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NBA 2017 Playoffs |OT| WE DID IT

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Given the nightmares that still haunt me of playing the Jazz in the playoffs, I don't know in some ways I'de rather play Golden State. Jerry Sloan and co. gave me PTSD
 
Given the nightmares that still haunt me of playing the Jazz in the playoffs, I don't know in some ways I'de rather play Golden State. Jerry Sloan and co. gave me PTSD

And fuck that moving screen too.
And fuck Karl Malone.
And fuck John Stockton.
And fuck Carlos Boozer
And fuck AK47.
And fuck Deron Williams.
 

Marz

Member
Jazz Rockets did have some memorable playoff battles.

I'm not old enough to remember the Rockets back to back years but I remember Stocktons shot in 97 when I was 6 years old. Still ranks as my favorite sports moment.
 

Tommy DJ

Member
Wait seriously guys.

What the fuck happened today?

Spurs getting worked in the post season exactly like I told you mid season.

The current non-Kawhi Spurs offense struggles really hard, even if they get good looks. They shot 14/41(34%) in the first half. Even if they shot well, the Spurs kept two big men in at once. The Spurs transition defense has been bad the whole post season, getting roasted by Memphis from 3 the entire series, so Houston would be big trouble if they're struggle with Memphis. And the big men aren't bringing anything offensively or defensively, with Aldridge getting roasted by Anderson on both ends of the floor.

Then you have the problem where this is a guard's league right now and the Spurs guards are moribund (Parker, Ginobili) or offensively colder than ice (Green) the majority of the time. I guess Parker has shown some life but he's not consistent and he's consistently a severe defensive liability...so much so that he can't play together with someone like Pau Gasol who is meant to get buckets. Basically there are too many obvious problems with the current Spurs team that they don't last long in the post season.

Chuck isn't known for his accurate basketball analysis but he's right here. The Houston Rockets are going to score 105 even if they shoot badly. The Spurs right now can't score enough even if they defend well.
 
Ok, thoughts on the game and series going forward:

1) First off, OKC deserves more credit for its defense. Roberson forcing Harden to the right early in offensive sets, doing a slight full court press to slow us down, and most importantly, the duo/trio he formed with Steven Adams and Taj Gibson did a great job on the Houston pick n' roll. That defense had pieces that worked incredibly well there.

The Spurs lack a Steven Adams type bruiser to protect the paint. The closest they have is Dedmon, but he reminds me more of Capela. The OKC defense was able to effectively hurt all of those potent lobs that are generated by Houston, as Adams so often hung back and prevented any roll man action. This is why Nene, with his similar strength, and old man tricks/soft touch, was so damn amazing in that series.

The two players Harden interacts with most, arguably, in a typical Houston set, is his big man and Ryan Anderson, and Taj Gibson worked to make sure Ryno never had a good shot, screwing up his rhythm.

They have one of those pieces, Roberson, in Kawhi, but Kawhi taking Harden on defense means his teammates need to step up on offense.

The Spurs really seemed to lack a secondary offensive creator, who they can give and just hope can create something. It's either an ISO, or they try to get 4 or 5 guys involved, which if one of the cogs isn't working, ends up with bad shots or turnovers. They seriously need a younger Manu type. Patty Mills seems like a better shooter, somewhat like a Beverley type, but the lack of another playmaker to distribute hurts.

ISO just flat out won't work. You'll make the Rockets look amazing on defense - we just came off of a series against the Thunder, and packing the paint and poking hands out was how we got a bunch of turnovers today too.

The things that helped the Spurs a ton in the regular season match-ups were: corner 3s, rebounds (including offensive boards), and scoring in the paint by driving (often times Rockets got lazy there, this is less of an option now).

Pop might have started the get back on transition thing, but if the Spurs play two bigs, they have to be crashing the boards more. David Lee, LaMarcus Aldridge, hell, even Pau and Dedmon, they're great at getting offensive boards. And the Rockets are not good at securing defensive boards, although they seem to be making a concerted group effort to secure them.

