Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - 2007-08 NBA Playoffs thread

TroyF · 04-20-2008, 09:07 AM

As great as the Spurs/Suns game was, I'm stunned at how few of people are talking about the reasons the Suns lost this basketball game. I mean the real reasons.

Let's look them over:

1) Pop simply outcoached D'antoni. I mean crushed him. It was the biggest mismatch on the floor. The three Finley hits to send the game into OT was made mainly because Grant Hill wasn't in the game defending. Instead you had a small PG who had no prayer of getting a hand in his face. It was horrible strategy. The Hack a Skinner and Hack a Shaq moves that each were a turning point. And of course, the TD three. More about that in my next man to blame slot. . .

2) Shaq. The media sure loves to fawn over him, don't they? OOOHHHH, look at that block on Timmy D. That was clutch. And Shaq sure loves to use excuses. The floppers won, huh Shaq? Well, yeah, SA flops. But as long as you have Amare, I really don't want to hear a lot about flopping, ok Big Diesal?

Yet lets look at the reality of this game now. The highest paid player on the court had to be taken out of the game for four minutes of the fourth quarter because he couldn't hit a FT. When he got his 5th foul, Manu attacked him and scored repeated layups because Shaq didn't want to get a 6th. This is even counting late in the first OT when the Suns had a good sized lead. They couldn't get the critical stop because Shaq didn't want to get a 6th foul.

This is no more evident than on the three pointer by Tim Duncan. There is one thing the Suns couldn't afford to give up there. A wide open three pointer. To anyone. That's the only thing that can hurt you. The first mistake the Suns make there is not fouling when Manu starts dribbling. That's one of the single worst coaching moves we'll see this postseason. Words can't even describe how idiotic that was. This was compounded by Shaq staying in the lane to prevent a Ginobili drive on a two point shot with under 5 seconds left. Instead of saying "gee Manu, take the two, we've won the game, Shaq decides to D up on him instead of running out to put a hand in TD's face. I don't care how you slice this, it was lazy and stupid basketball. (I'm a Nuggets fan, I know stupid and lazy basketball when I see it) And it's made by your highest paid player, the one you traded for to win a title.

Getting back to the coaching, why was Shaq even in there? What good was he going to do for the Suns at that point? Stop a two point shot you wanted the Spurs to take? Maybe get the rebound so he can get fouled, miss two shots and give the Spurs a second chance to win the game? The guy had 5 boards in 30 minutes anyway.

The Suns have a chance to win the series and recover from this. But they'd better damned well have their coach get his head out of his ass and their 20 million dollar player to stop bitching about the flops and instead maybe run out at a three point shooter who is in the process of tying up the basketball game.

04-20-2008, 09:07 AM	#33
TroyF Coordinator Join Date: Oct 2000	As great as the Spurs/Suns game was, I'm stunned at how few of people are talking about the reasons the Suns lost this basketball game. I mean the real reasons. Let's look them over: 1) Pop simply outcoached D'antoni. I mean crushed him. It was the biggest mismatch on the floor. The three Finley hits to send the game into OT was made mainly because Grant Hill wasn't in the game defending. Instead you had a small PG who had no prayer of getting a hand in his face. It was horrible strategy. The Hack a Skinner and Hack a Shaq moves that each were a turning point. And of course, the TD three. More about that in my next man to blame slot. . . 2) Shaq. The media sure loves to fawn over him, don't they? OOOHHHH, look at that block on Timmy D. That was clutch. And Shaq sure loves to use excuses. The floppers won, huh Shaq? Well, yeah, SA flops. But as long as you have Amare, I really don't want to hear a lot about flopping, ok Big Diesal? Yet lets look at the reality of this game now. The highest paid player on the court had to be taken out of the game for four minutes of the fourth quarter because he couldn't hit a FT. When he got his 5th foul, Manu attacked him and scored repeated layups because Shaq didn't want to get a 6th. This is even counting late in the first OT when the Suns had a good sized lead. They couldn't get the critical stop because Shaq didn't want to get a 6th foul. This is no more evident than on the three pointer by Tim Duncan. There is one thing the Suns couldn't afford to give up there. A wide open three pointer. To anyone. That's the only thing that can hurt you. The first mistake the Suns make there is not fouling when Manu starts dribbling. That's one of the single worst coaching moves we'll see this postseason. Words can't even describe how idiotic that was. This was compounded by Shaq staying in the lane to prevent a Ginobili drive on a two point shot with under 5 seconds left. Instead of saying "gee Manu, take the two, we've won the game, Shaq decides to D up on him instead of running out to put a hand in TD's face. I don't care how you slice this, it was lazy and stupid basketball. (I'm a Nuggets fan, I know stupid and lazy basketball when I see it) And it's made by your highest paid player, the one you traded for to win a title. Getting back to the coaching, why was Shaq even in there? What good was he going to do for the Suns at that point? Stop a two point shot you wanted the Spurs to take? Maybe get the rebound so he can get fouled, miss two shots and give the Spurs a second chance to win the game? The guy had 5 boards in 30 minutes anyway. The Suns have a chance to win the series and recover from this. But they'd better damned well have their coach get his head out of his ass and their 20 million dollar player to stop bitching about the flops and instead maybe run out at a three point shooter who is in the process of tying up the basketball game.