IMO, there's not much D'Antoni should change. They knew the Spurs were going to take away the 3-ball, they attacked the rim and Harden was knocked around and hacked EVERY time, yet got ZERO calls at the rim. Defense overall has to be better, rebounds has to be better, and they have to win the 50-50 balls. Aside from the bad calls/no calls, those 3 things affected the game as well.
Pop played Kawhi against our bench unit rather than matching his minutes with Harden's. This stopped our bench from going nuts and getting us a big lead. We have to adjust to this.
In fairness, the Spurs went on their first big run in the 4th when both Harden AND Kawhi were out of the game. Our bench got out hustled by the Spurs bench.
I'd put the odds at: Harrell 5% Dekker 10% Troy 1% He, Alexander and Morey needs to be on the line with the league offices all day though, addressing what we just witnessed last night. We could've still beaten them at our best, but that was inexcusable.
I think this is when the game really started to unravel with touch fouls. The refs seemed to be rushing the Spurs to the bonus as fast as possible.
If we put Ryan at the 5 against Pau, two things are going to happen. 1. They will iso Pau in the block on Anderson and kill us. 2. They'll defend Anderson with a small who will get in his grill and let Pau cover the weakside baseline where he can get over to defend the pick and roll and force the cross court pass to the corner he vacated. Whomever is in the pick and roll will automatically switch out to the corner. Anderson at the 5 is a loser.
What do you change? For 3 quarters, despite Harden playing like ass, despite missing open makeable shots, you were within 1-2 possessions. That was a winnable game if Houston was playing even average ball on offense, and didn't completely melt down defensively in the 4th. They need to protect the glass, stop Lee/Gasol from getting offensive boards. Keep Kawhi from getting to his spots in the middle of the paint, but don't break your defense up trying to achieve that - you can outscore Kawhi's production. Come out with laser focus at the beginning of each quarter. I am not particularly worried. I think we win both at home. This is a focus/execution issue, not so much a gameplan issue.
Actually, I do. Go back and look at Kobe's playoffs minutes played. He averaged around 43 MPG during his prime playoff stretches which included 5 rings and other deep playoff runs. He was doing it on both ends mind you. I'm no Kobe fan but the dude had heart and a thirst to win by all means necessary. Even more recently. Look at what Isaiah Thomas did in his game 2. With his team down in the 4th he took over when it mattered most and dominated the 4th and OT. Even Wall played like 47 mins/ 53 mins and showed heart in a losing effort. Bet you Harden wished he would've played both 3rd and 4th if it meant a difference. We'all never know though cause he didn't try cause he was tired from playing the whole 3rd quarter.
Not sure we have to do something different, i actually thing we still did a pretty good job overall...i mean, they were obviously all in for this game and they played great, at home with the refs doing a good job for them too...we were still down 5 after three quarters with Harden playing like ****...with Harden having a decent game we would've been right there if not up few points. The last quarter was a total disaster though...we got our ass kicked hard, we were just soft and slow out there, while old guys like Manu and Pau were flying around, this cannot happen again.
Um, not really. Kawhi played against the bench unit in the first half - beg. of second quarter - and the Spurs were basically +1 in those 6 minutes. In the second half, Kawhi sat the first 3.5 minutes of the 4th. He came back into the game the same time as Harden. http://popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20170503&game=HOUSAS
While I agree with your conclusion, I think they split at home principally because it is a focus issue. The bigger surprise should be the fact that they were 5-1 in the playoffs heading into last night. This is not a team that finished the regular season as if they should be winning series in 5/6 games, and more so against the Spurs. They had consistency issues for weeks, and frankly that's continued. Last night Harden played horrible, and Ariza and Lou had their bad games out. Ariza particularly disturbs me because I think he brought it upon himself mentally with the scuffles he was almost seeking out in the 2nd half of game 1. Lou hadn't really had a bad playoff game yet, so was due. EG's stat line isn't horrible, but behind the numbers he was -25 for the night and just seemed out of sorts in the second half. Bev played ok, but generally below his average game. He had a chance to get it close on a back to back 3 pointer (made the first one, missed a wide open second one the next possession), but his three was off at 1-5, and perhaps most tellingly, he only had 2 boards and more than once was out fought for a board. He's been generally very good on the boards in the playoffs. Its not necessarily a requirement, but I think it speaks to his level of "smart" intensity and involvement in the game. And generally speaking, rebounding was a BIG problem. Capela with 3 boards in 24 minutes! Nene with 1 - that's right ONE - rebound in 17 minutes. It was bizarro rebounding night since Anderson had 5. On the whole, this team doesn't really have an obvious rotational move to make, like when they switched out TJones for Josh Smith. Trez isn't going to move the needle one way or another. And MDA really likes his current rotation schedule. I think the adjustments required are more strategic than rotational. I felt like they purposefully trapped Kawhi more in game 1 and i didn't see that last night so much. They clearly need to gang rebound more, and Capela/Nene need to just focus on that - doesn't matter what strategy changes you make, your bigs can't rebound that poorly. Offensively, well I'm less concerned offensively, because either Harden sucks again or he doesn't. If he does, it doesn't matter what changes are made. On top of that I trust in MDA's ability to be creative offensively. So if I'm him, I'm looking at new play wrinkles to both get Kawhi off Harden, and to get him isolated on just a spot up three point shooter somewhere and get him out of the play.
We've got to find a way to slow down kawhi . It's one thing when Trevor is hitting his shots , but if trev is cold it's about as one sided a matchup can get . Kawhi owned trev game 4 of the regular season and in both games so far this series ( luckily it didn't matter game 1) Trev cannot stop him . But you can't send too much help either because The Spurs system is too sound and will take advantage of the openings. Frankly , I though Gordon did a good job on him . I'd like to see Dekker get a shot . Dekker did a good job on KD earlier this year and has the length and athleticism to be a great wing defender . Yes it's a risk , yes Dekker will likely get called for touch fouls.... Kawhi gets those calls anyways. We've got to mix up the defenders on him and throw multiple looks at him . Furthermore , Dekker can get on the glass and we need that if gasol pulls Clint out Lou has got to be more aggressive . Defensively , the intensity from the whole team needs to be up .
Spurs bench depleted now with no Parker and Gasol being inserted into the starting lineup...there is no one left on the spurs bench to be concerned about in my opinion,,,,Rox need to make it a track meet game 1 style
in my opinion...Spurs are truly gonna feel Parker not being on the floor the deeper we get into this series....when the rim gets smaller and as the pressure intensifies...I don't expect these semi-scrubs coming off the Spurs bench with little to know playoff experience or Mills to deliver in the crunch like Parker would...father time catching up on the spurs starting with Parker going down
