Western Semis: San Antonio Spurs vs. Portland Trailblazers

Pretty simple, vote for the winner of this matchup. Winner advances to play the winner of the 6/7 series.

San Antonio Spurs - Kid Chocolate
C: Andrew Bogut / Roy Hibbert
PF: Lamarcus Aldridge / Josh Boone
SF: Kevin Durant /Marquis Daniels / Walter Herrmann
SG: Randy Foye / Rudy Fernandez
PG: Rajon Rondo / Keyon Dooling / Goran Dragic

Portland Trail Blazers - lukewarmplay
C: Yao Ming / Spencer Hawes / Aaron Gray
PF: Rasheed Wallace / Jason Thompson
SF: Hedo Turkoglu / Danilo Gallinari
SG: Delonte West / Wilson Chandler / Daequan Cook
PG: Mike Conley / D.J. Augustin

 

The Spurs would take an uptempo philosophy for this series. With Sheed's minutes decreasing over the past 3 years, he is on the decline. Pair that with Yao's injury and conditioning history, we would attempt to run them off the court, as both of our starting big men in Bogut and Aldridge can move well for their size. Roy Hibbert would be used in half court opportunities, as his height will be used to put a big body on Yao and bother him with his limited minutes.

The uptempo game would also force the Blazers to substitute early and often, and we feel as though we have a big advantage in the bench. This would force them to use their young subs, and since we feel we are deeper, this is advantageous for us.

Defensively we'd employ a primarily man to man gameplan, as Andrew Bogut has always played Yao well, with Yao shooting under 43% from the field in his last 5 matchups with Bogut. LMA is quick enough to guard sheed out to the 3 point line, as well as down on the block. Durant would match up on Hedo and use his height and length to both Hedo, who usually uses his height advantage to shoot over smaller opponents. We aren't too worried about the Blazers backcourt scoring a lot, and Rondo is a good defender, so we feel that the matchup favors us there. Like previously stated, Hibbert would be used to matchup with Yao, since his 7-2 frame would be helpful guarding the big man, and Boone would come in to keep the uptempo attack going.

We feel as though the x-factor for this series could be someone like Rudy Fernandez, who showed he can score with some of the best in the world in the Olympics and would be matched up with the very young bench of the Blazers.

 

LaMarcus Aldridge has outplayed Sheed in every matchup they've ever had.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/tiny.cgi?id=wMfDt

 

K.C's team imo depends on how well Randy Foye develops

 

k.c has a good team and every starter will probably be a future all star but as of now those guys are still all below average defenders besides Rando.

 

I have plus defenders in Marquis and Dooling off the bench, while his bench has...no one that you can count on.
I wouldn't say Aldridge and Bogut are below average defenders, as far as the backcourt, I'm not worried about Conley or Delonte West torching my team. If one gets hot, Rondo can switch off onto him and help curtail the scoring.

I'm not sure how Luke's team would plan on defending mine. Aldridge has gotten the better of Rasheed in every matchup they've ever played, Hedo would have a tough time with Durant and neither Conley nor Delonte is anything better than average on defense so it would be hard to guard Foye (who averaged 18 ppg over the last month of last season).

 

Who is gonna hurt me from Luke's team? Bogut has held Yao to under 44% from the field in 4 career matchups. Sheed has been outplayed by LMA. Hedo is an offensive minded player, so he can get his, but it's a 2 way street, and I don't think he can slow down Durant. I don't think Conley or Delonte is gonna offensively torch my team, especially with Rondo on Conley. I'm confident that Rondo's experience in the playoffs and Finals will give him a big edge over the 2nd year player, Conley.
He doesn't have anyone off his bench who can consistently contribute, especially with being so young, while I have someone in Rudy Fernandez who can score, and good perimeter defenders in Dooling and Marquis Daniels.
Daniels, Dooling, and Boone all averaged over 8 ppg last year.

Dooling has plenty of playoff experience, Marquis Daniels has plenty of playoff experience (including a Finals trip), Boone has playoff experience, and so does Herrmann. No one off the Blazers bench has ANY playoff experience, and that's pretty big once you get deeper in the playoffs, and this is the 2nd round.

 

uh oh its going to be close, will the #1 seed be upseted?

 

lol This stuff is a joke, no way in hell does Portland beat KC's team. Who cares if Foye doesn't "develop" he's still a god damn good player now as he is, and Rudy Fernandez is a legitimate stud. His bench also had some good talent with Dooling and Boone, way more proven than anything Portland has to offer. Way too many of you guys are putting stock into youngster's names rather than what they have done.

 

I just would have liked to hear the reasoning as to why some people voted the way they did. I feel like I'm talking to myself in this thread!

 

This is funny. Randy Foye is the problem, really?

Fernandez is better than all of Portland's guards (in this series).

 

Me too. I haven't voted yet.

 

Looks like you're in the drivers seat then.

 

People are just going off of names of what people did in college, or have shown in the little action at the end when all these bad teams play their youngsters/scrubs. I don't see anything special on his team besides his frontline, and Hedo & Yao could both be a liability on defense against quicker guys.

lol That's what I was saying, Foye was a beast when he was healthy last year. It was his first real injury too, so there isn't any "He's injury prone" argument to go with it either.

 

I mean if you wanna go off what young guys did in little action, Foye averaged 18 ppg over the last month of the year, and Durant's splits in March were 21.8ppg, 4 rpg, 2 apg, 52.6% from the field, and then in April 24.3 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 4.1 apg, on 46.1% from the field.

 

I know, people are just assuming that his youngsters will improve, but totally ignore the other team, there's no way in hell that your 5 starters & Boone are going to regress or not get better. All of them will also get physically stronger and be able to compete more efficiently, while they are already better than any of his younger players.

 

You guys make a wonderful couple

 

I like Foye a lot- I would have taken him- and I think he's better at the 2. But Rudy as better than all my guards is a kind of presumptuous thing to say, considering we haven't seen him in the league, yet. I think he'll be great, but he could turn out to be Juan Carlos Navarro.

I really like this matchup- I think the teams are very similar and really close in talent. I don't know about the Sheed/Aldridge matchup, as I can't tell from the boxscores who guarded who, and I didn't watch those games. Yao was held to a low shooting percentage (43.5%) when facing Bogut, but still pretty much dominated him in 3 of their 4 matchups, and overall averaged 21/10/2 blocks- and held Bogut to 36% shooting http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=bogutan01&p2=mingya01. It's true that Hibbert is tall, but I'm not quite sure the Pacers 3rd string rookie could handle Yao at all. I like Boone, but the only time he faced Yao he fouled out in 17 minutes http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=boonejo01&p2=mingya01.
I think KC would have to double Yao more than he thinks, which is obviously a huge problem and opens up space for the shooters. But this is the kind of series where strategies would be redeveloped after each game.

 

Hibbert's not only tall, he's also got a big body and a bit of strength to be a good defender. After watching 2 years of him, I've seen enough of him to believe he could do just fine defending Yao.

 

Bogut wouldn't be looked to on offense for much of the series. We're confident that Durant could be the main option and get many many points with Hedo on him, while Foye and Aldridge would be looked to as 2nd and 3rd options.

Aldridge would also but put on Ming for minutes at a time, forcing Yao to guard him in the low post, hopefully picking up some fouls along the way.