Secret To The Spurs' Success
By John Hollinger
ESPN.com
We're basically watching two versions of the playoffs right now.
In one version, a team has some players on the court who can score and others who pretty much can't, and the objective of the opposing defense is to send extra defenders at the former and give shots to the latter. We saw a great example of that Wednesday night, when both the Lakers and Thunder ignored two of the five opponents on the court to focus their efforts on the other three and, as a result, suffocated two teams that are normally quite good offensively.
Then there's the other version, being played by the Spurs, in which everybody can score, at all times, and the defense is left with no clue what to do about it. It's a masterful piece of team building that, amazingly, was all but ignored in the Executive of the Year voting announced Wednesday. More on that in a minute.
As for this offensive juggernaut, no Spur averaged 20 points a game this season and only three regulars averaged in double figures, but the sum of all their secondary contributors is enormous. Twelve Spurs have scored at least 20 points in a game this season, and thanks to that broad attack, they led the league in offensive efficiency in the regular season and are doing it again the playoffs.
It's obvious why when you watch them: Whom do you leave open? Teams want to commit extra defenders to stopping pick-and-rolls by Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili and post-ups by Tim Duncan, but how? Five Spurs shot better than 40 percent on 3s, and Kawhi Leonard made 37.6 percent.
Commit a big man and rely on the Spurs to miss near the rim? Not so fast -- Tiago Splitter shot 61.6 percent, DeJuan Blair 53.4 percent and Boris Diaw made 58.8 percent as a Spur.
Here's what you do: pray they miss. Those boring, defense-first Spurs have changed their stripes into a floor-spacing, drive-and-kick, Euroball offense, and the results have been devastating. The only thing boring about them now is that they win every game. If you haven't heard the numbers already, digest these: San Antonio has won 29 of its past 32 games and 22 of 25 on the road -- with two of the three defeats coming when the Spurs rested their starters.
All that being said. 10 years later i can't help remember being up 2-0 in 2004 and blowing the next 4 games to that other LA team. I'd like to take the next two and finish this thing in 4 and not give them a chance in . Keep pounding the rock and keep the ball rolling. No Let Downs. Not for a second.
But Clippers is not Lakers, as compared to 2004 Lakers team.All that being said. 10 years later i can't help remember being up 2-0 in 2004 and blowing the next 4 games to that other LA team. I'd like to take the next two and finish this thing in 4 and not give them a chance in . Keep pounding the rock and keep the ball rolling. No Let Downs. Not for a second.
Every ing word of thisAll that being said. 10 years later i can't help remember being up 2-0 in 2004 and blowing the next 4 games to that other LA team. I'd like to take the next two and finish this thing in 4 and not give them a chance in . Keep pounding the rock and keep the ball rolling. No Let Downs. Not for a second.
We haven't lost since April 11.
When a end-of-career Karl Malone and Gary Payton show up on the Clippers, who also have Shaq and Kobe, then I'll get worried (and confused).All that being said. 10 years later i can't help remember being up 2-0 in 2004 and blowing the next 4 games to that other LA team. I'd like to take the next two and finish this thing in 4 and not give them a chance in . Keep pounding the rock and keep the ball rolling. No Let Downs. Not for a second.
No Kobe in his prime. No Shaq still near his peak. No Payton doing something. No Malone getting points. Definitely not the 2004 Lakers.
The reason I don't think that will happen is the offense is more unpredictable now. It's not just TP and TD. We got so many guys who can get good shots on offense and are not just standstill jumpshooters. In '04 the Lakers packed the paint and our jumpshooters kept missing.All that being said. 10 years later i can't help remember being up 2-0 in 2004 and blowing the next 4 games to that other LA team. I'd like to take the next two and finish this thing in 4 and not give them a chance in . Keep pounding the rock and keep the ball rolling. No Let Downs. Not for a second.
no Fisher to offer up a .4 miracle
Line of the article.
Karl Malone's defense on TD was a big part of why they won. They might have won the Finals if Malone had been healthy.
Nah, Kobe chucked the Lakers out of the le, while Shaq was shooting over 60%.
Spurs have to keep focusing on one game and one game only. They've done that all year. I just wonder when along this streak Pop's going to sit the big 3 for a full game.
30-3. Think about that. You have to beat a team 4 times to eliminate them and we haven't lost 4 times in the last THIRTY-THREE games. Incredible. I know nobody in the organization wants to talk about that, but we are unstoppable this year (barring injury to TP or TD)
Gonna wait to see how the Spurs do it in staples
Same as they do it anywhere else...they just win.
How many times did we play OKC in those 33 games? How many times did we play Miami or Boston?
If the object is to rack up wins against a random sample of the league, we already tied Chicago. But now we're past the random sample and up against the best teams in the league. And continuing to win against this level of opponent is very different than racking up those 16 wins, those 30 wins.
One game at a time.
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