SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 69: SPURS VS. PACERS, 12-3-2022, 7PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

Aaand just like that... oof...

[G R E Y]

lmao... *sigh*

[G R E Y]

Missed bunnies on drives, airballs on 3s, and NO ROTATIONS out to the left corner for their wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide open 3s whatsoever. We keep missing that D assignment and getting burned. Lots for the film session(s).

[G R E Y]

HOLY **** Pop's RIPPING the Spurs in the huddle!!!!!!! And then he jokes around with a Pacer player just out of it.

[G R E Y]

Holy **** Lonnie just watches their driver down the middle. You are RIGHT THERE, man!

[G R E Y]

Annnnd Devin is promptly subbed in for Lonnie...

[imagump1313]

Bill "DON'T GO AWAY YET FOLKS! WE ARE ONLY DOWN 17! "

[imagump1313]

MAKE SOME NOIZE!!!!!!!!!!!

[G R E Y]

3RD Q: SPURS 82

PACERS 97

We lost the Q 26-18 -- scoring twenty fewer points than the previous Q. Missing everywhere.

Poor D and fundamentals. We just cut it to 13 points then they get an O reb putback because nobody put a body on the trailing big, and we get blocked on the other end. Bang bang.

We did play with more energy after Pop ripped us in the huddle. He had more energy than any of our players and it seemed to transfer some which was good.

3s, FTs, and rebounds, Spurs!

[G R E Y]

We miss, they rebound, they miss, the O reb dunk. Rise, repeat.

[imagump1313]

Why is Primo passing up a wide open three to pass to Tre Jones who wouldn't shoot a three if his life depended on it? Automatic turnover...

[G R E Y]

Poor decision by Tre. JRich wanted the cross court pass, Tre pulled back called his own number, no one else touched the ball, he drove, got blocked.

[G R E Y]

Pop's like "Oh come the **** on" lol

[G R E Y]

Really ref? REALLY?! Sticklers for details, aren't they? Ok ok good job... Can we GO NOW?!

[G R E Y]

Hey we won that final Q. Honestly didn't feel like it... Weird feel to the game. Hard to get flow what with all the looooong stops and weird stretches of misses and D miscues...

[G R E Y]

4TH Q: SPURS 108

PACERS 119

Weird game. Torrid back and forth at times followed by long stops for calls that refs had to get right. We had some good runs, 7-0, 9-0, 14-2, then mystifying droughts. Lots of missed bunnies at the rim when we weren't getting blocked, and lots of missed 3s when we weren't getting them made on us. There were also several 4-, 5-, 6-point swings with our misses on one end and getting scored on on the other.

Not exactly a D clinic, unless the clinic is film of how to do it better. We gave up a lot of drives down the middle. It stood out more in this game. And we didn't rotate properly on their 3s, particularly on the left corner. This is where I usually single out Keldon but of course he was watching. Not sure who it was, but we just froze and waited, feet frozen, at the mercy of their accuracy. Not good.

Weird game, too, because I though they killed us on the boards and in 3s but it turns out we out-rebounded them 52-47 and a strong 15-9 on O boards and they made three more 3s than we did (14-11).

Our bench kept us in this one with 50 of our 108 points coming from there. Our two 20+ point scorers were on the bench, and it outscored theirs 50-44. Jock led us with a career high 26 on 12-15, 1-4 from 3, 1-2FTs, 7 boards (team high 4 on O - he did good work down low, physical, active, alert, effective) with 2 assists and 2 steals. He said this after the game:

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

He posts a lot from their place and various places they visit in SA when he's not playing, and has finally shown the breadth of his game when given a chance. He hasn't always had such a good result, but good on him for asserting his desire after the good game. He's getting a chance and giving it his all.

Joining him was Lonnie who struggled through 6-16 but a team high (attempts and makes) 4-9 from 3, 4-4FTs, along with 6 boards and 2 assists. So the latter two stats showed some good effort to contribute in other ways besides scoring, and he had some good moments of strong man D, moving his feet and using his physicality to stay in front of drivers. Other times he watched standing still as they drove right past him down the middle. Strange.

