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Yeah, coaches get fired for mistakes that blatant.
What failed miserably was the gameplan against Howard.
Yeah, coaches get fired for mistakes that blatant.
But Howard ALWAYS kills the Spurs. ALWAYS.
I actually think we have a better chance at stopping Dirk than Howard.
Not in this case sadly
You know what ? You're right.
I'm quite depressed right now we shot 80% of our 3s, Tim had a good game, TP had a decent game, Dirk has been controlled, Kidd had a ghost performance tonite, Bruce had a terrific game with 24 mn, Finley shot at 70%, we had 35 reb vs. 39 not a bad performance... and even with that we lost by 8, game being over quite rapidely. I don't see the end of the tunnel, ok less bonner more hill will help but Dirk won't keep on getting "only" 19 pts, 8 reb and Kidd only 4 pts and 5 assists.
The Spurs put lineups out there that played very good defense, made the Mavs work for shots, got easy opportunities right around the basket and got boards and stops. Put that lineup out more often, and limit the liabilities of everyone else, specifically, putting Hill in to allow Mason to play more minutes at his natural position and the Mavs suddenly are working pretty hard to score 90 in this game, and the Spurs win despite being hosed by the refs.
go figure
I keep pointing this out ...
Dirk was lost for the series in game 3 in 2003. That series is no precedent for this series ... unless you expect Dirk to get hurt again.
I feel bad having missed this game. A coach's duel: The 2nd and 3rd best NBA coaches going at it. After seeing the box score, it appears this is more true than I realized. I will not miss another.
God, I miss Carlisle so much...
This game was a lot like the Rockets Mavs game. Big lead in first half only to lose it when Mavs make adjustments and take ya outta the game.
I worry that this is why the Spurs never seem to develop young talent to fill in around the Big Three.
Pop is infatuated by a young player but then sours and dumps him at the drop of a hat.
The last young talent that Pop developed was Jack six years ago and he left as soon as he was marketable.
I think PJ was the one guy who could convince Pop to make changes.
Get real in 03 Dirk or not they would have lost eventually in that series, the Spurs were alot better than they are even now in that series and had D Rob, A TIM THAT would not be stopped, Bowen who was younger, Jackson and a very deep bench, LOL at Mavs fans still pointing out this loss as a reason they lost that series, in reality the Spurs were lights out on D that year and had a very deep team and a frontline while Dallas was soft as up front! They would not win that series with Dirk, period. I don't get why heads still say that to this day, that Spurs team was deep and talented, a great mix, period. BTW Spurs blew that game one at home after a big lead in the 4th and were up basically 2-1 when Dirk went down, they went 7 with Sac without Webber, they were not a le team that year.Why? Brown was the one who got them to that back to back le appearances, he was the reason they won one too! Carlisle? What?
What is depressing is that Pop did not went in any idea to start the series.
Well maybe with that p&r Tim and Tony in the center of a key
As long as we won't keep mavs in hold we are ed. They can provide such diferent ofensive punches that it can knock you out.
Pop wanted to stay big. But damn - he saw Bonner not making any production. There is still Oberto out there. Extend Goodens minutes. Free up Hill!
He is gonna do it at some point of time this series.
Carlisle never had Rasheed. What Carlisle did with the talent he had was nothing short of amazing. And he improved every season. Carlisle is the best game manager in the NBA, perhaps only bested by P-Jax. Brown cost us a chance at multiple les. Brown isn't a 'bad coach', just not a great one. He gets the 'deer in the headlights' thing, not to mention that he is alergic to youth and developing a 2nd unit. He rode on the coat-tails of that roster and the foundation Carlisle/Dumars built.
Pop never devolped Jack at all.
Remember this: in the 02 season Pop never played him and stuck him on the inactive list for the playoffs while over the hill embarassments like Steve Smith and Terry Porter got in there and fell on their asses and bricked shots.
Did that change the next year? No, not because of Pop it didn't.
Steve Smith started the season as the starter! Only after he was hurt did Stephen Jackson play. And then only after Manu had to sit out due to injury did Jackson really get to play and forced himself on Pop to be kept as the starter and in the rotation.
Look, I hate complaining about the refs (and I rarely do) but even my friends who are die-hard Mav fans were shocked at the lack of the whistles on the contact with Duncan. I do not mind the fouls the refs called against the Spurs, but they did not call the same fouls for the Spurs.
