tinysands
2009-01-19, 07:39 PM
阅读提示：一年一度的 Pop 牌吹风机准点上映。
“我们的防守烂透了。”(We suck on 'D') Pop 说。
“几乎整场都很烂。不管是个人还是团队的防守，我们都做得糟糕极了。在豆腐渣防守这一点上我们保持得相当稳定。”
解决办法？
“我不知道。假如我知道的话，我们的防守就不会那么烂了。”
马刺目前场均失分94.2，联盟第八。不过在 Pop 更看重的限制对手投篮命中率这一点上，马刺目前仅以46%位列联盟第21。而在 Popovich 执掌以来的11年间，马刺在这一项统计上从未跌出联盟前五。
(惊慌之前，提示：上赛季此时本队限制对手投篮命中率列联盟第20……)
Pop 在解释本队仍然能位列西部第二时说：“这只是因为其他队互有胜负而已，所以我们的战绩看上去还过得去。对我来说，这(战绩)几乎就可以无视。”
不过在费城遭遇本赛季最惨痛的一场失败之后，马刺在一天后加强了防守，他们在最后3分13秒内令公牛一球未进，并最终92-87取胜。
“我们有了起色，”Tony Parker 说，“这是良好的开端。”
“这只是一场比赛，”Tim Duncan 说，“现在我们需要再接再厉。要是再回到之前懒懒散散的状态，那这场胜利就一文不值了。我们需要做的是一场一场的变得更好。”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In a moment of truth just before the Spurs took the floor Saturday night in Chicago, coach Gregg Popovich opened up to inquiring minds about all that was wrong with his club.
The laundry list of problems was so small it would fit on a Post-It note. It was just one item, really. But in Popovich's world, it was a biggie.
“We suck on ‘D,'” Popovich said, with the “D” standing for defense.
That was the entire text of Popovich's State of the Team address, as succinct as it was devastating. All follow-up questions fishing for a silver lining were quickly rebuffed.
Do you mean all game long, or just in fourth quarters?
“No, pretty much throughout,” Popovich said. “Both individually and team-wise, we suck. We're pretty consistent that way.”
Surely there is a way to fix this problem, some sliver of hope on the horizon?
“I don't know if I have an answer to that,” Popovich said. “If I did, we wouldn't suck quite so bad.”
A suffocating defense has long been the Spurs' calling card, the common thread that has hung four NBA championship banners in their home arena.
This season, the Spurs are 26-13 and sitting atop the Southwest Division. But, in a flip from years past, Popovich believes his team's success has come in spite of its defense, not because of it.
Heading into today's MLK Day matinee at Charlotte, which caps a three-game road swing, the Spurs rank eighth in the NBA in scoring defense, surrendering 94.2 points per game.
That number isn't so bad. To Popovich, it also is largely irrelevant.
A truer measure of a team's defensive effectiveness, he believes, is its field-goal percentage defense. It is the first number he looks at when handed the box score at the end of the night.
In Popovich's 11 full seasons on the bench, the Spurs never have finished worse than fifth in the NBA in that category. So far this season, they rank 21st. Opponents are shooting 46 percent against them.
The Spurs also are giving up a 36.9 percentage from 3-point range, 19th in the league.
A firm believer that a team eventually gets what it deserves, Popovich cringes to think of the comeuppance due the Spurs if they don't begin to boost their defensive numbers to familiar levels. And quickly.
“The only thing that's saving us is that everybody else is beating everybody else up, so our record looks basically as good as anybody else's,” Popovich said. “It's fool's gold, as far as I'm concerned.”
Rock bottom for the Spurs' defense came in Philadelphia, during a 109-87 loss that opened the road trip Friday night.
The 76ers shot 50 percent from the field, 57 percent from the 3-point line, and alley-ooped their way to 30 fast-break points en route to handing the Spurs their most lopsided defeat of the season.
Essentially, the Sixers transformed the Wachovia Center into their own personal pick-up game, with the defenseless Spurs as an unwitting foil.
Perhaps inspired by their head coach's not-so-gentle public pregame prodding, or the sheer humiliation of what happened in Philadelphia, the Spurs turned in one of their better defensive performances of the season a night later in Chicago. They held the Bulls without a field goal in the final 3:13 to lock up a 92-87 victory.
Afterward, however, the Spurs resisted the urge to declare themselves cured of all their defensive ills.
“We were better,” point guard Tony Parker said. “It's a good first step.”
The next step comes today at Charlotte. Physically, the Spurs are in North Carolina, the Tar Heel State.
Philosophically, however, they find themselves in a show-me state of mind — as in, “show me” the defensive stand they took against the Bulls is more than just a one-night wonder.
“It's just one game,” Tim Duncan said. “Now you have to build on that. If we go back to the way we've been playing, this game doesn't mean anything. It starts with one game, and you build from there.”
