Saddle Sores

Oh, man...Where do we begin?

...This is A.C.

The Spurs have sort of taken us out of our comfort zone these first two games. They’re defense and their style of play, as far as their intensity level is concerned, has taken us out of our comfort zone. They play at a harder pace, a more intense pace. We seem to accept mistakes, but when they throw the ball away, or miss shots they should make, you can see the anguish on their faces. I’m hoping by coming back home that we develop that same attitude.

This is a different animal we’re dealing with here, different than Detroit or New Jersey. Spotting those guys two games...Once they go up by ten, man, they’re next step is to go up 20. They’re objective is to put you away and we haven’t dealt with a team like that in quite a while. They're a very smart basketball team. They wait on picks and don’t rush their picks. They make foul shots. They execute their defense perfectly. And every time they get to the Finals they complete the deal.

It’s something we can learn from.

They also have three guys who we really have not shown an answer for right now in Duncan, Parker and Ginobili. They isolate Duncan at the right times, something that we could learn to use in our own arsenal. And even though we are a good help-defensive team, individually we’re breaking down quite a bit, especially with Parker and Ginobili.

We have to hold our serve. Can we win three games at home is what it’s gonna come down to. We’ve done it so far, so I don’t have any doubts that we can do it. Our offense has to have a little more variety to it and our individual defense has to get better. We need to do a better job on their three guys - None of the other guys have scored more than six points a game.

We are still a work-in-progress, though also a team ahead of the curve and each playoff game we have gone to a new level. And to make it to the finals as a work-in-progress to me bodes well for our future. But the future is now and we have to win the next two games, three games. We’ve done it before.

Now let's go out there and do it again.