GAME DAY, BALA! GAME 61: SPURS AT HEAT, 28-4-2021, 7PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

Heading south for a key rematch undermanned is not optimal but we have a lot of experience of 'next man up' needing to step up and fill in. We are looking to get some revenge and keep climbing. Building on our good play, we will need to be mindful of breaking down the zone defense, protect our paint cleanly, win the rebound battle, and use our passing and transition game to its fullest. We are at our best when we can strike assertively and score in multiple ways. Let's get after it!

WHERE: American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL

WHEN: Wednesday, April 28, 2021, 7:30pm (CT)

Earn The Stripes Mode: Show what we learned the second time around!







GO SPURS GO!!!

[ducler]

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[G R E Y]

Excellent decision. We need 3&D in the back court, we know what we had with Lonnie there, it maintains continuity on the bench as much as possible as Pop said, and it's a great opportunity for Devin. Win win all around:

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[G R E Y]

Lonnie has to make his shots at the rim. He just HAS to. I've never seen a player be more efficient farther from the basket.

Devin is ok on D but we see how much we miss Derrick - our second leading scorer - already. It's not a fair comparison, but our other young guys need to step up.

Patty was iced on a couple of possessions - he needs to do what he's out there for.

If we can drive with more tenacity and more with more urgency, it will serve us well.

[G R E Y]

DEAR DREW AND JAKOB - DUNK THE DAMN BALL!!!!!!!

[G R E Y]

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Very solid contributions by our young guys - Lonnie, Drew, and Keldon. Lonnie and Rudy are leading the bench with drives and scoring. They give us a versatility with inside and outside scoring that we need.

Lonnie's been terrific - he has that bounce to him where you feel he can catch fire all the more. Finger crossed!

Patty flat out needs to find his shot. Right now.

Our back court of DJ and Devin are 1-6 combined. We NEED MORE out of both of them.

I like our defense overall. We passed up some drives to force outside 3s, and I'd like to see us be more assertive on O. Good movement and come from behind in that 2ND Q. Loving the fight and finding a way back!

Get going Patty and keep it going young guys!

No doubt we are doing it on the back of DeMar's great play and Rudy's resurgent play.

FULL TEAM EFFORT, HUSTLE, AND HEART IN THE SECOND HALF, SPURS!!!

[G R E Y]

Last game they blitzed us with their physicality on O and zone D so we must at least match the former and be ready for the latter.

Also, drive hard at them, make our shots at the rim and make our 3s, Spurs!!!

[G R E Y]

We get up 7 and it's like we forgot what to do to get us there. 15-0 run by them in the last 3 and a half minutes. We lost the ball, we stopped playing with the hustle and focus that got us there, and we couldn't score.

Patty is in a terrible drought. Sorry, I love him, but at this point give it to just about anyone else. He's costing us points.

Lonnie is an absolute mystery. How can a player get to the rim so effortlessly and miss so consistently??!

We made some mistakes down low where we had 3 guards against their bigs and the kept getting multiple O boards and putbacks.

We need a hustle and aggresiveness adjustment.

[G R E Y]

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There are lots of things to improve, but the will to compete was there throughout the game, even after that 15-point swing where our scoring drought to end the 3RD Q.

DeMar being the go-to guy is a role I think he still relishes, and that we've handed it back to him more is a sign of support that has been mutually beneficial. Sure we have games where we all the supporting cast have great games as one or another player steps up. But often we also look like a team missing the go-to guy. It makes DeMar feel wanted and appreciated, and those at this stage of the season are important extra motivations. Perhaps they will resonate beyond it as well. DeMar stepped up in 20 points on 7-13, 6-7FT's, 4 boards, 8 assists, and a steal. But this was one of those games where we had another player give DeMar a run for his go-to money.

Losing Derrick just when we're hitting our stride is a gut punch. It's tough for the team, but Derrick's had one trial after another. Pop said he's not doing well mentally right now, and all we can hope for is that he finally gets healthy with the time off. But with Derrick having the best month of his career and becoming our second leading scorer, his impact on both ends is tough to just replace with another player, and even doing it collectively is tough. We managed very well last game, perhaps running on the energy of the moment.

But a brand new line-up with Devin stepping in for Derrick still takes time to adjust, and the 1ST Q showed that adjustment in real time. DJ and Devin struggled in the first half, but both had noticeably better second halves. DJ in particular was all around wonderful. Another triple double (22-10-11 - leading us in all three categories!) with excellent handles, finishing at the rim, doing a great job getting to the FT line (5-5). He also led us in FGA's (8-17) and O boards (3). He was 1-4 in the first half, 2-5 in the 3RD Q, and 4-7 in the 4TH.

