RealGM

When: 4:00 PM MT Oct 30th 2016
Where: American Airlines Arena, Miami FL

This is going to a rough one considering the travel issues. But most of our important players should be well rested.

Go Spurs!!

Anyone knows if Pau is gonna rest tonight? I will catch tonight's game live from Spain and I don't want to stay til late night without seeing him...

jptremblay wrote:Anyone knows if Pau is gonna rest tonight? I will catch tonight's game live from Spain and I don't want to stay til late night without seeing him...

The only one resting is going to be LeMarcus Aldridge. I guess we'll see David Lee starting and Bertans coming off the bench or maybe playing a lot of small ball. We'll see

Mills looking sharp again and Leonard, again finding him on drive and dish outs.

Manu is 39 and while he still has flashes (his drive and score to end the first qtr) he should be smarter than some of the bonehead plays he makes, almost always trying to be fancy passes. I said it two seasons ago but at times Manu hurts us more than he helps.

Dedmon is outsized when playing centre and his skills are negated quite a bit.

And Parker is over dribbling. Way too much.

dedmon has been so good, what a find

an offensive rebounding god

A real telling game for Kawhi. Fairly quiet for 3 quarters, then just took the ball in the 4th and said 'this is my team'. He scored 10 or 11 straight before the fouls started. 16pts in the fourth overall.

Some great signs overall.

Pau's best game - 20 pts, 11 reb, 3 ast, 2 blk
Mills showing that playing in the Olympics is not always a bad thing, looking more confident than ever in his career - 18pts 4/6 3pt
Lee just a solid pro - 8pts 11 reb
Dedmon with hustle - 9pts, 8reb in just 16mins
Bertans two three pointers - now 4/6 to start the season. He also has 3 blocks in 3 games
Leonard obviously brilliant but his composure and 6 assists for me were the highlight

Now the bad...

Manu with 5 turnovers and just looking out of control at times
Parker overdribbling much of his time out there and looked non-effective yet again against a team with shotblockers

Hard fought win. Miami just wouldn't go away and if Whiteside hadn't of cramped up it might of been a different outcome.

Miami actually has pretty decent looking team, I know a lot of folks are down on them this year but if they can continue to play like this they'll be a playoff team. Really like Johnson and Winslow.

As for us,

The positives:
- Kawhi - As always. Winslow gave him issues early but he adjusted and that 4th quarter was simply amazing. His passing was unreal as well, that kick to Patty for 3 was a thing of beauty.

- Patty - Another unreal performance for him, if he keeps this up Pop's is gonna have a difficult time not starting him. Shot the lights out, pushed the tempo, played solid defense and just had a solid all around game.

- Pau - His best game so far and he played like I expected him too. Made a lot of great plays on the offensive end, fought for rebounds and played pretty decent defense.

- Lee - Solid all around performance, was super effective and didn't need a single play called for him.

- Dedmon - Love this guy, like a lot. The work he puts in on the boards is unreal and his presence around the rim is much appreciated and needed.

- Bertans - Still a little shaky at times but overall he was great. Hit some bigs shots and made some athletic plays. He does need to get stronger if he's going to play PF, he gets outmuscled for rebounds a little too often.

The bad:
- Turnovers and general fatigue - I think the travel and the 4 games in 6 nights caught up to us in the 2nd half but there were no excuses for a lot of those turnovers.

- Manu - The source of most of those turnovers. Was definitely a bad Manu night, he can still play but he needs to realize when he's off because he can really hurt us at times.

- Tony - Needs to stop forcing things and needs to let the game come to him. Things go downhill for us when he tries to do too much.

Overall. A solid win considering the circumstances.

I believe Kyle Anderson has to start contributing with points or asists... he always penetrates the paint and looks to dish the ball to a teammate, the thing is everybody knows this now and doesn't even try to defend his shot (which is non-existant, so), also doesn't seem to enforce his strength will fighting for the ball... overall he is not helping as a starter.

he does give a good effort but that can only take you so far, I believe he should come off the bench.

Clearly Gasol needs his space to play... LMA takes a lot of that BUT I believe there's possibility for the two playing together; maybe Gasol at the top of the key and LMA down-below and rotate? the best scenario for me would be having Pau come off the bench together with Ginobili and Mills; that would be a killer 2nd-unit: with all the movement and speed this 'second group' has it'd give Gasol a lot of chances to shoot from 20-feet

As was mentioned before between late-2nd quarter and the 3rd, SA looked out of gas but regrouped with the help of Kawhi. When Laprovittola entered the game I believe Popovich tought the game was going fairly well and tried to give minutes to newcomers but the Heat picked up the pace and the game got really close.

Dedmon is really maximizing the opportunities he's getting. the effort and involvement in the game is really paying off and, like Popovich said, his consistency is giving him minutes in the court.

I'm really liking what I'm seeing so far from the Spurs.

mauro_ wrote:I believe Kyle Anderson has to start contributing with points or asists... he always penetrates the paint and looks to dish the ball to a teammate, the thing is everybody knows this now and doesn't even try to defend his shot (which is non-existant, so), also doesn't seem to enforce his strength will fighting for the ball... overall he is not helping as a starter.

he does give a good effort but that can only take you so far, I believe he should come off the bench.

Clearly Gasol needs his space to play... LMA takes a lot of that BUT I believe there's possibility for the two playing together; maybe Gasol at the top of the key and LMA down-below and rotate? the best scenario for me would be having Pau come off the bench together with Ginobili and Mills; that would be a killer 2nd-unit: with all the movement and speed this 'second group' has it'd give Gasol a lot of chances to shoot from 20-feet

As was mentioned before between late-2nd quarter and the 3rd, SA looked out of gas but regrouped with the help of Kawhi. When Laprovittola entered the game I believe Popovich tought the game was going fairly well and tried to give minutes to newcomers but the Heat picked up the pace and the game got really close.

Dedmon is really maximizing the opportunities he's getting. the effort and involvement in the game is really paying off and, like Popovich said, his consistency is giving him minutes in the court.

I'm really liking what I'm seeing so far from the Spurs.

Agreed. He needs to be more assertive. He capable of knocking down that corner three, he just needs to launch it a little more often.

His rebounding and defense have been great so far though. He makes so many sneaky good plays on the defensive end.

In my ignorant opinion I believe Popovich sees Anderson as a 2016 Bruce Bowen model, but Bowen used to shoot the 3...

I don't think you can have a player that doesn't shoot at all to be a top contender... GS for example, they have Pachulia, yes, but they have 4 others that can score on any moment...