kingofkings

Well, this is about as tough as it is going to get. The Spurs will no doubt be hurting about the loss to the Warriors last night, so they are going to be fired up.There is not that much pressure on us in this game, as no-one will give us much of a chance in this game. Personally, if things fall into place, we can get a win. The Warriors showed that the Spurs can be scored on and we are a better team then Golden State.

Firstly, we need to go big in the frontcourt and maintain the same starters that we played in our win against the Wizards:

McCoy
Davis
Peterson
Carter
Williams

I back our backcourt to do alot of damage against the Spurs. Bruce Bowen will get the job on Carter and he is a defensive menace. When you watch this game, take some time out, to follow exactly what he does on defense. Watch him deny his offensive player the ball and also block off the lanes, when he tries to drive baseline. This guy, in my opinion in the best defensive guard in the business, tall at 6"7, long and athletic.

He was lit up by Jamison last night as he gave up 2 inches and body weight to him. But, I back Carter to give him a tough time. Carter cannot play into Bowen's hands and be forced into perimeter play. He needs to move around and our big men need to exert some pressure on him. We need to set some hard screens to bang Bowen through, because he likes to hang on to his opponents. We need to make him aware that our big men are around and that we will bang into him, at any time.Lets try and get him off his game, if we can and free up Carter.

If Brown can have a huge game for us, what will Duncan do to us. We cannot stop this guy, but we can contain him. He has been seemingly off his game, so far, well not as dominant, so maybe we can exploit him. Firstly, we have to play Davis on him. Often it is Robinson setting the picks up high, setting screens,with Duncan occupying the low post, so we need to be aware, where Duncan is at all times.

We have to deny him possession and make their shooters shoot the ball. Parker and Ginobili are struggling with their shooting, so by denying Duncan, we force them into a forced gameplan.

Firstly, I would be aggressive with Parker. Williams has the height advantage on him with a good 3 inches so he needs to pressure and harrass him, which will lead to poor passing into Duncan. Secondly, Davis needs to play in front of Duncan, as best he can. Davis has the strength to match him and by playing in front, he can deny Duncan easy possession and force the lob pass into the post, which has a great turnover rate.

Secondly, Duncan appears to have the yips again, with his free throw shooting like he did a few seasons ago shoting 60%. So if we need to foul him, so be it. Often the Spurs like to clear a side for Duncan to operate against his defender, giving him space to move and manouver. We need extra help defenders here and whenever this happens, go with an instant double team on him.

But who do we leave open, since Duncan is probably the best post passer in the game. Since Parker is struggling, maybe Williams can be this man and just take a gamble and leave Parker open. Parker is not a three point threat, check his stats.

The Spurs also love to cut to the basket, from the defense collapsing on Duncan, so we need to be aware of where guys like Parker and Smith are at all times, to stop this manouver.To stop backdoor cuts, it involves alot of switching on defense, in order to reduce the effect of the screens, required for the cuts to work effectively. We are good at this.

On offense, face it, we are not really going to penetrate. How could we with the twin towers down low. So, we need to operate from the perimeter and start from there. I suggest we look to keep the lanes free and open as best we can. We need to keep Duncan and Robinson out of there as best as we can. Davis needs to be up high, forcing Duncan to go out to him and out of the key. Remember Davis can hit the 15 foot jumpshot. With Duncan out of the way, guys like Carter and Peterson can get to the basket and have the space to operate, in the lanes, without a great shotblocker in their face.

We will battle on the boards, as we are giving up alot of height and skill to the twin towers. So we need to shoot the ball at high percentages to reduce this being a factor in this game.

As long as our big men can compete like they did last night, we can get a win here. Remember, our keys are Carter and Peterson. Our big men are complimentary to these players. They need to do the basics to help us in this game. Set some hard screens, box out and defend.Our backcourt can score enough in this game.We need our big men to get the twin towers out of the play as best we can.

We need to stretch them all over the floor, by outpositioning them, due to them following the ball and our backcourt. I would like to separate both Duncan and Robinson on defense, as often, they are both in the keys together, stopping penetration. So, our big guys need to be smart and stop this from happening.Lets break them up and separate them on defense.

I would look at utilising Alvin Williams more in this game. He has the height advantage over Parker, but he is not a post up guard. Still, he can use this advantage to drive and dish, once the defense collapses on him. This is where the Spurs got burned against the Warriors, leaving guys open.We need to capitalise in this regard.

One guy that is starting to have an influence so far this season is Malik Rose. He is playing more minutes, subbing for Robinson, which shifts Duncan to centre. Rose is crashing the boards hard and hitting some shots, so we need to be aware of him.

So, to summarise, this game is winnable, but we need to believe that we can win. We are on the road, which is a concern, but Carter and Peterson look to be fresh and dominant. Lenard and Hunter can ciome into the game, pop some threes and we can compete in this game. As long as we can limit Duncan, to a reasonable game, we can win it. I expect the game to be decided less then 100 points, as the Spurs look to grind out games. We can win these close games, as showed in last nights game and in the playoffs last night. So, if we can make this game a grind and a slugfest, it will be to our advantage.