With DeMar scoring 2-4 overall in the second half (though he helped facilitate with 6 assists and kept driving to get to the FT line), DJ stepped up and we rode his strong push. It's a pleasure to watch him grow as a leader as his skills expand, too. Devin was 0-2 in the first half, then 3-6 in the 3RD Q, and 1-2 in the 4TH. He came alive buet we also looked for him as well. DeMar's cross court passes to Devin in either corner were beautiful with pin point accuracy from which Devin could just should in rhythm. He made both. That he ended up leading the starters with attempts from 3 (2-6) is a good sign. We need will need him to let it fly to stretch the floor and fill in for Derrick. That Devin got more comfortable as the game progressed is a good sign for us. He isn't yet comfortable handling it and beating his man off the dribble, but he's so fundamentally sound moving off ball to get to the right spots to be open, making that fake and step in for a mid range J. He always runs out soundly on fast breaks and was rewarded with a dunk in this game.

Our bench just outscored theirs 38-36 mainly on the play of Lonnie who led us with 18 on 7-15, 3-6 from 3, 1-1FT's. He pitched in with 3 rebounds and an assist. He didn't do the whole drive and errant kick out mid-air pass for a TO like last game, but he did do the drive and miss bunnies on weird angles off the glass. Credit to him for the finishes he did make and for his taking it to the basket with more physicality. He is more willing to drive into and absorb contact than he has in the past.

I just can't figure out his odd, untrustworthy finishes (or not) at the rim. It's like Jakob's FT's for much of the season, and like them, hopefully something just... clicks and we can depend on Lonnie making his shots 0-3 feet away from the basket. Currently he ranks last on the team on shots made withing 0-3 feet, connecting on only 53.8% of his shots there. And the farther away from the basket he shoots, the higher up the team rank he climbs! He is 11th from 3-10 feet at 42.9%, 8th from 10-16 feet at 40.9%, 7th from 16-3 arc at 39.1% and 7th from the 3 point line at 35.3%.

Ironically, I find his 3-point shooting most trustworthy. I'm more ok with that percentage than his at the rim because his form and release from the arc is consistent. Around the rim, however, Lonnie just continues to astound with his ability to get there so quickly and mystify with his choices once he gets there - a scoop instead of a lay in, a too hard finish instead of a lay in, a strange angle in a failed attempt at fundamentals. And so he's the only regular rotation player in the 50 percentile at close range. Still. He was last from regular rotation players last season, too, but he actually finished it at a better rate - 58.4%! He and DJ were the only two players who were in the 50 percentile range last season, but DJ's cleaned it up and he is now 10th (5th if only considering regular rotation players) on the team this season from 0-3 feet at 64.4%. If I had to guess it looks like some combination of indecision at the rim, his speed being a factor, and adjusting to it at the rim makes for some interesting choices there. He finishes less with flair than he used to try, but the angles and touch still need work. I do love the effort. We just need to trust the results.

It sounds like I am too critical of him, but with great talent and athleticism come great expectations. Is it fair? Maybe not. He was huge for us tonight and was unstoppable pretty much whenever he decided to use his considerable athleticism and skills. He had that bounce to his step which shows he's engaged and raring to go. I very much appreciate his game, and hope that as part of his growth we see the consistency in scoring close to the basket. It seems like such a rather small and basic aspect of a player's game, but it will actually reap huge rewards for him and for us once he settles in.

Rudy was very solid scoring 13 points on an efficient 5-11, 3-7 from 3, along with 2 rebounds and 1 assist and a bench high +9. As the lone true PF (86% of his play is from there), even as the oldest player on the team he is impactful. Drew is for some reason listed as PF on the ESPN box score but 98% of his play is at C backing up Jakob. Drew was a quiet 1-2 with 3 rebounds and 2 steals in 13 minutes.

Patty has long been a reliable bench spark plug but he has struggled mightily in April. His PPG has halved since January, from his best 14.3 then to 7.1 now. He was averaging 26MPG in January and 24MPG in April. In January he was also averaging 11.7FGA's which has dropped to 7FGA's in April. So that accounts for the drop in scoring, but what is more glaring is that his efficiency has decreased month to month. January was his best overall month at 44.4FG%, and while it dropped to around 41% in the following two months, it has taken a considerable nose dive in April at 33.7%. His ever reliable 3s have stopped being so as well. He was in the high 30s percentile for each of the first three months this year, and even had his best average in March at 39.1% but dropped noticeably in April to 32%. Patty's 25.5MPGs is five minutes above his career average. Combine that with a brutal schedule and it seems that a couple of rest games and trying to get him to shoot himself out of a slump isn't getting it done. 1-7 from 3 today. He's holding up his end to take the shots, but not in making them. Without Derrick we still took 32 from the arc. And with this stat as a barometer

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it's clear that we had the right game plan in this game despite our team deficiencies. If Patty averaged even closer to what he does this month, the results could have been flipped. Not that it's his fault entirely that we lost. We were outrebounded and in that effort gave up a lot of second chances as well as traditional three point plays. There were just too many O boards for putbacks and fouls given up, especially late in the game when we pulled to within three points.

