[Western Conference Semifinals] (2)San Antonio vs. (3)Oklahoma City

The Spurs were on a roll and were very well-rested after sweeping what was left of the Grizzlies. Now that OKC has had time to make adjustments and the games are every other day, San Antonio is in trouble.

I said it last summer when they got rid of Splitter to sign Aldridge. Who was gonna play center for that team? Duncan's never done that on a full-time basis in his career. And they were asking him to do it in a season where he was gonna turn 40 years old. The Thunder are already a very good offensive rebounding team, but they killed the Spurs down the stretch in Game 5 with Kanter and Adams vs Duncan and Aldridge.

And it ain't just Duncan. The rest of the roster features the 38 year-old Ginobili, almost 34 year-old Parker, 34 year-old Diaw, 35 year-old West, and 36 year-old Bonner. They rely on a bunch of old vets and it's finally caught up with them. The good news is their core of Kawhi and Aldridge is still young(although the latter will turn 31 this summer). So they can reload around those guys. But Pop and Buford can no longer put it off. They have to replace a lot of players on that roster this summer.

 

Unless they somehow start playing a lot smarter, no way OKC will win 4 games against the Warriors. GS will exploit their their lack of discipline and continuity. With a healthy Curry, they are much better than either of these teams.

 

I guess you are talking about GSW's defense will exploit them? SAS has a better defense and your statement actually applies better to SAS...certainly equally. So your "a lot" smatter criteria I guess means that it doesn't matter that they are beating SAS, who will destroy undisciplined teams with their defense,,,GSW's offense is better. Is that it?

GSW's propensity to turn the ball over a lot can hurt them bad, too, and OKC is probably the best fast break team in the West, next to GSW. That is how they lost their first game in the season against WAS. OKC is as long and and active on defense as any. Combined with being as unstoppable in transition as any NBA team. And they also had a win against GSW without that choke play by Durant in reg season.

And defensively, they certainly are locked in, not showing "lack of discipline and continuity."

 

Spur's problem is not defense, their defense is fine, they just cannot score enough points, other than LA and KL, they do not have a reliable score, Green was very good last night, but you cannot depend on him. Parker and Gonobili are both terrible this series. GS have no problem scoring points and they also play good defense, so I do not see how either Spurs or OKC beat them the next round.

 

Leonard and Aldridge need to play better down the stretch. The old big three are finally just too old this season, they brought Aldridge in to make an impact on games like this, and everybody talks about Leonard being a top 5 player or whatever but to me he isn't until he can take over a game and will his team to victory.

Unless Leonard and/or Aldridge step up down the stretch next game, Spurs are in trouble.

 

Leonard did have that big steal and fast break slam to put them up 88-82. And Aldridge has been pretty damn good in this series overall. He dominated Game 1 and nearly rescued them at the end of Game 2. OKC just made a few more plays down the stretch. Pop even said as much in his postgame remarks. You can tell when he dials down the sarcasm that his team just got beat.

OKC and San Antonio each have 2 superstars. The Thunder simply have the better supporting cast right now.

 

I agree that GSW is the best team. We all agree on that. Don't need explanations of why anyone beating them would be an upset.

A_3PO and I are discussing what OKC has to do to pull the upset (should they close out SAS).

I don't think the undisciplined, inconsistent offense part of OKC is the issue, as they are managing SAS's defense just fine...which is noticeably better than GSW's...especially when you can get Bogut off the court. What is key is your defense against GSW, and hoping they don't still beat you with unstoppable threes.

Key for OKC will be to get Bogut off the court, and actually beat GSW with a large lineup vs GSW's small. They might be the only team who can defend GSW by sticking to a large lineup and not going small just to matchup. OKC could win a game of matchups or two.

 

I don't know. Lma played poorly yesterday except for rebounding well and getting to the free throw line, sometimes in bail out calls. He couldn't hit a fg consistently and missed badly on many post moves.

Westbrook and Durant combined for most of the Okc points in a ridiculous way. The Spurs got a lot of help defensively and offensively from Danny Green and Mills.

To win next the game the Spurs can't get out rebounded so badly and they need a better game from Lma.

Kawhi needs to take over and drive more. The Spurs played a bit of hot potato with the ball last night with nobody having the confidence to go up strong with a shot or layup attempt except Leonard or Green (when he was set up).

