SPURS GAME DAY! GMAE 32: SPURS AT MAGIC, 23-12-2022, 6PM (CT)

[imagump1313]

Tank closers in the game!!! WOOP

[G R E Y]

lmao Pop puts out an entire new five guys. Looks pissed on the bench.

Stanley, Doug, Keldon, Collins, JRich.

[G R E Y]

Oh LOOK. Collins gets out there to contest a 3 and forces a pass. Would you look at that...

[G R E Y]

Our shot is not falling this Q.

[G R E Y]

NINE points scored with 5:31 left.

[G R E Y]

We now have Stanley, JRich, Collins, Malaki, and Doug in now after the timeout.

[G R E Y]

Bassey time.

There was a time not too long ago when we had Jakob and Colllins out and had to start our end of game third string C.

[G R E Y]

31-11 with 4:49 left... Oof.

[G R E Y]

Stanley really nice bounce pass through three side by side defenders top of key down to Bassey who got fouled. Made both FTs.

[G R E Y]

We have Bassey, Roby, Stanley, JRich, Malaki to finish the game in the final couple of minutes.

[imagump1313]

YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!! Excellent job guys!!! The tank closers did what we needed tonight! Thanks JRich, McBuckets and STANLEY MF-ing JOHNSON!! WOOOOOOPPP!!!!!

[G R E Y]

Tank closers in the game!!! WOOP

Were you snowed under badly with this arctic weather?

[G R E Y]

YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!! Excellent job guys!!! The tank closers did what we needed tonight! Thanks JRich, McBuckets and STANLEY MF-ing JOHNSON!! WOOOOOOPPP!!!!!

I'm happy the Magic are happy lol

[imagump1313]

YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!! Excellent job guys!!! The tank closers did what we needed tonight! Thanks JRich, McBuckets and STANLEY MF-ing JOHNSON!! WOOOOOOPPP!!!!!

I'm happy the Magic are happy lol

Magic are probably pissed Mo Bamba went off the script

[imagump1313]

Tank closers in the game!!! WOOP

Were you snowed under badly with this arctic weather?

I think you got more snow than we did.

[G R E Y]

Tank closers in the game!!! WOOP

Were you snowed under badly with this arctic weather?

I think you got more snow than we did.

We did so much earlier in the week it was exhausting with the traffic and holidays because of it. Then got home Thursday night and all it did was... rain a bit. PFFFT!

Well as of early this afternoon it's been BLISTERING nonstop. Tons of snow, temperature dropped 25 degrees, wind howling, windows rattling. Impressive, and I'm used used winter weather. Mother Nature putting on a show of force.

Those poor bastards in Montreal will probably need the army to come and dig them out again. St. Lawrence area dip is no joke.

[imagump1313]

Were you snowed under badly with this arctic weather?

I think you got more snow than we did.

We did so much earlier in the week it was exhausting with the traffic and holidays because of it. Then got home Thursday night and all it did was... rain a bit. PFFFT!

Well as of early this afternoon it's been BLISTERING nonstop. Tons of snow, temperature dropped 25 degrees, wind howling, windows rattling. Impressive, and I'm used used winter weather. Mother Nature putting on a show of force.

Those poor bastards in Montreal will probably need the army to come and dig them out again. St. Lawrence area dip is no joke.

We had similar weather here but the people here are idiots and panic-shopped all of our stores empty. Stupid things too, like Peanut butter and cheese. WTF??

[The Real Dalic]

I know it's super late, but gg Spurs fans! You guys are going to have another Spurs legend as a big man after you draft Wemby!

[imagump1313]

I know it's super late, but gg Spurs fans! You guys are going to have another Spurs legend as a big man after you draft Wemby!

Thanks!

IMO, you guys have too much talent to tank. Love the Wagners! But I'm in Michigan so....

[G R E Y]

4TH Q: SPURS 113 MAGIC 133

Not with a bang but a whimper. This time it wasn’t the start of the fight but the finish that unraveled and did us in. We were within 6 after the 1ST, tied at the half, within five after the 3RD… and 20 by the end of the game.

The devil’s in the details. We actually gave up three 30+ point Qs to one of our own allowing the most in the final Q and scoring the fewest for a 15-point deficit. Looking even closer, the patterns of our end of Q details kept undoing whatever good work we were doing up to any given points.

We tied it 24-24 with 2:38 left in the 1ST when we gave up a 10-4 run to end the Q including two 3s, a restricted paint basket, and two FT’s. In total we allowed over 72% shooting from the field, 4-6 from 3, and 4-4FTs so clearly getting stops, in particular our nemesis of contesting the arc, also opened up our key like Moses parting the Red Sea where they made all but one of their shots.

We fought back to tie it 44-44 a third of the way into the 2ND Q, and went on a 10-0 run in the next couple of minutes. We maintained a nine-point lead with just over two minutes left when we allowed a 9-0 run to finish the half 61-61. We won the Q by 6, our lone 30+ point one, but once again the pattern of bleeding points late returned, two +1 situations book ending a 3. We put ourselves in a good enough position to at least stay level, and of course teams will often go on runs and leads will alternate, but once again the momentum had shifted in a similar point in a Q.

