That we are guaranteed 4 more of these game threads.

with you totally on the match-up problems and the experience factor. their bench/role players are all very young and not so battle tested. that said, kobe bryant can cure a ton of ills.

in the games they have beat us recently odom was their X factor in a positive way for them. dealing with him one on one will be necessary. i am also a little worried about gasol getting tim in foul trouble and/or giving tim problems with his length. he did this the last time the two teams met.

bowen will get open shots when kobe roams and they dont have anyone to contend with frenchy for sure. ime will fill bruce’s shoes on kobe some in this series too, which should also leave him free for some shots. in the end, we will still go as far as our big 3 can take us, but our role players will have to step up like they just did in game 7. mike fin seems to like playing against these guys and maybe we’ll see some brent barry too. he can match with walton or radmanovich.

as far as our defense goes, i’d like to see pop mix up the looks frequently like he did in games 6 and 7 of the NOOCH series. sometimes trap kobe high, sometimes double and/or triple him, sometimes let him go one on one and take everyone else away. that kind of thing wont likely rattle kobe, but it could put the rest of their guys in ever changing situations and not let them get comfortable. i’m not against zoning them up a little here and there too.

this will be hard on the innards like everything else has been the last few weeks. hopefully, the boys will still have good energy. every game of this series will be played with one night of rest. that kind of meat grinder could also become a factor. and that doesn’t necessarily favor LA as many of their guys aren’t used to playing this deep into the season, whereas the spurs old and slow guys are.

I was so confident the Silver & Black would rise up last night. I’m confident they’ll do it again this series too and this time they won’t have to wait until game seven to get a road victory.

Spurs 105
Lakers 98

Tony Parker’s gonna go hog wild in this series. With no cp3 to worry about, he’ll eat fisher’s lunch at point.

If Fab can’t really handle Odom, they will start Thomas, who has handled him in the past (See his stint in PHO during the playoffs last year) or bring Thomas off the bench. Or they can stick Tim on him, and hope Thomas will somewhat control Gasol. The Spurs won last round conceding about 15-20 ppg to both West and Paul, also while conceding about 14 apg to Paul. The Lakers have no one that can create for his teammates like Paul can, so limiting Kobe in the 4th while taking out everyone else but Gasol will probably be what they go for.

Also having Odom going off might not be that bad of a thing, if it takes the ball out of Kobe’s hands :)

Last year you also have to look at the quality of opponent vs. this year. We had to face Denver-not known for defense, Camby is easy to guard-, Pheonix-Tim guarded Amare, Fab guarded whoever else that was not important, Utah-Okur mainly stays around the 3 pt line, not inside with Boozer-, Cleveland-Tim guarded Ilgauskas, again who else can you name in there?

This year he has actually had to guard a top level player in West, and had to guard Amare, so some defensive liabilities were shown. Not too bad though.

You guys have probably heard this already, but for those who haven’t:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3405018

No love from Hollinger. He’s calling Lakers in 5.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs2008/series?series=saslal

I feel extremely confident about this series that the Spurs will come out on top. I think:
Parker matches up better than Fisher.
Duncan matches up better than Gasol.
Ginobli/Bowen/Ime matches up better than Bryant
Thomas/Horry/Oberto match up better than Odom
Pop matches up better than Jackson. Pop is younger and more athletic. And he Jackson has a hard time walking with his bad knees.

We much more of a team effort that’s going to help us win. And I haven’t said anything about Finely and Barry yet. We almost hit 50% in threes in that last game and we’re making more threes than ever. And you notice that no Spur forces an outside three. They always seem uncontested.

I say we make sure that Bryant doesn’t get to the free throw line and we don’t have any turnovers. We need to keep our shots falling and don’t lose any more leads!!!! I hate seeing that with a passion. I know teams can make runs; however, the Spurs lost three leads yesterday. They could’ve won that game by 25 or more because of the poor shooting by NO. Most teams don’t play well from behind, we seem to get complacent after we get leads. But we did have three leads however.

