GAME DAY, BALA! GAME 4: SPURS VS. LAKERS, 30-12-2020, 7:30PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

The first of an important three-game home stretch is upon us, this being the last game of 2020. What a year. Let's put our lessons into practice, start strong, stay resilient, and finish the year right.

WHERE: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX

WHEN: Wednesday, December 30, 2020, 7:30pm (CT)

Earn The Stripes Mood: Bala leadership and energy!



GO SPURS GO!!!

[G R E Y]

In sync with Spurs Twitter:

Read on Twitter

Channeling all the good energy:

Read on Twitter

[G R E Y]

LMA's the gift that keeps on giving:

Read on Twitter

Three games in of new style of play. The skeptic in me is weary he may be trying to make his way out of town - something hurts, trade value drops, he leaves to his desired destination without any assets coming back and without his having to move to a new location an extra time.

It's not that I think he's faking it or that I think he should play when injured. I just have nothing to go by this season to have anything but doubts where LMA is concerned.

Anyway, I mentioned in the previous game thread that Drew ought to have played some minutes, and I guess he will tonight. Maybe Luka will get some court time, too. We'll see!

[G R E Y]

Silver and black linings:

Read on Twitter

[ducler]

Read on Twitter

[imagump1313]

LMA's the gift that keeps on giving:

Read on Twitter

Three games in of new style of play. The skeptic in me is weary he may be trying to make his way out of town - something hurts, trade value drops, he leaves to his desired destination without any assets coming back and without his having to move to a new location an extra time.

It's not that I think he's faking it or that I think he should play when injured. I just have nothing to go by this season to have anything but doubts where LMA is concerned.

Anyway, I mentioned in the previous game thread that Drew ought to have played some minutes, and I guess he will tonight. Maybe Luka will get some court time, too. We'll see!

I'm not really interested in why he is out. He is out which IMO is good news.

There are days and days full of tape on LMA. Everyone in the league already knows what he is. Teams and players know way more than we do. If someone thinks he can help them in a playoff run they will make an offer, even if he is averaging 2 PPG and 10 turnovers.
I guess I've already accepted the fact that we aren't going to trade him and will get nothing in return. I still think having him and his contract gone is reward enough.

If Harden and his ridiculous contract and acting a fool can be traded I'm not going to worry about LMA.
Lets let the season play out and maybe someone will be desperate enough to give us something for him. Then I'll be pleasantly surprised.

[G R E Y]

Well put, gump. Good perspective - something I have to keep in mind. It's a long season, after all.

We'll get to see some different line-ups tonight:

Read on Twitter

[G R E Y]

Bubble ball! Let's go!

Read on Twitter

[imagump1313]

Eubanks is horrible. Worse than LMA but at least cheaper.....

[G R E Y]

Read on Twitter

First, some clear bull **** non-calls that results in Pop blowing a gasket and of course he gets two quick techs and is ejected. Far be it for anyone to challenge when a road team gets home cooked calls. FIVE POINTS in the last seconds of the Q because of fouls against. Just. Wow.

I like our pace - 50FGAs so far, we just need to finish those layups at the rim. Every point and play counts. We need to take more 3s as well - only 3-10 so far.

On D we have to get back in transition better to limit their fast break points. I think we're playing quite well given all our drive chances and non-calls at the rim. We have to keep taking it hard and force the calls to be made.

Jakob only played 7 minutes that half. He and Drew both have 3 fouls each. LBJ and AD with none hahahahahahaha!

Devin needs to assert himself. He's a bit lost last game and this one.

We also have to be more assertive on the boards to protect our basket form second chance points.

Blitz them with our best game now.

[imagump1313]

Hard to watch. Lakers get whatever shot they want whenever they want with zero resistance from our defense.
Human pylon Wes Matthews just hitting set shot three after set shot three.

DeRozan again showing zero basketball IQ. Driving over and over with James guarding him, then when he has Matthews guarding him he stands at the three and passively throws the ball around. A child has higher basketball IQ

[G R E Y]

Man we're leaving so many points at the rim and allowing so many points at our rim simply with allowing their players to stay behind us and receive those long passes time and again. Details matter and add up.

[G R E Y]

Hard to watch. Lakers get whatever shot they want whenever they want with zero resistance from our defense.
Human pylon Wes Matthews just hitting set shot three after set shot three.