Even though in the 2ND they struggled 1-5 from the arc to our 4-11, putting us ahead 7-5 on made 3s by half, ours were on 20-11 attempts. They still made 13-19 in all other shots, all but three in the restricted area, so once again we kept bleeding points in the paint. We did do some things well. We had 18 assists, only 7TOs, a 6-4 steals edge, and a solid 9-3 O boards advantage, this versus a team with a plethora of bigs. We had 12 more FGAs by this point so we pushed the ball well, but outshooting a team that was already connecting on 59.5% of their shots was a trend that wasn’t breaking our way.

In the 3RD, we had a seven-point lead that dwindled and we tied the game on a Doug 3 with two minutes left. They then finished the Q on an 8-3 run, characteristically on two 3s and a layup, for a five-point lead and another 30+ point Q given up by us. We made 4-10 from 3 to their 2-11 for totals of our 11-30 to their 9-21. So it was close at the arc, but their work in our paint resulted in a sizeable FT advantage. Both teams had 7FTAs at the half (6-4 made FT’s edge for them). By the end of the Q we made only 2-4, whereas we fouled a lot and put them at the FT line for 9-11. By the end of three Q’s we were 6-10 to their 15-18. We were 10% less efficient from the field than our opponent. Allowing so many chances so close to the basket will do that.

The three consecutive late Q breakdowns culminated in a shift as they had the lead and momentum going into the 4TH. We couldn’t get stops in the paint and couldn’t stop putting them to the FT line, and we were fortunate that their lone inefficiency was at the arc. Well that changed and we had no way to stop it. They made 8-11 from 3 to our 1-8 and that was the game.

When you rely on another team’s inefficiency rather than on your defensive intensity to get stops and when you try to fight O with O but are less efficient throughout, the game will seldom break your way.

With three Q’s of fighting and scraping through, their efficiency at the arc broke us. We’re bad at contesting the arc as it is, so our ineptitude coupled with fatigue of the back and forth throughout the game on a travel back-to-back resulted in open 3 after open 3. Within the first three minutes, we allowed four 3s during which time we were outscored 14-4. So in the five minute span ending the 3RD Q and starting the 4TH we were outscored 22-7.

We finished with 28 assists, but only THREE were in the final Q. We made only 8-20, or 7-12 of the non-3 attempts. That in itself was decent, but again, the 3s discrepancy was too large to overcome even though we put up 10 more shots by the end of the game.

The lowest they shot overall was 54.7% in the 3RD and finished with 57.5% overall, 53.1% from 3, and 80% FT to our 45.4% overall, 31.6% from 3, 72.2%FT’s. We didn’t do enough to get to the FT line, got into foul trouble instead, and our 3s shooting was middling. No one outside of Tre from the starters and Collins, Stanley, and Malaki scored efficiently. With us on a travel back-to-back, Jakob on a minutes restriction, our starting front court in foul trouble, the conflation of these factors with D struggles was too much to overcome.

Tre was a bright spot with his pushing the pace and switching gears in drives. He is much better in finishing versus bigs this season, something the bigger Spurs who miss bunnies at the rim can emulate.

We could and should have gotten Jakob more involved on O. He’s great at the elbows and up high as an O anchor but 6 points on 3-4, 4 boards (2 on O), and 1 block is not using the most of his O strengths. True our bigs were busy on the D end, but we still could have used him in transition as a trailer to pass to more. He’s also good at overcoming opponent physicality when he makes quick moves from the post, something he did a bit of the previous game.

Spurs who shot it most – Keldon, Devin, Sochan, Jrich - struggled most. It’s hard to stay ahead when most starters struggle, Jakob is underutilized, and Tre is the lone spark. I was surprised that Dieng, Diop, and Romeo did not play; we could have used their length and perimeter D.

In general, our bigs sag in the paint but we need to realize that when we face those who can actually spread the floor we need to come up higher. Jakob was still running at the shooters with hands at his sides by the time the 3s went in. Can’t have that. It was part of another 3s guarding issue with too many Spurs in the paint, too much ball watching, and not enough recognition of whose job it was to rotate where and contest. Keldon has to learn how to angle his body to get around screens, anticipate them better, use better footwork. Devin’s steals in passing lanes stood out well so there was at least that.

This was a good mental test with fatigue, travel, focus on end of Q details and final Q breaking apart being a lot to deal with. What can we do when the shot is not falling? Running back on D, boxing out, angling drivers out of the middle, reading the plays when they pass inside and back out to cutters, and of course, arc coverage. When Pop returned from missing a couple of games, we actually showed some signs of better understanding who is to go where in rotations and contesting the arc.

Back to fundamentals. On O, using the glass at the rim should be the rule unless otherwise possible; running back on D should be non-negotiable and anyone who doesn’t get the message should sit. We’re healthy enough now to send that message. After all, that’s not experience based, but hustle-based. Boxing out and remembering that long shots have long rebounds would be nice. Reps and film and practice and more reps must over time improve our understanding of what to do to better contest the arc over time.

The quest for a full 48-minutes two-way effort continues.