that.
Spurs in 5 but closing it out in Houston in 6 would be nice too.
So essentially people are picking the rockets due to Aldridge/Gasol doing poorly against Gasol/Randolph..
Last time i checked the Rockets didnt have Gasol/Randolph on the their current roster..
The Rockets forum, those guys sound super confident. Some think 5 games for them .. they're so stuck on the fact that the reg season meetings were close.
People never seem to realize that means nothing once the series starts
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