Biggest reason the Spurs lost

[Borosai]

Inconsistency from top to bottom.

[Supergirl]

I think the weakness of Bonner, Mason, Bogans, the huge disappointment of RJ, discouraged, even unconsciously, the Big Three. I get the feeling they never relieved believed in this team.

And I think maybe Tim and Manu don't have the legs anymore to win a Mavs series then have enough left to take on just a PHX, and then a Lakers, and then Magic or Cavs, ALL without HCA.

I'm still amazed they beat the Mavs.

I think that the FANS didn't always believe in this team. I don't think the Spurs stopped believing, not during the playoffs anyway. And RJ was not the 20 pt scorer he was in the past, but they never needed him to be. He was pretty decent this series, and in the last. He'll get better another year into being a Spur, and I do think he'll be back.

I hope Blair will get better next year, I expected more from him this year and esp against the Suns. Same with Dice, but he's on the downside of his career so I don't know if we can expect much more from him. Probably will be replaced by Splitter in the lineup and rotation.

Hill was solid most of the time, and he'll be even better next year. Bonner was decent against the Suns, after not doing much against the Mavs, but that's cause the Mavs actually play better defense. He may be back next year. But he may not, he's pretty replaceable.

Mason is obviously gone. I don't know what happened with him - he seemed like such a good fit for the Spurs 2 years ago, and had a lot of potential.

Bogans may be gone too. He should have been played more, because he was what we needed - a perimeter defender. But the fact that Pop didn't play him seems to suggest Pop doesn't have much confidence in him.

[VBM]

The Suns are deeper and more resilient. And the Spurs don't have consistent 3-point shooters to spread the floor, so the spacing was messed up pretty much the whole series.

Throw in the fact that RJ wouldn't creep out to the corner 3 area...he had to stay two feet in

[xellos88330]

I said everything except the lucky shots. Phoenix was outright better.

[alchemist]

There's so many reasons (excuses), the only legit reason the Spurs lost was because Phoenix was the best team. No doubt's about it.

[Supergirl]

I said everything except the lucky shots. Phoenix was outright better.

Man, I couldn't disagree more. Suns have done NOTHING to impress me in this series. The Spurs hit wide open shots, missed FTs, turned the ball over due to their own sloppiness...and the Suns hit contested shot after contested shot.

I really think the Suns were just playing to redeem them last 14,678 times the Spurs have beat their asses. And that they are in for a rude awakening in the next round. They are out of their league.

[Snik]

Part of it was all of the above, but the stats for tonight's game don't look all that bad really. They just took more shots than we did even though we out rebounded them 42-37. Part of it was the bench for sure. But really, it came down to just being consistently outplayed.

Let's face it, the Suns were HUNGRY!! And that is part of it too.

[Spurminator]

Never settling on a rotation at all this year.

[cd98]

Remember the '99 tear. Spurs had a very good team, but swept equally good Blazer and Laker teams. Why? For whatever reason we had several guys that clicked at the right moment and we steam rolled everyone.

Suns are on a tear right now. We'll see if those shooters who were hot and cold all year will stay hot in the second round.

[Supergirl]

Never settling on a rotation at all this year.

well, we settled on a rotation pretty quickly in the playoffs. Problem was it was a pretty short rotation. I think that may have played a big role, actually - it would explain why the Spurs got a lead, a decent lead even, in EVERY GAME OF THIS SERIES, and then ran out of gas in the 3rd or 4th quarters.

Dice, Parker, Manu, Hill, Duncan, Jefferson, Bonner. Those were the only guys who really got significant minutes. Pretty short rotation. Suns played with 9-10 guys, as did the Mavs.

Bogans, Blair, and Mason all disappointed.

[Supergirl]

remember the '99 tear. Spurs had a very good team, but swept equally good blazer and laker teams. Why? For whatever reason we had several guys that clicked at the right moment and we steam rolled everyone.

Suns are on a tear right now. We'll see if those shooters who were hot and cold all year will stay hot in the second round.

+1

[kuato]

What do you think is the biggest reason the Spurs lost?

Less scoring :P

[4>0rings]

Wheres the coach option.

[EIC]

All of the following (in no particular order):

1. Weak bench
2. Poor 3-point shooting
3. Tired/injured core players
4. Bonner
5. Slight fouls bias against Spurs
6. A little bit of overachieving by Suns bench (Dudley, Frye, and Dragic were all playing out of their minds)
7. Lack of heart
8. Poor perimeter defense
9. Sloppy play

[mavsfan1000]

Grant Hill's defense against Manu and his clutch shuts in pressure situations. But there are so many things you can go with.

