SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 78: SPURS AT BLAZERS, 6-4-2025, 5PM (CT)

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But we follow with B2B 3s.

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10-0 run by us late!

We're now within a bucket with 4:31 left.

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CP hesi +1. Vintage.

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ANOTHER inbound TO for a bucket against. Just... wow...

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Steph hard physical drive down the middle. Again. FTs again. But this time makes both. Good.

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Less than a minute left. Full court press down 7. Quick foul. Good practice in end of game situations.

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Wow they did a good job spreading the floor and breaking down our full court press. We could have doubled the second pass recipient quicker.

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Late game TO and forced to foul.

Sort of emblematic of this herky jerky game where we couldn't get any good rhythm and consistent momentum going.

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CP making FTs late. And they hold up on their final possession.

[G R E Y]

4TH Q: SPURS 109 BLAZERS 120

Wasted opportunities exemplifies this game. We faced a team down eight rotation players, including their best ones yet we shot ourselves in the foot time and again. I don't recall, for example, the last time we had THREE inbounds TOs for buckets against.

Still, much of the game was fairly even in terms of scoring, but for that big run against in the 1ST.

Watching Branham in more minutes, two things stood out. One, I get we have vets to steady the floor for us, but I'd prefer our young guys get these pressure end of game situation reps. And two, some of our guys are sorely lacking basic finishing at the rim skills - Blake, Champie, Sochan come to mind. It's hit or miss. You can't rely on them making these consistently and that's a problem. Branham's O game is polished. It's what he's known for. But at this level, and with these players being in the league long enough, they REALLY should have better finishing toolkit packages.

Twenty-six assists is good; 18TOs is not. We gave up 22 points on these, a category we were -8 in. Couple these with four fewer made 3s and five fewer FTs and the combination of fouls and TOs and getting beaten at our newer game (more 3s) was too much.

We won the season series 3-1 but you can make the case that this last one was most important. With this loss, we are officially eliminated from the playoffs, our goal this season, but missing our three best assets had its effect.

Some positives. Dev got to his spots, had his shot in rhythm and clicking, making those tough contested ones which tend to go in more than the open ones for some reason.

Steph had another 20+ -5+ -5+ game, leading all rookies. Inefficient, but dogged and physical and resilient.

Unc and unc and BB were helpful but again I'd like those minutes to go to our younger guys in end of game situations. Each was very efficient and helpful and we'd have been blown out so yeah some of our young guys need to show more development. Like oh I don't know, making layups.

I like how we subbed out guys who were outhustled for guys willing to put the work in and did. We actually went 11-deep, rare, looking for answers. Some guys looked not totally focused on the game. More minutes, then, for others. Branham made the most of his bench high 23 minutes, making bench high 17 on 7-14, 3-6 from 3, doing much better driving through contact. Also had 4 boards (2 on O) and 2 assists. Polished, compact, quick, smooth, played to his strengths, played the team game better with extra passes and lots of hustle and deflections to keep possessions going. Good work.

Onwards further west. Let's clean it up and better control what we can in the last several games.