As I said in my post about Game 1, the result of Game 2 was going to determine whether or not blowing that big lead would have a negative on the Warriors. With the Warriors winning Game 2 (and getting out to a big lead again), it just reinforces the fact that the Warriors can win this series. Except for 4 minutes at the end of Game 1, the Spurs haven't really been competitive. Yea they came back a little in Game 2, but they never really threatened the lead.
If I was betting, I sure wouldn't be betting on the Spurs right now.
The big problem has been the Spurs defense...or if you rather, the Warriors offense. The Spurs gave up 53 in the first half of Game 1 and 62 in the first half of Game 2...that's just too many points. I don't know if it's the Spurs defense getting better in the 2nd half or that the Warriors get tight trying to close out games, but the Warriors have only scored 14 (Game1) and 17 (Game2) in the 4th quarter. The Spurs need to get some of those stops in the first half.
Is Klay Thompson the key? The Spurs comeback in Game 1 happened after Thompson fouled out. Thompson stayed on the floor in Game 2 and scored 34 points (he had 19 in Game 1). Stephen Curry hit on only 7 of 20 in Game 2 after that 44 point, 18 for 35 performance in Game 1. I'm thinking that if Tony Parker can't match up with Curry by himself, then the Spurs are going to have a tough time winning with defense. Kwahi Leonard better serves the Spurs' defense guarding a wing player (where he disrupts passing lanes (1.7 steals/game) and can go after rebounds (6/game from the small forward position), than he is picking up the point guard.
That means the Spurs need to get more efficient on offense if they hope to take 4 games in this series. They shot .438 in Game 1 and an even worse .393 in Game 2. Parker is just 18 for
43 for the two games (he shot .522 for the season). Parker is the key to the Spurs
offense, if he get's going, that makes the shots for his teammates are
easier. The comeback in Game 1 started with Parker getting to the rim. Parker has to establish that earlier in Game 3.
I also hope that Tiago Splitter is finally healthy enough to start again. Although Andrew Bogut is 7 feet tall, Green is just 6-7 and Barnes is just 6-8. If Tiago Splitter is healthy (he played just 9:49 in Game 2 and didn't play in Game 1), having Duncan and Splitter in the starting lineup would create some size mismatches.
I touched on it in an earlier Spurs post...about how the Spurs have always been better with the "twin-tower" lineups, whether it was Robinson-Duncan (1st two Championships), Nesterovic-Duncan (3rd Championship), or Oberto-Duncan (4th Championship). I don't think it's a coincidence that the Spurs went to the Conference
Finals in 2007-08 when Fabricio Oberto logged 1644 minutes of playing time and didn't make it back
to the Conf. Finals until 2011-12, when Splitter logged 1121 minutes. In the three years in between, no big man, besides Duncan, had any significant playing time for the Spurs (Oberto logged 677 minutes in 2008-09 , Ian Mahinmi, 165 minutes in 2009-10, and Splitter 738 minutes in 2010-11). My theory is that (1) Duncan doesn't have to spend his energy defending the opposing teams #1 post option and (2) that the Spurs' defensive philosophy of forcing everything baseline works better when there's two big men in the lineup.
With the series moving to California in Game 3, I hope the Spurs will be at full strength...they're going to need a big team effort to eliminate the Warriors.
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