GT: SPURS (23-11) vs. NETS (12-20), December 26, 2017, 7:30pm CT

[G R E Y]

WHERE: AT & T Center, San Antonio, TX

WHEN: Tuesday, December 26, 2017, 7:30pm Central

The Boxing Day gift game thread. In this post-Christmas-waking-from-a-carb-coma game, Spurs are playing to protect the best home court record in the West. We've won 10 in a row at home, and looking to defeat a Nets team that is better than their record, having defeated OKC and the Wizards twice among their four wins in the last 10.

Let's make it 11 and keep it going!

GO SPURS!

[-Sammy-]

More great teamwork from our homegirl GREY!

Solid win tonight; I was encouraged by the turnover disparity between halves; we gave it away nine times in the 1H, but only thrice in the second.

Kawhi is rounding into form and looked great, if a little wobbly at the end of 26 minutes. This is the first time we've had a full bunch all season, so if the injury gods decide to ease up on us going forward, we'll finally get to see what this crew can do at 100%.

[imagump1313]

Yes its good to see Kawhi back but man, he is a looooooooooooong way away from actually being Kawhi. Good thing we have plenty of time.
And for the people clammering for him to be in the All-Star Game, NO! JUST NO! NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE ASG!!!

[Ballings7]

I don't mind if he doesn't make it at all, this is his pre-season right now, and will be for a bit more, and then "his season" will start in about a month or so.

Good win, everyone contributed nicely.

[Frankie23]

That Manu putback slam.. unbelievable

[G R E Y]

In the true spirit of Boxing Day, we got treated to three gifts in one game: a fully healthy Spurs team for the first time this season, a win, and Timmy and David in the stands watching (scouting?:wink:).

If the previous game was about the vets setting the tone, this one was about the starters asserting that they’re back, thank you very much. LMA, Pau, Green, Tony, Kawhi YES! I liked that they got off to a quick start, pushing the ball up quickly, and that LMA and Kawhi were looking for each other. Seeing a glimpse of their respective games integrating within an already excellent Spurs system makes me excited for the possibilities to come.

It’ll be interesting to see how well and how quickly the team adjusts to both of them. In Kawhi’s absence, the team has meshed so well with LMA being the central cog, and LMA and Pau have developed such a great chemistry. The goal is obviously to not disrupt that cohesion while adding a flow between LMA and Kawhi. To that end, I like what I saw in their getting to open spots and passing to one another. Right now, Kawhi isn’t as effective without one of LMA or Pau in the line-up, but looks great with them.

While Kawhi did look to facilitate, he put up a team-high 17 shots for 21 points in 26 minutes. Knowing he’s on limited minutes, Kawhi maybe pushed too much to get himself going in a variety of shots (that beautiful one handed Dr. J-like finish gets a 9/10), that sometimes left open team mates watching. Overall, though, it’s great seeing a willingness to integrate, and it working early. Whatever bumps we may encounter along the way, I expected nothing less than unselfish team play.

My impression while watching was that the Nets connected on more 3s than they actually did (12-32). Once the ball gets passed around, it’s very difficult to stop it from getting to the open man; we do it well against other teams, after all, with our ‘.5’ system. Too often we let the Nets drive across the baseline to pass to the corner shooter or let them get the O rebound and pass out to the all too open shooter at the arc because of late rotations. Their three 3s in a row in the second Q and the two times we fouled the 3 shooter were low lights. Just some things to clean up. And while we can put up the 3 with the best of them, we made 7-16. We had too many weapons at our disposal to get going with a full group; no point in settling in to a style of play that’s not conducive to winning in the post-season anyway.

And get going we did. We got the set ups and shots we wanted in the first Q but made only 38% of them. We ended the half on very Spurs-esque 45.7% FG 3-6 from the 3, and 15-17FT, and the game on 51% FG, 43.8% from the 3, 20-24FT. When we clicked, all of a sudden it was a 16 point lead and it didn’t even look as if we were exerting ourselves; just smart, efficient play on both ends. Tony had an amazing second half, missing only one shot, 6-10 overall for 14 points. Our bigs are setting such a high standard that it’s almost a given that we’ll get excellence such LMA’s 7-15 for 20 points and 9 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and a block as well as Pau’s 6-10 for 15 and 12 rebounds and a team-high 5 assists. I don’t know how many centers lead their teams in assists or how often they do it, but we’re lucky to have Pau’s smarts and vision. Since his stretch of tired, low output games, Gasol’s brought inspired play.

Speaking of which, by this point you sort of run out of superlatives for Manu’s game, but watch each one with such appreciation for what he continues to bring. That putback dunk (10/10 for execution and surprised look afterwards) was part of a highlight package that included blocking a 3, and a sequence of plays to start the fourth Q during which he made a layup off the glass, then got a steal, then contested a shot.

Loved: Pop’s out-of-timeout plays that resulted in Spurs points every time. Game management, leadership, play arsenal, execution.

Didn’t: Bunnies, bunnies, bunnies; misses, misses, misses; use the glass, use the glass, use the glass!

We won every quarter, scored better than our average, and held the Nets to below our league best 98.2 points against. There were some lapses that need tending to, but we got a glimpse of vintage Spurs again.

I love this team. GO SPURS!