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Nando is going to be one of a player. So glad we have him
Other things:
NDC used his size to post up K-Mart and kept Westbrook off him for a layup
Didn't struggle against their athleticism/pressure
Doesn't mind going up for rebounds
Nando is going to be one of a player. So glad we have him
I am very excited seeing Nando improve this year. I have never seen a Spur do a complete 180 so quickly. When I first saw him, I saw a slow unathletic player who was very timid with the ball in his hands (although he could make the occasional great pass). Since the Heat game (thanks Stern), he has shown great poise with the ball in his hands. He reads the court very well, is not out of control with the ball, and he is starting to hit his shot. He needs at least 15-20 minutes every night. Sorry Mills.
De Colo played fantastic (bit boring to watch though). One thing I did notice was that he almost never creates for his wing players. Almost all of his plays were bounce passes inside to Splitter or Blair. Would've liked to see him slash inside, then kicking it out to Neal or Green for a wide open jump shot.
Parker shot 41% in the playoff losses to OKC, sure looks like a problem there.
Those were on Splitter, tbh. TD was on Perkins.
No words.
Despite those numbers TP was never really much of a difference maker in that series. If he is our best player then he needs to be more of a difference maker. I don't think at the end of the series anyone would have considered him our best player. Most people would probably say Manu was, even though that is not 100% true either. TP needs to stand out better than that.
The only thing I really, really liked from TP in that series was his defense. I thought he busted his ass on defense and played hard on that end of the court (hence Russell Westbrook's struggles), but nothing stood out to me on the offensive end of the court in that series. He was never really able to take over the games offensively. Shouldn't he have been able to take over at least 3 games in that series, or was the Thunder defense that good against him?
Considered that already. Don't like our chances even at full strength. We'd have to play flawless Spurs ball of the '03 variety to get past OKC. I'd put down the dishonest homer goggles before believing this team has a decent chance against a superior opponent.
What advantage do the Spurs have against OKC?
Remove OKC's officiating bias and it's far more even.
None really.
SuperManu is the only thing that comes to mind. Splitter can do some damage against them too.
Front-runners always get the officiating nod in the NBA. That was the case when the Spurs were winning championships, and it's the case now.
How to overcome that? Play championship caliber ball, which entails an elite defense, which the Spurs don't have anymore.
The Spurs starters just have to play even with Durant and the Chuck on the floor and take advantage of our depth. The problem with that formula is those two guys can play 48 if they have to whereas we don't have that luxury.
Was talking more in a general sense matchup wise. I'd figure Tiago to be a better pick n pop defender than Timmy nowadays so I'm not sure how much better Tim can defend that shot when OKC goes small.
Even a younger tim had issues guarding that play against Nash/Amare and Ibaka is shooting like 2005-2007 Stoudemire/Dirk. Difference is Serge is a better defender than both those guys and Tim is older so he can't punish him on the other end.
A Spurs/OKC series hinges on Ibaka hitting that shot.
Spurs played flawless in '03? If anything, that team underachieved and should have won in fewer games. Spurs had a lot of luck and Pop was bailed out of several bad situations by players he had refused to play. I've sadly come to believe that Pop would have been outcoached by Nellie and lost had Dirk not busted his knee, and the Spurs still almost blew it. They almost went to a game 7 against that garbage Nets team.
Good win for OKC, but not gonna extrapolate a whole lot from it. I think it shows some SA fans that OKC is still very dangerous without Harden and that they've learned to adjust offensively from the lack of Harden. Martin is a good fit. SA bench showed some balls. I think they mental lapsed themselves out of the potential comeback the last 5 minutes though. Collison basically standing all alone for rebound after rebound.
I more or less agree with this.
Bonner +4, es!
Go the Phoenix route they used against Amare...don't double team Durant just let him get 60, and stay home on everyone else.
Problem is the Spurs could score at will against those Phoenix teams. The Thunder are much better defensively.
This loss is bought to you by CIA Pop.
I mean srsly. I you've made an awesome counterattack would you show it to your rival team in a sort of meaningless reg season game?
In Pop I trust.
I've never pretended that the Spurs should be the favorites against OKC. As you said, the Spurs will need to play pretty damn flawless to beat 'em.
He should start, obviously.
It's funny how the Spurs' glaring weakness is the PF position now.
PG - Parker, De Colo (good)
SG - Green, Ginobili, Neal (good)
SF - Leonard, Jackson, Anderson (good)
PF - Diaw, Blair, Bonner ( )
C - Duncan, Splitter (good)
Agree. Also it doesn't make sense to broadcast that your gameplan is to give Ibaka open jumpers when he hits them at a pretty good rate. In fact I think he's probably one of the best if not the best in the league from mid range. That's bad coaching. I think it's more important to disrupt a team's offense than just give them inefficient shots. Steady doses of the same defense is easy to adjust to.
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