I have to disagree with that.
The first time they met ('01), the Lakers were peaking (which of course you can credit to Phil, but every Laker was playing out of his mind during that run) and the Spurs lost their best perimeter scorer right before the series and had Danny Ferry, Terry Porter, and Sean Elliott playing major minutes. That team had no business in the WCF and were severely outgunned against the Lakers.
In '02, the Spurs finally got some help on the perimeter by drafting a young Parker and signing Bowen. The Spurs had 4th quarter leads in every game, but lacked the perimeter closers (Parker still much too young for that role) to finish the Lakers off.
In '03, the Spurs had a much, much deeper perimeter with a 2nd year Parker, gunslinger Stephen Jackson, and the rookie Ginobili. And it showed, the Spurs were actually able to hang on to leads against the Lakers this time around and weren't forced to over-rely on Duncan so much.
In '04, the Lakers reload with one of the biggest off-season hauls in history. The acquired Payton to specifically matchup with Parker. And signed Malone to match up with Duncan. The Lakers pretty much built their team to dethrone the Spurs. Still, the Lakers found themselves down 0-2, forcing Phil into a gimmick desperation move, which was to pack the paint and live with the Spurs getting open shots as long as Parker's driving lanes are shut down and Duncan has little room to operate in the post. The Spurs had plenty of shooters to counter the move, but they all choked. Can't put that on Popovich.
In '08, the Spurs survived a 7 games series with an underwhelming Hornets team and then faced a hungry Lakers team with Kobe playing the best basketball of his career. While the Spurs did blow a 20 point lead in game 1 that could've changed the complexion of the series, that was more about Kobe stepping up than any kind of coaching mojo from Jackson. In addition to that, Manu was also gimpy for the series and allowed himself to get shut down by Sasha
. Ultimately, the Spurs were outgunned.
I'm not trying to homer out for Pop, but I just can't find any instance where he was "out-coached" by Phil.
Sometimes the game really does come down to making shots and which team is more talented. Phil's teams typically had more talent, aside from maybe '03.
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