Pop's big mistake was sending them home. If they had been at the game in street clothes, I doubt this would have been as big of a deal even if that's basically the same thing.
Definitely a power move by Pop. They have meetings at the beginning of every year where Stern says don't do shit that the fans might get upset with. No heads up and no warning was a bad move. They could have rested on the bench in street clothes. Especially on a national TNT game against the Heat. But can we talk about how he had his dick on the table and only lost by 5 points? If the Heat lost that game, how smug could he have been after that? It would have been great to watch those press conferences. God I hate the Spurs for being so goddamn efficient.
I read an interview with Pop somewhere(will post the link when I can find it) where he states that fans write to him to complain about the sort of thing that happened the other night. We wrote one of them back and basically said "I understand your(the fans) point of view, but I have different priorities than that."...and he's right. The one priority he has is keeping his(older) team healthy going into the playoffs(and winning enough games to get there, obviously). If I were a Spurs fan, I honestly wouldn't care about this at all if it means a deep playoff run, and with the Spurs it almost always does.
Also, I think Stern(rather uncharacteristically) spoke out of anger without thinking things through in this instance. He is going into some VERY murky waters, potentially telling a coach what it can/cannot do with its players in certain matchups(or any at all for that matter). You know he cannot flat out say that Big Market A's fans deserve a better show than Little Market B's fans, but he's already seeming to imply it by being silent all the times Pop did this in the past, let alone the times other coaches (i.e. Phil Jackson) did this with impunity.
That and doing it while cancelling the shootaround and not announcing it til late in the afternoon. Plus, being on the road. Why no rest guys at home? And I dont buy the bullshit about "What if the Spurs would have won?" The Heat had been off since Saturday preparing for the full Spurs Team. Then the rug is yanked out from under them and all the pressure is on the Big 3. As I said before, the league has to step in or ticket sales are gonna plummet.
Cmon dude. The Heat are gonna sell tickets. They're the Heat. And if you're world champs, you shouldn't need much preparation to beat the JV squad. As for why not at home: because a four games in five nights on the road stretch is really tough, and therefore more of an injury worry. It's not comparable to playing at home, so the question doesn't make sense.
Well at least he didn't say "for basketball reasons".... <a class="postlink" href="http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/11/30/league-fines-spurs-250000-for-not-playing-stars-vs-miami/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/ ... -vs-miami/</a> Anyone else think there's going to be a lot more "pulled muscles" in the league now?
Also, here's that article about Pop from earlier: <a class="postlink" href="http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2012/11/30/popovich-didnt-see-this-trouble-coming/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2012/11/3 ... le-coming/</a>
Not that amount and not for the amount of money. The exact opposite is true. If youre defending world champs, you get everybodys #1 game. Regular season matters even less. Its all about the Ring now. Fatigue is fatigue. What does it matter where you sleep? They traveled about 180miles from Orlando to Miami. The real issue is he wouldnt do that to the home crowd. Make no mistake that he did it on purpose because of the opponent.
The Golden State Warriors are 6-1 over the last 7 games. Just thought I should throw that out there before they crash and burn for the rest of the season. Yeah I am bragging while I still can.
This is pathetic. Lakers vs. Knicks on TNT. The Knicks are half assedly raping them, and the Lakers are half assedly taking it. Mike D'Antoni was the wrong coach for this team. Without Nash they can't do anything. Jim Buss has to just be eating his shit right now. They can't get any offense going and their defense is even worse. These Knicks though, these Knicks.
Without constant practice, do NBA players forget how to do simple things like help and rotate on defense or not walk away from the guy with the ball before his guy recovers? Because that's what the Lakers are doing. Does D'antoni have some sort of mystical field around him that makes players forget the defensive basics they've learned from 10+ years of playing basketball? There defense has been terrible because they're trotting out their third string PG, Gasol is out, and Antawn Jamison is getting big minutes even though he hasn't been in the correct position defensively in about 5 years.
Jalen Rose explained that half of it is that D'Antoni plays 7-8 players, and his scoring in 7 seconds or less doesn't give anyone time to rest so they rest on defense. ON TOP of the fact they went weeks without even talking about defense.
Apologies if someone else has posted this before. Actually, fuck that, awesomeness of this magnitude deserves to be posted twice. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.oldspicesavestheworld.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.oldspicesavestheworld.com</a>
Whether or not the Knicks pull this one out they played like shit at the end of this game. Sloppy and inefficient fourth quarter. They look like they are just running around out of control out there right now. But if they can integrate STAT and shumpert into this lineup I think they'll go six or seven with the Heat in the conference finals. Still need to see both teams more but I think the Knicks have taken that leap into the next tier and that is isn't a fluke start.