GAME DAY, BALA! GAME 33: SPURS VS. THUNDER, 2-1-2020, 7:30PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

As we embark on the first year of the new decade, it's with a renewed focus and energy to strengthen from our lessons and maximize our strengths. In this first home game of 2020, let's usher it in with our full best effort: smart, clean defense, rebounding, and ball protection, and energy, great recognition, and movement for good-to-great made shots. Looking for a complete game to start the year right.

WHERE: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX

WHEN: Thursday, January 2, 2020, 7:30pm (CT)

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GO SPURS GO!!!

[ducler]

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[imagump1313]

This team sucks soo bad.

We were up a couple points so I decide to turn it on.
In the 4 minutes of the 2nd quarter I watched, (the last 4 obviously) we proceeded to take no less than 5 bad contested shots with 4 guys standing around and committed no less than 4 needless turnovers with terrible careless passes. It never stops.

[G R E Y]

No Beli minutes so far which look to have gone to Lonnie. Bryn shouldn't be out there if he isn't going to score - only scoreless Spur so far.

We are doing well defensively in getting staying in front of drivers, contesting and getting stops, but have to try going over screens to limit open shots. On O we are at times over passing or passing on open shots, but when we cut and run in transition and make the smart simple play we are getting good looks.

We have to make sure we clamp down defensively all the more, increase our energy, protect the ball on drives, and keep pushing to get to the FT line.

[G R E Y]

This team sucks soo bad.

We were up a couple points so I decide to turn it on.
In the 4 minutes of the 2nd quarter I watched, (the last 4 obviously) we proceeded to take no less than 5 bad contested shots with 4 guys standing around and committed no less than 4 needless turnovers with terrible careless passes. It never stops.

I mean, I guess it depends on which stretch you happen to watch - we did go on a 17-0 run, and bad stretches will happen, but we weathered it and still built our lead.

[imagump1313]

This team sucks soo bad.

We were up a couple points so I decide to turn it on.
In the 4 minutes of the 2nd quarter I watched, (the last 4 obviously) we proceeded to take no less than 5 bad contested shots with 4 guys standing around and committed no less than 4 needless turnovers with terrible careless passes. It never stops.

I mean, I guess it depends on which stretch you happen to watch - we did go on a 17-0 run, and bad stretches will happen, but we weathered it and still built our lead.

I know you have to do your duty Grey, and watch through your Spurs colored glasses. But man, this is soo hard to watch.

Weak turnovers, poor defense, useless passes and all 1 on 1 iso ball taking bad shots. OKC is a bad team yet they are much better than us. SGA is making Forbes, White and Murray look like children. They move the ball with purpose. They actually look like they are trying to accomplish something while we look like we are just there.

If i see one more drive to the basket by someone that has no intent on shooting just to jump in the air and try to pass to someone else who has no intent on shooting and then pass to someone who shoots a fade away contested two that has no chance of going in Im going kill myself.....

Nice loss...AGAIN

[G R E Y]

This team sucks soo bad.

We were up a couple points so I decide to turn it on.
In the 4 minutes of the 2nd quarter I watched, (the last 4 obviously) we proceeded to take no less than 5 bad contested shots with 4 guys standing around and committed no less than 4 needless turnovers with terrible careless passes. It never stops.

I mean, I guess it depends on which stretch you happen to watch - we did go on a 17-0 run, and bad stretches will happen, but we weathered it and still built our lead.

I know you have to do your duty Grey, and watch through your Spurs colored glasses. But man, this is soo hard to watch.

Weak turnovers, poor defense, useless passes and all 1 on 1 iso ball taking bad shots. OKC is a bad team yet they are much better than us. SGA is making Forbes, White and Murray look like children. They move the ball with purpose. They actually look like they are trying to accomplish something while we look like we are just there.

If i see one more drive to the basket by someone that has no intent on shooting just to jump in the air and try to pass to someone else who has no intent on shooting and then pass to someone who shoots a fade away contested two that has no chance of going in Im going kill myself.....

