Pop benches Duncan for super small ball

[J_Paco]

Pop needs to take some of the blame for the offensive inep ude on display. The reason we managed to put up 45 in the first half is because Parker and Duncan were scoring on iso plays. There was no productive ball movement; some of the passing was really pointless. So D'Antoni goes to the zone taking away the iso threats of Tony and Tim. And then the lack of fluency in the offense begins to stick out like a sore thumb; people are standing around and playing hot potato with the rock.

That isn't the only sign of the insipid offense. When Boris Diaw fronts Duncan, no one on the perimeter has the confidence or skill to throw a lob over the defense. When Manu drives the lane, all the defense needs to do is surround him because the wild pass leading to a turnover is coming next.

Basically the offense has become predictable. And today the formula to beat the Spurs was nicely unraveled by one of the worst defensive coaches in the league. Play zone. Crowd the paint to stop Tony's drive. Put a bigger man on Tim or front him. Rotate from the weak side on the Ginobili drive and expect the horrible kick-out pass. When we saw the zone for the first time, it was obvious that we were unprepared and caught off-guard. And Pop had no adjustments in his bag of tricks to counter it.

Wow, you really hit the nail on the head with that analysis!!!! Pop's coaching was all-around terrible tonight. Saying he's got confidence in Manu, but then barely playing him in that pathetic 4th quarter.

[T Park]

Duncan and Ginobili both played like absolute s.

[milkyway21]

How long did Manu play in the fourth quarter? Seems like he was out there for only a 1 minute or 2.

I'm not a sore loser but I don't like it when Pop raises the white flag too early. that game vs NO back then ,then vs Utah, now Suns.

kind of unacceptable, you know.

[Lebowski Brickowski]

Hubie said it right -- they can't score against the zone.

Some people might say Cia Pop with the Duncan and Tony benchings because that's when the game was lost and Pop didn't seem to care enough to change things.

But if you've been watching the Spurs for a long while, you know that Pop's subs utions are oftentimes, ummm, unorthodox, to say the least. Taking out the hot hand is almost Pop's calling card.

[J_Paco]

Because they were getting blown out.

Please, they had to be down less the 10, since Finley came in and hit a three that cut it to 6. Yet, Manu never saw the floor again.

I ing hate it when Pop pulls that Phil Jackson crap, trying to let the players play through opponents runs and their own mistakes, if he hasn't noticed it rarely works.

[J_Paco]

I'm not a sore loser but I don't like it when Pop raises the white flag too early. that game vs NO back then ,then vs Utah, now Suns.

kind of unacceptable, you know.

I completely concur. That's gotta be the biggest pussy move this late in the season. , they dug themselves that huge a deficit so see if they've got the balls to get out of it. I know this team has won championships, but that makes them look weak-minded or like they give up easily.

[Capt Bringdown]

You can look at what the Spurs did or didn't do, but this game was truly about the Suns beating the Spurs.
The Suns moves made them very compe ive against the Spurs. They looked like the better team out there tonight, and comparisons to last year are worthless.

[T Park]

Please, they had to be down less the 10, since Finley came in and hit a three that cut it to 6. Yet, Manu never saw the floor again.

I ing hate it when Pop pulls that Phil Jackson crap, trying to let the players play through opponents runs and their own mistakes, if he hasn't noticed it rarely works.

1 manu never saw the floor again because he was playing like a less talented more pussifed Rasho ing Nesterovich.

2, they were down 17 with about 2 30 left in the game.

The ing game was over.

[spursfan09]

Remember when Finley scored 5 straight points? A 3, then a lay up? Then I think Phoenix called time out and Finley was on the bench when they started playing again?

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

what has manu averaged in that stretch

Manu has sucked during this stretch, but then again so has everyone on this team. Of course, tonight he hit two in a row during that run in the third, then Pop took him out (when he took Tim out), and no Tim combined with your boy Tony ing up six straight trips killed us.

* Disclaimer: I didn't want to make this a Tony vs. Manu thing, but you being the Tony lover you are had to try and go there, way to threadcrap...

Manu needs to up his game, but I also think that's a pretty lofty task. Between Pop running him almost 40 minutes a game earlier this spring and the trendy thing for Pop to do of late with Manu has been to put him on the floor with lineups like tonight when at one point it was Manu, Finley, Thomas, Udoka, and Vaughn, I'm not sure we can expect much more than we're getting out of him right now.

