Just a quick analogy to start, if you have ever played and league basketball or even pick up games at the Y or Rec centers, everyone knows about "Old Man Game" No matter how much younger, or how much better you think or know you are than the "Old Man" on the court, there is nothing you can do to stop him. He makes all his jumpers, even if you only give him an inch of airspace! He is the guy you like to have on your team for a sub, but hate to play an entire game against. Well the San Antonio Spurs have plenty of old man game and are still extremely difficult match-up. Lets take a look at tonight's game....
Defensively-The Spurs are the epitome of execution. They do not break plays or offense. They will run their sets all the way through and if nothing there its possible the may run it again. If the do not run the set again, it will surely be a high pick and roll with Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, with a player in each corner. Setting up the drive and kick, pick and pop or Parker all the way to the basket. The Jazz defense will need to be active in the passing lanes when Parker looks to kick it out for the corner 3's. Also the bigs are going to need to cover the paint on the pick and roll, stick with the ball handler Parker. I think we would rather have Duncan shooting 17-20 ft jumpers all night, than let Parker have a straight run down the lane. The Jazz will need another TEAM EFFORT on the defensive glass. The Spurs do like to push the ball in transition as well, but their transition attack is more of a one man fast break with Parker, the rest of the team acts as trailers and runs to the 3 pt line.Offensively-ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK! The Jazz must take advantage of their youth and run at every opportunity. Spurs have Duncan and Splitter in the middle but I feel that the Jazz can attack both of these players in either the pick and roll or in the post. Neither player is quick laterally and the Jazz will need to attack that. Tonight the Jazz need the same kind of effort from the bench and the vets. Marvin Williams and Richard Jefferson were key in the Jazz victory over the Pelicans. Jefferson was and will need to continue to be aggressive attacking that basket. I think Jefferson may feel he has something to prove, as the Spurs kind of dumped him as dead weight to the Warriors. Marvin was fantastic at spreading the floor and opening space for the pick and roll to work late. Hopefully he can continue his hot shooting. It will also be very interesting to see how Diante Garrett handles his second game with the Jazz. I don't think he had the chance to get or have nerves. Tonight may be a different story. I really like the way Garrett played. He was good in the pick and roll (which the Jazz have run primarily the last 2 games) he did not force plays or passes and he made the right pass.
I have to say that the game against the Pelicans was great! Fun to watch and the guys played with heart. As I have been critical of coach Corbin, feel the need to credit him for some changes I did notice against the Pels. He was not stomping up and down the sidelines chewing out the players as they came back to the bench. I even saw him discussing and developing young players, specifically Garrett. He also handled the flow of the game very well. Made appropriate timeout calls when it appeared the game may get out of hand or that momentum was shifting. This is what I want to see from Ty. He may do this a lot more than we are aware of, in practice and what not. But we only see the negative at the games and broadcasts, so it was nice to see some development from Ty. Tonight's game won't be an easy one but we are on a winning streak right? GO JAZZ!
http://www.nba.com/gamenotes/spurs.pdf
http://www.nba.com/gamenotes/jazz.pdf
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