GAME DAY, BALA! GAME 48: SPURS VS. CLIPPERS, 20-1-2019, 6PM (CT)

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For our fulcrum game back at home tonight, staying vigilant and competitive and continuing our strong team play - winning hustle plays, playing attention to details, communicating, rebounding, and being ever in motion - will serve us well before we head out on the road again. We are solidifying the foundation for what's ahead, but let's take care of home first.

WHERE: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX

WHEN: Sunday, January 20, 2019, 6pm (CT)

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GO SPURS GO!!!

[ducler]

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In 16 games with Austin, Metu is averaging 14.4 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.50 blocks in 28.9 minutes. The first-year forward out of the University of Southern California is averaging 2.3 points and 1.4 rebounds in 5.5 minutes in 19 appearances this season with San Antonio.​

Walker IV has seen action in 18 games with Austin, averaging 16.1 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 27.1 minutes. The rookie guard out of the University of Miami has made one appearance for San Antonio, recording 3 points and 1 rebound in 5 minutes.

https://www.nba.com/spurs/news/san-antonio-recalls-chimezie-metu-and-lonnie-walker-iv-austin-spurs-0

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Spurs honour Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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[imagump1313]

BAD loss. We weren't in this game at all and defense was horrible.

[G R E Y]

Right no sugar coating it - piss poor effort in this game. I don't know who we think are to take games lightly, but we now have a two-game home losing streak in each of which we scored under 100 courtesy of bad-on-the-road Hornets and offensively-undermanned Clippers because we have a tendency to either play to a team's record or situation rather than come out with our game plan and intensity.

So this is the second home game in a row in which opponents started strong and we chased them around in the first quarter, and then spent the rest of the game using up energy playing catch-up, getting to within three or so points, only to see them get consecutive points and bring up their lead. Inexcusable effort on both ends: in the first half we chased them around defensively - they spread the floor and made crisp passes, or drove and kicked to open teammates and for both we were noticeably behind in rotating, closing out and contesting for a surprising and disappointing amount of wide open shots which they made 65.2% of in the first quarter, and 52.3% by the half; in the second, we did not do nearly enough on O - lack of movement, cutting, passing, and most of all, assertive driving - when our opponents were in a scoring slump to start the third quarter (we shot 55% in the first Q, 50% by the half, 46.8% by the third, 46.4% by the fourth). They finished the game at 45.9% and though each team made 39FGs, they shot 11-21 from 3 (to our 8-19) and made 5 more FTs. They flat out outhustled us and deserved to win the game.

We wasted great games by LMA (30 points on 13-21, 3-5 FTs with 14 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks) and Rudy (19 points on 9-12 with 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block) and though we had as full a roster as we can have this season, our offensively depleted opponents had four starters in double figures (five in total) compared to only two for us, three in total (Beli led the bench with 12 points on 4-9, 2-7 from 3, 2-2FTs, 3 rebounds, and bench-high 3 assists).

This is now DeMar's fifth poor offensive game in a row, with four of his worst shooting games coming this month. He looked to get his shot tonight, but also was tentative in taking it which is like having your foot on the gas and brake pedals at the same time. He got to his spots, but it looks as if he is slower in taking it, sort of self-consciously guiding his shot in rather than instinctively letting it flow. You can tell he's searching, but when he does that, he slows the game down for himself, and this also takes away from our team flow. Looking at DeMar's shot chart, the majority were outside, and even most in the key were floaters. He got to the FT line a grand total of zero times. You can make a case here or there about not getting a call, but that's arguing around the edges of a point, which is that he is nowhere near as assertive in taking it strong to the basket, and there were plenty of opportunities to exploit. The thing is that he looks to be overthinking it and loses the ball when driving, which makes him more weary of driving.

It's like he's doubling down on getting his jumper going, and it is stubbornly resisting; he has to help the team in other ways. This was something he was excelling at last month (all season, really) because of better team movement, and his distribution to open teammates. He's still passing well, but his game is noticeably more deliberate and slower. Also, the last two home games he's combined for 10 turnovers (4 tonight) and in the last five games he's played, he's combined for 20 turnovers, and rather untimely and costly ones, too. He looked tired before (and indeed missed a game for rest), and continued to look hesitant tonight. He's averaging 3.8 turnovers this month, after a season low 1.6 in December, and well above his season average of 2.6. Combine that with January being his lowest .407FG% of the season and lowest month in 72.7FT% of the season, and his game is affecting us negatively right now even though his rebound (7.3) and assist (7.1) numbers in January are slightly up above his average (6.1 and 6.4, respectively). Another strange dichotomy is that while he is not moving as quickly on defense, getting caught on screens (and sometimes committing a foul) as opposed to fighting around them as before, he has more steals per game in January (1.3) than his season average (1). All is to say that his game has taken a noticeable dip, and I hope he gets a shorter leash (29 minutes tonight, below his 35.5 season average) when he's not helping.

To that end, I thought he was the main culprit during the game, but looking at the stats afterwards, it turns out everyone not named LMA, Rudy (who should have had more than 12 shots) or Beli had poor O games. We once again got next to nothing on O from our back-up Cs (Jakob and Pau combined for 2 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists). There's something about the dynamic of Pau returning that has set Jakob back and I'm not sure why. He was far more assertive and put more of an imprint on games when Pau was out, but seems to somehow be more deferential or something, like splitting minutes with Pau leaves him with a mentality that he's once again the third man even though goes in second and gets more minutes. I'm just guessing about what the mindset is, but it's noticeable that with Pau in the rotation Jakob is no longer playing like he has no safety net and has to get the back up job done no matter what.

Derrick and Bryn shot poorly, too, combining for 12 points (9 for Derrick, but also 5 rebounds, team-high 4 assists - a low number in itself and telling about our game tonight, team-high 2 steals, 1 block), and Davis (6 along with 4 rebounds 1 each of assist, steal, block), Patty (6 along with 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block), and Jakob (2, but also 0-4 FTs - this needs to improve, it's a liability and we can't get sucked into hack-a-Jak situations) were the other bench scorers besides Beli. Derrick continues to show some great defensive instincts, and where he got caught behind dribblers in the first half, made a concerted effort to fight through screens, stay in front of his man, get blocks (though he has yet to earn enough respect from the refs, it seems, to be getting the benefit of the doubt on them) in the second. Better hustle in the second half.

We average 24.7 assists to 12.2 turnovers per game for the season yet had 21 to a whopping 18 tonight (6 in the first half, 12 in the second yikes) which cost us 20 points (we earned 15 points off of their 12 turnovers). We also got the ball stolen 11 times (we stole it 6 times), so ball protection was once again an issue. We were on the wrong end of 19-6 fast break points, though we outrebounded them 51-41 and 10-4 on O boards with less to show for it than we should have. Finally, in an 8-point differential game, hitting only 9-17 free throws - so 8 missed when we average 82% - also really hurt us. We average 21.8 FT attempts per game, yet reached or exceeded that number only twice in the last five games, versus Minnesota and in that double overtime Thunder game. The others - 20 (Thunder), 12 (Hornets), and 12 (Mavericks) attempts. We've been settling too much for outside shots and not driving nearly well or hard enough though we are moving the ball to create open lanes.

Also, missed bunnies are creeping in again. I so loathe missed bunnies. Please for the love of fundamental basketball and staying in the good graces of basketball gods, take the ball strong to the basket with two hands, Spurs.

We just were not ready to play, succumbed to the collective lack of overall effort (except for LMA, Rudy, and Beli and Derrick and Davis on D), and could not catch up. This year, we started with very strong first and third quarters, but have in the last few games or so reverted to allowing opponents to outscore us in the first so that we're on our heels early, even in the last two road games that we won; it's just a trend we have to reverse and impose our game from the tip to not give winnable games away. We have done well in responding after poor efforts, so hopefully with two days to look at the bitter mirror that will be video sessions before we hit the road, and then two days off again before our final game this week, there will be plenty of teachable moments. I hope we respond the right way. We've raised the bar, but hit it with our recent play. We're far better than we've shown, so I hope we see a higher personal and team standard in effort and execution so that we can control our own fate as much and as best we can.

Noteworthy achievements

DAVIS:

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LAMARCUS:

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MARCO:

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[G R E Y]

Post-game interviews

POP - more like a succinct statement, really (more restrained than I thought he'd be):

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MARCO:

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