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He leaves Manu who played like dog **** the entire game and let's him play basically the entire 4th quarter/ot. Right on cue he makes huge turnovers left and right. Leaving Duncan on the bench and not calling timeout on the last play when the refs were letting contact go so Manu could do a sucide drive.

Pathetic in game coaching job. If that was Spo he would get ripped to shreds. Pop cost his team a title tonight.

Yeah taking out Duncan the 1st time was a mistake, it happens, but taking him out again 20 seconds later was just inane.

If Leonard makes that free throw...game over.

Pop chucked a Vogel.

No the worst thing, was starting the 4th ( in the quarter to CLOSE out the championship ) with Parker, Duncan & Leonard all on the bench.. Miami took advantage of the terrible line up and it cost the Spurs everything Terrible coaching..

TheBargnaniRule wrote:Pop chucked a Vogel.

I started a separate thread on the same thing. Just shaking my head right now. What a colossal coaching blunder at such a time.

I just want to get this out there. If San Antonio loses this series its because of MANU GINOBILI. I dont think Ive ever seen one player make SO MANY DUMB PASS TURNOVERS IN MY LIFE. They blitz him with the double team every time and he makes a home run pass attempt EVERY TIME...that usually gets picked off.

Keeping Manu in the game (-19 w/ a nice 7 TOs)
Not fouling up 3 at the end of the stupid game
Taking Duncan out twice when they obviously were going to need rebounds
That God awful 4th quarter lineup to start the quarter.

Taking out Duncan was bad but you can argue the tactics to it. Ginobli was just awful tonight and should have been sitting or used as a decoy.

I thought his 2nd to last play was brilliant. A few plays ago he sits Parker on the bench for defense, works out, then takes a timeout to bring him back in.

This play he does the same, but instead of taking a timeout like expected, he tried to surprised everyone with a fast break.
However he shouldn't have chosen ginobli he has been bad all game, shouldve used Leonard to drive down court.


This biggest fault this game was overplaying ginobli, should've trusted his backup pgs with handling since Gino was bad.
But it's hard to blame him, Gino is Gino , one minute he sucks the next he saves the day.

Pop overthought everything and taking out Duncan on the last play was pure blindness.

He is still the best coach but he simply gave away the championship tonight.

It's incredible that the supposed best coach on the planet will essentially make the EXACT same mistake Vogel did in nearly the EXACT same situation against the EXACT same team for almost the EXACT same reason, within mere weeks of Vogel doing it.


The people who make decisions on an NBA level are not that good, people. The "uneducated" fan at home can tell you that taking out Duncan or leaving Manu in are terrible ideas.

Knicks_Fan2 wrote:Keeping Manu in the game (-19 w/ a nice 7 TOs)
Not fouling up 3 at the end of the stupid game
Taking Duncan out twice when they obviously were going to need rebounds
That God awful 4th quarter lineup to start the quarter.

Simply pathetic and you know the awful thing is he's going to give Manu huge rope again in G7.He pulled the same routine in G4.

If G7 is close you watch Pop won't have the balls to bench Manu for the 4th even if he's playing like dog ****.

Spurs also wasted Duncan tonight. No way he plays like that on Thursday

Danny1616 wrote:If Leonard makes that free throw...game over.

If Spurs get the rebound after the Lebron missed 3 at the end...game over.

I agree Pop made mistakes, but he can't control that.

It's true that you can't base an entire argument over a couple of plays, especially when you have a huge database of evidence that points to the contrary.

However, this wasn't a well-coached game in terms of lineups. I know Manu has the name recognition and the history and I'm sure he's still just as good of a competitor as always....but he's not the same player anymore. To keep him in there, on arguably one of the worst games of his entire career, is criminal.

To take Duncan out twice down the stretch when he wasn't in foul trouble confused the hell out of me. And, as soon as you know it, the Heat get 2 offensive rebounds leading to 2 3pt shots. Had he been in there, I guarantee the Heat wouldn't have gotten both offensive rebounds.

The opening lineup in the 4th quarter was the reason San Antonio lost the lead. You have to have Parker or Duncan in at all times at that point.

Just bad decisions all the way around. Sometimes, Pop gambles and comes out on top but he played with fire today and got burnt.

Bad coaching in the 4th. How can you trust Ginobili or why is he even in the game when he had so many damn TOs, on that last play?

Pop took some risky decisions that didn't work out. He should get criticized for that. He should have played it safe.

The worst is when he subs out Duncan the second time.

You already allowed a 3 pointer by offensive rebound, why repeat the same mistake?

Danny1616 wrote:If Leonard makes that free throw...game over.


If Spurs get the rebound after the Lebron missed 3 at the end...game over.

WTF!!!!!!!!!!! Shame SAS didn't have a 7 fter who had a 19 rebound rate all year. Oh wait they did.