2013 NBA Playoffs WCF: Spurs [2] vs Grizzlies [5]

Hello Brooklyn · Post #21 » by **Hello Brooklyn** » Fri May 17, 2013 5:48 am

Grizzlies are super overrated and the Spurs are about to show us why.

They got lucky by vsing two teams who had their 2nd best players hobbled by injuries. Spurs will win it in 5 or 6.

BarnabyJones · Post #22 » by **BarnabyJones** » Fri May 17, 2013 5:49 am

Grizzlies in 6.

Z-Bo & Gasol are playing at a very high level right now....too tough to stop for the Spurs.

Moshi · Post #23 » by **Moshi** » Fri May 17, 2013 5:49 am

huskerdu wrote:Grizz struggled a bit against a Westbrook-less OKC

Struggled??? OKC is probably a second best team in the league. And Memphis, if it wasn't for the game 1 lucky shots by Durant, almost SWEPT OKC!

Struggled?!?!?!?

Kobe8Forever · Post #24 » by **Kobe8Forever** » Fri May 17, 2013 5:51 am

Moshi wrote:
huskerdu wrote:Grizz struggled a bit against a Westbrook-less OKC

Struggled??? OKC is probably a second best team in the league. And Memphis, if it wasn't for the game 1 lucky shots by Durant, almost SWEPT OKC!

Struggled?!?!?!?

They are not close to the second best team without Westbrook

huskerdu · Post #25 » by **huskerdu** » Fri May 17, 2013 5:52 am

Moshi wrote:
huskerdu wrote:Grizz struggled a bit against a Westbrook-less OKC

Struggled??? OKC is probably a second best team in the league. And Memphis, if it wasn't for the game 1 lucky shots by Durant, almost SWEPT OKC!

Struggled?!?!?!?

Not without Westbrook they aren't, you kidding me?

And virtually every game went right down to the wire. Grizzlies blew a ton of leads and OKC was always right there despite a one man team with Durant. Perkins had one of the worst performances in playoff history and the Grizz were still taken down to the wire.

Grizzlies are a great team, but the Spurs will be their toughest opponent yet by a wide margin. Spurs have been 4-2 against them since 2011.

Playoffs are a new series, but the Spurs have their best D since 2007.

RatherUnique · Post #26 » by **RatherUnique** » Fri May 17, 2013 5:54 am

Paradise wrote:The only reason why the Grizz struggled a bit with OKC despite no Westbrook is because the Thunder still had Kevin Durant.

Fixed. 2nd best player, lock for 1st team All NBA for a while, will be a lock for a top 2-3 finish in MVP races for a while.

And "struggled" is a fairly strong word here. OKC took game 1, then were outplayed down the stretch in the next 4 games, losing all of them.

sabonis · Post #27 » by **sabonis** » Fri May 17, 2013 5:55 am

alright, let's pack the paint and make them sink those 3balls. if they do, damn, it will be very very tough to beat the Grizzlies.

Heat fan06 · Post #28 » by **Heat fan06** » Fri May 17, 2013 5:55 am

Moshi wrote:
huskerdu wrote:Grizz struggled a bit against a Westbrook-less OKC

Struggled??? OKC is probably a second best team in the league. And Memphis, if it wasn't for the game 1 lucky shots by Durant, almost SWEPT OKC!

Struggled?!?!?!?

Every game was decided by 6 points or less...saying they struggled isn't unreasonable. Thunder without Westbrook are not close to be the 2nd best team.

TheChosen618 · Post #29 » by **TheChosen618** » Fri May 17, 2013 5:57 am

huskerdu wrote:Not without Westbrook they aren't, you kidding me?

And virtually every game went right down to the wire. Grizzlies blew a ton of leads and OKC was always right there despite a one man team with Durant. Perkins had one of the worst performances in playoff history and the Grizz were still taken down to the wire.

Grizzlies are a great team, but the Spurs will be their toughest opponent yet by a wide margin. Spurs have been 4-2 against them since 2011.

Playoffs are a new series, but the Spurs have their best D since 2007.

Too bad Rudy Gay played on most of those games. If Gay was sitting, the Grizzlies record vs. the Spurs probably would have been much better. Gay being out was the only reason why the Grizzlies upset the Spurs in 2011.

Also, Memphis somewhat struggled to score against the OKC defense but this is because OKC's interior defense is very good with Ibaka, Collison, and Perkins. It is OKC's perimeter defense that is a bit lackluster. The Spurs don't have the same interior defenders that the Thunder do. Gasol and Randolph will have an easier time in this series than they did against the Thunder.

huskerdu · Post #30 » by **huskerdu** » Fri May 17, 2013 5:59 am

TheChosen618 wrote:
huskerdu wrote:Not without Westbrook they aren't, you kidding me?

And virtually every game went right down to the wire. Grizzlies blew a ton of leads and OKC was always right there despite a one man team with Durant. Perkins had one of the worst performances in playoff history and the Grizz were still taken down to the wire.

Grizzlies are a great team, but the Spurs will be their toughest opponent yet by a wide margin. Spurs have been 4-2 against them since 2011.

Playoffs are a new series, but the Spurs have their best D since 2007.

Too bad Rudy Gay played on most of those games. If Gay was sitting, the Grizzlies record vs. the Spurs probably would have been much better. Gay being out was the only reason why the Grizzlies upset the Spurs in 2011.

