San Antonio Spurs 102, Los Phoenix Suns 110: Reversing the curse by reversing roles

@ Jim Henderson, re: lots of caps regarding Blair

Blair has 6 fouls in 20 minutes total across 2 games. You can’t give the Suns free points off of FT’s; it’s hard enough to contain their offense without giving them points while the clock is off. Staying on the floor is as much Blair’s responsibility as it is Pop’s.

@ Jim Henderson

ROCKING POST. Great points.

Coaching is losing these games. Stomping on players confidence, keeping them unsure of thier roles, minutes, responsibilities is murder for any team. Its been done all year and it has finally hit home.

A person has to be mighty anal to deplete his roster and actually go into the playoffs with Bonner, Bogans and Masonm as your bench help.

Personally, I feel that the Spur Nation should be granted a public apology by Popovich for forcing us to watch these three absolute scrubs all year long. It has been criminal and we are WOUNDED!

If we ignore the idiocy that occured in the Spur Nation this year, it will happen again next year.

Pop should be on the HOTSEAT right now. He is being exposed before our eyes!

And guess what, this aint Phil Jackson or Larry Brown outcoaching his azz…..Its pretty much a rookie coach….

@ Joe- Great job. So instead of intimidating players and letting them shoot uncontested layups (Bonner) Blair fouls and makes an aggressive attempt to get the ball.

Youre right. We dont want that. We want to allow the suns to have layup drill because Boner and McDoosh are too slow to get into transition D.

Or even better lets play McDoosh and BOner so that they get bent over on the pick and are too slow to recover and too dumb to say “switch” so the suns hit threes in our eyes all night.

You dumbasses and Pop can take uncontested layups and threes. I prefer to take a chance that Blair blocks a shot.

He had 4 steals in 9 minutes.

You guys all over POPs nuts are dumber than shit.

That is good that you think your team is better after two wins. In game 1 the Spus played like shit and managed to lose by double digits. Game 2 Frye was 5-6 from beyond the arc. Don’t go getting to haughty after two HOME wins. Hornets fans seemed to think they had the better squad in 2008 and the Spurs quickly quieted those claims. I know you are not bragging but why come on here then? Only asshole Spurs fans have gone on your blogs in the past when we beat your team.

1) I think Ginobili should guard Nash. He’s got enough speed, craftiness and length to give the much shorter Nash problems. Plus, he’s a lefty, the correct hand to use on defense.

2)Shame that we couldn’t do better for Timmy, who in my opinion, was the game’s most efficient player.

3) Aside from TD, who ripped down six offensive rees on one leg, no Spur worked the offensive glass. Where was Jefferson, McDyess, Bonner or Blair (perhaps sh*tt%ng on the young pup isn’t fair since he only played nine minutes and was the only player not named TD to get on an offensive rebound)? Still, getting destroyed 18-7 in the OREB column is inexcusable. Hurry Tiago! Hurry!

4) I had no probs with our offense. If Gino had his game on, we would have probably shot 60 percent. We loss this game on aggressiveness, which is acceptable if your a Sun, but not for San Antonio. It’s like we wanted to change roles. Now the Suns are playing tough, and Manu, not Nash, is walking around with the busted schnoz. Now the Phoenix is on the boards, while we focus on offense. I don’t want to trade places, who the f*(K would?

Good job to those riding the “It’s Pops Fault Kiddies Wagon…”

We’re getting nailed everytime we don’t have Tim Duncan on the floor.

Our bench is getting slaughtered.

Manu is not playing great.

Bonner can apparently no longer shoot.

George is finding it a hell of a lot harder to create on his own.

All these things (and many more) are killing us, getting outrebounded is killing us, not having two Tim Duncans is killing us….

But sure we are just an internet rotation away from being the better team..

The suns are playing better than us. It happens sometimes.

Good god I am so sick of Mondays experts. Like any of us could key a victory with a clipboard if someone would just listen.

