Spurs Vs Rockets thoughts

[travis2]

I missed the start. What was the lineup?

Officially, it was:

G - Parker
G - Green
F - Leonard
F - Aldridge
C - Anderson

Interpret how you will who was the 4 and who was the 5 (Aldridge/Anderson).

[raybies]

I missed the start. What was the lineup?

Parker
Green
Leonard
Anderson
Aldridge

[Horse]

This for me too lol... people will go nuts after 1 game, but this happened last year too. They beat us bad, then they came to our house and we put it on them. Kawhi was toying with Curry and had 7 steals.

LMA looked good last night, as did TP.

Biggest deal for me was Green and his shooting. If he can get it going, it helps us immensely. He did have Haren guarding him so obviously that won't happen every night. But it could be enough to get him going

I just hope he gets back to his old self. Truly he gets wide open shots every game just needs to knock them down.

[elbamba]

I suspect the Spurs will see if Anderson could potentially play against Harrison Barnes when they matchup against GS.

[Obstructed_View]

1) Starting Kyle was interesting. It goes against the grain of what we've been doing all year. I wonder if this was an adjustment in preparation for the Warriors. Either way he played very well. On offense he played within himself and made plays. On defense, he was crafty, although it was easy to hide him with non penetrating threats. It was when we played him against capela that I was really watching. He played smart with box outs and fouling when he was beat.

Pop has started third stringers when sitting starters all season, so that wasn't terribly uncharacteristic, but to me this is a sign that Pop thinks he needs to develop small lineups in order to compete with the Warriors. Given Lamarcus' inability to post up at ALL against them, I can't say I disagree with him too much. The Dubs are so good at passing the ball inside to cutters that having another long-armed guy like Kyle to disrupt passing lanes isn't the worst idea in the world. Frankly, anything that gets Pop off his ass and allows him to develop his young players works for me.

[bklynspursfan]

I suspect the Spurs will see if Anderson could potentially play against Harrison Barnes when they matchup against GS.

I don't doubt Kyle could, cause Barnes is not really going to cause many problems anyway. Barnes doesn't play a ton anyway. He should be the least of our worries. Throw Parker on him and let him go nuts if he can..

[ceperez]

Spurs attempted 23 3 points shots, 9 more than against the Warriors.

Spurs scored 130 points, this is the first time this season the Spurs have scored more than 123 points.

In short, if you don't take those 3's, then you aren't going to win against the Dubs who will take those 3's.

[Dre_7]

3) watching Duncan on the bench gave me some hope that he'll still be with the team when he retires. He's so much of a gamer it might be attractive. He looked really involved and his mere presence made a difference.

That was one of my favorite parts of the game! His leadership is unmatched. I could definately see him being involved with the team in some aspect when he retires.

[spurs10]

Officially, it was:

G - Parker
G - Green
F - Leonard
F - Aldridge
C - Anderson

Interpret how you will who was the 4 and who was the 5 (Aldridge/Anderson).

Parker
Green
Leonard
Anderson
Aldridge

[Obstructed_View]

Spurs attempted 23 3 points shots, 9 more than against the Warriors.

Spurs scored 130 points, this is the first time this season the Spurs have scored more than 123 points.

In short, if you don't take those 3's, then you aren't going to win against the Dubs who will take those 3's.

The Spurs took jumpers off the dribble against the Warriors. They took jumpers off the pass against the Rockets. Big difference.

[Kawhitstorm]

I don't doubt Kyle could, cause Barnes is not really going to cause many problems anyway. Barnes doesn't play a ton anyway. He should be the least of our worries. Throw Parker on him and let him go nuts if he can..

Probably would be a better matchup for Livingston b/c he can play point over Patty (if Barbosa or Rush aren't in the game) & has the length to bother Livingston on his postups. Simmons can handle Barnes b/c he isn't a guy that moves much without the ball (which is Simmons achilles) & put Manu on Iggy since he's too crafty/experienced for Simmons.

So basically,

Iggy/Manu
Barnes or Rush/Simmons or Boris
Kyle/Livingston
Barbosa or Rush/Patty or Simmons
Ezeli/West

[SAGirl]

Long term with Anderson, what he can be depends on his development and also the other options we have available. To venture into that land is interesting speculation, maybe for another thread. He needs to improve defensively but he seems in a good path, having improved since his rook season and also as the season has gone along. He's also a bit stronger and more agile than he was last season and some of his tentativeness has decreased. His BBIQ and passing helps the SL offensively specially because at times they tend to fall into lack of motion and look disjointed not moving the ball enough.

For this season, there are matchups we may need him. For smaller lineups, he's the best option at the 4. He will need to continue to focus on rebounding, and boxing out. That is a big task for the 4. His passing and BBIQ is a definite plus if you don't have TD.

The only reason I post that article is that there is chart in it that I can't post by itself charting the big men combination. It doesn't tell the full story bc obviously Pop pairs the bigs depending on matchups (and it doesn't account for other players in the lineups but in general:
Ducan and Kyle are a net +32.3 in 94 minutes together.
Lamarcus and Kyle are a +14.6 in 141 minutes.
Lamarcus and TD together are a +13.2 in 706 minutes together.

When paired with a true Big/Center I believe Kyle will do a good job specially if the other 4 is not a heavy PF that will post him up. Against PF who just like to step outside and shoot he's been fine enough. Obviously, there are defensive lapses, but they are correctable mistakes specially considering his inexperience playing that position at the NBA level.