SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 67: SPURS VS. RAPTORS, 9-3-2022, 7:30PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

4TH Q: SPURS 104

RAPTORS 119

Well. The game patterns continue, all except for my predicting Pop's. His post game response showed some solid support for our team, said we didn't take any Qs off, but there's lots for the film session to go over. So no 'soft' or 'uncompetitive'. I still wish I could be a fly on the wall during one of these.

Hmm, ok:

Read on Twitter

Patterns we need to nip: Slow, tentative start, recover in the 2ND Q, start the second half in a promising way, before the falling elevator nightmare execution takes over and we free fall, losing momentum in giving up a run, our lead, the lead at the end of the 3RD Q, and then we forget how to play in the 4TH Q. And though the D against us tightened up, this is a pattern we've played out versus teams who haven't bothered playing anything close to good D to the same result.

It's a self-inflicted wound from a self-fulfilling prophecy: oh we are losing after the 3RD Q? Well then we tighten up and play even worse and score the fewest points of all the Qs again.

DJ had a phenomenal half so of course the adjustment of a bigger player came. Also all the chances we had in the first half with open lanes that we wasted with outside shots were sealed up in the second. Miss all those outside shots and a team will dare to you make them and we didn't. Why we didn't establish a more inside-out game rather than insisting on an outside-in one I don't understand, but it was also part of a pattern of tentativeness or working ourselves into the game rather than starting with the mindset of imposing ours.

We also didn't learn from previous experiences well enough to not shadow their PG and paid the price once again. When we put a guy on a single player for full court, all presence coverage we excel. We've done it with Dame and CJ at times to good effect.

Though we had 24 assists (low for us) we didn't really exploit our movement, good to great game. Too many one and done shots, stupid 3s attempts in transition rather than running an actual fast break and getting caught on the other end with giving up second chance points off O boards and on ISO plays. We allowed too many passes inside with poor positioning and gave up points inside.

So, not enough drives for FTs, too many fouls and FTs given up, poor ball protection for 23(!) points given up on our 12 TOs.

So it was poor shot selection from a lacking energy to start and then walking into their strengths of length and ISO play and a lack of hustle to prevent passes inside or get the boards.

We're still imbalanced post-trade, even though there's technically more minutes for the other guards. Well the other guards consist of a second year PG still learning the ropes in his first stint with regular meaningful minutes, the youngest rookie in the league just coming off the G-League stint for most of the year, Devin in his second year adjusting to a bigger, harder starting role which puts him against starters in his position on D while he tries to add to his O game, and Lonnie who is looking for his next contract and hardly ever passes up a shot chance.

And so the starters scored 71 points and the bench only 26, outscored by 6. We used to have the best scoring bench in the league but that one trade actually remade most of our bench unit which was functioning so well together, used to one another.

Lonnie led the bench with 13 points but the issue is he had 11 at the half. Again, the most athletic Spur had only THREE attempts at the rim. He passed up shots and settled for long Js or took 3s (won't fault him for the latter IF he's making them. 2-6 isn't great, but a better drive-shoot balance is there for the finding). At least he didn't take 20 bloody shots again. 5-12 overall, 1-2FTs with 2 boards and 2 assists.

The trouble we have is finding a groove among the bench players, a bench that has been so in flux and is perhaps filled with players with differing interests. That Lonnie has a contract coming up is no secret, but that he adjusted to pass the ball a bit more and didn't take EVERY shot he could have is a good step for him.

Tre is learning in the fire. Eight attempts is good. Two makes is not. Plus he has NO 3 shot whatsoever. It's just not a reliable threat so we are limited to Lonnie who is poor from the arc this season, Primo who didn't play, and JRich who only got two shots up (and made his only 3 attempt) after scoring so well for us last game. We should have gotten JRich the ball more considering not only the previous game but his 3&D role as a pro, but... we didn't.

And as dogged a defender as Tre is, he's physically smaller, not just height but pro man bulk, and on post ups by bigger guards there's only so much he can do. DJ is taller but a lean build and his defense is excels more in anticipation or recovery. Lonnie got dinged for a tam low -19. JRich did well in his minutes though we do prioritize youth getting experience. It's too bad Primo couldn't play. He is taller and bulkier and he's bodied up guards well. It's not that he could have stopped his counterparts, but the experience alone would have been something to learn from.