It’s real life. The players are actual intelligent human beings who live this game 24 hours a day, they know exactly what they want to do, but guess what, theres another team who fight them for position and try to score more points than they do, and right now they are doing it better than our guys.

Sometimes you just don’t win. It’s known as loosing.

@BUSHKA

SORRY DUDE but I can’t say the SUNS are the better team.
The fact of the matter is SPURS stay with FRYE and SPURS win that game big.
That’s why everyone is on hearing blasting out these comments. SUNS aren’t better. If they were better then there wouldn’t be so many comments. I can only speak for myself but if the SUNS were the better team and the SPURS had no shot, then I would admit it. Hell I probably wouldn’t even be on here venting my frustration.

The thing that sucks the most is, say the SUNS actually advance to face the LAKERS. MY GOD THAT would suck. We all know FRYE wouldn’t hit any 3’s, NASH wouldn’t penetrate anything, JRICH would avg 10 points, Dudley will be non-existent, Dragic would pee in his short in STAPES center, etc, etc.

That’s why I can’t say the SUNS are the better team.

Jim henderson,

i agree with you about the rebounding point… we’ve been killin the boards and i think that would definitely improve the spurs chances if they could start cleaning it up….i disagree on the pace of the game however…the spurs slowed down the game in game 2 and it worked for a while because the suns were missing their shots…the spurs wouldve benifited more during this time if they were running it down our throats, opening up a bigger margin than 9 ( i think that was about the peak of their lead in the first half). as soon as the shots started falling for the suns, they were right back in it… the spurs shouldve been trying to run up the score while the suns were cold…i know thats not their game but i honestly think that wouldve helped

it just feels like the suns have too many weapons right now for the spurs…you try and shut one guy down, another guy is open to hit shots. you try and shut down the inside game and the outside opens up…you try to stop nash from scoring 33 like game 1 and he still gets 19 and 6 assists… and other guys pick up the scoring slack…im really not trying to rub this in…i honestly just came to this blog to see what the real spurs fans have to say and because the suns blog doesnt see nearly as much action in the comments section…not really much conversation about basketball over there…that peice about their jerseys and the immigration law picked up like 44 comments and i havent seen anywhere close to that on articles actually about basketball…

all that said..i had not intended on commenting on this until i got about halfway through the comments and was thinking what i said in the first post…i know pop is a great coach and i was scared to death going into game 2…i know, as any suns fan does, how dangerous the spurs are and im still very nervous for game 3…the only time ill feel comfortable is when its over…

Well the point is at times you have to accept that your going to get beaten, I find it hard to believe that your still carrying on like a pork chop after flogging the “we suck” horse all season long day in, day out.

Anyone would expect you to be absolutely jubilant that we are finally staring down the barrel of elimination.

The thing I find amusing is that you honestly think you know what needs to be done.

@Jnr

I am not saying the Suns are the better team, I am saying that sometimes you just need to accept that you lost the game and move on.

Some people have this enormous sense of entitlement that the spurs should just win, and that if they don’t it’s somebodies fault.

I hate that lack of sportsmanship, it’s the same kind of guys you never want to play golf with, or watch a game with because it’s always somebodies fault.

Treating the players like they are children, and honestly believing that you have the answers is pretty much where I draw the line.

This particularly is directed at you Ballhog, theres scant regard in your constant rants for positive, and I’d reckon that anyone who had to watch a game with you would be self harming before the end of the first quarter.

Basketball is a game of matchups. Until Pop can reverse it, the Suns out matchup us. They have a slightly more athletic Bonner who can apparently defend Duncan (something I wouldn’t expect Bonner to be able to do).

What it comes down to is that the Spurs don’t have shooters anymore. How many times did the Suns double Duncan before he got the ball? Even with our “spacing”, the Suns were able to double team a guy without the ball without fear that they would get burned.

