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Actually, no, I see no difference.
"No fouls" means no fouls to anyone who understands English!
No coach is going to say "Let them have two points. Don't play any defense at all, we'll make our free throws because we're known for that."
I didn't have a problem with small-ball, that whole one-bounce, one-call thing looms large.
I thought it might have been a good time to bring in a big off the bench after Manu made that 3. Rebounds=Rings and having that extra big in there at that time would've worked as good as Diop's play late worked for Avery.
Actually, no, I see no difference.
"No fouls" means no fouls to anyone who understands English!
No coach is going to say "Let them have two points. Don't play any defense at all, we'll make our free throws because we're known for that."
Last edited by MadDog73; 05-24-2006 at 02:48 PM.
It is unbelievable the arrogance of Spurs fans. If you think the Spurs are so head and shoulders superior above everyone else in the NBA that they don't have to adjust to other teams, then you don't know jack about the NBA. The Spurs were not exactly dominating teams on the way to the championship last year. And this year, they won a whole lot of close games during the season. Despite 63 wins, they were not running ramshod over the league. Many teams are going towards smaller lineups because of the lack of quality bigs (as evidenced from our roster). If the Spurs can't adjust, they will lose games.
To say this loss is on Pop is not only juvenile finger-pointing at it's finest but also discrediting the Dallas Mavs and imparticular Dirk Nowitzki. Can't you guys just admit he is a force and that the Spurs had no answer for him?! Can't you give the Mavericks some credit for being a damn good team? I don't like admitting it, but it's the truth. I refuse to be in denial about this like so many on this board who blame Pop instead.
The Spurs are one athletic big away from being able to adjust to ANY team in the NBA, including the Mavs. They will take care of this during the offseason and then we come around and try it all again next season.
Until then, I would hope that those who think the Spurs are so damned superior cool their jets. They are a great team but obviously just missing a part or two. They are not going to win every damn year, and anyone who expects them to just doesn't get it. We are seeing the best PF of all time in his prime, and he wears silver and black. He has won us 3 Championships. That's right, little ol San Antonio has three pro sports les. If you can't enjoy that, then you need to get your head checked. To piss and moan and be mad over what they accomplished this year is missing the point.
Listen to the truth, Jim.
How do you get from one person saying "Spurs shouldn't have tried to small ball Dallas" to somebody else saying "Spurs fans are arrogent, unappreciative, stupid, need to get your head checked, etc."?
I don't remember ANYBODY claiming before the playoffs started that small ball was written on the wall as the way of the future and the Spurs would have to completely change what they did during the regular season to win 63 games. If someone did, I'd love a link and they will get a respect from me.
Exactly. Dirk is a freak and Dallas finally built a team around him with the right coach to use his talents. Spurs have nothing to be ashamed of.
That's not what she is saying at all. She's saying the Mavs are a great team, and the Spurs played great against them, and fans that can't see that need to get "their head checked."
I happen to agree.
We made the Mavs an equal team to us. The Spurs were better when they played Spurs bball, that is hard nosed D and rebound the ball on the Defensive glass.
I conceed nothing to Dallas. I blame Pop, and nothing will change my mind.
I concur.
Anyone who says that experimenting with the bigs wouldn't have worked against Dallas is saying that Dallas is the overall better team. We lost with small ball and a lot of folks are saying we would have lost with, umm, big ball as well.
I'm not ready to conceed that Dallas is the better team either. I think we should have tried some things to create a mismatch or two in our favor.
Actually, you are nearly conceeding here. Saying that we need to create a mismatch or two "of our own" is implying that Dallas had mismatches that beat us. So basically, you are saying we need to adjust- but not to a smaller lineup? What adjustment would you make then that isn't smaller to create that mismatch in our favor?
Why not play to our strength which is using the double-post set that has earned 3 championships?
Why did we have to change our philosophy only to lose? It seems to me that we had mismatches in our favor going into the series. We had won 7 of our previous 10 meetings with Dallas playing traditional Spurs basketball. The "mismatch" already existed with the Spurs typical style of play and we got away from it. Avery's insertion of Devin Harris and the game 2 blowout won them the series because we unsuccessfully tried to figure out a way to stop them rather than give the Mavs something to have to counter.
Last year against Phoenix we played Duncan on Amare and won. People say that Duncan couldn't guard Dirk, but could Dirk of stopped Duncan at the other end of the floor?
