SPURS GAME DAY! PRE-SEASON GAME 1: SPURS AT ROCKETS, 2-10-2022, 6PM (CT)

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Jordan Hall in. Nice to see.

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UPDATE: We're down 3 in the Q with about a third of time left lol

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How in the world does Alize Johnson bring the ball up, pass to no one, take a shot and miss? What team does he think he plays for? lol later, man...

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Alize Johnson just watched - or didn't notice - a player beside him get the rebound and putback. Didn't budge from his position. Early 'not going to make the team' candidate.

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Nice to see Boban!

And how classy of him to go over to greet Pop just as the final whistle goes.

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4TH Q: SPURS 96 ROCKETS 134

The game is, mercifully, over.

Few cohesive looking plays.

Turnovers will happen even though we had 18.

Roby looked decent though I thought he tried to do too much with the ball. This isn't his strength. Cuts, rolls, crafty finishes, and C&S are more like it.

Malaki is an effortless scorer.

Blake like I said is energetic but out of position a lot on D. Has to learn to run point. Good off ball. Cuts, finishes.

Sochan is a terrific defensive presence, even if green right now. Can already see he'll be impactful on both ends. Better athleticism than I realized.

Joe, Diop, Romeo, playing for jobs. Joe is bigger than I thought, but man he's bad on D and when not making 3s, well...

Diop has some end of bench utility usefulness.

Romeo: no shot, no league spot.

Doug was a team worst -20 in 14 minutes. If he's not scoring, there's no role for him here. It's game one, I get it, and he's a known entity - scorer, streaky. Hopefully we can get lucky with an asset back when the time comes. I'm already irritated by his feast/famine game. Telegraphed passes that were easily anticipated.

JRich - put up a lot of workout and practice videos this summer. Expected more from him. Maybe it's just rust. Needs to be the leader we need a vet to be.

Speaking of leadership - didn't see that on the court this game. There was no galvanizing cog around whom and from whom we got our center and cohesion.

Devin was the sole starter in double figures and I don't think he played (or hardly did?) in the second half.

He was joined by Roby, Zach, and Malaki as double digit scorers, the latter the most efficient.

It may be a weird quick or a function of playing athletic bigs that our opponent has, but our bigs combined for 11 of our 18 TOs - we gave up 26 points on the TOs alone.

Add 15 points on the five extra 3s they made, and there's the point differential.

Shooting woes: 33-93FGs; 11-42 from 3; 19-29FTs.

Shooting boon: we put up 42 3s (not talking about quality just now) which is better for us and more than our opponent; we got to the FT line more and made more even though that percentage, along with that of our 3s, was poor.

DID NOT LIKE OUR LACK OF HUSTLE RUNNING BACK ON D. Gave up four 30+ point Qs (including game high 37 in the final Q). No excuse. No D effort, no minutes.

Ten steals per team. Eight to 6 blocks for us. Twenty-19 fast break points for us. SIXTY-EIGHT-36 points in the paint against us. We got demolished here.

Glad we got a big dose of reality. Hopefully it instills the necessary focus and extra effort every single player needs to put in.

And even with all that, SO great to see basketball and Spurs playing again!!!

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Post-game interviews and highlights:

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(WHY is Pop opening a sandwich during a Q&A? LOL where is the PR person?) Right assessment, and being irked at the not getting back on D and getting muscled around in the paint is a good sign. The way we lose is at least as important as how we win. Right development.

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LOVE what I'm hearing from Devin and Malaki. Mature and proper POV.

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