Another thing: the Rockets are too familiar, and too used to, the variability and predicting the trajectory of long rebounds. The Spurs shooting 3s at the elbows and shit? Terrible idea. That nullifies the Spurs big advantage and especially lets Beverley feast.

The Spurs also score well from the corner, and in game 4, that's how they got us - Tony Parker shooting 3s from there. The same thing happened today - Patrick Beverley was helping off of Parker when Parker was parked in the corner, and Parker got some 3s, and Beverley had to rush back to contest, except Parker missed them and the Spurs just sort of lost confidence in their working the shot clock and getting those shots system.

Dedmon needs to start at center. The LMA on Ariza and Kawhi on Anderson idea is good, even with two big lineups - Ariza isn't the most balanced on his drives, and Harden/Anderson pick n' pops threaten to involve Kawhi in the action.

Better yet, if LMA ends up being total trash, I think there's legitimate potential for Kawhi/Lee/Dedmon, in that Lee gets put on Ariza, Kawhi on Ryno, and Dedmon would be better at contesting Capela lobs and receiving his own. Kawhi is also amazing at bulldozing players in the post, and would likely do far better doing that against Ryno, with his greater flexibility/movement, compared to the seemingly stiff LMA.

I do think, on the other hand, that that lineup is a little vulnerable to Nene, and a Nene + 4 guard lineup where Kawhi can't guard all 4 perimeter players, Harden can be on Lee (forcing the mismatch in transition, or scrambling the defense), and Nene can bully either of those bigs. The response there might be an ultra-small lineup that I don't see Pop playing, with Kawhi as power forward and David Lee as center.

In any case, the Spurs can't play two players on the Rockets big men that give Harden two choices on who he wants to murder. The Spurs lack a big man that can keep up with him, so try and see how Dedmon does, both standing back and near the perimeter, maybe even try Bertans out, but if these solutions don't work, I see Kawhi the power forward coming out.

The next step for Kawhi seems pretty obvious, for next year -> become a better ball-handler and distributor. He took the first step, taking up that offensive load, and getting good at handling the ball, the last two years.

Spurs fans, is LMA overweight? I heard that from a few Spurs fans online. In any case, I think it would be interesting to see him as center and Kawhi as power forward going forward, because it's that or getting another Duncan type defensive anchor that lets him shine on defense like last year.

One thing you didn't see as much today was Lou Williams and Eric Gordon being made to beat the Spurs, and I think that's a major issue for them. Lou and Gordon can do it, it's just that Pau, Patty Mills, Tony Parker, Manu when he's hot, etc. legitimately do make up an offensively potent bench that can go off.

This isn't the first time this has happened, with the Spurs and athleticism. Last year, yeah, arguably 2015, and more importantly, the 2011 series, after which the Spurs started getting or playing the Kawhi, Danny Green, Splitter, etc. more athletic players that they could still mold to their style.

This has been a transition year for the Spurs, so I wouldn't freak out about their future, because they already started going younger and more athletic. Simmons (eh), Dedmon, Dejounte Murray (who needs to be starting or at least be the first bench PG, play next to Mills/Parker if he has to), idk about Bertans, etc. are all good pieces. Imo, Murray should have already started getting the Parker treatment - getting heavy minutes but being criticized, Pop being harsh on him, etc.

Also, 61 win transition year fuck off San Antonio.

Near the end I started writing off the Spurs, but I'm not, just looking at their future from a broader perspective.

Chuck isn't known for his accurate basketball analysis but he's right here. The Houston Rockets are going to score 105 even if they shoot badly. The Spurs right now can't score enough even if they defend well.

Chuck surprised me, he was pretty on point with his analysis tonight. Shaq resorted to the classic "big man has to do more", but Chuck didn't.

I also loved how Baron Davis was younger than them, more in tune with the modern game. Last year Dwight knew the Warriors weren't just a jump shooting team. Bosh understood the idea of rest. Baron Davis know LMA is getting exposed on defense. It's really refreshing, to hear counters to the old school mentality that Chuck and Shaq always trot out and that Kenny flip-flops between.

