Bruce is so strong that he can defend anyone he want to except Manu
Manu is the best!
LOL.....That worked out really well for the Jazz huh? Probably kept Okur from ever being able to help on the offensive end......Duncan still got his....Tony got his.....Manu got his......And even Oberto got his.......
Anyone that's afraid for the Spurs to play the Cavs haven't been watching the same Spurs team play that I have.
I would guess it would go no more than 5.
I would kill to see them 2 playing a one on one in practice.(manu/bruce)
who has icq can add me into it
mine is 371088811
No doubt. We are going to their up.
I'm sorry but after atching last nights game, the Cavs dont; need to beat Detroit... Detroit beat Detroit.
Not to take away from LeBron..... but the Pistons finished themselves.
If Lebron (or anybody for that matter) is hitting crazy perimeter shots, there is not much you can do, but he is not going to pull off that performance too often.
typical spurs apologist. Duncan averages 21.8 pts. 9.6 boards 4.4 turnovers and 3.2 assists. and at times looked terrible - lost and confused. Thank goodness for GInobili or else we would still be playing the Jazz.
Not to be a hater, but that's the part that had me shaking my head last night. Lebron did some incredible things last night. But for every fade away 20 footer he put in over a double team he also had an easy as pie dunk or layup. The Pistons just looked lost at times down the stretch last night.
Lebron is an incredible talent, no doubt. But unless he has four or five more games like this left in his tank for the postseason I don't believe he can beat the Spurs. The Spurs wake is littered with superstars who got theirs and the teammates who got jack . Nash and Amare, Williams and Boozer, AI and Melo-all fishing. And whoever comes out of the east is going to join them.
Lebron is a monster, but no ONE player can beat the Spurs.
I am not saying the Cavs can beat the Spurs in a series and Okur shot terrible - maybe he was fatigued from checking Duncan - maybe he was just off - he had a lot of open looks that didn't go down..
I am saying the Spurs have no answer for Lebron. Hopefully Pop will be smart enough to run two people at him and get the ball out of his hands because the rest of the Cavs are not going to beat you-- but Lebron can do to the Spurs what he is doing to the Pistons and what D- Wade did to the Mavs last year. You are a fool if you don;t see that. The Spurs have no answer for that - on either end of the floor. The closes thing they have to that is Manu and he can't get his shot like Lebron can - especially is Lebron is guarding him - which I doubt.. I would put Lebron on Bowen and double TD with him.
So, I've heard that neither Detroit nor San Antonio can defend Lebron. So if that's true, then why did Detroit do such a good job on him in Games 1 and 2? They swarmed him, they double teamed him, they clogged the lane when he drove, they contested every shot he took, and they got him out of his rhythm early. That was in both Games 1 and 2. They were so good defensively on Lebron that he passed up a LAYUP and instead passed to an open teammate for three and the win. The reason Lebron's torched the Pistons the last three games is because they got away from that defensive plan. They quit playing Lebron aggressive in Games 3, 4, and 5. Their defense has been other than Games 1 and 2.
The Spurs played the Nuggets, a team that some said is better than the Cavs. Wrong! The Cavs are better, but is the tandem of Anthony/Iverson not more deadly than Lebron by himself? The Spurs held Iverson to 22.8 ppg on 37% shooting and 29% on 3FG. I know someone is going to come in here and say that Iverson jacks up shots and always shoots low, but keep in mind he shot 45% FG and 35% 3FG with Denver, averaging 25 ppg. Iverson averages 30 ppg over his career in the playoffs. San Antonio put Bowen on him, contested every shot he took, and often swarmed him too.
Anthony did much better against the Spurs than Iverson, mostly because he poses a bad matchup problem for the Spurs. Pop unfortunately put Finley on Anthony a lot of the time and it cost us. The reason Anthony put up numbers is because the Spurs had two superstars to focus on, not just one. Also, Nuggets supporting cast is more consistent than the Cavs' supporting cast, in terms of offensive production. The Spurs chose to shut down Iverson and numerous other supporting role players.
