GAME DAY, BALA! GAME 62: SPURS AT CAVS, 8-3-2020, 6:30PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

With the final of this three-game road trip, we'll be better served focusing on what we can control, which is our commitment to communicating, rotating, and closing out on defense, and then running in transition, moving the ball, and finishing with fundamentals. It's the elemental aspects of the game that we need to tend to, staying mentally strong and together throughout.

WHERE: Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse, Cleveland, OH

WHEN: Sunday, March 8, 2020, 6:30pm (CT)



GO SPURS GO!!!

[G R E Y]

Lonnie told reporters he got kicked in the shin. Doesn't sound like it will keep him out long, thank goodness.

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If this means more KJ minutes, then it's making the most of the challenging situation. Love him and his infectious hustle.

[Ballings7]

Told ya'll about Keldon. Wish he had been playing a bit more the last 1-2 months.

Hope he gets some solid run tonight.

[imagump1313]

Lonnie told reporters he got kicked in the shin. Doesn't sound like it will keep him out long, thank goodness.

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If this means more KJ minutes, then it's making the most of the challenging situation. Love him and his infectious hustle.

Why does MacDonald say it like that? "And there it is" Is there something I dont know about with the two of them?

[ducler]

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[G R E Y]

Lonnie told reporters he got kicked in the shin. Doesn't sound like it will keep him out long, thank goodness.

Read on Twitter

If this means more KJ minutes, then it's making the most of the challenging situation. Love him and his infectious hustle.

Why does MacDonald say it like that? "And there it is" Is there something I dont know about with the two of them?

Nah, it was more responding to twitter fans anxious about medical updates.

JMcD tweeted that Lonnie was listed as doubtful and fans wanted to know more details about his condition.

Turns out he got kicked in the shin and has a contusion; doesn't sound at all serious, but it took a NY minute to get.

So it was just a case of finally being able to answer a want-all-info-right-now crowd.

[G R E Y]

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[G R E Y]

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[imagump1313]

We look great soo far!

[G R E Y]

At this rate this game won't finish by bloody midnight.

[G R E Y]

Derrick's defensive presence and awareness continues to grow. Disrupts an alley oop pass, steps up to take yet another charge with great timing, wonderful help D.

DJ's help D and athleticism has been disruptive as well.

Good communication for switches on D by us.

Now we need to seal their bigs to prevent passes inside, slide over for help D on their drives, hit something in addition to FTs.

[G R E Y]

ONCE AGAIN WE GET THE **** GOOD PLAY OFF A DD MISS WITH A KJ O REB PUTBACK BUT DD HAS TO GO ALL EMO AND GET A TECH FOR THEIR FT CHANCE AND THEIR POSSESSION. GOD DAMN IT!!! I HATE HAVING TO GIVE UP ENERGY TO CATER TO HIS OUTBURSTS. CONTROL YOUR DAMN SELF FOR THE GOOD OF THE TEAM!!!

/rant

[G R E Y]

DD and Rudy ISO one and done out side shots are killing us. No ball movement, no drives, and they're scoring the other way. We do so well to get back from a 17-point deficit only to go hero ball brain cramp for a 10-0 run for them. Get dumb players who won't run our sets off our team.

[G R E Y]

BY ALL MEANS, DD, KEEP SETTLING FOR OUTSIDE SHOTS WHEN THEIR C HAS 5 FOULS AND YOU KEEP STUBBORNLY GOING TO THE SHOT YOU KEEP MISSING. BY. ALL. MEANS.

[G R E Y]

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[imagump1313]

GREAT JOB GUYS! We are sitting at 11 now, still in range for Toppin

[G R E Y]

How? HOW?! How can a leader of a team be so stubborn to the point of hurting the team time and again?

I know DD led the team in scoring, but I put the loss at his feet. Team game, yes, but all other guys played the roles we needed them to whereas DD went to his pet moves to the detriment of the team and the game tonight.

Yes, it was a team effort in getting down 17 - a pattern that has hurt us even when at full strength, but all the more so when with a depleted front court. And so they went inside and we got pounded on the boards in the 1st Q. Bad shooting

Like how big a cushion do we need to have to endure DD's brutal stubbornness to keep trying a shot we don't need and he keeps missing? Their C who was killing us on rebounds had FIVE fouls. FIVE. So what do we do when we get a 100-94 lead? DD and Rudy go ISO one-and-done mode and every time DD missed they scored the other way. It was at least a 4-point swing like 3-4 possessions in a row on his misses. And so they went on a 10-0 run for a lead.

Rudy to his credit at least tried to drive and then hit 8 of 10 points to get us to OT. And then in OT DD went into his same pattern of posting up against a smaller guy and **** settling for **** outside Js rather than driving assertively - this when their C STILL had FIVE fouls. And sure enough he was an emphatic presence in OT.

DD's refusal to drive and instead OCD insist on a shot time and again that wasn't falling, his refusal to take a 3 and so was left wide open, his bringing up the ball too slowly that allowed them to set up on D, his holding on to the ball too long and passing out late in the clock, his bad recognition and rotations on D - just brutal. Brutal. His needing to have the ball in his hands to end Qs and games is stalling our progress. When Derrick missed the FT or DJ missed a J, I was ok with it - they need to learn how to push through in those situations. Besides, they created those situations to give themselves a chance to score.

