SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 34: SPURS AT THUNDER, 27-12-2022, 7PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

Ok. Two and a half minutes left.

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Romeo 3 because why the hell not lmao

Roby O board putback.

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We have Malaki, Stanley, Romeo, Roby, Bassey in for the final time left.

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Nice O board putback by Bassey.

[imagump1313]

Keldon - one screen and drives on FOUR defenders in the paint WITH TEAM MATES WATCHING. Miss. Blinders on. Wow. Bad decisions. Bad looking O.

They know Brett Brown isn't going to get in anyone's face for bad decisions.....

[G R E Y]

Aaand we give up a step back 3 because we're too far away before the step back to being with...

[imagump1313]

Well earned game tonight. Great job guys!!!!

We are back on track.

[G R E Y]

Keldon - one screen and drives on FOUR defenders in the paint WITH TEAM MATES WATCHING. Miss. Blinders on. Wow. Bad decisions. Bad looking O.

They know Brett Brown isn't going to get in anyone's face for bad decisions.....

Yeah I noticed that. BB just lets them play through mistakes but we need to TEACH or at least remind guys what not to do or what to do better. Can't leave that out there. What is he saving the timeouts for?!

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I also have chocolate. Came prepared for tonight

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4TH Q: SPURS 114 THUNDER 130

If our previous SEGABABA was ‘not with a bang but a whimper’, this one was all the more so.

A conflation of bad patterns to start, and a return of others to finish made for a sluggish, then lethargic, game with a predictable result. And given that this season is primarily about how we win or lose, the habits that returned need fixing.

It didn’t help that Pop got a quick hook early in the 2ND Q. His parting words for the ref, “Do your job!” may as well have been for us the rest of the way, especially in the 4TH Q.

Another slow start, another whopping 38 points allowed even though we were tied 29-29 with just over two minutes left. So in the final 120 seconds we were outscored 11-4, including a 5-0 run culminating in a last second 3 allowed. So that’s a triple threat of allowing over 30 points, missed end of Q details, not contesting 3s (5-6 in this Q alone).

Rinse and repeat in the 2ND when we were within 5 points with just over two minutes left before we allowed a 7-2 run culminating with another late Q 3. Once again, another 30+ points allowed, end of Q details missed, and 3s allowed (4-8 in total this Q).

On the one hand, we scored 60 by half. It really should be enough to be ahead, but down 10 instead was due to multiple factors, namely looking slow and out of sync to start, not making 3s well (5-18) to allowing too many too easily (9-14) as well as not getting to the FT line nearly enough (3-4) while fouling far too much (16-18).

Missed calls stood out, too, hence Pop’s early frustrations, but we weren’t nearly physical enough on the whole to shift the balance from home calls.

We did get 7 steals at the half, so there is some consistency in terms of anticipating passes and getting into lanes. Tre led us with 3 at the half alone. He finished with 14 on 6-13, 1-6 from 3, 1-1FT, 4 boards, (2 on O), team high 5 assists, and team high 4 steals to only 2TOs. Tre’s had only 2TOs combined in the last two games. Coming into this game, the opponent commentators mentioned how he is fourth among active guards in assists to TO ratio. Considering where he was last season and his role this year, it’s a solid improvement especially considering the bigger responsibility.

He was part of six Spurs in double figures, including all five starters, led by Devin’s 20 on 8-15, 5-6 from 3, 3 boards, 2 assists, and 1 steal. He continues to garner praise from opposing commentators about his burgeoning O game and rightly so. Better handles, three-level scoring, and a near unstoppable high release side-step or step back J are already in his toolkit, and he’s just scratching the surface on this end. On the D end, where he’s made his initial good impressions, Devin hasn’t been as tight and detailed. He at times let’s some plays go; he does well to get into right positions or get to the right spot on help D but doesn’t really finish the assignment in strong stops. It’s also tough to be one of the guys who makes up for others’ errors. And sometimes he’s left on an island with late help or none at all.
Jakob played 26 minutes (nice to see this increase) and made 4-4, 2-3FTs (great!) for 10 points, 6 boards (1 on O), 2 assists, and a block. He was more mobile, looked more comfortable in transition and on the block. Good work on the boards and under the rims in both ends making things more difficult for all but one of their bigs, who happened to be their second highest scorer on far too good efficiency.

His front court mate, Sochan, was all over the place in a good way and in a rookie trial by fire way. He is unconventional in his floating around on D, switching, getting to the right spaces, covering multiple opponents. He rebounds, runs the floor, hustles consistently. He’ll learn to not bite on fakes, to protect the ball versus bigger defenders (right idea to take it strong down the paint, not so much to leave the ball exposed, though I like that he keeps it high consistently), and realize situation and clock better. The temptation to take a shot on the strong right side while two Spurs were up at the arc and left weak side respectively were waiting with their arms up for a pass that didn’t come. Move it, good to great practice is crucial. But even with mistakes and rookie inexperience he had 16 on 7-16, 0-2 from 3, 2-2FTs(!), team high 9 boards (tied for team high 5 on O), 4 assists, 1 steal, and 2 blocks. What a stat line. And it was a lower key game for him, too. I can’t wait to see what we can do with him bringing the ball up more and initiating the O.

