Anybody else have any thoughts on the Cavs PnR defense? Were they worried too much about covering the perimenter? I mean, even the Nuggies and Suns played it better than that.
They flat out sucked. I said it in the game thread, and have earlier in this one. We need to run PnR until they prove they can stop it.
We tore Cleveland up the first quarter of G1 with it, then went away from it for the entire second quarter and struggled greatly.
Why, I don't know...
The Spurs had three 3 pointers attempted, all misses, until Manu's shot at the end of the first half off a designed play. Limiting three opportunities was good defense by the Cavs. It was fool's gold because the Spurs weren't hitting anything and were still up by five because of their dominance inside. When you have to give up the paint in order to limit jumpers that's not championship defense. If they dare to change it up it's going to get bloody real fast.
For Finley it's probably more Jitters than anything. It seems it always takes Manu a game or 2 or sometimes 3 to catch fire. And you all know the story with Horry.
So you don't think that Cleveland is going to collaspe the paint on Duncan and force us to make jumpers being as though thats where we killed them Fri?
The best way to beat anybody in the playoffs is to make them shoot contested jumpers. Especially if they've got a Duncan on the blocks.
Obviously you don't want to leave people wide open behind the arc, but you've got to think that you'd rather have guys trying to closing out jump shooters than giving up easy shots in the paint and picking up fouls.
I was just answering the question about defending the pick and roll. The most success they've had so far is in giving up the paint to limit threes, but they still got shredded and Duncan wasn't really having a good offensive game. In my opinion, they have no choice but to try harder to defend the rim, and everybody knows it because otherwise Duncan's gonna drop 40 points on them. The Spurs are all telling their shooters to be ready and the lead's going to get out of control really quick unless the Spurs just can't throw it in the ocean. I'm on record saying I expect this game to be a runaway before halftime because of the wide open shots. The Cavs can't stop everything, and because of that, in the end they won't be able to stop anything.
...and they didn't even do a good job on defending the 3, as the Spurs shot 37.5% on 16 3pt attempts in Game 1. That was a shade under their regular season average of 38.1%. If they had shot 37.5% from 3 in the regular season their ranking in 3pt FG% would not have changed (4th).
But the Spurs only had four attempts in the first half, the one make on Manu's shot with one second left off a designed inbounds play. Holding the Spurs to four attempts and one make was pretty good.
About the only impact the Cavs were able to have on the Spurs' perimeter game was that the Spurs averaged 19.0 3pt attempts per game in the regular season and 19.5 per game in the playoffs. The Spurs have shot 39.0% from 3 in the playoffs so maybe there's been a slight impact, but overall the impact of the Cavs' D has been negligible.
Your post always seem to give me reassurance when I start thinking otherwise.
Sure, but that didn't translate into a lead at half. The Spurs still got into the paint far too often, the big 3 got their points, and the Spurs still 'got theirs' from beyond the arc.
Agreed. It don't look good for the Cavs, do it?
If I could find any reason to be worried, I'd be worried. Lebron is capable of dropping 40 or 50 on the Spurs and winning a game by himself. Probably not going to do it twice, though. The Spurs are capable of taking a game off, as they've done before, but probably not two.
Early in the game, the Spurs were effective with Parker-Duncan pick and rolls that were defended by James and Ilgauskas. I would think that Pop would exploit that every time it happens, because Ilgauskas doesn't have the speed to give any sort of a hedge to Parker. Parker was able to turn the corner pretty much whenever he wanted to, which made the Cavs defense quite vulnerable. With Ilgauskas involved, Cleveland can't switch the play, so that also creates space for Duncan to make a hard roll to the rim as James and Ilgauskas scramble to get back to their assignments.
It seems to me that one obvious cure is to play Gooden or Varejao on Duncan in that situation, but: (1) the Spurs' counter to that would seem to be pounding the ball to Duncan in 4-down mode so that he can exploit his advantages over those guys; and (2) that leaves the other side of the floor, where the Spurs can do to Ilgauskas what they did to Boozer early in the WCF, running Oberto/Elson to the rim on backdoor plays and giving them some easy looks.
