Quick Grades: Spurs vs. Warriors - Round 2, Game 5

[Paulie]

J.A. Adande @jadande
Pop angrily chased ref Ed Malloy to the other side of the court to get that timeout. Malloy: "Relax....It's loud."


lol

[Obstructed_View]

Splitter had more steals then touches this game tbh
the Spurs continually avoid him in the pick and roll
he actually was matched up with Lee whenver he was on the floor and the Spurs would rather jack up 3s over running Lee in a pick and roll

theyre gonna have to remember he isnt some garbage big and run something through him because without him theyre not beating Memphis
Spurfan cant on Splitter all season and say he doesnt deserve scoring opportunities then get mad when he doesnt magically become Kareem after getting 0 touches all season
same thing happens with Leonard
one of the first possession of the game was a Leonard post up vs Curry
hes had Jack switched onto him so much and his heroes avoid him

The thing that bugs me about Splitter in this series is what his teammates have been doing. Several times he's gotten a pass in a terrible position and has had to either take a bad shot or try to get rid of the ball to avoid a turnover. Other times he gets the ball in the post and nobody even moves to try to get into a position to receive a pass, so he ends up having to shoot. That makes his offensive numbers look bad, but there's little doubt how much better the offense and defense roll with him, Diaw and Duncan as the three bigs.

[ElNono]

Correct if Bonner plays like he did against the Lakers. I don't have a lot of hope for him having the same defensive impact as he did in Round 1, though. Howard is easy enough to defend if you're a big strong guy. Randolph and Marc require a lot more skill to check.

Series against teams that don't play defense are over. He's too easy to check in the perimeter and doesn't spread the floor for that reason. Against Memphis we will have enough trouble grabbing rebounds to put out there a guy that's soft and a perennially terrible rebounder for his size. We're going to need bruisers.

[Darkwaters]

Green was the MVP of this series, boy was on point

Series isn't over yet. We gotten close this thing out now.

That being said, I'm glad that Green has done so well in order to distance himself from that "playoff choker" moniker that people started giving him after the Thunder series last year. The guy has been great for us, and I'm so happy that hes come up big when we need him now.

[ajballer4]

Can someone tell me real quick what it means when Patty puts his hand on his wrist and throws up the number 5 with his fingers? I've seen it like every game so far

[Obstructed_View]

Series against teams that don't play defense are over. He's too easy to check in the perimeter and doesn't spread the floor for that reason. Against Memphis we will have enough trouble grabbing rebounds to put out there a guy that's soft and a perennially terrible rebounder for his size. We're going to need bruisers.

Bonner came in during the last game, and the Warriors just didn't bother to cover him. Worked out, since the Spurs were still reluctant to pass to him.

[Chinook]

Series against teams that don't play defense are over. He's too easy to check in the perimeter and doesn't spread the floor for that reason. Against Memphis we will have enough trouble grabbing rebounds to put out there a guy that's soft and a perennially terrible rebounder for his size. We're going to need bruisers.

The Spurs should WANT the Grizzles to come out on Bonner if Gasol or Randolph is the big guarding him. That takes them out of the paint, which is really his main value (the points are just gravy). Marc and Zach are a lot more willing to challenge perimeter shots than their Laker counterparts. That should open up the floor for a swing and drive. But the Grizzlies will not come out on Bonner if they think he'd just pass, so he has to be able to make his shots. Diaw needs to do the same thing.

What made Bonner stand out in the Lakers series to me was his effort on the boards and in post defense. He did a lot of little things right. There's no logical reason why he can't repeat that against Memphis. He probably won't, though. So I agree with you. But Bonner showing up at all in the playoffs gives me hope.

Rebounding sure seems like it would be a problem against Memphis. Hopefully more Splitter will help, but he and Diaw are typically not great at rebounding, anyway. Leonard and Green may have to help out there even more than usual.

[Obstructed_View]

The difference in Bonner vs. the Lakers vs. now is that Bonner was sent in specifically to foul against Howard. Now he's back to trying to avoid contact at all costs and giving up a lot of and-ones. , he doesn't even put his hands in the air half the time until after the whistle blows. It'd be comical if it were someone else's team.

[Brunodf]

The Spurs should WANT the Grizzles to come out on Bonner if Gasol or Randolph is the big guarding him. That takes them out of the paint, which is really his main value (the points are just gravy). Marc and Zach are a lot more willing to challenge perimeter shots than their Laker counterparts. That should open up the floor for a swing and drive. But the Grizzlies will not come out on Bonner if they think he'd just pass, so he has to be able to make his shots. Diaw needs to do the same thing.

Come on son, short memory?

[Chinook]

Yeah, that's why Bonner wouldn't be as good as he was against the Lakers.

You know what, though? I think Blair has been an underrated Randolph defender throughout the years. Hopefully that continues if Dejuan is put in that situation.

[spurs10]

Tiago is still on the mend apparently. Hopefully he can regain his play by the time the WCF roll around. Great grades, great game, thanks!!

[Chinook]

Come on son, short memory?

If I recall correctly, Memphis guarded Bonner with a small often. In theory, that creates a cross-match somewhere else that has to be exploited by the Spurs' perimeter player.

I'm not talking about what is likely to happen, though. I'm just saying that Bonner is SUPPOSED to be guarded. If he had a quicker release, his man probably couldn't leave him at all.