It might be the one way for the Spurs to silence their most vocal critic, their head coach.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Popovich_offers_harsh_evaluation_of_Spurs_defense.html
“我们的防守烂透了。”(We suck on 'D') Pop 说。
“几乎整场都很烂。不管是个人还是团队的防守，我们都做得糟糕极了。在豆腐渣防守这一点上我们保持得相当稳定。”
解决办法？
“我不知道。假如我知道的话，我们的防守就不会那么烂了。”
马刺目前场均失分94.2，联盟第八。不过在 Pop 更看重的限制对手投篮命中率这一点上，马刺目前仅以46%位列联盟第21。而在 Popovich 执掌以来的11年间，马刺在这一项统计上从未跌出联盟前五。
(惊慌之前，提示：上赛季此时本队限制对手投篮命中率列联盟第20……)
Pop 在解释本队仍然能位列西部第二时说：“这只是因为其他队互有胜负而已，所以我们的战绩看上去还过得去。对我来说，这(战绩)几乎就可以无视。”
不过在费城遭遇本赛季最惨痛的一场失败之后，马刺在一天后加强了防守，他们在最后3分13秒内令公牛一球未进，并最终92-87取胜。
“我们有了起色，”Tony Parker 说，“这是良好的开端。”
“这只是一场比赛，”Tim Duncan 说，“现在我们需要再接再厉。要是再回到之前懒懒散散的状态，那这场胜利就一文不值了。我们需要做的是一场一场的变得更好。”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In a moment of truth just before the Spurs took the floor Saturday night in Chicago, coach Gregg Popovich opened up to inquiring minds about all that was wrong with his club.
The laundry list of problems was so small it would fit on a Post-It note. It was just one item, really. But in Popovich's world, it was a biggie.
“We suck on ‘D,'” Popovich said, with the “D” standing for defense.
That was the entire text of Popovich's State of the Team address, as succinct as it was devastating. All follow-up questions fishing for a silver lining were quickly rebuffed.
Do you mean all game long, or just in fourth quarters?
“No, pretty much throughout,” Popovich said. “Both individually and team-wise, we suck. We're pretty consistent that way.”
Surely there is a way to fix this problem, some sliver of hope on the horizon?
“I don't know if I have an answer to that,” Popovich said. “If I did, we wouldn't suck quite so bad.”
A suffocating defense has long been the Spurs' calling card, the common thread that has hung four NBA championship banners in their home arena.
This season, the Spurs are 26-13 and sitting atop the Southwest Division. But, in a flip from years past, Popovich believes his team's success has come in spite of its defense, not because of it.
Heading into today's MLK Day matinee at Charlotte, which caps a three-game road swing, the Spurs rank eighth in the NBA in scoring defense, surrendering 94.2 points per game.
That number isn't so bad. To Popovich, it also is largely irrelevant.
A truer measure of a team's defensive effectiveness, he believes, is its field-goal percentage defense. It is the first number he looks at when handed the box score at the end of the night.
In Popovich's 11 full seasons on the bench, the Spurs never have finished worse than fifth in the NBA in that category. So far this season, they rank 21st. Opponents are shooting 46 percent against them.
The Spurs also are giving up a 36.9 percentage from 3-point range, 19th in the league.
A firm believer that a team eventually gets what it deserves, Popovich cringes to think of the comeuppance due the Spurs if they don't begin to boost their defensive numbers to familiar levels. And quickly.
“The only thing that's saving us is that everybody else is beating everybody else up, so our record looks basically as good as anybody else's,” Popovich said. “It's fool's gold, as far as I'm concerned.”
Rock bottom for the Spurs' defense came in Philadelphia, during a 109-87 loss that opened the road trip Friday night.
The 76ers shot 50 percent from the field, 57 percent from the 3-point line, and alley-ooped their way to 30 fast-break points en route to handing the Spurs their most lopsided defeat of the season.
Essentially, the Sixers transformed the Wachovia Center into their own personal pick-up game, with the defenseless Spurs as an unwitting foil.
Perhaps inspired by their head coach's not-so-gentle public pregame prodding, or the sheer humiliation of what happened in Philadelphia, the Spurs turned in one of their better defensive performances of the season a night later in Chicago. They held the Bulls without a field goal in the final 3:13 to lock up a 92-87 victory.
Afterward, however, the Spurs resisted the urge to declare themselves cured of all their defensive ills.
“We were better,” point guard Tony Parker said. “It's a good first step.”
The next step comes today at Charlotte. Physically, the Spurs are in North Carolina, the Tar Heel State.
Philosophically, however, they find themselves in a show-me state of mind — as in, “show me” the defensive stand they took against the Bulls is more than just a one-night wonder.
“It's just one game,” Tim Duncan said. “Now you have to build on that. If we go back to the way we've been playing, this game doesn't mean anything. It starts with one game, and you build from there.”
It might be the one way for the Spurs to silence their most vocal critic, their head coach.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/spurs/Popovich_offers_harsh_evaluation_of_Spurs_defense.html