New Album & The Beginning of Basketball Season

[steve williams]

One of the best and most entertaining games I've seen in years. Win or lose what a game.

Pop is an amazing coach in the huddle with his players and I truly believe Parker when he said to Duncan that he was going to win him one more before he retires

Ginobli so far looks solid and productive

Defense can beat the Heat and the Spurs have big men in the lane and one big man Green way outside the 3 point line

Spurs ahead after 3 periods

 

[steve williams]

Killer game

Start to finish lead by the Spurs to win 114-104

Spurs needs to win the next one and hit em hard because a game 7 would put the Heat as the favored winner

 

[Dimfer]

excellent game for the Spurs, Ginobili in particular

 

[jadis]

Killer game

Start to finish lead by the Spurs to win 114-104

Spurs needs to win the next one and hit em hard because a game 7 would put the Heat as the favored winner

YES!!!! Spurs have to ride the momentum of needing 1 game to take their 5th title. Such is the motivation. Nail the Heat early with stakes, silver bullets. I love it when Pop told them during a timeout,with a grinding teeth, something like, 'this is supposed to be hard, it's the finals, you gotta give them some adversity, knock something off them!' Both his fists were clenched. Boy, that made my day. My faith is on Pop.

Manu and Diaw were the great stories tonight. That shot of Manu of Lebron with 6.00 in the 4th was as confident a shot that I've ever seen him take, 35 years and all, over a younger and more athletic super defender that James is.

Spurs gotta be reviewing those 'road championship' wins in the past, the '78 Bullets, the '80 Lakers, and specially the 2011 Mavericks who won Game 6 in the Miami arena by 10 in Game 6 to take their first title. GO SPURS!

 

[steve williams]

If the Spurs win Danny Green could very well be MVP

 

[jadis]

If the Spurs win Danny Green could very well be MVP

Oh yeah. Breaking the Finals record of Ray Allen for 3s. And how bout the hot shooting tonight of Allen. If he only did this last year, Boston would have been in the Finals and taken a title.

 

[JackD201]

Once upon a time people thought Spurs basketball was boring...................

 

[jadis]

Once upon a time people thought Spurs basketball was boring...................

I was one of them, Jack. Amazingly, as Parker and Ma-New Ginobili get older, they don't seem to lose a step over the younger defenders. Nowadays they actually are more exciting than before. If I was happy for Dirk and Jason Kidd then, I'd be just as happy for these old warriors if they can pull out 1 more victory. And at this point, I don't find Pop boring at all.

 

[steve williams]

it really was a good game and shows how explosive the Heat are nonetheless. My son called me with 4 minutes left in the game and the Spurs up 20 and he said "game over". I tended to agree but also warned him that the Heat can score in bunches and within 1:25 they had cut the lead to 4 but then the Spurs rallied for the win

Tomorrow the Spurs need to go all out

 

[FrantzM]

it really was a good game and shows how explosive the Heat are nonetheless. My son called me with 4 minutes left in the game and the Spurs up 20 and he said "game over". I tended to agree but also warned him that the Heat can score in bunches and within 1:25 they had cut the lead to 4 but then the Spurs rallied for the win

Tomorrow the Spurs need to go all out

This to me is the worry ... 20 points with 4 mins should be at least 10 points margin victory ... It wasn't ... The Heat kept on coming back and it was IMO too close ... It did reveal the shinks in the HEat armor : They are very vulnerable to team with big men who canplay defense. Not one, at least two big man with defensive skills. SA did clog the middle with Diaw and Duncan and you could tell the HEat had problems penetrating and dishing it to the shooters ... Could it be the limitation of small ball? WOuld we see a return to traditional cneters and back to the basket rebound-hound Power Forwards? We'll see but I am certain that after the Finals regardless of how it pans out (Go Spurs!!) Miami and many other teams will be shopping for true , serious, both side of the ball centers.

 

[steve williams]

I still maintain that James gets flustered at times when he plays from behind trying to catch up and his shooting tends to be less accurate

Heck even Splitter yesterday looked good attacking the basket

 

[dafos]

This to me is the worry ... 20 points with 4 mins should be at least 10 points margin victory ... It wasn't ... The Heat kept on coming back and it was IMO too close ... It did reveal the shinks in the HEat armor : They are very vulnerable to team with big men who canplay defense. Not one, at least two big man with defensive skills. SA did clog the middle with Diaw and Duncan and you could tell the HEat had problems penetrating and dishing it to the shooters ... Could it be the limitation of small ball? WOuld we see a return to traditional cneters and back to the basket rebound-hound Power Forwards? We'll see but I am certain that after the Finals regardless of how it pans out (Go Spurs!!)
Miami and many other teams will be shopping for true , serious, both side of the ball centers.

Basketball is a big mans game so a dominating center will always be an asset. But I believe the game has changed and great as Duncan still is, without the consistent 3 point sniping of Green, Neal and Leonard, the Spurs would have been finished. Observe the ball movement of both teams, its almost like watching Euro basketball, and the team that's hot from the outside has almost always won the game.

 

[steve williams]

I agree but many teams go inside-out when the middle is clogged

 

[FrantzM]

Basketball is a big mans game so a dominating center will always be an asset. But I believe the game has changed and great as Duncan still is, without the consistent 3 point sniping of Green, Neal and Leonard, the Spurs would have been finished. Observe the ball movement of both teams, its almost like watching Euro basketball, and the team that's hot from the outside has almost always won the game.

