2014 NBA Finals: Miami vs. San Antonio

[DarthFed]

RE: NBA Finals: Miami vs. San Antonio

The Heat and especially the Thunder were not strong defensive teams. Spurs broke them down off the dribble at will and with the great passing that led to a lot of open looks. The Mavs did test them which was surprising but a moot point as they got by the rest of the teams pretty easily.

 

[DarthFed]

RE: NBA Finals: Miami vs. San Antonio

Was an awful series for those hoping to see a competitive battle similar to last year but watching the Spurs offense is fun to watch (for most of us) even when it lead to a total blowout series.

So you enjoy watching emotionless robots throw passes to spots that Popovich has trained them to throw to?

Yeah, that is just super fun.

Passing is a part of bball, I know you hate to admit it but nonetheless it is true. That's the main reason the Spurs just beat the crap out of a team that has Lebron James on it. Maybe one day you will grow to respect passing in basketball :nono

 

[calitennis127]

RE: NBA Finals: Miami vs. San Antonio

The Heat and especially the Thunder were not strong defensive teams. Spurs broke them down off the dribble at will and with the great passing that led to a lot of open looks.

No, it was not the passing, fundamentally, that led to the open looks. It was the help defense which gave the Spurs players open people to pass to.

If you treat the Spurs superstar player as their passing, then you don't play help defense and you take away their passing options. Then you leave them to create 1-on-1 by themselves, and the overwhelming majority of the time they cannot do that successfully.

 

[calitennis127]

RE: NBA Finals: Miami vs. San Antonio

Was an awful series for those hoping to see a competitive battle similar to last year but watching the Spurs offense is fun to watch (for most of us) even when it lead to a total blowout series.

So you enjoy watching emotionless robots throw passes to spots that Popovich has trained them to throw to?

Yeah, that is just super fun.

Passing is a part of bball, I know you hate to admit it but nonetheless it is true. That's the main reason the Spurs just beat the crap out of a team that has Lebron James on it.

No, the main reasons that the Spurs just beat the Heat 4-1 in a series are a) the Heat have had a poorly constructed roster all 4 seasons LeBron has been there with virtually no scoring ability outside of him and Wade, and b) the Heat coaching staff made their players employ a silly defensive strategy of help defense and rotations that left shooters wide open and gave the Spurs the opportunity to do what they wanted every time down the floor: pass to an open player for a high percentage shot.

Maybe one day you will grow to respect passing in basketball :nono

Maybe I do, and maybe you just fail to realize that I don't respect players who can only pass the ball and can't score individually at an elite level. The likes of LeBron, Wade, Durant, Westbrook, etc. can all pass. It's not their fault that their GM's have given them pretty much no one to pass to.

 

[calitennis127]

RE: NBA Finals: Miami vs. San Antonio

This series just showed once and for all that in modern basketball no one has the slightest clue how to blend urban individualism with team play. It is very disappointing.

 

[kskate2]

RE: NBA Finals: Miami vs. San Antonio

Revenge is sweet. Everyone wrote off the Spurs (except Secret, Darth and I) picking Miami to win this. ESPN and TNT are all falling over themselves w/ how well the Spurs played. Congrats to the original "Big 3". :celeb:

 

[Murat Baslamisli]

RE: NBA Finals: Miami vs. San Antonio

Cali, to each it's own. I had a lot of fun watching this version of the Spurs. They scored in every way possible. Drives, kick outs, 3s, dunks, easy two's, fast breaks. And they defended amazingly.

More than one way to skin a cat. I liked Jordan's and Kobe's championship runs for different reasons. This time around it was solid team play and coaching. Nothing wrong with it for me. The better team won.

 

[the AntiPusher]

RE: NBA Finals: Miami vs. San Antonio

Cali, to each it's own. I had a lot of fun watching this version of the Spurs. They scored in every way possible. Drives, kick outs, 3s, dunks, easy two's, fast breaks. And they defended amazingly.

More than one way to skin a cat. I liked Jordan's and Kobe's championship runs for different reasons. This time around it was solid team play and coaching. Nothing wrong with it for me. The better team won.

I have to admit I was Wrong.. I should have watch a Spurs game during the past few weeks and would have notice the speed and defense of Leonard, Mills, Green and Manu.. Happy for the Spurs, I guess this time "Jesus" couldnt save LBJ. :angel:

 

[DarthFed]

RE: NBA Finals: Miami vs. San Antonio

The Heat and especially the Thunder were not strong defensive teams. Spurs broke them down off the dribble at will and with the great passing that led to a lot of open looks.