Also, Memphis somewhat struggled to score against the OKC defense but this is because OKC's interior defense is very good with Ibaka, Collison, and Perkins. It is OKC's perimeter defense that is a bit lackluster. The Spurs don't have the same interior defenders that the Thunder do. Gasol and Randolph will have an easier time in this series than they did against the Thunder.

Spurs not doing bad for a team that is always "fatigued" according to you right?

Oh, and the Spurs ranked better defensively than OKC all year and a Duncan/Splitter interior defense is nothing to scoff at.

Hell, even Bonner played Randolph really well this year.

Post #31 » by **ChosenSavior** » Fri May 17, 2013 5:59 am

I've been looking forward to this series for over two years. This is certainly going to be a great one. I have the Spurs winning in 6.

They will need to dictate tempo against Memphis and pack the paint so that Memphis is forced to beat the Spurs from the outside. Parker has to win his matchup against Mike Conley Jr. and the play of Kawhi Leonard along with the bench will be the major X-Factor in this series.

ItsDaBrush · Post #32 » by **ItsDaBrush** » Fri May 17, 2013 6:03 am

Thunder without Westbrook is better than Warriors with a broken David Lee

huskerdu · Post #33 » by **huskerdu** » Fri May 17, 2013 6:05 am

ItsDaBrush wrote:Thunder without Westbrook is better than Warriors with a broken David Lee

No way, Curry, Barnes and Jack were on fire.

OKC was a one man team and Lee hurt the Warriors defensively. OKC would have struggled going up against Bogut.

Would have been a 6-7 game series.

TheChosen618 · Post #34 » by **TheChosen618** » Fri May 17, 2013 6:05 am

huskerdu wrote:Spurs not doing bad for a team that is always "fatigued" according to you right?

Oh, and the Spurs ranked better defensively than OKC all year and a Duncan/Splitter interior defense is nothing to scoff at.

Hell, even Bonner played Randolph really well this year.

Warriors were giving the Spurs a run for their money in the beginning of the series, but their youth showed and their shots stopped falling. Danny Green deserves some props for defending Curry and I suspect he'll do a similar job on Conley.

That Spurs interior defense is not even close to OKC's interior defense, not close at all.

lol at Bonner on Randolph. I'm pretty sure Randolph and every other person cheering for Memphis would be licking their chops if they saw that matchup.

I suspect the Spurs perimeter players to struggle especially Parker and Manu since they were both inconsistent and struggled against the Warriors defense. It'll be even harder with Conley and Allen guarding them.

This series will be determined by the bigs and the Grizzlies will win that matchup.

ItsDaBrush · Post #35 » by **ItsDaBrush** » Fri May 17, 2013 6:08 am

huskerdu wrote:
ItsDaBrush wrote:Thunder without Westbrook is better than Warriors with a broken David Lee

No way, Curry, Barnes and Jack were on fire.

OKC was a one man team and Lee hurt the Warriors defensively. OKC would have struggled going up against Bogut.

Would have been a 6-7 game series.

Thabo Sefolosha to handle Thompson or Barnes, nobody on GSW to stick with Durant, nobody to expose Ibaka on defense and Curry got hurt in game 4. The Warriors were a .500 team the majority of the season, they're being overrated because they beat the master of glass, George Karl. Thunder without Westbrook take out this hobbled Curry/Lee Warriors in 5 or 6 games

manou · Post #36 » by **manou** » Fri May 17, 2013 6:08 am

Parker HAS to be healthier and on top of his game, or we don't have any hope at beating Memphis. Sure hope those 3 days will help him !

OneWhoKnocks · Post #37 » by **OneWhoKnocks** » Fri May 17, 2013 6:11 am

Spurs aren't losing to the Grizz again, especially after what happened last playoff series. Spurs in 6.

Won't be surprised if the Grizz do somehow take this series. Spurs have lost in the lost two postseasons even with homecourt.

Heat fan06 · Post #38 » by **Heat fan06** » Fri May 17, 2013 6:12 am

ItsDaBrush wrote:Thunder without Westbrook is better than Warriors with a broken David Lee

No chance

Warriors win just like the grizzles would of...

HotRocks34 · Post #39 » by **HotRocks34** » Fri May 17, 2013 6:12 am

Spurs have homecourt
Spurs have the experience (Memphis first time in WCF)
Spurs have better coaching
Spurs have revenge angle

It should be a great series. Could go either way.

Spurs woke up in the Warriors series after it was tied 1-1 and 2-2.

Grizzlies can give Spurs problems. We've seen this.

He Filled it Up · Post #40 » by **He Filled it Up** » Fri May 17, 2013 6:13 am

It's pretty easy to write a narrative for either team, but on paper the Grizzles seem to match up well. Two bigs that score in the low and high post is problematic for the Spurs' front court. Memphis has a few guys to throw out Parker. But I think most importantly the Grizzles have all kinds of perimeter length which could really bother the SAS shooters. If the outside shot gets wiped then San Antonio will be in big trouble.

On the other hand, the Spurs will be able to hide Parker on Allen, so that should help. They be able to pack the paint, but Marc and Zach are ridiculously good at working with little space. Should be a great series, I'll go Griz in six.

Spurs Grizzlies Western Conference Finals