DeRozan again showing zero basketball IQ. Driving over and over with James guarding him, then when he has Matthews guarding him he stands at the three and passively throws the ball around. A child has higher basketball IQ

Yeah not his best night. Just looking at the stats you'd think, wow, he had an efficient scoring night, but a starter worst -12. This is a very murky stat, but in some games passes the eye test. Too much mano-a-mano on O and on the D end he got caught over again.

[G R E Y]

Read on Twitter

We did some good things; we have some work to do. The good thing is that there are changes within our control to play better.

[Captain Ballmer]

I was expecting more from Keldon and Jakob when I heard LMA sits, I guess AD and LBJ are huge mismatches for them for now.

At least Becky made his HC debut, happy for her.

[G R E Y]

Well we did some things better, others not as well, and while there are some aspects of our game that got exposed, others in our control to improve. That's the case against any team to varying degrees, but when you play a dominant one, all of them are sharpened.

We picked up our pace and got a seven-point lead in the 1st Q - a nice change. Part of that was because we ran more, we were more offensively versatile - seven of nine Spurs scored, including all of the starters, and we were more defensively sound with LMA out. We had 11 assists on 11 made shots which is an excellent ball sharing mark. Nevertheless, we allowed 35 points for an eight-point 1st Q deficit largely on their 5-9 from 3.

While we kept driving well to get to the rim, they pushed the ball in very quickly transition. When a team scores quickly against them, they often leave a player lagging behind in an opponent's end and heave full court passes for easy layups before defenders can get back on D. Time and again we were caught off guard. Not sure why as this is a well known tactic of theirs. The fast break points were 23-19 for them, so if we can balance driving relentlessly with getting back on D more consistently, that's one area within our control to improve.

After that 1st Q, the remaining quarters were fairly even with each team exploiting its strengths. While we created good scoring chances, we left a LOT of points at the rim with missed layups. They maintained their over 53%FGAs throughout the game but ours dropped to hover around the 45%FGA range after the 50% of the 1st Q. Couple that with the fact that this is now the second consecutive game in which we didn't score at least 30 points in a Q and had a slower pace as the game wore on - 87FGAs, our lowest output of all the games so far, and it was indicates we didn't play the type of style we're trying to develop. Of course our opponent had even fewer at 82FGAs but when they hit at the efficient rate they didn't need any more.

Their two main stars are frankly hard to stop but Keldon and Rudy did a great job on LBJ:

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter

Rudy guarded LBJ most of the rest of the other minutes.

AD's step back J is an unguardable shot. Jakob and Drew did what they could in getting right up into his space and putting a hand in his face but the Js kept falling.

If we can continue to contain them to some reasonable degree (they combined for 46 of their 121 points), limiting other players is an equally important if less daunting challenge. Although this is encouraging:

Read on Twitter

We allowed the guy who went 0-8 from 3 combined in his previous four games to go 6-6 from 3 in this one. How many 3s does it take before we contest in earnest? Some were, but the ones that were wide open were inexcusable, especially since we only took 24 3s ourselves. It just puts that much more pressure on our D.

The broader point highlights the obvious need to address talent at the 4/5 at some point, be it greater development with Trey and Luka, the off-season, or sooner. LMA spreads the floor at least in theory (he's at 18.2% from 3 this season, oh my God!) but Jakob has no such decoy and it limits how we can use him even if he scored more points in his first three tries than LMA did the entire last game he played. Jakob needs to really work on his footwork and post moves if he's not going to be a threat from the arc. He's way too unpolished for a traditional big, and if he is that, then embrace it and have as many tools available. Also, can he dunk the damn ball already? Two points is two points, except when emphatic dunks generate energy that fuels the team. He did make some nice passes which ended right in the hands of cutters so it’s good to see this aspect of his game grow.

Trey has bizarrely not been able to get any significant court time and it's standing out. However long the recovery from his surgery takes, something is off. He was starting for us last season! Either he didn't follow the training guidelines and has dropped off from the rotation or he's taking too long to fit into the new schemes or I don't know what but there's no way he should have allowed such a drop off. Lean Luka is still in development, and needs to start looking like his Austin version on the big club.

Drew probably shouldn't be taking the second highest number of shots on the bench, especially the erratic ones that led to a 2-8 performance. But what makes him playable is that he mostly plays within himself providing the energy, rebounding (bench high 5), D switching, and blocking (2 huge ones) we can rely on, and has improved what we asked of him - that outside J looks smooth. The main thing is that he is ultra competitive, something that Trey and Luka need to internalize.