And predictably, Phoenix's entire defense was keying on Manu, basically the closest defender to Manu was leaving his man and daring that guy to beat us (and it worked out well for Phoenix - it was either a brickfest from one of those four or a turnover by Manu).

Oh, and on top of the small ball fiasco, a big you to Pop as well for sitting Tony the first six minutes of the second half after we had built that entire lead up, that was fun watching the backups with Vaughn playing point piss that entire lead away. Did Parker really need a fifteen minute (realtime counting timeouts and end of quarter) break? Kid's still young...

[braeden0613]

Manu has sucked during this stretch, but then again so has everyone on this team. Of course, tonight he hit two in a row during that run in the third, then Pop took him out (when he took Tim out), and no Tim combined with your boy Tony ing up six straight trips killed us.

* Disclaimer: I didn't want to make this a Tony vs. Manu thing, but you being the Tony lover you are had to try and go there, way to threadcrap...

Manu needs to up his game, but I also think that's a pretty lofty task. Between Pop running him almost 40 minutes a game earlier this spring and the trendy thing for Pop to do of late with Manu has been to put him on the floor with lineups like tonight when at one point it was Manu, Finley, Thomas, Udoka, and Vaughn, I'm not sure we can expect much more than we're getting out of him right now.

And predictably, Phoenix's entire defense was keying on Manu, basically the closest defender to Manu was leaving his man and daring that guy to beat us (and it worked out well for Phoenix - it was either a brickfest from one of those four or a turnover by Manu).

Oh, and on top of the small ball fiasco, a big you to Pop as well for sitting Tony the first six minutes of the second half after we had built that entire lead up, that was fun watching the backups with Vaughn playing point piss that entire lead away. Did Parker really need a fifteen minute (realtime counting timeouts and end of quarter) break? Kid's still young...

+100

[J_Paco]

1 manu never saw the floor again because he was playing like a less talented more pussifed Rasho ing Nesterovich.

2, they were down 17 with about 2 30 left in the game.

The ing game was over.

Sure, I realize the game was over at that point. But, against Utah and New Orleans Pop pulled the same with enough time to make a run and keep the game compe ive. It happens all the time in the L.

Manu played like , yes, but you've got to ride your best horses all the way through to the end. Manu's the type of guy that can play like , but makes a game-changing play that can spark a victory. Nobody that was on the floor, even Tim and Tony, in the fourth could do that IMO. Instead, we bared witness to Timmy and Tony shooting bricks,while Finley and Oberto are non-factors and Pop running plays for Bruce Bowen down 10+ points.

Yeah, I would've taken Manu throwing up bricks over at least two of those scenarios.

[T Park]

a big you to Pop as well for sitting Tony the first six minutes of the second half after we had built that entire lead up

I didn't know Vaughn started the third quarter..

I know what you meant, chill out.

[T Park]

Yeah, I realize the game was over at that point. But, against Utah and New Orleans Pop pulled the same with enough time to make a run and keep the game compe ive. It happens all the time in the L.

Manu played like , yes, but you've got to ride your best horses all the way through to the end. Manu's the type of guy that can play like , but makes a game-changing play that can spark a victory. Nobody that was on the floor, even Tim and Tony, in the fourth could do that IMO. Instead, we bared witness to Timmy and Tony shooting bricks,while Finley and Oberto are non-factors and Pop running plays for Bruce Bowne down 10+ points.

Yeah, I would've taken Manu throwing up bricks over at least two of those scenarios.

Hard for Finley to be a factor when he only gets 5 shots.

There was no plays run for Bowen.

The game against Utah was over too, as was the ing game in New Orleans, get over it.

[Solid D]

Duncan had already played 8 and 1/2 minutes in the 3rd quarter when Pop pulled him out. It's not so unbelieveable to consider Pop taking Tim out after playing 3/4 of the quarter already. Timmy didn't exactly dominate on Diaw when he did have his opportunity to exploit. Did Pop tell Parker to miss jumpers and go under the screen with 5 seconds left in the quarter on Barbosa at the arc?

When Timmy came back in after a 3 and 1/2 minute rest, trailing by 4 Timmy played another 8 and 1/2 minutes and failed to step up.

Credit the Suns' great play at both ends, the Spurs' lack of execution and poor shooting for this Suns win.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

You can look at what the Spurs did or didn't do, but this game was truly about the Suns beating the Spurs.
The Suns moves made them very compe ive against the Spurs. They looked like the better team out there tonight, and comparisons to last year are worthless.

Please. Find your takes somewhere besides ESPN's talking heads, who love Phoenix.

