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shocker....
Critical game of the series.
Kings win? Its a whole new series.
Spurs win? its a complete sweep no questions asked.
What will it take for the Spurs to win?
Heres what I think.
1. Recommit to rebounding
Watching the second half, especially the 4th quarter last night after work, I noticed the Spurs played great defense, having hands in the faces of guys like Abdur Rahim, Martin, and Bibby, unfortunately, they gave up far too many offensive rebounds. More minutes for Duncan hopefully, would fix that situation. Also, it would be nice if Nazr shows up for the series.
2. More Rasho.
Rasho Nesterovic, IMO, is playing the best defense, and best pick and roll offense I've ever seen him play. His hedges out on Bibby are picture perfect, and his rotations to the shooters and getting a hand up have been outstanding. I think his rebounding has SLIGHTLY improved. If I were Pop I would not hesitate to play Rasho at least 25 to 30 minutes tommarow. His defense, along with his good team offensive play, were keys in game 1 in the second quarter, and the other night in the 3rd quarter and OT, for the big leads.
3. Bring Bowen over to pick.
Since they are going to switch guys like Martin onto Parker, or Wells, and leave Bibby with Bowen, I say, switch it back up on em. Bring Bowen over to pick, switch em around, and get the ball back to Parker. I commend the Kings for defending Parker well for stretches. Although, a more agressive Parker, better switches in the pick and roll, will free Parker up for that tear drop.
The Kings are giving him the teardrop, and denying the layup, hopefully Parker and CO, have recognized that in film sessions.
4. Bring a little more 4 down into the picture.
Imo another missed oppurtunity was not going at Abdur Rahim and Kenny Thomas aggressively with Duncan more often. Had Duncan been able to do this, against SAR, and gotten him in foul trouble, things would've been alot different. I say feed Duncan a few more times in the post, and let him go to work.
5. Finley needs more shots.
Finley is shooting VERY well right now, another great night the other night 4-8 for 12 points. IMO, Finley should at least get 12 to 13 shots friday. More in the offense shots for Finley, and less helter skelter shots by Parker and Ginobili.
23 views and no responses?
shocker....
good calls t-park.
i'll add something, if we play this fast pace "raining three pointer" game in Arco, I think the Kings will have the edge b/c of homecourt. We need to play this game like we played the games in Seattle last year, and game 3 of Denver, and all of the Pistons series. Go back to Spurs basketball before Tony, Manu, Brent and Mike turned us into a shooting machine. Lets play smashmouth good old fashioned Coach Pop b-ball, work it into Duncan everytime let him do his magic and when the defense goes into him kick it out. I know we still do that, but not as smashmouth as we used to.
We always preach defense and in game one it was just amazing, but i hope the players have their old mentality of "we don't need to score we just need to make them score less than we do."
Lets go vintage 2003 in game 3 baby. Timmy D lead us to the broomsticks in round one son
I agree with every point. Except, 4-down should be used throughout the game, not only in the fourth quarter. Tim needs to develop a rhythm first. I can't explain how mad it makes me when Pop all of the sudden decides to do that in the fourth quarter out of the blue.
Im not saying just the 4th quarter, im saying everytime Tim is in there, they should be doing more 4 down, to 1, open up the shooters, and 2, get guys like Thomas, Miller, SAR in foul trouble.
Being outrebounded 47-34 was a major reason for Game 2 being so close.1. Recommit to rebounding
Kings should win game 3.
Spurs win, sweep. Kings win, Spurs in 5.
Those shots go in at about a combined 50% to Finley's 40%. Yeah, let's cut back on shots for two guys who TOTALLY disrupt and destroy defensive schemes, and make half their shots. Genius.
if spurs can get duncan going when sar is in it could help sar get in foul trouble
It's do-or-die for Kings, since going down 0-3 means they will, historically, not win the series.
So, effectively, it's an elimination game for the Spurs.
Are the Spurs tough enough to put the Kings down for the count?
The Spurs losing Game3 means their will be big pressure on the Spurs to win Game4, since losing Game4 would zero the series (like the Seattle series last year).
Mavs and Pistons controlled their Game2's convincingly, looking like they will both sweep, while the Spurs had to squeak by with an fun but unconvincing, mostly ugly win from a lucky bounce.
Spurs need to show some end-to-end game control, keeping the lead, stopping runs, ie, look like Champions. etc.
Last edited by boutons_; 04-27-2006 at 08:22 PM.
Key #1 and really the only key that matters:
Outscore the Kings.
Somehow, I think the Spurs will have to repeat without much help from Tim. While he looks like he's moving quite naturally, he's not defending worth a , nor doing anything offensively.
Looks like he might be effective only as a decoy, but the Spurs are gonna need to make stops in the paint at some critical point.
What will it take to win game 3?
Basically i think the Spurs will need to score more points than the Kings.
