RealGM

Every day is a good day to stomp the lakers!

4TH Q: SPURS 138

LAKERS 110

Well. That was something. Satisfying on so many levels. We finally got a game on them, we did it convincingly, broke through our patterns, and finished strong for four 30+ point Qs, a season high in points scored, and a season low in TOs.

Our interior scoring was not our strength tonight. We were clobbered 68-50 points in the paint. Turns out we didn't need it. We scored 18-39 from 3(!) for a 54-15(!) advantage from the arc, shared the ball very well (33 assists, above our league leading 28 per game average), and drove as relentlessly as they did to get to the FT line and make 28-33 for an 11 point advantage from the charity stripe.

Our bench was on absolute fire, matching the starters' 69 points, and outscoring their bench by a whopping 49 points.

I mean, we weren't up against a top defensive team, but we had two starters struggling on O (Keldon and DJ combined for 25 points on a combined 7-30FGAs and 3-13 from 3. Yikes). We also had two bench players struggle to score with Devin and Tre combining for 5 points on a combined 2-11, 1-5 from 3.

And yet we poured in a season high in points, tonight on the team-high 30 points (first Spur to reach the 30-point mark) of Keita Bates-Diop. When we last played the Kings, Lonnie remarked that it was bittersweet to see Metu playing with more freedom and doing well (we lost that game but despite his 4 steals in our poor 1ST Q, he finished the game on 2-8, 0-3 from 3, 5-6FTs. We're not gnashing our teeth about letting go of someone who gets way more minutes on a team that's third from the bottom on D and in the middle of the league on O).

Keita's been very solid on defense, has a freakish wingspan that he used to get deflections and steals, to prevent shots and force passes, run out in transition and punish them for mistakes. He had a perfect night: 11-11, 3-3 from 3, 5-7FTs, along with 7 boards (1 on O) and a steal. He made great cuts, was active on the boards, finished at the rim time and again as we rewarded him for all that movement. Happy for him for the great game he had. A big confidence booster, and shows the rewards of development from D out.

We got from Doug what we signed him for - an out side threat, 2-4, check, who can drive when contested, making his one crafty basket at the rim. He got fouled when shooting a 3, but his other FTs came from those quick cuts and curl drives that put him to the FT line six times, making 5. Grabbing 5 boards and making 1 assist rounded out his game. He's mostly very reliable in providing just what we need.

Derrick started slow but finished on a very efficient 7-11, 4-6 from 3, 5-6FTs for 23 points, 3 rebounds, 7 assists, 1 steal, and 2 blocks. An all around stat stuffing game that broke down their defenses with his quirky drives, spins and reverse spins in the key and finishes with either the off hand or taking off on the off foot to keep defenses off balance. Terrific bounce back game and he kept pushing found his game.

DJ was pushing from the start (another one versus LBJ that he tried to make a good show - it's hit or miss for him in these) and couldn't score throughout the game yet led us with 13 assists, grabbed 6 boards (2 on O), 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Where his scoring wasn't impactful, his facilitating teammates and stopping opponents was.

Jakob was a solid 4-8 for 8 points and though he was pushed around on the boards, registering only 3 (2 on O), he punched out many of our misses that landed in teammates' hands and kept the possession going. He was in some foul trouble and so he nearly split minutes (21 and 15) but Jock did the bulk of the work on O boards, getting a team high 5 for a total of 8, a bench high. The bench grabbed 23 of our 50 rebounds, and 7 of our 12 on O; a terrific balance in scoring and ball protection between the two units. Time and again Jock positioned himself to grab the rebounds and ensure that he threw a two-handed pass out to teammates at the arc, that he boxed out, that he moved off ball to get to open positions for his shots, scoring 13 on 5-7, 1-1from 3, 2-2FTs, along with dishing 3 assists and getting a steal - again, that's in 15 minutes of play.

Pop ran a 10-player unit, spreading the responsibilities which helped to mitigate the lack of scoring of four of our players. They nevertheless found ways to contribute - Keldon leading us with 10 rebounds, for instance. Devin was terrific defensively and in getting into the right spaces to get rebounds. He was one of several players we had on LBJ.

Lonnie had his turn as well, and just about no one fared well, so we ended doubling him at times with those sneaky help D pokes from behind. Lonnie has improved noticeably on D with staying with drivers in particular. He's far more engaged and disruptive defensively, putting together more of his two-way attack. He had a bounce back game on O scoring 21 on 7-12, 4-8 from 3, 3-4FTs, along with 2 boards, 1 assist - an acrobatic behind the back pass to Jock for a dunk - and 1 steal. He was at times rushed in his shots, taking a one and done shots too early in the clock, at others he held onto the ball like his life depended on it, finally, out of options, passing reluctantly, late in the clock for a teammate to scramble together a chance shot.

He's improved a lot in terms of being far more assertive in drives, but now has to also get that balance right of trusting that when he gives up the ball, he'll get it back again. He's not the #1 option so let's put the game in the context of the team concept.

Tre's regressed noticeably from his steady two-way play. It's less about his defense, he's tenacious as ever, but he's been less than ordinary with his decision making on O, with his drives, and with his finishes at the rim. He's not just missing shots, that happens, but the choices he makes when he shoots just look like they're by someone who hasn't shown what he has in going against bigger players. He isn't protecting the ball on drives, misses bunnies with wrong angles off the glass, etc. Just needs to reset and start with controlling the PG game, then his group out there with him, then his shots. Back to basics.

Overall we showed a lot of good two-way play, and where on strength got mitigated, we went to work on others. And in addition to making a lot of 3s and getting to the FT line, we made them pay for their TOs, from which we got an additional 21 points. Loved our transition game for the most part (except for when we settled for 3s instead of running it to the rim), loved that we withstood runs and a player almost impossible to stop physically, that we stayed true to our good patterns of starting and finishing strong while breaking our patterns of deficits in the middle two Qs. I loved that we shared the ball and still got it to the hot hand, surprisingly, our unsung hero, Diop. One of those games in which for the most part, we played a team game on both ends and so what was good for the hot hand was also good for the team.

We finished the pre-holiday road trip 3-1 which, given the schedule, probably few predicted we would. Suddenly the loss doesn't look as bad considering how we responded to it. Happy Christmas to the team, stay healthy, be ready to continue to grow our game, and in the meantime, some well earned gifts:

NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENTS

imagump1313 wrote:Every day is a good day to stomp the lakers!

Yes. If there's one thing you can do right in a season, it's beating the Lakers. Makes my day.

If you lose every game of the year, do make sure you somehow beat the Lakers.

I just realized we're somehow 10th seed. So we can make the play-ins, win a game and make the playoffs as an 8th seed!

Pretty good. We were supposed to get worse without Derozan but nothing has changed. This obviously isn't the end goal, but for a rebuilding team it's not a bad place to be.