I think the 2 big things to watch concerning the Lakers’ side of things are how much Odom gets going (Kobe will have his, and usually the Spurs let 1 other person have some of thiers) and how many calls Kobe gets. It astounded me in the Jazz series how many calls in the first 3 games the Lakers got, primarily Kobe. He could have been driving non-stop to the bucket, which will give him a lot of calls given his MVP status this year….but way too often you’d see everyone with anywhere from 4-9 FT, and Kobe with no less than 15-17, sometimes 20+. Seeing that he avgs. around 30 a game, then over 1/2 of his points come from the charity stripe. If we can make Kobe into a jump shooter, I like the Spurs’ chances VERY MUCH to take this in 6.

... because many of you are underestimating how good the Triangle works in the half-court. I am of the opinion that, in the half-court, the Lakers match the spurs better than any of the teams the Spurs have faced so far. Contrary to the past two series I believe the way the Spurs can win the Conference is with the fast break. The Lakers have Odom, Gasol and Turiaf who have length, and in Turiaf’s case:strength, to clog the lane better than PHX and NO did in the past two series’. In order to combat the Lakers length SA needs to grab the defensive rebound and push as quickly as possible to not let their bigs have a chance to get back to protect the paint. Obviously the Spurs will need to hit the mid-range jumper and a few 3’s but if the Spurs can win the rebound battle and push the pace I believe that gives them a greater chance to win the series.

20:00 PM SA – 22:00 PM ARG

______________

(Sort of) Interesting facts:

► Previous games: They have met 4 times this season.

→Nov/13/07 – SA 107 | LAL 92 – @ SA.

→Dec/13/07 – LAL 102 | SA 97 – @ CA.

→Jan/23/08 – SA 103 | LAL 91 – @ SA.

→Apr/13/08 – LAL 106 | SA 85 – @ CA.

► Plays from game 7 against the Hornets:
→NBA TOP 5 – May 19th: #3 – Tony Parker: Penetrates for the no-look two-pointer and 1.
→Summary of Manu’s 26 points

► This was Gregg Popovich’s 100th postseason victory. He’s been the Spurs head coach since 1996, and he’s currently tied in third place all-time with Larry Brown.

► This is the first season that the Spurs make it past the 2nd round the year alter winning a championship. Will this finally be the year we repeat? (Yes, it will, dammit.)

► The third quarter was key, once more. The Spurs’ defense was what kept them in the game, after coming into the second half with a 9-point lead. The Spurs kept New Orleans unable to score in 2 consecutive possessions for the entire quarter. The Hornets were nearly 3 minutes without scoring at all, until CP finished the draught with 2 FTs.

► Experience was another important factor, especially in the final moments of the game. With the Spurs ahead by 10, the Hornets missed several open shots. Peja airballed a triple, and West missed a mid-distance jumper he usually makes.

► SA’s bench won us the game. The biggest contributions:
→ The hard defense on West, making him work for every point.
→ Thomas’ offensive rebounds. He grabbed 3 consecutive offensive rebounds in a single play that finished with two points for SA.
→ Finley’s three-pointers at the end of the third quarter and in the fourth quarter.
→ Horry’s three-pointers.
→ Udoka’s defense and offensive game. And his all around Algerian-slaying Fatalityness.

______________

(Likely) Starting lineup:

______________

Quotes after the 4-3:

► Manu:
→On if he is comfortable remaining in the starting lineup against the Lakers – “I’m just comfortable winning. Whatever helps to win a game, I’m happy with it. If I have to go back to the bench against L.A., I’ll take it anyway. As long as we keep winning, I’m fine."

► Coach Pop:
→On the game – "I’m sure glad that’s over. The Hornets are an unbelievably tough team in every way in that one could imagine, and they had a great year."
→On the importance of defense – "What we did today was much better in the third quarter, we made a couple shots – we actually scored 20 points, which is a miracle for us in the third quarter of this series. We held them down."

► Chris Paul:
→On the game – "We are not satisfied; D West said we will be back here next year in the same situation and our group."
→On ending their playoff run – "After the game coach called it growing pains, and great teams have to go through things like this. The make up of our team is special, we play for each other and that is why we are in the situation we are in."