The Suns are daring our supporting cast to step up, and so far they haven’t. We’ve been daring their supporting cast to step up and they did. Unfortunately it cost us a game and a 0-2 hole.

Last thing, we have been outplayed every single quarter except the first of game 2. They’ve outhustled us so far. If that continues, this will be a sweep. We can’t expect these Suns to lay over.

Ok, I lied… one more thing. The Suns fans are already talking about how much fun they’ll have playing the Lakers. This series is still in doubt, we need to come out focused.

@ Jim Henderson

After Game 2, the Suns and Spurs have now played 5 games this season, and the Suns have scored at least 110 pts in each game. With that kind of sample size, what evidence have you seen that the Spurs can suddenly slow the game down?

Also, it’s easier said than done to stay on the 3-pt shooters. With Nash breaking down the defense and getting to the rim, there has to be help rotating over, and that’s when he finds the open man. The other option is to let Nash and Stoudemire pick-and-roll the Spurs to death.

Finally, @junierizzle, I love the random statements that you make without a hint of anything factual to back it up. I’m sure that Nash wouldn’t be able to penetrate at all against the Lakers. He’s only been doing it to the entire league for the past decade. Retarded.

Good luck Spurs fans, you’re going to need it.

Bushka
May 6th, 2010 at 2:45 pm

I agree, Bushka, that at the end of the day the Suns “might” just be better than us. Losing happens, in games, and series. That said, we haven’t lost this series yet, and it does not invalidate my points (I’m sure that wasn’t your intention). I just don’t understand why we don’t play Blair more when we know that rebounding and scoring in the paint should be to our advantage against this team in this series? Sure, Blair has some weaknesses, but I believe in this series his strengths, if given a real chance, with sufficient minutes, would outweigh his weaknesses (he has averaged 1.8 fouls per 9 minutes of playing time in the playoffs, versus 1.5 fouls per 9 minutes during the regular season - but, with his limited play, we’re unwittingly setting him up to be over-anxious to make an impact “quicker” — thus the increased fouls - this guy has a BIG desire to make an impact, now - give him sufficient time to do it!).

And I also don’t understand why we don’t use almost the entire shot-clock on most possessions? Tempo is KEY, as you know. We have the type of team that can play slow. The Suns do not. In addition, we simply can’t afford to play guys like Mason & Bonner. Do I need to explain why, again? The bottom line is, I just want us to have the best shot at winning, and I do question some of Pops decisions in this series. I know he’s probably right, and I’m probably wrong, but I can’t resist stating what I consider to be obvious strategy issues that could be altered in our favor. I’m just asking for someone to make a convincing case that the issues I raise on this thread have no merit, and that Pop is in fact in the process of brilliantly countering what the Suns have thrown at us thus far. I know we should look better at home, but I’m a bit concerned about what I’ve seen in this series over the first two games in Phoenix. Can anyone tell me what’s going through Pop’s mind regarding the strategy & player decisions he’s made in this series?

Mark (suns fan)
May 6th, 2010 at 3:17 pm

Great, a Suns fan telling me that the Spurs should not slow the game down, and in fact, should try to “out-run” the Suns during certain stretches of the game?! If Pop would listen to you, Mark, you’d be a very valuable operative for the Suns organization. That’s all I can say.

As a Suns fan, I won’t feel safe even if up 3-0. The Spurs are certainly good enough to reel off 4 in a row.

That said, Gentry has been outcoaching Pop pretty badly this series. He’s played the exact right matchups, doubled off the right people, and has generally been way more impressive than he’s getting credit for.

A Suns sweep would be pretty cathartic (the 2007 playoffs were the most painful sports experience I can remember; that Suns team would have swept the Cavs in the Finals as well).

Jesse noted it right; Suns held serve at home. Now lets see how the Spurs handle things back on their court.

The ebb and flow of a seven game series is a marvelous thing to watch. The Suns are riding high and appear unbeatable. If the Spurs hold serve and win at home for the next two games, then different observations will be made.