Granted, we came within an inch of winning the series, and hindsight always is 20-20, but I think we made a mistake by leaving our two centers completely out of the equation.
The ONE game in this series that Nazr and Rasho played any significant time was game 2. Well, you know the rest....
Allright, Pop haters, you believe that playing Rasho and Nasr would have won the series? Prove it. Because I don't believe you.
We'll never know, will we.
But we do know that small-ball can lose a series. That we did learn pretty well I think.
Duncan can't guard Dirk. Not only is he not fast enough, but it gets him in foul trouble. Game 6 he played all of 11 minutes in the first half cus he got three quick fouls- all by guarding Dirk.
Nazr on defense is a joke. People would have blown past him, and since he tends to commmit stupid, ticky-tack fouls there would have been plenty of and-1's. Also, he is a turnover machine with those hands on the other end. Rasho is an excellent defender but much too slow to guard the paint against the small, quick guards of the Mavs. They would have scored just as much on Rasho. Problem is, the offensive would have suffered because with Rasho in you basically only have four scorers on the floor. With games being decided by a few points, that could have been deadly.
I am not saying the Spurs should become a small-ball team. I am saying they need pieces to adjust when a team throws that lineup at them. They need more flexbility. To suggest that they are a juggernaut that everyone else should adjust to and have no flexibility whatsoever is not only arrogant, it's competetive suicide. If we get the right pieces this summer, next year we can bamboozle them and make them adjust to us. The Mavs are not going away, and if we don't have versatility, we may not beat them next year, either.
BTW, wanting Pop to not settle in and try the same thing over and over again in a series when it's not working, or isn't working well, doesn't make you a Pop hater. Asking Pop to mix it up rather than keep with a game plan that hasn't been working and to perhaps play to one of our team's advantages isn't hating on Pop.
It's insanity, literally, to do the same thing, over and over again, and expect a different result. . .much like my posts in this thread.
I think Pop has the 5th best playoff winning percentage (0.627). Not too shabby. But I guess people on these boards know better.
He played Nazr in game 2, the only game that wasn't close.
As I said, we went to Game 7 with a damn good chance to win it.
I, (unlike Jim), blame some crappy plays at the end rather than coach Pop.
I'll say it once, and I'll keep repeating: I'll take a guaranteed shot at winning versus the total unknown.
Ed, we won game 5 and 6. Do you not want to repeat that in Game 7?
Why change then?
The Spurs will definitely need to get a long, athletic 3, as well as a versatile 4, but that's been the case for the last 3 years.
If "compe ive suicide" is getting ousted in the second round of the playoffs then I think we succeeded.
My complaint is that we didn't experiment with enough adjustments to turn the series in our favor. There very well could have been opportunities to play our bigs. . .but we'll never know. However, maybe you're right. Maybe we're just not as good as Dallas and nothing we could have done would have changed that. I'll go ahead and accept the fact that inserting Devin Harris into the Mavericks starting lineup was enough to make the Mavs the superior team.
I think people (Spurs fans) were in shock when the Spurs went small. Spurs fans had probably never seen this by the Spurs. They were use to seeing two seven footers clogging the lane and blocking shots and rebounding. The Spurs certainly didn't have that in this series.
Spurs fans were always told defense wins this and that. All of sudden you don't see that because of the small ball, but Pop did what he felt gave the Spurs the best chance to win. The Mavs lineup would have presented problems even with Nazr or Rasho in the lineup.
I just wanted to see the Spurs try a zone defense with two bigs at least once during that series. Oh well.
I remember against the Suns last year that Nazr had some pretty decent games for us. Sure he gave up some points, but he also was a presence under the basket and could rebound the ball.
Horry wasn't giving us anything against the Mavs that Nazr couldn't have provided. We got killed on the glass, and I would have liked to have seen how someone like him could have performed.
I think Pop is the greatest coach the Spurs have ever had. I hope he coaches the Spurs forever. I just wish we'd of tried to have more of a post presence than we did against the Mavs.
I think Pop has the 5th best playoff winning percentage (0.627). Not too shabby. But I guess people on these boards know better.
Um, that is with two 7 footers. He is 3-4 w/o twin towers and small ball.
Bottom line, it worked in Game 5 and 6, and almost worked in Game 7.
If we play Nazr for 20 minutes in Game 7, and lose by 20, how is that an improvement?
Let me rephrase this for you: Pop won the last two les when he had 2 7-footers that could actually play. He lost the last two when our starting center sucked.
Clearly, that's poor coaching.
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