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No, having two worthless centers cost this team.
At the end of the day. I firmly believe that adhering to the Mavs style of basketball is what cost this team.
No, having two worthless centers cost this team.
They won us a le last year. Not using them cost this team.
Exactly how would it have helped to have someone out there with no real offensive game that can't guard anyone on the floor except the guy Timmy is guarding?
Nazr and Rasho could not have kept up with any of the Mav's fast, agile players. Using them means the defense is no better, but now the offense has one less threat. Do you not SEE how bad the defense is when Nazr is in? He is useless in situations like these. And Rasho is simply too slow. Mavs would have breezed past us.
Oh, and last year- the Spurs did not play the Mavs in the playoffs. And the team was a little different too, they played different. Comparing this year's Mavs and last year's is apples to oranges.
Nope
You not posting a bravatar pic of Stacie lost it for us...
Nope
You not posting a bravatar pic of Stacie lost it for us...
Insightful and accurate.
Yeah, Horry and Finley did a stellar job on defense. Rasho and Nazr clog up the middle. Dirk has a long history of pussing out when there are shot blockers in the lane and resorting to jumpers when someone like Shaq or Rasho, or anyone 6-11 and and above is in the lane. Much like when Bowen stopped him in the regular season (with Nazr playing decent minutes), that might have changed the pace of the game in the Spurs favor. I am already sick of hearing about this "new, aggressive Dirk" that the media is already pushing. He wasn't scared to take it at players that are 6 inches shorter than him. Wow.
When I refer to last year in the playoffs, I refer to the Sun's series. I wouldn't say that those two teams are that different. I'm actually suprised at how quickly this board has turned on those two centers considering how little they played this series.
Fact: The longest stretch played by Nazr (11:59) was in game 2.
Which we lost. By a lot.
Now, I'm not blaming that loss on Nazr, but it certainly proved to Pop that if putting Nazr in for significant minutes isn't going to net you anything, it might not be a good idea.
We could've won last night. I don't think putting Rasho or Nazr in there gurantees you anymore wins, and could in fact lead to more losses.
As for this argument "Spurs don't play small ball." Wrong. We did it last year, and beat the Suns. We can play small ball, and we can win doing it. If we had won last night, I think everyone would be singing a different tune.
The fact we didn't just means we didn't. It doesn't mean Pop sucks, anymore than Manu fouling Dirk means Manu sucks.
I guess it doesnt even matter anymore. I'm just gonna not dwell on it. It happened.
There you go again, living in the past. Did you not see Dirk's performance this series? The man was a beast, plain and simple! He was completely unstoppable. He was afraid of NOTHING. He did not puss out. Playing Rasho or Nazr on him means that not only does he score, he gets an and-1 much more often. So then you sit your center and have to play- small ball. Six fouls to give does not work against this Mavs lineup, period.
And Nazr playing decent minutes would have changed the pace of the game- and the outcomes as well. Spurs would have lost in 5, easily. Does anyone forget how many points he costed us the last time he played? It was something like 6 or 8 points in a minute's time. In a series with so many last-second wins, those 6 or 8 mean a uva lot.
The thing the Spurs didn't do was match up against AJ's strategy. Many of you haven't forgotten the approach we used to defeat Phoenix a year ago when they employed a similar "small ball " approach, we countered with a "big ball" approach using two or three bigs at a time. Duncan killed Phoenix on the high-low that year, and that was the difference ultimately. We forced Phoenix to drive by playing tight D on the perimieter and Nash couldn't find passing lanes or couldn't get a shot off over our bigs. One of the bigger reasons we lost this series was very simple: rebounding. We got outrebounded in almost every game, if not every game this season and our defensive rebounding was horrible. You cannot give a team like Dallas two or three more chances, it is just too draining to play D that many times. The Spurs lost on the boards and I don't know how many times I saw Bowen and Parker trying to fight for a rebound with Nowitzi and Diop and they lost every time. Pop left Tim on a island too many times this season. I am not saying this strategy would have won the series for the Spurs but it couldn't have hurt.
http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=42319
I didn't think this season was that long ago. Now that I'be noticed you took your cans off, I guess I better change my avatar.
Pop actually thought about Rasho in the first quarter last night when the Mavs were scoring so easily, but AJ kept going with a smaller and smaller line-up with Dirk as the biggest guy on the floor.
