PtR member AusTechSpur already submitted a game thread and his thoughts are definitely worth reading.  I disagree, however, with two things he wrote.

First, I think the officiating has only slightly favored the Hornets, no where near to the point where it's even worth mentioning.

Second, I think we should go under the screen and roll against Paul.  It's how we handled him the first half of game 1, which also happened to be our best half of the series.  Paul's a decent, but not deadly, 3P shooter (36.9%).  More importantly, he plays with the penetrate and dish mentality.  He doesn't look to shoot the outside jumper.  I'm not saying he can' t make that shot, but it's not how their offense works, and I'm all for taking them out of their offense.  All those highlight reel alley-oops?  They're off the pick and roll.  Going under the screen prevents the "roll" from being a factor.  Also, this has the added benefit of preventing Tim from having to guard the pick and roll.  If Tim has a defensive weakness, that's it.

Bowen, of course, has to guard Peja.  I doubt Pop will start the game this way due to his world PtR renowned stubborn streak.  Like I said before the series started, Bowen needs to "decimate the fragile psyche of Peja Stojakovic.  That should take about, I don't know, two and a half quarters."  I'm reminded of the Detroit series of 2005, when the entire sports world knew Bowen should be guarding Billups, and yet Pop waited until the fourth quarter to unleash the hounds.  Nearly gave me a blood clot.

Trimethylaminuria, folks.  Trimethylaminuria.  It's a rare metabolic disorder that prevents the proper catabolism pf tremethylamine.  The result is a faint to very strong, pervasive fish odor.  The sufferer could bathe five times a day and still smell like rotting fish.

It reminds me of most of the Spurs supporting cast.  Finley has no business playing in the NBA anymore, but the occasional big 3 masks the smell.  Bowen refuses to take only corner 3s on offense, but we let it slide because he can lock down on D.  Ime fumbles the ball out of bounds and goes long stretches where he looks like he'll miss fifty consecutive jumpers, but he's the only guy who just might punch a guy, so we ignore the fact he stinks.  Oberto can't guard anybody one and one and can't rebound, but he's crafty and an Argentine, so we just assume it's customary to bathe less in his country.  And Horry?  Well, we've all known Horry is dead for quite some time, but Pop apparently is immune to the smell of rotting flesh.

The Big Three have also been awful; don't get me wrong.  But they, at least, look like they can actually compete.  Everyone else, except maybe Kurt Thomas, looks outclassed.  Like they don't belong.  Like they've been exposed for the old, slow, stinky-ass, washed up veterans that they are.  Let's hope home court will get them out of their funk.

Game 1 Recap, Spurs-Suns series review, other thoughts.

Sorry, it was a busy weekend. Incidentally, I like our chances tonight.

During the past 24 hours I've waffled on whether or not I should even bother mentioning Tim Duncan.  Yes, he played what was possibly the worst playoff game of his career, but everybody knows that.  You, me, Tim, Pop, and everyone on the Hornets.  Does he get a pass because he's the best Spur of all time, the best power forward of all time, and a former D&D addict?  Does he get a pass because it's only game 1 of a second round series?  Do we attribute his lack of scoring entirely to the rampant double-teaming and just let it go? 

Yes.  Well, no.  Well... let's just try in between yes and no.  Which, for me, is discussing his inadequacies while:  A) believing knowing he'll address them, B) not cursing and C) throwing some of the blame Pop's way.  But Tim, let's be clear on something... you pull another performance like this in game 2 and I will unleash the entirety of my powers* on you.

I don't feel much like talking about his offensive effort.  5 points ain't enough, Tim.  I don't care if they're sextuple-teaming you and simultaneously dousing you with fire extinguishers.  5 points on 9 FGA and 6 FTA is god-awful.  Even Robert Horry's embarrassed for you.

Let's discuss the defense, specifically our approach to guarding David West.  As far as I can tell, here's Pop's plan for guarding The Guy Who Sort of Punked Dirk Nowitzki:  do not guard him outside of 12 feet.  Since when did Spurs defense involve allowing barely contested 18' jumpers?  West had about 10 of those, and Bonzi got a couple as well.  And though I know the answer to this question, I'm going to ask it anyway:  why isn't Tim guarding West?  Yeah, I know Tim never guards the other team's best post player, but in this case I'm afraid we might need him to contend with West.  Thomas is a horribly overrated one-one-one defender, Oberto is just plain horrible and Robert Horry gots a bad case of the rheumatisms.  Tim's length might bother West's jump shot and he has the strength to not be pushed off his position when West lowers his shoulder on the drive.  Foul trouble is a concern, but we can always move him back on to Chandler if he picks up a quick foul.  And there's no way Thomas or Oberto could be any worse than Duncan at keeping Chandler off the offensive glass.  Seriously Tim, two defensive rebounds in 37 minutes?  They missed 43 shots and you grabbed two rebounds?

Yes, Pop, that's right.  I'm as shocked as you.  (Reuters / Shawn Gardner)

Something I mentioned in (wildly-entertaining) game thread:  why have Bowen guard Paul if we're going to go under the screen and roll?  Why not put Parker on Paul and let Bowen hound Stojakovic?  The guy had 22 on 15 FGA.  That's pathetic defense.  Other than offensive rebounds, that's the one area we should easily improve in game 2.