We had a chance to bury Phoenix TWICE and it was ed up by Pop's subs ution patterns.

1. Parker raced us out to a nice lead towards the end of the first, was taken out with a minute left in the quarter, and did not come back in until 6 minutes left in the second quarter and by that time we had gone from up 10 to losing.

2. The bigger one, Tim gets Shaq and Amare their fourth fouls with a little over 3 minutes left in the 3rd, we're up 9. Both guys are on the bench, Boris ing Diaw of all people is guarding Duncan (what a joke), and Pop subs him out.

We roll out Kurt Thomas at the five, Michael Finley at the four against Diaw , and Phoenix comes down and goes ape on offense, getting buckets in the lane like they're going out of style.

We should have had Tim in and posted him up every time, and it would have been game over. Instead Pop made his stupid ass 'adjust to the other team' adjustment that he seems so flippin' fond of, and that was that - it let Phoenix back in the game at a time when it was over.

If Pop is slightly more competent than a dead man when it comes to his personnel decisions tonight, Spurs win this one going away. Instead, he makes D'Antoni look competent and we're this much closer to being on the road for what is probably going to be a very short playoff season.

[ploto]

Remember when small ball was Rasho's fault and Nazr's fault. Then it was Francisco's fault and Jackie's fault. Now I suppose it is Kurt's fault.

[J_Paco]

Hard for Finley to be a factor when he only gets 5 shots.

There was no plays run for Bowen.

The game against Utah was over too, as was the ing game in New Orleans, get over it.

Actually, I believe it was ran out of a time-out. Yup, at the 4:33 mark Pop ran a play for Bruce Bowen out of a 20 second time-out. Like I said, I'd take Manu throwing up bricks along with the rest of his teammates on the floor over the line-up Pop played in the fourth.

[ManuTim_best of Fwiendz]

Sure, I realize the game was over at that point. But, against Utah and New Orleans Pop pulled the same with enough time to make a run and keep the game compe ive. It happens all the time in the L.

Manu played like , yes, but you've got to ride your best horses all the way through to the end. Manu's the type of guy that can play like , but makes a game-changing play that can spark a victory. Nobody that was on the floor, even Tim and Tony, in the fourth could do that IMO. Instead, we bared witness to Timmy and Tony shooting bricks,while Finley and Oberto are non-factors and Pop running plays for Bruce Bowen down 10+ points.

Yeah, I would've taken Manu throwing up bricks over at least two of those scenarios.

+ 1

I don't know if Pop is doing this because it's regular season or what.
But the game was at a 9 point difference for two minutes left between the 7 minute to five minute mark. It was a W up for grabs! Tim and Manu both had games where they've shot 1-10 then made 5 consecutive shots in a row in the 4th. Especially with a guy like Manu.
I know, at times it's appropriate to teach the guys a lesson, but these are the champs. Sometimes Pop goes to far. He needs to remember the rule about playing full 48 minutes. He pretty much waved the white flag by not putting our best lineup on, in crunch time.

[J_Paco]

Hard for Finley to be a factor when he only gets 5 shots.

There was no plays run for Bowen.

The game against Utah was over too, as was the ing game in New Orleans, get over it.

I'm sorry master of all Spurs fan, but I'm not cool with the head coach giving up games because he believes that their "over." Well, if these losses cost the team the 2nd seed and home-court in the first-round, well I guess I'll have to get over my team possibly losing to Houston, Phoenix or Utah.

[NRHector]

Please. Find your takes somewhere besides ESPN's talking heads, who love Phoenix.

We had a chance to bury Phoenix TWICE and it was ed up by Pop's subs ution patterns.

1. Parker raced us out to a nice lead towards the end of the first, was taken out with a minute left in the quarter, and did not come back in until 6 minutes left in the second quarter and by that time we had gone from up 10 to losing.

2. The bigger one, Tim gets Shaq and Amare their fourth fouls with a little over 3 minutes left in the 3rd, we're up 9. Both guys are on the bench, Boris ing Diaw of all people is guarding Duncan (what a joke), and Pop subs him out.

We roll out Kurt Thomas at the five, Michael Finley at the four against Diaw , and Phoenix comes down and goes ape on offense, getting buckets in the lane like they're going out of style.

We should have had Tim in and posted him up every time, and it would have been game over. Instead Pop made his stupid ass 'adjust to the other team' adjustment that he seems so flippin' fond of, and that was that - it let Phoenix back in the game at a time when it was over.

