SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 61: SPURS AT JAZZ, 25-2-2023, 8PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

Collins fouls out with just over 2 minutes left.

9-0 run against... oof...

[G R E Y]

Our legs move like they have no knees. We're frozen. It's a mental thing.

[G R E Y]

Pretty fadeaway by Sochan.

[G R E Y]

Sochan ran to the right open spot on the weakside left arms up for the pass and we don't get him the ball. Reward guys doing the right thing.

[G R E Y]

We were up 14 in the first half and lost the game by 16. Like a bizarro flip.

[imagump1313]

Whew! We overachieved tonight. Good job guys! It was pretty scary for awhile.

Charlotte won again so we actually could have won and had it not hurt too much, but this is soo much better for the long run.

This is why I am soo nervous about losing games. We are every bit as good as that team.
Utah has 31 wins now and they blow.

We could be that team sitting with 30 wins now and having no hope of getting much better next year. With Sochan coming out, Vassell, Branham, Johnson and some other guys growing even if we dont get Wemby we will be better than many of these teams next year.

Heck I would rather have our roster than Utah, Orlando, Detroit, Houston, Charlotte, Washington and Indiana right now. But lets not do that now. Keep on course.

[imagump1313]

Well earned Wemby laser tonight!!!!

[G R E Y]

Whew! We overachieved tonight. Good job guys! It was pretty scary for awhile.

Charlotte won again so we actually could have won and had it not hurt too much, but this is soo much better for the long run.

This is why I am soo nervous about losing games. We are every bit as good as that team.
Utah has 31 wins now and they blow.

We could be that team sitting with 30 wins now and having no hope of getting much better next year. With Sochan coming out, Vassell, Branham, Johnson and some other guys growing even if we dont get Wemby we will be better than many of these teams next year.

Heck I would rather have our roster than Utah, Orlando, Detroit, Houston, Charlotte, Washington and Indiana right now. But lets not do that now. Keep on course.

I'm so glad you recognize this and are saying it. We've already done the hovering around the 30-35 wins mark, hovering around the play-in and it hasn't served us.

And the bold part is important. I agree. Even teams that have higher echelon talent haven't done much with it like NOP or OKC. If you look at what Lowe has said very recently, it is our PATFO and WHAT and HOW we are building that is standing out. We have an important window of opportunity to keep building a foundation that **** turnips who **** on the team willfully or ignorantly miss. That's why the trade that got us Branham and whoever we get for our previous starting back court and C are crucial, too. Should we accelerate our growth we have set up a path for future assets coming in.

This has been a LONG time in the making. It's not small coincidence that we happen to go the deep rebuild route when there's generational top tier talent available in the upcoming draft and when we will finish and move into our shiny new $500M multi-purpose practice facility.

Keep the faith, team and fans!

[imagump1313]

Whew! We overachieved tonight. Good job guys! It was pretty scary for awhile.

Charlotte won again so we actually could have won and had it not hurt too much, but this is soo much better for the long run.

This is why I am soo nervous about losing games. We are every bit as good as that team.
Utah has 31 wins now and they blow.

We could be that team sitting with 30 wins now and having no hope of getting much better next year. With Sochan coming out, Vassell, Branham, Johnson and some other guys growing even if we dont get Wemby we will be better than many of these teams next year.

Heck I would rather have our roster than Utah, Orlando, Detroit, Houston, Charlotte, Washington and Indiana right now. But lets not do that now. Keep on course.

I'm so glad you recognize this and are saying it. We've already done the hovering around the 30-35 wins mark, hovering around the play-in and it hasn't served us.

And the bold part is important. I agree. Even teams that have higher echelon talent haven't done much with it like NOP or OKC. If you look at what Lowe has said very recently, it is our PATFO and WHAT and HOW we are building that is standing out. We have an important window of opportunity to keep building a foundation that **** turnips who **** on the team willfully or ignorantly miss. That's why the trade that got us Branham and whoever we get for our previous starting back court and C are crucial, too. Should we accelerate our growth we have set up a path for future assets coming in.

