Way to kill the team's streak, Pop

[spurtech09]

truly people are going overboard with this loss...yeah it might of been a beat down by portland but it was just one loss...I would understand if the spurs were doing this on a daily bases..but no just one game and people are complaining...spoiled spurs fans lol

[baseline bum]

So if Tim and tony played 30 minutes tonight they will be tired for the playoffs? Say that out loud a few times and realize how stupid it sounds. these are freaking professional athletes, not some out of shape weekend warriors. what happens in the playoffs and the starting 5 is expected to play 35-40 minutes? Will they collapse and die?

You get injured when you're tired. Imagine you just ran 10 feet and are out of breath. When you go the fridge your tired legs give out and you snap your ankle.

[Caeman]

Should have rested them the last game too, since it was meaningless.

The point is that rest is overrated when it comes to injuries. Especially when we're talking about 80 games vs 82. Injuries happen when they happen. You're not stopping them. People should not be praising this decision, which resulted in a 40+ point loss, as a genius decision. The guy is old and senile.

[baseline bum]

The point is that rest is overrated when it comes to injuries. Especially when we're talking about 80 games vs 82. Injuries happen when they happen. You're not stopping them. People should not be praising this decision, which resulted in a 40+ point loss, as a genius decision. The guy is old and senile.

Because going half-ass and still getting the loss is better? Or burning Parker and Duncan out to get every regular season win is the way to go? I don't get what you're saying at all.

[Caeman]

You get injured when you're tired. Imagine you just ran 10 feet and are out of breath. When you go the fridge your tired legs give out and you snap your ankle.

You're missing the point. They get tired each and every game; they risk injury every game/practice. Playing 80, or even 78 games out of an 82 game season will not propell you to a le. It will not save you from an injury either.

[TJastal]

LOL, playing Duncan 20 minutes wouldn't have done . With no Splitter they'd need him at 40 again to have any shot at a win. Might as well just take the rest instead of risking injury playing him all game for a third time in a row.

Using this flawed logic Pop might as well sit Duncan the rest of the year, since its condensed with many more B2B's left to come yet.

[Caeman]

It doesn't matter. We disagree on the decision. It's done now. Pop is Pop. Unfortunately, Pop is senile.

[baseline bum]

Using this flawed logic Pop might as well sit Duncan the rest of the year, since its condensed with many more B2B's left to come yet.

So Ginobili and Splitter are out for the rest of the season, and every game is the second of a back to back when Parker and Duncan have been playing 40 minutes per the previous games? What a stupid strawman. This is exactly the kind of game you throw in a lockout season.

[Spursfan092120]

I still do not see how sitting out this game. A game in the last week of February of a compressed schedule is going to be deciding factor in winning a championship (this year, or any year for that matter).

Stop giving Pop credit from being a senile ol' .

Maybe they needed a rest...Duncan was tired, we lost two of our main players last game...Pop didn't want to risk it. Therefore, he sat them. I'm going to trust Pop more than you, no offense.

[Mugen]

The point is that rest is overrated when it comes to injuries. Especially when we're talking about 80 games vs 82. Injuries happen when they happen. You're not stopping them. People should not be praising this decision, which resulted in a 40+ point loss, as a genius decision. The guy is old and senile.

Don't think anybody is calling it a "genius" decision.

I disagree with Pop on a lot of things but resting your top two guys (one who happens to be 35 with bad knees) on the 2nd night of a b2b after playing two tough games and pretty much carrying the team for the last month and a half is probably not a bad idea.

[TJastal]

truly people are going overboard with this loss...yeah it might of been a beat down by portland but it was just one loss...I would understand if the spurs were doing this on a daily bases..but no just one game and people are complaining...spoiled spurs fans lol

So how many more games do you think Pop should forfeit this year?

[TJastal]

So Ginobili and Splitter are out for the rest of the season, and every game is the second of a back to back when Parker and Duncan have been playing 40 minutes per the previous games? What a stupid strawman. This is exactly the kind of game you throw in a lockout season.

No, you don't throw a game when you have a week of rest coming up, especially against a western conference contender that you may be facing in the playoffs.

If you absolutely must rest BOTH your best available players (and even that is dumb IMO, you play 1 or the other), you wait for an eastern conference patsy team.

[therealtruth]

You are right. But, I believe this does go a bit futher. This habit (used more than once) has me convinced that Pop really is scared of watching his team lose to a good opponent on the road. When the playoffs come around, he has no choice. You go all out. But in the season, he hates watching his team lose to certain opponents and I believe that to be pussy-like in nature.

The team inherits its mentality from its coach. If the coach is weak minded the team will be weak minded. Pop can't call out his team for being soft in the playoffs when he's soft himself.

[baseline bum]

No, you don't throw a game when you have a week of rest coming up, especially against a western conference contender that you may be facing in the playoffs.