I know some here want us to keep losing, but the team still wants to win, and had there been more team play by DD we could have moved up one position in the standings. Instead, DD is single-handedly handcuffed that goal whether by refusing to score for a five or six game stretch, or going the opposite way the last two games with handling the ball too much, and then repeating his worst habits with it. It feels like we asked him to play a more facilitating role and he responded with a passive-aggressive refusal to put up shots so as to make a point of the role he was asked to play. But the team has done nothing but acquiesce to his style of play - in not taking 3s, in needing to be 'the man' late in games etc., and he just gets **** tunnel vision repeating bad play after bad play on both ends. Add to that yet another untimely emotional outburst that costs us a tech and possession and it was just a of his worst.

He took the most shots and had the worst efficiency on the team. Rudy was also 7-19, but at least he hit some 3s. DD was second worst -8 behind Trey who had a tough bigs assignment.

Jesus. Twenty more games. Twenty. More. Games. Please God let there be a S&T, please...

I get we have to balance that fine line of appeasing him so as to not lose him for nothing, at least a S&T (best-case scenario, really - we can score well enough without him. We are better catering to LMA in the left block because at least he makes 3s and is a good defender).

Back to the game: We won the 2nd and 3rd Qs on good D when we got hands on the ball, read and disrupted the passes inside by doubling them or with sneaky timely help D, collapsing on their bigs and boxing out, and getting points in transition.

DJ and Derrick were terrific on both ends. DJ got 6 steals, led us with 6 assists, team-high 2 O boards (7 in total) and a block in addition to 8-18 for 17 points. Derrick drove smartly and got to the FT line second to DD (11-12) with 8-9 at the line. We couldn't ask more of Bryn who fulfilled his role with 19 points at 50% FG and from the 3. Trey and Drew had the unenviable tough tasks of going against their behemoth front court and still hit 4-10 and 2-4 respectively while being steady on D with good positioning on boards and solid rotations - it was a really physical job and they did what we could expect. KJ was wonderful, too, even getting a rare O board and putback. He was terrific on D, getting ahead of his man to get a steal, and confidently finding open lanes and driving physically. He's a baller. It's a fine point for him of opportunity and readiness. He has stepped up well in his minutes. Patty did well applying full court pressure and being a pest shadowing their ball handlers.

But patterns on D reared their heads and as we got lead feet from having to watch DD go ISO with mostly outside shots, and we did not communicate late in the game to switch and rotate. Love hit one 3 - in OT. When we fought back from a double-digit deficit earlier we were communicating and switching and helping well. But there's something about having to cater to ISO on O that takes the wind out of our D sails or we get the proportionate passivity or something - the point is the D tends to mirror the O. It shouldn't be that way, but I think it has something to do with other guys not getting the chance to contribute on O and having to watch one or two guys do the same things and fail on O while they have to pick up the slack of at least of of those guys on the other end that creates an imbalance and we don't have the requisite equal spirit and focus on both ends.

So even though we fought hard to get back into the game, increasing our intensity to match their FT output (each team made 33) we got clobbered on the boards 60-44 (14-6 on O) - THIRTY-FIVE (and 7 on O boards) of which came from their front court PF an C tandem which had 4 and 5 fouls, respectively. We kept our turnovers down to only 9 (they had 18), we got 15 steals (to their 4), it was in the end a couple of poor rotations for their 3s, and not driving enough at their bigs - when there were several chances to but the ISO star settled for too many outside consecutive shots - that cost us and cost us big.

When you put in the work earlier - or not - the dividends later are what they are. And we did so much good work to get ourselves into a favourable position but for some late decisions that kept their players in who should have been attacked more instead ended up attacking us. Ad the thing is, DJ and Derrick and KJ were doing just that failry consistently. Even Rudy and DD, but the latter settled for too many Js and that was that. Can't wait for this catering to be done with. Whatever the young guys have learned from his professionalism and mid range game, I hope they will get more chances to make decisions late in games.

It was once again winnable, and once again personal preferences and pet shots and counterproductive stubbornness got in the way of team goal.

Some good things to take from this game, namely our hustle and defensive intensity for a lot of the game and just finding ways to make good plays. We do, however, need all the guys to be in the same flow, otherwise, well, here we are. On to the next one.

Less thoughts on the game than a rant about a single player, so I admit the bias... but we can do better. And we need everyone to buy in to do so. Pop deserves better. Teammates deserve better.

[Phreak50]

I don't 'want' us to lose.

But at the same time, if we can't best some of the worst teams in the league, what's the point of sneaking into the playoffs just to lose first round with a team that will have one of the biggest overhauls in franchise history?

[imagump1313]

I don't 'want' us to lose.

But at the same time, if we can't best some of the worst teams in the league, what's the point of sneaking into the playoffs just to lose first round with a team that will have one of the biggest overhauls in franchise history?

I am rooting for losses even though I hate it.
There is just no way we are ever going to get better if we don't I'm afraid. Unless we have some big free agents lined up in the next 2 years which we don't know about.
Even if we wanted to make the playoffs we would have to go something like 16-4 the rest of the way and I don't see these guys doing anything remotely close to that the way we play.

Mostly the reason I feel this way is because I'm convinced that Murray and Walker are never going to amount to anything but role players in this league. We need this draft pick to be as high as we can. At this point just let all the young guys play. If we win some games that way at least they are getting some experience.

Every win we get parading out DeRozan or Aldridge playing 30+ minutes or Belinelli or Gay even playing is just a colossal waste of time at this point and will set us back even further.