Oh, man, Phoenix's short rotation wound up being way less ineffective than I would have guessed. That said, unexpectedly good wasn't good enough. It kind of sucks that San Antonio's probably going to win the series now. It does, however, raise a question about the Jazz. Did we just watch them win an impressive series against an impressive Golden State team? Or did we just watch them beat an 8 seed and now we're looking forward to a walkover? Also: Cavs-Nets is boring!
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17 May 2007 01:13 am
Comments (33)
David Stern got what he wanted. Phoenix is the nearest to showtime the NBA has. I am just hoping that Phoenix can win two in a row. I hate San Antonio. It's funny when I think about how Dennis Rodman(right after he left San Antonio) of all people called Popovich a dumb mother f--ker, or something similiar. Look at Popovich now.
Just saw a bit of Popovich interview. what an asshole. there's nothing likable about San Antonio.
the NBA shot itself in the foot. I'm done watching the playoffs.
What makes you think there will be a 7th game?
I'm rooting for the Spurs, but I'm also thinking the league should just do away with offensive foul calls. I wonder if there are stats on how many charges used to be called say, fifteen years ago, compared to now.
I'm done watching the playoffs.
I think the NBA needs to redeem itself with lots of fans or else we'll be done watching for longer than that. If you can't have any faith that the league will do what it can to make sure the game is played fairly and well, why bother? There's always college ball.
"It does, however, raise a question about the Jazz. Did we just watch them win an impressive series against an impressive Golden State team? Or did we just watch them beat an 8 seed and now we're looking forward to a walkover?"
Utah has been winning close games, which is a good sign.
Utah beat two teams with very different styles, which is a good sign.
It comes down to matchups. You need to play Duncan without doubling. Who is Utah's guy(s) there, and can they do that?
To what extent can Duncan take away Boozer? To what extent can Bowen take away Williams?
I keep thinking San Antonio is vulnerable, and they keep cheating their way toward proving me wrong. TradeSports is giving Utah a percentage for the series in the low twenties. That seems waaaay low to me. Put a gun to my head and I say it's 2 to 1 San Antonio, but since I can't visualize the matchups, I don't have much confidence in my conclusions.
Well, Phoenix got really got robbed by Stern...
But I'll be damned if they didn't play better defense w/Amare out of the lineup.
Guy
You know what drove me particularly crazy, if I may vent? When Tony Kornheiser asked Stern if he thought he'd violated the spirit of the "no-leaving-the-bench" rule and Stern told him that (roughly) "the spirit and the letter of the law are the same, Thou Shalt Not Leave the Bench." A complete asshole.
It didn't make it any easier to watch that Bruce Bowen continued to maul Steve Nash unchecked.
"I'm rooting for the Spurs"
We now know that ogged is spawn of satan.
Is rooting for the Spurs now actually worse than rooting for the Yankees?
And I didn't approve of D'Antoni's decision to keep doubling Duncan.
I liked it for a bit as a changeup, but I think you stop after five minutes of it. Thomas had many fouls to gvie when the final buzzer sounded, and that's wrong.
San Antonio is expressly constructed to destroy you if you double Duncan. You can't give in to the temptation.
but I'm also thinking the league should just do away with offensive foul calls
Also the basket.
What a bunch of babies. If you want to blame somebody start with D'Antoni - he started out great tonight but he can't adjust over the course of a game. The Suns should have won that game but they blew it. Marion was playing well and they needed to get him the ball more down the stretch.
Nothing is ruined - game 6 is gonna be a great game (as will game 7). If you have a problem with the nba because Stern enforced the rules than by all means don't watch: you're more interested in entertainment than sports.
Oh - and if SA should advance you gotta think Sloan will throw every large body he can at Duncan, he's got a lot of them. It also would be interesting to watch Okur drag some of SA's post players out from under the basket, and then go to Boozer early and often trying to get Duncan in foul trouble. (The Suns need to get Duncan in trouble too - that's key.)
Well, I am another spawn of Satan, cheering for the Spurs.
I agree with Petey that they doubled Duncan too much down the stretch.
The key decision was Popovich finally and unequivocally going small with about three minutes left in the first half. It was 21 minutes too late, and it almost cost them. The small lineup takes Marion out of the offense because they want to run the pick and roll against a big, and so Phoenix switches to using Thomas for the pick and pop. Marion tends to then become uninvolved in the offense standing around the three point line so as to not clog the middle. Then you can chase him off the three point line and force him to take 15-18 footers off the dribble, and he is much less effective.
Spurs need to stick to the small lineup going into game six. Then Phoenix can't keep Thomas and Stoudamire on the floor together. And Stoudamire can't defend Duncan for long without getting in all sorts of foul trouble.
The key to the Spurs small lineup is having Finley on the floor. He is the one small who can keep Marion off the boards. I have been preaching this all series. I was amazed by the coaching mistakes both ways. I also would completely take Vaughn out of the rotation and let Ginobili and Barry handle the point duties when Parker rests.
