SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 46: SPURS VS. THUNDER, 19-1-2022, 7:30PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

We take a long J miss out of a timeout followed by fouling them in our key.

Let's look for this pattern with a lead: settling for outside shots followed by the opponent getting fouls in our key...

[G R E Y]

Great man D and block by Jakob followed by push in transition for a four-point swing our way.

[G R E Y]

2ND Q: SPURS 69

THUNDER 51

So that's two 30+ point Qs by us, but they're frankly missing a lot of open looks.

I loved DJ taking that first 3 quickly to preserve out two-for-one chance to finish the half, but we ONCE AGAIN sagged far too much on their too open J to end the Q and got lucky that they missed the tip in as well.

After starting the game 1-7 from 3 we shot it 8-16 the rest of the way which is great but we can neither rely on us shooting 50% from 3 any more than we can rely on their shooting 29% from 3 either.

Sure enough they drove and drove and we fouled and fouled and they got to the FT line more than the pattern should be.

Nearly half of our shots are from beyond the arc. DO NOT SETTLE FOR OUTSIDE SHOTS, SPURS.

We outrebounded them 27-20 but the O boards were 8-7 for us. Almost ONE THIRD of all their rebounds were on O for them. ALL of their starters have registered at least one O board. GANG REBOUND AND HOLD ONTO THE BALL BETTER, SPURS.

We do have 19 assists and 8 blocks so we're doing very well passing and moving without the ball and the ball. Only 2 TOs so far - keep it up, Spurs!

Drew has done a good job off the bench with his hustle wrecking ball self. I do wonder if we're showcasing him? We'll see.

Diop is sneaky good cutting into spaces like a ninja.

We simply have to up the energy to prevent what we know will be a counter punch by them.

[G R E Y]

ANOTHER GAME, ANOTHER DERRICK CHARGE TAKEN!

[G R E Y]

That's two poor decisions by Derrick in the paint. Two TOs. Getting too erratic in too little space.

Also, they are not driving at us relentlessly like we knew they would. Pop timeout to get us stop us from getting in our own way.

Get Devin back in...

[G R E Y]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND ANOTHER UNFORCED TO WITH KELDON'S O FOUL...

FOLLOWED BY ANOTHER O REBOUND PUTBACK... ****!

[G R E Y]

I LOVE D to O transition scoring! So simple and beautiful!!!

[G R E Y]

We're finally recognizing the hot hand as the commentators are saying. Good job.

[Mirotek]

How about Doug Mcdermott!

[G R E Y]

Dort drove on Lonnie, Lonnie stayed with him until the very end when Lonnie proceeded to back away from him. Like LITERALLY GAVE HIM MORE SPACE and then WATCHED as Dort put in the O board putback.

Lonnie with the DD D special.

Someone explain this thinking to me, please. PLEASE. There must be something I don't understand about basketball... or else this is some display of BBIQ...

[G R E Y]

3RD Q: SPURS 106

THUNDER 77

Well that's three 30+ Qs in a row. It's not always going to go in like that, but we've gotten some quality stops on defense as well. We're still sagging way too much when they operate P&Rs and the ball handler positions himself for Js, but they're not making us pay for it.

There was a stretch there of us giving up two O boards and points in a row, but we corrected it well.

DJ with a TRIPLE DOUBLE AFTER THREE QUARTERS!

AND HOW ABOUT THAT DJ PASS!

Doug has been incredible from 3.

We have to keep up the pressure so that our lesser used players get some court time and gives our starters some rest for the next game.

[G R E Y]

Good move, Lonnie! Nice quick drive, kept the ball up high, and simply laid it in at the rim off the glass.

[G R E Y]

Absolutely love how Pop continues to coach despite our big lead, calling various players to him on the sidelines to instruct what we could be doing better, how we should be running it. Always teaching, regardless of what's going on on the court.

[G R E Y]

I know we have our subs in but can we like run a **** play here?

[G R E Y]

Thad *sigh* just **** make the post move instead of the cross court TO over and over... Is it on purpose? Looks so bad like it's passive aggressive. He has the smaller player on him why does he refuse to make the post move?

[imagump1313]

Thad *sigh* just **** make the post move instead of the cross court TO over and over... Is it on purpose? Looks so bad like it's passive aggressive. He has the smaller player on him why does he refuse to make the post move?

Poor Thad Young. No one knows how to cut to the basket. I understand what he's trying to do.
Such a pro. I bet a lot of guys wouldn't have even entered the game in his position.

[G R E Y]

Thad *sigh* just **** make the post move instead of the cross court TO over and over... Is it on purpose? Looks so bad like it's passive aggressive. He has the smaller player on him why does he refuse to make the post move?

Poor Thad Young. No one knows how to cut to the basket. I understand what he's trying to do.
Such a pro. I bet a lot of guys wouldn't have even entered the game in his position.

Mmm I get your point, but yeah I don't feel sorry for him. The first time he tried passing cross court to a more congested area, ok. Then he did it again with a smaller player on him. So like he had options. As a vet he should have read the plays better. Yes it's on cutters, but on him, too. He ran what should have been there not what was there.

