SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 60: SPURS AT MAVS, 23-2-2023, 7:30PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

Good ball movement, O board, pass inside to Bassey for the bucket +1.

[G R E Y]

Dieng is SO UNSELFISH. Worked the post to get position and space, had the shot, but still passed it to Bassey who made the contested sot touch hook. Dieng understands the assignment. Love that he's with us.

[G R E Y]

And now we're bleeding 3s like we were bleeding layups. Wow.

[imagump1313]

We'll see how proud we are when we come back here next year with Wemby Mr. Dallas announcer calling us a "once proud franchise"

[imagump1313]

BARLOW TIME PEOPLE!!!!!!!!

[G R E Y]

We'll see how proud we are when we come back here next year with Wemby Mr. Dallas announcer calling us a "once proud franchise"

Did he really? The **** cheek! How the **** does he think his team got Luka? And where have they been with him since? It's not exactly a world beater team and the Irving experiment has just begun. We'll soon see indeed.

[imagump1313]

We'll see how proud we are when we come back here next year with Wemby Mr. Dallas announcer calling us a "once proud franchise"

Did he really? The **** cheek! How the **** does he think his team got Luka? And where have they been with him since? It's not exactly a world beater team and the Irving experiment has just begun. We'll soon see indeed.

I'm not sure who their color guy is but it was pretty funny hearing that coming from Dallas LMAO.

[imagump1313]

We'll see how proud we are when we come back here next year with Wemby Mr. Dallas announcer calling us a "once proud franchise"

Did he really? The **** cheek! How the **** does he think his team got Luka? And where have they been with him since? It's not exactly a world beater team and the Irving experiment has just begun. We'll soon see indeed.

The Irving thing is going to end in disaster for them. I'd bet my life on it. Really.......

[imagump1313]

Holiday!!!!!! Celebrate!!!!!!!

FU DALLAS!!!!!!!

[G R E Y]

4TH Q: SPURS 116 MAVS 142

We’re back at it. Three starters still out, two rookies with good minutes, two G-Leaguers now added to the big club, and we fight through chemistry, inexperience (which as Pop said before the break, “… the young thing gets old”), and learning curves to break bad habits as we establish good ones.

After this game, Pop mentioned that our other two starters, Keldon and newly established first string C, Collins, were banged up themselves, meaning our starting five isn’t healthy. He praised them for their guts and leadership in sticking it out and despite the result we frankly need them to.

Keldon has a load to deal with this season and even as he’s faced more criticism this season (from me as well). He’s not only now our top usage guy and garners the best defensive attention, it’s now all the more so with Devin out. We continue to share to O load well enough, but Keldon shoulders the bulk of it.

He’s had this tendency to plateau and then take impressive, big leaps, the first of which was back in The Bubble when he forced his way to the starting five. He was bad at any other drives besides bulldozing through opponents in the key, then suddenly was doing Euro steps and angling his body making moves to get around opponents; he shot the 3 poorly then suddenly his altered release and suddenly increasing efficiency made him one of our most reliable 3s shooters.

Most recently, his ball stickiness and tunnel vision has shown additions of quick outlet passes, of really nice finds of team mates on drives into the key and kicks outs to the corners, of making fast extra passes. He even made a left elbow midrange J! He still mostly drives right and did get caught making passes in the air at the baseline that resulted in TO’s, but he also drove left a couple of times and led us with 7 assists to go along with 8 rebounds and a steal on the way to a 22-point showing on an efficient 8-13, 1-3 from 3, and team-high 5-8FTs.

He also led us with 6TOs but nothing tried and messed up, nothing learned and improved. It doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, but we’ve had players mess up the drives to the baseline and the mid-air kick outs before they got good at it, and it looks like Keldon’s in that phase. I expect this aspect of his game to grow like all others on O have as well. And I really appreciate the hustle along the way.

I suspect the O energy affects his D commitment, and as gump’s pointed out we live with mistakes this season to the extent that the effort is there.

Collins has always had a nasty streak to him. I love that he doesn’t back down, but it’s also cost him some extra fouls. He was surprisingly disciplined in not retaliating in some tit-for-tat situations, and was also disciplined with not biting on pump fakes, staying on his feet, and using his length and footwork well defensively. He’s a rhythm player, and in getting his health and role stabilized, he’s getting better at sealing his man in the paint, in choice and timing of his shots, in his rebounding, and all-around contribution. He had our lone double double with 13 on a rough 6-15, 0-2 from 3, 1-1FT, and led us with 12 boards and tied for team high 3 on O.

He missed his 3s attempts but defenses can’t afford to sag on him as he’s a legitimate threat from the arc. The rest of his shots were in the paint and there was a sense of some rushed attempts and his hooks in particular look like he releases them from his palm rather than fingers and there’s less control and consistency in the results.

He’s better in using his length in the releases now, crouching less, but the final touch has to have less variance. The hit or miss games are really hit or miss (WC) so working towards raising the valleys in the final stretch of games is part of what we hope to see from him. Collins is averaging career highs in MPG, PPG, efficiency, rebounds, and assists. This first true starting role now is a good next step opportunity for him.

