SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 35: SPURS VS. KNICKS, 29-12-2022, 7PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

NICE BREAKDOWN OF THEIR FULL COURT PRESS! Romeo came back to ease pressure, Tre then ran ahead ot get the pass. Textbook.

[G R E Y]

Sochan bites for the pump fake. Needs to watch Jakob film from tonight's game. Sochan's 6th foul.

[G R E Y]

Pop putting in the work late yelling "TIMEOUT!!!" with Tre getting doubled hard. At least we got the ball in.

[G R E Y]

Make that TWO timeouts in a row by Pop to make sure we inbound correctly.

Here we go...

[G R E Y]

Just like we drew it up. Or something like that. Well we got it in and we got the foul.

JRich's first time at the line:2-2.

[G R E Y]

WEEEEEEE!!!

[imagump1313]

Great....... We are going to fall out of the top 4 and wasted an opportunity to gain ground because Detroit won. Orlando is going to have half its team suspended and lose a few games and meanwhile we are being stupid

I know its difficult to be worse than the Knicks but TRY HARDER!!!!!

AND WHY ARE WE PLAYING MORE FREAKING HOME GAMES????????? FRENCH TOAST!!!

[G R E Y]

Great....... We are going to fall out of the top 4 and wasted an opportunity to gain ground because Detroit won. Orlando is going to have half its team suspended and lose a few games and meanwhile we are being stupid

I know its difficult to be worse than the Knicks but TRY HARDER!!!!!

AND WHY ARE WE PLAYING MORE FREAKING HOME GAMES????????? FRENCH TOAST!!!

French Toast lmao thank you

I wonder if the two starters who were out for this game would have played versus a team they thought they'd have to compete harder against?

Paul Garcia posted an interesting stat: since we went 0-11, we're now 6-5. Over achieving? I always thought we were better than 0-11. But it's a long season. Doug and JRich continue to show well which bodes well for prospective assets coming back. I think the latter more so, but that's another discussion. My point, which you know, is that there are advantages to even games like this. Looong season. I don't expect the roster to look the same in the new year. Just as we've dealt with a lot of roster upheaval earlier. But we'll likely be playing all three rookies a lot more. We've already switched playing KBD and Roby far less, Romeo, too.

And the league will have to stagger the player suspensions so that those teams can have enough players on the roster to play games. It'll even out more in time.

[imagump1313]

Great....... We are going to fall out of the top 4 and wasted an opportunity to gain ground because Detroit won. Orlando is going to have half its team suspended and lose a few games and meanwhile we are being stupid

I know its difficult to be worse than the Knicks but TRY HARDER!!!!!

AND WHY ARE WE PLAYING MORE FREAKING HOME GAMES????????? FRENCH TOAST!!!

French Toast lmao thank you

I wonder if the two starters who were out for this game would have played versus a team they thought they'd have to compete harder against?

Paul Garcia posted an interesting stat: since we went 0-11, we're now 6-5. Over achieving? I always thought we were better than 0-11. But it's a long season. Doug and JRich continue to show well which bodes well for prospective assets coming back. I think the latter more so, but that's another discussion. My point, which you know, is that there are advantages to even games like this. Looong season. I don't expect the roster to look the same in the new year. Just as we've dealt with a lot of roster upheaval earlier. But we'll likely be playing all three rookies a lot more. We've already switched playing KBD and Roby far less, Romeo, too.

And the league will have to stagger the player suspensions so that those teams can have enough players on the roster to play games. It'll even out more in time.

I guess I would just rather us bomb out now so we have room to win some games later in the year. IMO we need to be in the top 4 to have a decent shot at Wemby.

As it is, Orlando is going to have the best odds of anyone because they will have 2 lottery picks. I would rather not get into a situation where we have 10-15 games left this spring and have to lose all of them to even have a chance at a good spot.

I'm all for the tank if its for Wembanyama but if we are just going for a pick from 2-5 or whatever, I have news for everyone. We are just getting an average player who wont even be average until 3-4 years from now.

I hate to break it to people but Scoot Henderson is going to be an average player. Dude cant even go left. He is not someone you tank for.

Wembanyama is the reason to tank. He is franchise altering.

[G R E Y]

Great....... We are going to fall out of the top 4 and wasted an opportunity to gain ground because Detroit won. Orlando is going to have half its team suspended and lose a few games and meanwhile we are being stupid

I know its difficult to be worse than the Knicks but TRY HARDER!!!!!

AND WHY ARE WE PLAYING MORE FREAKING HOME GAMES????????? FRENCH TOAST!!!

French Toast lmao thank you

I wonder if the two starters who were out for this game would have played versus a team they thought they'd have to compete harder against?

