Official Blaming The Loss on Pop Thread

[Dingle Barry]

Get Terry Porter out of the ing game. I wasn't too pleased with Ferry either.

[MannyIsGod]

Coming from a person who defended that small ball lineup of Manu, Finley, Oberto, Barry, and Vaughn tonight as buying time in the second, when Pop rolled it out again to start the fourth when it was still a game (that promptly turned into a rout), I'm not exactly offended.

As opposed to the person who is complaining about running our offense through the only person who did tonight.

You want to break it down AHF? Lets do it. Who the are you going to play in the 2nd when you have Duncan in foul trouble? You don't have any bench bigs which look good when he goes to the bench, so who are you going to play? Elson and Oberto? HA. Oberto and Horry? Horry is great with Tim in there but without him he gives you for boards. They way Finley has been playing he's obviously the better choice. You don't seem to understand that with the team the Spurs have and the weak frontcourt bench they have that you're going to have to march lineups like that out there.

If Manu had bothered to show up then it would be moot. Our offense would have run through him.

Now lets talk about four down, which brought us from 12 down to 5 down before Tim picked up his 4th foul in the 3rd. Tim was going off and completely owning everyone the Suns threw at him, so I can understand why you would want to go away from that. It makes complete sense to go away from the best offensive option you have.

I know you cream your panties everytime you have a situation you can blame on Pop, but your act is ing old. Its reached gimick status and its the most predictable thing to happen on this board this side of TPark's stupid antics. How about you give Steve Nash some credit for an MVP performance where he owned the entire Spurs D and how about you rag on your boy Manu a bit for having Dirkitis. There are plenty of reasons the Spurs loss but four down and a 2nd quarter lineup are not high on that list.

[Capt Bringdown]

Suns clogged the lanes and dared us to hit outside shots. I would have liked to have seen more adjustments. We played right into their hands.

If we continue this pattern, I don't like our chances. Standing around watching Duncan and jacking up jumpers isn't going to get us past this round.

[TDMVPDPOY]

was he wearing his lucky pink shirt this time?

[Boulevard1]

Forget it, Pop is great, small ball is ing bad ass, and 4down does a great job of getting everyone not named Tim Duncan into the flow of the game.

It worked great in 2001, 2002, and 2005, I'm sure this is going to work out just as good as those years.

Small ball killed the Spurs but Duncan needed to be taken out at that point. That was Gino's cue to take over.

And by the way, we won the le in 2005.

[MannyIsGod]

The next time we play small ball with 2 inch vertical Fabri Oberto as center Pop should be fired.

Oberto has been by far the best center for the Spurs in the post season with the obvious exception of Duncan. Elson is horrible and gets worse with every passing minute he spends on the floor.

[E20]

One thing I noticed was that in the 4th when Tim came in they posted up Tim w/ the entry pass from Barry 3 times in a row. The 1st post up resulted in a score, the second a bad shot and the third a bad shot again, the second and third attempt had help D. I think Tim should be more willing to pass out of that double team for the open man there isn't that much room to work with, but if he makes that pass and the Spurs swing the ball Tim could get a much easier shot or a three.

Manu and Barry I'm mad at, not angry at them, but more like disappointment. They pretty much stunk......BAD......... Tim,Finley, and Bowen came to play tonight.


On a postive note I saw better D on that P'n'R.

Also, the Spurs have to make Nash a scorer, when is getting less that 10 assists a game the Spurs have a much better chance of winning the game.

[baseline bum]

The Spurs lost this game because Horry and Finley got scared to shoot and Manu and Tony had bad games. happens, and great players have bad games and all, but please shoot the ing ball when you get it Rob and Fin. When they pass those shots up it totally screws the offense up. Really sad effort tonight from everyone not named Duncan.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

Small ball killed the Spurs but Duncan needed to be taken out at that point. That was Gino's cue to take over.

And by the way, we won the le in 2005.

I meant 2004.

I have no problem with Duncan getting a breather. I have a problem with our worst center with the worst foot speed and worst vertical as our lone post presence.