It's his first court action so he was rusty on O but the D instincts were there.

I don't pity him though. Still gets paid, has to understand that when he was traded to a rebuild team he wouldn't get minutes, and tried to force our hand with a series of interviews reiterating his desire for more playing time - despite knowing our situation and his place in it - and desire to be traded to a contender.

And here we are.

That's not to take away from the human element - it's natural for him to want what he wants and it not be aligned with a young team.

Not that big of a deal, just thought he could have chosen to make himself look good but it is what it is. We looked out sync because five players that never play together were trying to make a go of it in real time.

[G R E Y]

RAZZLE DAZZLE!

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[G R E Y]

4TH Q: SPURS 118

THUNDER 96

Ok, so we did very well on both ends of the court, and while we pressured many of their misses, they helped out by missing a lot of their open shots, too. Sometimes it's just the way it goes, but our defense was what led the way. Time and again we got good plays whether it was Derrick stepping up to take a couple of charges or us getting 13 huge blocks, distributed among bigs and guards.

I know we had a new group in the latter half of the final Q, but at around the 9 minute mark we had 112 points and so in the last nine minutes we scored a whopping... SIX points. At that nine minute mark they had 78 points and finished with 96 so they went on a 18-6 run in that stretch. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! Longest 4TH Q ever.

We had 9 steals on their 14TOs for 17 points; we won the boards battle 50-46 (Drew led us with 4 on O; DJ led us with 10 overall) but lost 14-11 on O boards - still needs a lot more work, even if that includes some when the final subs were in. True they missed a lot more shots so there were more chances for rebounds, but they still outhustled our players to get to the ball. We tend to not get after it but for some specific times during games and I hope we can get the mental approach right. Part of it is fundamentals - boxing out is spotty, for instance; part of it is consistent tenacity that has us holding onto the ball, and that's after hustling after it.

We did lose the points in the paint 58-54, but that's also including after the horrific 4TH Q by the final subs. Still, we have a tendency to sag too much on P&Rs and allow too open Js for the ball handlers. We switched well when we called or it and even when Jakob was mismatched on the perimeter he made them pay with swats at the rim. He had a game high four blocks, one of eight Spurs to register one!

Overall our coverage and especially help D was really good and we scrambled to get stops. D out for transition points is so fun to watch!

On O, well it was one of those nights, and making 49%FGs and nearly doubling the number of 3s we made (15-8) covered whatever D mistakes we made, including giving up multiple second and third chance points on a single O possession.

All our starters scored in double figures and all were good to great in efficiency. DJ and Derrick combined 2-12 from 3, so that needs some work. Most shots were open and in the flow of extra passes so they're hard to fault in a make or miss game. And we got covered by Doug (6-9), Keldon (3-5), and Devin (4-5) shooting lights out from 3.

DJ led us in scoring with 23 and got a triple double in three Qs (10 boards, 3 on O and 14 assists!). He also led us with 3 steals. Combine that with Derrick's two charges taken and two blocks and our back court tandem was the defensive force field we needed it to be as well as distributing and scoring well.

We did well to get the ball inside to Jakob who made 6-9 and 1-2FTs, even though it's frustrating when he doesn't finish strong at the rim all the time. He does so much for us on D that I feel bad after the fact in criticizing him for the small things he does not do. He has to cover both bigs a lot of the time, and the sagging is hedging bets for where he has to be to best help us defensively as he's our best rim protector. Once we get another mobile big in there, hopefully we can cover spaces more assertively.

Six of Doug's seven FGs were from the arc so he was blazing for us tonight. He was wonderful moving off ball and this was an element of our game that was missing while he was out. It gives us various options as he draws defenders away from the basket and opens up lanes for us.

Keldon was very efficient making 5-7, but did not get to the FT line and got only 1 board. While we acquired Doug for a specific skill set of movement, 3s and drives and anything extra is a bonus, we do need Keldon to contribute more in other categories as he grows his game. Perhaps after a streak of poor games where he all but disappeared for several games he's just going back to the basics in working his way back. Ok. But we will need to see more court vision and other contributions from him as a starter. We can't leave it to just the back court in getting the bulk of the team help stats. We need him to be more than a scorer, improved from 3 though he has this season.

I do like that Jakob once again registered 4 assists, so we are using him as a cog to facilitate well, too; really like his two-man game with Doug, constant motion.

Drew registered a block and an assist along with 5 boards (4 on O) and 2-4FGs. He did good, physical work in for Jakob as the first big off the bench. He brought lots of energy and hustle and was disruptive in the right way.

Diop struggled making only 2-7, 0-1 from 3, and got 3 boards (1 on O) and 2 assists. He is a smart player, making good cuts into the key and back door. He's a plug into a line-up type whose length brings an extra element on D, but we're just not getting enough O consistently from him. Should we expect it? It would be nice if he could assert himself a bit more and had plenty of chances tonight; all but one of his FGAs were inside the paint. Needs to finish these strong. Super chill, even keeled guy like Jakob, and like Jakob I hope he finds his more aggressive gear more consistently.

