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D TO O TRANSITION PLAY!

Great adjustments to start the second half: we get a player in front and behind their post players, we're getting right up on ball handlers even at the half court, we're help D deflecting from behind, we're pushing in transition. Keep it going!

**** BRUTAL - BRYN GETS BEATEN ON DRIVE DREW GETS BEATEN ON REBOUND AND PUTBACK...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOX OOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTT!!!

3RD Q: SPURS 85

KINGS 91

We won the Q, but gave up a lot of points towards the end of it to make it closer than what it was. We actually fought back hard with some focused two-way play and got a lead but then got into another 8-point deficit before trimming it.

We're getting blocked too much down low in their key. Jakob HAS to play ABOVE the rim and finish like the 7'C that he is not like a guard.

PUSH in TRANSITION, PROTECT the ball, and make our shots.

We're getting outhustled and outenergized by a severely undermanned team...

And for God's sake GET UP ON their 3s shooters!

Can't defend a basic P&R... over and over and over again. Then the arc.

GREAT JAKOB ON THEIR PERIMETER GUARD OVER AND OVER AGAIN. BRILLIANT.

No sense trying to understand this team. Literally anything can happen from one game to another regardless of who they are playing. Such is that of a young roller-coaster team. I said before the season I wouldn't be upset with games like this. I wasn't smart enough to bet on the Kings though...

Derrick White is 27.

I'd move him while he has some value. He is too old and inconsistent to bother with.

4TH Q: SPURS 114

KINGS 121

Pathetic effort for far too much of the game. Dumb plays. Poor recognition. Poor contesting. We played to the idea we had of the opponent and got rightly roasted. I don't know who we think we are with this kind of lax play, but we just beat the hottest team in the league and had a chance to catch the team in 10th and **** blew it.

Bryn getting the ball stolen on our final possession was emblematic of our play the whole game: balls lost in feet, unforced and forced TOs, bad mismatches so that Jakob kept getting isolated on their guard who danced and scored on him from the outside, bad mismatches of our guards on their bigs that they passed to inside, NO BOXING OUT, losing 50/50 balls, missing bunnies - DRVES. ME. CRAZY!

We couldn't defend the P&R to save our life for most of the game (dumb mismatches for one, bad reads and responses, for another), we couldn't stop fouling them at our rim as a result, and we couldn't stop them hitting 3s. Just too much space with Jakob sagging too much, some of our guys actually not even getting a hand up on shots but TURNING AROUND WHILE THE SHOT WAS BEING MADE to I presume get a rebound, but in doing so allowed easier shots that would less likely result in rebounds.

Lonnie and the bench led us - dragged us along, really - in the first half, and we had a better 2ND Q, and basically managed to have a more or less even second half in scoring, so we'd go on runs and even got a lead briefly only for some dumb series of plays and missed bunnies and there it went again. So all our opponent needed was one strong Q - a strong start is a feature of our game when we're on our best.

Derrick (team worst -18 and only got to the FT line once) and Jakob were abysmally inefficient, combining for NINE points - like they couldn't even get to double digit scoring between them. Jakob led us with 5 O boards but frankly left at least as many on the floor, which is to say in opponents' hands. He also didn't play above the rim nearly well enough. It was one of those games where he was the tallest player on the floor but played much smaller and got blocked surprisingly easily. He missed the pop-a-shots he usually makes, missed layups, missed putbacks.

Keldon had a double double of 16/11 (2 on O) but it was on 5-14 shooting (2-5 from 3) with lots of missed bunnies, too. Devin was capable but quiet in his 11 points on solid 5-7, 1-3 from 3. Tough to be the small ball 4 versus a big line-up that we couldn't out do in outside scoring to draw them out or stop them inside.

We could have used Thad here, frankly, as he's a more physical interior presence, but ever since his last interview calling for more playing time and desire to play for a contender, he hasn't played. Surely it's related to our plans to trade him, buuuut... can't help but feel there's also a message here about not doing a publicity tour announcing desires. Again, it's not as if he didn't know his role coming into the season, or as if it's not clear that we'd be going with youth development or that we'd be trading him. But yeah, it's starting to feel like we really didn't like the way he'd handled it; not necessary to keep reiterating it, frankly, and it's not so much punishment as it is well, we're just going to do what we are going to do for the long-term best of our team. If development is at the forefront, we simply go harder at it, then; we aren't going to be influenced by such tactics, and so doubled down on team first goals serves a double purpose.

Jock was the first big off the bench and was part of the wholesale changes (four players along with Lonnie) that gave us some much needed juice, but as the game went on, his man defense OOF! Got blown by time and again, and I think a lot of the defensive coverage / switch breakdowns were because he was in the wrong place and went to the wrong players or was late in his response. All it takes is one player for it all to break down. And it broke down time and again.

It wasn't just one player, though. Bryn, defying the +/- with a second team best +7 but Jesus did he ever make some boneheaded decisions on D - following the driver when the big already had him and the driver simply kicked out for WIDE OPEN shots Bryn was barely starting to run to. Good shooting night, so he did what we signed him for.

Lonnie really held our tattered O together, especially in the first half. It's his fifth consecutive double digit scoring game and has looked different in a good way, in particular the last two games. It's like something has clicked and his rhythm an assertiveness is far more cohesive than ever, really. His shot release looks decisive, his drives are far more streamlined and he's finishing more of them (and through contact), and he's just far more decisive with the ball. Reps reps reps and it's finally getting put together. Love seeing him on this side his game, where it's all playing off well.

He and Bryn were our best scorers even if DJ led the way with 25. He just kept at it and eventually his shots fell. But it was too little too late. Seven main players getting the bulk of the rotation minutes, five in double figures, but that's a small piece of the tale. Another is lack of efficiency, then poor D to give up a ton of points to a team down several players.

We were chasing them around the court and chasing our game and floundering at both. Even after our resurgent 3RD Q, we couldn't push through. Seven of their 14 3s were made in the 4TH Q, so our final Q mirrored and bookended the 1ST. So 21 of their 30 4TH Q points were from the arc. You'd have thought we'd learned our lesson in the 1ST Q when they made 5-9, but no. And here we are.

Stats are what they are, shooting was what it was, but basically we came into this game thinking well, we just came back from a deficit versus the hottest team in the league, look at us, Giant Slayer, we are! and poof! the reality of our mental approach bit us hard.

Disappointing because had we had the requisite professionalism and respect for the game and subsequent approach, we could have had a shot at a good win. Instead, even considering some what-ifs like well if we'd lost to Utah and won this one it would still have been 1-1, it's a disappointing loss precisely because we'd JUST shown how much better we can play, and 48 hours later were the worst version of ourselves, except for Lonnie who's looking terrific.

This is less about us being a young team but more about a team that needs for the lesson of consistency to get past the hard headed self-satisfaction that a good win still results in. Consistency is also about the requisite approach, and we've yet to show we understand it on the level that results in a baseline level of effort. Not sure who we think we are, but we sure got a lesson in feeling good about ourselves.

Phreak50 wrote:Derrick White is 27.

I'd move him while he has some value. He is too old and inconsistent to bother with.

I agree with trading him if possible. What scares me most is his history of foot injuries and we have him signed for awhile. He's currently our highest paid player and we might need that salary to make a meaningful trade.