Duncan v 2013 is a very good PF not a superlative center. It could well be that I am mired in the 80's.I am not sure a team like the Heat would have fared well against a team with three bigs that can play defense and offense: Celtics of Bird, Mac hale and Parish for example.This team would beat you inside or outside, yo had to choose which way you were going to be beaten ... The Lakers with Kareem, Worthy and any scrappy defensive power forward (they had Kupchack, Kurt Rambis, AC Green) would have been a load for such a small team ...Conjecture of course but I do believe the game will come back to the basic center Power Forward combo with a guard that can dishes ..Stange as it may seem the Clippers are not far from this combo: A superlative Point Guard a good if soft Power Forward (he needs to get tougher and maintain position, footwork is lacking) and a more than decent center who, with the right coach could strive: DeAndre Jordan ... If hey find a way to keep this nucleus intact and land a coach like Doc Rivers .. watch out West!! Watch out NBA!

 

[steve williams]

I heard Bill Simmons comment before yesterday's game that he is predicting the Celtics-Clipps deal will happen

 

[WLVCA]

Simmons is a big Celtics fan. For a Clipper fan, it depends upon the configuration of the deal obviously. I'm OK with D'Andre Jordan and a draft pick. Not in favor of Eric Bledsoe going to the Celtics. Way too much for KG at this stage of his career. Have to presume that the Celtics will also buy out Paul Pierce for $5 million so he could then join the Clippers, too.

Would love to have Doc as the coach

Looks like Donald Sterling is giving it his all to win a championship with the Clippers. He's in his late 70's.

Most people don't realize it, but Donald started opening up the purse strings when he hired Mike Dunleavy as coach back in 2003 and started paying more for players in the year or two after that. Dunleavy was the one that started the Clipper turnaround.

He's still Sterling, though. Dunleavy had to sue for the balance of the money due to him when he left in 2010.

 

[jadis]

Basketball is a big mans game so a dominating center will always be an asset. But I believe the game has changed and great as Duncan still is, without the consistent 3 point sniping of Green, Neal and Leonard, the Spurs would have been finished. Observe the ball movement of both teams, its almost like watching Euro basketball, and the team that's hot from the outside has almost always won the game.

Fortunately for the Spurs, GM Buford had filled his lineup with good 3 point shooters as well, not in the 'name brand' league of Allen, Miller, Battier or Lewis, but these 3 young Spurs have lit up the scoreboard in the same system devised by Pat Riley to spread out the defense with their name 3 point shooters in firing range and then rotate the ball to the open man, if not, hit the inside man for an easy 2. I have been impressed with the way the Miami has executed their passing in dizzying array even. LeBron's crisp and quick passes to an open man is like a short stop throwing the ball to a first baseman for an out. And you're right Jerry, the team that makes lots of outside shots in this series tend to win the game. Ironically, it's the low percentage shots that win ball games now. That last 3 by Green in the final minute, as one announcer said, will make a coach say," no, no, no, YES!"

 

[jadis]

I heard Bill Simmons comment before yesterday's game that he is predicting the Celtics-Clipps deal will happen

http://www.celticslife.com/2013/06/clippers-preparing-press-conference-for.html


Clippers preparing press conference for Doc Rivers and KG

Well, we thought this all would come to a head soon, and it has.

The Clippers are apparently already preparing to announce Doc Rivers and Kevin Garnett.

Hearing Clips already prepping for intro press conference for at least Doc & KG. Hard to see deal not being done soon.
— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) June 17, 2013


To be clear: Paul Pierce is NOT part of this trade. But leaguewide expectation is he will end up with Clips in July if Clips get Doc and KG
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) June 17, 2013



The current deal we've heard is on the table is Doc, KG and either Terry or Lee for DeAndre Jordan and the Clippers first. If that turns out to be the final deal, you should be massively disappointed. Apparently, the Clippers were unwilling to budge on moving Eric Bledsoe, they then scheduled a second meeting with Brian Shaw.

It seems like Danny Ainge bit on that and now has probably accepted a trade that doesn't include Bledsoe, a collosal failure. Remember, he nearly traded KG for both Jordan and Bledsoe at the deadline.

 

[jadis]

Simmons is a big Celtics fan. For a Clipper fan, it depends upon the configuration of the deal obviously. I'm OK with D'Andre Jordan and a draft pick. Not in favor of Eric Bledsoe going to the Celtics. Way too much for KG at this stage of his career. Have to presume that the Celtics will also buy out Paul Pierce for $5 million so he could then join the Clippers, too.

From this end, it seems getting D'Andre (another big D with hopefully real D) and a draft pick is too little to release Doc and KG. That release ultimately should bring Pierce to re-unite with Doc and KG via buy out so Ainge has got to say that the three guys are some sort of a package deal. That is why he's insisting on Bledsoe. But it seems Ainge is running out of time playing hard ball.

 

[jadis]

And back to the Finals, I felt Pop did a masterful move when he inserted Ginobili in the starting lineup for the first time this season. Before that, there were so many questions about Ginobili's game, and a question was fired at Pop, what was wrong with Manu? Pop replied, 'I don't know, if I knew I would have fixed it.' Well, he sort of 'fixed' that by putting Manu in the starting lineup. Now it's really been fixed.