Expect Popavitch to adjust to the Diaw mismatch

[dodie53]

Diaw is the key..

he has to be aggressive..

 

[nowagimp]

He has Horry, Oberto, KT, and even Duncan to guard Boris.

.

Oberto horry and KT are way too slow to guard boris, duncan can do it very well. Pops already sat each of those guys down when they were matched against boris in previous games when he checked in. Even van gundy noted it "hes gotta get oberto out of there he doesnt like that matchup with diaw". Boris is just too fast off the dribble for those guys, duncans length and strength are more than a match for boris. Pops knows that his 4,'s and 3's are either too slow or arent strong enough. I saw this early, its a shame diaw wasnt starting instead of hill. The spurs were also banging nash with the (moving)screens when he played parker, diaw just fought through them, he's much stronger(and a much better defender of course). Its a shame it took DA this long to sit hill and move diaw into the starting lineup. Diaw played much better starting in the regular season. If it werent for that double OT loss perhaps things would have been different. Funny thing is with diaw running the offense, amare looked lost, indecisive on offense. I wonder what would happen if the suns could only win with diaw running the show, would amare shrink and become ineffective. Amare wants to be the man, not sure he can play with passion and energy when he isnt. Popovich is playing all kinds of headgames with these guys. He can make it so amare scores alot the suns lose. In playoff basketball you cant be the man every night, but you must bring it. I am watrching amare next game to see if he can be "a piece", instead of "THE piece" in order to win. Tim Duncan can adapt to be "a piece" instead of the man, he's a champion. I wonder about amare, if he can do what needed for the team to win if it doesnt involve his scoring alot.

 

[LV-Suns]

Just bench Amare, he's the reason why the Suns are losing...

Genius.

 

[Proteus]

I'm a lot more concerned about the Suns actually playing defense again than Popovich taking away Boris on the offensive end.

I think we'd be leading the series 2-1 or maybe even 3-0 if we'd actually bothered to play defense in the previous games.

 

[Muggum]

I do expect we'll see a lot more Horry. He's just so much taller than the Spurs' other small forward types. I was at the game today, and I swear, Horry's taller than Diaw!

 

[LV-Suns]

Horry's taller than Diaw!

Man, there goes the secret.

 

[SO91]

my bet? They take Finley off Boris (and put Oberto on him) and switch him over to Amare who has no post game whatsoever and is an offensive foul machine.

That's pretty much what JVG mentioned during the broadcast. He said he'd put the smaller guy on Amare and double him if you had to, since Amare is not as good a passer as Boris.

 

[elindholm]

Its already here. We are in first round Hell right now.

LOL, I appreciated that.

 

[btimsah]

Pops might play Kurt Thomas on Diaw, Oberto and Duncan all at the same time. At least that's what I would try.

 

[SunAndDone]

I was surprised Finley was on Diaw for so long. He got most of his points on him. That's not going to happen again. I thought the key to the Suns sustaining the big lead was Bell's timely 3 's. He pushed the lead to 18 twice.

Why on Earth did DA keep starters in for so long ? That might come back to hurt you in the next game. Props to the Suns for showing some fight and pride.

 

[cly2tw]

Just bench Amare, he's the reason why the Suns are losing...

his +/- was +29, the highest among all Suns. he didn't score but he was part of the winning formula for today.

 

[Covert Rain]

Pop is a great X's and O's guy. I was surprised there wasn't more adjustment in game by him. However, give this guy a couple days and you better believe he is going to change things up and give the Suns another look.

That's why even though I was glad and proud of the guys today, I am not putting to much stock in this win. I will wait for win #2 before going.....just maybe we have a shot.

 

[dodie53]

Pops might play Kurt Thomas on Diaw, Oberto and Duncan all at the same time. At least that's what I would try.

i wouldn't try that

 

[Cheesebeef]

Pop is a great X's and O's guy. I was surprised there wasn't more adjustment in game by him. However, give this guy a couple days and you better believe he is going to change things up and give the Suns another look.

That's why even though I was glad and proud of the guys today, I am not putting to much stock in this win. I will wait for win #2 before going.....just maybe we have a shot.

agreed.

 

[cly2tw]

That's pretty much what JVG mentioned during the broadcast. He said he'd put the smaller guy on Amare and double him if you had to, since Amare is not as good a passer as Boris.

I only watched the 2nd half and Amare posted Finley 4 times for a dunk, a foul, two missed easy shots under double team from Manu. His problem seems to be not used to the shots after backing down the smaller defender successfully. I hope they will look at the tape and prepare Amare for that for the next two days. Maybe too late though. I'd blame DA for not developing this part of Amare's game.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

Pop is a great X's and O's guy. I was surprised there wasn't more adjustment in game by him.

