Confession: I am a bad fan

Faithful hoopheads and other readers,

The above image represents how I feel after letting down the Spurs by not coaching them to victory in the waning moments of game 4 against the Warriors.



I have a shocking confession to make; this confession lies somewhere on the confession scale between finding out Michael Jackson was originally black (fairly shocking), and finding out Jason Collins is gay (quite shocking).  What is this confession, you query?  Well, due to circumstances outside of my control (namely a wedding last night and Mother's Day dinner tonight), J4G missed both his beliked (a word I have invented to represent slightly less than beloved) Grizzlies game, and, more embarrassingly, the end of the Spurs-Warriors game today.  When I left today to go to dinner, Manu, Tony, Duncan, Leonard, and the 8 D-Leaguers who make up the Spurs' roster were in control.  However, without my guidance, they fell apart and eventually lost in OT. 

I have nobody but myself to blame; surely I could have convinced my mom to move dinner back half an hour; maybe if I had kept yelling at the screen, Popovich's overrated ass would have played Boris Diaw more and used Tracy McGrady in place of Gary Neal.  Instead, Tony Parker was abused like a Penn State summer camper, as the Warriors exploited his French tendency to yield over and over. 

Popovich's penchant for not making changes until too late is well documented; several years ago in the series the Spurs lost to the Grizzlies, Pop refused to play Splitter for most of the series, leaving Blair and Bonner to battle Z-Bo and Gasol; predictably, it didn't end well for the Spurs.  I still remember late in the series, when Pop finally gave Splitter extended run and he played well, the announcers said "Popovich seems to have really found something here with Splitter".  FAIL.  

I still think the Spurs will win the series; Ginobili seems to finally have found some semblance of his stroke, which opens up his drives (in days of yore, Manu had such an awesome first step that it didn't really matter if his shot was falling--his combo of speed, clever finishing ability and INSANE handle were enough to get him past everyone).  Further, the Spurs' role players played horribly today, clanking wide open shot after wide open shot, which is not likely to re-occur at home.  Boris Diaw is an absolute nightmare for the Warriors, and I am hoping against hope that Popovich will finally watch some tape and see that having a big body out there who can handle, shoot, pass, post up, and rebound is ALWAYS A GOOD THING!!  Tiago Splitter has about 1/30th of Diaw's talent; why he plays more than the rotund Frenchman is a question I cannot answer. 

In re: Grizzlies, I picked them to win the series in 6, but I think 5 is more likely at this point.  Whether they play the Spurs or the Warriors in the conference finals, the Grizzlies will be favored; San Antonio has shown a porous defensive backboard, which Gasol, Z-Bo, and Tony Allen (an underrated offensive rebounder) will exploit.  If the Grizz hadn't traded 2 of their best bench players (Marrese Speights and Wayne Ellington, in a disgraceful trade to clear cap space with the Cavs), the Grizz wouldn't be a big underdog to the winner of Pacers/Heat, err, the winner of the Eastern Conference (let's pretend the Bulls and Knicks are still alive).