It will be fun to watch.

Go Spurs Go!

Like, San Antonio basketball, let’s make this plain and simple: the Phoenix Suns - egad! - “out-Spurred” the Spurs, beaten by a scrappier, more enterprising mirror image of their own selves.
The next two games will be a test of character of for the Spurs. Lose Game 3, and their virtual goners, win it, then it’s a new ballgame. As Pop said his charges are “grown men” who know what to do, and no amount of motivational speeches will work if they don’t execute.
Like it or not, the Suns have been using the “pounding-the-rock” principle against the once-indestructible Spurs (at least that’s what they were in Phoenix eyes until this series), who have shown cracks on the surface.
Time for San Antonio to wrest the hammer back and do some pounding on their own…. or else kiss their title hopes goodbye.

i hate all this “held serve” talk in reguards to losing the first two games of a playoff series on the road.

no team feels good or assured about losing playoff teams. you play the games to win. period

our bench is has regressed so much that we essentially look like a college team out there, rotating 6 players consistently. phoenix has too many weapons and scrappy contributors for us to counter.

bringing manu off the bench is a good idea. parker is a great bench scorer, but manu has a better knack for getting others involved and running the pick and rool with dejuan blair. keith bogans should earn more minutes as well. he has made some mental mistakes lately, but once he gets back into the rotation, he should return the the defensive ace and heady offensive player that he once was for us in the beginning.

i personally feel emotionally drained after the dallas series and phoenix really looks like the better team.

@Jim

Tell me if you disagree with any of these claims:

- Blair struggled to score against Dallas’ length
- Blair struggled to keep Haywood and Dampier off the offensive glass
- Blair (and Bonner) struggled to keep Phoenix off the offensive glass in game 2.

In my opinion, these claims are fairly obvious if you watched the games (I’m not the only one that pointed some of these things out) and to clamor for stats that back these claims up is overkill in my book - they’re so obvious you really shouldn’t need much confirmation. And that’s my point - Dejuan Blair has not played well thus far. That’s it. And to call that claim “unsupportable” is pretty rediculous.

Am I really “flat out wrong” when I say Blair hasn’t played well? And should I infer that you believe Blair has in fact, played well this posteason? Has posteason-Blair been better (or even with) than regular-season-Blair? I don’t believe so, and to disregard a pretty reasonable claim (at least I think so) because it isn’t backed up by stats at every turn is misguided.

Jim, I respect your opinion, but as I’m sure you know, stats are not the holy grail, especially those derived over only 8 games. In this instance, I would say simple observation should hold more weight. And from my POV, I think Blair has come in below expectations.

@ TradeTP

I’m not anti-Blair, and your posts are taking what I’m saying out of context. I wish Pop had given him more time on the court early in the season when we knew we were going to lose some games due to the adjustment with the new faces and Timmy & Manu taking the summer off. Maybe his defensive game would have matured with that extra PT to something more closely resembling his offensive game.

That said, I don’t think fouling intimidates people as much as shot-blocking does. Blair can’t give us that, and the timing on the fouls in the minutes he’s played so far hasn’t been great, either. Two of the six fouls were and-1s in which the Suns made the resulting free-throw. If anything, that energizes the Suns, not intimidates them. Another was a shooting foul on Nash, a career 90%+ FT shooter who buried both shots. Another was a shooting foul on Amare, who has shot 80%+ in 2 of the last 4 seasons and buried both foul shots. Another was a shooting foul on Barbosa, a career 83% FT shooter who buried both shots.

Maybe you would choose differently, but history says that most coaches around the league sit players who foul that quickly in those situations, especially if they’re rookies. Sitting a guy in one game because of foul trouble doesn’t mean we shouldn’t play him in the future, but let’s not whitewash the down side of how Blair played in the first 2 games.

Respond if you want to, but I’m done with this thread.