Spurs had a lot of positives, a lot of negatives and there were really no huge surprises. I know it is lame to whine about the refs, but if you allow a huge man like Dampier to get away with murder, it allows him to be much more effective; not to mention the effect it has on a team's psyche.
I love how the Spurs will never moan about the officials, but as a fan, it is what we do.
i haven't been much of a hill supporter for playoff minutes but i think he needs to be put on barea. guarding barea obviously tires out parker and no one else on the spurs is quick enough to stay in front of him. hill needs some spot minutes to cool off barea or terry. when the mavs go small and put terry and barea or any combination with kidd, the spurs need hill to pick up the defensive slack so parker doesn't tire out. he looked pretty exhausted down the track, which is confusing because he has guarded chris paul and still ended games strong.
something has to be done with bonner. i don't like the idea of thomas or gooden on dirk so maybe oberto? although oberto is practically useless offensively without ginobili he'll still be better than bonner. duncan may eventually have to guard dirk because no one else can do it. i noticed that the mavs always exploited bigman matchups whether it was bonner or gooden. duncan on dirk and thomas on bass/dampier might be something that could work.
double post.
What is depressing is that Pop did not went in any idea to start the series.
Well maybe with that p&r Tim and Tony in the center of a key
As long as we won't keep mavs in hold we are ed. They can provide such diferent ofensive punches that it can knock you out.
Pop wanted to stay big. But damn - he saw Bonner not making any production. There is still Oberto out there. Extend Goodens minutes. Free up Hill!
He is gonna do it at some point of time this series.
+1 but I have one caveat. Bonner is a of a three point shooter. Play him some minutes at the 3 and have him camp out at the three point line
People need to get off Pop/Bonner bash mode, it's getting pretty tiring reading the same thing every day for 5 months in 100 threads.
If we lose this series or at any point in the playoffs, it is because of two things.
1. Terrible bigman lineup
2. No defense
Who do we have to play defense out there this year? This is the source of Pop's crazy experiments, we have not enough players that can defend.
Bowen lost a step and ranges from poor to good.
Duncan is good, our anchor.
Parker is average.
Bonner is average.
KT is average.
Finley is poor.
Oberto is out.
Gooden is poor (new, doesn't know rotations)
Udoka is average.
Hill is average (fine man-to-man, but rookie + new to system).
Vaughn is average.
Mason ranges from poor to average.
What do we have here? Seriously. This is hard to work with. The loss of ginobili compounds this factor as he is a decent defender and provides a massive amount of intangibles. I mean, what bigs do you play, they are all rather poor. KT is inconsistent, Gooden doesn't know the system, Oberto has health issues, and Bonner is Robert Horry with no defense, size, or killer instinct.
What do you get from playing all the new players? A bunch of missed rotations (even moreso than we already have) and worse team defense.
Fact is, we gotta man up to win this thing. Parker needs to turn it up a notch, Duncan needs to stay consistent and Finley can't go on cold streaks. Obviously it would be HUGE for us if KT regained his earlier streak of good games, but barring that, we are in serious trouble relying on newbie Drew Gooden or shooting big-man Matt Bonner.
I expect the Spurs to watch lots of film, not blow rotations, and play a generally good game next time, as they nearly always have.
Ah, here is the genius of the HC "advantage", whatever that means.
Six months, zillions miles of travel, 30 homecoming at 3AM, 82 games of the Celtics, Blazers and Spurs and that "advantage" is already gone.
Smart eh?
Timvp, you are too smart NOT to have noticed that all this happened precisely after a few questionable photos of George Hill not playing basketball appeared online.
I even remember a message of yours announcing the trouble.
But what does that have to do with him trying to find time for Hill at the SG position during the latter part of the season?
i would really, really like to see a line-up of Tim, Drew, Parker, Bowen and either of Hill/Mason/Finley.
Hill can be effective in this series on defense. if he can get his offense going - sucks that his confidence in this facet of the game is probably at an all time low due to pop's benophobia - he should get a lot of pt in this series. he did well on O in that stretch where tp was out. run a couple of plays for him to get his confidence back.
and why Thomas and Bonner were in there for extended minutes is beyond me. i want to see Gooden with 32-35 minutes next game. he can average 15+ if he plays that much, easily. not only that but he's better than Bonner on D. i know that's not saying much, but still... Bonner just belongs on the bench, cheering like 90% of the other white guys in the league (ie Mark Madsen, Ryan Bowen, Brain Scalabrini etc.) and I have nothing against the white man - i am one - it's just a sad fact.
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