Kenny does a great job of drawing out the amazing moments from Chuck and Shaq, but I wouldn't mind Baron Davis making it a 5 person panel.
 
C-sr0olV0AA_nWW.jpg

I hope this ends up being really cool
 
Ok, thoughts on the game and series going forward:

1) First off, OKC deserves more credit for its defense. Roberson forcing Harden to the right early in offensive sets, doing a slight full court press to slow us down, and most importantly, the duo/trio he formed with Steven Adams and Taj Gibson did a great job on the Houston pick n' roll. That defense had pieces that worked incredibly well there.

..
OKC has a great defensive team and has had the pieces for some time now. If Westbrook wasn't such a selfish dumbfuck, they would probably be an elite defensive level team this year up there with the Jazz right behind Spurs and Warriors. That would make them a lot harder to beat, especially for the playoffs. But that narrative that Westbrook plays with D league players and can do no wrong that kills my bball iq every time I read it wouldn't exist.

Kawhi is not going to turn into even a decent playmaker. He has no vision and is a mediocre passer. His only go to move is drive and throw it to a guy that is open for 3. That's it. I don't think I've ever seen a creative pass from him his entire career. He's not going to pull it out of his ass in his mid 20s.

Have we started the "Kawhi doesn't have enough help and Rockets' team is so much better.. omg Harden is so lucky?" arguments. I'm drinking some coffee and am in need to ready some top level cringe.
 
Have we started the "Kawhi doesn't have enough help and Rockets' team is so much better.. omg Harden is so lucky?" arguments. I'm drinking some coffee and am in need to ready some top level cringe.

Nah, but I definitely do think the Spurs got out-athlete'd, for the 3rd year in a row, to some extent, and that this a pretty obvious match-up issue that the Spurs need to fix sooner rather than later. It's like Kanter when talking about Westbrook's help, but less extreme.

I was also talking about their core moving forward, if they want to stop this out-athlete'd thing. 2011 Spurs had help for their stars, but it doesn't mean they didn't need to shake some things up.

Also, so glad we're out of the Thunder series, because you see people discussing this with some more nuance. I think it's obvious at this point that Harden does a job elevating his teammates on offense, and that Kawhi has been carrying his team more than most have noticed (more is key here) this season, on both ends. Both Pop and D'Antoni make it difficult to say though, tbh.

Is AI playing? If so, give me that squad.

Ha, reading up on this and Smush Parker went undrafted.

Actually, Billups and Captain Jacks squad is loaded.

Yeah, I trust the Killer 3s squad to have aged well more
 
Nah, but I definitely do think the Spurs got out-athlete'd, for the 3rd year in a row, to some extent, and that this a pretty obvious match-up issue that the Spurs need to fix sooner rather than later. It's like Kanter when talking about Westbrook's help, but less extreme.

I was also talking about their core moving forward, if they want to stop this out-athlete'd thing. 2011 Spurs had help for their stars, but it doesn't mean they didn't need to shake some things up.

Also, so glad we're out of the Thunder series, because you see people discussing this with some more nuance. I think it's obvious at this point that Harden does a job elevating his teammates on offense, and that Kawhi has been carrying his team more than most have noticed (more is key here) this season, on both ends. Both Pop and D'Antoni make it difficult to say though, tbh.



Yeah, I trust the Killer 3s squad to have aged well more
Kawhi has not been carrying the team on both ends, they literally had a better def record with him off the floor. They also have a ton of very good to great defenders. He hasn't been some GOAT level defender that people have made him out to be this season. He was pretty mediocre until 60% of the season defensively and then turned it up to finish it strong on that end. His offensive output on the other hand has exploded this year.

The problem with Kawhi that people don't want to admit since like the Spurs team, they are impervious to actual criticism.. is that he can't run an offense if his life depended on it. Yeah he can be MJ Lite and take over games for stretches this year, but this Spurs team becomes a predictable, boring offensive team when he pounds it before shooting the ball. Spurs need an elite back court player immediately this summer to hide this issue, but as of right now no top team is scared of Kawhi running a team offense. I miss the days where the Spurs would pass the ball and had proper off ball movement all around the court.
 
