Aaron Gray said:He doesn't even need to be that much better.
If he could have just stopped one goal—just enough to break that momentum...
We were basically getting hit from everywhere—set plays, fast breaks, transition buckets... honestly, our interior defense should have been what broke that streak. We had way too many gaps out there. Maybe if they had just played a bit more physical and called some fouls on those semi-fast breaks, we could've slowed things down.
George Ward7 said:They’ve got a coach who actually understands the flow of the game—you could really see that today. He’s got an answer for everything, calls his timeouts at just the right moment, rotates the keepers... honestly, his tactical depth is probably what won them the game.
Of course he knows. And of course 'the old man' doesn't.
But look, here's what I mean—we manage to shut down one lineup and we're leading by three, then they sub in a completely different unit that just totally throws us off our rhythm. That isn't on the coach, though; that's on the players.
I mean, Garcia basically dismantled us. Then you add in two fast wingers, those drives toward their second pivot, Aguinagalde, and playmakers who actually read the floor... man. We just couldn't close the gap, and that's when they pulled away from us. Just easy points at that stage. Even Stevanovic wouldn't have been much better, even if Alilovic was a pretty obvious mistake in the rotation.
And we? We had no real plan for them. Or maybe we did, but it stayed strictly in the playbook.
The Spanish—much like the French—have clearly realized our pivot is playing way too static. They've figured out they can step out deeper from the line without us actually punishing them for it. And honestly? We aren't punishing them. We just aren't.
Meanwhile, our guy is just constantly crashing into the defense instead of cutting toward the hoop to find some breathing room or looking for the ball. It’s just completely wrong. He’s out there trying to act like an old-school, grizzled version of Tim Duncan, but it's just not working.
Man, what is this idiot commentator doing—saying goodbye along with that mindless referee while our guys are out there missing a free throw when we're only down by two... I mean, if Štrlek had just sunk that, the game wouldn't even be over yet, sorry
Honestly, it mostly came down to that lightning-fast second unit the Spaniards threw at us—the one featuring Garcia and Dusebajev. We actually held our own against their starters, the group with Entre Ríos and Canellas; we kept them pretty much in check, and I think we could have even pulled off an upset there. But they’ve clearly got a Plan B, this high-tempo lineup that just completely tore our defense apart and left us scrambling.
neonviper8 said:we were giving up way too many goals from the perimeter right after those wing players started driving...
Look, you fix that by starting the game with a 6-0 lead by the 15th minute—good grief... Honestly, I’m just getting sick of our coaching staff across basically every sport lately.
But I don't think the system is really at fault here. I mean, we eventually switched to a 6-0 defense, and they were still finding ways to slip through those plays to the pivots.
Sam Murphy said:I mean, what kind of idiot puts Alilović in goal right after that game against Poland? You could clearly see the Spaniards weren't hitting anything from deep, so why stick with a 6-0 defense instead of switching to a 5-1?
Even with a 5-1 setup, you shouldn't be letting that many shots get through at the pivot position. A 5-1 is supposed to open things up for the wings—but here we are, giving up everything in the paint. It's inexcusable. Honestly, it might not even be about the 5-1 versus 6-0 thing... we just plain old suck at defending the line.
Dammit, it's Garcia and Dujshebaev all over again... we're basically giving them a free pass on defense right now, when we really need to be tightening things up—they're absolutely killing us on the transition play.
Our defense finally seems to be clicking into gear... though I wonder if that was because Garcia went down with an injury? They switched back to that starting lineup, maybe because of him, I guess.
steelharbor9 said:And here we go—the collective pile-on on Alilović starts because he didn't save those penalties. Typical. 😁
Well, that's just... I guess you could say it's one of those things...
Yeah, I mean, a better keeper probably would've stepped up and saved two or three of those clear-cut opportunities—but man, they just keep handing them over. Every single time, we let them get right there at the six-meter line for an easy look. I guess you have to wonder why they don't even bother testing us from the perimeter anymore... what's the point of a long-range shot when you can just walk it in?
Alilovic isn't really doing much in the cage, I guess—but honestly, he’s not the one to blame for those gaping holes in the defense or those desperate offensive drives that just end up handing out fast breaks
From what I can gather about my own experience with healing—using myself as the instrument, if you will—it seems like things had to go completely sideways first. I had to hit some kind of breaking point to actually tap into that potential, whether that meant dealing with someone else or just facing my own mess
It’s like... there had to be this overwhelming necessity, right? A moment where healing wasn't just an option, but became the only thing left on the table. That was the only way the awareness of healing could really flow through me
Or maybe I'm just being a bit dense about the whole thing. It feels like I only truly understood what needed to happen—and realized I actually had the capacity to do it—once I was backed into a corner
But then again, that kind of gets into territory that's a bit bigger than just "me." I suppose consciousness isn't really something we own or personalize anyway; it's more of a universal thing