Hollinger's take on Spurs

[esparzar1]

Chat: Chat with John Hollinger - SportsNation - ESPN
Ethan ((Providence))

Sup John, who do you actually have winning the title? Why?
John Hollinger (12:25 PM)

Spurs. Because they're better than everybody else.

John (USA)

Bigger threat to San Antonio LAC or MEM
John Hollinger (12:28 PM)

Tough question. Memphis beat San Antonio last year and has shown they can defend the Spurs' stuff much better than most; but the Clippers' pick-and-roll game can give the Spurs trouble and they don't match up well against Blake.
John Hollinger (12:28 PM)

But ultimately I'd say Memphis. The Spurs will just shred the Clippers' defense to pieces, and it's hard for me to imagine a Popovich-VDN battle swinging in LA's favor.

Joe (NY)

You are basing picking the Spurs on them beating a horrible Utah team in the 1st round?? Whether they draw LAC or Mem in round 2 and then OKC or LAL in round 3 it is gonna be alot tougher
John Hollinger (12:33 PM)

I'm picking them based on their going 28-3 in their past 31 games, and winning the season series against every remaining team in the West, with at least one humiliating win against every one of them. Or how about this: They're 22-3 in their past 25 road games. Two of the losses came when they sat their starters. Nobody's beating them.

Joe (NY)

Miami would have the 3 best players in a series against the Spurs. Tough to overcome that even considering Heats lack of depth

John Hollinger (12:43 PM)

Two best, yes. But I'd argue 3, 4 and 5 play for San Antonio, as do 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. Chalmers could probably be the Spurs' 10th man if he applied himself; he's the fourth-best payer on Miami. That's why I'd take San Antonio.

Hey Mr. Hollinger, how does the Spurs Jock smell?

[KAD]

Wow these guys just don't get it!

[mckennaspur1]

What I'm enjoying about this season is that team play (rather than superstar play) is coming back into prominence.

The NBA sold its soul during the Jordan years by promoting the one great player over teams that function beautifully. The pendulum is finally swinging the other way with teams like the Spurs, Thunder and even Indiana and Chicago (successful during the regular season even after losing Rose) getting their due.

[Jose_TheGenius]

Originally Posted by esparzar1

Two best, yes. But I'd argue 3, 4 and 5 play for San Antonio, as do 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12. Chalmers could probably be the Spurs' 10th man if he applied himself; he's the fourth-best payer on Miami. That's why I'd take San Antonio.

even at this stage of his career, Duncan is more effective overall on both ends than Bosh (although because of his team, youth, and name, people will pick him over Duncan). Parker for sure is going to torch Chalmers, but for the 2-3 positions anything those guys give us will be gravy on the offensive/defensive end. i don't want to go into a column type post, but also remember, as good as Lebron/Wade are, we do have 2 guys coming off the bench in those positions who would be starters for any other team and that'll be difficult for a guy like Battier to come off the bench and defend like he has (when he's done well, he's defended a guy who's been worn and defended Lebron).

the wild card in all this will be Diaw. Duncan will probably guard their C and Diaw will guard Bosh. i don't know how Spoelstra will guard our bigs, but whoever he has on Diaw will be susceptible to foul. last time we played the Heat, we also got torched late in the game, so Lebron/Wade will have theirs. i do wonder what Pop will do on defense though.

that's just guessing if the Heat win....with Rondo playing like he does vs. the Heat, i wouldn't put it past Boston beating them in the ECF either and Boston would be a WAY better matchup for us than the Heat (and i think we matchup favorably with Miami)

[Rodny21a]

The heat don't "defend Bigs" they pressure the ball and press. They force turnovers and run. When they do this its awesome to watch. Tell me how well do you think the defend the fast break? Then tell me how the spurs will or could defend LeBron and Wade on the break.

That is the series right there.

No sweep and it would probably go 7 games.

