That was a weird game. The first half played out almost exactly how game 1 did, with the Grizzlies playing poorly on both ends of the floor and with ZBo looking like he didn't put in his contacts. But ZBo got things going in the 2nd half and the Spurs finally stopped making shots in the 4th quarter. That allowed us to grind back into the game and tie it up. But our offensive problems showed up again in OT and we couldn't pull out what would have been a pretty crazy comeback.
The fact that we took this game to OT doesn't have me very optimistic about the series. We were still significantly outplayed for most of the game. And we still haven't really figured out the Spurs' offense. I thought they still got too many open 3s. They just regressed to the mean and only hit a solid 36% instead of over 50%. We still can't figure out the pick and roll. I don't think we will completely stop Tony Parker. He's just too good. But I would like to see us go under every screen and try really hard to keep him from the lane. He's only a career 31% 3 point shooter. Let's try to back off of him and let him shoot open 3s.
I don't know what the hell is wrong with ZBo. The Spurs seem to be playing him better than the Clippers or Thunder. But he's just off from everywhere on the court. Hopefully he got things right in the 2nd half because we can't win without him shooting around 50%. I was glad to see Lionel playing Quincy Pondexter more. He was only 1-4 from 3. But he was 3-6 overall and forced the Spurs defenders to run him off the 3 point line, which got us open shots. I'm still baffled as to why Darrell Arthur is playing over Ed Davis. Arthur was 2-6 last night with no rebounds and four fouls. Davis didn't play at all. Jerryd Bayless is a really streaky shooter. He was good in the first two series of the playoffs. But he was 7-18 last night and took some bad shots at the end of the game.
Offensively I think Mike Conley needs to continue to be aggressive (I know that's THE cliche in the NBA. But I think it applies to him). Marc (who also hasn't been himself this series) and ZBo obviously need to figure things out, which I think they will. If not it probably won't matter much what the rest of the team does. I talked a bit about what we should do defensively. Part of containing Parker might be switching to some sort of zone, possibly a box and one with either Conley or Tony Allen playing Parker man to man. Yes, that might leave the 3 point line open. But I think it might leave it less open than it is under our current defense. Something has to be changed. We can't just grit and grind our way to 4 of the next 6 games. The Spurs are too good. Let's hope we sort things out in the Grindhouse.
The fact that we took this game to OT doesn't have me very optimistic about the series. We were still significantly outplayed for most of the game. And we still haven't really figured out the Spurs' offense. I thought they still got too many open 3s. They just regressed to the mean and only hit a solid 36% instead of over 50%. We still can't figure out the pick and roll. I don't think we will completely stop Tony Parker. He's just too good. But I would like to see us go under every screen and try really hard to keep him from the lane. He's only a career 31% 3 point shooter. Let's try to back off of him and let him shoot open 3s.
I don't know what the hell is wrong with ZBo. The Spurs seem to be playing him better than the Clippers or Thunder. But he's just off from everywhere on the court. Hopefully he got things right in the 2nd half because we can't win without him shooting around 50%. I was glad to see Lionel playing Quincy Pondexter more. He was only 1-4 from 3. But he was 3-6 overall and forced the Spurs defenders to run him off the 3 point line, which got us open shots. I'm still baffled as to why Darrell Arthur is playing over Ed Davis. Arthur was 2-6 last night with no rebounds and four fouls. Davis didn't play at all. Jerryd Bayless is a really streaky shooter. He was good in the first two series of the playoffs. But he was 7-18 last night and took some bad shots at the end of the game.
Offensively I think Mike Conley needs to continue to be aggressive (I know that's THE cliche in the NBA. But I think it applies to him). Marc (who also hasn't been himself this series) and ZBo obviously need to figure things out, which I think they will. If not it probably won't matter much what the rest of the team does. I talked a bit about what we should do defensively. Part of containing Parker might be switching to some sort of zone, possibly a box and one with either Conley or Tony Allen playing Parker man to man. Yes, that might leave the 3 point line open. But I think it might leave it less open than it is under our current defense. Something has to be changed. We can't just grit and grind our way to 4 of the next 6 games. The Spurs are too good. Let's hope we sort things out in the Grindhouse.
Comments
Post a Comment