2-0 is historically a 95% lock. What this is about is not only winning, but shortening the series to 4 or 5 games. Less wear and tear and more bounce back time.It's do-or-die for Kings, since going down 0-3 means they will, historically, not win the series.
The kings will be destroyed tomorrow. Timmy's gonna rip out the heart and eat it!
T Park, Good work on the Keys to the game.
I agree for the most part but on points 3 and 4 I have a question and a comment.
On point 3. Bring Bowen over to pick...and switching the picks, I don't understand what you mean. Do you mean rescreen and force another defensive switch after the defensive switch on the first screen? Could you give a different example. Usually, switching on picks has to do with what the defense does. Screen and rescreen is something the Spurs do frequently with the Bigs on the perimeter for TP.
On point 4. I agree that inside-out, or hub-and-spoke action like 4-down is still an important ingredient. The trouble with doing 4-down frequently is the spot-up players tend to stand around more, watch and wait. That's why you see the Spurs run more motion to move the defense around. They even create a variation of inside-out with dribble penetration off the high screen to the middle and then kick out to the "spokes". It creates a similar inside-out attack. It's also less predictable than setting Tim up on the low block every trip. Getting SAR into foul trouble is a valid point.
Last edited by Solid D; 04-27-2006 at 09:29 PM.
Yep, and the Blazers should get a good lottery pick this year.
I would agree. Time to apply pressure to the opponents throat.Spurs win, sweep. Kings win, Spurs in 5.
The Spurs don't need the offense starting with Duncan to win this series easily. But they will need him if they want to win the championship. Get Duncan some work now. Everyone has been saying how he was abused by SAR and Wells. Let him do something about it.
Tim's defense may not be stellar (i.e. up to his standards) but I don't agree that "he's not defending worth a f***"
His absence in the 3rd quarter hurt us and allowed our double digit lead to dwindle because we couldn't get any stops....
His defense on SAR should not be an indication of his overall defensive ability or contribution... SAR is somewhat crafty and has excellent footwork scoring I believe on every one of our bigs... Horry, Nazr, Duncan, and Rasho...
Key phase being "go to work". As opposed to "Dump It To Tim and All 4 Others Stand Around Offense" which i am sorry to say Pop did revert to twice in crunchtime of Game 2. 104-103 and twice we did the Dump Tim and Stand. If Duncan is going to hold the ball for 12 seconds (dribbling or not) that's cool. Keep the other players in motion tho! Otherwise it gives us zero chance for the O board and has the opponent in prime condition to rebound and get it upcourt quickly.
What I meant is, they are playing Bibby on Bowen on defense.On point 3. Bring Bowen over to pick...and switching the picks, I don't understand what you mean. Do you mean rescreen and force another defensive switch after the defensive switch on the first screen? Could you give a different example. Usually, switching on picks has to do with what the defense does. Screen and rescreen is something the Spurs do frequently with the Bigs on the perimeter for TP
While, they will play either Kevin Martin, or some else of that ilk, on Parker.
I say, bring Bowen over, and run a pick and roll, and see if you can switch Bibby back to defending Parker and take advantage.
If Martin or whoever stays at home on Parker, you at least have an open shot for Bowen, and hopefully, this play could be run, close to the baseline.
While I agree 4 down used too much is in itself bad, I think, if you can keep two guys moving, Ginobili and say, Parker or Barry, then itll work.Key phase being "go to work". As opposed to "Dump It To Tim and All 4 Others Stand Around Offense" which i am sorry to say Pop did revert to twice in crunchtime of Game 2. 104-103 and twice we did the Dump Tim and Stand. If Duncan is going to hold the ball for 12 seconds (dribbling or not) that's cool. Keep the other players in motion tho! Otherwise it gives us zero chance for the O board and has the opponent in prime condition to rebound and get it upcourt quickly
Horry can stay at home on the perimiter, and Bowen or Parker can stay at home on the baseline.
I don't think Tim was used quite enough in the 4th quarter, when Shareef I believe had 3 or 4 fouls. When Reef went on that run, they should have concentrated on going at him with Duncan and trying to get him in foul trouble. They were calling close plays, so any kind of upfake, or force of contact would've drawn a foul.
Free throws made or missed aside, you take Abdur Rahim out of the game.
Also would've been nice when Abdur Rahim was forcing his way inside, if Duncan could've take a bit of a "tumble" and forced the refs to call an offensive foul.
Unfortunately, Timmy got his 5th foul 2 1/2 minutes into the 4th quarter and didn't reenter the game until 4 minutes or so left in the game.
Key #1: Duncan must get in the game offensively
Key #2: Keep Parker driving the lane and forget about his jumper.
Key #3: Bowen vs. Artest. Keep Artest scoring to a minimum and he'll go berserk and foul again and again.
Key #4: Bench must come through again. If they keep averaging 52 points a game we'll be awfully tough to beat.
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