The Spurs used the regular season like other teams use Summer Leage. They used the Dallas series like most teams use the pre-season. Blazers? Their regular season. They're just now hitting playoff intensity.
Portland played the last two games against the Spurs w/out their best bench player, and nobody whined about it. Some people here actually thought it was going to be a positive. LOL
wasnt it two years ago where the spurs looked completely unbeatable, swept the first two rounds? and then took the first two from okc, only to then lose the next 4 please dont do that again spurs
Portland needs to have a bench that not only Stotts can rely on, but more importantly, that LMA and Lillard know aren't going to blow leads, or fall further behind, while they are getting rest. If that can happen this summer, be it by improvement by the young players, along with a few key veteran additions, then the urgency of the regular season becomes less important.
Completely agreed. Spurs bench in the playoffs has Ben ludicrous; like most of their rotation players over 16 PER.
fwiw, i really thought the blazers had no chance after all the sighs of relief and pats on the back after the first round. it really seemed to me that they had accomplished what they set out to do, good or bad. basically the spurs were just on a whole nother level
Yeah well I wasn't one of those people. While a healthy Mo would have helped vs the Spurs. the series wouldn't have been different... Just like with a healthy Ibaka.. The thunder would still be losing by 20+ period.
I don't think so. Personally I think they "just" flipped the switch game 7 against Dallas. We played the Spurs tougher that the Ibaka-less Thunder. That's not a lot of consolation, but it is some. Spurs will torch the Heat and be Champions.
This is why I think Pop is top three. Jackson can claim more titles. I never seen any one his teams players 1-12 play with this kind of cohesion, discipline and error free basketball. Spurs are a machine. They are text book. And it's just not this one team. I have seen a few of his teams in his tenure play like this.
Totally. Mo had a PER of 4.7 in the playoffs, but there were five players worse than him... None in the rotation, but still.
It's because he doesn't take half effort from anyone. Most coaches give some players preferred treatment. But Pop rips into Parker & Duncan just as often (if not more) than all the other players. The remarkable thing is that Duncan & Parker take it. When they do, all the other players fall in line & play up to their potential.
One thing I really notice is when a play gets broken the whole team knows exactly how to react and is quickly on to plan b.
Almost everyone can shoot and shoot well on that team. You can't cheat against any of them. Spurs are just ridiculous on offense right now.
Shortly after the all-star break we won 19 straight, winning by an avg margin of 18 or so. in the loss to OKC, that ended the streak, we won the first half then pop started Ayers and benched Kawhi for the third q. aka threw the game because he saw all he needed to see. Then after we wrapped up HCA, we started coasting and that trickled into the first round. Then Game 7 of the Mavs series happened and we woke up.
LeBron is every bit the handful Jordan was. Spurs were right there with Pop schemes and multiple defensive players. How would Luc longly match up with Duncan? How would Rodman defend a small ball Kawhi? Beauty of Spurs is they exploit any mismatch so you can't hide a Steve Kerr on defense. Don't get me wrong, Bulls teams were great and may very well win but I think these Spurs might be favored or at the least have a realistic chance.