Paul Garcia posted an interesting stat: since we went 0-11, we're now 6-5. Over achieving? I always thought we were better than 0-11. But it's a long season. Doug and JRich continue to show well which bodes well for prospective assets coming back. I think the latter more so, but that's another discussion. My point, which you know, is that there are advantages to even games like this. Looong season. I don't expect the roster to look the same in the new year. Just as we've dealt with a lot of roster upheaval earlier. But we'll likely be playing all three rookies a lot more. We've already switched playing KBD and Roby far less, Romeo, too.

And the league will have to stagger the player suspensions so that those teams can have enough players on the roster to play games. It'll even out more in time.

I guess I would just rather us bomb out now so we have room to win some games later in the year. IMO we need to be in the top 4 to have a decent shot at Wemby.

As it is, Orlando is going to have the best odds of anyone because they will have 2 lottery picks. I would rather not get into a situation where we have 10-15 games left this spring and have to lose all of them to even have a chance at a good spot.

I'm all for the tank if its for Wembanyama but if we are just going for a pick from 2-5 or whatever, I have news for everyone. We are just getting an average player who wont even be average until 3-4 years from now.

I hate to break it to people but Scoot Henderson is going to be an average player. Dude cant even go left. He is not someone you tank for.

Wembanyama is the reason to tank. He is franchise altering.

Hmm I hadn't realized that about the Magic. I'm not quite yet at the stage where I look at assets for this draft more closely. More enjoying the season right now.

Magic are actually 8-2 in their last 10. Charlotte can surprise some teams with Ball back but not sure they should be risking losing him with all that losing. Detroit is just **** shameless. A few teams above our tier can go either way. So there's still a ton of maneuvering to be done. Not the least of which is by us.

Just checked. We are still 4th. Like I said, happy that the vets are doing well. We need assets for them and let the rookies play through their mistakes.

Scoot talks a bit too much about great he is or wants to be or whatnot. Not a big deal he can't go left right now. He can learn. And although he's a franchise altering talent, like he can improve a team right away, I agree that there are very few at the position who can raise their teams to perennial championship competing levels.

I also agree wholeheartedly there's a clear tier of one on the latter.

[imagump1313]

French Toast lmao thank you

I wonder if the two starters who were out for this game would have played versus a team they thought they'd have to compete harder against?

Paul Garcia posted an interesting stat: since we went 0-11, we're now 6-5. Over achieving? I always thought we were better than 0-11. But it's a long season. Doug and JRich continue to show well which bodes well for prospective assets coming back. I think the latter more so, but that's another discussion. My point, which you know, is that there are advantages to even games like this. Looong season. I don't expect the roster to look the same in the new year. Just as we've dealt with a lot of roster upheaval earlier. But we'll likely be playing all three rookies a lot more. We've already switched playing KBD and Roby far less, Romeo, too.

And the league will have to stagger the player suspensions so that those teams can have enough players on the roster to play games. It'll even out more in time.

I guess I would just rather us bomb out now so we have room to win some games later in the year. IMO we need to be in the top 4 to have a decent shot at Wemby.

As it is, Orlando is going to have the best odds of anyone because they will have 2 lottery picks. I would rather not get into a situation where we have 10-15 games left this spring and have to lose all of them to even have a chance at a good spot.

I'm all for the tank if its for Wembanyama but if we are just going for a pick from 2-5 or whatever, I have news for everyone. We are just getting an average player who wont even be average until 3-4 years from now.

I hate to break it to people but Scoot Henderson is going to be an average player. Dude cant even go left. He is not someone you tank for.

Wembanyama is the reason to tank. He is franchise altering.

Hmm I hadn't realized that about the Magic. I'm not quite yet at the stage where I look at assets for this draft more closely. More enjoying the season right now.

Magic are actually 8-2 in their last 10. Charlotte can surprise some teams with Ball back but not sure they should be risking losing him with all that losing. Detroit is just **** shameless. A few teams above our tier can go either way. So there's still a ton of maneuvering to be done. Not the least of which is by us.

Just checked. We are still 4th. Like I said, happy that the vets are doing well. We need assets for them and let the rookies play through their mistakes.

Scoot talks a bit too much about great he is or wants to be or whatnot. Not a big deal he can't go left right now. He can learn. And although he's a franchise altering talent, like he can improve a team right away, I agree that there are very few at the position who can raise their teams to perennial championship competing levels.

I also agree wholeheartedly there's a clear tier of one on the latter.

Like I mentioned when we played them, Orlando has too much talent to tank. These suspensions are only going to disrupt them for a few days but thats long enough to lose 3 in a row and pass us into the top 4. You're right that we have a long way to go though. I think the Magic are trying to win because as long as Chicago keeps playing the way they are and there is talk of them blowing it up, that pick might be better than their own.