Nice loss...AGAIN

Hang on - please don't do that. Why is watching one section of the game when they're not playing well more legitimate and not 'dark coloured glasses' than another section when they are playing well? That's not duty or rose-coloured glasses but simply pointing out a fact. My point is that you happened to have watched a bad stretch and complained - not that what you pointed out wasn't legitimate for what you saw at the time - but we were up by nine at the half.

Agree about the mid-air passes, and we didn't play well in the second half, and deserved to lose, but it is more quiet here when we win.

[G R E Y]

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[imagump1313]

I mean, I guess it depends on which stretch you happen to watch - we did go on a 17-0 run, and bad stretches will happen, but we weathered it and still built our lead.

I know you have to do your duty Grey, and watch through your Spurs colored glasses. But man, this is soo hard to watch.

Weak turnovers, poor defense, useless passes and all 1 on 1 iso ball taking bad shots. OKC is a bad team yet they are much better than us. SGA is making Forbes, White and Murray look like children. They move the ball with purpose. They actually look like they are trying to accomplish something while we look like we are just there.

If i see one more drive to the basket by someone that has no intent on shooting just to jump in the air and try to pass to someone else who has no intent on shooting and then pass to someone who shoots a fade away contested two that has no chance of going in Im going kill myself.....

Nice loss...AGAIN

Hang on - please don't do that. Why is watching one section of the game when they're not playing well more legitimate and not 'dark coloured glasses' than another section when they are playing well? That's not duty or rose-coloured glasses but simply pointing out a fact. My point is that you happened to have watched a bad stretch and complained - not that what you pointed out wasn't legitimate for what you saw at the time - but we were up by nine at the half.

Agree about the mid-air passes, and we didn't play well in the second half, and deserved to lose, but it is more quiet here when we win.

I was just pointing out that when I turned it on they were doing the same stupid crap that made me stop watching them. They didn't even give me 2 minutes of good basketball to get me interested. I watched the entire 2nd half from there HOPING they might at least give me a minute or two of encouraging basketball to look forward to but it never happened.

The reason its quiet when they win is because there is nothing to say. They aren't playing good basketball so when the other team plays worse then we do somebody has to win. Its still a bad team not getting any better doing the same stupid crap over and over and no one does anything about it.
I see bad teams play well for 5 minutes stretches every night but they are still losers.
I didn't see one good encouraging sign for us to think things will get better all night long except that Walker didn't look totally lost like he usually does.

[G R E Y]

I know you have to do your duty Grey, and watch through your Spurs colored glasses. But man, this is soo hard to watch.

Weak turnovers, poor defense, useless passes and all 1 on 1 iso ball taking bad shots. OKC is a bad team yet they are much better than us. SGA is making Forbes, White and Murray look like children. They move the ball with purpose. They actually look like they are trying to accomplish something while we look like we are just there.

If i see one more drive to the basket by someone that has no intent on shooting just to jump in the air and try to pass to someone else who has no intent on shooting and then pass to someone who shoots a fade away contested two that has no chance of going in Im going kill myself.....

Nice loss...AGAIN

Hang on - please don't do that. Why is watching one section of the game when they're not playing well more legitimate and not 'dark coloured glasses' than another section when they are playing well? That's not duty or rose-coloured glasses but simply pointing out a fact. My point is that you happened to have watched a bad stretch and complained - not that what you pointed out wasn't legitimate for what you saw at the time - but we were up by nine at the half.

Agree about the mid-air passes, and we didn't play well in the second half, and deserved to lose, but it is more quiet here when we win.

I was just pointing out that when I turned it on they were doing the same stupid crap that made me stop watching them. They didn't even give me 2 minutes of good basketball to get me interested. I watched the entire 2nd half from there HOPING they might at least give me a minute or two of encouraging basketball to look forward to but it never happened.

The reason its quiet when they win is because there is nothing to say. They aren't playing good basketball so when the other team plays worse then we do somebody has to win. Its still a bad team not getting any better doing the same stupid crap over and over and no one does anything about it.
I see bad teams play well for 5 minutes stretches every night but they are still losers.
I didn't see one good encouraging sign for us to think things will get better all night long except that Walker didn't look totally lost like he usually does.

We've made some good changes - taking and making more 3s and the adjustment of LMA going outside to spread the floor and make defenses play us differently to good first half results, and slightly better defense - but for sure we're also throwing in some bad habits which add up and are costing us in close games. There were several other reasons for the result tonight, but hard to win when our 3 shooters combine for 1-12 from 3.

