Reply With Quote
D'antoni has to see that Boris Diaw is a waste of space right now.
The Suns used four main players to try to slow down Parker. Marion was on him most of the time, but Nash and Barbosa also got chances to guard him. And when Kurt Thomas was in the game, the Suns would switch the pick-and-rolls and let Thomas try to slow Parker.
Here are the results for game one:
--Against Marion, Parker was 6-for-9 and got all five of his free throw attempts when Marion was guarding him.
--Against Nash and Barbosa, Parker was 3-for-4 against both of them.
--Against Thomas, Parker was 2-for-5.
It looks like the Suns' best hope is to play Thomas and let him switch off on Parker. Thomas also did a great job on Duncan. It's no mistake that Thomas led the Suns with a +7 on the game in regards to +/-.
Luckily for the Spurs, D'Antoni doesn't like to play Thomas.
On the other side of the court, the Spurs threw a lot of players on Amare.
Duncan was the most successful, limiting Amare to 2-for-9 shooting and four free throw attempts. Bowen and Oberto both limited Amare to 0-for-2 shooting when matched up with him.
Elson allowed Amare to go 2-for-3 from the field and sent him to the line for four attempts. Amare was also 1-for-2 against Ginobili and 1-for-1 against Horry.
Duncan played him wonderfully, keeping Amare from attacking the rim for the most part. Oberto was also impressive in making Amare a jump shooter.
One thing I'm not too comfortable with is Duncan guarding Marion for so long like he did in Game 1. Marion is a streaky player and I think that you're just asking for trouble by putting Duncan on him.
I still prefer putting Bowen on Marion to just take him out of the series.
If you are a Suns fan, the key is probably Kurt Thomas playing as much as possible. He's their best defender on Duncan and was pretty damn effective on Parker.
D'antoni has to see that Boris Diaw is a waste of space right now.
Diaw hopefully wakes up for Game 2.
Here comes the chess match. Do the Suns change their rotation and play Thomas way more? If so, they are not going to score as much, period.
I didn't realize that Nash played so few minutes...check out the minutes for this game:
bell 44
marion 42
stoudamire 38
barbosa 35
nash 33
diaw 25
thomas 13
j jones 9
I don't think Nash plays so few minutes next time, honestly. And if they are going to get Thomas more minutes, it comes with phoenix going big;
nash 40
bell 44
marion 40
amare 38
thomas 25
(barbosa) 35
(diaw) 18
I'm assuming that if they want to keep marion, amare and bell in for so many minutes, they have no choice but to cut Diaw's; Nash is going to play more minutes every other game this series, and they need Barbosa's scoring.
It will be interesting to see how they make these minutes work; do they put Barbosa in as the primary backup for the back court, and diaw the primary bckup for the front court, or do they switch to small ball and sub barbosa in for the front court?
and they actually played pretty decent for one long stretch where nash was on the bench. I think that is when they made their comeback in the 3rd. Correct me If I am wrong.
I agree with putting Bowen on Marion. If I remember correctly that's what they did two years ago. If Marion starts going off, things can go downhill in a hurry...
I really think we need to put the kibosh on mentioning this. Thomas also did a great job on TD in the last regular season game, and even someone as dumb as D'Antoni will have to realize this at some point, right?Luckily for the Spurs, D'Antoni doesn't like to play Thomas.
Once he decides to keep Thomas out there for 30 minutes, I think the Suns will have the upper hand, and it'll be Pop's turn to make a countermove.
if the spurs can continue to limit nash's assists, marion won't go off. he can't create shots for himself at all.
The offense runs heavily through Nash's hands. As others have pointed out, when an offensive set fails, the reset with the ball in Nash's hands - there is almost no attempt for any player to get his own shots otherwise.
That's a long way of saying Marion isn't a huge concern in and of himself. It's not like he's slashing to the bucket. He spots for threes, gets offensive boards, will make cuts. He's almost always on the receiving end of Nash's forays.
I bet that's how Mike D'Antoni comes up with his "strategery" -- by scouring bball forums for tips
It at least would explain things.I bet that's how Mike D'Antoni comes up with his "strategery" -- by scouring bball forums for tips
As I remember, Thomas killed us at Game 1 by his shooting and defense of TD.
And the Suns were still scoring at that point.
Once D'Antonio realizes this, we're gonna need a whole lot of help outside of Tony and Duncan.
Well, I feel that stopping Tony Parker is key. Having Thomas in the game is huge, as it helps with the 1 on 1 defense against Duncan, as well as helping with the weakside defense, boxing out, and gives the Suns the ability to switch on the pick & roll as mentioned above.
