SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 61: SPURS VS. PACERS 3-3-2023, 6PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

Keldon gets his own O board and bullies a layup in. Terrific.

[G R E Y]

3RD Q: SPURS 86 PACERS 77

Terrific comeback fight from down 9-2 and giving up the lead early to finishing strong and getting our lead back and bringing it up to 9 by the end of the Q, winning it 34-29.

Great ball movement, cuts, and finishes. Terrific O board work, better ball protection (only 3TOs).

Wemby took over to get the lead back. Collins steady O presence in scoring and in passing to others.

Better physicality.

We MUST stay focused, protect the ball, absorb and push back with physicality and finesse. THINK, stay POISED, finish strong.

[G R E Y]

Blake nice up right to down left drive. Found the seam and ripped through it.

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POP GOING BERSERK AT THE REF FOR TAKING SO LONG FOR CALLING THAT FOUL ON WEMBY'S DEFENDER. CLUTCHING GRABBING SHOVING AND FINALLY A BLOODY WHISTLE.

[imagump1313]

They really need McDermott to come in and give them a spark......

[G R E Y]

We call a timeout and it's a 6-1 run against oof...

PLAY SMART AND HARD, SPURS!

PROTECT THE BALL!

[G R E Y]

We TO it.

We give up an easy basket in our end. Didn't get back hard enough.

Sochan is staying with drivers but then watching as they score at the rim. No bueno.

We must stay true to hustle and fundamentals and poise.

[G R E Y]

ANOTHER TO out of the ATO.

It's **** contagious. Or nightmarish repetition.

GET YOUR HEADS IN THE GAME, GENTS!

[G R E Y]

GREAT ball movement for the Keldon 3.

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Devin using the screen to get to his top of FT line sweet spot J.

[G R E Y]

Sochan to Wemby who goes forward absorbs physicality gets the basket and foul +1.

Wemby is much better at absorbing and responding to physicality.

[G R E Y]

I love these little Pop-Wemby teachable moments on the sidelines.

Real time info absorption and the great thing is Wemby is so good at realizing it just about as soon as he gets the knowledge.

PEMBY!

[G R E Y]

Tre and Sochan doing STELLAR defensive work on the perimeter opponent tandem. Staying with them off ball, switching well, closing space, contesting. Absolute D menace.

[G R E Y]

Wemby doubled, Sochan cuts, Wemby passes over the double, Sochan finishes the layup off glass.

[G R E Y]

GREAT D to O, we push, extra pass to Devin right corner 3 miss, Sochan O board tip in.

[G R E Y]

We have Tre, Blake, Branham, Keldon, Sochan in the last 30 seconds.

Make that SIDY, DOM, MAMU, Blake, Branham to bring it on home.

[imagump1313]

[imagump1313]

Wemy needed one more steal and I would have cashed in 500 bucks

[G R E Y]

4TH Q: SPURS 117 PACERS 105

An impressive win following our most impressive win of the season.

Another game, another second half win, but this time we started strong to win the first half as well.

The resilience to withstand a couple of strong runs to end the first half, to play through a poor start in the second half and give up the lead, to regroup and take it back and stay ahead with poise shows the raised quality in our performance.

Kudos to Branham to go from being benched in January, to playing increasingly better since his return, to starting in place of Julian and continuing to make an ever more important difference. Tonight he scored a crucial 18 on 7-13, 2-6 from 3, 4 boards (1 on O), tied for team-high 6 assists, 1 steal in 30 minutes. The shot selection achieved through patience and aggression with his running out to open spaces for 3s and driving for all other attempts. And of his seven paint attempts, six were in the restricted area. Impressive, assertive play.

All starters played at least 30 minutes, and even with the Keldon-for-Julian starting switch, the latter has averaged bench minutes and Keldon has finished games more often than not. Branham’s into-the-fire stint was a true starting role. In 66 games last season, he played only 4% of games at SF; this season, none. Even though he is a bit shorter than the average SF at 6’4”, he wasn’t towered over by his opposing SF who is only two inches taller. Branham used his speed, twitchy, slinky movement, and space and shot creation to good effect while his counterpart was held to 4 points. Julian may well have done a good job defensively had he played, but he has never scored 18 points this season. Branham is a more polished and crafty scorer. We needed the extra O juice tonight even as our D provided a solid foundation from which the O sprung.

