The San Antonio Spurs are in the middle of what has to be the easiest rodeo tour in the history of rodeo tours. The trip started with games at Portland and at LAL, it ends with a game at Chicago on the 17th. In between, the Spurs play at SAC, DET, TOR, PHI (tonight), WAS (tomorrow) and NJN. Six straight games against sub-.500 opponents. The schedulers really do like to make the rich richer. Hopefully, the Sixers can throw a wrinkle in what should be an extremely successful trip for a juggernaut of a team.
I'm not going to sugarcoat it, this Spurs team doesn't have a whole lot of weaknesses. They're 3rd in OFR, 7th in DFR. They rebound pretty well, they don't turn the ball over, they don't foul very much, they're extremely efficient from the floor. They have zero injury issues (they've used the exact same starting lineup in all 52 of their games). They balance the floor, they spread the scoring load around, they rest their best players.
Lately, San Antonio has been sleeping early then exploding late to put these bad teams away, on the road. If the Sixers are going to have any chance (and really, they don't), they're going to have to exploit a couple of mismatches relentlessly. Unless SA uses Duncan on Brand, EB is going to have room to work. DeJaun Blair is on the short side, so that's matchup number one. The second mismatch is Tony Parker guarding Jrue. Jrue has a huge size and strength advantage over Parker and it's something the Sixers are going to have to attack. Jrue should get touches in the post, he should get high screens (preferably from Hawes to involve Duncan, he should even get isos. If they're going to win this game tonight, Jrue needs to go off and win his matchup by more than a little.
I hate the George Hill/Lou Williams matchup off the bench. I like Thad vs. McDyess. Bonner scares me on the offensive end (he's shooting 49.6% from three).
One adjustment needs to be made right from the opening tip. Iguodala has to guard Manu and Meeks has to guard Richard Jefferson. Meeks has one responsibility and only one responsibility on the defensive end, do not leave Richard Jefferson open in the corner. Period. Do not help off him. Treat Andre Iguodala like a lock-down corner and leave him on an island with Manu (I like our chances in that matchup), if Jrue gets beat on penetration, let the bigs be responsible for help. Do not leave Jefferson, period. The Spurs feast on corner threes off Parker and Ginobili penetration, take it away from them, foul those guys hard if they get to the rim and make San Antonio prove they're willing to take the punishment for continuing to drive to the hoop.
Prediction: PHI 95, SAS 105, they're just too good.
The tip is at 7pm, game thread will land 90 minutes prior.
This will the first time in awhile(Lakers in LA) where I would be happy just to see this team compete hard. That's saying something. Even during the Magic game I felt at times like we were the better team. I find myself yelling at the TV screen when we don't play as well as we can and my expectations for the team grow every day. This is a totally fun team to watch with likable(not you Hawes) players. It's been a pleasure to follow the team this year and I can't wait to see what the future brings with this group.
Totally agree with Iguodala on Manu. Get him on the list!
Hey guys, were two weeks out, so do you forsee any trades for the Sixers or are we playing to well and management likes what they see? How about Melo stay or go?
I really have no idea what's going through Thorn's head. A minor trade wouldn't surprise me, but I doubt we see anything major. I think Melo leaves, probably to the Knicks in a package that gives Denver next to nothing.
I gotta agree I think the Spurs are too good. And we don't have Dalembert to put on Duncan anymore, that used to work well.
Would take a heck of an effort to make this a real close one. Hopefully Jrue has a good game.
We were talking about the Spurs defense a few weeks ago. they were an anomaly compared to other good defensive teams- in that they seem to convince opponents to take bad shots (long jumpers) early in the shot clock. Other top defenses tend to force offenses into longer possessions that result in forced shots.
I'm interested to see how they do it.
If I had to guess, I'd say they aggressively chase teams off the three point line, and then pack the lane behind it. Essentially, "We aren't going to let you shoot the three, but make a fake and we'll gladly give you the 20-footer" smart stuff like that. They also don't gamble for steals.
Sort of what Collins tries to do. the whole keep them inside the fence but outside the yard mumbo-jumbo (outside the lane but inside the 3 pt line.)
Yep. It's smart, if you ask me. Popp probably chuckles whenever he faces a team running the PO. Like, "Don't even bother, we'll let you shoot 20-footers all night."
There are a handful of players who you do not want shooting a 20 foot jumper. But in general, its a great approach.
I'm sure he chuckled himself to death back when he was facing the Princeton Offense-running Kings in their heyday. Or the two-time NBA Finalist New Jersey Nets, or the Hornets under Byron Scott.
Well, he never faced those devastating Kings teams that never got out of the West in the playoffs. He probably did have a good laugh at the Nets while he was mopping the floor with them in the finals in 2003.
To take it a step further, during Sacto's dominant period, '00/01 to '04/05, the Spurs were 11-9 against them in the regular season. They never met in the playoffs.
In those games, the Kings "high-powered" offense averaged 42.5% from the floor, 31.4% from three and scored 92.3 points per game.
So yes, I think Popp had a good laugh at the Princeton Offense, even when it was run by studs like Doug Christie.
The point is that they were good offensive teams. It's a system that can work with the right personnel and coaches. Maybe Eddie Jordan's version = open 20-footers, but I don't think that was the general idea.
See the post directly above to see what a smart defense does to the PO on the professional level.
So basically the team that was 2nd in ORTG one year and 3rd another was really running a stupid offense, because they didn't do too well against the best defensive team in the league during that period, in a sample of 20 regular season games.
Yes, that sums it up perfectly. The team that was dominant, was complete shit against Popp's defense. That was kind of the point of my original comment, no? That Popp's defense encourages the crap shots that the PO generates.
Those two Nets teams that ran the PO were ranked #17 and #18 in the league in OFR.
The Kings teams were all top 10 offenses, and top 10 defense twice as well. They just couldn't get it done in the playoffs.
I thought pretty much everyone agreed that the Kings were robbed that one year.
Does that mean they actually made it to the finals? They weren't robbed as badly as the Suns were against the Spurs.
Let's hope the Spurs don't score 39 points in the first quarter like they did back in November.