GAME DAY, BALA! GAME 12: SPURS AT MAGIC, 15-11-2019, 6PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

With this first game of an away-home back-to-back, keeping the focus on our core defensive principles from which all else flows is the foundation we need to establish going forward. Also, let's make our shots!

WHERE: Amway Center, Orlando, FL

WHEN: Friday, November 15, 2019, 6pm (CT)

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GO SPURS GO!!!

[ducler]

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[imagump1313]

Lets hope we come back minus a DeRozan!!!

[G R E Y]

Lets hope we come back minus a DeRozan!!!

Lots of smoke about this now, eh?!

[G R E Y]

Starters note: Isaac is out with a sprained ankle. Aminu is taking his place. A bit of a break for us, really, and frankly we can use whatever we are graced with.

Also, with Dejounte playing tonight and still on a medical management restriction, he will not be playing at home tomorrow, so let's make the most of it.

[imagump1313]

Lets hope we come back minus a DeRozan!!!

Lots of smoke about this now, eh?!

Unfortunately, I doubt he would be playing tonight if there was a trade imminent

[G R E Y]

Lets hope we come back minus a DeRozan!!!

Lots of smoke about this now, eh?!

Unfortunately, I doubt he would be playing tonight if there was a trade imminent

IF anything happens, I think it would be after that Dec / Jan date when more players recently signed can be included in deals. Not putting too much into various Twitter pronouncements, and for all we know each can have a kernel of truth at that time, and then things change, but the latest is that DeMar prefers to go East if traded.

I don't recall the last time we made an in-season trade, but if we can't afford to wait and we get a great offer that fills a 3-4-5 need and a pick that would be ideal. He's actually playing well for us. No need to rush, but it is intriguing.

[G R E Y]

We did a lot of good things in the first half. Great active defense, good shots and balanced scoring. More of all of that. Stay poised, stay focused, protect the ball, and get more shots inside to get to the FT line.

[G R E Y]

Man do we need to drive at them and get stops without fouling at the other. Need to stay poised and precise and score.

[imagump1313]

I can't stop raving about Lyles. He really is our new David Lee.
Too bad everyone else blows collectively .....

[imagump1313]

Even when we have no choice but to take a three, DeRozan wont take it.

[G R E Y]

Even when we have no choice but to take a three, DeRozan wont take it.

Yeah it's not something he has or at this point will develop. Rudy hit it, we fouled with .8 to go. It was that flagrant called on him that hurt. A collection of plays, but that was costly to lose the possession after their FTs.

[G R E Y]

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[G R E Y]

Well, much will be said about being up 16 and not getting the outcome, but really we got the outcome we played for.

We deserved that 16-point lead because we earned it with excellent defense - we rotated, we deflected pass after pass, we got steals, we communicated and rebounded, and ran in transition, rewarding ourselves with quick points the other way. It was our best D and O half of the season.

End of quarter focus and possession protection is still a work in progress, and so they cut that lead down to 9 by half.

It was a game of halves as we kept turning it over and allowing them to score drive after drive and foul after foul in the second half. We did come back to have a lead by the end of the third Q, but still it was a 30+ Q for them. I thought we settled for outside shots too much, and wanted us instead to drive smartly. By that I mean at times when we drove it was into a wall of defenders and got blocked, but some back cuts, high-low passes, and swinging the ball to move defenders would help us get more shots inside. Even though we won the points in the paint battle 44-38, the context of when these points occurred to swing the game is important.

In the second half our defense waned such that we allowed 3s that were not nearly contested enough, we allowed too many rebounds for their multiple possessions that they scored on, and allowed points inside either on drives or fouls. Our assertiveness and precision wasn't as consistent or high as in the first half. Part of that was Dejounte and LMA in foul trouble, and part of it was Derrick frankly not as ready as he could have been to step up on both ends.

It's tough when you have six players in double figures, shoot 50% from the field, 50% from the 3, and still be on the wrong end of a game, but it was the little plays that caught up to us. We only got to the line 10 times. We can argue about calls for us, but in a close game, hitting 6-10 hurts. We can argue about calls against us, but we fouled too much on the other end for their 34 attempts.

