Western Conference Semifinals: (1) San Antonio vs. (5) Portland

Hi guys!!!!

 

Where are all those people on ClutchFans that claim coaching really isn't that important now? You have Robin Lopez indicting the entire Rockets' organization in one sentence. Smh, do you hear that Le$, Maury, and McFail? I know you and your minions read this board. The truth hurts.

 

The iso offense sucks, even on spurs isos you see movement on the catch where we tend to hold it up, but the pressure on defense is directly proportional to how you're being reffed.

If they weren't calling us for breathing fouls, we would have been more than happy to body them up and pressure them as physically as possible. How the hell do you play pressure defense when you're in foul trouble all the time?

 

Dallas players are so experienced in playoff games. After this series, hope you will see what makes a team success in the playoff.

 

I was happy that The Blazettes lost, but felt sadness while watching another team from Texas execute offensive plays & playing 47 mins of Defence...there was a minute where they didn't D-up, but Pop called a time out, blew his stack and they got back to playing D again.

Should be us vs Spurs, but live & learn I guess.


Btw: Manu gets called for a Tech for bouncing the ball hard & Pop had to be restrained!

Funny how the Blazettes continue to complain & throw tantrums with out getting T'd up...just saying.

 

Or Scott Foster & Mauer as referees...

 

Robin Lopez could take take out a book and read while the simdple iso ball of the Rockets. Its like pretty much Harden chucking a 3 or Howard for the iso postup, yawnnn...

 

People say Splitter plays good D vs LMA,But he does Not Play it any different than Asik,but Omer unfortunately got called for some BS Fouls.

**** the Refs.

 

LOL......

 

He's 100% correct. He's merely pointing out what Rockets fans have complained about all season long. Hell, even McHale himself complained about it constantly. The problem is it takes more than just sitting there in huddles telling your guys to "play harder" or not let the ball get "sticky" in order to correct these problems.

That's the thing about coaching. It's not just about calling plays in timeouts. You have to teach these players how to do things from Day 1 in training camp. You're essentially programming them to run your system. Why do you think the best teams operate like a machine on the court? Because that's basically what they've been turned into. And I'm sorry, but I don't think McHale is capable of that as a head coach.

 

Exactly. The majority of coaching isn't the cliche timeout pep-talks you hear in games. I could forgive Mchale's cringe-inducing a hold, a hoop, and a hood speech as you hear similar talk from some of the great coaches in the league. But he is obviously not doing his job outside of the games.

That post in the GARM about Harden flatout ignoring Mchale's plays. Could you imagine someone doing that on the Spurs' roster? It doesn't matter if it was Parker...Pop would've benched his arse so fast.

 

The gulf between us and the Spurs is huge. The Blazers were trashed, and we were gasping for air against them.

 

Pop was a bonafide a-hole toward Parker when he first came into the league. He was always riding him. And remember that when the Spurs won the title in 2003, it was Speedy Claxton who closed for them late in games while Parker was riding the pine. And had Jason Kidd opted to sign with San Antonio that offseason, Parker would've been shipped out of town immediately.

Point is, Pop didn't simply allow Parker to go out there and do his thing and expect him to eventually figure out how to play championship basketball. He worked with him for years to mold him into the Tony Parker who won the NBA Finals MVP award in 2007. Can you imagine what James Harden could become if he had a coach with half the tenacity of Pop?

 

Yep. Pop would probably turn Lin into Parker 2.0.

Nope, not kidding.

 

Watching the Spurs team basketball leads to love the NBA games, and watching the Rockets isolation basketball leads to hate the NBA games, wants to throw something into TV.

 

What's the difference between the Rockets and the Spurs? One team has an emphasis on D; the other doesn't. It's simple as that.

 

I see more Steve Nash in Lin than Parker, but regardless, he would still become a better player under a competent head coach. We'd see his shot selection improve. He'd get better looks because his teammates would set picks to free him up. He'd stop making careless turnovers or taking bad shots late in games and instead of come down the court slowly and run a set play. And he sure as hell would stop leaving his feet before passing the ball!

Jeremy Lin has talent. What he lacks at times is basketball smarts and confidence. Which IMO reflects the kind of leadership or lack thereof he's receiving from the sidelines.

 

Splitter got to play bodied up D on Aldridge all game long. When the Rockets tried to do this Aldridge is it was a quick foul. Will be interesting to see if the game is called the same way and how will the Blazers adjust.

 

Spurs run a lot of iso with Parker, the only difference is Parker runs his iso through a array of screens.:grin:

 

My thread about this isn't showing up for some reason, but the Portland announcers totally trashed our team for playing no defense and "heroball iso" offense last night -

http://www.csnnw.com/blazers/reality-check-youre-playing-san-antonio-freaking-spurs