SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 72: SPURS AT PELICANS, 21-3-2023, 7PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

Shooting foul end of Q? Julian, mate...

[G R E Y]

1ST Q: SPURS 16 PELICANS 27

Late Q foul is the blessing and curse: you like the hustle, not the smarts.

Making only 6-23, 2-12 from 3, and 2-4FTs with ZERO points on the court from the bench and with only three Spurs making a FG is going to put us... right where we are.

Mamu leads us with 4-6. Side note: Roby has to seriously reconsider his hustle. He's getting outplayed by a waiver pick up. Good for Mamu, though. Smart, gets into right spaces, and makes extra passes. Hustles. Shoots.

Good effort on the boards on both ends by Barlow and Julian. Good man and help D by them as well.

Just keep it simple on O, run back on D, get to the FT line to get stops and points.

[G R E Y]

Didn't like how Romeo didn't get a hand up on the corner 3s shooter. You ran all the way over there. Don't be a spectator on the shot.

Did like the drive by Romeo right after, though our crap glass use is resulting in a lot of missed bunnies.

[G R E Y]

Nice, Tre.

[G R E Y]

Barlow does not back down against guys who outweigh him by half. Wide stance, upright torso, footwork, gets the O foul. Guy's taking a beating though.

[G R E Y]

Malaki did everything right on the man D there. Kept his man out of the middle, stayed with driver, contested at the hip. Got beaten by better shot. He'll get better at staying with his man earlier and closer, like Herb Jones just did on Malaki.

[G R E Y]

Wish we'd use the full court press more. Good practice.

[G R E Y]

Seems like we've barely gotten chances inside - or better to say we've barely created them. Taking a lot of outside shots.

[G R E Y]

Is THIS the Q where we break 20 points?!

[G R E Y]

Oh we'll mind if Graham takes 25, 30 shots tonight alright...

[G R E Y]

Ball protection. OOF.

TO, 3 with 3 seconds left, TO on the inbound(!), end of Q shot given up... 10-0 run against.

[G R E Y]

2ND Q: SPURS 39 PELICANS 64

We passed 20 points in a Q. Step one.

Of a hundred as we gave up over 60 again. We can't score well, lots of spacing issues, and so we're 31.1% FG, 27.8% from 3, and 50% FTs. Mamu leads us with 12 on 50% efficiency, but beside Tre (4-6), nobody's scoring well. Malaki and Romeo are a combined 1-10, 1-5 from 3 and ONLY Graham has made a field goal from among all the bench players. The bench has a total of 11 points, which is to say Graham does. Pop's gone six players deep already form the reserves, so everyone available, but we're getting almost nothing from all but three Spurs. Topsy turvy to the home games.

We're 10-4 fast break points against and 30-18 PITP against, too.

Just a hot mess on both ends.

We've made some shots in the restricted area and the paint in general, but are 0-5 in non-paint mid range Js, and the 3s that were falling at home have apparently been left there.

Foul less, move more, get more physical.

[G R E Y]

Romeo almost unforced error, TO by stepping on the baseline on our first possession of the second half.

[G R E Y]

Nice drive by Tre.

[G R E Y]

Right idea with that nice Mamu bounce pass to a cutting Diop but who apparently has grease on his hands. He's been bobbling these in the paint.

[G R E Y]

Mamu doing it himself.

[G R E Y]

Nice, simple ball. Mamu pushes it, kicks out to Tre who drives during which Diop moves to the open space, gets the kick back for an open 3.

[G R E Y]

And after finally a nice O play we step up to take a charge. Rare two-way play combo.

[G R E Y]

NICE skip pass! But Malaki misses the corner 3 *sigh*

[G R E Y]

Hard to say how I feel about those types of possessions for Malaki. SKies for the D board and pushes the pace. Good. Team mates spread out. Malaki drives it himself for the basket. On the one hand, he went right down the middle and finished left and took it against a big, pushing him back with speed. On the other, that pattern of not looking for team mates enough also stands out.