But this wasn’t just rookies making mistakes. As the game progressed, and most apparent in the 4TH Q, he had blinders on and made absolutely terrible decisions on O. There’s a big difference between using a screen and taking shots when it’s to take advantage of a mismatch, or there’s space and we need quick smart shots. But he wasn’t even looking for any other options, ignoring team mates open all around the arc and driving into multiple defenders in the key time and again. He had 2 assists, both in the 1ST Q, and that was it. We were back to guys getting to the right places, but standing around watching him drive against multiple defenders in the paint. Bad basketball. The thing is, he’s shown improvements in running the plays and making extra passes, nice ones cross court to the corners for 3, for instance. So we know it’s there, but he shelved it.

gump is right that we knew BB wouldn’t call us out. It’s not a matter of coaching style as he calls timeouts when we messed up on D; and it’s not a matter of good cop / bad cop as Pop gets on our guys but loves on them plenty. We can’t have one coach pointing out bad O and another letting it go in favour of only calling out bad D. Bad habits and playing our way apply on both ends. It felt like Keldon was trying to get his points average total for the game at the expense of shutting out team mates. Facilitating and making the right reads for time and score, when it’s best to keep it moving is part of what we’re looking for as he expands his game.

Our bench usually more than carries it’s weight but was outscored 68-35 which not only magnified our issues (and neutralized a strength) but we didn’t do enough to offset other inadequacies. Their cumulative effect was too much to overcome. Collins led the bench with 11 on 4-7, 1-1 from 3, 2-2FTs, bench high 8 boards (5 on O) and a block. He’s a high level back up C who is in a terrific position to make consistent impact. Stanley has a solid game as well chipping in 6 on energetic 3-6, 1 board, 1 assists, and 1 steal.

We had 14TOs on which we gave up 20 points (but earned 22 the other way); we had 9 steals but gave up 10; the fast break and points in the paint were close, too, reflected in the game through three Q’s.

We found ourselves within only two points after the 3RD Q which we won 33-25, our lone 30+ point one. We were actually down 8 with just over two minutes left, went on a 12-6 including a JRich end of Q tip in.

But it felt like we were running on fumes and that was our last decent push. We couldn’t find a way to keep that momentum going and once again stalled in the final Q. They started the Q on a 8-0 run and didn’t’ look back. In fact, we scored only 9 points by the half way point of the Q. Another steep uphill scoring challenge after it was mostly what kept us in the game. Again, when our shots aren’t falling, what can we do to level the playing field? We allowed 3-4 from 3, 8-9FTs to our 1-5 from 3 and 2-4FTs.

They had our number inside and out. They generated twice as many FTAs, made three more 3s on five fewer attempts. In fact, we had 13 more FGAs overall yet were still down 15 by the end. When our O stops working it gets ugly when we abandon whatever good D principles we show at times. The rebounds were close but the second chances we allowed were back breakers, especially the ones that led to open 3s. Poor boxing out for the most part, with not enough Spurs paying attention to ‘man-me-ball’ – too much ball watching, sometimes even with two Spurs facing the basket and not once looking back to see who to cover and getting striped from behind were not good looks.

Our low energy and picking spots to make runs didn’t do us enough favours. Just too much of what not to do (which wasn’t curbed) and not enough of what we needed once again led to ugly patterns rearing their heads. When it feels like we are going through the motions from the start and you get a feeling for what kind of game it is going to be, you watch for the good things we do well. Sometimes the things we go away from stand out more. Hopefully we have fewer such games as the season progresses.

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POST-GAME INTERVIEWS

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Popovich went to the locker room after official Jenna Schroeder hit him with two quick back-to-back technical fouls with 11:13 left in the first half.

The first whistle sounded after Popovich shouted “Do your job” at Schroeder. He followed that comment with something harsher that prompted Schroeder to slap him with a second technical.

Assistant coach Brett Brown replaced Popovich with the Spurs trailing, 38-35.

“They are real young like us, an athletic team, and we had a little bit of a lull there in the fourth quarter,” Spurs point guard Tre Jones said. “They have some good one-on-one players and when they get going it’s tough to stop like it was in the fourth quarter.”

“We definitely missed Doug with the attention he draws on the offensive end for us,” Jones said. “He is always making other teams have to put a scheme in because he gets open a lot, drawing a lot of attention. We definitely missed that tonight, but there are always going to be guys going down, missing games. We have to be prepared for that and have the next man up mentality.”

https://www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs/article/Triple-take-Thunder-130-Spurs-114-17680561.php#photo-23312861

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Collins also said the Spurs suffered from too many communications breakdowns.

“We are young, trying to figure it out,” he said when asked why there were so many communication issues. “It’s hard to get practice time in the NBA. And part of being in the NBA is every team is different, so it’s not like we are dealing with the same type of coverages every single night. Every team is different, and a young team like us needs to do a better job of paying attention to the scouting report.”

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