Thomas has to play 25 minutes, and not the 13 he played. They also needs to play Barbosa early and often.
The Suns rarely got on the fast break. I realize that the Spurs will give up defensive rebounds to get back in transition defense, but the Spurs did a great job on the boards. Marion in particular needs to crash the offensive boards.
The Suns only played about 70%, and was still in the game until the very end. I expect the Suns to win game 2, and lose the series in 6 as I predicted earlier.
If PHX ever wants to beat the Spurs, they need to learn how to play half court offensive sets with multiple points of attack. Why they haven't done this in the last three years is beyond me.
Our coach does not have the X's and O's to do it on defense. It is as simple as that. He can create multiple points of attack on offense, but not defense. The Suns will always be an average defensive team. (not the horrible team that most of the media portrays) You can't have a 1st team all NBA, and a runner up for DPOY (Marion) and be a horrible defense. It's not possible.
To D'Antoni, playing Kurt Thomas is akin to admitting that his style of play doesn't work. I doubt we see Thomas playing 30 minutes this series.
Or at least I hope not. Thomas playing regular minutes completely changes this series.
Bell and Marion are very good defenders, yet overrated. Thomas is easily your team's best defender ... as you can see by his regular season and playoff stats .
Yeah, but you can be coached by someone who won't utilize their defensive talents correctly because he is more interested in ego gratification and hearing about "his style" than in winning a championship (see Nelson, Don and Mavericks, Dallas).
timvp is right. Switch coaches on these teams and the Suns sweep.
Parker was amazing. Did he ever miss a midrange jumper at all? Suns' best defender on him might be Banks who could rough him up a little, in the hope that he might get tired later in the game and became less accurate. The problem is DA doesn't want to play him either.
Amare lacked energy on offense, I guess due to his spending too much on defense and playing as long as he played. So, with KT taking over main responsibility on TD, Amare's offensive production will increase, while TD will get roughed up a little more than in Game 1.
Everybody can defend Marion easily as long as he is parked at the 3-pt line. For the Suns to have a chance, he needs to cut more and try harder for offensive rebounds.
I expect/hope Diaw touch the ball on offense more, mainly exploiting any mismatch after switch with Nash. He can do some damage by posting up Parker, Manu, Bowen, and drive by the bigs not named Horry.
That is exactly how I see it also.
D'Antoni seems very stubborn in that regard, and it looks as if he is more worried about whinging and whining to the referees. When you blame things outside of your own control, you will never realise and find the mistakes you are making...
I think that, in some ways, the Suns actually become a much easier team for the Spurs to guard with Thomas on the floor. Defending well is certainly one key to controlling tempo and I think that there might only be a marginal boost for the Suns by choosing to play Thomas for lots of minutes. He certainly improves their chances to limit the Spurs' offense, but in a game with even a slightly slower tempo, I'm not sure that the Spurs have to be as efficient on the offensive end. That said, Thomas does give them at least a hope of defending Duncan effectively without lots and lots of double teams and Thomas does give them a better chance to stay in the rebounding battle.
I thought the Suns figured something out in the early-to-mid 4th when Marion had several really nice opportunities at the rim coming out of pick and rolls and other slashing opportunites that he got. The Spurs didn't defend him nearly as well when he was moving, which isn't terribly surprising, but is something that needs to be corrected.
So true. Sigh!
The problem starts in regular season. Against the Spurs, Banks and Rose should be of more use than James Jones, yet focused on winning every regular season game possible and on cultivating the "style", DA refused to give them playing time, as if to say "we can win it all without adjustments" or "others have to adjust to us not the other way round". The same reason he refuses to play Kurt more and Banks a little.
It's disappointing that Elson wasn't more successful against Amare, as he was brought in to help out with exactly that type of player - tall, athletic, strong PF/Cs.
Good analysis though. Oberto is really outshining Elson so far in the playoffs.
I suspect that Kurt Thomas will see more time in game 2, but this could still work to the Spurs advantage, as he is not really quick enough to stay with Parker and Manu for 48 min, and isn't as much of an offensive threat as Diaw usually is.
Welcome, cly2tw.
It's pleasant when a new poster from an opposition team shows up and he isn't a head
The way Diaw was ignored on offense after his early success to exploit some mismatches in game 1, it doesn't matter that Kurt is less of a threat offensively. If the Suns could unplug Diaw's offense, it would make sense to play Kurt less. So, one of these has to take place.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