The biggest advantage the Spurs have is that the Heat expect a cake walk and when they get punched in the nose, and the spurs will do that, they react badly. They don't have leaders to steady the ship. Their organization's best leader sits in the stands and his name is Pat Riley.

[frenchfred]

I agree the Heat would be the hardest series. I think that the Thunders are going to be hard as well. But when you want to be the est you have to beat the best. At least we could have HCA until the end.

[mckennaspur1]

Spurs can take the Heat if they manage to get past the Heat defensive pressure and avoid turnovers. That may eliminate Gary Neal as a primary PG back-up since there's a sizable fall-off between TP's ball-handling and Neal's. I guess that makes Manu the ball-handler on the second unit.

Take care of the ball and do what you can to prevent Lebron from going nuts as he did when we met during the regular season.

[fakemxcan]

id rather play the heat than the celtics to be honest

[Roc]

Love the fact that the Spurs do own the season series over the remaining squads in the West....with at least 1 beatdown in each! The only thing that bothers me is those OKC games were the last leg of a back-to-back for the Thunder, so the jury is still out on how we matchup with them, imo..

[esparzar1]

Originally Posted by Roc

Love the fact that the Spurs do own the season series over the remaining squads in the West....with at least 1 beatdown in each! The only thing that bothers me is those OKC games were the last leg of a back-to-back for the Thunder, so the jury is still out on how we matchup with them, imo..

Did you seem to forget that the Spurs played Dallas the night before.....tisk, tisk....lol. It was a B2B for the Spurs as well.

[Jose_TheGenius]

Originally Posted by fakemxcan

id rather play the heat than the celtics to be honest

with this core right now starting, we'd beat the Celtics handily if you'd ask me. their biggest problem is Parker will force Rondo to shoot. defensively for Boston, if you were Doc Rivers you'd have to ask: who am i going to put on Diaw and Duncan? if you put Bass on Diaw, Boris will absolutely torch him in every way imaginable. if you put Bass on Duncan, that's the same thing as Duncan being defended by Blair (that's also saying Blair is also better on D than Bass). Pierce is ailing and we'd be putting Leonard on him while Green/Bradley would be a wash. our bench would destroy theirs, no contest there.

as bad as Boston sounds (or i made them out to be), they can beat the Celtics because of one key ingredient the Spurs have also: a scoring PG. even if Spoelstra dreams about putting Lebron on Parker, on a pick and roll or just man, you'll have to make up for their PG guarding a scorer like Green or Leonard. also if Lebron were to guard Parker or Ginobili, that's some wasted legs and energy on the D end while they depend on him to score.

[spurduncan21]

To be honest, it doesn't matter who we play. Hollinger is the only "expert" at ESPN who knows his stuff. For him say such great things about our team is not surprising, but sure as hell feels good. I like our chances against whomever. Someone was asking how to defend the fast break. Well, we do already by not crashing the boards and running like hell back down the court to defend (which if we were to meet MIA in finals, POP would be sure to instruct the team to do just that). To be honest it doesn't matter who we play as long as we keep on playing. I hope we play OKC in West finals because I feel getting past them will be our hardest obstacle. They have two legitimate stars in Westbrook (star) and Durant (superstar) and an awesome reserve in Harden. Going along with that talent is Perkins and Ibaka down low. I do feel OKC will be our finals (not to discount the Heat), but Miami sure would be a formidable opponent. I do not think either team would take us to 7 games. The heat is TERRIBLE on the road and would not be able to defend our 3 ball with Parker tearing that defense up.

Think this way, Miami convincingly beat NYK, but in two of their victories, they could have lost. Not to say they struggled, but in all honesty, it should not have even been that close. NYK did not have one single player who was able to blow by the heat and this WILL no doubt happen if they play the spurs. We have depth to throw out at either opponent as Hollinger alludes to and also the ace in the pocket when it comes to coaching. I have never been so confident about our spurs, other than when Manu fouled Dirk in game 7 for the and-one.