FYI, prediksi Jazz vs Warriors versi Scottie Pippen. Scottie Pippen: If I Were Coach Posted May 7 2007 3:27PM If one player best captured the excellence of the versatile, athletic mid-sized player who helped change the face of the NBA in the 20th Century's last decade, that player would be Scottie Pippen. Teaming with Michael Jordan to help the Chicago Bulls win six NBA championships in the '90s, Pippen out of Central Arkansas, was the best defensive player and top passer during those years. Named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History, Pippen will be offering his insights on a weekly basis throughout the playoffs as if he were a head coach trying to navigate the dangerous postseason waters. Posted by Scottie Pippen on May 7, 2007, 3 p.m. ET If I Were Coaching the Warriors The way the NBA is set up, if I am Don Nelson, I encourage my team to continue to play with the same style that they played in the last series. That is Don Nelson type of basketball and that is the type of basketball that has made his teams, even in the past, successful. Just encourage them to go out and keep scoring. Scoring seems to be the key right now in the playoffs. Its not really about both teams making a lot of stops. The teams that are putting the ball in the basket, the officials are allowing them to play. Their style of play suits the playoffs just perfectly. Nellies Nothing to Lose Philosophy Anytime you are an eighth seed, you have to look at it from that standpoint. You got very lucky to get in, no one is expecting you to do anything, so hey, lets just go out and prove everybody wrong. Your whole mindset it just basically that there is nothing to lose. You play a little bit looser compared to a team like Dallas who was a top seed. The Mavs got a little bit tight when things got tough. That is the natural instinct because they werent expected to be in that situation, whereas with Golden State, theyre just freelancing. That has always been Nellies style of play. He allows his team to just go out and play and not put any pressure on itself. A Potential Golden State Letdown? I dont see any letdown. You are talking about one of the greatest coaches in the game. When you speak of the Pat Rileys, the Phil Jacksons, you have to speak of Don Nelson and the success that he has had in the game. He has been able to take teams without centers, and give guys who are just mediocre players an opportunity to go out and succeed. He feels very strong about his coaching philosophy because its been very successful. Don Nelson sees this as an opportunity as, hey, maybe my team can win a championship. Were damn sure going to try. Thats how he coaches and thats how his team goes out and plays. I look back at the Run TMC days with Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway and Mitch Richmond. Those guys didnt have much more than what youre looking at with this current Warriors team, which is a very strong ability to go out and get 90 points from three of your top players. You have Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson and Jason Richardson who can all step up and score 30 points. That is a lot of points coming from your frontline. You dont really need a big man when youve got guys who can put up points like that. If I Were Coaching the Jazz Theyre a team that is going to execute. They are going to get layups. Theyre not going to rely on the jumpshot. Theyre going to execute and make Golden State have to play. And on the other end, theyre a very good basketball team from a defensive standpoint. Theyre not going to give in. They dont have weak links on their defense and theyre not going to have the opportunity to take advantage, speaking of Golden State, of any individuals on Utah. All those guys are pretty much stand alone defenders, but also theyre a very good team defensively. Jerry Sloan 101 When you look at Jerry Sloan teams, theyre all very disciplined. They execute well. They play within themselves. But this is a team that is a little bit different than the Utah teams that weve seen in the past. They do have a little bit more of an uptempo style, but they run with a purpose. Theyre not going to get out of the context of their game and start playing the type of basketball that we saw with the Golden State-Dallas series where they were just running up and down, jacking three-pointers. Utah is not going to get caught up in that kind of game. Utah is going to be a far more hostile environment for Golden State than what they faced in Dallas. That is a very tough arena to win in and they are going to control the tempo. Theyre going to execute, get fouls, slow the game down and theyre going to make it very difficult for Golden State to make those runs that they made in the Dallas series. Jerry Sloan is not going to allow that. He is going to use his timeouts effectively and theyre going to make it very tough on Golden State to come in there and get a win. I know Baron Davis is going to be a handful, but expect this Utah team to really step up defensively and focus on Baron Davis. Prediction I like Utah to advance. I think Golden State will give them their moneys worth, but I just think the mental toughness and the ability they have of guys that will step in the lane and not allow Davis to dominate their paint as Richardson and Davis and Jackson did in the Dallas series will be big. You cant have small guards inside dominate the paint and I think Utah will own the paint in this series.
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