Throughout the playoffs, we are going to be looking at the teams that lost their last game and look at what they can do to try and get a win.

For most of the first two games Thabo Sefolosha was the one responsible for covering Kobe Bryant.  While Kobe got his, Sefolosha did a very good job of making him work for his points.  However, in the final quarter of Game 2, Thunder coach Scott Brooks decided to match-up Jeff Green with Kobe Bryant, while he left Thabo on the bench (he sat the entire 4th quarter).

I understand why Coach Brooks made this decision (he wanted Jeff Green out there to be an offensive threat), but he has to understand that Green was even struggling on that end (2-11 for 12 points).  With Green struggling, you can say that he and Sefolosha are even on that end, so with Thabo being the better defender he should have been in.  Also, Thabo has been covering Kobe for 7 quarters, so he is familiar with his game and how he works.  Jeff Green on the other hand, hasn’t been covering Bryant and it is hard for him to get the timing down.  A perfect example of this is the following two plays:

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The Spurs were ahead of the Mavs for the entire game last night, but there were a few times where it looked like the Mavericks were going to get over the hump and take the lead.  At one point in the 4th quarter, the Mavs were able to cut the lead down to 5 points after a Jason Terry three pointer.  The Spurs answered with a heavy dose of Tim Duncan, and with an 8 point lead, the Spurs close the door on any chance of a Maverick comeback:

Manu Ginobili knocked down a pretty open three point shot to give the Spurs an 11 point lead with under 2 minutes left. How was he so wide open?

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