[G R E Y]

Well we had it and we let it slip away with some selfish, lazy play - a bad combination especially from a couple of guys we depend on to do better.

We started moving well in defense, making good switches, staying in front of drivers, contesting shots, getting blocks. On O we made shots but they weren't of the good-to-great variety, and so we passed on open shots from outside, or on open drives to kick it out for lower percentage shots, and not driving enough. We got Adams into fouls trouble with 3, and then we got blocked a couple of times and stopped targeting him.

We went on a 17-0 run only for them to come back at us with drives and fouls against us and kept getting to the FT line. It didn't help that these were once again reaching in fouls . We didn't turn it over often but when we did it cost us - we gave up 15 points off of 9 TOs but earned only 2 points off of their 4 TOs. The FT disparity was once again not in our favour: 14-20 for them vs. 10-12 for us. We have to get into a more aggressive driving mindset, and keep it up throughout the game.

Lonnie looked terrific especially defensively. He moved his feet, stayed in front of drivers, contested well running out to shooters from the side. He grabbed rebounds well, ran the floor, made some great plays around the basket (creative drive, and O rebound putback) and shot his J with rhythm and confidence. His vision and understanding in this game was far better, looked like he fit in both transition and half court, and he did a lot of little things the right way on both ends to justify his minutes over Beli.

LMA was our best 3 shooter, and that's both a compliment to him and not to our 3 shooters. Patty and Bryn combined for 2-17, 1-12 from 3. Jesus. I mean, tough to win when it's so feast or famine. Dare I say it wouldn't have hurt to see what Beli could give us for a few minutes. LMA was flat out great with 22 on 7-13, including 4-4 from 3 (team high), 4-4FTs (team high), 11 rebounds (team high) including 4 on O (team high), plus 3 blocks (team high).

Trey and Bryn. Another game, another rough outing from both. Trey had a tough physical assignment with Adams got into foul trouble and ended up playing only 10 minutes. Bryn is in his head about his struggles and is doing that thing where he increasingly shows his reaction after each missed shot or mistake. It's like he knows he shouldn't be out there, and to take the heat off himself looks to be more disappointed in himself than anyone else could be. Just terrible turnovers, fouls, getting driven by, and missed shot after missed shot - shooting from his own dribble or hesitating spot up open shots is now part of his miss arsenal, so he's definitely over thinking it.

I know DeMar led us in scoring again, and I don't really care. Pop said post-game that we were "... on the dribble too much..." and I'm looking right at DeMar for that. Team-wise, we didn't do a good job penetrating and protecting the ball with the body on drives so we got blocked or stripped, and we also just spent a lot of time passing around the perimeter without some forward advancement and ended up taking late clock shots. Like gump said, the mid-air passes when we could and should have just taken it to the basket returned, and we also gave up and lot of easy shots and passed once too often too much. Just an out of sync O because we didn't make the more simple aggressive play.

But DeMar was a noticeable culprit in that. Bryn should do less, and just be a spot up shooter. When DeMar slashed and drove from a pass and in full speed he did well. But Derrick called for the ball and didn't get it, and DeMar looked off Lonnie when they were on the court together even though Lonnie had a better look. Instead, we got dribble dribble dribble, shot clock running down, and then either a drive in which he lost the ball in his feet, got stripped of the ball or got blocked or passed with little time left. Twice in the 3rd Q we got O boards and twice DeMar took shots without running anything, so no ball movement, no moving of defense, and no getting others involved. Compound that with dumb decisions on defense - early in the second half he gambled to help LMA to guard Adams trying to slap the ball from his hand and left his man wide open under the basket. Then in the 4th Q he actually moved out of the way on a driver for a 105-96 deficit.

