Post#54 » by G R E Y » Wed Mar 26, 2025 5:31 am
4TH Q: SPURS 96 PISTONS 122
Well blow outs happen to the best teams, and we've even been on both ends of them ourselves.
For a team ranked best in the league on O in the last 10 games, we struggled to score, perhaps balancing the scales of when we couldn't miss in other games. It's about how you play in between, and to that end, our lacklustre most of the first half (really a Q and a quarter of one) was offset by much better effort in the second.
We didn't settle for 3s as much, moved the ball better, screened and cut and passed and drove with downhill purpose. 16-20FTs vs. a much bigger punishing front court is hard earned.
Vets couldn't hit a shot and many followed suit.
Malaki scored as many points in 5 minutes as Blake did in bench high(!) 23. You know it's bad when you can only get 2 minutes in a blow out. Sometimes I forget he's on the team. Malaki has done some work to push for them - he actually made the right extra passes and quickly - but you have to wonder about his tenure on the team. Sucks to be a first round pick and watch your fellow draftees contribute. Sucks to have a first round draft pick be an end of bench contributor. Control what you can.
And to that end, we still managed 21 assists, only 10TOs, and although we were edged in rebounds overall 44-41, we did very well to gang rebound the O boards 16-6. Of course that's also a function of our opponent being far more efficient (we allowed 122 points on only 78 shots) and we not only took more shots but wr missed more so there were more opportunities. Still, we put in a concerted effort there and rewarded ourselves with 17-6 in second chance points, one of the few categories we won.
PITP: walloped 56-36.
Fast break points: 14-8 against.
Points conceded off TOs: 19-5 against(!) despite both teams only having 10.
Shot distribution: we took slightly fewer 3s in the second half, but these were also more from having penetrated more first, and from creating more variety of shots, rather than from hunting them almost exclusively. Better strategy and execution; better results.
It's a simple game plan - counter their big interior advantage by hitting 3s, drawing them out of the paint. It worked until it didn't, and when it stopped working we stayed with it far too long. We've done that a lot this season, at least enough that this pattern has stood out.
I've mentioned how other teams look like their set plays and secondary and tertiary actions look more polished and automatic than ours, and part of that is just reps together and teams being ahead of us in their developmental stages. Ok. But we have one rookie on the team, and the vets we've brought in aren't the ones who have looked out of sorts when actions have not worked and we have had to scramble. I think back to a comment Wemby made after a game about how we have to absorb scouting reports better. I don't think it's the vets he was referring to.
The other aspect is glaring holes in games of players who've been with us several years. This is a tangent but it comes up in too many game threads about how Dev can't beat his man with his handles and Sochan can't beat bigger guys at the rim. Neither has a bigger bag of tricks and it's puzzling.
Weird to say when Dev led us again in scoring with 26 on 10-21, 6-12 from 3, 6 boards, 1 assist, but the issue persists nonetheless.
Castle joined him as the only other stater in double figures, netting 19 on 7-15, 1-4 from 3, 4-6FTs, 2 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal. Drove and drove and drove. I love his relentlessness and physicality although you can tell teams are scouting him more carefully now and fewer opponents bite on the speed altering Euro steps.
What I love about Keldon is his growth and leadership by example. Ball used to stick in his hands, now he passes. He used to disappear off ball, now he cuts. Couldn't finish at the rim, now he boasts a variety of ways he can put it in. Used to be lost on D, now he yells out to guys where to go. And when his shot is not falling, he now finds ways to contribute positively. Game best 5 O boards is sheer willingness to take contact, a relentless motor, and staying in the play focus. He also led the bench with 3 assists and 4-4FTs.
Sochan also stood out well for contributing when not scoring well with solid D and O boards. No 3s attempts is both positive and negative. No FTs is surprising.
Happy for Mamu and Blake to have more minutes. You can see where their games have improved. Mamu with more seeing eye passes rather than just bombing away. Good fakes and drives and dishes. Blake with a 3 and an elbow J I did not foresee. Good energy from both.
Nearly half of our shots were from the arc. Our opponents took it nearly 10% less and made more from there. And our secondary and tertiary sets or improvised responses needed more polish at the finish.
We switch a lot on D and got caught down low a lot because of it. Have to be more crisp and anticipatory and keep communicating. Individual effort like ensuring a baseline driving lane gets sealed is a personal responsibility rather than passing the buck to an outmanned help D rim protector.
Tough opponent and lots of lessons from it. Can't live and die by the 3. We're sixth in attempts but 18th in efficiency so there's work to be done in bridging that gap and perhaps taking half our shots from there isn't an optimal strategy.
I wonder what a slight reduction in 3s taken can do to the O. You take the shot a D gives you, sure, but you can also affect a D's ability to counter and contest with a bigger variety of shots created. Stop hunting or settling for the 3 so much, especially when it's not falling.
Looking forward to seeing how we respond.
The Spurs Way
Thinking of you, Pop
#XX