[mingus]

lots of problems as to why the Spurs didn't get it done, but the two biggest are lack of three-point shooting and a perimiter defender. not having a shooter playing the 3 is key when your whole offense is predicated on Manu's and Parker's ability to drive and kick. no perimiter defense to stop ING GORAN DRAGIC resulted in a game 3 loss. i never felt confident in this team offensively this year without a shooter at the 3 because i know how important it has been for us. it's not so much the actualy buckets that were made by Bruce Lee in the past as much as it was the threat of them, which resulted in better spacing, something that the Spurs didn't have this year. the 3 point shot is soooo important. the Spurs inability to get back into games this year when they were down by 10-14 points pointed to ty 3-point shooting. in years past, we could cut into deficits like that with great outside shooting in a matter of minutes. we could aslo stretch leads.

Hubie Brown mentioned it earlier in the year in one of the broadcasts. the thing that seperated this team from the ones in past is outside shooting in terms of offense. they'll have to find guys that actualyl fit instead of going for guys with big names like RJ.

[DubMcDub]

Spurs were tired from a tough physical series with the Mavs. Suns got to roll through a Portland team missing half of its roster.

[Chieflion]

Weak bench. Our big three are comparable to Nash, Amare and Richardson, at least on par against them. However, the Pheonix bench has hustle, energy, more talent than the Spurs bench.

[mavsfan1000]

Spurs were tired from a tough physical series with the Mavs. Suns got to roll through a Portland team missing half of its roster.

Spurs had 3 days off before playing the Suns. They got tired by playing such a fast tempo team since they don't play their bench much. The 4th quarter is when they hit the wall imo.

[DubMcDub]

Spurs had 3 days off before playing the Suns. They got tired by playing such a fast tempo team since they don't play their bench much. The 4th quarter is when they hit the wall imo.

I'm not talking about short-term fatigue. I'm talking about the long term effects of playing in a physical series after spending the last 1-1.5 months of the season going balls to the wall just to ensure a playoff spot. Three days rest is irrelevant.

[sabar]

Suns are a better team.

[EIC]

I'm not talking about short-term fatigue. I'm talking about the long term effects of playing in a physical series after spending the last 1-1.5 months of the season going balls to the wall just to ensure a playoff spot. Three days rest is irrelevant.

I totally agree. This was a fairly faced-paced series, too. All four games inside of one week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday.

[mavsfan1000]

I'm not talking about short-term fatigue. I'm talking about the long term effects of playing in a physical series after spending the last 1-1.5 months of the season going balls to the wall just to ensure a playoff spot. Three days rest is irrelevant.

Yeah they did go all out with Ginobili playing way too many minutes. He was great but he was not pacing himself for sure. Except for game 1, the spurs played every game very well from the beginning. Just couldn't sustain that intensity. I think it has to do with Pop's lack of confidence in Mason, Blair, and Bogans. Can't blame him but it was obvious the starters were playing too much.

[SenorSpur]

The Spurs probably because of a little bit of all those things. Phoenix beat the Spurs in a variety of ways and with a variety of people at different times. Their bench was superb. The Spurs weren't dominated, as much as they were simply outmanned, outhustled and outwhipped by a deeper team - who, by the way, played the entire series without their starting, defensive-minded center (Robin Lopez).

This Spurs team has flaws. We saw it all season. The company excuse was "the team simply hasn't gelled", or "they're still trying to integrate new parts". All of this sounded good. However the fact was the team was very mediocre. As HH mentioned earlier, the Big Three simply has way too many miles and age to expect them to carry this team night after night. I really feel bad for Duncan, who has been saddled with the sole responsibility for carrying the bulk of the load on the frontline, with minimal help. It's been that way for a couple of seasons now and there's no excuse for it. The same for Tony and Manu in the backcourt.

When the Spurs won, they were able to do so, with ample contributions from the role players. When they didn't get those contributions, we all saw the negative impact. It's disheartening to see the rest of the squad routinely play "hot potato" with the basketball, while looking for the Big Three to carry every possession. It's truly amazing they were able to beat the Mavs in the first round.

I credit Pop and RC for making bold moves to improve the roster over this past offseason. At the same time, I curse them for hanging onto Bonner and Mason through the season and not shipping their asses off in February in order to upgrade the team. For not having a suitable, athletic running mate for TD, at the PF spot to help provide rebounding, shotblocking and scoring. For convincing themselves that simply plugging him in would compensate for the lack of an athletic SF and help the team defense. The fact is RJ isn't a bad player, he's just a bad fit on this squad. He's an open court player, playing on team, whose style is predominantly half-court oriented.

As unexpected and devastating as this sweep, at the hands of the Suns, was, it could be a blessing in disguise. It will mandate even more significant and bold roster changes for next season.

[BadMotorscooter]

No physical defender.