► Coach Byron Scott:
→On the game – "We’re just weren’t making shots tonight, for whatever reason, especially in the third quarter. I thought we did a pretty good job defensively, but 14 points in the third quarter is just not going to get it done against the Spurs."
→On the season – "I told the guys that I am very proud of the way they played all season long and the way they competed tonight. Obviously we did not have our best stuff and you have to give the Spurs a lot of credit for that. But, again, I am very proud of this organization."

______________

INTERVIEWS after the 4-3:

TNT Courtside: Manu’s courtside interview after the game.

NBA Wired: Listen to Pop and Byron Scott during game 7.

Spurs:
→ Locker room:
Tony Parker
Michael Finley
Robert Horry
Ime Udoka
Kurt Thomas

→ Press conference:
Manu Ginóbili
Tim Duncan
Coach Pop

Hornets:
→ Press conference:
Coach Byron Scott

______________

Transmissions:

TNT will broadcast the game. However, one of the WMOE channels (probably WMOE 1) will also show the game. To watch these channels you need:

1. Internet Explorer
2. Sopcast

To tune into it: enter the STOOGETV site, go with your mouse to the WMOE button on the left-hand menu, and then click on the channel you want.

If that doesn’t work, check the links below:

During the game there should appear some Sopcast links. I’ll be around and paste them here, in the game thread, so let me know if you can’t find any feeds.

...And if there’s no other choice:

officiating the Celtics v. Pistons game. Somewhere in L.A. Tim Duncan is smiling.

GO SPURS GO

If Crawford turns up like he did on Game 5 (pivotal game) and there are a LOT of things like in that game - announcers openly asking about some calls, refs shoving thier hands/fingers into coaches’ chests, large FT disparity in a quarter that both teams are driving hard to the basket, all that - then I will wonder aloud about any conspiracy theories… otherwise I won’t dwell on officiating. Calls go both ways, yes the home team gets calls more for them than the road team, it happens, etc. etc….

I think Manu is right. It’s not often you see him complaining about a call. And we can’t let any bad calls detour our emotions. So if we play Spur basketball we should be fine.

I think if we carry our 7th game emotions over it’s very possible that we could win the first two games. We are the better team in this series. I honestly believe it. But I don’t know about how the Refs will call this series. If you see blatant travels by LA, mainly Gasol, and no touch fouls on Kobe then something might be afoot. You have to know the NBA personnel would love to see LA vs Boston for ratings. I thought a lot of calls went to LA in the Jazz series. I don’t want to relive that with the Spurs.

Supposedly the home team gets calls because the Refs feel the pressure from the fans. I can understand it to some degree. But you really need to be watching the plays and try not to listen to the fans. Easier said than done!

If you listen to TNT, they are calling the Spurs “the current modern dynasty” and Kobe “the best, most transendent player of his generation”....so I imagine Kobe will get a lot of those calls that are iffy….remember he avgs 30 a game, but over 1/2 of that (or 1/2) come from the FT line, as he gets like 15-17 FT’s a game. If we turn Kobe into a distributor/jump shooter, then SA’s chances of winning skyrocket.

here we go kids! get crazy!!!!!

PtR + FIN = LOVE

this should be a big series for the finnnndoooogggiiiieee. he usually plays up to these guys and he just might get a match-up more favorable to his still (radmanovich/walton).

i do see a lot of people saying the bit about allowing kobe his 30 and taking away everyone else. i dont disagree with this strategy, but its not as simple as just allowing kobe his 30. with such a strategy strictly enforced, he could go for 50 or higher. and that would be trouble.

Win game 2, or game 5. not tonight .
but,
SA 103
LA 101

TNT is putting in a new feature in which they track a player (one per team) for an entire quarter (Player Cam). More interesting still, fans can vote for which players get tracked:

Vote Here.

Personally, I’d rather less obnoxious camera angles and more of the “standard” isometric view, but if I have to sit through this, it might as well be someone interesting.

I won’t be in until about the half. See you guys then.

K, I got the Duncan jersey on and I’m breaking out the vodka. I’ve done my part. Spurs turn.

Let’s do this thing.

Wow did any of you see the TNT intro to the western conference finals?!

oh snap, chuck just got cut off by the commercial!

GO SPURS GO