What kind of legendary coach..

[unforeseen]

Boils down to::

Heat - 0
Spurs - 1

[Horse]

If Manu and Parker are on the floor it's ok to play Neal to see if he's shooting well. I'm hoping at some point the mini-microwave Neal shows up.

[tesseractive]

But decent coaches don't usually lose to lower seeds. The reason we swept the Grizzlies is because Pop kept Neal/Bonner from doing too much damage. Overplaying them makes the rest of the team have to work harder to make up for it. Because of getting rid of SJax we really need another rotation guy with solid defense and ball handling skills. The only guy that fits that is TMac and he hasn't played much.

Give me an example of a coach that hasn't lost any playoff games to a lower seed.

[TJastal]

Neal & Bonner should be limited in away games because they are limited players. Bonner's confidence last night was zero as he was doing his usual hot potato with the ball when he's feeling too much pressure. To compound matters the spurs' interior defense was terrible when he was in there. Bonner was little more than a traffic cone defensively, offering no help defense whatsover.... none.. nada.. zilch. This is where having a guy like Birdman is a clear advantage for the heat... the guy can play stout defense even if he's not scoring and when he does get a few opportunities like drop off passes near the basket he isn't afraid to finish it off. If I was Pop I would prune Bonner's minutes in game 2 even furthur, maybe limit him to 5 in the 1st half and give the more versatile and non-choker Diaw 20+. Game 3 at home is where I would reinstate Bonner's minutes and see if there is a change in confidence at least.

Neal just gets burned repeatedly 1 on 1 and throws up a lot of bricks. I don't get why Pop just keeps running with him when he's got 3 (THREE!!) better options at his disposal sitting on the bench (Joseph, Mills, McGrady).

[Spur|n|Austin]

It was frustrating for me too man, but we won, so how can one complain?

[TD 21]

I don't give a if he makes 5 3-pointers in the 2nd half, Gary Neal shouldn't be playing for a team in the NBA Finals..

Any points that he scores is negated by his defense, tbh..

I was saying this too, but the more I think about it, cutting out Joseph is probably the way to go (even though he would be a much better Allen defender). Neal has a reputation as a shooter, so despite the fact that he hasn't been one since his injury, the defense still respects him. Joseph is a virtual unknown, who's made, I believe one three in the playoffs. Plus, Neal, in his own mind, believes he belongs on any stage; Joseph, I'm not so sure. Throw in the fact that Parker's going to play 40 mpg and a backup PG is not really needed.

More than anything, I think Pop was just experimenting, primarily in the 1st half. He wanted to see who, between Green/Diaw, would be a better secondary James defender, if Bonner had a quick enough release to make their defense pay, if playing bigger or smaller for longer was the way to go, if Joseph were ready for this level of play, etc. Clearly, Neal is going to play a bigger role in this series, but I'd expect a few more minutes for Leonard, Green and Ginobili next game, at his expense.

[Yuixafun]

At the end of the 2nd quarter I thought Neal was about to catch fire.

He made back to back baskets and he looked extremely hungry.

We just could't get the ball back to him at all.

Instead Kwa ended up with shots which he all missed.

I was sorta pissed at Manu at that point for not recognizing the hot hand.

Felt like he was wasting a chance of Neal being on fire, but also hurting Kwa confidence by giving him shots when he wasn't feeling it.


That is what led to Neal in the 3rd coming out guns blazing, but by that time he was out of the zone.


Bonner was utter trash to me.. those 2 blown lay ups. Lord have mercy. And the other 4-5 Bonner Bailey type plays.

[313]

Tony -Tiny bit if Joseph mixed up with some Manu

Green - Manu
Leonard

Duncan - Boris
Tiago

That should be the rotation.

Minutes?

[xellos88330]

plays Matt Bonner and Gary Neal at the same time in an NBA finals game in a non-blowout situation?..

Somebody explain this to me, please..

It is the same coach that won the same finals game Neal and Bonner played in.

[HarlemHeat37]

all the people in this thread excusing Pop, tbh..

And before they say anything, I'm fully aware that Neal isn't the primary reason the Spurs lost, virtually everybody played a part in the loss..

[Spur Bank]

virtually everybody played a part in the loss..

Except for Matt Bonner.

Shades of last year... they sit Bonner and instantly go 0 for 4. This year, they sit Bonner, off to the same start.

[Brunodf]

Popsuckers

[Brunodf]

1- Small ball is their game.
2- Bosh missed many wide open shots(our PnR D playing small isn't good).
3- Miami played like /this game would've been a blowout if Pop hadn't played scrubs Neal and Bonner
4- We had just 4 turnovers.
5- Heat scored 9 points in the last 3 minutes(vs Tony/Manu/Green/Kawhi/TD).Just 7 in first 9 minutes of the 4th.

So yeah, playing small isn't good for us. We won, despite Pop.

Pop wasn't bailed out this time.

[Johnny RIngo]

Pop has that annoying tendency to fool himself into thinking a role playing scrub like Neal can replicate a fluke performance multiple times. Neal somehow worked in game 1 but his defense was exposed by the Heat tonight.

[HarlemHeat37]

Spoelstra isn't anything special, but any decent coach would exploit Gary Neal and run every play against him, tbh..

Neal is the president of no man's land..