Ultimately, I think that as long as James is checking Parker, you have to make him work on the defensive end and one great way to do that is to play pick and roll with Parker and Duncan. That combination, I think, just presents too many decisions for the Cavs and too many options for the Spurs with the added benefit of taxing Lebron a bit.
As much as it would seem to be contrary to Pop's personality, I wonder if the Spurs chose to stop pounding the Cavs with pick and roll hoping to give them something else to look at for Game 2. I would agree that the Cavs' first counter would seem to be the decision to pack it in (I wonder now why more teams don't just start playoff series against the Spurs with that mentality) and force jump shots, which takes away some of the pick and roll stuff and puts the onus on the wings to make some shots. Had the Spurs consistently hit shots late in Game 1, it might have made the Cavs think twice about packing the lane - if that's Brown's first adjustment.
Good call. The shooters will be that much tougher if they can hit some open shots early, and then let Duncan handle mop up duty when they try to adjust.
Against other opposing coaches I might worry, but I think Pop already has trumps 2 and 3 to drop on the Cavs' moves in Game 2.
Nah. Brown might be an average coach, but I don't think their problems are going to be addressed with adjustments. At least Custer could have turned back.
The Cavs are going to have to cut off Parker's penetration. I'm expecting them to focus on him in Game 2 and do what they can to take the ball out of his hands. The problem is, the Spurs are used to rotating the ball and finding the open opportunity. Maybe they pack the paint and force the Spurs to beat them from outside. The last team in recent memory that I've seen pull that off with any success was the '04 Lakers and they had probably the most physically intimidating frontcourt in NBA history. The Spurs had Hedo.
I completely agree with your take, Obstructed View.
Unless we can't hit the broad side of a barn, this next game is win by at least 15 points.
LeBron will have a better game, but the improvement in our offense (which was clearly badly affected by the 8 days off) will be greater than the improvement in LeBron's offense.
Game 2 probably is a win by a wide margin.
This also was Rich Kamla's take on NBA tv.
Those jumpshots were just too wide open and our shooters have proven over the years that they can knock those out. We have proven shooters on this team:
Finley (shooting about 50 % from 3 prior to last game), Barry (high % 3 pt shooter), Manu (shooting better than 50 % from 3 this playoffs), Bruce (from the corner, in any event, is pretty reliable), Bonner (42 % from 3 for his career).
Fortunately there are no ex-Kings on the perimeter, and no gold jerseys to make them piss themselves. Quicker rotation by the Cavs just means shooters are that much more open.
If they cut off Parker's penetration, Finley, Ginobili, Bowen, and Horry better be ready to make shots.
Period.
Bottom line is to run alot and use a lot of PnRs to get the Cavs bigs into foul troubles. Expect Parker to be defended profusely. They may use the same set on Parker as we have used on James. In that case, the open man has better hit his shots. I see immediately a bigger role for Manu. If Manu is on, there is no one in that Cavs team who can stop him. And with so much attention focused on Parker and Duncan, Oberto better has at least a B+ game..
I have a feeling this game will come down to the Spurs' three-point shooters hitting shots. To stop Parker's penetration and the Spurs' pick-and-rolls, I expect Mike Brown to send help. That should leave shooters open.
If the Spurs can capitalize against that defensive strategy as well as they did in Game 1 and Game 2 of the Jazz series, the Spurs will be fine. But if the Big 3 isn't passing well or the outside shooters are missing, it could get ugly for the Spurs offensively.
That said, Mike Brown knows the Spurs are going to expect that adjustment because that's how every team adjusts to the Spurs. Brown could very well go with a defense that just will force Parker into hitting jump shots. He could put LeBron on Parker and just go way under every PnR and just not let Parker penetrate.
If that's the case, hopefully Parker can knock down a few jumpers. As a Spurs fan, the second defensive adjustment is scarier than the first one. Outside of 2004 versus the Lakers, the Spurs have always made teams pay for leaving three point shooters. If Parker misses 17 footers and they deny him the lane, that will bog down the Spurs offense.
Either way, if the Spurs can get out and run and get a lot of fast break points, that could be enough right there. Parker and Manu need to attack early in the shot clock whenever possible.
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