This is the second time I've noticed DeMar move to the side when a driver was coming down the middle from the top of the key, and it just defies reason. You angle yourself on the perimeter to keep a ball handler on the outside and give teammates behind you time to adjust, NOT at the top of the key to let a guy go down the middle. My highest level of basketball is HS, and these are things we learned in elementary school, and yet this is what we witness. So it's nice that the he got his 30 points on good efficiency, but man oh man did he make at best myopic at worst selfish plays to get them, plus those defensive lapses. I don't know if it's just because it's AS voting season or he's shoring up all the more after not playing in end of games at times of late or what, but DeMar's habits of getting his while making errors are rearing their heads. Jesus. I swore a lot at Bryn and DeMar plays tonight.

I get the sense that as the guy with seniority compared to Derrick and Lonnie he feels he can look off them and get his. I also get the sense that we're forced to keep Bryn as the starter next to DeMar because when he plays with other creators like Lonnie and Derrick, he isn't looking to share as much, so it's then a spacing issue for us if he's less willing to facilitate. He only had 3 assists tonight, which indicates the focus given he can get assists from facilitating more just about any time. That said, we have to look at giving Bryn a break from the starting group at some point. He played a lot with Derrick last season as the 1-2 tandem, and maybe he can get back into more of a spot up role.

Derrick needs to find his shot. Not sure what's going on with him, but he's been struggling, and when he had an open shot and called for it, he didn't get it, so we need to get back to sharing the ball better and taking it strong to the basket. Derrick and DJ did combine for 9 assists, and DJ made his shots at good efficiency, but he can't take the O load himself and while usually Patty is a good help, Derrick needs to pick it up and be more aggressive.

Speaking of which Jakob channeled his inner hulk again and dunked it again from a nice dish from Patty. These are the kinds of finishes we need from him. He reads plays really well on defense an has great timing on blocks - really excelling here. He drove with authority, and I liked that Rudy did so as well, plus hit his outside shots, but at 6 shots, his help was limited.

Bryn, Derrick and Patty combined for 0-9 in the 4th Q. We finished the game in the final three minutes with Derrick, Bryn, DeMar, Rudy, LMA. I sort of get why Lonnie, despite a 4-6 4th Q wasn't out there to finish the game, but I don't get why we didn't see DJ instead of Bryn out there. Maybe spacing as we had a better balance of 3 shooters and drivers, plus height, but Bryn played poorly throughout on both ends and Pop needs to cut his minutes so he's not overwhelmed as he looks to be, and DeMar subsequently has to adjust and facilitate more when he has other creators on the floor. This is the kind of leadership I think Timmy could help keep instilling an reinforcing.

We only put up 48 points in the second half, and allowed 63. Part of it was defensive: bad turnovers at bad times, whereas we switched well in the first half to keep defending and force passes or contested shots, in the second they got the switches they wanted, either bringing LMA out on the PGs so we didn't have rim protection, or on Bryn so they got easier shots. We over dribbled (DeMar) or passed without forward purpose and the lack of ball movement hurt us.

We did win the rebound battle 46-43 (including 14-8 on O, not sure we took full advantage in terms of points converted, though) and did well to get our 3s attempts up to over 30 again, though we want good-to-great and not from lack of movement or end of clock shots. We need to be more aggressive driving, and be mindful to finish the drives; we're missing a lot of baskets around the rim either by being stripped or just shooting bunnies. The offshoot of that is getting to the FT line a lot more than we have been. While we also put up more shots, we have to work on the quality more along what we generated in the first half. We've made the switch to bring LMA out more to open up space for guards to facilitate, so we need to reward ourselves with strong finishes at the hoop and be a more sharing team rather than watching vets get theirs.

I hope DJ and Derrick get more assertive in terms of what we run and for whom. Sometimes we get too deferential to DeMar getting his, and we need to voice that this is not optimal for the team when he does it like he did tonight at times. They are learning to be those kinds of PG leaders, and we'll need their voices to say, "No we're doing this, not that because that's what is best for the team." I hope Becky helps with the PG finding their voices part of their development. And if we see the dumb myopic plays continue by any player, vet or starter or whomever, by all means they're welcome to sit and watch others play team ball from the bench as Pop has been doing more of late.

We have to own this one for going away from playing more smart defense, movement on offense in the second half. It's not that I'm glad it caught up to us, but we have strengths that we're not maximizing and hopefully results like this one keep reinforcing that we win with team ball, playing unselfish, hard, and smart. It's clear which way gets which results.

NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENTS

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