Bah! Missed opportunity to move up in the standings and transfer the pressure to opponents. Just too listless an effort early and often in the first and third, allowing another 41-point quarter for the second game in a row. If we played some semblance of D in the third, perhaps we'd have rewarded ourselves with a better result.
Also, we reverted to losing focus and not protecting the ball:
But it's a game of what-is not what-ifs, and we lowered our defensive intensity and they took it to us in a critical time. Our comeback in the fourth was great to see, but it was too little, too late.
We made a concerted effort on the O rebounding once again, and got some critical putbacks in this game as in the last few as well. LMA led us once again with a wonderful effort for 31 points and 7 rebounds, and Pau came alive after some quiet games for a strong 22 points and 13 rebounds. He looked rejuvenated and had more bounce to his step, hustling for rebounds, making deft high-low passes, faking shots and looking to drive aggressively. Rudy (10 points, 7 rebounds) was solid as a scoring option that gave us different looks and challenges for defenses. Danny (13 points, 6 rebounds) and Murray (10 points, 9 rebounds) played very well, too. Murray's last shot mess was a team responsibility. You can isolate any single play, and last shots get magnified, but the game was about every other play that led up to it; in close games, they all count all the more, so while we did well to come back, we got ourselves back too far with bad first and third quarters. A lot of energy was used in getting back fro behind. It's a game of mistakes, but we repeated them and got ourselves too far down.
Patty and Tony didn't round out our PG trifecta as well as they often do. It puts more pressure on other guys to have to do more. Manu made good pays beyond what appeared in the box score, but what also a bit short in what the box score counts. They combined for 3-16 for 8 points.
Pop has shortened and settled in more on the rotation towards the end of the season, but I still hold my breath still when Bryn is in. He's great when there is less pressure, but too deliberate and nervous in his movement and passing on O in tighter games. Seeing as how only Danny and Patty hit 3s, I'd like to have seen whether Bertans could have given us something. Kyle, like Danny, is a Swiss army knife, doing a bit of everything, and while Danny has been consistent in his O role as a 3 shooter, Kyle needs to keep looking for his shots; he can help us with his crafty drives and short Js. Sometimes he's too unselfish and changes his mind mid-shot, so I hope in time - like by next game - he gets a more assertive, decisive streak.
This is another game I've noticed where when we have a fast break we pass up the drive for a 3. Why? It's not as if they were falling for us. Irritating. We have to just keep it simple and stick to fundamentals.
Perhaps the six-game home stretch winning streak took a lot of our gas and focus, perhaps we allowed ourselves to exhale, and our intensity was spotty.
I hope we pick up where we left off here in the next game, with the hunger and drive we showed late, but it has to be for the whole game. Hopefully, lesson learned. I love our team.
GO SPURS GO!