Force Pop to play you. It's worked for Drew who has less overall talent than Trey and Luka; it's worked for Keldon who got minutes at the end of his rookie season and is now starting; it's finally working for Lonnie who has really improved his D (footwork, upright stance, hands up, consistency), his 3, his handles, his off-ball movement, his passing, and his finishing at the rim.

Speaking of Pop, any wonder he blew up at the refs?! How many **** drives of ours did we not get calls on while on the other end we breathed on them and the whistles blew? Just ridiculous. Becky took over which was a then matter-of-fact and later momentous occasion. It would be great when one day it's not a big deal, but the fact that it took till the end of 2020 to make NBA history for a woman to coach a NBA game says something about where we are and where we can still be.

Becky has a lot of support from the Spurs players and larger NBA family, but I do think there's a lot of pressure on her to do well being on the forefront of uncharted territory. I have no idea what she is like one on one with the players in practice - although they all speak very highly of her - and don't want to take away from the achievement in observing that I recall the team responding best to Will in the bubble when each of the assistant coaches led the team in bubble pre-season. It's the smallest of sample sizes. I have no doubt that she is where she is because of merit. She breaks ground because of it starting with representation. But if it's all about merit, then I'm curious to see how the team would respond to Will in similar circumstances, too. I just have a feeling about him, how he's come up the ranks with us and how he has a deep knowledge of each facet of the organization and the culture throughout them.

Anyway, the guys had no issues following Becky's lead but to whatever extent Pop's ejection and opponent play affected ours, it's hard to ignore that our 50FGA (and only 3-10 from 3) first half output dropped to 37FGAs (a better 7-14 from 3) in the second half. There was a bit more resorting to old habits with longer dribbles, horizontal passes around the perimeter that wasted clock but didn't penetrate, more ISOs, etc. We didn't generate the scoring chances quite the same way or in as timely a manner. She did yell at the guys to pick up the pace and push the ball up the court so she did her part. We did do a good job of collapsing in the paint to contest better, so it was a give and take.

Keldon is a sponge who takes in so much from each game. He’s so good and dogged on D that you forget he’s so new to the league. Still, there are times when his inexperience shows. He drove hard at defenders but those telegraphed straight line drives resulting in charges need improving. He did try Euro steps, but developing some more footwork and finishing with reversals will help reward him for all the physical work he does to get to the rim. All the more so given that he guards the most physical opponents. As he grows, he’ll also be better at not getting caught at the baseline in the air with the ball, at finding teammates sooner, and at being more aware of reacting to what the D gives him.

Lonnie for all his improvements still at times awkwardly resorts to his right hand when a left hand finish with his body protecting the ball would have better results. Devin looks as if the pro game is a bit overwhelming for him. He’s solid on D, but too tentative on O, passing up 3s after missing them last game. He has a beautiful stroke and did connect on 1-2 from the arc, but it must be a heady experience facing such greats of the game in only his fourth pro game. There were stretches when Lonnie didn’t touch the ball and couldn’t contribute and it was all the more so for Devin. After those eleven 1st Q assists, we managed 15 in the remaining Qs, so that aspect of our game wasn’t as consistent or inclusive.

DJ’s game is rounding out so well. The broadcasters of other teams keep pointing it out, too. He had another career high 27 points along with terrific 7 assists and 7 rebounds. He’s making better decisions with the ball, striking that balance between passing and scoring.

As a team when we went on runs we just couldn’t break through to get our lead back. It’s like we kept hitting a glass ceiling and gave away clusters of points through a combination of their 5-0 runs or consecutive 3s and our consecutive missed possessions when we drove and lost, got blocked, or stripped of the ball.

We also got outrebounded on both ends and at times it was because we didn’t box out. We left some possessions through lack of attention to detail (long shot, long rebound!) and hustle.

I do wonder whether DeMar out of position at the 4 is starting to be too much for him. He's getting too frustrated too early in games. Surely that's because of non-calls, but there's also a comfort level to going up against certain players, being able to do what you do with teammates who are bigger than you at the 4/5 which gives him certain advantages when playing with them. We have strengths with small ball, but some teams make challenging. Derrick's return should help run things more smoothly, but we're doing what we can to plug holes in positions of need because players at those positions aren't holding their own.

When you do a lot of things right and don't get the result it can be agitating. But there are several aspects of our game we can clean up, both individually and collectively. With reinforcements back, we are in a better position to reassert our game.

NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENTS

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter