Reply With Quote
I don't know if it hasn't more to do with Blair sucking...
The Spurs MUST come out on Wednesday the exact same way the Nuggets are playing the Thunder right now, with loads of energy, heart, and passion.....
I don't know if it hasn't more to do with Blair sucking...
Does that mean you think he made that decision during the game?
No. It means that when he made the decision, it was out of panic.
Imo Manu's elbow injury on one of the first plays of the last game of the reg season was more bad luck than not. Likewise with Duncan facing his only significant injury towards the end of the season.
But yea a point I've repeated is that the Spurs aren't even a compe ive playoffs team with both a declining and unhealthy Big 3. Also Parker's been incredibly bad.
When you're playing veterans, injuries are part of it... but Manu or Tim were far from the problem in this series IMO. It's the softie heads we surrounded them with since Bowen/Oberto called it quits. Dice and Neal were the only guys that had right at ude, but one is a rook and the other is showing his mileage...
I don't know what happened with Tony. Maybe he's not hungry anymore.
Look who's cooking us in Memphis... Darrel Arthur, Mike Conley Jr, freaking Vazquez looked like a possessed man... Last season was Dudley, Channing Frye and ponytail ... In close games those guys stepped up and made the difference... we're still waiting for Hill to call a play before there are 5 seconds left on the clock, or RJ to take a mid-air contorted jumper because the play broke down 3 times... and for Bonner to hit a 3 to save his life...
Giving Blair's minutes to Splitter in the first half wasn't panic. That change should have happened after game 1 when it was clear this wasn't the right matchups for Blair to excel, or even be serviceable.
Pop trotting Splitter out as the starting center at the start of the third, that was flat out panic.
Convinces me that the Spurs need to scrap their style and just go for straight ballers. class, that only works when you have the best of the best. The Spurs need some Tony Allens of their own, types of players that won't back down and hide. RJ and George Hill, given that they both have great athletic ability and basketball frames for their respective positions, are nothing compared to their potential. They're 2 of the most inconsistent pussies in the world and need to be shipped the out of here. I'm pretty sure I could whoop the out of George Hill with 2 broken fists.
I like Neal, it's only his first year and he should get better at a lot of the small things. He still shoots the ball with confidence, even with the adversity of the situation and also considering it was his first season, let alone play off, and he was taking some good shots tonight, whether or not they all went in.
RJ, Hill, and Bonner... please, GTFOutta here.
man, the Spurs really ED up my birthday. god-damnit. if its not depressing enough get nearer to old age, they went and dropped a steaming stinky turd on the legacy of Spurs basketball. a night of disgrace & humiliation. Pop bears some blame, but lets face it, every single Spur, except for maybe Tiago Splitter, has been worse in the post-season than the regular season. Parker - garbage. RJ - garbage. Hill - garbage. Bonner - garbage. Manu - injured. Tim - old. Dice - garbage. Blair - ?.
what can you say? the Spurs suck. SUCK. Barkley, that ass, was right again.
EXACTLY. Game 1 was when it became ING OBVIOUS that we needed a BIG man like Tiago in there to deal with Gasol. Took Pop way too ing long to see the obvious.
Tiago waves o (with his -14 dominance on the court tonight)
lol at bonner lovers
lol 26% from 3 in the playoffs
But Tiago wasn't the problem, right?
Did you notice the Turd Towers hardly playing anymore. You think pop finally realized they are worthless?
The thing particularly hurting Blair this time around is he's missing point blank layups/tip-ins which is normally his specialty on offense, either come from the weakside or off of the high PnR. Bonner made some timely baskets early in the game but the shot overall hasn't been there and it's made him (like many of the role players) hesitate to shoot. Guys have to realize that while it's good to move the ball around from one side of the court to the other someone has to shoot at some point because as the ball moves around and the possession goes deeper into the shotclock it puts more pressure on the guy who's eventually going to have to get it up and aids Memphis on defense (especially if the passes aren't on target/high percentage, which a good amount of the ones in Game 4 won't).
I felt so sure that the Spurs would win tonight....I was expecting them to be on the giving end of a blowout-not the receiving end!
What a disappointment.It seems like the inevitable is finally coming upon us & it doesn't feel good....but there's also a glimmer of hope that the Spurs will shake whatever it is out of their systems and come up with a win on their homecourt wednesday-nuggets were on the brink & they won tonight, 76ers were on the brink Sunday and they eked out a win.....it just takes 1 win...no matter how big or small the margin......just 1 win.
It's not Tiago - it's Pop with his arrogance, small ball, corporate knowledge, system. Don't even talk about +/-, especially since Bonner is the king of that stat.
Just stop.
The decision to play Splitter at all was panic, because he went against what he'd been saying all season long. If he believed it, then he panicked. If he was mad at Splitter for something, then he panicked.
Pop bringing out Splitter at the start of the third was brilliant. It could have saved the game for the Spurs but nobody showed up. They Grizzlies came out playing playoff speed and the Spurs didn't. Pop blaming Splitter for the run by the Grizzlies and subbing in Dice was panic.
He's been so badly outcoached for so long, it's actually sad to see.
this is spot on.
These unproven, young, inexperienced players for Memphis are stepping the up.
And, they're not scared, unlike some Spurs we can think of.
Imagine that, roleplayers stepping up. It's such a strange thing. Spurs fans have been conditioned to accept excuses for their roleplayers stinking up the joint, making it a shock when another team's players do it. You all know the typical excuses, "But, Bonner didn't have Manu to open it up for him (2009)". "But, Bonner is best suited for 15 minutes a game!" "But, RJ is adjusting to his role. After a full year in the system, watch out!" "But, Roger Mason is out of position at point guard"
Please. Roleplayers step it up or they don't.
Memphis has roleplayers that so far have largely stepped it up, the Spurs haven't. No excuses.
I would also add that the blaming of Splitter for the 3rd quarter collapse is a little exaggerated. I just re-watched the first 3 minutes of the 3rd, and it could hardly be blamed on him or his chemistry. Yes, he deserves criticism for his missed shot in the paint. But he wasn't the one bricking jumpers or passing the ball into a turnover like Tony (who has done it all series) or just dribbling a ball with elbows and wrists out of bounds like Hill.
I strongly suspect that McDyess in those three minutes would have ended in much the same way.
Such a good season down the drain, just like that. From day one of this season it felt so good, It felt like one more last time for this team to take a serious shot at the le,everything went well and what happens, getting beat by the Grizzlies!!! We, the fans were thinking about being possible to beat the Bulls and Celtics and Heat in the finals and even saying that with confidence, but they can't even get past the f*cking Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies with their confidence and their Swag, which they had from the moment they were intentionally tanking to play the Spurs, just came on court and crushed the Spurs just like that. It's over. There has to be a miracle for the Spurs to come back from 3-1 and even if they manage to ing do it somehow, the next teams in line will be the Thunder and the Lakers, well I don't see these Spurs playing like this beating them, not even a chance.
Now, I don't like giving up and being all negative, but this time it's different, it feels different. Realistically there is no chance for the Spurs to get back, Im afraid it's over.
I hope your wrong.
Not in the sense of wining championship because I never believed that in any point of the season.
But I really think there was no sudden realization on the team that they weren't good enough to win it all.
They already knew it was a long shot for them. Pop saying all season long that they were not the better team in the league despite their record was not just some go under the radar strategy, it was the true and he knew it.
And because of that I hope they keep figthing for the best possible outcome even if they know the ultimate goal won't be achieved.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