If Pop is slightly more competent than a dead man when it comes to his personnel decisions tonight, Spurs win this one going away. Instead, he makes D'Antoni look competent and we're this much closer to being on the road for what is probably going to be a very short playoff season.

you are so en right

[ManuTim_best of Fwiendz]

I'm sorry master of all Spurs fan, but I'm not cool with the head coach giving up games because he's believe that their "over." Well, if these losses cost the team the 2nd seed and home-court in the first-round, well I guess I'll have to get over my team possibly losing to Houston, Phoenix or Utah.

Pop as great a coach he is, is too conservative when it comes to his "if you're gonna play like , don't bother showing up for the game completely" angle.

I hate the idea of waving the white flag early as a disciplinary action against the team. Maybe in normal regular season it's fine. But accepting a loss when the game is far from over, just rubs me the wrong way.
I hated it when he did it in the playoff team for Utah.

Guess it's a matter of preference *shrugs*

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Pop needs to take some of the blame for the offensive inep ude on display. The reason we managed to put up 45 in the first half is because Parker and Duncan were scoring on iso plays. There was no productive ball movement; some of the passing was really pointless. So D'Antoni goes to the zone taking away the iso threats of Tony and Tim. And then the lack of fluency in the offense begins to stick out like a sore thumb; people are standing around and playing hot potato with the rock.

That isn't the only sign of the insipid offense. When Boris Diaw fronts Duncan, no one on the perimeter has the confidence or skill to throw a lob over the defense. When Manu drives the lane, all the defense needs to do is surround him because the wild pass leading to a turnover is coming next.

Basically the offense has become predictable. And today the formula to beat the Spurs was nicely unraveled by one of the worst defensive coaches in the league. Play zone. Crowd the paint to stop Tony's drive. Put a bigger man on Tim or front him. Rotate from the weak side on the Ginobili drive and expect the horrible kick-out pass. When we saw the zone for the first time, it was obvious that we were unprepared and caught off-guard. And Pop had no adjustments in his bag of tricks to counter it.

Great post. Doesn't bode well for the playoffs though, where the opposition coach gets to adjust to your game 7 games straight.

We are really lacking a consistent 4th offensive option. We need another creator on this team really badly, to put on the floor with Manu so defenses can't just key on him. Instead, Manu tends to play a lot of minutes with 4 other guys relying on him, so it's no surprise he gets shut down.

[1Parker1]

Spurs are easy to defend when they basically have 3 scoring options. Teams are just daring the likes of Bowen, Finley, Vaughn, and Udoka to take the shots and beat them.

What's more scary than Pop's small ball technique is Pop's apparent calmness about the Spurs play of late. Ric Bucher interviews him and he's joking around saying har-har we gotta now stop Nash. This team has no fire and I would have thought they'd be more energized to play tonight after having 3 days off and avenging the last game against the Suns.

[RuffnReadyOzStyle]

Please. Find your takes somewhere besides ESPN's talking heads, who love Phoenix.

We had a chance to bury Phoenix TWICE and it was ed up by Pop's subs ution patterns.

1. Parker raced us out to a nice lead towards the end of the first, was taken out with a minute left in the quarter, and did not come back in until 6 minutes left in the second quarter and by that time we had gone from up 10 to losing.

2. The bigger one, Tim gets Shaq and Amare their fourth fouls with a little over 3 minutes left in the 3rd, we're up 9. Both guys are on the bench, Boris ing Diaw of all people is guarding Duncan (what a joke), and Pop subs him out.

We roll out Kurt Thomas at the five, Michael Finley at the four against Diaw , and Phoenix comes down and goes ape on offense, getting buckets in the lane like they're going out of style.

We should have had Tim in and posted him up every time, and it would have been game over. Instead Pop made his stupid ass 'adjust to the other team' adjustment that he seems so flippin' fond of, and that was that - it let Phoenix back in the game at a time when it was over.

If Pop is slightly more competent than a dead man when it comes to his personnel decisions tonight, Spurs win this one going away. Instead, he makes D'Antoni look competent and we're this much closer to being on the road for what is probably going to be a very short playoff season.

Yup, yup, yup. We were both screaming about it in the game thread. And he also took out Manu at about the 5 minute mark after he had just found his touch on two nice drives.

Pop should've left them both in and run either 4-down or Manu-Tim pnrs for the rest of the quarter. Could've built a 15pt lead right there and it would've been game over, but no, he inexplicably went small.

I'm really hoping Pop is NOT completely stupid and that he learns from this failure... however, he's not known for his flexibility, and that doesn't bode well for the playoffs.