Play him with Horry or Elson, but don't put Scruberto out there by himself

[LaMarcus Bryant]

AHF I agree with you 99% when you about pop but tonight it is uncalled for, tonight's loss was ENTIRELY on Manu Ginobili. Our defense was there. Duncan was there. Parker is to be expected to have an off night, he's only been kicking ass all playoff season.

Ginobili is going to cost this team its run, Pop coached a fine Pop game tonight. You're off base.

[mattyc]

I agree to an extent. How can we expect Manu to get into the game with the small ball set up? He needs those big guys in there.

[Dingle Barry]

I like how we went with Barry instead of Finley during the middle of the game. That made sense.

[aaronstampler]

Pop has turned Manu into Brent Barry. They run 0 combination plays for him. It's either give him the ball at the top of the key with two guys overplaying him to the left or a spot up jumper.

God dammit can we run one pick and roll? One back pick? One give and go? All we run is isolation plays or 4 down, it's ing stupid. I don't care how good their point guard is one guy should not have more assists than our entire team.

[MannyIsGod]

He ran a ton of pick and rolls with Duncan.

[Capt Bringdown]

Entire 1st qtr Tall Ball with 2 of 3 in the whole time.
Result? Hard fought 25-19 lead and momentum.

Smallballs Pop is now rolled out for the 2nd quarter with Fabs Oberto as the Center along with Ginobili, Parker, Barry and Finley.
3 layups in a row after a short Diaw hook shot and its 28-27 Phx and momentum has been completely pissed away.

Yup, I think this was the pivotal moment in the game. It seemed we had them on the ropes, and the crowd was out of the game.
However, as others have pointed out, we can't play TD every minute, right?

Maybe we should have went with Horry over Oberto?

[MannyIsGod]

Do not ing put Manu sucking on Pop. Thats absolutely the biggest pile of steaming crap to come out of some of the posters here. Manu has started settling for jumpers and outside shots the entire playoffs. This is squarly on him.

[Amuseddaysleeper]

i'm sorry but manu used to be awesome for being able to create his own shot


i agree with manny, where manu gets an iso and settle for a way off step back jumper

[MannyIsGod]

Manu can still get to the basket. He did it in this game the few times he didn't settle for that damn jump shot. That shot is great when it goes in, but it hasn't gone in the entire post season and he has yet to just put his head down and drive on a consistant basis. Manu is doing this to himself.

And while teams are keying a lot more on him that has never stopped him in the past. Manu can get past the defense these teams are throwing at him he's just not doing it.

[aaronstampler]

You guys are morons. You must not be watching the games. When he gets a screen both defenders are chasing him after the screen and leaving the roller wide open. He has to pass. He has no other play.

[Dingle Barry]

Manu is a step slower this year and he seems to believe he is two steps slower than he really is. How many pumpfakes at the three point line?

[aaronstampler]

He actually has a better chance of getting to the basket without a screen now. All the screen does is give two defenders on him instead of one.

[MannyIsGod]

You guys are morons. You must not be watching the games. When he gets a screen both defenders are chasing him after the screen and leaving the roller wide open. He has to pass. He has no other play.

Ok, so he passes and the roller gets a layup. WTF is wrong with that? I'm not complaining about Manu creating off pick and rolls, I'm complaining about Manu settling for step back jumpers time and time again and NOT taking it to the hole.

[MannyIsGod]

He actually has a better chance of getting to the basket without a screen now. All the screen does is give two defenders on him instead of one.

Really? Then why doesn't he do it?

[Marcus Bryant]

Surprised Pop didn't run Horry more tonight. With the 3 day break that's a little surprising.

[Pistons < Spurs]

Who the are you going to play in the 2nd when you have Duncan in foul trouble? You don't have any bench bigs which look good when he goes to the bench, so who are you going to play? Elson and Oberto? HA. Oberto and Horry? Horry is great with Tim in there but without him he gives you for boards. They way Finley has been playing he's obviously the better choice. You don't seem to understand that with the team the Spurs have and the weak frontcourt bench they have that you're going to have to march lineups like that out there.