Post#9 » by G R E Y » Thu Nov 30, 2017 6:51 am
Spurs find ways to win. There's always some new combination of players coming through, and we're still figuring things out. I loved the much improved solid start with a laser focus on ball movement; for a long stretch, no player had the ball in his hand for longer than a second. Just beautiful basketball, and so deadly.
Ok, so key to the game was LMA all game long. Incredible. Love watching him when he's in rhythm and confident: that outside turnaround shot is so smooth, the post-ups with a high release shot were unstoppable, the perfect shooting from the 3 and FTs, with some key rebounds to round out the other end.
Parker had another solid performance - 10/5 on 4-7 shooting in 18 minutes. The wrapped knee/quad is, I assume, precautionary. I thought the guys responded really well with Tony in the line-up, so much so that they looked a bit out of rhythm and the spacing was a bit off when he sat. Mills seemed like he forced it a bit, didn't make a shot until the 4thQ, but when he did, he had some key 3 daggers, including... a bank shot. But with much needed 7-7 from FTs and 5 assists, he fulfilled his role.
Murray seems to be the odd man out of the PG rotation at the moment. The conundrum is how to incorporate players coming from injuries with those who need minutes for system seasoning? It's a nice problem to have, though. Players just have to not take it personally and be ready.
I thought more minutes for Paul's D could have been useful... Maybe Lauvergne's presence down low can make a positive difference next game...
Well the two sub-plots were duds: neither Gasol really had a great game, and Rudy had an off O night. But both Spurs contributed in other ways, combining for 11 rebounds, and three of assists, steals and blocks.
Grizz were resilient enough to make you notice some things to clean up. Spurs should take the opponent O rebounds more personally. Also, once again we had fewer turnovers than the Grizz, but they generated more points off of them than we did. It's related to the rebounding and better Grizz D, but it's definitely something we can put more hustle into and improve. And finally, we got the better FG%, but Grizz had too many Js and 3s (50%!) that weren't aggressively contested. Good habits and all that...
It was nice to see Pop employ the whisper sweet Jedi words strategy with the refs. Mind you, they didn't really give him anything to go off about, but maybe the calm delivery with laser eye contact worked.
So many ways to come at opponents, and we're still getting guys to gel together. Rudy said he's yet to practice with a full roster. It'll be a challenge, but the possibilities are tantalizing. I'm curious to see the adjustments that'll be made for Friday's rematch. On to the next one... Go Spurs!
The Spurs Way
Thinking of you, Pop
#XX