That's because Pop knew his team probably wasn't going to win the game no matter what changes were made. So he'll save whatever adjustments he has up his sleeve for Tuesday when they'll blindside D'Antoni. Pop did the same thing in Game 2 of last year's series.

 

[cly2tw]

Pop is a great X's and O's guy. I was surprised there wasn't more adjustment in game by him. However, give this guy a couple days and you better believe he is going to change things up and give the Suns another look.

That's why even though I was glad and proud of the guys today, I am not putting to much stock in this win. I will wait for win #2 before going.....just maybe we have a shot.

True. But, all we need to do though is to have enough adjustment on our own to stop them on defense. That's where we have no confidence in DA, who just watched one simple Parker PnR destroy us in Game 3.

 

[WuRaider]

True. But, all we need to do though is to have enough adjustment on our own to stop them on defense. That's where we have no confidence in DA, who just watched one simple Parker PnR destroy us in Game 3.

DA has to figure out that you can't give a player the same friggin look on every possession. If you challenge a NBA level guard to shoot, they will make you pay. Monta Ellis and even Pargo did the same thing to us during the reg season. If you give them clean looks, they will keep knocking them down after making a couple in a row. Game 3 could have been more competitive if DA knew how to make adjustments on the fly.

 

[Irish]

I'm shocked that the Suns won despite a subpar game by Amare and a weak game by Barbosa. If the Suns ever figure out a way to get the whole team to play their "A" game, this can be a pretty good team.

BTW, Horry did not have a good season: only 45 games, 2.5 ppg, 31.9% shooting, and 25.7% for three. His 2 of 7 shooting today should not have been a huge surprise for a guy who had not had serious minutes since March.

 

[Haren]

I honestly don't think there's anything he can do about it. Unless he plays Duncan, Oberto, and Thomas at the same time, they're not going to be able to guard Diaw one-on-one without there being some kind of mismatch. So if I'm Mike D'Antoni, what I'd do is keep him in the starting line-up and try to exploit it as much as I can.

 

[jandaman]

Diaw is sadly the Sun's best post up player, apart from O'neal, Diaw has a range of post moves that Stoudemire wishes he has.

Only if Diaw can really be consistent with this, he is a very unique player.... again, when he plays aggressive and with a purpose, he is an inside outside player with good play making and passing skills...

he plays like this roughly 1 every 5 games.... but when Stoudemire was out, it was much more often.

If the Suns can somehow make Diaw a huge contributor, and he can be... heck I'd make him the first option in the post and have Stoudemire cut in from the middle and O'Neal down the lane... this can be a very effective tactic...

CAN is the operative word.... sadly, spurs will come out all guns blazing again... unless someone lays out Parker...

 

[ForeignFan]

I think Horry did a decent job on diaw and I'll expect him to get a lot more time game 5.

I agree, but then the Spurs cannot use Bowen (or offensive output will drop).
It is funny, the same debate goes on on Spurstalk

PS: this is my first post on this board. Since I am primarily a Spurs fan, you may call me a "troll" though believe it or not the Suns are my second favorite team. However I hope my posts will remain objective

 

[nowagimp]

I honestly don't think there's anything he can do about it. Unless he plays Duncan, Oberto, and Thomas at the same time, they're not going to be able to guard Diaw one-on-one without there being some kind of mismatch. So if I'm Mike D'Antoni, what I'd do is keep him in the starting line-up and try to exploit it as much as I can.

I think that without a double, Pops has a problem with Diaw. When asked about potential adjustments to Diaw, JVG said the matchup problems werent going to go away. Taking another 3 from the spurs without a loss will be very difficult for this suns team that has been inconsistent. For Diaw to be effective, he needs to be on the floor at the right time, with players that spread the floor for him, and some of LB, nash, Raja and GG will need to hit their perimeter shots. This means Diaw must be in the starting unit instead of Hill. I hope DA realizes this and just sits hill, then brings him off the bench when he get better. No way Hill defends parker as well as Diaw. Pops will probably try to post up nash with someone, it should be interesting to see what he comes up with. The spurs just dont have a guy that can play boris straight up, other than TD. Other teams have guys that can do it, but the spurs gave away scola, that "giveaway" could cost the spurs the championship as scola's skills(rebounding, defense, some offense unlike oberto) would have addressed the spurs weaknesses that will be brought out in the coming rounds.

 

[SirStefan32]

Best thing Pop can do it attack Amare and Shaq and get them in foul trouble. At that point, Diaw can no longer be a 3, and you can put Duncan on him.

Or, he could just wait for Dirty Boris to turn into Doris again.

 

[arthurracoon]

I agree, but then the Spurs cannot use Bowen (or offensive output will drop).
It is funny, the same debate goes on on Spurstalk

PS: this is my first post on this board. Since I am primarily a Spurs fan, you may call me a "troll" though believe it or not the Suns are my second favorite team. However I hope my posts will remain objective

welcome to the board