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What price a team that plays Defence?

by Bushka on Apr 26, 2009 5:55 AM CDT

So we are down 3-1, I am gutted. It is only now I realise just how spoilt I have been as a spurs fan this past decade. This is how it feels to be a fan of a mortal NBA franchise.

We have one more game this season should we continue to play this demented brand of basketball.

No one else is scoring consistently or with anything approaching confidence outside of the all star tandem of Tim & Tony. They pumped in 68 points between them, accounting for all but 22 of the final 90.

Can we win with just these two scoring and very limited contributions from various role players?

My thought here, and it is not a terribly original one, is that the spurs move back to what they know. For the past decade the calling card of the franchise has been outstanding. exemplary defence.

Does Pop have the minerals to change the starting five from one All NBA Defender & four average/below average defenders, to a beefed up traditional spurs five, with Bowen, Thomas & Hill filling out the numbers.

Live by the old axiom. Hold em under 80 and let God sort em out.

Can the spurs win with this? Findog is a reprehensible defender. Age has robbed him of his speed, and the league is jam packed with superb wings who have all the skills, length and zip to get where they want to regardless of how much he wants to stop them. Josh Howard is one such player. Bowen can handle Howard if allowed the time.

Hill can mark up on either Barea or Kidd, he has the length speed and desire to hound people into the dirt.

Thomas while not the perfect man to defend Dirk rebounds the ball makes smart decisions and is tough as nails.

So what price defence? Dirk can probably go get 30 regardless of what we do to him, he always has in the past. Can anyone else on the mavs score enough? Can we score enough?

I would adore the sight of a hard nosed angry spurs team. Making great rotations, staying in front of their man funnellilng penetration to the large human with the long arms in the middle. Getting stops.

So what of it?

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What the hell, now’s as good of a time as any to give it a shot. We’ve got nothing to lose, but one more game, right? Do it.

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by Ed (dfjmed) on Apr 26, 2009 10:18 AM CDT reply actions

Then and Now

Bushka, your post reminds me of the way Pop used to play Phoenix. He’d let Amare get anything he wanted and then stop everyone else. So he’d get his 38 points but the Suns would still lose. Pop would even goad him with post-game talk about how he was the best power forward in the league, unstoppable, a scoring machine, we were defenseless against him … and Amare being the dullard that he is, would lap it up, come out next game and do the same thing … with the same result. But with Dallas it’s stop Dirk and let everyone else beat us … and they’re obliging.

by agutierrez on Apr 26, 2009 12:04 PM CDT reply actions

Well, I’m sure everyone here remembers ‘06. There are a couple of personnel differences between the ’06 series and this one, but we have to remember that this Mavs team is almost the same one that was built for the sole purpose of beating the Spurs. With that said, there is no excuse for the piss-poor defense we’ve witnessed for long stretches of each game(except for game 2, when we kept the intensity up for most of the game). It’s not Spurs basketball, and everyone out there can see it. Even the Kleenex Suns fans who live around me can tell the Spurs aren’t playing good defense, probably because it reminds them of their team. But I don’t think there’s any way to fix it this year – the series is over.

Free George Hill! (member #2)

by Tim C. on Apr 26, 2009 2:40 PM CDT reply actions