This has been a LONG time in the making. It's not small coincidence that we happen to go the deep rebuild route when there's generational top tier talent available in the upcoming draft and when we will finish and move into our shiny new $500M multi-purpose practice facility.

Keep the faith, team and fans!

This!

And its why its soo important we dont go on one of these self serving 3-4 game win streaks right now like Charlotte is doing. We are almost there. Dont ruin it

[G R E Y]

Whew! We overachieved tonight. Good job guys! It was pretty scary for awhile.

Charlotte won again so we actually could have won and had it not hurt too much, but this is soo much better for the long run.

This is why I am soo nervous about losing games. We are every bit as good as that team.
Utah has 31 wins now and they blow.

We could be that team sitting with 30 wins now and having no hope of getting much better next year. With Sochan coming out, Vassell, Branham, Johnson and some other guys growing even if we dont get Wemby we will be better than many of these teams next year.

Heck I would rather have our roster than Utah, Orlando, Detroit, Houston, Charlotte, Washington and Indiana right now. But lets not do that now. Keep on course.

I'm so glad you recognize this and are saying it. We've already done the hovering around the 30-35 wins mark, hovering around the play-in and it hasn't served us.

And the bold part is important. I agree. Even teams that have higher echelon talent haven't done much with it like NOP or OKC. If you look at what Lowe has said very recently, it is our PATFO and WHAT and HOW we are building that is standing out. We have an important window of opportunity to keep building a foundation that **** turnips who **** on the team willfully or ignorantly miss. That's why the trade that got us Branham and whoever we get for our previous starting back court and C are crucial, too. Should we accelerate our growth we have set up a path for future assets coming in.

This has been a LONG time in the making. It's not small coincidence that we happen to go the deep rebuild route when there's generational top tier talent available in the upcoming draft and when we will finish and move into our shiny new $500M multi-purpose practice facility.

Keep the faith, team and fans!

This!

And its why its soo important we dont go on one of these self serving 3-4 game win streaks right now like Charlotte is doing. We are almost there. Dont ruin it

I do think we have to balance it with some wins, like the losing can't be internalized (and I think to some extent it is given how paralyzed we get when teams go on big runs on us and then we shake out of it too late). But of course we have a fine line to walk. As Pop said post game, it's clear we're not a 48-minute team and even with some individual and team improvements, we have to spend the rest of the season working on becoming just that. I'm not too worried about a win here or there even if I agree that we're on an important path. To Pop's point, and I think to yours, the two paths converge when we reward ourselves for full 48-minutes of play. We're not there yet. It's a season-long process.

[G R E Y]

4TH Q: SPURS 102 JAZZ 118

Well, a tale of two halves and the quest for a full 48-minute effort continues. It’s tough breaking through patterns that lead to lost leads in the best of times, and even tougher to do it without all our available players all the while adjusting to new ones. When we get those high TO, missed shots stretches it freezes us and takes us too long to shake loose of it and make a run of our own.

So while our team patterns persist, we persevere through handling them mentally and individual improvements. We did well enough counterpunching their runs in the first half to keep up the lead, but we went away from the energy and focus that did it and couldn’t withstand stronger runs. Not shooting the 3 nearly as well in the second half was a factor, but we sure settled for it when we didn’t need to, going away from drives while not being able to stop the barrage in the key against.

And so after scoring 8-18 from 3 in the first half we shot 1-16 in the second. Oof. Whereas we kept going with the shot that wasn’t falling (it comprised 35% of our total shots) our opponent went to work inside instead and ended up winning both the FT’s (our 17-21 to 22-28 – the opponent making more FT’s than we manufacture chances is something that rises now and again, too). We lost our ever reliable points in the paint battle 62-58 and that in turn opened up the arc some more and we ended up losing that 10-7 as well.

All five starters scoring in double figures, for six Spurs in total. Our bench struggled with efficiency and was outscored 52-23.

Still there were some positives. We only had 9TOs which is fantastic. Sochan leading us in scoring with 22 on 8-18, 1-4 from 3, 5-7FTs, leading us with 3 O boards en route to 6 in total, and 2 assists was a fantastic result. His energy, hustle, and vision made our movement so much better.

