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Disgusting.
We only appear to be constructed for the regular season because Pop changes up his entire mindset and rotation for the playoffs these days, to favor veteran corporate knowledge over the youth, talent, and athleticism that got us to the playoffs in the first place.
This team has never been the same this season since Pop pulled Blair from the starting line up in favor of Antonio. You can trace the poor play, the lack of on court chemistry, and the monkey-humping-a-football subs utions/rotations all back to that game and every night since.
Disgusting.
You just have to wonder what Popovich was thinking when he spent all that time taunting the Grizzlies like that…The Griz knew what they were doing! They knew that Marc Gasol was a superstar in the making…They knew that those draft picks they acquired would pay off down the road…A coach or GM has no business whatsoever making wise cracks about another teams decisions…It just gives the opposition more incentive to tank their last few games so they can humiliate you in the playoffs…
I just hope that the Spurs organization has learned something from this…Texans are known for their beer not their whine….
Last edited by Sportcamper; 04-26-2011 at 10:05 AM.
wrong...The spurs went 5-1 after the change and it wasnt until TD went down is when the wheels came off.We only appear to be constructed for the regular season because Pop changes up his entire mindset and rotation for the playoffs these days, to favor veteran corporate knowledge over the youth, talent, and athleticism that got us to the playoffs in the first place.
This team has never been the same this season since Pop pulled Blair from the starting line up in favor of Antonio. You can trace the poor play, the lack of on court chemistry, and the monkey-humping-a-football subs utions/rotations all back to that game and every night since.
That 5-1 run was fool's gold.
I'm talking about the overall look and feel of the team.
Rotations got jumbled, chemistry suffered, teammate trust in each other decreased... The whole look and feel of the team changed. It may not have translated to immediate losses, but the psyche of this team was altered significantly by Pop's shift to favoring corporate knowledge after the All-Star break.
Forgot to include the front page for the piece.
Just clips, hit the link for the whole piece.Can't wait to read the obituary on ESPN tomorrow...
http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/p...426/daily-dimeWho's Your Haddadi? Grizzlies In Charge Now
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com
...The scenes from Duncan's 35th birthday were surreal and borderline funereal for his Spurs, who nosedived from a halftime lead to a 104-86 trouncing in this Game 4 and now sit just one loss away from the shame of joining their longtime rivals from Dallas on the short list of No. 1 seeds to lose a best-of-seven series in the first round to a No. 8.
The 67-win Mavs of 2006-07 are the only team on the list at the moment. The 63-win Seattle SuperSonics of 1993-94, eliminated in a five-game series by Denver, are the second-winningest team in league history to go out in Round 1. And then there's s shocked San Antonio, which is 0-5 in the Duncan era when it trails 3-1 in a series, and has to win a Game 5 at home Wednesday night just to get another shot in this building.
...Brazilian power forward Tiago Splitter was granted an unexpected 21 minutes off the bench and totaled a respectable 10 points and nine boards after logging nary a second in the first three games. Duncan, though, could muster only six points and seven boards in 29 minutes, hitting the big THREE-FIVE with his fifth-lowest scoring total in a playoff career that spans 174 games.
"They've really dialed it in," Duncan said, confessing that these Grizzlies have hit a level in their first postseason together that they never grazed in the teams' four regular-season encounters.
"They've got a game plan that's working, they're sticking to it, they're being ultra-aggressive and we're not making shots. All those things are working together and it equals what you see you tonight."
...I'm drawn more and more to the question posed on "Pardon The Interruption" last week by TNT's Steve Kerr, who was asking before anyone else was how much longer some of the most decorated vet-laden teams at the top could hold on to their elite status.
"I think it's really interesting," Kerr told PTI hosts Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser. "The best teams in the NBA over the last few years and even the last decade -- Lakers, Spurs, Celtics -- they're all getting older. And this is kind of that potential changing-of-the-guard season where maybe all those teams have just had their day and maybe it's time for the younger teams that are up-and-coming."
After what happened on Duncan's 35th, frankly, it's not looking like much of a maybe for the Spurs.
I hope you are being sarcastic about Gasol being a superstar. He's not even close all though the spurs had made him look like one at times in this series. Gasol will be fairly ordinary against the Thunder if the Grizz advance. I can't see him getting 20-10 against the ugliest man in the nba aka Perkins. Superstar lol the guy hasn't even cracked all-star status yet.
The entire Spurs organization should have been offended by the Grizzlies tanking. The players should have responded by playing with more heart.
This series should be a wake up call. We need more size. Duncan is to old to do it on his own. Splitter may be the answer in the future but we won't know if Pop keeps sitting him. I think we have another shot at the le next year but we need playoff ready role players.
Unfreakingbelievable. Disgusting, yet sobering. And all this time, I thought that the Spurs had somewhat hedged themselves from a total collapse based on how they've added young talent the past four drafts. However, considering all the money tied up in those bad contracts for non-performing players, the immediate future looks cloudy.
http://aol.sportingnews.com/nba/feed...s-in-nba-playoSpurs' stars can't pull team out of its descent
Steve Greenberg
Sporting News
...Down three games to one, the Spurs look old, worn out and utterly defeated. Remember the Golden State Warriors' upset of the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in 2007? Well, this series is like that one in more ways than we could count.