Kawhi has not been carrying the team on both ends, they literally had a better def record with him off the floor. They also have a ton of very good to great defenders. He hasn't been some GOAT level defender that people have made him out to be this season. He was pretty mediocre until 60% of the season defensively and then turned it up to finish it strong on that end. His offensive output on the other hand has exploded this year.

This I such a terrible analysis of Kawhi's defensive game I don't know where to begin. Kawhi has been excellent on defense all year. It's pretty known that team defensive measurements are pretty poor in determining a single player's defensive performance. CBS Sports did an excellent piece explaining the defensive rating discrepancy with Kawhi on/off the floor. It ranged from opposing teams playing 4on4 to players simply taking less shots when guarded by kawhi. Then there is the obvious eye test. If you think Kawhi played mediocre defense for any stretch this season then I question if you even watched any Spurs games.

I do agree with you however that we need a better backcourt player asap. A pg shakeup is a must this offseason
 
The problem with Kawhi that people don't want to admit since like the Spurs team, they are impervious to actual criticism.. is that he can't run an offense if his life depended on it. Yeah he can be MJ Lite and take over games for stretches this year, but this Spurs team becomes a predictable, boring offensive team when he pounds it before shooting the ball. Spurs need an elite back court player immediately this summer to hide this issue, but as of right now no top team is scared of Kawhi running a team offense. I miss the days where the Spurs would pass the ball and had proper off ball movement all around the court.

I kind of agree with this, but I don't see how that's a flaw in Kawhi's game. I think we've been spoiled by Lebron being quite possibly the best passer in the NBA, but Kawhi is a 3 in a very traditional sense. If you rely on him to initiate your offense all the time, you're fucked once defenses tighten up especially when everyone around him is sucking ass. The Spurs absolutely need another great guard or wing to organize their game, Patty Mills is just not going to be that guy, Parker is old as fuck, Manu is somehow even older and Danny Green just flat out sucks balls.

It doesn't help that LMA is soft as fuck.
 

spyder_ur

Member
Ball Hogs winning it


how can you possibly beat Scalbrine?

A few years ago a radio station held a contest with all the best Boston pickup and street ballers. I think the most anyone scored on him was 2 points. Don't doubt the White Mamba.

The real highlight of this tournament is the fact that Ricky Davis and Marcus Banks will be playing on the same team again. The memories...
 

Tommy DJ

Member
Is that the worst home loss in spurs history?

No, the Spurs have had bigger losses. They had some pretty bad ones during the season where they were forced to tank for Tim Duncan.

Kawhi has not been carrying the team on both ends, they literally had a better def record with him off the floor. They also have a ton of very good to great defenders. He hasn't been some GOAT level defender that people have made him out to be this season. He was pretty mediocre until 60% of the season defensively and then turned it up to finish it strong on that end. His offensive output on the other hand has exploded this year.

But those numbers don't make sense when we're talking about the former defensive player of the year. Kawhi's defensive metrics improved considerably when they pulled Pau Gasol from the starting lineup.

He didn't turn it up or down. The Spurs just adjusted their lineups so most team's offensive options couldn't drag Kawhi out of the defense forcing a 4 vs. 4 situation. Which is a perfect situation for the opposing offense because Parker + Gasol are going to let you get away with whatever pick and roll/pop play you initiate.
 
This I such a terrible analysis of Kawhi's defensive game I don't know where to begin. Kawhi has been excellent on defense all year. It's pretty known that team defensive measurements are pretty poor in determining a single player's defensive performance. CBS Sports did an excellent piece explaining the defensive rating discrepancy with Kawhi on/off the floor. It ranged from opposing teams playing 4on4 to players simply taking less shots when guarded by kawhi. Then there is the obvious eye test. If you think Kawhi played mediocre defense for any stretch this season then I question if you even watched any Spurs games.