Just as the space for Collins has opened up, so too has a back up role for Bassey. A recent guaranteed contract means that after a season spent mostly in the G-League punishing opponents as he honed his skills, he now gets to bring that energy and touch to our bench.

In only 19 minutes, CBass scored 16 on super efficient 7-8, 1-1 from 3, 1-1FT, with 7 boards (3 on O), 2 assists, and 1 steal. It’s great to see him shooting more, and doing so in three levels. He made shots in the restricted area, in the paint, non-paint J, and at the arc. Soft touch, range, assertiveness. And his energy be it on the boards, screening, finishing is an infusion we need. He led the bench in scoring, rebounds, and O boards. Love this pick up, his work to advance, and the signing. Good reward for good work.

Our other G-League call up, Barlow, played 16 minutes and only took one shot that he made, but was second behind Cbass with 5 boards (1 on O). He was called for some calls that could have easily gone either way.

Blur Wesley is only 16 games into his pro career and shows all the signs of a hungry and inexperienced young player. The chutzpah to hit The Wunderkind with the ball on the inbounds pass when he wasn’t looking, and then drive for a dunk was a sneaky and fun highlight. He made both his 3s, and drove relentlessly, but got blocked twice, and missed two near the rim. Love his speed and fearlessness but there lots to learn from protecting the ball at the rim to awareness of who he’s driving against to different ways of finishing. That he tried shots at three levels is a plus. He got 3 boards (1 on O), 2 assists, and 1 steal but also bench high 3 Tos and 5 fouls. He’s the least experienced of our three rookies and so we take the lessons with the positives.

Sochan couldn’t practice so he didn’t play, but Malaki continued his impressive rise, leading us with 23 on 9-17, 2-5 from 3, 3-3FTs along with 2 boards (1 on O), and five assists (great!). His confidence, poise, pace, timing, and shot selection are a pleasure to watch. Love how he drove into his defender, created space and released the ball away from outstretched hands. He has a knack for creating his own shot, and finding those pockets of space where he is comfortable shooting, and that’s already expanding to pretty much anywhere on the court. The five assists are a positive because the ball tends to stay in his hands. Yes we want him to flourish as a scorer, but it’s still withing the team concept so if team mates have a better chance at scoring, he has to recognize it and do the right thing. He led us with shots and minutes (35) and in that time also had 4 TO’s and 3 fouls. Tough D assignment, and he was slow in recovering from screens on D to get to the passes in the key. Development on D lags behind that of O but that 7’1” wingspan… I can’t wait to see how he uses it on both ends.

Diop filled in admirably and quietly once again as is his way with 15 points on 6-10, 2-3 from 3, 1-2FTs, 6 boards (1 on O) and 2 assists. During the game I thought he was not the sum of his parts but then by the end of the game he puts the parts together well after all. He’s so dependable.

Doug didn’t do enough of Doug things, leading the bench with 25 minutes but made only 6 on 3-6, 0-2 from 3 and led the bench with 3 assists. He also had 4TO’s and led the bench with -25. If he’s not scoring enough for us, his presence on D hurts.
Fellow vet Graham led all Spurs with -30. Oof. He scored 10 on 2-6, 2-5 from 3, and 4-6FTs. We like the drives and getting the fouls, we need it, and we like the 5 assists, and our lone block but we do want Tre back.

All five starters scored in double digits and all five got to the FT line, though only two of the bench players did. The FT disparity was huge and hurt us: 16-23 for us (both of those numbers need improving) to 28-36 for our opponent. They made more than we attempted. Oof.

The 3s shooting hurt us as well. Earlier in the season I thought we over-relied on the 3. It tends to cover a lot of mistakes and the wins tend to provide a veneer over things we need to work on. And so our 10-25 was a solid 40% but we got hit with 22-42 from 3; nearly half of their attempts were from the arc. It’s gross basketball in that sense but teams exploit their own strengths and opponent weaknesses, and one of ours continues to be contesting 3s. When they get spammed so much, though, even great teams will get overwhelmed. We did actually rotate and run out to contest decently, but it’s the preventing of passes before they get to their intended targets that we can also work on.

Despite missing key contributors, we still had 30 assists and won the rebound battle 45-36 and 10-3 on O boards. We also won the points in the paint handily 66-48.

We played to our strengths but also repeated some of our weaknesses. The first and fourth Qs continue to give us fits. We scored the fewest points in both and were outscored by the largest amount in both. Our 16TOs also cost us 18 points, another area of improvement, not unexpected with guys in new bigger roles and a team filled with inexperienced players.

We tend to give up ‘that one Q’ and this time it was the 4TH. Lots of unraveling with missed shots, TO’s, and bleeding points without scoring enough. It looked rough like we were overwhelmed. Keeping up consistent play is the goal. And it’s not all about wily experience; the one thing we absolutely cannot be lax about is effort. This doesn’t take experience, but it is a mindset we are trying to instill. We lost fast break points 18-12, and there were times Pop called timeouts when we allowed them to reinforce resilience and effort no matter the score or circumstance. Guys, after all are still playing for their long-term spots. Every play still counts.

[G R E Y]

NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENTS

Coming soon...

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POST-GAME INTERVIEWS

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