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The Bulls are dealing with a ton of internal issues and reeling as a result, so they come to town at a good time for the good guys, who need to keep this win streak going to build morale and camaraderie and to keep pace in the unprecedentedly-wild western conference standings.

WHERE: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX

WHEN: Thursday, December 15, 2018, 7:30pm (CT)

^ Nice, Sammy! Thanks!

So long as we take no opponent lightly and play our system the right way we'll serve ourselves well.




GO SPURS GO!!!

What a costly missed opportunity after a 21-point lead to come out so poorly in the second half, not respecting ourselves, our opponent, and the game to lose because of our own lackadaisical effort on both ends. Unacceptable.

Nearly 25 years as a Spurs fan and this is one of the worst losses I’ve seen.

Time to trade Aldridge to a contender and get something younger and half decent in return while he has some value left.

He has earned a lot of respect, especially from previous haters like myself with the way he has bounced back and worked hard to fit in but now is the right time.

Well....
This is the first game I didn't bother to watch all season. Good thing.
All the good feelings that they were building up after the last couple games are now out the window.
Neither Forbes or White even scored a single point in 41 combined minutes??? How does that happen?

imagump1313 wrote:Well....
This is the first game I didn't bother to watch all season. Good thing.
All the good feelings that they were building up after the last couple games are now out the window.
Neither Forbes or White even scored a single point in 41 combined minutes??? How does that happen?

I don't know that they're all out the window as they're a measuring stick of where we can be when we bother to play as a team and with some intensity.

As for Bryn and Derrick both getting bagels, I think it's the first time it happened this year, so a bad conflation, but also an anomaly. Derrick hasn't had good O games, but Bryn has been one of our most consistently good scorers. I have faith both that Derrick will improve (as Bryn did from last season) and Bryn will get back to playing as he has for most of the season.

It's the defensive end that we chose to coast through team-wide, and we got the result we deserved in this game, but we also got the results we deserved in the previous four.

Phreak50 wrote:Nearly 25 years as a Spurs fan and this is one of the worst losses I’ve seen.

Time to trade Aldridge to a contender and get something younger and half decent in return while he has some value left.

He has earned a lot of respect, especially from previous haters like myself with the way he has bounced back and worked hard to fit in but now is the right time.

It's just most other teams around us, including those with worse records, lost to some lesser teams as well. It's a bad loss, no sugar coating it, but it's also one game of 82. They all count the same. We didn't gain ground, but didn't really lose any either. It's about how we respond going forward.

I hated this one, too, just broadening the context a bit - not to smooth over, the urgency flat out wasn't there the second half, but to not get too high or too low. We'll see how things go on Monday and the rest of the week. Some good opportunities to regroup and commit to a higher standard for the full game.

GREY 1769 wrote:I don't know that they're all out the window as they're a measuring stick of where we can be when we bother to play as a team and with some intensity.

As for Bryn and Derrick both getting bagels, I think it's the first time it happened this year, so a bad conflation, but also an anomaly. Derrick hasn't had good O games, but Bryn has been one of our most consistently good scorers. I have faith both that Derrick will improve (as Bryn did from last season) and Bryn will get back to playing as he has for most of the season.

It's the defensive end that we chose to coast through team-wide, and we got the result we deserved in this game, but we also got the results we deserved in the previous four.

Forbes and White both suffer from the same thing. If either are not scoring they aren't doing anything useful. Some guys can have a bad night and then make a good defensive play or two or get a rebound and that gets them going offensively. Both of our guys are the opposite. They need a shot to go down to build up confidence to play defense or do anything else.
I agree Forbes has been one of our better scorers because when he is right mentally he is capable. White just isn't capable of being good offensively in this league. In the G-League yes, but in the NBA he isn't athletic enough IMO to hit shots consistently against NBA players. Maybe he is still not 100% healthy. IDK? Maybe he needs another season of conditioning. He did have a nice dunk in the lane a couple of games back and I remember both announcers being floored like, where did that come from? So its not just me, the rest of the league sees it.

GREY 1769 wrote:It's just most other teams around us, including those with worse records, lost to some lesser teams as well. It's a bad loss, no sugar coating it, but it's also one game of 82. They all count the same. We didn't gain ground, but didn't really lose any either. It's about how we respond going forward.