I do agree with you however that we need a better backcourt player asap. A pg shakeup is a must this offseason
I have seen plenty of games with the Spurs. I've seen him just give up on drives this year and not make runs to stop a play around the paint that you usually expect out of him. Don't know if it was coasting or adjusting during that period of time. His % of players shooting on him was not that good halfway into the season, but I guess that is all because of that article (which I read when it came out). I guess the excuse is what then? He did turn things around and tried more defensively later on, and it helped that a def scrub like Gasol was rotated out as well. Clearly Kawhi didn't adapt initially to missing one of the GOATs retiring.

I've seen the games and that 4 on 4 move is not something that happens in almost every single play, it happens once in a while and is not some consistent end all move where you can excuse it. It's just excuses as usual which the Spurs are known for. Don't really know a sports team that never gets shit when things go wrong like the Spurs. When Kawhi shriveled last PS, literally no one even said anything but just focused on OKC being a good team. Nothing was said of Kawhi last night. lol Curry/Lebron would have reigned in had that happened to superstars.. with actual expectations. He's even turned into one of the biggest floppers in the league getting a ton of garbage fouls and.. no one cares. Scored 37 points by scoring more free throws than actual FGs. :\

I kind of agree with this, but I don't see how that's a flaw in Kawhi's game. I think we've been spoiled by Lebron being quite possibly the best passer in the NBA, but Kawhi is a 3 in a very traditional sense. If you rely on him to initiate your offense all the time, you're fucked once defenses tighten up especially when everyone around him is sucking ass. The Spurs absolutely need another great guard or wing to organize their game, Patty Mills is just not going to be that guy, Parker is old as fuck, Manu is somehow even older and Danny Green just flat out sucks balls.

It doesn't help that LMA is soft as fuck.
I don't know if it's a flaw overall, it's just something worth pointing out. Spurs way of playing has regressed these last few seasons. The more Porker declines, and the more Kawhi is given the free reigns to take control of the offense, the more it keeps falling down. It's also a point when people keep thinking this dude is the 2nd best player in the world (lol). Lebron isn't the only dude. Him, Harden and Curry are players that can kill you in a variety of different manners. Even KD whose solid passer/playmaker has much better vision than Kawhi. And all are better than Kawhi Leonard, two of them by a significant margin. I still don't think this series is close to being over, but I'd bet my entire bank account Harden would make this team sing, and all those Spurs players would play noticeably better under him. Spurs are definitely going to take game 2.

This part of the game is what keeps Kawhi from being a truly amazing player and his ceiling is now, being a superstar. No handles, no vision, mediocre passing. He doesn't need those aspects if you can do something at a GOAT level like Shaq but he has nothing like that in his arsenal.
 

Ripenen

Member
I have seen plenty of games with the Spurs. I've seen him just give up on drives this year and not make runs to stop a play around the paint that you usually expect out of him. Don't know if it was coasting or adjusting during that period of time. His % of players shooting on him was not that good halfway into the season, but I guess that is all because of that article (which I read when it came out). I guess the excuse is what then? He did turn things around and tried more defensively later on, and it helped that a def scrub like Gasol was rotated out as well. Clearly Kawhi didn't adapt initially to missing one of the GOATs retiring.

I've seen the games and that 4 on 4 move is not something that happens in almost every single play, it happens once in a while and is not some consistent end all move where you can excuse it. It's just excuses as usual which the Spurs are known for. Don't really know a sports team that never gets shit when things go wrong like the Spurs. When Kawhi shriveled last PS, literally no one even said anything but just focused on OKC being a good team. Nothing was said of Kawhi last night. lol Curry/Lebron would have reigned in had that happened to superstars.. with actual expectations. He's even turned into one of the biggest floppers in the league getting a ton of garbage fouls and.. no one cares. Scored 37 points by scoring more free throws than actual FGs. :\


I don't know if it's a flaw overall, it's just something worth pointing out. Spurs way of playing has regressed these last few seasons. The more Porker declines, and the more Kawhi is given the free reigns to take control of the offense, the more it keeps falling down. It's also a point when people keep thinking this dude is the 2nd best player in the world (lol). Lebron isn't the only dude. Him, Harden and Curry are players that can kill you in a variety of different manners. Even KD whose solid passer/playmaker has much better vision than Kawhi. And all are better than Kawhi Leonard, two of them by a significant margin. I still don't think this series is close to being over, but I'd bet my entire bank account Harden would make this team sing, and all those Spurs players would play noticeably better under him. Spurs are definitely going to take game 2.