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Spurs blew two double digit leads the entire season. Have done it in last two games v OKC (H/T <a href="https://twitter.com/EliasSports">@EliasSports</a>)</p>&mdash; Lachlan McLean (@LachTalk) <a href="https://twitter.com/LachTalk/status/730377964513300481">May 11, 2016</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A couple days ago the Spurs were savvy and the Thunder were selfish. Now I hear Spurs are old and Thunder has matured. Ok. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/perspective?src=hash">#perspective</a></p>&mdash; Andrew Brandt (@AndrewBrandt) <a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewBrandt/status/730372303985496066">May 11, 2016</a></blockquote>
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Perhaps I'm in the minority, but IMO this series is 3-2 OKC because the Spurs aren't playing up to snuff. They look old. TD is dog meat. Manu is running on fumes. TP is a yo yo. It's like they fired all their bullets in game 1. At the same time, OKC's defense has been impressive. LMA's inefficiency since the first two games is surprising. It's like they have him measured. I wonder if it's because of the cumulative pounding he's getting between Adams & Kanter. (Probably wishes they would put Ibaka back on him).

Lack of discipline and continuity on offense is OKC's main problem. I doubt very much they will win a game against GS if they lose the TO battle 20-7. Spurs look like they just don't have it.

I very much want to be wrong. Would rather see OKC face the Cavs.

 

Its funny how winning changes everything.
Lets talk about the Spurs for a moment.
The the last two games were nearly identical, losing leads heading into the 4th. Going too long with the same lineups. Not adjusting to the length of Okc. Not setting enough plays for Leonard or Aldridge. Pop makes it seem like its all fine and they just couldnt score, which is true, they did go cold, but thats because you had Parker running around taking most of the shots. Okc deserves to move on but i still believe they dont have what it takes to get past Warrior's like the Spurs do.

 

IMO, the Thunder are just a bad match-up for the Spurs--the Spurs can't handle OKC's athleticism. The Spurs are a much better team than the Thunder against the NBA as a whole, but I think they struggle a bit with the Thunder. Not just this year--the Thunder beat the Spurs in the 2013 playoffs and might have beaten them again in the 2014 playoffs if they hadn't lost Ibaka for some of the games.

I think the Thunder would challenge the Warriors (they challenged them in the regular season games) but the Warriors are younger and zippier than the Spurs--even if they didn't have as good a statistical defense during the regular season, A. they're a more athletic team and B. they cruised for a lot of the regular season, but when they amp their defense up against top teams, they look pretty Spurs-like.

 

That was one play but in the fourth quarter this series he has not done well at all. Down the stretch both in game 4 and 5 he was invisible.

And Aldridge had a great first two games but hasn't made much of an impact since then, similar to the 2014 Houston series funnily enough.

 

Aldridge is a star, but not a superstar. He's never been a consistently dominant player--he's capable of huge games, but just as capable of nearly-invisible games. He certainly can't replace what Duncan (used to) give the team going forward.

An underrated factor is that Diaw has lost another step. He's not a guy who relies on athleticism, of course, but you do need some to be effective in the NBA. He's a guy who's almost as important to this era of Spurs basketball as Ginobili was to the 2000s Spurs...if he becomes ineffective, that's really going to hurt them.

Still, even if the Spurs don't win the title and have to rebuild/retool, starting with Popovich, Leonard and Aldridge is a pretty nice consolation.

 

they started fronting him a lot more since game 3 and Spurs didn't adjust and forces Aldy to shoot more outside shots.

 

Can we just admit that Pop got out-coached?

 

He got outcoached.

RC Buford got out-general managed by Sam Presti.

Ime Udoka & Becky Hammon got out former-player-assistant-ed by Maurice Cheeks & former Rocket Mark Bryant.

Ettore Messina got out-Euro-assistanted by Darko Rajakovic

 

He did this in 2015 v. Memphis too.

 

Lol only coming out when the Spurs struggle. Pathetic.

 

I don't think we need to overthink about this series. It's pretty much decided by Westbrook. If he is on, OKC is extremely difficult to beat. If he plays dumb, Spurs can handle them without problem.

The Spurs are what they are. They have adequate offense (great if Aldridge is hot). But their bread and butter is their defense. When Westbrook goes into insane mode, no defense can stop him/them.

The same can be said about the Warriors. If Curry goes into cheat code mode, no defense can stop them.

The difference between GSW and OKC is that Curry is much more consistent than Westbrook. That's why I am not counting out the Spurs yet. They can still win the remaining two games.