Welcome to the spotlight, Dejounte! In a game filled with anticipation for LBJ’s milestone, our young new starting point guard weaved his own thread into the story with a wonderful all around game. In 30 minutes, he poured in 19 points (8-15, 3-4FTs), grabbed 10 rebounds (4 O, 6 D), 7 steals, and 3 assists. But what also stood out was his controlled energy, being a responsible floor general pushing the pace while looking for open team mates and balancing it with creating his own shot, and playing good man D. It’s made the media rounds by now, but this sequence of Pop’s in-game coaching-by-gesture on the sidelines was so funny:
This was to good effect, unlike that game Pop kept yelling to Danny, “No foul! No foul!” Waved his arms and everything. Danny fouled. Timeout. They had a chat about it.
Teaching moments, both.
In this game, Danny also weaved his own thread into the history books as he was guarding LBJ when James scored his 30Kth point with 1.1 seconds left in the first. But Danny did well defending LBJ, who didn’t have a particularly good shooting night. His defense was apparent throughout the game beyond the 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 blocks, with great hands and positioning, just not allowing easy shots.
Bertans surprisingly shared the defensive duties on LBJ. I thought this would be a disaster, frankly, but it turned out not to be. Davis was quick on his feet and did a good job staying in front of James, and providing good secondary support for a difficult assignment. I enjoyed that play when LBJ got all wide-eyed seeing Davis in front of him, and started doing some fancy dribbling to get into rhythm, only for the ball to bounce off his knee and into Bertans’s hands. A tiny cosmic banana peel moment
. Bertans, like Danny, played 30 minutes and had 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal.
Both of them, however, simply need to find their 3 shot. Bertans had 13 points on 4-9 shooting (3-3FTs), but just 2-7 from 3; Danny had 7 points on 3-11FGAs, but an even worse 1-7 from the arc. It’s not the only way, but we have to make opponents pay for doubling LMA, and help him carry the O load. We do well in creating and finishing other shot opportunities that come from LMA’s passing it out, but the 3s need work.
Kyle continues to impress as a starter, not only because his shot is falling at a more efficient rate, but he’s varying it up as well. He’s not just a spot up shooter, but looks for lanes to drive, absorbing contact. Playing 34 minutes, he was the other player with a double double, scoring 10 points (5-10), 12 rebounds, starter-high 5 assists, a steal, and a block. He’s really turning into a reliable and complete player for us, in his own slo-mo on O, deceptively quick and intelligent on D way.
No game description can be complete without LMA’s input which, steady as it’s been throughout the season, was stellar in this game. A team-high 41 minutes of work gave us 30 points (12-18, 6-7FTs), with 8 rebounds (3 O, 5 D), 3 assists, 2 steals, and a block. We needed everyone going tonight, but LMA’s production was huge for us once again, especially with Pau out. LMA got to his spots whether post-ups or drives, hustled for rebounds, had good court vision in quickly passing out to open team mates, and was a strong defender, getting the better position to deflect passes and contest shots.
Besides the 28.6% from the 3, our shooting was very good (50%FG, 75% FTs), but it was our stellar, steady defense throughout the night. The Cavs had 20 fewer shot attempts than we did, a rare occurrence given our pace, but it was the 11 steals and 18 forced turnovers (from which we got 21 points) that was our foundation for the win. When we execute our defensive system, with Murray now starting, our transition to O is a lot more dynamic. Our 24 assists to 10 turnovers was also an important tip of scales in our favour.
The starters played more minutes in this game than they usually do, so the bench was tighter with essentially four players getting the bulk of the minutes, Lauverge, Mills, Bryn, and Tony. I wasn’t sure how it would all work out with the PG switch, but Tony in the second unit has been a revelation. It’s a small sample size, but so far there’s a really good balance with Murray with the starters, and Tony on the bench. We’re quicker, and less predictable in the sense that we have more dynamic scoring opportunities by pushing the ball, this without players who will also benefit from an added wrinkle to our play when they return.
Tony’s scoring and efficiency have both improved since his move to the bench, and he led it this game with 14 points on very good 7-12 shooting and added a team-high 6 assists. Mills was our best 3 shooter, going 3-5 (3-7 overall) for 9 points. Rounding out the second unit were Bryn who gave us 8 points (3-8, 2-6 from 3) and Lauvergne who was 2-3 for 4 points, and got 3 rebounds in 12 minutes. Maybe we didn’t get as much of a contribution stats-wise in other areas of the game, but they weren’t defensive sieves, and helped hold the fort while starters rested.
You could tell that we were up for this game, there was just a different energy team-wide. We had a plan and were determined to execute it on both ends and it showed. Guys were more animated, moving the ball, moving without it, and cheering each other on in a way that perhaps wasn’t as apparent in the previous couple of games. Even a more even keeled Pop got into the refs with more bite than in previous games. On a night when we’d be in the history books for an opponent’s individual achievement, we made sure that the narrative about us was that we got the win, and did so by playing the right way, and with class and grace right up to the end, letting the clock run out once again in our final possession since the result had been decided.
I love this team. GO SPURS!
True, the Cavs look like they're on the precipice of the abyss, but we needed this win, and played the right way to earn it. You could tell it meant a lot to us to get back to playing together, from Pop's record breaking timeout at the beginning of the game to the guys supporting each other on the court and from the bench. A much better effort and execution on both ends.