This part of the game is what keeps Kawhi from being a truly amazing player and his ceiling is now, being a superstar. No handles, no vision, mediocre passing. He doesn't need those aspects if you can do something at a GOAT level like Shaq but he has nothing like that in his arsenal.

Isn't Kawhi a small forward? How do you rank him compared to other forwards? Harden and Curry are guards, and LeBron is LeBron so those seem like unfair comparisons.
 
I have seen plenty of games with the Spurs. I've seen him just give up on drives this year and not make runs to stop a play around the paint that you usually expect out of him. Don't know if it was coasting or adjusting during that period of time. His % of players shooting on him was not that good halfway into the season, but I guess that is all because of that article (which I read when it came out). I guess the excuse is what then? He did turn things around and tried more defensively later on, and it helped that a def scrub like Gasol was rotated out as well. Clearly Kawhi didn't adapt initially to missing one of the GOATs retiring.

I've seen the games and that 4 on 4 move is not something that happens in almost every single play, it happens once in a while and is not some consistent end all move where you can excuse it. It's just excuses as usual which the Spurs are known for. Don't really know a sports team that never gets shit when things go wrong like the Spurs. When Kawhi shriveled last PS, literally no one even said anything but just focused on OKC being a good team. Nothing was said of Kawhi last night. lol Curry/Lebron would have reigned in had that happened to superstars.. with actual expectations. He's even turned into one of the biggest floppers in the league getting a ton of garbage fouls and.. no one cares. Scored 37 points by scoring more free throws than actual FGs. :

I haven't seen any lack of hustle this year from him in any long term capacity. What's been happening all year is he is getting picked nearly every play or the person he is guarding isn't even part of the play. I read an article early in the year that opponents simply aren't shooting when Leonard is guarding unless it is a high percentage shot or he is picked. To say he has been mediocre on defense for 60 percent of the season is such a laughable opinion to have to anyone paying attention to the games and not just looking up a stat sheet.

It seems you have an issue with the media not getting on Kawhi's case enough when the Spurs lose moreso than anything. And lol at him being one of the biggest floppers.

I do agree with you on his lack of vision. He gets absolutely lost sometimes when double teamed and he needs to work on facilitating this offseason particularly because the duo of point guards he has playing with him.
 
Let's establish some things.

1. The issues with the decline of the Spurs offense don't lie as much at the hands of Kawhi taking a greater role on offense, so much as that 2014 squad being old and unathletic. The LMA signing was always going to signal a shift towards this style, and last year the Spurs made up for it with a crazy good defense (that simply wasn't, again, athletic enough).

2. Kawhi isn't going to be as good on defense and offense at the same time, but the Spurs also rely on him to play help and make up for defensive slips and mistakes, while also dumping the ball to him when they don't know what to do.

3. On foul drawing - something similar could be seen in 2015 Harden. When the Spurs offense isn't flowing, the best way to score is often going to be drawing fouls. I saw something similar with those 2015 Rockets - they didn't have much going for them, Harden had to carry them by relying so much on those fouls.

4. Kawhi is still, when he needs to be the best perimeter defender in the NBA, and I both want to see him at power forward more and also see him on a team with a few fewer defensive holes before I get on him and his ceiling.

5. The reason why Kawhi doesn't get shat upon? He's inoffensive and likable, and on top of that was criticized last year, after the Spurs lost to the Thunder. The major criticism was that Kawhi could/would never be a player that could just take over a game and will his team to a win, that he couldn't just go off for 40, even if he averaged 22 or 23 or something.
 
I would also imagine the big reason kawhi doesn't get criticism from the media is because they never talk about the Spurs in any capacity, good or bad, and the rare times they do it is just them saying "why aren't we talking about the Spurs"
 
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