Detroit is a dumpster fire. The funny thing about them is they are trying soo hard to win but they just cant. I was talking with some friends and we were wondering about Dwayne Casey. I'm not a huge fan of his but he cannot be as bad of a coach as he seems to be here.(I know Toronto hated him but was he this terrible of a coach?) I wonder if he is purposely just rolling out the ball and letting the team become a mess so they can sneak into getting Wembanyama.

I'm not worried about Charlotte because if there ever is any funny stuff that goes on behind the scenes I'm confident the League would NEVER let Wemby wind up there.

Houston is a rebellion waiting to happen. That team is obviously not trying and they are capable at some point to lose 15-20 games in a row and burying us behind them.

I'm glad someone else isn't sold on Henderson. I know I'll have plenty of time to hate on him later. Maybe its because Wembanyama is soo much better than everyone else in this draft. No one besides Wemby is worthy of losing games for in this draft IMO.

[G R E Y]

4TH Q: SPURS 122 KNICKS 115

To be honest, given how we rolled over after starting tentatively to begin the last game, I was a bit surprised at how energetic and cohesive we looked, and for how long. You hope for improvements and adjustments, but with a developing team where consistency is a work in progress, you see what you get game by game.

And in this one, we actually played solid D, both man and team, doing a better job staying with drivers, reading switches, and providing help D. We showed more flashes of some really nice ball and off ball movement, and cuts, too. We have been increasing those bounce passes by bigs up top to cutters inside and back door but these need some more reps. Balls were at times too low or too fast or into too congested a space which were picked off. I do like the idea of us implementing a new (to this group) wrinkle into getting passes inside even if the execution needs tweaking.

We had 25 assists, distributed 13 and 12 between the bench and starters, respectively. We did allow two players to combine for 77 points against us. But our opponent only used nine players, sitting healthy ones, puzzling considering they were out key contributors. Our multi-pronged, balanced attack worked to our advantage all the more.

This was one of the rare games we won despite being outscored from the arc. We were down 15-11 made 3s but that 12-point deficit was more than offset with our paint attack which we won 62-42. Nearly half of their shots came from the arc compared to nearly a third of ours; we instead distributed our shots to attack inside where being far more efficient through constant motion was a successful strategy.

Though they had a 7-5 steals edge, we had only 11TOs on which we gave up 9 points but got 15 off of theirs, so the D to O transition was better on both ends. Our ball protection was strong with a 7-2 blocks advantage and winning the rebound battle 48-38, including 14-13 on O boards. Although they had two more shots, our better arc contesting, rim protecting, and making the higher percentage shots more efficiently gave us an increasingly bigger cushion going into the 4TH Q.

We lost it 36-30, but along the way we increased our lead to 16 points and stayed ahead despite our opponent’s run in the second half of the Q, something that we have had a hard time with in the last 12 minutes.

We had four players in double figures (all starters), with 87 points by the starters and 35 by the bench. It’s a more lopsided distribution than we sometimes have given our bench ranks first with 42.1PPG, but we still outscored theirs by 15 points.

We were led by Keldon’s 30 points on 11-21, 3-8 from 3, 5-5FTs, along with 3 boards (1 on O), 1 assist, and 2 crucial blocks. Although we don’t have a superstar go-to player, our success is tied to Keldon’s:

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I’m as interested in how Keldon gets his points, and I was critical of him this game as a carry over from how he forced shots in the previous one. But he didn’t have the blinders on nearly as much and did move the ball better. He made all but two of his paint attempts, hitting 9-11, and although he missed both non-paint mid range Js (both the attempts and efficiency need improving), that he took a couple of is a change to his paint and arc exclusive shot selections in many games. He tends to use the glass inconsistently, and when he does, he doesn’t consistently find the right angles. Something to work on. On D, getting beaten on drives stands out poorly. On the whole he did better staying with his man and had arms up more reliably, but we got caught behind drivers in the paint too often and were called for several ticky tack fouls. Keldon did step up with two huge blocks, so the running back on D, timing, and hustle were good signs. When he shows flashes of a more full game, more is expected of him on both ends. He has a much bigger role this season, leading us in usage at 28.6% (up from third last season at 21.3%), and he did declare that a dedication to defense was a priority for him this season. It takes time for guys to get used to giving full two-way effort. Although his handles need work and his D needs more consistency, it is encouraging when we see him put together more of his overall game.

With Devin out, Romeo got the start and he delivered a career setting performance. LOVE this version of him! He was decisive with his shot selection, assertive on his drives, crafty with his finishes at the rim, putting together the most cohesive two-way game we’ve seen yet. He scored 23 on 11-16, 1-1 from 3, got 3 O boards, dished 2 assists, and had 2 steals. And considering how important he is to our perimeter D (Pop has called him one of, if not our best, man defender), we were more cohesive overall because the first line of defense was better. What an incredible all around game. I thought we’d seen his ceiling and wasn’t convinced when Pop said we need to see what we have, but games like this show his comfort and confidence. I don’t expect 20+ PPG, but some a more consistent raised floor is reasonable.

