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Cut off the lane and force LeBron to shoot jumpers.
i am a little worried too,
but lets wait for game 1,
and after that we will have a better idea
of how important were the games during the regular season.
Cut off the lane and force LeBron to shoot jumpers.
Have a coach that isn't a moron
Well said. Also:
4) keep your head and execute in the 4th (we've done this all playoffs except game 4 vs Suns),
5) adjust depending on how they key on Timmy,
6) make the extra pass, and drive drive DRIVE the ball,
I say it goes 6 or 7 because LeBron will get EVERY freakin call (prepare to be frustrated by the reffing in this series), but I think our team looks really strong now - they've improved in each round of the playoffs this year, a great example of peaking at just the right time.
Not the size of the dog in the fight. It's the size of the fight in the dog.
Clichè enough for ya?
With that logic Mike Vick would have loved you.
I like that.
LeBron will have his one game that he is carried by the refs. Spurs a sweep or in five.
Stop Lebron. Don't let them run the offense through him. Keep them out of the paint - make them shoot jumpers and close out on their shooters.
Um, because the Spurs are better? More talented? Deeper? Have a better coach? More experienced? Smarter? More basketball IQ?
You could look at it from any angle. The Cavaliers are a one man show, and the Spurs will not give up open 3's and drives to the lane.
Who can stay in front of Tony?
Who can guard Manu?
Who can cover Tim Duncan?
But, they have the world's greatest ing player; LeBron James.
Please.
Spurs in 6.
whott go suck a , the cavs too.
your sarcastically acting like the duke lacrose . get laid homie.
as far as the cavs they are a good team, with a great player in lebron james who can do anything at will. but WE ARE THE SAN ANTONIO SPURS NO TEAM ASIDE FROM THE 00-02 LA LAKERS HAVE OWNED US.
YES , THE MAVS BEAT US LAST YEAR BUT IF YOU CAN RECALL WE WERE UP BY 3 WITH SECONDS TO GO IN GAME 7 A LUCKLY FOUL KILLED US, OUR MISTAKE NEVER THEIR GREATNESS.
we know what the spurs are going to do, feed Tim, tony penetrate, gino attack. play hard defense and stay poised I am confident in the spurs. I dont care about regular season ownage because that dont mean nothing right now. anyone think tim duncan is pissing his pants because they lost to the cavs in the reg season...i think not.
I think that the spurs can take this finals in 6 games
Our Mvp is Tim Duncan,He can do everything on the court
Bruce can lock down Leborn...trust me..he'll prove the world that he is
the most defensive player in the league
The sixth sense
People are in my view underestimating the Cavs. They are a good defensive team and are younger- stronger- and definitely more athletic. They also have strengths in areas in which the Spurs are weakest. Surely, you would rather the Spurs had Gibson and Varejao off the bench instead of Vaughn and Elson.
Yeah, but not in place of Manu and Horry.
The coaching tandem of Pop and PJ will make adjustments to game moves that Brown simply does not have an answer for. I went to the Cav's game way back on Nov 3 and we were just trying to figure out what to do with Elson. The reason the Spurs lost that game was they hit 18-34 free throws. Udrih was the backup point guard 2-5, and Finley went 1-7 as he was still trying to find his shot.
The second game the Spurs lost 82-78 on Jan 2nd in a four point squeaker. Pop was ejected in this game with 6 minutes left. Bonner and Barry played major minutes and Udrih was still the backup with little contribution.
The Cavs may be different in letting Gibson shoot more, but the Spurs are asl different and are in high playoff form from the practice teams Pop puts on the court at various times of the year.
The matchups-
Duncan vs Ligauskas Duncan in the past owns this matchup. Big Z usually gets in foul trouble and this will be a problem as Cleveland has a lack of reliable ourside shooters. They will rotate the power forwards and Marchall on Funcan in an effort to keep Z out of foul trouble.
Varejao and Gooden vs Oberto and Elson. This should be very interesting. Elson will give you some Bunny minutes, but the real question is does the Oberto we saw in Utah still play in this series particularly on offense. If so, again big Z will be in trouble when the fowards rotate to guard Duncan. Varejao and his over pursuit of the ball should make Oberto availble for the back door cuts that he a has been making. It would help of Elson would get a little hungry and go after the rebounds with a little fire. Horry negates Marshall and in fact his gib shot mentality may rise again in this series as outside shooting will be a premium.
Bowen verses James will be one sided James as it is anyone he plays. In other words James will get his and Pop won't mind. It is the other four players on the court that Pop does not want to beat us and he does nor want to be beat on the three. The key here is for Bowen to remain focused on offense because he has lost his shot in games past where he is so focused on defense with James.
Parker verses Gibson/Huges. This is where Parker should absoultely own the Cavs. This is his series to lose. He is setup to be the MVP. Period. Vaughn vs Snow is a wash and actually Vaughn's offense is better.
Ginobili/Finley/Barry/ verses Pavlovic. Pavlovic is a good kid, but he is in way over his head with these wiley veterans. I look for Pavlovic to be in foul trouble throughout the series and sore foot Hughes is going to be misarable against Ginobili. Cleveland likes to pack the lane and take charges so perimeter passing will be key.
The Spurs will win going away with Parker softening the middle and if he will pass to the open man when Cleveland collapses. There will be a rain of three pointers available for the Spurs and if they hit the threes they will win the games going away. The games iwll be close and Cleveland will have a chance only if Duncan plays one on three and never passes the ball back out and if Parker tries to do one on three layups with out kicking it to the open man. The more points scored by someone other than Parker and Duncan will equte to a Spurs win. That magic number is 45. If the rest of the Spurs players including Ginobili score 45 or more points the Spurs will not a lose that game in this series.
it should be fun.
attack their rookie PG and hobbled SG / force bron to pass the ball from traps and play tough defense.
all of them picked the spurs in the first three rounds of the good conference, hasn't hurt the spurs yet.your are doomed san antonio
pwned!
pwned!
pwned!
next to be pwned
Many on this board try to discount regular season play by throwing out selected examples where one team performed well against another, but then lost in the playoffs, or vice-a-versa. I think you have to look a bit deeper.
Previous meetings are not necessarily a predictor of what is to come, but they do give a good indication of how the match-ups work and how one teams style vs the others plays out.
The thing the Spurs need to be concerned about is how the CAVS seem able to take them out of their normal tempo and beat them at their own game.
Yes, November 2006 was a long time ago, but notice that in their 7 point victory IN San Antonio, the CAVS held the Spurs to 17.5 under their seasonal scoring average.
The next time the two teams met, in Cleveland in January 2006, the Spurs were held to 20.5 under their seasonal scoring average and again lost.
Previous to these two games, in Feb 2005, once again the Spurs lost (3-in-a-row) and were held to 11.5 under their average. Not a ton of data, but...I think I see a trend here.
Does Cleveland's defense have anything to do with this? Maybe! In all three games, Parker, Duncan and Ginobili got their points, but the Spurs still lost.
Are the Spurs the superior team? Yeah, I think so..., but all I am saying is that you have to wait until the games are played. It's nice to be confident, but don't be surprised if things don't play-out as you think they will.
1. Defense
2. Rebounds
3. Duncan should not come to foul trouble
4. If refs will send LeBron 15+ times on the line we are in trouble
5. Play as much as you can on Duncan
6. Make not a lot turnovers
7. Believe
The Spurs will do whatever they can to make Lebron uncomfortable. They'll certainly do a better job on him than Detroit did, and they will guard the rim much better than the post-Ben Wallace Pistons do. But in the end of course, Lebron will get his. Everyone knows it. The Spurs know it.
No defense, no matter how great, can stop a truly great player when he gets hot. BUT, what they can do is make him less effective when he's not hot. Once he heats up, you can't stop him. But no player stays hot all the time, and if you can limit him the rest of the time, you'll limit his overall damage... if only a little.
But the bigger issue is what they will do to the rest of the Cavs team. The Spurs aren't going to allow Lebron to make the rest of the players around him better to the degree he was able to against Detroit. Lebron's teammates won't be getting those open 3 point looks very often as they did in the conference finals. The Spurs will limit the rest of the Cavs team, and force Lebron to try and win every game single-handedly under intense defensive pressure.
Also, while Mike Brown has begun creating a culture of defense in Cleveland and has done a great job with his team in that dept... they still have work to do, and the Spurs offense will expose it. To put it simply, the Spurs offense is better than the Cavs defense... and it will show.
San Antonio is a better offensive team than Cleveland, and they're certainly a better defense team. The Spurs are much deeper, and obviously have a big edge in championship experience. The Cavs would be very lucky to take this thing to 6 games.
Varejo is exactly the type of player that can give Duncan fits. He's scrappy, has active hands, and is a big time flopper who can get Duncan in foul trouble. I can easily see Duncan having quite a few games like he did against the Jazz and Okur in Games 3 and 4.
Sorry dude. I don't care how gifted an actor he may be. Verejo is not going to noticably slow Tim Duncan.
Varejao will spend time on Duncan, but he doesn't have the strength to really handle him in the post. Gooden's play on Duncan is going to be much more vital. If he can play effective defense Cavs chances improve.
Coupled with Gooden or with Iglesias's size? I think it could...Spurs fans are overconfident. Cavs are playing like a confident bunch right now and like they have nothing to lose and with the best closer of the playoffs this season in Lebron. Not an easy task/sweep as Spurs fans think...Sorry dude. I don't care how gifted an actor he may be. Verejo is not going to noticably slow Tim Duncan.
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