372 replies to this topic

[rockygriz]

catalina2013, on 12 April 2012 - 10:35 PM, said:

Yep. We needed Allen tonight. I like Pondexter, but he's not the spark plug and game changer that TA is.
Imo keeping Vazquez would have been better than getting Pondexter.
But that's just me.

Look at the performance of the GV team. I'm satisfied with that trade.

[costarica2]

Mike Conley got in Foul trouble is that simple OJ Mayo played alot of minutes defending Parker and Manu and it was to much to ask.

All those Pick Rolls with Manu don't happen with TA.

[liltonywrotenjr]

ItIsWhatItIs, on 12 April 2012 - 09:53 PM, said:

Hell no. Everything Hollins had in his gameplan tonight was awful. Not feeding the post at all, Gay as the main option, matching small ball with small ball. Instead of exploiting their weaknesses Hollins apparently tried to beat them at their own game for no reason at all

It's just Hollins playing his Jedi mind tricks, don't worry. Just one more playoff team to go! 100% in the playoffs!

[TigerGrizzFan]

costarica2, on 13 April 2012 - 07:08 AM, said:

Mike Conley got in Foul trouble is that simple OJ Mayo played alot of minutes defending Parker and Manu and it was to much to ask.

All those Pick Rolls with Manu don't happen with TA.

+1
Everyone seems to forget that Mike was just as valuable as TA last year in the San Antonio series. He outplayed Tony Parker and even this game Mike atleast played him even when he was able to be on the court. His foul trouble was a huge disadvantage.

Ginobli and Duncan are the 2 that killed us and those two are very savy veterans that know how to go for the kill when they see blood. Gasol was frustrated and in foul trouble so Timmy wisely attacked him all game. OJ and Qpon are good defenders but impossible for them to stay with Manu a whole game. Also Spurs 3pt shooting was pretty good and we didnt have the range tonite.

Popovich game planed perfectly for us and he rested his starters as much as possible. Pop was trying to send a msg to our team that they arent afraid of us.

There are 2 reasons Zbo only had 9 attempts -
He isnt 100% not as quick
Spurs did everything to deny him touches and when he did he had to take rainbow jumpers. He rarely got anything in the paint. Also Spurs put long defenders on him to force him to pass.

I don't think Rudy had a bad game he was just defended well and didn't get foul calls as much as he should've when he attacked the basket. He and Gasol are the only two players on the team that can get their shot off against anyone. And Gasol is too passive so Rudy had to be the attacker. atleast 4 of Rudy's baskets should've been And1s.

To me Rudy has only one weakness left in his game that prevents him from being a Star is knowing how to recognize and pass out of double teams. Once he does that then he will be unguardable. His plays end in 1 on 3 so much because he doesnt recognize the trap in time and/or knows how to pass out so he relys on his athleticism to bail him out.

Zbo was so deadly in the Playoffs last year because he immediately found cutters and spotup shooters whenever he got trapped.

[LoneGFS]

another great playoff type game.
Duncan looks great. Manu is still clutch..
Spurs look really scary...very impressed..
and Zbo has to touch the ball more.

[costarica2]

Hollins will always go small with the other team for some reason.He put dante in and bonner hit 2 3s(I'm not blaming Dane I love him)and then when he put Spreights we got back in the game.

If it was me I would have gone BIG with Hamed make them play our game.

[alwilson]

Can anyone explain to me what LH was thinking last night? Especially in the last minute. We were down by 4 with 50 something seconds to go and we instant foul Manu on the inbounds 90 feet from the basket.

WHY FOUL THERE? We had made a lot of defensive stops late in the game. Why not play solid defense again. Even if they used the whole 24 seconds we would still have 30 seconds left.

[Southern Dreadz]

alwilson, on 13 April 2012 - 11:27 AM, said:

Can anyone explain to me what LH was thinking last night? Especially in the last minute. We were down by 4 with 50 something seconds to go and we instant foul Manu on the inbounds 90 feet from the basket.

WHY FOUL THERE? We had made a lot of defensive stops late in the game. Why not play solid defense again. Even if they used the whole 24 seconds we would still have 30 seconds left.

I bet you that wasn't coach's call. Just like the Clipper's game when QPon fouled Chris Paul about 40 feet from the basket...

[TigerGrizzFan]

Listening to Verno ( I know I should know better) but its really aggravating how everytime the Grizz lose - it is due to a problem with Rudy and Zbo co-existing. And we shouldve rode Zbo this whole game.

Here is the reality Zbo is not 100% and Rudy is a really good bball player that we have won games with. Zbo was on the second night of a back-to-back so his conditioning isnt there yet. Zbo is not ready to be primary focused option just yet and Spurs specifically gameplanned to keep the ball out of his hands! He wasn't calling for the ball like he was in the phoenix game either.

