To all of you who are naive and ignorant that the Spurs can't play defense anymore is wrong. This is toward you maverick and other non nba purists. Most of you dumb fans can get the grasp that its not age of the spurs but the lineup of the spurs at this present moment.
You all assume oh since spurs are letting them score at will they suck on defense. That is not the case. The reason why they are getting at the basket so easy is because the spurs are playing small ball (for you NBA newbies out there) meaning they are playing iwth no center. Thus no rebounding, thus no shotblocking, and thus easy way to lane. This has nothing to do with the spurs potential on Defense. It is just they don't have the lineup out there to play defense. They need Rasho or Nazr for rebounding and blocking of the mavs quick guards. Teams are used to making adjustments to us, we are making adjustments for them. It is totally un-spurs like.
The foundation of the succesful spurs defense has been on a principle of:
(1) funnel penetrators to the baseline, (2)rotate the bigs to get in their way, (3)rotate to cover open shooters, (4) crash the boards. With only 1 big man in there, numbers 2 and 4 are comprimised, which will result in more layups and more offensive rebounds for our opponents.
But this is besides the point, the spurs have done a decent job at small ball, with the refs being fair, spurs would lead the series playing 3-1 wiht this small ball line up.
Much of you people just look at the score and have no friggin clue about NBA basketball and conclude far too quick. hopefully some of you learned a thing or two.