Collins’ fit as starter has been a natural progression and he’s been a terrific two-way, consistent contributor. He scored 15 on 6-16, 3-6 from 3 with 5 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 2 blocks all in starter-low 26 minutes. He fouled out, but along the way was more disciplined with not biting on fakes and staying upright, providing timely blocks that Sochan led his driver deftly to.

Diop quietly led us with nearly half of our FT’s, making 9-10 even if he couldn’t find his way to scoring well, making only 1-5. He kept finding ways of contributing and he grabbed 4 boards, led us with starter-high 4 assists and got 1 steal and 1 block.

Keldon couldn’t hit a 3 (0-5) but scored 18 on 9-22, led us with 7 boards (1 on O), dished 3 assists, and got 2 blocks. His use of glass angles well really stood out as an improvement. He was much better in not letting the ball stick in his hands, making quick outlet passes, making extra passes, driving and dishing out to the open man well. And while these didn’t register as steals, he did so well in poking and slapping at the ball on D for several forced TO’ss. Really good to see him making these plays.

Graham, Blake, and Malaki were the only ones to take a clear non-paint J attempt. Maybe it was the gameplan to focus on key and 3s, and you take what defenses give you, but it’s a curious outlier when we were not making 3s or getting foul calls.

Malaki also struggled from the arc (1-5) and overall as well (6-16) for 13 points. The 6 boards (3 on O) and 1 block were a positive, and while we want him to develop as a scorer, the ball tends to stick in his hands a bit. It’s ok this season as he’s figuring defenses out (and the game’s already slowed down for him with his screen use, drives and protecting the ball, footwork to create space). But he misses open team mates and eventually needs to decide whether he’s scoring or passing better. Eventually we also want that 7’1” wingspan to be put to good use more consistently on D as well as he did when he stretched out for a timely block.

Blake struggled to score (1-4, 2-2FTs for 4 points) but ties the team high 4 assists which is what we want to see. Grabbing 3 boards, and getting a steal as he gets his rhythm back is good to see, too.

Graham is our most experienced PG playing at the moment and for all his ISO criticism, he is deft at driving, getting defenders’ attention, and dishing to trailing players in the key as Bassey was the welcome recipient of. While Graham struggled to score (3-11, 3-8 from 3, 1-2FTs for 10 points) he did also grab 4 boards (1 on O) and dished 4 assists.

Bassey was a solid 3-4 with 3 boards (1 on O), 1 assist, and 2 steals in only 15 minutes. His energy, hustle, BBIQ, and touch are fine additions.

Part of what affected our ability to defend as we did in the first half with god recognition, rotations, switches, and close outs with good footwork and busy hands throughout was our guys getting into foul trouble. Malaki already had 3 by half, Collins got his third and fourth in the 3RD Q, and Bassey had 5 after 36 minutes. It aligns with both getting bombarded inside to start the second half and then not defending as aggressively once we got called for fouls.

The other part is mental. We’re the same team that moved well, made extra passes, and got after rebounds. But when our confidence goes as teams get calls and points in successive possessions our effort seems to follow. And so while the rebounds were 23-22 in our favour and 6-4 against on O boards, by the end of the game we were outrebounded 56-41, including a whopping 15-9 on O boards.

We go away from what works instead of leaning into it, and don’t go away from what isn’t working and change it up to try to work the scoring in other ways. Driving to get fouls and stop the clock is a tried and true method of chipping away at deficits. It keeps working against us; maybe we can figure out to make it work for us. We tend to try to cut deficits too much at any one time with 3s after 3s – at one point in the 3RD we took and missed four 3s in a row. Quadrupling down on what’s not working is not what we mean by pounding the rock. Effort, yes. But with better recognition of doing other things.

The rush and panic are signs of a team learning to handle the ups and downs within a game. Poise under pressure is a learned trait. But we do need our glue guys back who can settle us down and be the keystones to keeping it all together. Here’s to the glaring importance of Tre and Devin.

Guys are progressing with different elements of their own games, at different rates, and it comes together for stretches. We have to keep figuring out how to do it longer and that’s a combination of execution as well as mentality, and effort.

[G R E Y]

POST-GAME INTERVIEWS

Read on Twitter