I am not saying we shouldnt have tried to feed him more but they were doing very good ball denial in the post. Mo was only able to succeed because he shot midrange jumpers and offensive glass work. For now Zbo is going to have to live off of garbage buckets and offensive glass work till he gets his mojo back.

OJ Mike and Marc getting in foul trouble was huge. Arenas is good but he doesnt have the quickness to stay with the faster PGs so you have to use him more situational.
Also defensively Zbo is not good at all right now. On that High Pick and Roll Spurs like to do he was a liability. That is where Darrell Arthur is missed because he is our best pick and roll defender. Dante does well too but his lack of size coupled with ZBo makes it hard to stay with the Duncan.
How many times do we have to see Zbo get blocked this year to see he hasnt gotten back yet and its hard to just rely on him. Duncan was guarding him and Duncan gave him fits in the playoffs last year too. The real advantage was Gasol forced Duncan to have to guard him too. But this game Gasol wasnt a force so it was easier for their bigs to match ours.

Yes Rudy forced it too much but everytime they tried to force it to Zbo it resulted in a turnover or Zbo ended up taking a long jumper anyway.

This was a game where we needed TA because our perimeter offense wasnt that great which allowed spurs to hit their 3s. Conley actually did a good job on Tony Parker. We just didn't contain Manu and/or Timmy. If you notice most of our wins against teams with 3 good scorers we always did a good job of shutting down or disrupting atleast 2 of them (WestBrick & Parden, Wade & Bosh, Griffin & Foye, Terry & Marion).

[El Lobo]

Simple_Like_That, on 12 April 2012 - 09:30 PM, said:

Just to finish...

I hate you El lobo. Man once again your pessimism destroyed us.

My pessimism had no effect on the game. The players (and according to GTG) plus the officials decided the outcome.

[Herodotus]

Just now getting to this game thread. The story of the game was the inexplicable foul by Pondexter. That foul was suicide and completely illogical. The recap in the paper didn't clear anything up either. It was almost like we tried to lose. I know Hollins said there was a misunderstanding in the huddle, but I don't believe that. "Foul" wouldn't have been on anyone's lips in that situation, unless it was "DON'T FOUL!!" So, either, 1) We did it on purpose, or 2) Pondexter made a huge, really, really, really stupid mistake, as in, one of the biggest mistakes I've ever seen a player make in a clutch situation. I can't see how it would be anything other than one of those two things.

Otherwise, I think we played well on the Spurs' homecourt, considering the hostile reffing and the determination of the Spurs to win this game. It was basically a game with under a minute to go. We had control of most of the game until porous defense and the refs did us in latter half of the third.

The big takeaway, in terms of what the Grizzlies really need to work on, is pick-and-roll defense. We've been really struggling against teams that run the pick-and-roll effectively, not just the Spurs. Phoenix nearly stole one from us with Telfair getting off on the pick-and-roll. That's a major problem for our defense right now. It's also a major Zach Randolph issue. He gets abused in the pick-and-roll when he's out there. His lack of lateral movement is really killing our defense. The same goes for Marc right now too. We're going to have to come up with a better way to defend the pick-and-roll for the Playoffs, because it's basically our Achilles Heel. The Spurs offense really got in a rhythm and they took us behind the woodshed for the last six minutes of the third and the beginning of the fourth. Without that stretch, we beat them and looked like the better team for most of the game. But that stretch was devastating. Pick-and-roll defense. We've got to get better.

[notnilc20]

alwilson, on 13 April 2012 - 11:27 AM, said:

Can anyone explain to me what LH was thinking last night? Especially in the last minute. We were down by 4 with 50 something seconds to go and we instant foul Manu on the inbounds 90 feet from the basket.

WHY FOUL THERE? We had made a lot of defensive stops late in the game. Why not play solid defense again. Even if they used the whole 24 seconds we would still have 30 seconds left.

I was thinking the same thing. We go for the steal and play good D and come down and get a bucket then foul seems like it would have been better strategy.....instead we foul and put Manu at the line where he has been clutch. Give SA the 2 points at the line to make it an even more daunting task. I didn't like our strategy.....but I agree with other poster....I don't think Qpon was supposed to foul there.

[chipc3]

alwilson, on 13 April 2012 - 11:27 AM, said:

Can anyone explain to me what LH was thinking last night? Especially in the last minute. We were down by 4 with 50 something seconds to go and we instant foul Manu on the inbounds 90 feet from the basket.

WHY FOUL THERE? We had made a lot of defensive stops late in the game. Why not play solid defense again. Even if they used the whole 24 seconds we would still have 30 seconds left.

As the announcers said at the time, Hollins didn't want Manu fouled at that time. It wasn't Hollins fault. It was a brain fart on the court at the end of close game on the second night of back to back games. I am sure it was addressed over the last couple of days by the coaching staff and was simply a mistake that won't be repeated (at least I hope it won't).