Consistency with availability has been an issue, but when healthy, Romeo’s played various roles without complaint, ready for any when called upon. And although his 3s average per game is 4% lower this season (so far), he has has career high averages with 15.9MPG, 5.5FGAs per game (51.4%), 2.7 rebounds, 1 assist, 0.4 blocks, and 0.7 steals. These are not standout numbers, but they are trending the right way, as are us relying on him on D and increasingly on O.

Tre’s O was off scoring 13 on 5-13, 1-4 from 3, 2-4FTs (uncharacteristic; he’s our best FT shooter at 88.8%). But he was characteristically an all around contributor with 8 boards (2 on O), team high 6 assists, and 1 block. He’s better at not picking up his dribble when in trouble, far more confident in driving versus bigger defenders, and adept in finding team mates. We are more settled and confident with him running point as he provides a poise and calm that we rely on. He’s growing as a leader; he is even keeled in pressure situations, runs the clock well in them, and pushes the pace when needed.

We have had Keldon and Devin share the bringing up the ball duties to use Tre more off ball as well as not be as predictable to guard. And we are using Sochan in this role more as the season progresses. He’s our best Swiss Army knife player, capable of doing so many things, and we’re exploring what we really have with him. In this game, he scored 12 on 4-7, 0-1 from 3, 4-4FTs (one handed!), 5 boards (2 on O), 1 assist, and 1 block. He makes rookie mistakes like biting on pump fakes, and with his tough D assignment (the first time facing this opponent) he fouled out. But his compete level, versatility and the way he sees the game ensures he does something impactful on both ends, showing new moves or tools along the way.

Jakob played 29 minutes so it’s safe to assume based on the increased playing time and how much better he’s moving that he’s feeling better. We didn’t use him much on O - 9 points on only 3-6, but a terrific 3-4FTs(!) is a good sign. He led all players with 12 boards, including 4 on O, along with 2 assists, and 2 blocks. His rim protection, switching ability, and mobility are crucial defensive anchors for us.

Collins had a quiet O game, only 1-1 from the field, but led the bench with 6FTAs. Making only 3. He’s at 70.6% from the line this season, 3% below his career average, so while we like his sandpaper game that gets fouls, he does need to be more reliable in rewarding himself for it, mainly at home (he’s 84.2%FT’s on the road!). He also had 6 boards, 2 assists, and 1 block. Solid on D, second best on the team with +14.

Doug led us with +18, staying within himself scoring 8 on 3-6, 2-4 from 3, 1 board, 4 assists. JRich mirrored his vet counterpart with 9 on 3-6, 1-3 from 3, 2-2FTs, 3 boards (1 on O), bench high along with Doug 4 assists, and 2 steals, each providing exactly what we acquired him for, movement, 3&D, steadying vet presence and example for the young guys.

A pleasant surprise in the steady two-way play department has been Stanley. He’s a big body, too, that we can use on bigger players on D and off ball as he doesn’t need it in his hands a lot; he has raised our floor with his experience. He has something to prove, but he hasn’t tried too hard to stand out at the expense of the team. He also scored 9 on 3-5, 2-3 from 3, 1-2FTs, tied for bench high with Collins with 6 boards (1 on O), and 2 assists.

And with our vets steadying the ship, we can better absorb the fluctuations that come with inexperienced players. Malaki struggled on 1-7, 1-4 from 3, 1-2FTs, 1 board, 1 assist, 1 steal in 19 minutes. He missed in the paint, from mid range, and all but one from the arc. Misses will happen. What I like is that he has a 3-level game foundation from the onset. He’s already made changes on O and looks more confident with the shots he’s creating. Defensive growth is primary (right now knowing who to pick up on switches, for instance). We’ll see how more reps affect his comfort and understanding on this end.

We don’t know which vets will remain on the team for the rest of the season so young guys getting reps under their tutelage is important.

We only had Devin out from our regular rotation in this game. Austin Spurs played, too (and also won). Looking at their starting group, four of the five – Bassey (23 games, starting once), Jordan Hall (9), Alize Johnson (4), and Blake Wesley (2) – along with Dominick Barlow (4), have played minutes for us, filling in for injured players, and providing rest for players who were more taxed as a result.

When we were in the midst of our 0-11 streak there was a lot of fluctuation with available players and a lot of new starting line-ups. Guys were suddenly thrust into much bigger roles, and team cohesion was an issue with so few reps together. Since then, we are 6-5 with our starters back, vets steadying the team, and minutes being adjusted; rookies play more and others such as Diop and Roby play less. We seem to be going through stretches of different players being given chances to step up, learn, and be evaluated. And when we put more of our good two-way play together, the rewards follow in both results and lessons. As always, carrying over good play and competitiveness is our collective challenge.

[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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