GAME DAY, BALA! GAME 11: SPURS AT TIMBERWOLVES, 13-11-2019, 7pm (CT)

[G R E Y]

We're back at it with an opportunity to right the ship. Road trips bond players off the court and bring out better cohesion on it. We need to show a concerted effort to run back and communicate on defense to better contest shots and protect the paint, and on the other end, use our collective strengths of D to O transition, athleticism, and moving with and without the ball to generate and make good to great shots. Keep it simple, play hard, play smart, protect the ball, stay together.

WHERE: Target Center, Minneapolis, MN

WHEN: Wednesday, November 13, 2019, 7pm (CT)

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GO SPURS GO!!!

[ducler]

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[K4P]

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[imagump1313]

I think the Timberwolves will win this game by a lot

I believe you might be correct. Congratulations!

[G R E Y]

Better movement, and quicker decisions with the ball, which are good to see. We are getting the shots we want, just a lot of rim rattles.

[G R E Y]

The main difference is made 3s right now. Also, Dejounte is an indicator for us, and so far how he has gone we go. Two shots, two points, no assists is too tentative for him. He needs to get going.

[imagump1313]

Only down 7. We should be down 20 so there's that....

[G R E Y]

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[G R E Y]

I need to preface by saying that I missed chunks of the game having been called away grrrrrrr, so there are parts like the Patty / Bryn / Beli line-up that I missed, so whoever wants to have at it at that trio - provided with context of how they fared - go for it.

Starting with some positives, we got the shots we wanted from the sets we usually start with, but a lot of them rattled in and out. I liked that we were decisive about whether to pass, drive, or shoot, and there were fewer of those in the air errant kickout Hail Mary plays. We also included more alley opp, high-low and back door passes so these were good to see for a couple of reasons. One, we're running down the court to set up for the alley oop and high-low passes, and we're making good reads and moving off ball for the cuts.

Besides the 3, our shooting was decent, this on an almost identical number of shots between the teams. We got it stolen 11 times, but gave up only 10 points on our turnovers and got 14 points off of theirs. The big swing was O rebounding. We had 6 at the half, and finished with 10 by the end of the game. A lot of these were hustle plays and we were on the wrong end of them, and these were not just second but even third opportunities, many of which they ended up scoring on. The good thing is we scored 71 in the middle two Qs, the bad is we gave up 80 in them. And that's after starting the 3rd Q on a great run in which we came back from the seven-point deficit at the half, and got up to I think a five-point lead. But our defense in closing out 3s, not protecting the ball, and allowing points inside hurt us a lot. Add end of quarter focus and execution to the to-do list.

Our bench was consistently good except for Beli, who at this point there's no point in expressing frustration over. He needs to have his minutes cut and earn them back. Our off ball movement by Bryn and Patty and even DeMar is such that we have guards who can do what Beli does in spreading the floor. I legitimately feel bad for him, but he's bringing the spirit of the team down, you can just sense it. He needs a hypnotist or a sports psychologist or some shooting shaman - Chip will need to work overtime. That's for Beli in particular, and for our 3s in general. Loved Jakob's heart and hustle. You can tell it means a lot to him to be getting minutes, and it was good to see him respond with a lot more effort and impact. DeMar did a great job involving him and finding him with his drives and dishes, and Jakob was demonstrative out there and has a solid all around contribution in his short time out there.

We showed spurts of better, more cohesive play, but we are reacting to our offense and it is affecting our defensive play. It should be the other way around, with the D being there no matter what, shots falling or not, and that's simply not there yet. We showed better urgency, but hopefully some collective desperation of the kind that results in all out effort for a whole game shows up.

That effort extends to mental exactness - those lazy, telegraphed right to left passes outside the arc that were stolen, the high-low passes not quite in the right place (though I loved when they worked and that we tried them), the recognition of a smaller defender and more room to make a move to the basket rather than taking a J. We also can't get too frustrated when we do not get calls. These tend to come more from driving physically consistently, and we did not do enough of that. We had the same amount of points in the paint, but not as many were of the imposing our will inside variety.

If we could just hit some 3s with a better consistency, we would give ourselves a far better chance. Instead, misses on one end compound with not strong enough contests on the other for 5-6-point swings. Scoring droughts like the one in the fourth that we finally stemmed with a basket when the game was well out of hand at just under six minutes left need to be mitigated with taking the ball to the basket or more cuts or flat out banging down low or something. But it's when O misses affect our legs in running back and defending that we make it even harder on ourselves.

And although DeMar and LMA got their shots, it's how they got them that bears some scrutiny. DeMar had some nice finds of pockets of open space, he drove and made some crafty layups, and sneaked in for back door cuts. It was a solid performance. LMA got his shots, too, so we got him involved more, but when he takes a J when he has a driving lane, he needs to assert himself more and drive. From his shot chart, it looks like he only had four or five attempts in the paint. Every other shot attempt was outside the key, except for the one 3 attempt. In times like these, team mates are doing their part, so he needs to vary it up and make defenses pay. Four FT attempts for a C needs to be better. On the defensive end, 2 rebounds for LMA also needs to be better. Sometimes a punch out of the ball to keep the possession alove that a team mate then gets rebound credit for happens, but we simple need more bounce and effort for the ball from him. I feel like he is getting into a better groove, but he is still picking his spots about when to give it his all, rather than doing it all the time. When he decides to put the team on his back like he has the last couple of seasons, we feed off that energy and align ourselves with it.

Our two starting bigs don't really have an O synergy that lends itself to each making plays for the other. I think Rudy has that far better with LMA. Something to look out for.

Dejounte has had a couple of off games, and he looks a bit frustrated out there, especially on O. We have tried the run and gun but not enough effort or not quick enough a response from team mates has thwarted that momentum. His handles and passing need work, but of course, he would be the first to tell you that all of his game needs improving. As eh goes, we do, so hopefully he has another bounce back game.

I loved seeing the line-up for the final four or so minutes: Dejounte, Derrick, Lonnie, Metu (and Beli to get him out of the slump) and they ran and ran and ran. Dejounte and Derrick got their hands on several passes, and Lonnie's lone drive was once again a tantalizing look at his athleticism. Metu with great hops and better footwork scored at will, and Dejoutne's driving efforts got him to the line where he was 7-7.

We need to show more resilience and fight. It's within us to get it done, and this showing after a 45-minute video session on defense pre-game was better, but still some miscommunications and open dunks happened. Our blocking and help D was fine when we recognized and rotated with effort. But out closeouts especially on 3s need to be better. Right now we're a half second behind in contesting the long ball, and it's a hesitancy of committing so as to not get driven by. But that's when trusting the guys behind you to do their jobs comes in. It's mostly about hustle, communication, and just a resolute will that we will execute on the defensive end.

Right now there's not quite the spirit of fighting no matter what, though we showed more bite in this game. To whatever extent it is true that a team takes on the personality of its best player or the coach, it looks like Pop is done with the carrot approach and the stick is soon going to be used. Post-game, he gave a quick summation about our poor inconsistent defense and did not take any questions. If the team is figuring our who the leader on the court is, then they'll have the consistency of Pop demanding a certain level of hustle on the defensive end. It's good that guys are frustrated and want more of themselves. We got ourselves into a 4-1 start, and got ourselves into this 0-3 slide, so it's up to us to get ourselves out of it. It has to start translating now in some pride and resoluteness and resilience on the court.