Two reasons why the Spurs are not going to the WCF

[Bandito]

people are that dumb. The Warriors are the better team with better future.

Who here say the wasn't?:

[rmt]

It's not about coaching, it's about youth and talent. I think Pop may be the one advantage which may swing this series in the Spurs favor when it's all said and done.

It definitely is about coaching. Starting that choker Bonner in the second half and giving him 16 minutes while Diaw who played so well in game 1 got 7 minutes. Instead of playing small ball with Duncan/Splitter and 4 smalls - play Diaw at PF. His feet are quick enough and he did a good job staying with Curry on the perimeter and they won't be giving up so many rebounds. Thompson with 14 rebounds is unacceptable and Landry killed them with rebounds in limited time.

Don't play small ball - Spurs aren't as good with it as they are. Their only advantage is with the bigs. David Lee getting injured was the worst thing that happened to the Spurs. With him, GS plays bigger, more traditional basketball (that Spurs match up better with) and allows for more Splitter/Diaw. He also means less touches for Curry and Thompson.

The game plan is all wrong. Whoever is defending Curry and Thompson needs to say attached to their hips - no helping off either of them. No doubling whoever tries to post up Parker - make them shoot over him - rather a contested 2 than a wide open 3. Foul more - if you get beat on penetration - foul - rack up those fouls and put them in the bonus early. Then hack-a-Bogut and get him off the court. Muddy it up, play eastern conference type defense and stop this free-flowing stuff. Spurs are not going to win that free-flowing, low-foul game they are currently playing. Of course, this all goes against Pop's philosophy.

He needs to play Leonard the entire game with blows during time outs. He needs to play Green more and Neal less - he's cold and gives up everything on the other side. They sure could use SJax about now - not only does he know GS well but he would give them some toughness and "nasty."

[AT9]

They got a big lead from Thompson hitting 8/9 from 3. If he does that every game the Warriors are winning the Championship.

Simply put, he won't.

Exactly. Had he hit "only" 5 instead of 8 (still a great 3 point %), the game would have gone into OT again.

I still give GS the advantage, but to expect GS to be THAT good and the Spurs to be that bad is unrealistic.

[STATUTORY]

spurs fans always b!tch about their team not getting respect in recent years. but the fact of the matter is the team never has the legs to compete in the playoffs now, they are a regular season team. series is over.

[ninephive]

Spurs 5-1 in the playoffs and all the sudden they are done.

[ninephive]

I remember Lakers fans saying the same stuff when they got hot and had a few good games at the end of the season. People honestly thought they matched up well with the Spurs and could win the series.

[rmt]

Spurs are in trouble if Pop continues to play small ball - that's playing into GS's hands and they excel at small ball. If Pop continues to play 2 of his best players (Splitter and Diaw) only a total of 17 minutes, they will lose. Not much optimism here. They won game 1 by a miracle and now they go to GS where their role players will play better and Spurs' role players will play worse.

[Fallen Angel]

I get where Spur fans are coming from. San Antonio has been playing good ball the entire season and they swept the Lakers. They also won game one of this series. So now the series is tied and just like that the Spurs are done?

They have a right to call out the "haters". It's not fair nor logical at all to rule out the Spurs after just one playoff loss. With that said, if I'm San Antonio I'd be extremely worried. Why? It's been 2 games and at no point in either game did I feel San Antonio was in control of the ball game. That's unheard of.

If you watch the games you can see the Spurs are a step slow in every play. I don't really know how to explain it. In 2011 when Memphis beat San Antonio, Memphis was always in control of the ball games. They were the ones controlling the flow/tempo of the game. Yes San Antonio did win game 5 but even then it took a lucky Ginobili 3 pointer and another Neal prayer to send the game to OT.

Memphis was in control of that ball game. In game 6 Tony Parker and Ginobili played like trash. They both kept missing easy shots in the paint, because in the back of their head they knew Memphis was the better team and they knew they were done.

They beat the Spurs mainly because of their big men but the role players fed off of that. The point I'm trying to make is even though GS is a 6th seed, if you watch the games you can just see GS is the better team. The way they execute, defend, the Spurs' inability to defend the perimeter, etc, etc.

Because of the Curry, Thompson, and Jack now you see the rest of the role players stepping up. Carl Landry made Splitter his bitch yesterday. I couldn't believe it when he grabbed that rebound over him for an And 1 (yes, I know the refs didn't count it but they should have). Landry even flexed after that. Every time San Antonio tried to go on a run GS always responded. The lead was 6 I think and Parker drove in, Bogut blocked him which led to a GS 3 pointer. The lead went back to 9.

San Antonio was down by ~20 points in both games, AT HOME. The Spurs are in trouble. Something needs to change. I don't know what but something needs to change.....I trust Popovich to make the right adjustments. At this point it doesn't really matter who's the better team. What matters is who plays like the better team. SAS might be better but they surely aren't playing like it, GS is.

Yes, the series is tied. Both teams have won a game each, but guess what? Mark Jackson is not the one thinking of adjustments, Popovich is.

There's a reason for that. Lets just leave it at that.

[TheGreatDeraj]

I remember Lakers fans saying the same stuff when they got hot and had a few good games at the end of the season. People honestly thought they matched up well with the Spurs and could win the series.

yea that was before this guy named kobe bryant went down, perhaps you've heard of him? Then Nash, blake, meeks and world peace got hurt. the only guards the lakers had on the roster were morris and duhon who D'Antoni benched all year and Goudelock who wasn't even on the team all year he was signed from the d-league before the series started. That was probably a top 5 worst backcourt of all time

Lakers win the series if both teams are healthy. Spurs are over rated. Parker isn't good enough and duncan's too old to lead then to a title. Spurs rely too much on their offensive system to scoreand their defense isn't elite. in a 7 game series good teams will figure out and slow down pops offense

[grantz]

Klay may be cold or hot, but he manhandles Parker on defense. There wasn't a single time I've seen Parker get away from Klay these past two games.

Maybe I'm delusional but I can see Klay become Durant-ish, with much better defense.

I originally called Spurs in 6, but watching the last two games I have GS in 6.

GS is clearly the better team.

[cotdt]

A healthy Lakers would have beat the Spurs. We were missing half the roster.

[KyleKong]

Troll


And that means something when it comes from me.

[AT9]

Just read this stat on ESPN...

Warriors have been in the lead for 95 of the 106 minutes played so far. I knew it was bad, but that's insane.

Has a team that's lead the game in that great of a percentage over the first two games ever lost a series?

[Mrofir]

This series is either going to 5 games or 7 games

There is no way it's going to 6 games, or 8

Either the Spurs or the Warriors will win

[kuniva_dAMiGhTy]

This series is either going to 5 games or 7 games

There is no way it's going to 6 games, or 8

Either the Spurs or the Warriors will win

You're really going out on a limb there.