SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 33: SPURS AT GRIZZLIES, 2-1-2024, 7PM (CT)

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Blake, Devin, Doug, Keldon, Wemby to start the 4TH.

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Another O board given up and points as a result.

Another poor finish at the rim by Blake but at least he got the foul.

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Aaaaaand Blake misses both FTs.

[imagump1313]

They are just clowning on us.......

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Good Devin block after tracking the driver to the rim.

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"Champagnie kicks the ball to his own face" - Grizz commentator summing up our night.

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Nevermind. He's back.

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Blake's all "Wooo! Wooo!" calling for the ball from Wemby. Wemby passes to the left corner. Blake barely grazes the rim.

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Nice four-point possession by us. Devin makes the flopping tech FT; our possession, Devin to Sochan for the 3.

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Blake steal. He's put together a productive two-way game after Branham went out.

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Devin makes 3FTs after getting fouled. Devin full court press and gets the foul called again. Good job.

[imagump1313]

They rush and chuck up bad contested threes early in the shot clock all night. Then when you want a quick basket they pass it around forever like Princeton........

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Wemby in for Blake with just over a minute left in our improbable comeback of sorts. . .

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Devin to Wemby. Dunk. Getting some chemistry.

Good full court press.

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We have Tre, Blake, Devin, Keldon, Sochan in.

Didn't even see Wemby getting subbed back out after that dunk.

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4TH Q: SPURS 98 GRIZZLIES 106

Well, some things are looking better, several others are all too familiar, and the self-inflicted choices are largely on us to fix. We were not overwhelmed by a locked in opponent but made too many mistakes that cut into our rhythm.

LOOKING BETTER: Involving Wemby early with P&Rs and alley oops.

More Spurs are attempting it, too.

The Devin-Wemby tandem had some nice looks.

Better ball movement, especially early which helped facilitate a quicker, more cohesive start for us.

Sochan passed yet another time in an end of Q situation, smartly finding a teammate with little time left, and we capitalized with buckets.

We won two Qs.

We fought decently throughout the game, cutting into deficits several times.

Our starting 3-4-5 all shot it very efficiently, each scoring in double figures, each making 3s, each getting to the FT line. Better shot selection by all three, better decisions with the ball.

Our bench outscored theirs 41-37, so despite missing Zach, moving Keldon to the bench has been a ballast to bench scoring. Six of our bench guys contributed with seven players getting minutes.

We used zone D 1-2-2 to decent effect.

Our guards stayed in front of drivers better and led them to rim protectors. We had 8 blocks and 6 steals.

Dom put together a nice, hard fought, two-way game. He was tied for team high with 7 boards (with Wemby) and led us with 4 O boards.

Blake also played better overall. He used his speed on *both* ends, was disruptive on full court pressure, stayed in front of their talented PG well enough, drove hard, pushed the pace. Was an efficient 5-8, got 2 steals. Did well to stay with his counterpart and prevent easy passes back to him. Did well to fight over screens and stay with the assignment.

Julian showed up with a better contribution, made his 3s, made FTs, 4 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal. He has a tendency to make bad back court passes to teammates who have defenders on them for TOs and points against.

Keldon has been our most consistently competitive player all season. He drives hard, he got some D stops(!) by staying with his man (though parked in the paint or closed out late in other times), used his physicality and energy for bench high 19 points on 7-16, 1-4 from 3, 4-5FTs, 6 boards (1 on O), 4 assists, 1 steal.

Wemby was Wemby. A superhuman highlight reel, not for style sake, though he plays beautifully, but for impact's sake. Led us with 4 blocks, led us with 20 points on 8-16, 2-5 from 3, 2-4FTs, starter high 7 boards, 1 assist. Fought hard to get positioning in the post and seal his man. Did better in making moves to get inside the paint. Finished hard. Two-way impact on a minutes restriction, though he played two more than he was designated to. I do also like that Wemby has more assertive starts now and his energy lasts longer in the game (yes minutes restriction is also a factor, but still, he is more active earlier in the game which is a big positive).

ALL TOO FAMILIAR PATTERNS NEEDING CHANGE: No boxing out once again hurt us with being down 46-40 and 8-6 on O boards (also, in other words, Dom got half of the team's O boards).

Too many TOs in too close a time ruined momentum. 14TOs in total resulted in 12 points against, but we actually earned 21 off of theirs, so this was a better result. But in a game in which we took only 85 FGAs, and were not particularly efficient, these opportunities we couldn't get hurt.

Defense - too many instances of all five Spurs in the paint as the opponent kicked out and we froze as to which Spur was to run out to contest. Though we did this less often, and though did have guys run out to contest, we can and must do a better job picking up our assignments and read switches and contests better.

I wish we could use full court press or high doubles near the half court line more. Even if it's just one guy pressuring the ball handler.

O - as gump said, we chucked when we didn't need to, and over dribbled when we didn't need to.

