Reply With Quote
He has good form, he just has the yips. Honestly, giving him a few possessions in a row like that to shoot them has a fair chance of getting him back on track.
It's the guys who just plain can't shoot that intentional fouling works best with.
More Ibaka. They should try to make Duncan beat them.
He has good form, he just has the yips. Honestly, giving him a few possessions in a row like that to shoot them has a fair chance of getting him back on track.
It's the guys who just plain can't shoot that intentional fouling works best with.
If ibaka is their lone big in the 4th Duncan will have a feast. Ibaka doesn't have the strength perk does when it comes to battling in the paint
okc probably won't play hack a splitter but the thunder will definitely start fouling splitter hard whenever he catches the ball and slides into a good position down low. splitter is going to have to earn his points at the free throw line.
sefolosha will probably receive much more alone time with ginobili.
the thunder also need to replace perkins with ibaka in the fourth. perkins was pretty useless out there and brought no offense, rebounding, or shot blocking. at least ibaka brings some jump shooting, decent rebounding, and exceptional shot blocking. the spurs will then count on duncan to try to out muscle ibaka but right now they both currently weigh about the same (240 pounds) and ibaka has long arms to bother duncan's shots.
It's not really personal, it's just your textbook run-around-and-set-screens-while-we-try-to-get-the-ball-to-Kevin-unless-Russell-decides-to-shoot-and-then-we-give-it-to-James-and-let-him-do-whatever-he-wants-when-he's-on-the-floor style offense.
Durant, Harden and Westbrook are volume shooters. That's how OKC rolls. The other guys don't even care to shoot (except Fisher from time to time)... OKC's Problem is ... You can't jumpshoot yourself pass good teams. Westbook has been shooting 35% in the first two rounds of the playoffs. On any other team, he would have been benched ...
^^^
TIMELESS.
I thought it was AWESOME for the Spurs that D-Fish rode the pine after his last (and ONLY) missed shot.
I don't know why Brooks pulled him, he's a Spur-killer and a KING-SIZE PAIN-IN-THE-ASS. ALWAYS where he should/shouldn't be, depending on if he's on your team or against your team.
WestBrick was a FAIL in the Q4. I loved it. They defended well and got in our passing lanes through the first 3Q's, but either got tired due to lack of depth on the Thunders bench, Durant was hoping Harden & WestBrick were going to bail the Thunder out, or ANY combination of the three.
Things that will very likely change:
Spurs - Green will make - SOMETHING in G2 He's been playing RAD and was due for a bad game. I'd rather it be in G1 than G4,5*,6*,7* (*If necessary)
Splitter won't AIR-BALL another FT. (GAWSH, are you FRRRIGGIN KIDDING ME?)
Amy (Derek) Fisher won't shoot 5-6 3/4 from 3-land.
Tony will likely go off like he did in the 2nd meeting of these two teams. Maybe not 42, but Parker will do better. It may not be needed, but Parker ALWAYS bounces back.
Spurs go up 2-0 on Wednesday.
I wish we had practiced that lineup more so we could take advantage of height mismatches when we go big.
It always makes sense to hack a guy who's getting a layup especially if they're not a good free throw shooter. I like the fact that Splitter can really take advantage of Collision on the block. I think he could have posted him a few times.
I thought Harden nailed it on the head when he said that the Thunder have to focus on stopping penetration.
In the first half, whether it be Thunder defense or some sort of rust, we played like and couldn't really penetrate the way we normally do.
Thunder have to continue to make penetration difficult while closing out on our shooters. Easier said than done because I think they gassed employing this strategy.
The Spurs just need to limit their turnovers because those fast break points really hurt our game flow. But I think its safe to say that with our 2nd half performance and with game 1 under our belt, the rust should have mostly deteriorated.
OKC's adjustment will be Kenny Mauer and/or Scott Foster.
The only way Thunder will be able to win is if they stop playing small ball and have either Ibaka or Perkins dominate on the low-post (which most likely won't happen). Until then, OKC is just a fluke shooting team with both Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook throwing up contested mid-range jumpshots and 3's during crunch time situations.
What we all could tell from game 1 is that Westbrook was clearly annoyed when his jumpshots weren't falling... no big surprise there. He then proceeds to force in the paint by trying too hard and blows the layup, even missed dunks time after time.
What happens when the jump shots stop going in OKC?!
Sean talks about adjustments for game 2
http://www.nba.com/spurs/video/120528_scatter
Among them was head coach Scott Brooks admitting to making a mistake by keeping forward Serge Ibaka, the runner-up in the NBA Defensive Player of the Year balloting, on the bench in the fourth quarter. That's when the Spurs scored 39 points and shot 12 of 16, after the Thunder held San Antonio to just 16 points in the third.
Brooks said he'll beat himself up over not putting his defensive ace back in the game, while explaining how sidelining Ibaka seemed the right idea at the time. After all, Brooks said, keeping Ibaka out and going with a smaller lineup worked in the previous playoff series against the defending champion Mavericks and the Lakers.
''I think every decision you make, if it doesn't work out, you say, 'Why did you do that?''' Brooks said. ''And I'm with you on that. I wish I would've played Serge last night.''
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/thunder...CDW5lZ7PO8vLYF
If they do, the next game Harden will be talking about how they have to close out better on the 3-point shooters.
Pick your poison kiddos.
Both Durant and Westbrook missed dunks against us. I wonder how often that happens.
As often as someone defends well, and forces them to take off from too far out.
Well, you're playing the Spurs now you fing commie.After all, Brooks said, keeping Ibaka out and going with a smaller lineup worked in the previous playoff series against the defending champion Mavericks and the Lakers.
The chess match begins. It's interesting I think SB is realizing small ball isn't going to work against us. That means Diaw and Splitter need to be ready to step up.
We shot terrible from 3, and we had some wide open looks... to be frank, the Spurs hitting more 3s in Game 2 wouldn't be surprising at all, and thus OKC will have to...
Total misconception though. Ibaka isn't a good one on one defender. He's a great help defender and gets his blocks off of help defense. You put him one on one with Duncan and your toast. Duncan took care of Ibaka one on one, and those +/- numbers you saw came with another big in the game.
This is what you'll see if Ibaka is one on one with Duncan.
If the Thunder try to go small ball with Ibaka in place of Perkins, they're still losing. They need both of them in the game. The problem is, that's one less wing player for OKC and their offense gets worse. And in the 4th, their offense was bad enough as it was with all the missed jumpers.
Well the Thunder win because their talent plain & simple, they don't have a disciplinarian in Brooks so they roam free & don't get held accountable for any of the ty shots they usually take. On some real I don't think I've seen any coach leave his best shot blocker on the bench when the other team was getting to the paint at will. Well good they have him & we got Pop.
The fallacy of that thought though is that it wouldn't have helped any at all. OKC was playing small ball, so Ibaka would have been the only big out there. Sure he would have challenged shots at the rim, but instead of Gino and Parker getting into the paint for scores, they just would simply make Ibaka commit and then pass to Duncan for the score.
What happened in the 4th wasn't about talent or skill. What happened was all about execution and effort. OKC just got schooled on what execution and effort look like, not unlike the Jazz teams of the 90s used to do to the Spurs.
Once the Spurs hit some outside shots, the painted opened up like a car pool lane, and the Spurs made all the right plays and all the correct passes, like they've been doing all season.
I don't expect the Spurs to have 14 turnovers in a half again any time soon and the Thunder still couldn't beat them.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