His makes indicate that he was 2-7 from everywhere else not 3s, with his missing all of his mid range Js and he made two of six (I think) drives at the rim. Just bizarre how he continues to miss bunnies.

But we all missed a ton of bunnies at the rim. We took 10 more shots than they did but our efficiency was worse in all the shooting categories, FGs, 3s, FTs. It was compounded by their 10 blocks at the rim but also our 3s struggles. Seven of nine Spurs attempted 3s, and the two who didn't left the game - we were playing with only seven players i the second half. We lost Doug early in the first half, and Keita didn't return for the second half. Only Lonnie and Devin (3-6) were efficient from the arc, but JRich was 2-7, Primo 0-6, Jock made only 25% of his attempts, and Zach was only 1-1.

Makes you wonder whether Joe couldn't have helped here, and Cacok on the boards, but we run with who we want to see our there and see if we get what we've instilled from them. To that end, Primo had some nice passes (bench high 3 assists), stayed with his man on D some, and rebounded well (tied for bench high 7 with 2 on O) but he couldn't hit a shot for the life of him. He gets these feast or famine stretches and just can't get it going when he's missing. Some sort of rookie wall for the youngest player in the league, though he still found ways to contribute. His team high 3TOs showed some hesitation to shoot after a while with some bad passes late in the clock that forced team mates to heave rushed shots. 1-8 and 31 minutes of play both looked like they weighed on him.

Devin led the starters with 19 on 8-20, 3-6 from 3, with 7 boards (2 on O), 3 assists, and 1 steal. Some solid O moves (though once again he was far more assertive in driving late in the game - why does he save these?) He had a quiet 19 outside of his 3s snipes and huge tomahawk dunk. It's probably a good sign that he can stealth get his points under the radar even versus a team that has athletic physically imposing bigs.

Our bigs showed up well. Jock was our energy bringer and was all around effective, and Zach chipped in 9 on 3-5, 1-1 from 3, 2-2FTs, 5 boards (2 on O), 2 assists and a block. He showed a bit more of his nasty side and got a tech for it. He went back and forth with his bigs counterpart - good to see this side of him. But his 20 minutes were a function of both playing a back-to-back and getting 4 fouls. He was the only player who didn't reach the 30 minute mark. So six players with 30+ minutes as a result.

I did like Pop using them both in a two bigs lineup, good passing between them. They showed up well. Good to see more from them.

JRich flat out struggled to score. He played last game and was terrific and the 36 minutes added tonight made for a rough performance. Sixteen but on 6-20, 2-7 from 3, 2-2FTs, with 7 boards (3 on O), 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 block. But for the horrid inefficiency, he showed more of his all around game. He's got good energy, is a good locker room presence, and has a two-way game. Just showed less of them in the team low -20. Lots of missed bunnies after missed bunnies. One of those left of center games.

Tre led us with 10 boards (2 on O), 12 assists (terrific! almost half of our 28), tied for team high 2 steals, and a block. His 9 points came on a rough 4-14, 0-1 from 3, 1-3FTs on team high37 minutes (tied with Devin). He was a hound on D, stayed with his man well as we expect, but he did make some iffy decisions with the ball at times, taking his own shot rather than passing, driving stubbornly after getting blocked only to get blocked again. And gump's right - Tre simply MUST develop a reliable 3.

A lot of our issues stem from a 3s dearth. It didn't help that Doug and Keldon - our most efficient 3s shooters - were not playing. They were compounded by weird missed bunnies in this game. These aren't always an issue, but having seven players on an already skeleton roster meant that the rest of the players had huge minutes.

Throughout I really liked our fight despite a whole new starting group, despite the big leads we gave up and kept trying to cut into, and despite the poor rotations out to their 3s and allowing drives down the middle of our key. lots of film but it's also a function of the roster. We focus on executing the right way and there's still lessons for those guys who don't play as often. 3 and D. It's the modern game. But to whatever extent we struggle with the former, the latter is what Pop will single out.

Three games in four nights, coming off an emotional win, depleted lineup going in and an even more depleted one as the game progressed. We ran out of gas from all the deficit chasing we did, even if they were self-imposed on both ends. But good that we got minutes for other players (well we had no choice), that we got some reps among them. It can only help the team overall. We'll see how we respond.