Talking about Utah is way premature in terms of matchups since their opponent is far from determined.
That said, my opinion of Utah is that they are very good but that they are also not yet elite. They beat another very good team in Houston, and they had a much better matchup against Golden State than did Dallas. Having the former coach and mentor had a mental block, but the key to that series was the lack of post scoring from Dallas, which meant they couldn't adequately punish the Warriors for their small lineup.
Utah certainly could and did. It has been a great run for the Jazz, but coming into the playoffs, I didn't think they could beat any of the big three out west, and I haven't seen anything to make me change my mind. I think Petey's number of 2:1 against is probably pretty accurate. I would probably still take either Phoenix or SA at those numbers, but make it 3:1 and I would take the Jazz either way.
Assuming the Spurs manage to beat the Suns, I think they definitely will beat Utah.
Boozer was too quick for Houston and too strong for Golden State to deal with. He's damn good. But Duncan will own him.
Hopefully, if all else fails, Detroit can get it done.
All the talk on the last thread was about Duncan scoring 40 and PHX's defense, but I said their defense would be fine and it was their offense that would be a problem. And tat was exactly right - PHX scored over 100 in every other game this series, and 85 just wasn't enough to get it done. They started out great - hot shooting and a lot of energy, but their short bench just killed them - no energy down the stretch. That said, they got a good shot at Game 6
Also: Cavs-Nets is boring
What??? Don't you like great defense? Nets scored all of ONE BASKET in the 4th quarter and still won! What an amazing display of defense by both teams - it was an instant classic that should be replayed over and over.
Whoops, forgot: LeBron is massively overrated.
"but I'm also thinking the league should just do away with offensive foul calls"
"Also the basket."
The Nets and Cavs experimented a bit with that last nite - played most of the 4th quarter without a basket.
"What an amazing display of defense by both teams "
I hope you're being sarcastic.
Lob passes to wide open guys that hit the backboard are not good defense. Dribbling off your own foot when you're not pressed is not good defense. Throwing an outlet pass straight at a stationary defender is not good defense. Eric Snow hitting the bottom of the rim with a wide open 10' jumper is not good defense.
Watching the Cavs get thumped at home at least made me feel a little better as a Pistons fan. Apparently we're not the only ones who fail to show up for the occasional closeout game.
I dunno, Njorl - using the backboard and rim as a 6th defender? Classic!
Whoops, forgot: LeBron is massively overrated.
It's not clear to me how LeBron is to be rated. A lot of his value lies in his otherworldly potential. That's going to be true until he's 28-ish. Some part of me still expects Vince to "get it" and reestablish himself as a top ten player. There just aren't any other NBA players with LeBron's combination of size, speed, and skill.
"did we just watch [the Jazz] beat an 8 seed and now we're looking forward to a walkover?"
Yes and Maybe. I don't buy 2-1 odds for the Spurs. I'd be curious to hear about any quant model that produced those odds. The Spurs won 71% of their season games vs 62% for the Jazz. A real difference, but I doubt that seven games is a big enough sample to be that confident they will prevail.
Meaning that if the Jazz get one of the first two games through youth or guile, anything could happen...
utah isn't going to beat the winner of spurs-suns, but they're going to make the winner work awfully hard.
as for david stern, i've been a little busy the last few days and missed the other discussions, so i'm sure it's been brought up, but stern kept the best knicks team van gundy ever coached from advancing by suspending a bunch of guys for walking two inches onto the court about 10 years ago, so he could hardly do differently now.
PS. antid: still think the warriors-jazz was more entertaining than spurs-suns?
Yes. Nearly every game was close and the series could have gone a few games longer than it did. The Suns-Spurs series is hard-fought but completely infuriating. Not entertaining at all, actually.
I have a question for the admitted Spurs fans here: do you guys think Bruce Bowen is a dirty player? I've always wondered is Spurs fans are proud of this, or ashamed, or in denial.
Too Many Steves:
As spurs fans, no. We don't think he is dirty.
That "kick" on Amare is a joke. There was no kick there. I commented here a couple of days ago that that would make Bowen some sort of Ninja. The knee to Nash's crotch? Did it hurt Nash or something? Of course not, but, Nash will not crowd him again.
He plays incredibly hard defense and does so by staying insanely close to his man. Over the years, this proximity probably increases that probability that he will get tangled up with guys, create contact, etc. But i have never seen him take out a player, a la Horry. No undercuts, etc. I have never seen him commit an intentional act that everyone knows is dangerous. But yeah, he does a ton of things that are annoying, but annoying isn't "dirty". Dirty to me is something malicious or clearly outside the bounds of sportmanship.
When Nash broke stride to trip Bowen at midcourt in Game 4, that was dirty. See:
http://www.broadbandnewsnet.com/newsmanager/anmviewer.asp?a=3817&z=11
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Comments closed May 31, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
God that was an awful last four minutes. Fuck the NBA for making this such a bitter game to watch.
That said, Game 7 under these circumstances will be incredible.
Posted by Thomas | May 17, 2007 1:24 AM