I think DeMar having the ball late in his hands is a multi-edged sword: he draws attention, but takes too long to make decisions with little time left, and dribbling along the sideline into two defenders is a tightrope I hope we don't continue to walk on. Also, his defensive close outs on 3s were late. So was that of several other Spurs in the second half - when our opponents got hot - so it's a team-wide issue, but defensive responsibility is each to a man and for each other. That flagrant 1 late in the game was costly, and he should have gone for the ball not hacking the hands - don't risk making the decision for the refs easier.

LMA needs to be far more engaged down low on O for us. He was terrific defensively, but he had only two - TWO - attempts down low the entire game. It's not like they had bangers inside. But once again it is a function of him not beating his man in transition, and us getting him the ball for easy points. He is settling for his shots too much, plain and simple. I know that as a group we had a suspiciously low number of FTs, but 1-1 from LMA is a direct correlation to the types of shots he was taking tonight, and correlated to the lack of presence down low.

EDIT to add: I know this is just one play, but in terms of effort, here is one of those times he fell way short in running transition. He's slim and trim this season, so perfectly suited to a more running game. Something has to light a fire under his arse on plays like this. Yes we were up 14 at that point, but we could have, for example, used him as a rebounding presence. Instead, we try a transition point he doesn't feel like hustling on and it's like he's lolling around because we didn't wait for him or something - that's an unfair presumption on my part out of frustration, but seriously, what was that? - and we end up 4-on-5 on the attempt. Can't fault the shot - it's Bryn's bread and butter. Can fault the lack of effort in this instance:

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Now we had many bad plays and visuals have a stronger effect, so I do want to emphasize that, but when LMA has shown engagement in running the floor we got him the ball for very easy points. We hardly ran any high-low or alley oops to him, if any. By contrast, Jakob rolled his heart out and got easy points. It's effort and leadership and we need more of both on O from LMA.

If he won't go down low, give more minutes and opportunities to Jakob who was terrific in his minutes tonight and did just that. I do wonder whether having Jakob and LMA together at spurts can help us gel more. He is a more physical presence than Trey, though Jakob needs to be better at making his FTs. He was part of a bench unit that was terrific for us tonight. I love their energy and contribution. That said, I hope Beli still has his minutes kept very short. He had the fewest on the team tonight, and made a couple of weird shots.

Trey was more assertive on O which was great to see. Loved his hustle on D rebounds and keeping it active on O rebounds. A missed bunny here or there, so probably best to just dunk it, but nice to see a bigger contribution from him.

Dejounte had a nice O night but some TO's and foul trouble took him out of a rhythm. He needs to get better handles and remember that ball protection responsibility is more important than running with the ball like a cheetah and losing the ball.

I wish we could be talking about how we squeaked the game away, but it was within our grasp to do so and perhaps we got a bit too loose from the pressure and it caught us. There were some old habits of inconsistent defensive effort, giving up untimely rebounds for multiple possessions, turnovers and fouls. But there were also big positives in that we showed much better defense - hustle, communication, rotations, help D, getting hands on passes, contesting shots, and D to O transition points. We made some good shots, too.

Pop had great game management with timeouts when we did not run back in transition D, when we took bad shots too early in the shot clock and then gave up points on the other end, when we got scored on in consecutive possessions. Things are tightening up in some good ways, and though we made mistakes, we took good strides towards improvement and trusting each other more and playing together in this game.

If it stings we let this one slip through our fingers, good. Use it to fuel the next game. You can tell it means a lot to Pop and the players, but at times we are almost scared to lose. Go balls out with the hustle and leave nothing on the floor. We showed that playing better is within us and we know we have to do it in both halves to earn it. It's a hard lesson, one that I hope toughens us up and makes us all the more hungry for the next ones to come. We dug ourselves with our play into this predicament, and we have shown we have it within us to dig ourselves out by learning from we need to do better. It's a mental thing now as much as anything else, and we have to be resilient.