I hated this one, too, just broadening the context a bit - not to smooth over, the urgency flat out wasn't there the second half, but to not get too high or too low. We'll see how things go on Monday and the rest of the week. Some good opportunities to regroup and commit to a higher standard for the full game.

Like I said, I didn't watch this one. Stuff like this does happen. Ive been there. Up big early on a crappy team, you just lose focus and intensity. Then the lesser team starts hitting shots and the boulder starts rolling downhill and you cant stop it. It happens.
Did someone on the Bulls start going off offensively and we just couldn't stop it? Or was it just poor defense and giving up easy shots? Either way, this team isn't good enough to fall into that.

Phreak50 wrote:Nearly 25 years as a Spurs fan and this is one of the worst losses I’ve seen.

Time to trade Aldridge to a contender and get something younger and half decent in return while he has some value left.

He has earned a lot of respect, especially from previous haters like myself with the way he has bounced back and worked hard to fit in but now is the right time.

I really don't think they will move Aldridge unless he asks for it. Because of the injuries, next year is going to be the year we see what we really have not this one.
We need to wait and see what we have with Lonnie Walker. If he is a capable player on both ends and can stay healthy, the outlook looks different. If Murray comes back healthy and keeps improving and Walker can be a good defender, this team looks completely different. Poeltl is starting to show he isnt completely worthless. He needs to keep improving.
Not to mention Gasol and Mills salaries are more manageable to trade next year if we decide to go that route. And we will have some cap space next year to work with. I think that is what the Spurs are looking at so I doubt they blow it up until next year if things arent going well.
We are just going to have to ride this year out I think.

Sorry I messed up your "And 1". I thought I never did and when I did it again it removed it

imagump1313 wrote:

GREY 1769 wrote:I don't know that they're all out the window as they're a measuring stick of where we can be when we bother to play as a team and with some intensity.

As for Bryn and Derrick both getting bagels, I think it's the first time it happened this year, so a bad conflation, but also an anomaly. Derrick hasn't had good O games, but Bryn has been one of our most consistently good scorers. I have faith both that Derrick will improve (as Bryn did from last season) and Bryn will get back to playing as he has for most of the season.

It's the defensive end that we chose to coast through team-wide, and we got the result we deserved in this game, but we also got the results we deserved in the previous four.

Forbes and White both suffer from the same thing. If either are not scoring they aren't doing anything useful. Some guys can have a bad night and then make a good defensive play or two or get a rebound and that gets them going offensively. Both of our guys are the opposite. They need a shot to go down to build up confidence to play defense or do anything else.
I agree Forbes has been one of our better scorers because when he is right mentally he is capable. White just isn't capable of being good offensively in this league. In the G-League yes, but in the NBA he isn't athletic enough IMO to hit shots consistently against NBA players. Maybe he is still not 100% healthy. IDK? Maybe he needs another season of conditioning. He did have a nice dunk in the lane a couple of games back and I remember both announcers being floored like, where did that come from? So its not just me, the rest of the league sees it.

GREY 1769 wrote:It's just most other teams around us, including those with worse records, lost to some lesser teams as well. It's a bad loss, no sugar coating it, but it's also one game of 82. They all count the same. We didn't gain ground, but didn't really lose any either. It's about how we respond going forward.

I hated this one, too, just broadening the context a bit - not to smooth over, the urgency flat out wasn't there the second half, but to not get too high or too low. We'll see how things go on Monday and the rest of the week. Some good opportunities to regroup and commit to a higher standard for the full game.

Like I said, I didn't watch this one. Stuff like this does happen. Ive been there. Up big early on a crappy team, you just lose focus and intensity. Then the lesser team starts hitting shots and the boulder starts rolling downhill and you cant stop it. It happens.
Did someone on the Bulls start going off offensively and we just couldn't stop it? Or was it just poor defense and giving up easy shots? Either way, this team isn't good enough to fall into that.

I think Derrick is sneaky good on defense - runs back to contest shots after opponents get steals, has that poke-from-behind move, is big for a PG and uses it to body opponents, and Bryn gets yanked when he misses assignments not above him (effort related defensive plays). Both stress that end of things. The issue was team-wide in this game in the second half on D and we stopped driving at them as much or running our sets with any urgency. We took our collective foot off the pedal (not the first time it's happened) and it caught up to us. Otherwise, on the whole I agree.