SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 23: SPURS VS. PELICANS, 2-12-2022, 7PM (CT)

[Phreak50]

Another 30% from the field for Keldon.

Not having an actual point guard is hurting everyone.

And no, Jones isn't a good player.

No one draft pick is going to fix this mess.

Bad trades, horrible drafting evidently some personal issues with players.

[G R E Y]

4TH Q: SPURS 99 PELICANS 117

First and foremost, get better, Pop!

Well, still not for the full 48 minutes. And still reaping the rewards for it.

Settle for Js, stop moving and competing, make dumb mistakes like TO it from inbounds, snowball turns into an avalanche and we're tumbling about, limbs all over the place, gasping for air, looking confused and confounded.

Everything we did well we one by one went away from - lost rebound battles, TOd it more (4 at the half; 12 by the end); spun into doubles; didn't get hands up on contests; didn't box out and gave up second chance points; over collapsed on their drivers and got confused as to where to cover; forgto how run a simple O with coaches having to yell for us MOVE and set down screens to get our shooters open.

And our shooters were open but as we're mired in a losing streak we're mired in a shooting slump. I think we keep gunning from teh arc because we want to bail ourselves out. Made 3s cover a lot of errors, but that fig leaf got pulled off a long streak ago and the truth underneath is exposed: we go away from what gets us success and want to make it easier on ourselves. We're going for the easier path to get off the hard path and end us sliding and tumbling down off it.

We do not feed to hot hand; we do not guard the hot hand.

We do not push hard enough consistently in transition allowing D to set up; we get beaten in transition after we freeze after misses and in trying to make up the error of lack of effort we foul. Sometimes we get a block or the rebound, but we're still not doing it for the full 48. Mistakes will happen - Bassey keeps biting on pump fakes. He'll learn with practice opponent tendencies and stay on his feet; we at times get caught dribbling the ball up the court unawares of defenders behind us. Hold it high, be sure of the lay of the robber land, and pass to the guards who recognize what they must also do; as gump said, our spacing has been poor too many times and it's from bad movement. Not sure why we forget how to play but it's clearly mental and getting the mindset we actually had early in the season of constantly moving screening, cutting, passing, and scoring. Even in this game we went away from what worked and our momentum was stifled when we settled for the lure of the easier outside shot.

It was good to see Malaki make some nice reads and patiently work to penetrate, back defenders up, and find the bigs down low.

We did well when we quickly committed to doubling (not tripling or quadrupling) their bigs and forcing passes.

We did well when we collapsed in the key and got hands on balls, in passing lanes, rotated out to close driving lanes.

Some weird passes that forced us sideways rather than downhill, that caught us scrambling from inbounds onward, that were too far side to side and thus easy to pick off resulted in 9 steals against. Either not enough space or too much.

And again some of that is on familiarity. We did all of this better when we had everyone healthy. But I think then guys were comfortable in their boxed roles, so when some guys were the constant movers like Doug or Tre then others could do n=more of what they were comfortable with like backing into the easily opened space. Now that movement has to be created by guys who were more the recipients of it and extra tasks are taxing. Steeper learning curve.

I really liked how we supported each other in the first half and then we went zombie in the second when they took over, especially in the 4TH. It's hard to lose and keep losing while talking about plaing better and learning lessons. At some point we'll be so desperate that no matter how, we'll eek out a W and it'll feel good even if we don't play as well as in some losses.

But until then, and these will be few in between, we must accept that we are getting the results we play for.

None of the starters were anywhere close to efficient. As a matter of fact, only Bassey and Roby were. And our sub-100 point output reflects that.

And once again it's our D that has to do more of the heavy lifting and it's not, at least not for the whole game. It's not about perfection, it's about effort. Run back in transition D no matter what; box out the shooter on FTs; come to the ball more crisply in DHOs; move your feet and angle drivers away from the key.

We're not doing a lot of basic fundamentals of basketball right now and in our feelings about the results.

While we're waiting for reinforcements, there are STILL things we can be doing better, and it starts on D. We have nothing to lose at this point so playing for wins through shortcuts isn't the way. Rather, playing with fundamentals in mind and setting those as reachable goals is far better. How many rebounds did we give up or get because of proper boxing out? Close outs with hands up? Proper rotations before that? How many times did we take advantage of pushing the ball up the court? Set simple screens? Fight over screens? More points for the good things, fewer for the bad ones. Those are our scores right now.

Don't waste opportunities for growth knowing you may lose because our best defenders or more of our shooters are out. Strip it down to the essentials and build on them individualy and as a team.

We have long term development goals in mind and have to get guys to buy into the entire mental, D-out, all hustle approach. Play the right way. Instill good habits. Control what you can.

[imagump1313]

Another 30% from the field for Keldon.

Not having an actual point guard is hurting everyone.

And no, Jones isn't a good player.

No one draft pick is going to fix this mess.

Bad trades, horrible drafting evidently some personal issues with players.

Wembanyama would help fix all of it

We aren't trying very hard to fix anything right now. Just stroll into the top 4 by the end of the year.....

[G R E Y]

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[G R E Y]

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[imagump1313]

I want to congratulate everyone as we are now finally in the top three!!!!! 14% chance at Wembanyama is the best odds we can get. It took a lot of work to get here because of almost blowing it with that 5-2 start.

Hopefully we can keep up the great work! There is a long way to go!!