One of the things we need to improve is simply boxing out consistently. We tend to err on tapping rebounds out on O which is fine when warranted. But it's a habit that at times ignores the needs of the situation. At times grabbing the ball with both hands to secure the possession, especially in our end, is the better choice. It's easy to say after the fact about live action plays, but we've been losing the ball more in our end more lately, and giving up points as a result. We need to get back to basics and do a better job at finding opponents as the shot goes up and work to get positioning on them.

Their C tandem combined for 20 rebounds, 6 on O; ours, 10, 2 on O (12 in total and 3 on O with Dieng). We're only 18th in rebounds per game but were outrebounded 48-40 (10-7 on O) by a team ranked 28th. Jakob is without question vital to our defense. He's our anchor and overall terrific in that role. We would not be the defensive team we are without him. But there's an element of softness about his game that keeps him from reaching an even higher level. He doesn't box out consistently and in losing position he gets outrebounded; he's agile and co-ordinated for his height but he is not strong and doesn't seem to like getting physical like Drew does. They just different motors, and if it weren't fixable it wouldn't merit mentioning. But we can't exactly bench Jakob for missed plays, can we? He's that important to our defense. But he can have an even bigger impact if he got stronger, if he more consistently boxed out, and if he bloody well finished with dunks rather than lay in attempts at the rim.

Credit to Jakob for his FT improvement and for his consistent defensive presence. He's averaging 8.5 / 8, both career highs, understandable considering he's also averaging a career high of 26.3MPG. He could easily average a double double if the missed bunnies were consistently replaced with dunks and if he bodied up harder and boxed out more on rebounds. I wonder whether his importance to us weighs on him and he is tentative at times because he knows how much we need him out there. And so Drew goes out there with wanton abandon bowling through opponents, dunking, making hook shots, boxing out.... With all the extra minutes, maybe there's also an aspect of conserving energy by Jakob as well.

The book seems to be open about getting to us early: get Jakob into foul trouble - and they got a first one on Jakob on the very first play! and he'll be neutralized enough to make a harder push and get ahead. He played with three fouls for a long time and I thought he could have been a bigger physical presence, but then Drew was neutralized by their bigs as well. Jakob had a solid all around game scoring 6 on 3-5, with 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. He was even a team best +11. But the stats don't tell story of his being outhustled and outmuscled.

While there's still room to maximize his game on both ends, it highly likely he'll ever remain a traditional center. This is something we'll have to address in the off-season, but for now, in this final push in the regular season, we'll need a more assertive Jakob who gets the better positioning for rebounds, and who finishes hard at the rim. Every point counts.

We also have an issue to address regarding a true PF, one who can protect the rim and bend it on the other end. When's the last time we ran an alley oop for a big? Connected big to big high low passes? We need to expand our game and securing a versatile player at the 4 has to be a priority. We make do with DeMar's craftiness and Keldon's energy and willingness to get physical every chance he gets. Lately he's been impressing with finishes inside the arc from mid range. So he's growing before our eyes on O, and guarding 4s on D when we need him to, but it's really not a long-term solution to a dearth in the position. Well, we do have Trey who started for us last season, but since his ankle made is publicly known through his reps that he'd prefer a change of scenery, he's been out with soreness. Sprained big mouth. And anyway, he's talented but nowhere near the tough athlete we need at the position. There's more to it than just having bigs down low, but it should also help not getting outscored 60-44 in the paint like we did tonight.

I hope Keldon gets more FGA's in the coming games. He was an efficient 5-8 and 4-5FT's for 14 points along with 6 rebounds. There are only so many shots to go around, but he's a difference maker with his drives and putbacks.

Overall we woke up from the late 3RD Q stupor and fought hard to try and win this game. Post game Pop mentioned what a fun group this is and gave credit to the guys for their fight. We got 20 points off of their 13 TO's and limited ours to only 9. Hard not to notice our five missed FT's in a five-point game, but that's more a happenstance that stands out. It's really the cumulative effects of mistakes and misses; the latter you work to make, the former you work to mitigate. Through it all, the heart played with and adjustments we made to make it competitive till the end are crucial for us going forward.

We did a much better job scoring inside and out - just missed some shots, what can you do? (Besides dunk and get the right angles off the glass). If we continue to take as many 3s and hit our average (even if Patty gets back to his) we're in good shape. I liked our D adjustment with the 2-3 zone which worked until it didn't. I like Lonnie's bringing the ball end to end and slicing through their D, I liked Keldon's touch from various distances and Devin's sticking with his shot. I like, too, that we looked for him more to score. I liked how the young guys stepped up collectively. We'll need all the vets on their games in this final stretch of games. Wishing Patty a resurgent return to being our scoring sniper, and that we gel quickly with the new starting lineup. Most important, we've got our fight in us, and we're trying to figure out what works in a given game. We could have easily laid down after that 15-point swing from lead to deficit, but that we didn't says a lot about our group and its hunger. We'll have to show ever more of it.

NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENTS

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