new plays(?) and a revelation(!), the ****'s real.

a few thoughts on the game...


most surprising to me was how effectively steve ran the pnr. i would call the specific play name, but i don't know it (although i do know it was NOT 24 High). anyways, he did not exclusively go baseline this game. even though you could tell it was killing him not to, he didn't lean on the crutch.

speaking of that play, what was the purpose of the 2 guard post to start the play? the point guard has the ball at the sweet spot, the 4 is weak side 3pt line. it's not for a timing issue, for all the players are set up before the 2 posts. then, after a half-hearted effort in the post, he slides opposite (not even setting a screen) and the 4 slides strong side for the screen on the pg's defender. that was one set play i noticed from the right side of the goal which allowed francis to truly free himself for shots. also, i noticed that this play was exclusively run when bullard (a 3 point specialist) was out of the game and mid range 4's like thomas/taylor were in.

the other pnr that i saw was the classic pnr between bullard and francis on the left side. this we have seen many times before.

other thoughts...

even scarier thought is that francis was exclusively running these 2 different pnr's, mostly because he was the "hotter" guard tonight. however, once steve started to tire, rudy made an important, immediate adjustment - he went to the cat iso's. cat absolutely ate them up with his penetration. at that point, the spurs were on their heels (3rd quarter). great adjustment on the fly, rudy.

now here's a scary thought. flip the script and imagine cuttino running those 2 pnr's. cuttino is much more effective (generally) with the pnr's than steve has been.

btw,

the biggest hero in this game was greg popovich. why in the world he kept rotating off of bullard is beyond me, but thank you Acne Man. it would have been so easy to put in malik rose and render the bull ineffective. it would have been so easy to rotate off of kenny thomas and keep the 3 on bullard. but he didn't and i'm very, very, very happy he didn't.

all in all, we made a statement against the spurs. not a statement that we're for real. i think a lot of people are realizing that already. a statement that we have the best backcourt in the nba, bar none. and yea, in case you were on the fence, we are for real.

the **** is real.

 

my bad, RockenRam5.

just noticed your thread about the new play just now.