I will say, though, that it is not fair to paint Rasho and Nazr with one single stroke. They are very different players.
I trust Pop as one of the best coaches in the league. Period.
But I can't help but think of Gene Mauch, manager during the Phillies' monumental collapse in 1964. Down the stretch, the Phils were dropping daily in the standings. Mauch adopted a radical strategy -- a two man pitching rotation of Jim Bunning and Chris Short. In other words, he abandoned half of his rotation. It resulted in a collapse of historic proportions and Mauck has been the classic icon of "overmanaging" since then.
Did Pop overeact to the Mavs lineup change? Mauch never won a championship despite managing talented teams. Pop has already won three. To quote the late Lloyd Benson, Gene Mauch, you're no Gregg Popovich.
But the question does arise.
No doubt about it. I still think this is all Pop's fault.
Agreed. The reason for the change was to guard Nowitzki, who averaged 27 and 13. So would it have been worse playing the style that the whole team was used to for an entire season? I think not. The change in philosophy destroyed a great Spurs defense, one that is predicated on funneling shooters baseline where shotblockers could make up for a lack of athleticism on the perimeter. Rebounding, shotblocking, stingy interior defense- gone in this series. The changes wore out the starters, made a great bench in the regular season useless, and forced anybody not named Tim Duncan out of their comfort zone on offense and everyone, including Duncan, in a bad situation on defense. Popovich went away from the philosophy that won him three championships- against a team that he played four times in the regular season. What the was so different? Devin Harris starting? Please. Eight steps backward to take one step forward- Pop panicked after game 2 and we will never know what might have been.
That's the only truth. Spurs could have lost in 5. Or won.
We'll never know, because that's not what happened. But, we were up by 3 with 30 seconds remaining, and had the ball for the final possession.
You really can't ask for more than that in a Game 7...
Everyone is talking about Dirk. How Rasho in the game would mean Dirk could not be defended well...
Anyway... we all talk about our players, how they suck... what about Popovich? I guess if a player sucks... why couldn't the coach suck too? Is he not human? Doesn't he make mistakes? I believe he does, doesn't he? And if makes mistakes, couldn't his mistakes cost us the series? Rasho's, Brent's, Nazr's mistakes/incompetence are not that important - because coach can play other players. But Pop's mistakes are lethal. Nobody can neutralize them. I always knew Pop is one of the worse in the league when it comes to in-the-game adjustments. But I always trusted in his adjustments between the games. Until now. He's a stubborn guy and it costed us a lot. Our players are ok, this team is a championship winning team with a right approach. Who here thinks this team is not capable of winning the le? Come on.
I said it from the beginning of the series. No Center = No Series. You can't win without a Center in the NBA.
The Spurs set a franchise record for wins this season and they played with a Center! Then Poopavitch decides to switch to small-ball for the play-offs?!?!? IDIOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
patience.......
We have a seven footer in France that will be able to chase Dirk around when he comes here.
Witness Phoenix's finish in the cellar for proof.
Id like for someone to give me the name of the bigman to play.
Mohammed stunk.
Rasho was worthless.
Who else?
And for the love of god do not say Sean Marks.
Mental mistakes at critical points of games cost this team. Up by three, you do NOT foul someone going for a layup (last night), and you do NOT throw the ball away on an inbounds (Game 4).
The Spurs lost 3 games they would have won last year (Games 3, 4 and 7), and it's because the Spurs made mental mistakes, and the Mavs played very well at the end of the game, executed and got exactly what they wanted. The Mavs deserved to win the series.
Right, the two of them dealt with Amare Stoudemire and Ben Wallace last year, but somehow would have been worthless on the court against Erick Dampier and DeSagana Diop.Exactly how would it have helped to have someone out there with no real offensive game that can't guard anyone on the floor except the guy Timmy is guarding?
ing brilliant.
How the would you know? they never got to play except in one game (2) where everyone on the team sucked. Yeah, that's a fair place to assess judgment.Id like for someone to give me the name of the bigman to play.
Mohammed stunk.
Rasho was worthless.
Who else?
If everyone who sucked in game 2 deserved to be benched for the rest of the series, we wouldn't have had enough left to field a team the rest of the way.
Typical Tpark. We lost this series because Pop tried to play the Mavs style of ball instead of playing the Spurs basketball that got this team three les and 63 wins this year.
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