Zach is a study of inconsistency. He's a (theoretically) floor spacing big who barely takes them (and the corollary is that we have to pass him the ball up top to get him more chances), an energy big who rebounds (none tonight), and is clearly still working his way from not playing for a long time. I have to adjust my expectations to who he is now rather than who he was before he got hurt. It took DJ and Lonnie a long while to look themselves too, in fairness.

Maybe, then, we give Jock more of a shot and try him as the first big off the bench for a while? It'll happen naturally with back-to-backs coming up. But with Drew out, we got 1-1 combined from our back up bigs. OOF. Jakob needs more help. Jock had a tough start to the season with a concussion and Covid, and Zach's just been back a few games, so yeah we shored up our bigs but we have a dearth in the spot while they get their roles set. But we have to do a better job integrating them, too. We did well enough incorporating Drew, so there's no reason we can't run the same plays or even floor stretching ones for Jock and Zach. It's as much about getting them the ball as it is about them contributing more.

By contributing more, it's not just about scoring. The bench grabbed a grand total of 5 rebounds. That's bad. They combined for 8 assists, no steals, and 2 of our 4 blocks. WIP

Starters. The whole team really goes as DJ does. Though we gave up a run after getting our biggest lead, DJ went out with the head gash when it was a tie game and we just couldn't assemble a something that looked like good O. We scrambled and recovered more than executed well. Along the way we TOd it, we got shot clock violations, we settled for one and done shots, we couldn't get PITP.

Jakob was 5-8 overall and 2-4 in the second half, both efficient but too low in raw numbers. He made his FT - improving here. He also led us with 12 boards (team high 5 on O) and had 2 assists and 1 block. Go figure that we went 19-20FTs on a night we made 50%, so good on us there, but again, we gave up 7 extra points at the FT line. Losing points at the arc (6 points) and from our TOs were back breakers.

DJ with a near triple double (25 on 9-17, 1-3 from 3, 4-4FTs) and 2 steals and Keldon with a team-high 27 (10-19, 3-9 from 3, 4-4FTs), 8 boards (1 on O), 1 assist and 1 terrific block were not enough to compensate for the bench and for Doug and Devin combining for 15 points. That's... not good. And these are the two players who struggle with O consistency most often. Devin at least provides some D (though he got beaten by first steps in this game) and contributed a couple of rebounds, 1 assist, and team high 3 assists. But his 9 points on 3-9, 1-5 from 3(!), 1-1FT.

So it's great that our back court combined for 5 steals, but they also combined for 2-8 from 3. Just... uughh. And then Tre and Lonnie combined for 2-8 (Tre 0-2 from 3), with JRich making one, and we've got a back court 3s issue that's hit or miss and can be exploited. When we can compensate that with spreading the shots - and making them - around, we can stay with teams, but when Doug's not making them (1-6) and driving but once (1-1) and getting to the FT line the other time he was fouled. His shot was flat all game even as our passes to him weren't in the pocket for a clean release all the time. But the zeroes across the board in every other stat.

And so when he's on, his game is a really nice fit for us with his movement and 3s, but frankly it's still a stop gap, better though than our PF experiment graveyard, but it's clearly an issue to address.

While scoring 104 points is too low, our high scoring games have hidden our D woes, and giving up 119 exposes it. We didn't protect the ball in TOs and rebounds (47-36 and 13-7 on O boards), and second chance points off them. Lacking were equal parts hustle and positioning. We must stay with ball dominant PG better, and try to prevent passes to disrupt sets before opponents are in drive or post up mode. By that point it's relying on help D which results in chasing the extra pass.

I know our guys wanted it for Pop and perhaps the weight of that factored in the heavy footed start. Perhaps it's factoring in Pop's more relatively gentle approach in public (though I'm sure the film session(s) will be exacting and brutally honest).

Lots of changes to adapt to in the last quarter or so of the season. We're struggling with certain aspects of our game on O with new guys playing together and in bigger roles. But when the shots aren't falling, we have to make sure we are getting D stops and we frankly haven't been doing that well enough. It's a game of runs but also stops, and this is our foundation and surely the film focus. We were better team wide with it and need everyone communicating and doing their part. It's like we're starting the development phase over again with players who have to mesh with one another.

But even with that factor, nothing excuses us from not getting hands up on contests of 3s, of fighting over screens, of boxing out, etc. That's on each player to own. When we don't play solid D we lose our identity and get into these scoring exchanges but that's not really our game. Better attention to D detail, better play. Hopefully we start with imposing it from the beginning of the game as one step forward in changing our patterns, and use that foundation to finish strong in changing another. Next man and next game up.