Game 2 Adjustments: Spurs vs. Suns

[remingtonbo2001]

Bottom Line; If the Spurs win tonight, it'll give them a great chance to finish this in 6 games. If the Suns win, the Spurs can risk losing in 6 games or perhaps this going to 7 games where each team will have a 50-50 chance of winning it.

+1

I'd go one step further and say if we win tonight's game, in all likelyhood the Spurs will finish this series in 5 games.

If not then it's likely to go 6-7 games.

[lefty]

Put Horry on Nash. Big Shot knows how to defend him.

You beat me to it

[td4mvp21]

Even if we win tonight I'm still not convinced we'll win the series. I will feel much better about our chances, but this team is absolutely notorious for giving away 2-0 leads. Last year was the first year since 2003 the Spurs did not give up a 2-0 lead to allow the opposing team to either tie a series or win it (The Spurs never got up 2-0 in 2002).

[sabar]

I'm convinced Pop employs hack-a-shaq to bait D'Antoni into pulling Shaq if the FTs don't fall. Especially since he did it while we were up.

It took D'Antoni long enough to figure it out.

[T Park]

I'm convinced Pop employs hack-a-shaq to bait D'Antoni into pulling Shaq if the FTs don't fall. Especially since he did it while we were up.

It took D'Antoni long enough to figure it out.

Yeah unfortunately the game would've been a 20 point blowout maybe had they stuck to defense.

The defense was playing damn well.

Oh well.

[timvp]

Offensively
-Get everyone involved. The Big Three all played well in Game 1 but their slice of the offensive pie was too large. Add Finley to the equation and the team’s four main scorers accounted for 103 of the team’s 117 points. The other players need to get into the action. This is the same team that Fabricio Oberto had his career game against. Bruce Bowen got open looks last season. Brent Barry always seems to find ways to get open against Phoenix. The Spurs can’t win this series if the Big Three have to do all of the heavy lifting.

The Spurs had three points outside of the Big Three in the first half (Barry's three). However, once Finley got it rolling in the third quarter, that's when the floodgates open. Going forward, the Spurs must find a way to create opportunities for players outside of the Big Three.

The Suns aren't leaving Bowen and they are trying not to leave Finley. They're only leaving Udoka open at the moment. Have to give props to that strategy by the Suns. Nash's restraint in aimlessly wandering on defense has been impressive in this series.

-Attack even more. I know the Spurs had an ungodly amount of points in the paint but they have to stay in attack mode. Tony Parker needs to go all the way to the basket and not settle for the tear drop. Manu Ginobili can’t stop driving if his outside shot is falling. Tim Duncan needs to concentrate on running the court to get the best post position possible. Against the Suns, the Spurs should either be shooting at the basket or three-pointers. Their defense is improved but still not anywhere close to being considered great.

Nice job

Parker and Ginobili need to continue scoring at healthy rates to win this series.

-Run. For all the scoring the Spurs did in the second half and the overtimes, it was almost exclusively in the half court setting. Getting up and down the court is how the Spurs can get going from three-point land and really cause havoc for the Suns. If both teams walk it up, Steve Nash is such a killer in the pick-and-rolls that I’d say the Suns have the advantage in a half court game these days.

18 fast break points in the first half. Only five in the second half but those fast break points in the first half were huge. The Spurs can run even more against this team.

Defensively
-Variation. When Nash is in the pick-and-roll, there’s no real way to shut it down. The only thing you can do is throw different looks at it to keep Nash off balance. Trap the pick-and-rolls sometimes. Send weakside help sometimes. If the Spurs have the lead, they can even get away with going under the pick to force Nash to look for his own shot. Switch up the defenders on both Nash and Amare Stoudemire. Nash is the best when he sees the same defense repeatedly. At that point, he’ll find a way to score 60%+ of the time.

Mission accomplished. Switching Bowen and Parker against Nash worked out well. Nash still put up sick stats but bro is just damn good. They slowed him down for a stretch there in the second half and that's all you can really do. Nobody is going to shut him down completely. He's too good and he has too much freedom in that offense.

-Force jumpers. If you can keep the Suns off the three-point line and not allow them to dunk the ball, you can live with anything else. Nash and Stoudemire are great jump shooters but a contested midrange jumper is a successful stand against this offense. When defending against players like Grant Hill and Boris Diaw, sag in to allow jumpers until they prove they can connect. If the Suns beat you with jumpers, they beat you. Usually the Spurs want to funnel teams to the basket but against the Suns I think you want to funnel them away from the basket.

The Spurs did exactly this in the third quarter. They allowed only one layup (an awkward attempt that Bell missed) and one three-pointer (a Barbosa miss). Every other shot in the quarter was a two-pointer away from the basket. Luckily, the Suns stopped hitting everything and the Spurs were able to get a much needed dominating quarter.

-Contain Leandro Barbosa. I truly believe he’s the Suns x-factor right now in this series. This is especially true if Parker spends a lot of time on Nash. Barbosa is a player who can get rolling and put up 25 points before you realize what has happened. Nash and Stoudemire will get their points. The Spurs can’t let Barbosa get going as he’s their third most explosive scorer at this point.

Barbosa was 0-7 on the night.

A lot of people guarded him -- from Parker to Ginobili ... even Barry was on him for a possession. Very good job of holding Barbosa scoreless. However, it'll get much harder in the next two games because Barbosa played a lot better at home.

Coaching
-Play Brent Barry in place of both Ime Udoka and Jacque Vaughn. I’m pretty sure Pop will give Udoka and Vaughn looks at the beginning of the game but I’d rather Pop just cut his losses now. Neither Udoka nor Vaughn has the required offensive skillset in this series. Barry and Ginobili sharing backup point guard duties will work well enough. Barry, Ginobili, Bowen and Finley can share the swingman minutes.

Pop kept playing Udoka but he did go away from Vaughn for the most part. Udoka played better but I still would rather see Barry get those minutes. However, Pop may not want to play Barry more than 10 minutes at this point ... which is understandable. Plus Udoka helps when the Spurs want to go small.

-Don’t be overconfident with Hack-a-Shaq. It worked in Game 1 but I don’t think Pop should go back to that gimmick in Game 2. Teams that employ Hack-a-Shaq almost always lose. Game 1 was the exception to the rule – and that was mostly due to Mike D’Antoni panicking and removing O’Neal from the game. If the Suns are scoring too easily and the Spurs offense can’t keep up, then Hack-a-Shaq might be worthwhile. But Pop shouldn’t just use it because it worked before.

Pop helped out the Suns by going to Hack-a-Shaq in the third quarter. The Spurs had the Suns on the ropes but instead of piling on while Nash was getting his rest, the Spurs handed over free points.

-Don’t overplay the Big Three. I know they got a lot of rest but I think the physical and mental toll of Game 1 will still carry over to Game 2. Duncan and Parker shouldn’t play more than 40 minutes. Ginobili shouldn’t play more than 35 minutes. As long as the game is relatively close, Pop needs to use that time to let the Big Three rest.

Pop did a good job limiting Parker and Ginobili's minutes but he overplayed Duncan. Duncan was dead tired at the end of the game. The last three or four minutes Duncan was running on empty.

On to Game 3 ........