Tre has been disappointing on O both with his poor efficiency (1-6) and poor shot selection (0-3 from 3). He did get 4 boards, 4 assists and 1 steal, but the +8 is very deceptive because he confused teammates with what he was trying to run on O, he took his own shot into congested, contested spaces without setting anything up, and he took 3s rather than running something or just about any other teammate. His 3s shot looks broken. His body is bowed to the left side, his right shooting elbow is caved into his body, and so he has a crooked body and release arm as he shoots it. Barely made the rim. It's one thing if, like Sochan, you've reworked your shooting form from the arc and have improved. it's entirely another when your efficiency is even worse now with 22.6% from 3, 6% lower than last season. I'm not used to seeing him make bad shot selections, and bad me-first decisions with the ball. He's pressing to much on O and should set others up instead. Too many wasted possessions.

Speaking of 3s, paging Doug and especially Cedi! Combined for 1-6 from 3, 1-7 overall. Doug had 3 points and no other statistically measured contributions (poor D); Cedi had 0 points with 6 boards, 2 assists, 2TOs. Both were -9. Cedi is now 35.2% from 3 for the season, but is 30.6% from 3 in losses (55% in wins) and is 27.5% from 3 on the road (42.6% at home). To make things worse, he is 27.6% in the last 20 games, and a woeful 16.5% from 3 in the last 5 games. OOF. We need our vets to step up better. We may need to rethink that Doug-Cedi tandem in the lineup (this is part of the four small players around Wemby group. In theory lots of movement and spacing and 3s shooting, but has instead been mistake-and-miss-filled, this with two vets). Too many TOs and not enough O production of late.

Devin is a problem and not in a cool watch out opponents! kind of way. Another passive start, the once-pretty footwork looks slower and more heavy and plodding. His hips look stiff as does his upper body around his shoulders as he has a habit of keeping them up high and hunched. Just looks weird. He also isn't bringing the requisite energy and initiative to start games. Only 3 points in the entire first half, and these were on only 1-4 (only one of which was in the paint), and these were all in the 1ST Q. In 7 2ND Q minutes, Devin did not take a single shot, this when we bloody well needed SOME sort of juice. On D he is getting backed up several steps by first moves, and gets taken out of the play. Another way to put it is he doesn't fight back into the play hard enough. Both of these are disappointing and confounding.

Only 85FGAs. Only 16-23FTs, both too low.

SELF-INFLICTED CHOICES: Who scouted the last couple of games? We tried to go mano-a-mano from 3 versus the highest 3s attempting and top-10 in 3s efficiency team when we played the Cs. And tonight when we faced a team that ranks 5th in 3s attempts but LAST in efficiency, we settled for creating 36% of our shots from 3 whereas we took 48% of our shots from the 3 vs. the Cs. Isn't this backwards for each game? And as a result we mustered 101 and 98 points respectively. I love that we established Wemby inside more, but we could and should have found our 3s shooters more with all the attention he garners inside. This was the game to do it.

There's always that ONE Q. This time it was the 2ND Q which we lost by 10, in which we only manufactured 17 points, on only 7-17 (of which only 2-5 were from 3), only 1-4FTs with 8TOs. EIGHT! It looks like our 3RD Qs have been moved to the 2ND Q and with our two middle Qs sagging, bookended by good 1ST and 4TH Qs. But we were more competitive for longer stretches of the game, but for that ONE Q. Wherever it is, we keep having one. We need our leaders to step up and fill in and take over in those lulls, make things happen on either end to affect momentum FOR us.

I like that Pop wants more synergy for Wemby and Devin. You can see the beffies-in-the-making synergy just as friends and we want that to translate into chemistry on the court. I also like that Pop staggers the Wemby and Devin minutes so that one of them is on the court for longer minutes to stabilize us. It makes sense as our two best players should keep the floor raised. But frankly in the non-Wemby minutes, Devin has to step up a LOT more on both ends.

Since getting moved to PF in the last 13 games that Wemby got moved to C, Sochan's second half stats dip badly: in the first half he plays 15.3 minutes and averages 6.4PPG on 49.2%FG, 44.4% from 3, 81.3%FTs; in the second half, on just under a minute less of PT and on nearly identical FGAs, his averages drop to 36.4%FG, 22.2% from 3, and 50%FTs on half the number of attempts, with all other stats very similar. We need more from him, more consistently. Of course the total numbers are small in the second half, but the pattern replicated on higher volume starts to be all the more impactful.

Julian and Branham are not starters, despite a good recent Tom Orsborn article on Malaki's growing pains in the starting position. He's putting up more stats in more areas but the talk of focusing on D hasn't materialized. It's what this year is about, at least in part. Hopefully he heals quickly, though now it's an opportunity for Blake to step up and the same for Dom with Zach out as well.

Going away from what gets us good results is a final self-inflicted choice that we can fix. Staying with ball movement, and off ball movement, and making team-first plays is crucial, even if some guys want to assert some shot making ability (and others need to do it more).

Better compete level overall. Physicality and speed were challenges in this game. We take something from each to use in future games. Some of our patterns are changing for the better, albeit at a slower than expected pace. On to the next one, with a focus on playing to our strengths more consistently.

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