GT: Spurs vs. Mavericks

[Nolan]

When: Nov 14th, 2017
Where: American Airlines Center, Dallas TX

The homestand is over and it was a fairly successful one. This game is first of a somewhat painful two game back to back road trip. The Mavericks aren't exactly a great team this year and we should handle them, but hopefully this one doesn't end up being too close. We need to keep our starters fresh for the Timberwolves tomorrow night.

Big games from LMA and Pau are going to be the key this one. Dallas is thin up front and if we can dominate the paint and control the tempo we will win and win easily.

Go Spurs!!

[-Sammy-]

I think this one'll be easy enough, but the Wolves worry me.

[ducler]

[Nolan]

Sounds like tonight might be the night that Joff returns to the lineup.

[imagump1313]

I think this one'll be easy enough, but the Wolves worry me.

We need to get this one tonight so that a loss to Minnesota wouldn't be an emergency IMO.

Dallas won't mail it in against us.

[G R E Y]

A bit rougher win than I thought it would be, but Mavs have proud players despite their record, and some Texas one-up was on the line. Tough shooting night for too many Spurs, but they still contributed in other ways: Rudy with that amazing pass down low after faking a three, Pau with rebounding and assists, some great blocks by Kyle, etc. Still LMA was the O anchor with his inside-outside game as everyone has to contribute to fill Kawhi's void. Mills shot well again, and when things got stagnant, Manu stepped in with his magic getting the O rolling.

Finally, another great milestone for Pop who becomes only the third coach in NBA history (along with Don Nelson and Pat Riley) to reach 500 road wins. Pop has the sole distinction, however, of achieving this in 835 games, faster than any other coach. Incredible

[Nolan]

Like Grey said this was a closer game than expected. But Carlise and the Mav's always bring it against us and in the end we pulled it off without really over working any of our guys outside of maybe LMA ( He played 36 minutes).

The three's were not falling early on or really at all in this one and that hurt us at times. But we did a good job of feeding LMA in the paint and the Mav's had no answer for him at all.

Things I liked:

LMA - Unstoppable in this one. Had it going with the jumper and with his back to the basket. Only thing I didn't like about his performance last night was his passing out of the double team. He seemed to revert back to his old habit of holding the ball too long when the help defender comes his way, he's got to get better at making quicker decisions.

Mills - Cooled off a bit in the 2nd half but he was on fire in the 2nd quarter and he really carried us for a bit there.

Manu - Came off the bench in the 2nd half and really gave us a nice boost. Made some excellent veteran plays down the stretch that sealed this one for us.

Murray - Under control and effective, that was his game last night. The shots he took were good ones and he actually looked fairly confident in his jumper, didn't hesitate at all and he was 1/2 from 3. Did good work on the boards again as well. He was a little shaky defensively though, nothing major though but it just seemed like he got burned badly on every little mistake he made.

Anderson - Didn't exactly stuff the stat sheet and wasn't great scoring the ball but he contributed in every other way in this one. Made some outstanding little touch passes in the 4th, did a good job running the offense when Pop's but the ball in his hand and was excellent defensively.

Pops - It's always fun to watch him and Rick go head to head. This one was a game of adjustments and I think Pop got the best of Rick in this one. Loved the way he used Murray late in the game as faux big on offense to not only take advantage of his rebounding ability but to stop the Mav's from sagging off of him.

Things I didn't like:

Rudy - Was a rough one for him. He made some nice plays but just didn't look locked in, he'll bounce back though.

Our post up sets - This was a big problem last year and it started to rear it's ugly head again in this one. We have gotten better in this area early in the season but at times when we toss the ball into the post the offense just freezes up completely, no one moves. The passer usually does a little cut after they feed LMA or Pau but after that the off ball movement stalls out completely. The bigs need to make their moves quicker and the wings need to be more active off the ball, more back cuts and just more of anything that involves moving their feet.