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Spurs look good
doogsinparadise
Member Posts: 9,320
Understatement of the day. Zombie Sonics need a third scorer, *cough* Harden *cough*
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Spurs should've won the series last year, and are a better team with belleneli, and then mills and manu playing better. I just can't see the heat beating them
They have nothing inside and Collison actually played well. Then Brooks sat him entire end of 3rd/entire 4th while playing Durant at the 4. Durant can't play the 4, he is getting torched on defense and it will tire him out offensively.
Westbrook/Durant gotta pull a Lebron/Wade against Indiana in 2012 to win this series.
Tonight was Exhibit A of the value that Ibaka has for them.
Harden was a realistic option for them last season. They would have traded him prior to this season.
It's not an option to consider him being on this team because for him to be so would mean that they were either a) going over the luxury tax by hanging onto Ibaka or b) chose Harden over Ibaka. We know a) wasn't going to happen. Does having Harden being another guy that has to have the ball in his hand and plays lazy defense (hello Russell Westbrook) do much to alter the impact of the game?
The whole point being is that the reason that Ibaka is so crucial to them is because a) it cleans up dribble penetration against lazy/gambling defense on the perimeter and b) allows KD to play on the perimeter and not have to bang down low which takes away some of his offensive efficiency.
I get the crime that is that they didn't get enough back for Harden and there's no doubt that they did that wrong. But the whole thought process behind that trade was to trade Harden for a complementary piece that does some of the elements that he brought to the table (wing outside shooting) while allowing the ball to stay with KD and Westbrook more (fits guys like Kevin Martin and Jeremy Lamb).
I get what they tried to build ... a supporting cast offensively that complements the skills of KD and Westbrook and a defense that hinges around the unique abilities of Ibaka. Losing Ibaka was huge and we saw why tonight. The whole premise of their team falls apart. Play 2 bigs that don't include Ibaka and you clog the paint and it makes it difficult for them to score as none of the other bigs are really threats from the outside. Play 1 big and go small, which makes them more dangerous offensively, makes them a terrible defensive team that is bound to get pushed around in the paint repeatedly.
The scary part is that you know that there's going to be a couple of games in this series where KD and Westbrook combine to score 60-70 points and Reggie Jackson will be a threat to score 15 points on a nightly basis. They still possess a threat to outscore the Spurs in stretches and it's a legit worry for the Spurs.
The problem though is that OKC looks helpless in keeping Duncan and Parker out of the paint. Absolutely helpless. OKC shot 46% tonight and 44% from 3 point range. Those aren't terrible numbers - definitely numbers that shouldn't be that far away from what you'd think that they'd need to win games. The Spurs shot 57.5% and over 50% from 3 ... and really there weren't any stretches where you watch and thought that they couldn't get any shot they wanted at any time. When you get shots that easily, it's hard to imagine the opposition coming up with a strategy that is going to materially change their ability to get good shots.
Lebron does so much for his team and the few times OKC ask Durant to do that he has proven he can't.
I'm sure you were one of those people who currently give Durant a free pass who was on Lebron's ass for not winning a title in Cleveland even though he never had a Westbrook, Ibaka or Westbrook.