*Entirety of powers consists of mastery of ineffectual cursing and the ability to subsist solely on hospital and fast food.

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We're knocking it over here for the second half.  The thread is getting monstrous.

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Alright.  Phoenix is behind us.  New Orleans is in front of us.  Let's get completely focused on the task at hand.

[Update]:  I forgot to put the poll on here.

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I, for one, am glad this series starts in New Orleans.  This gives the Spurs the opportunity to put the fear of God in them right off the bat.  A loss in game 1 and the story line for the whole series begins to write itself:  the Hornets lack playoff experience and the Spurs know how to turn it up in the postseason.  Whether or not either of those ideas are true is irrelevant; getting them into Paul and companys' heads is what matters.

I may be the only person on PtR who feels this way, but I hope Tony Parker sees this series as a personal battle between himself and Chris Paul.  The man dominated Steve Nash on both ends of the court (with Bowen's help at times) and dropped 7.0 dimes a game in the first round.  Is he going to dribble a lot and shoot 20 times a game?  Yes.  But let's give him the benefit of the doubt.  I think there's a tendency here to imagine every every questionable shot he takes as him robbing Manu of a wide open three.  Maybe he's robbing Michael Finley of one his patented awkward fading-in-two-direction 20-footers.  Let's look at the glass as half-full, mmm-kay?

Speaking of Manu, I have a small quibble with the man.  He's trying way too hard to draw the foul in the pick and roll.  You know what I'm talking about.  He just needs to go.  Other than this small flaw he is, of course, perfection.

One thing I'm especially excited about this series?  Jannero Pargo.  As Jannero definitely knows, Jannero shot 51% and 45% against the Mavs in the first round.  He averaged 15 a game and nearly got decapitated by Jason Kidd.  Jannero, please, keep shooting the rock.  It's all you.  You're the man.

Bowen will obviously get a lot of time against Paul this series.  I'm really looking forward to this.  Obviously the run in they had earlier this season adds some spice to he matchup.  Paul has proven to have a little bit of a temper.  And Bruce?  Well.  Let's just say he has a knack for getting under people's skin.  (Maybe we should call him Splinter.  Yeah.  We'll make that Bruce Bowen's Official PtR Nickname # 14.)  But before he can be unleashed on Paul, he must first decimate the fragile psyche of Peja Stojakovic.  That should take about, I don't know, two and a half quarters.

So here's this series is going to go.  Chandler and Armstrong will be in constant foul trouble, allowing Parker at some point to hit tear drops on 6 straight possessions.  Jannero Pargo will put up at least one 2-12 type performance, Bonzi Wells will be a non factor after losing a sanctioned knife fight with Ime during half time of game 2, and the only bench contribution New Orleans will get will be from Julian Wright.  David West will discover the difference between regular season Tim Duncan defense and post season Tim Duncan defense.  Paul will put up 25 and 11 but will shoot a poor percentage from the field and have his defense questioned.  Manu will Manu down the stretch of at least Manu and single-handedly Manu it for the Spurs.

Spurs in six.

We're still cursing here.  Let's get that straight right from the beginning.  Anyways, I'm STILL knee deep in shit right now, so I'm going to have to keep this brief.  Here's my thought on the series against PHX:

The Spurs won because the Spurs had the three best players.  Not the three players that played the best in the series, but the three best NBA basketball players.  Yes, I'm saying Duncan, Manu and Tony are all better basketball players than Amare and Nash.  I don't even think this should be considered a controversial idea.

Defense matters.  It's half the game.  I don't understand why people don't get this about basketball.  Baseball's different because pitchers are 90% of the defense; pitcher's obviously don't hit, so when you're talking about the best players (non-pitchers) you can focus on hitting and still basically come up with a good list.  Obviously nobody plays two ways in football and nobody watches hockey.

Stoudemire is just no incomprehensibly bad at defense.  He's horrible at one-on-one defense.  He's horrible in the pick and roll.  He's horrible at help defense.  He's foul prone.  He's not even a good rebounder; he's never eclipsed 10 a game playing for Phoenix (edit:  as in, he's never averaged 10 per game during the regular season), a team that has played well above average pace since he's been there. He's 6'-10" with a ridiculous vertical leap, playing center on a team that jacks up a million shots a game... and he's never grabbed 10 boards in a season.  That's pathetic.

And Nash?  Jesus.  His idea of defending Parker is to backpedal until he gets to the charge circle, make a guess and then fall down when Parker hits him.

Imagine if you had to play a seven game series where you got to pick your opponent.  You got to pick different players for who you faced on offense and defense, but they had to be starters on playoff teams.  Nash and Amare are no-brainers.  It's obvious.  Yet people ignore this and then get surprised when the Spurs score at will time and time and time again.  And beat them in the playoffs time and time and time again.

It comes down to a simple elementary school level concept.  If defense is half the game, and a player is defensively a zero, then at best you have an average player.

This isn't about the Spurs...

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