Branham was second to Wemby in scoring who led us with another record setting game with 31 on 11-17, 3-4 from 3, team-high 6-7FTs, team-high 12 boards (2 on O), 6 assists, 1 steal, game-high 6 blocks to 3TOs and team-high +18 in 31 minutes. When we lost the lead in the 3RD Q, it was the Wemby and Branham-centric O around whom others contributed to get it back and pull ahead. When the game was close in the 4TH Q, Wemby went to work to help us pull away. When he wasn’t scoring, he was drawing double teams and finding cutting teammates, rebounding, blocking, and staying composed. After operating in the paint almost exclusively in the first half, he made a couple of 3s and went back to paint work in the 4TH. The gravity Wemby creates and commands, the confidence he instills in the team, and the effect it is having on opponents, along with better team chemistry at this point of the season, is helping us pull away versus quality opponents of late:

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Sochan was physical and active, contributing an efficient 12 on 6-8, all in the paint, four of which were in the restricted area. He grabbed 8 boards (2 on O), had 4 assists, 1 block. He cut well on O, switched well on D, and was a menace when Pop put him on perimeter D duties, taking away any space to operate, closing driving lanes, forcing passes and contesting shots. Much more determined effort to use his strengths.

Devin struggled through inefficiency to score 17 on 7-20 (team high FGAs), 2-7 from 3, 1-2FTs. I don’t love that shot selection profile as he’s been much more effective in being aggressive with downhill play, but with less than a third of our shots coming from the arc again, we had other players who were mostly operating in the paint. He had only four attempts in the restricted area, all in the first half. I value middies and appreciate how good he is at getting to his spots, but he struggled with all but one of his attempts at the paint borders. He was active in both sides of the game grabbing 9 boards (2 on O), dishing 5 assists, and getting 2 steals to team-high 4TOs in team-high 37 minutes. It’s clear Pop relies on him as being our other cog when his and Wemby’s minutes are staggered.

Tre. 30 minutes. 0-2. 2-2FTs. 1 board. 4 assists. 1 block. +16. Weird stat line. But he was a defensive hound and helped set that tone.

After facing some defensively stingy teams, playing one that ranks last on D really opened up our O, our ball and off ball movement, and we executed our sets well, making drive and kick outs, extra passes around the horn, running P&Rs, finding cutters, etc. Just terrific, unselfish Spurs basketball.

Pop ran a tight nine-man unit with Julian out, and the four bench players combined for 37 points spread among three Spurs. Cedi was scoreless (0-1 from 3) but had a bench high 4 boards (1 on O), 2 assists, 1 steal in 14 minutes. Keldon led the bench with 17 points on 7-13, 3-7 from 3, along with 4 boards (2 on O), and 2 assists in 27 minutes. He started out slow with only one made FG in the first half, but finished strong making 2-4 in the 3RD, and scoring 10 crucial points in the 4TH on 100% efficiency. Extra passes for clutch 3s, including side stepping a fly-by defender, really set him up well. Good teamwork set up, good individual finish.

Collins was far more balanced and physical, imposing his will in the paint, sealing, posting up, making moves down low, and finishing strong. He did well to get into defender bodies and create space just long enough to score. He contributed 11 points on 5-8, 1-2FTs, 2 boards (1 on O), 2 assists, -6 in 16 minutes. He looked more confident and plugged in mentally, and closed gaps on contests better.

Blake had a good comeback game scoring 9 on 3-3, 3-4FTs along with 1 board, 2 assists, 1 steal. His speed and pesky defense were disruptive. He tracked down a pass at our rim, took it end to end right down the middle and finished with a thunderous dunk that he has come to be associated with.

I love that all three of our draft picks from last season used their respective dominant strengths as well as other developing aspects of their games to make positive contributions. We could not have won this game without them. And this is how and why development (including G-League time and benchings) pay dividends. Patience plus consistent message plus consistently high standards plus good responses to teachable moments are now reaping good rewards. How pleasing it is to see them hitting their stride at the same time in this game.

Collins and Cedi played the fewest minutes, and it was our youngest players around our young vets who were called upon and stepped up.

It was a four-point game half way through the 4TH Q before we put out foot on the pedal and took off for the finish line. I like how we locked in and imposed our game: a block, forcing our way to the FT line, making 7-9 (we were 8-10 in the first three Qs), 2-4 from 3, grabbed 8 boards (1 on O), and in that energy had 4TOs.

We do have to limit O board chances as we gave up three on a single possession which resulted in an eventual 3 and contributed to 14-10 O boards against even though we won the overall rebound battle 45-42.

Ball protection was better but our 14TOs did cost us 17 points but we broke even here after scoring 17 off of theirs, a much better result.

We made 54/40/79 and our 33 assists were spread out well, with each of the nine main players registering at least two. The passing stats were evident in the eye test. It was a pleasure to watch the confident, crisp, selfless ball-on-a-string moments for open shots all over the court. We made four more 3s and won the PITP 64-56 as well as edging them in fast break points 13-9.

Our switching and quick and physical D set the tone and made a difference and it was our mental strength on which our O confidently flowed and flourished. A fun, two-way, start-to-finish game that showed good growth individually and collectively. It was a long time coming and worth the wait. Let’s keep it going and growing.

[G R E Y]

NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENTS

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