[hommeaetage]

J.A. Adande ‏@jadande

Richard Jefferson went to check in and hung out on Spurs' side of scorer's table during timeout. Ginobili and Duncan pushed him away.

[AaronY]

^ha! that's spectacular

[siraulo23]

I'm so glad pop emphasized on pushing the ball even on made baskets, they haven't done this since feb combine that with pretty solid defense and you have games like this one

Lets hope the spurs can do it one more time this series

[KaiRMD1]

Series isn't over yet. We gotten close this thing out now.

That being said, I'm glad that Green has done so well in order to distance himself from that "playoff choker" moniker that people started giving him after the Thunder series last year. The guy has been great for us, and I'm so happy that hes come up big when we need him now.

My bad, I meant game.

[ElNono]

The Spurs should WANT the Grizzles to come out on Bonner if Gasol or Randolph is the big guarding him. That takes them out of the paint, which is really his main value (the points are just gravy). Marc and Zach are a lot more willing to challenge perimeter shots than their Laker counterparts. That should open up the floor for a swing and drive. But the Grizzlies will not come out on Bonner if they think he'd just pass, so he has to be able to make his shots. Diaw needs to do the same thing.

Agreed, Memphis didn't send either Gasol or ZBo to trail Bonner to the perimeter in 2011 either. They already know they can simply close him down by running a smaller perimeter guy towards him, and then he'll hesitate and don't know what to do.

Bonner worked against the Lakers because D'Antoni doesn't play defense. They don't actually have defensive rotations, and they don't really care about that end of the floor. Golden State has already shown that with a minimum of effort Bonner becomes a liability. Memphis is actually a top defensive team, that can make you pay for playing a guy like that.

[Chinook]

Agreed, Memphis didn't send either Gasol or ZBo to trail Bonner to the perimeter in 2011 either. They already know they can simply close him down by running a smaller perimeter guy towards him, and then he'll hesitate and don't know what to do.

Bonner worked against the Lakers because D'Antoni doesn't play defense. They don't actually have defensive rotations, and they don't really care about that end of the floor. Golden State has already shown that with a minimum of effort Bonner becomes a liability. Memphis is actually a top defensive team, that can make you pay for playing a guy like that.

True indeed. But Diaw is essentially going to have the same responsibility on offense, and he has to do a better job of scoring if Memphis. He should be able to hold his own on defense, however, which will help.

If Diaw is aggressive on offense, he's really hard to guard. But if he isn't, then he'll be almost as bad as Bonner on that end.

[DapDaGenius]

I have to find a gif of Kawhi dunkin' on Harrison.

[hooperflash]

We played Spurs Basketball tonight,

[Sean Cagney]

Series isn't over yet. We gotten close this thing out now.

That being said, I'm glad that Green has done so well in order to distance himself from that "playoff choker" moniker that people started giving him after the Thunder series last year. The guy has been great for us, and I'm so happy that hes come up big when we need him now.

YES HE HAS! BONNER and Blair still suck though, I mean that there hahaha. Neal sucks too.

[pookenstein]

Green's defense has been huge these past couple of games. You can see how that sparked his confidence.

Agree that Neal and Bonner have no business being on the court.
Anytime Neal enters his counterpart is licking his chops and going to post him up. Terrible.
You wouldn't see that if it was Tracy instead of Neal. And it's not like Gary shoots lights out at the moment.

I hope it doesn't come that far, but IF the Warriors can extend the series and we come back to San Antonio I think Pop should consider giving Neal's minutes to McGrady. He can't be worse and at least it'll pump up the crowd. Have you noticed how everybody was ready to explode when he lined up his only shot? The excitement in the building everytime he touched the ball? That alone could be more valuable than having Neal in the game, being exposed on D and hogging the ball on O.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Green was an A++ tonight, he swung this game, and Leonard wasn't far behind. TP was also fantastic.

Splitter had a tale of two halves - ineffective in the 1st, much improved in the second. What ever happened to the Manu-Splitter pnr that killed teams all year? We need to use that occasionally! Poor Timmy had a shocker on offence after hitting those three early shots, but his D and rebounding was generally pretty good.

IMHO, Pop should only be playing eight players at this stage: Tim, Tiago, Kawhi, Danny, Tony, Manu, Boris, and CoJo. There is absolutely no reason to use Bonner or Neal unless it's garbage time or something has gone drastically wrong. Seriously, why is Bonner getting on the court? And why isn't Boris playing more minutes? He has looked great this entire series - aggressive on offence and defence, although I guess his rebounding does let him down sometimes. Boris should get all of Bonner's minutes. And Neal should only be used in extreme cir stances - he is in a massive slump right now and I don't see him coming out of it any time soon.

My only complaint from today's game is the number of times we gave up offensive rebounds. Our rebounding has really been exposed by the Warriors, and we really need to tighten that up to get anywhere.

Otherwise, GREAT GAME 5 VICTORY.

[Mal]

I`d like what I saw from Diaw, Green, Leonard, Joseph and Splitter. All role players were very helpful on D and on O.

[Penya]

J.A. Adande @jadande
Pop angrily chased ref Ed Malloy to the other side of the court to get that timeout. Malloy: "Relax....It's loud."


lol