Lonnie *sigh* First, he made some good D plays with a couple of steals in passing lanes and a huge block. He also registered 2 assists and 3 rebounds. These all included the 4TH Q minutes he got with the final line up that finished the game.

Now for the bad and the ugly. Through three Qs, Lonnie registered 1 point on 0-3, 0-1 from 3, 1-2FTs. Then in the 4TH Q he scored 1-6, 0-1 from 3 with 1 assist and 1 steal. It was painful to see him driving and finishing well with simple fundamentals off the glass at the rim followed by the predictable too much flair or power and miss with a scoop at the rim or miss with a bad angle and not enough touch at the rim. How does he NOT get it after all this time? How does he go from scoring using a more simple method - so he IS capable of it! - but reverts to all the unnecessary fancy moves through which he misses? It's just mind numbing decisions that he keeps doing for years now. You'd think he'd clue in to do more of what is working and away from what is not, but there's just something about him at his core that compels him to overdo and as a result underdeliver, followed by SM posts of realizing potential.

The ugly is his decisions with the ball when ran point, missing open teammates several times and passing it instead to an overloaded side or taking too much time to just pass it to a team mate beside him, the simplest of giving up the ball plays rather than doing something purposeful with it. He has made some good cross court passes before, and some terrific drive and kick outs or drives and dishes to our bigs, but again, you never know what you're going to get from him. You never know which way the decision will go, good or bad, and so we still can't rely on any sort of consistency from him.

The ugly is also his end of defense choices. So he's improved in moving his feet and staying with drivers, but several times just when he brought the driver to help D or into the key Lonnie would step back - LIKE LITERALLY BACK AWAY FROM THE PLAYER HE IS COVERING - and allow an open shot, and then watch as his man got the O board putback. Or he'd stick his arms at his side demonstrably to show that he wasn't reaching in. He's previously made these dumb reach in fouls because he didn't move his feet (sort of like Doug did a couple of times tonight). So now Lonnie takes it the other way where he moves his feet but when he SHOULD use his arms to contest a shot, he again WATCHES the shot being made.

Contrast this to the 4TH Q when Pop was clapping for Joe who ran up to the ball handler to close his space, moved his feet, stayed vertical, one arm to the side, the other up, preventing both a shot and a drive, forcing him to give up the ball. Already you can see the G-League influence in his understanding of what we want to see and in his assertiveness with it.

Can anyone explain what we're seeing with Lonnie? It's beyond inconsistency. How can there be so many areas of his game where he makes bizarre counter-intuitive, counter-fundamentals moves or plays or decisions? I'd say maybe he's pressing because he's coming up on his RFA year, but he's been like this since he got here.

His foil is Devin and I wonder if watching Devin doing more with less is putting extra pressure on Lonnie as he sees the things he should be doing done by someone else? True Devin has had some maddeningly inefficient games or games where he's disappeared on O. But as a fundamentally sound D player, he's reliable already on that end. In 23 minutes (one less than Lonnie) Devin got 2 blocks, 2 steals, 1 assist, and 8 rebounds. He also connected on stellar 7-10, 4-5 from 3, 1-2FTs. Now, Lonnie's had some stellar games in terms of efficiency, too. So it's less about that then HOW they score. Devin is far more of an off ball scorer right now, though he's incorporating creating space with a behind the back dribble, with some side step Js, with some step back Js, and tonight we used him more as the weak side curl driver who got the hand off and finished assertively in the paint. He also asserted himself in driving off steals and laying it up simply into the basket. He got to the elbows, jumped straight up off two feet for a textbook form, high release shot. He did a right side to key curl drive and finished with his left hand. He drove down the key with the ball high and away from defenders, simply laying it in at the rim.

No flair, no unnecessary extras, no self-conscious displays of movement, and trusting fundamentals. And he's succeeding with doing best with what's at his core - defensive responsibility, and building out from there. Lonnie's core, on the other hand, is athleticism, and it's still something that he hasn't been able to hone adequately to work for him on both ends. He has improved in staying active when he doesn't have the ball, in staying with drivers on D, in absorbing contact on drives, and yet and yet and yet. He gets in his own way more than any player I can recall, and it still keeps cropping up.

Hard to go at a player when we won so convincingly, but when so may other players have found their niche and we're still trying Lonnie out in various positions and situations to see where he best fits and it's still a piecemeal experience, it stands out, all the more so in contrast to some of his team mates. Whether or not that's fair, well we're clearly in development mode but also 'show us what you've got by now' mode.

I'm sure he'll show up in some games and we'll get excited about him turning a corner, but it'll have to be far more simple and consistent for me to be less critical and more of a believer. Outside of DJ and Derrick, Lonnie's our longest-tenured guard (crazy to realize that) and we're still waiting for him.

We beat a team we frankly were supposed to, and we didn't let up which allowed our starters some quality rest and lesser used players some court time. Solid. On to the next one.

NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENTS

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[Fundamentals21]

Now if we only played like this every game! Gotta bounce back and grab the 10th seed from the Blazers. We can still do it. There's a ray of hope if we play like this consistently.