No, it was not the passing, fundamentally, that led to the open looks. It was the help defense which gave the Spurs players open people to pass to.

If you treat the Spurs superstar player as their passing, then you don't play help defense and you take away their passing options. Then you leave them to create 1-on-1 by themselves, and the overwhelming majority of the time they cannot do that successfully.

I will agree with one thing, the Heat did not play smart defense. They often looked to trap and help on players they shouldn't have but the fact of the matter is when multiple perimeter players are blowing past defenders that will lead to open guys on the perimeter because it breaks the defense down. Parker demands a lot of attention in the paint as he is one of the best finishers once he gets inside. Manu was surprisingly spry again and also demands attention. It was defense on guys like Patty Mills and Diaw that really hurt the Heat. If they get by their man I'm letting the bigs try to take care of it otherwise they are finding an open man and getting a higher % shot than they'd have themselves.

Miami's problems were double since they have weak defense down low, Spurs got plenty of layups to go with all the open looks they knocked down. The blowouts the Thunder had you could see they were relying on Ibaka to take care of the paint and thus there weren't many wide open looks for the Spurs, but even that was not maintainable after a couple games. At the end of the day the Spurs were too damn good this year. OKC was their biggest threat but Ibaka missing the first couple games hurt, would have been interesting if he played the whole series.

 

[shawnbm]

RE: NBA Finals: Miami vs. San Antonio

The Spurs were tremendous in all facets of the game. Their bench players absolutely massacred the Heat bench. These three slaughters in a row to walk away with the title was as definitive as I have seen. LeBron came to play and after the first, I was thinking that maybe they stay in front, but James can only do so much. Bosch and Wade were not sharp from the perimeter. It is a team sport and the better team won. Popps rotated in and out these fresh players who passed the ball like it should be done. They appeared to run the Heat ragged. Kudos to Popps and his dynasty in San Antonio--what a testament to long-time competitiveness.

 

[calitennis127]

RE: NBA Finals: Miami vs. San Antonio

The Spurs were tremendous in all facets of the game. Their bench players absolutely massacred the Heat bench.

I take serious issue with your terminology. Referring to the Heat "bench" is giving the Heat players outside of LeBron and Wade far too much credit. They really don't deserve to be labeled as a meaningful unit of any kind, whereas the Spurs second unit was interchangeable with the first unit all season.

Popps rotated in and out these fresh players who passed the ball like it should be done. They appeared to run the Heat ragged.

They ran the Heat ragged because of asinine defensive strategy, not because they are that good. The Heat's coaching staff is responsible for their players looking silly on defense more than anyone or anything else.

 

[calitennis127]

RE: NBA Finals: Miami vs. San Antonio

I will agree with one thing, the Heat did not play smart defense. They often looked to trap and help on players they shouldn't have but the fact of the matter is when multiple perimeter players are blowing past defenders that will lead to open guys on the perimeter because it breaks the defense down.

You have it almost 100% backwards. The dribble penetration was occurring almost entirely because of help defense. The driving lanes were being opened up because the Heat players were so far out of position on possession after possession.

Here was a simple sequence we saw over and over: big man comes up to set a pick for Parker or Ginobili 30 feet from the basket; the Heat double; Parker/Ginobili make an immediate swing pass out of the double to the other guard spot; the player who receives the pass immediately makes a swing pass; the next player either shoots a wide open 3 in the corner or drives to the basket and kicks a pass out to someone who is open. Now in that sequence is the driver responsible for making the defense converge, or is it the asinine pick-and-roll defense? There isn't even a debate there.

I must also bring up Diaw. He was the main player getting assists off of drives. But since he is too slow to blow past anyone, you need to re-assess your explanation for how the Spurs were generating open looks. It wasn't because Boris Diaw was explosively bursting past his man (are you being serious about that?); it was because every time he went to the lane, the Heat players were converging for no reason whatsoever like a group of brainwashed buffoons on his drive, when everyone who has ever watched Diaw knew that he was trying to set up passes. When Diaw drives, you should play the pass because that is what he is looking to do 80% of the time. Instead, the Heat acted as if he was Russell Westbrook and he needed to be met at the rim. This approached defied any sort of logical or reasonable justification.

 

[DarthFed]

RE: NBA Finals: Miami vs. San Antonio

Good post Cali and I wasn't being totally clear on "blowing past" defenders. Diaw wasn't blowing past defenders but he was getting to the paint way too easily and as you mentioned the Heat were foolish to converge and let him kill them with his passing. The pick-and-roll defense was all around awful. They were slow in switching and they were slow in rotating. The whole defense period was terrible as there were plenty blow by's on top of the pick-and-roll.