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Damn your edit son
What chess moves will Pop pull out the bag?
Damn your edit son
None. "We just go out and play."
No reason to change what's worked in Games 1 and 2 yet. Since Thabo hasn't arrived in the series thus far, benching him for Reggie might seem like a stronger move out of the gate, but unless Sefolosha catches fire all of the sudden, the Thunder have basically no bench production outside of Fisher and Butler, neither of whom move with the ball all that well. Pop's system is sending wave after wave of scorers at OKC's thinner defense, and forcing them to collapse on Parker. Ibaka's presence will lighten the defensive load on Collison and Adams, unless his mobility hinders him to the point where Parker and Duncan are still beating him down low. If that happens, his return means a lot of nothing, tbh. If the system breaks down, then Pop can make adjustments.
Our bench will destroy their bench.
i'm assuming Lamb will enter the rotation with Fisher maybe sliding into the 6th man spot. Sef may be out of the rotation entirely.
This is OKC's closing unit. The Spurs have seen it plenty of times before. Danny Green better stay on his damn feet if he's guarding Jackson or he's in for a long night defensively.
WB, KD and Jackson will all probably play at least 35 minutes with Jackson and Westbrook being backed up by Fisher and Lamb. KD and WB could easily be at 40-43 minutes a piece. If its close and it goes to OT they're screwed.
Spurs, if they move the ball, can tire out the defense and score with less exhaustion. By making OKC play defense for 20 seconds on every possession, And then have OKC work hard on offense (creating your own shot takes more energy), hopefully Spurs can exhaust KD and Westbrook by the end of the game.
No adjustments can be made. Ibaka = NBA world domination
I'd still think he'd guard WB. He's been terrific against him. I think the idea is to keep Parker from hiding on Sef. Force him to play D. Spurs could even go "small" and have Diaw guard Jackson. Jackson won't handle the ball very often with KD and WB, he isn't a great 3pt shooter and Brooks isn't about to run plays to exploit any potential mismatch on offense.
Jackson will play 2 guard with WB and Durant at the 3. Fisher will likely see time in the minutes vacated by Jackson coming off the bench. Lamb is a better option than Sef at this point. He may play the 3 when Durant slides to the 4 or is out. So he could see some non garbage minutes tonight .
Go Spurs!
If WB hogs the ball, that plays to the Spurs advantage. If he wants to hack up junk shots 25 feet from the basket, then so be it. I'm not sure Green is quick enough to stay with WB so their might be a lot of switching. Regardles of who Green guards, he'd better stay on his feet because te Spurs can't afford to put either RJ or RB at the line.
Don't forget Marco and Ginobili have to be thrown into thw mix as well. No idea who wil guard who. Maybe it will depend on foul trouble and who's going off.
Hopefully Ibaka's return hurts OKC more than he helps.
If Marco and Manu are guarding Jackson with both WB AND KD on the curt than that should be fine. He will be off ball. If he is with only 1 of those two than it could be a problem depending on how he plays
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