Pop's Genius Down the Stretch

[UZER]

Pop is Pop. He draws up good plays in crunch time...except for Terry Porter dribbling to his knees.

But we will all still be cursing his name if Bonner is a big in the rotations in the playoffs.

[Fabbs]

Pop is genius. Who else could have thought of those moves?

[Floyd Pacquiao]

I thought I saw coach Bud drawing up that play tbh could be wrong though.

[Fabbs]

I thought I saw coach Bud drawing up that play tbh could be wrong though.

[Baseline]

What a great play Pop drew up for Danny Green's game-winner. Common sense said to give the ball to TP or TD but Pop's outside-the-box thinking was genius. When attacking the Lakers defense, their biggest weakness is Kobe's aimless roaming. He is ALWAYS looking to play the passing lanes and really just isn't good at navigating around screens.

So on the design of the play, Pop's play first took advantage of Kobe looking to make a play off the ball. Then it took advantage of Kobe being slow to get around screens. The result was a wide, wide open three-pointer. Great call, Pop

And let's not forget the defense. Pop didn't flinch all game when Kobe was lighting up Green. For the final two minutes, he switched Leonard onto Kobe ... and dealing with Leonard's length seemed to throw Kobe's rhythm off. Pop's patience in not using the Leonard switch until the very end also ended up being genius.

Hall of Fame coach doing Hall of Fame things, to be honest.

Great point, timvp. Pop is astute enough to know that Bryant hasn't played real defense for probably four years, and even when he did play D, it was "hero" defense. Meaning he'll play the passing lanes for the flashy stea rather than just solid team defense.

Whatever the flashy, selfish, look-at-me play is...that's what he'll do 95% of the time. I mean, what's glamorous about fighting through a screen?

So it was that much sweeter that Pop took advantage of Bryant's tendencies and Danny Green made it pay off.

[Stabula]

So it was that much sweeter that Pop took advantage of Bryant's tendencies and Danny Green made it pay off.

Exploiting Kobe's selfishness is always oh-so sweet.

[Raven]

i still have nightmares of plays designed for udoka tbh

[blizz]

Or he could of put Leonard on him to start the second half and we win by 10.

The point is that pop intentionally left Leonard off him so that Kobe couldn't get used to his D and so that it would be a change that Kobe would have to adjust to

[lakerhaterade]

i still have nightmares of plays designed for udoka tbh

Udoka was a sorry ass player

[Raven]

Udoka was a sorry ass player

that's why there shouldn't have been plays designed for him in the clutch ..

[ChumpDumper]

Pop is genius. Who else could have thought of those moves?

Not you.

[buttsR4rebounding]

Yeah he can outcoach Bernie Bickerstaff but can he outcoach Mike D'An...

I don't know. Bernie had this wonderful insight after the game:

"If I can quote Shakespeare, the problem lies not within the stars, it lies within ourselves."-- Lakers coach Bernie Bickerstaff

Does that mean he's blaming it on the bench?

[benefactor]

Another good thing is none of this should change when D'Antoni finally takes over. Pop was notorious for going into the fetal position against PJ but it's the exact opposite with Pringles. Pop has literally made a career out of outcoaching him. We'll see plenty more coaching goods from Pop if the Spurs see the Lakers in the playoffs.

[turkish spurs fan]

nearly the same game winner set againts magic http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature...&v=Qr58diX9L5c

via http://filelisepet.blogspot.com/2012/11/

[spurspokesman]

What a great play Pop drew up for Danny Green's game-winner. Common sense said to give the ball to TP or TD but Pop's outside-the-box thinking was genius. When attacking the Lakers defense, their biggest weakness is Kobe's aimless roaming. He is ALWAYS looking to play the passing lanes and really just isn't good at navigating around screens.

So on the design of the play, Pop's play first took advantage of Kobe looking to make a play off the ball. Then it took advantage of Kobe being slow to get around screens. The result was a wide, wide open three-pointer. Great call, Pop

And let's not forget the defense. Pop didn't flinch all game when Kobe was lighting up Green. For the final two minutes, he switched Leonard onto Kobe ... and dealing with Leonard's length seemed to throw Kobe's rhythm off. Pop's patience in not using the Leonard switch until the very end also ended up being genius.

Hall of Fame coach doing Hall of Fame things, to be honest.

My thinking exactly. Pop didnt show his hand until late hoping that the spurs would either be ahead or within a hair of the lakers and then throw leonard at kome. I had a gut feeling that pop set the play for green but told the guys if your open in a comfortable spot just let it fly.

[Budkin]

I watched the play several times over on the DVR. Man they couldn't have run it more perfectly.

[DejuanorwhatDude]

If you see the look on Danny Green's face right before the play you can tell he was gonna shoot. He had this deer in the headlights look right before it happened.

[silverblk mystix]

It only took 3 years for Pop to realize he had no one else to pair with Timmy except for Splitter, but Pop made DAMN sure that Splitter was over himself before giving him minutes.

Next game though, Splitter is back to the doghouse. Oh yeah, Pop also mentioned that more "small ball" is coming.

Genius coach.

[ace3g]

Gregg Popovich: Rare And Surprising

http://hoopchalk.com/2012/11/14/greg...nd-surprising/

shows how they set up the play with pictures

[dbreiden83080]

Praise of Pop..


Wow!!!

[024]

The play for Green was pretty intelligent. Letting Green get abused over and over by simple screens was not.