Comments, in what is likely to be a huge game for us???

Don't just read this thread and ignore it, contribute and be a factor!!!

Shadows

great review

I'm not liking our chances in this one, Like you said SA will be hungry after getting spanked by the Warriors. The whole AD/Duncan matchup scares me.

Vince and MOP will be the determining factor of the game, Bowen has allways been a pain for Vince even in Miami I doubt that will change.

We have to stick to the plan bottomline, When we won those 9 straight and went on the run that made the playoffs every game would be a grind like last night. The games we're ugly, scrappy but we were getting the W's plain and simple.

We need good minutes from Bradley and JYD off the bench, We need MO to step up again.

GO RAPS GO

Psubs

MCCoy should guard Duncan and Davis should guard Robinson. As long as Ginobili keeps struglling our bench should destroy them.

PG Hunter
SG Lenard
SF JYD
PF Bradley

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MightyReds2020

Spurs have Malik Rose, Speedy Claxton, and Ginobili (if Smith's healthy) on the bench. Much more better than the Raptors' bench IMO.

kingofkings

This is our best chance to beat the Spurs. They struggled to overcome the Lakers without two starters in Shaq and Fox and were scored on big time by the Warriors. Yes, one of the best defensive teams were exposed by one of the so called worst teams in the NBA. So, as I said, if ever was the time to get them, this is the game.

No-one is saying that we played brilliantly against the Wizards, because we struggled. But, we were able to hold on in a game that was just a grind and a slugfest. We got the win and will improve from that performance. We showed that we can hold on in the last quarter, to get an important win against an Eastern Conference rival. We can only improve, as we looked very rusty.

We have to contain Duncan. If we let him get his points and rebounds and try to focus on other players, we will get killed. Duncan is the Spurs, no question. The offense goes through him at all times. Even when he does not have the ball, the offense is designed to position itself, to try and feed Duncan the ball, in positions where he can operate and go to work against his man.

So, as I said we need to counter the space that he has to operate. We need to cramp his room to manouver and just try to suffocate him on offense. If we do this, I have no doubt that the Spurs offense will be shot down and will crumble. Tough to do, but it needs to be done. If we can clog up the space that Duncan likes to work in and also look at denying him the ball, we will win this game, no question.

Just to reinforce, Williams, Carter and Peterson need to help on defense and look to get in front of Duncan and get in the way of him getting easy possession in the post. We need to disrupt the offense and get alot of hands on balls. Then, we need to convert on these errors and score on transition baskets.When he gets the ball, he is almost unstoppable one on one, so lets double team on him immediately and harrass the life out of him.

If we pressure the ballhandlers, the less the quality of passes that will go into Duncan, as well as the greater chance of us getting possession back, from turnovers. Parker, Claxton and Ginobili can be exploited easily, in this game.

Also, this board needs more action. I am going out of my way to post some quality posts and I expect the same!! So, get out from the rock that you are hiding from and support your fellow Raptor fans!!

RollWithEm

The one thing you have overlooked, KingOfKings, is that Ginobili played Kobe better than did Bruce Bowen. I don't think Bowen is the best defender at his position on his team. Ginobili is very valuable to this team on both ends of the floor. He is better than any bench player the Raptors have or any bench player anyone else has for that matter. Eman will be starting alot sooner than you think.

SkywalkerAC

it's a little early to start calling manu the best bench player in the nba. a little early is all.
i have the feeling that it's going to be hard to slow down the TD machine in this game. VC is going to have to come out big and i expect him to take a lot of shots but also get a large number of assists. sadly i don't see this spurs team losing three in a row. still, the raptors back-court needs to move the ball and hit jump shots to win this game. also, vc needs to start getting to the line like he can. it's going to be a battle and the raptors do have a possiblity of hitting golliath while he's down.

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Crossword

Man... we played like crap all game, except the 3rd quarter. And then Lenny subbed Vince out, kept him out, and he lost his rhythm. Nice job.

If we keep playing the way we have this game and last, we won't make the playoffs for sure.

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kingofkings

I only watched the second half of the game and we just couldn't hit our shots. Davis had his shot blocked from what I saw about twice and it looked like he had a disastrous shooting game. I mean, we are going to get a pasting out West, to be honest. There are just too many big guys out West, that we cannot answer. Our big guys are our weakness and the West teams will exploit us here.

Well, hopefully Peterson and Carter can fire up against the Rockets tomorrow and we can pinch a win on the road.

Good signs from Lenard though, came in hot, did his job, which is extra perimeter scoring. McCoy tried hard, Davis struggled, but that is to be expected, considering that we are really undermanned and undersized in the frontcourt. Not many positives in this game, but we can move on....

Our points guards, Hunter and Williams need to really lift their games and look to be a little more aggressive. Hunter hit a couple of layups, but we need more out of these guys, otherwise, we should look at moving them on, for a big guy.