SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 7: SPURS VS. WOLVES, 30-10-2022, 6PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

Great rebound, Collins!

[G R E Y]

We were WAY overloaded on the strong side. We are tired and didn't move quickly enough.

Keep it simple, keep it clean, keep up the energy for the final 3 minutes, Spurs!

[G R E Y]

Romeo 3 isn't the play we want lol

Luckily they missed a bunny.

[G R E Y]

Brutal call.

Stay poised, Spurs.

[G R E Y]

QUICK JUSTICE!

[G R E Y]

Tre lol

[G R E Y]

Tre redeems himself by outerbounding their big in our end. Crucial possession.

[G R E Y]

KELDON END OF CLOCK 3!!!!!!!

[G R E Y]

MVP CHANTS FOR KELDON!

[G R E Y]

GUTSY GRITTY GRIND OUT WIN!

[imagump1313]

WTF DO WE HAVE TO DO TO GET A WEMBANYAMA AROUND HERE??????

You guys better straighten up!

[Ballings7]

The passing and threes output has been pretty noticable this year so far.

Sitting at 5-2, third in the west.. early season days, so, may be a fluke but I don't see how it can just go away so much where the team is not in the play-in contention. Going to have to get sneaky with rest and changing main ine ups around with infusions of Wesley, KBD, Dieng, McDermott, Barlow, and Branham.. if they want to be "bad" to get high lottery.


Nice wins over Minny recently.

Team has a lot of scrappy, hungry, capable, young-ish and young, skilled players on both ends who are buying in to the team concept - and probably think its Pop's last year.

Season may go a lot different than most expect.

[G R E Y]

WTF DO WE HAVE TO DO TO GET A WEMBANYAMA AROUND HERE??????

You guys better straighten up!

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Vets bringing up their trade value with each game!

[G R E Y]

4TH Q: SPURS 107 WOLVES 98

Down to only nine players by the second half with Blake unable to continue, we still managed to execute well enough to withstand their runs, overcome our blunders, and stay ahead while holding a second team this season to under 30 points for four Qs.

It was a solid team effort that did it: Keldon led us with a career high 8 assists and team high 25 on stellar 8-15, 5-10 from 3, 4-4FTs, 6 boards, 1 steal and 1 block; Doug attempted a career-high 14 3s and tied a career high with making 7 of them on the way to leading the bench with 23 points on 8-16 overall along with 3 boards and 1 assist; Tre struggled with efficiency but tied Keldon with 8 assists and led us with 5-7FTs; Jakob had a low scoring night but was very busy everywhere else, leading us ith 14 boards (1 on O) and team high 3 blocks; and in true next man up fashion, Diop stepped up with 18 on 6-15 (tied with Keldon for starter-high attempts), 1-5 from 3, 5-5FTs, 6 boards (2 on O) and 1 assist; and often unheralded Romeo led us with 4 O boards(!) on the way to 7 overall while chipping 7 points on 3-7, 0-2 from 3, 1-2FTs along with 1 assist, 2 steals, and 1 block.

But crucially, Romeo's defensive contribution was stellar. Pop's mentioned a couple of times how we have to see what we have in him, and while he started passively on O in the first half and came out more assertive in the second he was a steady defensive stalwart frustrating their bukly talented SG who was 0-7 in the first half before coming on streong in the second. Romeo moved his feet to cut off easy paths to the basket, forced angle adjustments, and kept his feet planted on fakes while hardly giving an inch of positional space. Physical, smart, poised, effective.

Oh and he and Keldon each blocked their star acquisition C. Just all out effort.

Our bench was crucial in our all around contribution, outscoring our opponent 43-28. We had 13 fewer FGAs yet with only Keldon shooting the 3 efficiently, Diop struggling, Jakob not taking them, and our back court not being a threat with a combined 1-4, without Devin, JRich, Roby, and Blake, we still made 16-40 -- the latter comprising nearly half of our total shot attempts.

It was the first time we hit the 40 attempted 3s mark this season, but we have also attempted at least 30 in each of our games. So far we rank a stunning EIGHTH in 3PAs with an average of 36.3 per game. We rank SIXTH with 14.3 made 3s per game, good for a tie for FIFTH best efficiency of 39.4%.

Frankly, our hot 3s shooting has been doing some heavy lifting and for a young new team that is just scratching the surface of playing together, going from near bottom of the league to top 10 is a huge turnaround. But we're not just a 3s chucking team. We lead the league with 31.1 assists per game and rank 11th with 11.9 O boards per game as well.

All of this plus a simplified O with a lot of ball and off ball movement creates a lot of chances for us and so we are tied for 10th with 91.6FGAs per game. And because we have many read and react situations it also means we don't rely on a single player to score; we love it when everyone contributes. This gives more guys a bigger stake in the result and a bigger chance to shine on a given night.

To that end, we have seen a higher floor, higher ceiling, more reliable two-way game from Zach all the more. He's a stat stuffer, and like Romeo and Jakob, keeps finding ways to contribute in ways that are not on the stat sheet. He protects the rim, contests and alters shots, fights for block and paint space to prevent easy post passes, spreads the floor, and oponents have to respect all of it or they pay the price. He scored 9 points on 4-8, 1-2 from 3, 0-1FT, grabbed a bench high 6 boards (2 on O), 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block.

So unfortunate about Blake's injury. He's got the best first step on the team, and a lot of moxie with his relentless and fearless drives. He brings yet another element to our game and with each player there's a little extra to have to prepare for and defend. Heal fully, Blake!

Malaki struggled with his shot. It looked a bit flat and looked like he was pushing it more than shooting it, probably early pro game nerves. But my goodness does he ever get it off quick. I think he and Doug have the quickest releases on the team. Once he settles in and just lets it fly, yet another weapon for us.

With all that movement and pace and getting used to one another we are second worst for TOs at 16.6 per game. Pop keeps trotting out never-before-used line-ups. Sometimes it's out of necessity, but when we get big leads I have a hunch it's just to see who works with whom and how guys respond. And anyway, big leads means more minutes for those who play less. In this game we had 19 but luckily they only cost us 12 points.

It's a good thing we keep the ball moving as we're not a team that will beat you with handles. Keldon is better at splitting defenders now, and Tre has been an overall steady PG presence initiating the O and setting up team mates well, but in the rare times that we have too few players, the constant ball and off ball movement wore us down. We made some sloppy telegraphed passes, some attempts into too tight spaces when the ball pressure increased. It's times like these as well as when needing to wind down the clock that good handles and making sure ball handlers aren't on an island will help us keep possessions.

With all the ball movement and pace we are getting to the FT line at a decent clip, ranking tied for 13th at 23.7FTAs and we are tied for 15th with 18FTs which puts us only 19th at 75.9%.

So for a team that is not a traditional 3s and pace team but that takes care of the ball and makes FTs efficiently, we've flipped the switch to so far good effect. But of course in a development year, I think it's actually harder to adjust the first two than the latter two. (Significant side note: Pop has made yet another adjustment to our playing style that once again best suits the team). Having done that, we now have a 2-1 series lead versus a team heavily committed to take the next level in the playoffs and at 5-2 one of the best starts in our history.

We keep finding ways to push through, we are resilient, and we do it together. Love our team.

[G R E Y]

NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENTS

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[G R E Y]

HIGHLIGHTS

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POST-GAME INTERVIEWS

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Doug is such a super nice guy. You can tell it means a lot to him to be with us and play with the young guys after moving around a lot in his career and being in situations that may not have been as good in terms of culture. It's bittersweet, think, for us and for him if he doesn't stay with us. Until then, Doug is making the most of it. Really appreciate his contribution and his attitude.

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