The Culprits.

[midnightpulp]

The respective Offensive/Defensive ratings for every Spur rotation player in this series:

Kawhi Leonard: 127/101

Tim Duncan: 114/98

Boris Diaw: 112/103

Danny Green: 87/106 (I feel he can rebound, since he's not hampered by injury/age)

Manu Ginobili: 102/100

Patty Mills: 138/107 (absurd for a backup PG)

Marco: 125/108

Tony Parker: 81/110

Tiago Splitter: 69/105

I'm starting to share TD21's pessimism now. Tony and Splitter are obviously well below 100%, and there is no overcoming two key starters playing this badly against a top 3 team in the league. We can bellyache all we want about Kawhi not getting touches, etc, etc, but he can't offset those two playing the worst basketball of their careers (PER: Tony - 4.1, Tiago - 1.9), no matter how well he plays, especially if Danny Green continues to be a no show on offense.

With those playing at this level, we're no deeper than the Clippers now, which was our main advantage over them. And if Austin Rivers has a breakout party, then GG.

I also worry about Duncan hitting a wall. How many more 20-10 games can he put up against a very athletic frontline that is surely wearing him down (not to mention him getting worn down by the pnr on the defensive end)? And without Duncan's scoring, it's Kawhi and no one else.

Bright side is that if Tony and Tiago can just get themselves playing at even a D league level, I still think we take this series.

[spurraider21]

i dont have much hope for TP in this series. he's not physically where he was during march where he was actually playing better, and i dont anticipate him rebounding against CP3 of all people. same with splitter. he's not 100%, and i dont think a series against blake/deandre is one where a guy is going to rebound.

but Green just needs to be better. he's getting clean looks at the rim, and is opting to put the ball on the floor too much. ginobili has to give SOMEthing. in what's an unpopular opinion, i think marco should be getting more burn

[BatManu20]

Diaw knocking down some of those open 3's would be huge too. He's 0/10 for the series from behind the arc I believe. He's getting great looks, they're basically daring him to shoot at this point.

[Johnny RIngo]

Interesting bit of info here. Kawhi's the most efficient player in the playoffs for all players averaging at least 10 field goal attempts per game. Guess who's the least efficient?

[spursparker9]

Interesting bit of info here. Kawhi's the most efficient player in the playoffs for all players averaging at least 10 field goal attempts per game. Guess who's the least efficient?

Enrique ?

[mercos]

I don't suspect we'll see a healthy Tony Parker in this series, possibly not in the entire playoffs. Tiago is the key. I'm not sure health is the problem with him. He might just need to find his rhythm again. Every time Tiago comes back from injury it takes a few games for him to get back into the groove of things. His defense has been fine, its his offense that we need at this point. When he starts moving and finishing better on offense, the Spurs will be in much better shape. It has to happen soon though, or the Clippers could easily take this series.

[baseline bum]

Enrique ?

Damn, that's bad when he's way worse than a Rondo playing so ty he got kicked off the team.

[loveforthegame]

Some of those numbers are just downright disgusting.

[ElNono]

I was updating my PER thread, and completely agree. Tiago has actually been going down and down the last few games, even the blowout Game 3...

[Clipper Nation]

Gotta say, I've been surprised at Green and Splitter's performance. Going in, I expected Green to go off on us all series long like he did in 2012 (I believe I even predicted on here that he'd have a big series) and that Splitter would pull an Ibaka, come back ready to roll and make life difficult for our offense, instead of regressing into 2013 ter mode. There's still time for them to turn it around (hopefully they don't), but still.

[Perry Mason]

I'm not defending TP or Splitter, but of course they will have terrible ORTG in a 4 game sample where his individual stats are poor. That is what individual ORTG is based on. At least for TP, his on/off show that he has done ok facilitating offense, drawing attention, and handling the ball. But on finishing it has been poor.

And individual DRTG is never a perfect stat, and not a perfect match for the Spurs system that often allows a ball handler to lose the point guard who drives them into the defending big. But TD has not been up to the task this season on PNR defense. That is not properly reflected in TD's excellent DRTG. Lack of steals also pointlessly hurts perimeter defenders.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/about/ratings.html

My point is that I don't know that this is as black and white as saying "here are the culprits." If you replace TP and Splitter with say, DJ Augustin and Robin Lopez, I don't know that the Spurs get different results. The reality is when they play at their historical level, TP and Splitter were elite. Spurs cannot just put in 2 new elite players. There is no team in the NBA that doesn't have a rotation player that is under-performing.

So all the ing seems to get us nowhere, and does not present a real solution. Not that we have any say. Pop clearly wants to keep riding with TP and Splitter. I defer to him.

[Aztecfan03]

Damn, that's bad when he's way worse than a Rondo playing so ty he got kicked off the team.

I don't think rondo is even on that list.

[ThomasamohT]

I'd like to point out that Tony was a net -20 (DRtg - ORtg) last night. While clearly not good by any measure, it was his best game of the series. If he can improve upon this and we get some sort of production out of Danny (-106) and Tiago (-107) we'll be fine.

[baseline bum]

I don't think rondo is even on that list.

Rondo is 35th, Parker 59th.

[Beaverfuzz]

Tiago is stinky, but he's nowhere near as bad as Parker. Parker is going to need to get leaner, meaner, healthier, and stronger this summer if he wants to stick around in the league.

[baseline bum]

Tiago is stinky, but he's nowhere near as bad as Parker. Parker is going to need to get leaner, meaner, healthier, and stronger this summer if he wants to stick around in the league.

I wonder if RC has the balls to salary dump Rique off on New York or LA2.

[Matty2Cool]

I dont understand how we win by almost 30 with the big 3 scoring only 12 game before then we lose this game

[Beaverfuzz]

I dont understand how we win by almost 30 with the big 3 scoring only 12 game before then we lose this game

Basketball is a team game, always has been.

[Beaverfuzz]

I wonder if RC has the balls to salary dump Rique off on New York or LA2.

Would be nice but who wants to pay that salary?

[baseline bum]

I dont understand how we win by almost 30 with the big 3 scoring only 12 game before then we lose this game

Who is the in your sig?

[baseline bum]

Would be nice but who wants to pay that salary?

RC got someone to take Jefferson while only having to throw in the last pick of the first round. He can probably find some moron to take Parker too.

[dabom]

RC got someone to take Jefferson while only having to throw in the last pick of the first round. He can probably find some moron to take Parker too.

[Leetonidas]

It's odd how ST can go from semen explosion to doom and gloom after one game

[Beaverfuzz]

RC got someone to take Jefferson while only having to throw in the last pick of the first round. He can probably find some moron to take Parker too.

Executive of the year right there.

[apalisoc_9]

Tom Rivers knows this. His adjustments in game 4 were pretty darn obvious. Make Parker beat you of the dribble and attack tony on the defensive end with 1-3 PnR...he's daring Parker to attaxk and taking shots away from Kawhi. It's the perfect gameplan. It also doesn't help that our PG can't read the obvious gameplan against him.