SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 78: SPURS AT KINGS, 2-4-2023, 5PM (CT)

Post #41 » by **G R E Y** » Mon Apr 3, 2023 12:32 am

Tre GREAT drive and then we flash another great double up high right.

Wow. What great team play.

imagump1313 · Post #42 » by **imagump1313** » Mon Apr 3, 2023 12:32 am

In a OT game, just flinging up three after three and not making possessions count is going to cost them in the playoffs. That and they don't defend well at all.

Post #43 » by **G R E Y** » Mon Apr 3, 2023 12:42 am

WEEEEEEE!

SPOILERS FTW!

Post #44 » by **G R E Y** » Mon Apr 3, 2023 2:09 am

Gump! He stole your stealing bwahaha!

Read on Twitter

imagump1313 · Post #45 » by **imagump1313** » Mon Apr 3, 2023 2:29 am

G R E Y wrote:Gump! He stole your stealing bwahaha!

Read on Twitter

Too late!!! We already hit our goal!!

Post #46 » by **G R E Y** » Tue Apr 4, 2023 6:45 pm

OT: SPURS 142 KINGS 134

I'm so damn proud of how we played I could burst. That we won as an offshoot of it and played spoiler are added bonuses.

The main thing is the pride and effort we put forth despite missing three starters, arguably our three best players at that, and going into this game without a defeatist attitude, but playing hard no matter what. No excuses. These types of habits can steal games when it matters. Doing so in front of a rabid road crowd is great experience, too.

That we were led early by an unheralded player in Julian who had the game of his career and led late by unassuming vet Doug late adds to the sweetness.

It's not often our bench outscores starters, but in this game, led by Doug's 30 and Julian's 26, the reserves poured in 78 to the starters' 67. All but Graham, who blessedly took only 6 shots (made one), were in double figures, with Tre recording his first career triple double with 17/10/11 and a team best +24.

Julian has to work on his handle but boy can he ever shoot. Once he gets the ball passed to him it's hardly ever a bad shot. After the game he talked about how he watches guys like Doug and others, how they move without the ball and the advantages it can add to his game. Sure enough, adding to the 4-7 he made from 3, he made great cuts to the basket for another 5-7, all the makes in the restricted paint.

That he moves well on help D down low is a really good sign of him caring about doing well on both ends.

Barlow had a great game, too. He was the other player besides Tre with a double double with 12 (5-8, 2-2FTs) and 10, leading us with 5 O boards. What I love about his rebounding is that he keeps the ball high which allows for quick putbacks on O and keeps the ball away from swatting hands on D.

He got badly shoved a couple of times by some O forearms on drives (one which was so egregious it got Pop a tech for getting at the ref about it) but he stood his ground against stronger players. He also has great timing on blocks, staying on his feet on fakes and having a knack for when to jump. And when he does jump he goes straight up. Great help D, too. He and Julian have a nice chemistry down low. Both undrafted. Great pick ups.

With Collins fouling out in only 23 minutes, it put pressure on our bigs to step up and Diop (Jop lol), Mamu, and Barlow did very well.

Romeo played only 8 minutes and sat the rest of the way due to DGAFitis. He was 0-2 but also 1 foul and 2TOs to 1 steal and it was clear he was not in game mode. Not focused. Not sure what to make of a guy who we could use, who could use the PT to establish he can stay consistent but flops out every once in a while. Guys have off days, it happens, but he just didn't look all that interested in contributing from the start. Weird.

Malaki's a bucket making 7-12 (1-5 from 3, has to get efficiency up). He's getting more attention from away commentators about the shots he's making. They're beyond what a rookie usually sees and does. I love that he got 5 assists, too, as well as 4 boards (2 on O), and a steal. He did well to shoot the ball high off glass away from blocking attempts, already a good adjustment from the previous game.

Blake struggled to score (2-7, 0-1 from 3) but his speed once again stood out and forced the D on its heels. He got 4 boards (1 on O), 2 assists, 1 steal but a team high 4TOs so we live with the growing pains as he learns how to channel that speed and protect the ball better.

I loved how we played to our strengths of movement and ball sharing, with seven Spurs in double figure scoring on 31 assists. We were efficient, too, exploiting our inside-outide game for 53.1%, 38.2% from 3, and 86.2% FTs.

That was also based on team hustle as we won the boards 52-43 and 14-13 on O boards.

It was our D that was at least as equal to the result, and that's saying something for us. We rotated well, contested well, helped on D well. We flashed some full court pressure better (Pop had to remind some of our guys to get on up on them in previous games), and we blitz doubled up high at half court to pressure the ball handler. The crucial moment when we did it was on their final regular time possession to prevent their PG from trying to score. We forced a pass and the contested miss forced OT where we outscored them 19-11.

The momentum we generated and the pride we played with were so rewarding to watch.

The away commentators kept saying not to take a Pop-coached team lightly, that we'll play hard no matter who we have and truly we've been competing in far more games than not regardless of circumstances.

They kept calling us 'pesky'. Called Doug 'That sssssson of a coach!' hahaha!

That's right. We're sons of a great coach, thank you very much!