No matter what happens in Game 5 in San Antonio, this series appears all but over. Need a little more convincing? OK: The Spurs now have lost 15 of their last 18 road games in the playoffs.
Take them out of their home building, and the Spurs become a bad basketball team.
The Spurs still have "the heart of a champion," Memphis' O.J. Mayo said the other day, so they should be expected to lay it all on the line in Game 5.
Then again, shouldn't they have been doing that all series long?
It has to be said: From its coach to its best players on down, this just isn't a team you can bank on anymore.
I just sighed and disappointed watching other flim flam teams passing us by.
Stein thinks he's so cute using the "Who's your Haddadi joke." Really? Using the name of a scrub on the Grizzlies team to put down the Spurs? Idiot....
http://www.nba.com/2011/news/feature...s=iref:nbahpt1Undaunted Grizzlies push Spurs to brink of elimination
Fran Blinebury
NBA.com
Sad.
There have been plenty of words used to describe the Spurs since they began winning championships back in 1999, but that was never one of them.
Sad was seeing O.J. Mayo miss a 3-pointer, Tim Duncan move in to wrap up the rebound and then Marc Gasol reach right over his head to pluck the ball way and deposit it into the basket.
Sad was looking on as Duncan groped at the ball in the paint like he were wearing oven mitts and then had teammate George Hill fumble it away out of bounds.
Sad was watching Darrell Arthur rise up as if on a hydraulic lift to reject a drive by Tony Parker and then outrace every one of the Spurs to the other end of the court to e a lob pass from Mayo through the hoop with enough force to almost set off the tornado sirens in downtown Memphis once again.
As the Grizzlies keep coming on harder and stronger and with more confidence and swagger with each passing game, one can't help but notice the contrast.
"We were kind of sad at a point," said Manu Ginobili.
It's not just about discovering a new way to run the plays and make shots. It's about finding a way to match the Grizzlies youthful exuberance the energy that could light up all of the neon on Beale Street.
The Spurs are looking like Willie Mays staggering around in the outfield for the Mets. They are a worn out ghost of Muhammad Ali pushed around one night in the desert by Larry Holmes.
Youth eventually is served and the Spurs are suddenly looking like the cranky old man on the block, running around in his tattered bathrobe trying to keep the neighborhood kids off his lawn.
The Spurs led 50-48 at halftime of the Game 4 that could have put their world back on its axis. But that hope was over after a 14-0 blast by the Grizzlies and the Spurs now sit at the bottom of a daunting 3-1 hole in the series.
"They were four awful minutes," Ginobili said. "They gained confidence and everything went downhill for us. It was a very embarrassing first four minutes."
Keep reading...
One interesting and somewhat positive note, a silverlining so to speak is the fact that the article puts the stamp on the spurs as a "dynasty". some folks have dismissed the spurs as a dynasty since they never won backtoback and their first le and the last one was 8 years apart ...
Besides, having a dynasty on it's last legs is better than having no dynasty at all ...
I still expect the Spurs to win Game 5 ...but I also thought they would win Game 4 as well ...
I expect the Spurs franchise to be relocated to Seattle. San Antonio won't support a mediocre team.
Call it Dynasty or not... Who gives a ?
The Spurs have won 4 les from 99 to 07. They have an amazing winning record over the last 20 years.
Unlike LA, they've built this unexpected success story with classy/humble players (and with Parker too).
That's pretty amazing to me
Portland fans have supported one for years...must feel good.
I have a feeling that big things are going to happen for the Spurs this off-season. I don't think Pop can just do the same thing he did last off-season, because it may have looked like this was going to work without some tears, but now, it's apparent that some trades must be made. & for those of you saying Matt Bonner isn't a good trade chip, you're high. There are teams that are parched for some floor stretching.
There won't be too much misery. Don't forget Anderson might develop into something special, as well as Splitter, Neal, & don't forget Ryan Richards.
That would work for me.
Exactly
http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.c...live-the-spursThe le contending Spurs are dead. Long live the Spurs.
Kurt Helin
This is the end
Beautiful friend
This is the end
My only friend, the end
—Jim Morrison, The Doors
We’re going to miss the Tim Duncan era Spurs.
Yes, likely will get one more win in their first round series, Wednesday night at home. They are fully capable of that. But it will be fools gold — just like this entire season. This was the season the Spurs seemed to reinvent themselves as a savvy, offensively-focused team. A team that relied on two quick players out on the perimeter in Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker. Tim Duncan could still do enough in the middle to make it work. The role players were better.
It didn’t work. Make no mistake, this series where the Memphis Grizzlies have pushed the Spurs around like a cat with a ball of yarn has signaled the end of the Duncan-era Spurs as a championship team.
Technically the era will linger on for another season or two before it’s broken up and sold for parts. But those seasons will feel a lot like a sadder version of the past couple seasons, where you had the feeling San Antonio was not a contender. On paper you thought they could recapture the magic of the 2007 le run, but when you watched them play you were not so sure.
Now you watch and you’re sure. It’s not happening.
Keep reading...
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