With the Cavs, the Spurs have to focus in on Lebron with their entire defense. Sure, we can stick Bowen on him. Bowen will contest every shot. But, Lebron is bigger, taller, and stronger than Bowen. Bowen will need help. The Spurs can take the Pistons' approach in Games 1 and 2, and swarm Lebron with every possession. They can double team him, they can force him to give it to his teammates, and they can clog the paint every time he drives and force his teammates to hit outside shots. This is similar to a zone defense. In fact, the Spurs should play zone defense for streches and force the entire Cavs team to become jumpshooters. Lebron will NOT make all of his jumpers, especially if they are wide open. He makes more shots fading away than he does just normal shots!
The Cavs, should they make it to the Finals, can still beat the Spurs if the Spurs do not stop James. Of course, the Spurs can't stop James EVERY game. They will have lapses, they are only human. But, it's not impossible to stop Lebron. The Spurs can do it. They have very good team defense, as well as individual defenders. It's going to take committment and they must be relentless when it comes to their defensive plan. If they do so, they can beat the Cavs.
Bruno do you have any stats for when Kobe guards LeBron? That would be interesting to see, as Kobe is of course a SG...and probably the best defensive SG in the league.
I'm not sure Kobe defend LeBron when Cavs play against Lakers.
Anyway, you can use this tool to have LeBron stats against a certain player :
http://www.basketball-reference.com/...i?p1=jamesle01
LeBron will get his points but Bruce and Spurs won't do worse job on him than other teams.
IMO, the two keys against Cavs for Spurs are :
- Hustling : Spurs must match Cavs energy.
- Offensive execution : Cavs have shutdown Spurs this year, Spurs must do a better job on the offensive end.
i get tired of hearing how well okur shut down duncan... he caused a few more turnovers than usual on him for 2 games and that was that.... wtf?
What is with the schoolgirl type panic here? Yes, Lebron had a performance for the ages but IF the Cavs win the series then he would have to repeat this at least *four* more times to beat the Spurs.
Not going to happen.
LMAO at how all of a sudden lebron james is better than jordan. He'll come back down to earth either in one of these last two games against the pistons or against the spurs.
Sorry but the pistons are just not the pistons that they were two years ago. If detroit was still lead by ben wallace and larry brown, we wouldn't see lebron waltzing into the lane and the jumpshot just got a little hot last night.
Could I run off 29 points in a row?
No, but somewhere within the next 2 or 3 games, we're going to see lebron re-enter earth's atmosphere.
Really it was a nice performance, but come on! Some people are acting as if this guy is now a better player than michael jordan ever was ( espn analysts especially).
I can't wait for this guy to come back to earth and for everyone to realize that the flip saunders-coached pistons are pretty mediocre.
People please, let's not get carried away by one game.
Mike Brown knows things?
LeBRon has assraped us for about 3 years now...the only year we had someone capable of guarding him was when we had Hedo.
It's not panic...
It's that lots of Spursfans are what I would like to term, overly naive about this team...
Fine if you want to be that way, there is a time and place for it...
But some of us do want to discuss stuff objectively amongs our fellow Spursfans...
Objectively..LeBron slapped us this year and last year...
It's not a fluke, he plays well against us...and so do the Cavs.
If you think we are just being panicky...take a look at the Mavs.
I don't think we would have beaten they Mavs...yet the Warriors, which were basically a joke to us...dismissed them from the playoffs like they were garbage...
Anyone that thinks that can't happen to us...wasn't paying attention last year.
This team is not invincible, it hasn't played particularly well...it hasn't faced a particularly tough schedule in the post, yet still IMO, was fortunate to get past Phoenix.
The Jazz team we just beat was not that good. There was no Stockton and Malone there.
IT's just being realistic...
For years many a Spurfan has bemoaned our lack of a long or true SF...and the Cavs have a monster SF, a coaching staff that knows our team, and they are going to be confident against us.
Cleveland is no joke...not one bit. The Spurs are going to be in for a dogfight if that's the team they meet...
You guys go ahead and homer out all you want...I probably will too at some point...but right now the threat the Cavs could present is a legitimate discussion.
Homer away...I am sure someone will start a go Spurs go thread and if that's all ya'll want to do....have at it.
as long as barry does not guard barry spurs will be fine
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