One that I can think of that applies well here, as it did in the Phoenix series is, stay at home on the shooters. Alot of the Jazz's threes came on pick and pops with Okur and williams, Oberto/elson/horry have got to stay at home on him and not let him get hot.
Boozer in the post is gonna be a , but, we will see how he does against a good post defender in Duncan/Oberto. He was destroying small forwards, but against Houston, he was defended well by a stiff NBDLer.
Stay out of foul trouble Fab, Timmy, Robert.
It's a weird matchup for the Spurs because I'm not sure who Bowen should guard.
I'm guess that Finley (or Manu if he starts) will take AK. Bowen on Deron and TP on Fish. But any of those could be switched.
Boozer is a freakin monster and Okur always shows up big against the Spurs.
Not the greatest matchup for the Spurs, but the Spurs aren't an easy matchup for them either.
NO threes, and let TD abuse them until they start double teaming him
the Spurs shooter HAVE to make their shots this series
Try to limit Boozer (i love that name, btw) and make the rest of the Jazz try to beat you.
Tim will have yet another amazing series.
Spurs/Pistons in another epic finals.
God, I love it.
I think we all owe a dept of gra ude to the Suns fans. The Spurs were very motivated to win and NOT return to Phoenix.
I take it you didn't watch the Houston/Utah series at all, considering Boozer was guarded by Yao Ming the entire series. Hardly a NBDLer.
my guess is that the jazz win a game in salt lake city with okur hitting a layup at the buzzer.
Okur is going to go 5-5 on threes each game for 7 games straight.
Would you want that to happen?
We need to keep focused.
I think a big problem could be rebounding. The Jazz seem to be a solid rebounding team and have given the Spurs fits on the boards recently.
To men, the keys to beat utah are :
Limiting Jazz offensive rebounds :
Jazz is the best offensive rebounding team in the league. Spurs usualy do a good job at limiting opponents offensive rebounds and they should prove it in this serie. Everybody must hit the defensive glass, wings can't let Spurs bigs doing all the work.
Spurs bigs must play good D without commiting too much fouls :
Utah has good bigs and is a slashing team. Spurs bigs will have a lot of work to do. Horry will be really needed in this serie and the good news is that he is rested (6 days break). Elson must be decent : a 3 big men rotation with Duncan/Oberto/Horry won't be enough in this serie. I won't be surprised too to see Bonner getting some minutes against Okur.
Shutting down Deron Williams :
He is the key to Jazz offense. Bowen and Parker should continue to play great D against him.
If Spurs don't underestimate Jazz and match their intensity, this shouldn't be a really difficult serie. Spurs in 5.
should spurs just let boozer get his and stop everyone else?
you start with bowen on williams. limiting his penetration will be very important. problem is, that gives the jazz a mismatch with finley/ginobili on kirilenko. also, fisher can post up tp and the jazz can draw out td and elson/oberto from the paint with boozer and okur. going small will make sense if the jazz' bigs start hitting from the outside.
Horry should bodyslam Deron Williams in game 4 while Boozer and AK47 are on the bench.
this will be a thorn in the spurs' side this series. okur and boozer have enough range on their shot to draw out the spurs' bigs and the jazz have solid rebounding guards + kirilenko to snag those offensive boards.
one word: rebound. keep the jazz from dominating on the boards.
they only have a couple guys on the whole roster who can create their own shot (and hopefully bowen will negate Williams). i think they will have serious trouble scoring in this series if they don't get numerous second and third chances.
Yeah, if Bowen can keep Williams out of the lane, wich should be easier than Nash due to him being just a bigger guard, then that hurts the Jazz.
If the Spurs can just take the mentality that they did vs Denver in the last 4 games, and use it, they could be OK.
Jazz struggle enormously on the road, and can struggle enormously to score.
I figure we'll lose the boards, but the Spurs know that rebounding is a Jazz strength and will prepare and try to neutralize it.
As with the Suns, the key will be Spurs defense, which the Jazz aren't strong enough to overcome. The Jazz do move around a lot on offense, but if Tony and Bruce can hassle Deron sufficiently, we'll be OK.
Finish this series by Wed morning.
IF -with capitals- the Spurs can control the defensive glass & not giving up many 2nd chance points, the series will end in 5 games, 6 tops if the refs is having their way one game or another, with them coming out on top. Fail to do so, and it's gonna be a bitter battle to the end.
Good point. Kirilenko & Harpring are excellent rebounder at the SF spot. Manu really needs to step up his rebounding effort -and judging by his performance in game 5 & 6 against Phoenix, i'm quite optimistic. Finley & Barry certainly won't give me much of optimism in that regard. Darn, if only we still have Glenn Robinson, LOL.
win 4 games, thats how you beat the Jazz
This is the Spurs' biggest worry. With Okur, Boozer and long-ass AK-47, the Jazz are poised to kill us on the boards. Elson, Oberto and Horry (thank God he'll be back!) will HAVE to help Tim on the glass.
1 thing that would help, is getting Okur or whoever guards Duncan early, in foul trouble.
Go at them, pumpfake, get em out, rinse, lather, repeat.
The more i think about this matchup, the more i think that Utah is the perfect WCF opponent for the Spurs (in terms of the toughest matchup).
Dwill is a strong, big bodied PG and is always improving on D. It will be interesting to see whether he can stay in front of Parker on the defensive end. They will likely always have AK hanging around to shut down the penetration if Dwill gets beat, but then Dwill better be quick to cover the open man.
Fisher and Finley are a wash. Both of them will camp by the perimeter waiting for the penetration kick out. Finley should try and use his size against Fisher, when possible. I think Harpring should sub in when Manu does. He seems tough as nails and could bodycheck Manu a few times to ensure Manu doesn't think he is going to have it easy (although he never does have it easy)
AK47 (can't stand him) is peaking at the right time. They should switch him and Harpring on Manu. Just go with whoever is having the most success at that particular time. They would be smart to keep AK47 roaming around the paint, keeping an eye on penetration.
Boozer is going to be the toughest matchup for Duncan so far this season. He is more developed than Nene, as strong as Nene and better in the low post than both Nene and Amare. Im not sure about his J but its pretty safe to say that he will try and get most his points in the paint. I think its to Duncans advantage coz it means he can just stay at home most the time and clean up the boards.
Okur could either be the Spurs best friend or a continuing Spurs killer. Elson has the quickness to stay with him and the length to bother him, but its the bball IQ he lacks sometimes. Jazz will probably try and switch Elson off of Okur, in order to get Okur open against a smaller defender.
Millsap is a bruiser and he will have field day cleaning up on the boards if Boozer can keep Duncan busy enough. I just dont see anyone else apart from Duncan that can be solid on the boards vs the Jazz (maybe horry will pull down a few)
Spurs bench will be the difference i think. The veteran poise off the bench always makes a huge difference this time of the year.
I still think Spurs will win in 7 and its going to be one heck of a series.
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