If you absolutely must rest BOTH your best available players (and even that is dumb IMO, you play 1 or the other), you wait for an eastern conference patsy team.

If you need rest why do you play them in a game when they'll both need to play 40+ minutes after playing 40+ minute games the previous two? Why would you not play them instead against the eastern patsy you can probably beat with each guy playing 25-30 minutes? Man, you really have for brains and an irrational hatred of Parker.

[kidd_91]

it's not about the loss, it about setting your guys up to fail. You want to rest Tim and Tony, fine tell them you get 15-20 minutes and that's it. This at least will give the bench a chance, and not a 40 point loss that was over in the first quarter. Either way it's over, I'm not going to change my opinion and the Pop lovers won't change theirs. Hopefully this summer we will be watching a Spurs Championship Bluray and they can play some dramatic music and highlight the resting/forfeiting of this game as the changing moment in the 2012 season.

[therealtruth]

Historically we do well against those teams, save the 76ers. Everyone was pleased and surprised that the Spurs took the game in Philly this year.

The Blazers play the Spurs well, especially at home. The Rose Garden is a formidable arena and I honestly believe Pop is scared to watch his team get beat down in a playoff-like environment like Portland. I've been there (Portland), I believe Pop is scared of that . Timmy, Parker, Manu are not scared. But, Pop is, and Pop leads.

Pop doesn't understand giving away psychological advantages against a potential playoff matchup like game 1 against the Grizzlies.

[baseline bum]

So the team loses by 20 instead when players 5-12 who couldn't hang with Portland for 48 minutes can't hang for 30 minutes? What's the difference? If you're going to play them, then you might as well play them 40 and try for the win.

[jjktkk]

dude there are already threads to vent into ... you reserved your first post for a ty thread ?

A padre's 1st post no less.

[baseline bum]

LOL @ padre complaining about playoff seeding, as if the Spurs didn't win a series at the 7-seed and blow first round series at the 1 and 3 seed the last 3 years.

[spurtech09]

So how many more games do you think Pop should forfeit this year?

who said anything about forfeiting games?Trufuly Idk.....maybe you can answer your own question?

[therealtruth]

So then you play this season with the following mindset; go all out against opponents (you'll never see in the playoffs) and cower like a bunch of pussies against quality teams (who you do see in the playoffs). Yeah, I'm sure that's condusive to winning more les.

Exactly that's setting yourself up for disappointment when it matters most. It's good to get that experience against potential playoff opponents. If you lose to the Raptors at worse it's an L but you're not going to face them again.

It's the exact same thing that happened last year. The Spurs feasted on bad teams and then got lucky by facing good teams that were dealing with injuries and not 100 percent. When the Lakers were fully healthy and faced them they beat the Spurs by 30 meanwhile everybody got happy of the wins against the Lakers when they were less than 100 percent.

It's much better to know your team sucks and try to improve than to try to ignore it.

[mexicanjunior]

Pretty silly to sit Duncan and Parker with the All Star break 3 days away but we would not have won this game anyway. Blazers were shooting lights out from the 3 point line and I don't think Duncan and Parker would have changed that. Still though, pretty sad to see Pop raise the white flag before the game even started. Only player that did anything positive was Leonard, he deserves his starting spot in the rotation back...

[shraediggz]

Using this flawed logic Pop might as well sit Duncan the rest of the year, since its condensed with many more B2B's left to come yet.

Let's not overreact here.

Duncan played 37 and 41 minutes his last two games? San Antonio needed that much out of him to get the W's. Rather than Cap his minutes and risk the win, Pop chose to let him play. But at what point does one say "I need to rest my 35 yo center". 3 of our last 4 W's were decided by one possession. As for Parker, he averaged 37+ mpg in Feb, the last time we won a le with someone in our big 3 averaging more than 34mpg was back in 2003.

The Spurs just reeled off 11 straight wins in a condensed season. They would need to reel off 13 straight losses and finish the season with 11-9 to put them out of playoff contention.

We're 23 and 10 at the moment. If we go 17-16 to end the season that would give us a 60% win clip. There are only 3 other teams doing better than that in the west right now.

And the last time the NBA had a shortened season, an 8th seed made the finals.

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/pos...st-is-a-weapon

[SA210]

Using this flawed logic Pop might as well sit Duncan the rest of the year, since its condensed with many more B2B's left to come yet.

The team inherits its mentality from its coach. If the coach is weak minded the team will be weak minded. Pop can't call out his team for being soft in the playoffs when he's soft himself.

[therealtruth]

Anyone complaining about this is ing re ed after seeing the way the team completely ran out of gas last season by going balls out. They wouldn't have beaten any team other than New Orleans in the west playoffs last year. So was it worth it to battle for that 1 seed?

What's more important than earning the one seed is winning the correct away against quality opponents. That's going to help you more in the playoffs. The Spurs didn't do that last year. They got lots of W's last year but few really quality wins against good teams at 100%.