Tyler
May 7th, 2010 at 7:37 am

“However, going forward in this series, controlling the glass is going to be one of our top priorities. And looking at our roster, to turn the tide on the glass, Blair is one of the first guys I can point to and say, “he can play much, much better in that area.” As opposed to Bonner, we pretty much know rebounding is not his forte, and thus, it’s hard for me to believe he’s going to give us much more than we’ve seen. But Blair? He can be a difference maker if he plays better. The other half of that of course, is playing time. But if he does play better, I have a feeling Pop will be more than happy to extend his minutes.”

That is the only part of your posts about Blair on this thread that I essentially agree with. The other parts, well, we’ll just have to disagree on. But now I’d like to comment specifically about the following part of your post:

“But Blair? He can be a difference maker if he plays better. The other half of that of course, is playing time. But if he does play better, I have a feeling Pop will be more than happy to extend his minutes.”

I’m sure you remember Carlisle complaining that Blair was getting all the 50/50 balls in one of the games against Dallas. That’s one example of several things that Blair has done RIGHT in his limited minutes. Thus, in my view, while Blair has not played great in these playoffs, he has certainly not played poorly enough to limit his minutes so severely, particularly in this series, with these match-ups inside. And the reason the Suns got 8 offensive rebounds in the 2nd quarter of game two was by no means “just about Blair”. Those rebounds took place over the entire quarter, Blair only played 2-3 minutes in the quarter, we had other front court players in the game at the time as well, and let’s face it, Dudley had great energy & effort, feeding off his home crowd, and he SURPRISED our ENTIRE team. It wasn’t just Blair that was caught flat-footed, and he does not deserve to be the scapegoat.

The point is, it’s pretty hard to distinguish oneself by playing FOUR minutes for an entire HALF in a basketball game. Even one of the most clutch performers in playoff history, Robert Horry, with 15 YEARS of playoff experience, would have a tough time making an impact in a game by playing just FOUR minutes per HALF. A grade school kid could understand this bit of common sense.

This is the KEY excerpt from your post:

“But Blair? He can be a difference maker if he plays better. The other half of that of course, is playing time.”

You’re damn right, Blair could be a “dark horse”, difference maker, and that’s EXACTLY what we need in this series. But to be that difference maker, he’s gotta be given some time. He’s played well-enough overall in these playoffs where you can tell that more minutes would only help him, and his confidence. We’ve got to stick with him more than 2-4 minutes per stint on the floor! We need to stop nit-picking him. Sure, point out his mistakes during the game (he’s a natural, & a quick learner), but reaffirm his value also, and your confidence in him, by “sticking with him” longer. I think we would be pleasantly surprised by the results.

@Jim -

I didn’t mean come across as scapegoating Dejuan - that wasn’t my intention. As I’ve said before, he’s far, far from the only reason we’re down 2-0.

Like many young players in the playoffs, I think playing in front of the home crowd should help Dejaun. Just like the Dallas series, Blair was a totally different player in San Antonio. He really is someone that can feed off the crowd and dominate the game in short stretches. And maybe I’m spoiled or maybe he’s a victim of his own success, but I expect him to dominate every time he steps on the court. And that’s where my last post came from - I expect more from him than he’s given us. But I will concede the point that as a young player, he needs the opportunity to play through his mistakes and I really hope he’s given that opportunity. But I hope even more that he plays well, and leaves Pop no choice but to give him more minutes.

Hopefully he can duplicate his game 3 against Dallas. We sure do need it, and he sure is due for a breakout performance.

Jim,

We should hope to win the rebounding category in the same way we should work to win in every category, but I think that if we can play the same kind of defense that nets a low 40% shooting from Phoenix, we’ll be fine, sans outrageous free throws. I guess the point is that the fewer opportunities the opposition has, the likelier it is that they will shoot a lower percentage, but again, even after getting outrebounded last game, our D still held them well. It was mostly just the damn phantom calls that screwed us.