SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 8: SPURS VS. MAVS, 3-11-2021, 7:30PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

Next man up mentality is now. Team game has not been more important than this next stretch of games with our bigs having a chance to step up. We have to rally together, stay focused, and execute on both ends. Control what we can, do our best at it.

WHERE: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX

WHEN: Thursday, November 3, 2021, 7:30pm (CT)

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GO SPURS GO!!!

[G R E Y]

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Thank goodness Doug's back.

[ducler]

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[G R E Y]

Drew in for Jakob:

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Zinger's still out...

[G R E Y]

1ST Q: SPURS 28

MAVS 28

But for the weird miscue TO at the end, a decent showing coming from behind 7 and finishing the Q on a 14-5 run.

Just some rhythms to figure out with guys who don't normally play as many minutes together.

Clean up the TOs, guard the P&R and alley oops better.

Loving Devin's game more and more. DJ's D is super.

Keldon and Lonnie... get it together, man...

Thad's been wonderful. Smart, effective on both ends.

We've used a lot of cuts to get easy buckets. More of those as well as assertive, clean play, Spurs.

[G R E Y]

More miscues and a 10-2 start to the 2ND...

Keldon needs to put his 3 shot in the side of a milk carton.

[G R E Y]

I like Beadle but I can't stand the banter when she joins Sean and Bill. So high school girlish energy. Nothing to do with the game at all. Save it for timeouts or something. Gets in the way of the game.

[G R E Y]

Man we have such a good opportunity here to catch fire but it's like we **** cross eyed and when we hit a shot it's a **** surprise.

[G R E Y]

2ND Q: SPURS 58

MAVS 59

Terrific finish to end the Q by DJ. He's a big shot guy and found it in rhythm.

Drew showing why he is an undrafted back-up big. Sorry. That end of Q sequence of a missed shot in the key followed by the foul committed on the other end is an example.

We're getting switched on for mismatches to opponent advantages inside, so one thing to clean up. Another is rebounding.

We're only 4-11 from 3. The efficiency is good but Doug has only had two shot attempts, or one third the number Drew's had. We should try and get him involved more.

Lonnie and Keldon continue to disappoint. Lonnie had a couple of nice assists, so credit there in recognizing the play.

Devin is emerging as a more dependable, higher ceiling prospect than either of the aforementioned teammates. He's a cool cat, steady on D and growing more confident in his rhythm and moves. LOVE his release.

Thad's been terrific, too.

As a team, we're spending a lot of time playing catch up and when we do, whenever we have a chance to get ahead more than one or two points, or get ahead in general we just... fold and can't score. It's a mental toughness we have to strengthen. We've got to get into the mindset of going on a run and strengthening it with pushing it all the more on O and playing clean D. We can't get into basket exchanges and have to take better advantage of opponent TOs.

Let's make some more 3s, yeah?

[G R E Y]

GET KELDON OUT OF THE GAME. HE'S BEEN RENDERED USELESS.

[G R E Y]

Keldon is the sweet and sour - makes some nice drives and then when we get a stop he takes it himself not even looking around to get a play going. Just takes the rhythm out of the team and the wind out of teammate sails.

LOOK FOR YOUR TEAMMATES, KELDON.

[G R E Y]

BOX OUT, SPURS

[G R E Y]

DEVIN HAS THE HOT HAND BY ALL MEANS LET'S ICE HIM OUT FFS...

ANOTHER LEAD, ANOTHER ONE-AND-DONE SERIES OF BAD SHOTS BY ANYONE BUT DEVIN. **** TURNIPS.

[G R E Y]

3RD Q: SPURS 83

MAVS 80

A double digit lead and we go mindless giving up a 7-0 run to end the Q. Why?

We ran absolutely nothing team-oriented or well constructed in the final seven shots or so. Too early in the clock, not enough passing, dumb shots in the key or over their giant C.

When a teammate is hot, it's like some decide that it's their turn to score. That's not what we mean by team game. PASS. THE. BALL. FOR. GOOD. TO. GREAT. MADE. SHOTS.

[G R E Y]

Keldon and Lonnie just are not showing BBIQ.

[G R E Y]

SELFISH BASKETBALL LED TO A 10-POINT LEAD FIZZLING TO A THREE-POINT DEFICIT. DUMB, SELFISH BASKETBALL. TONS OF MENTAL MISTAKES.

[G R E Y]

EIGHT POINTS HALF WAY THROUGH THE 4TH...

[G R E Y]

We need a quility basket so DJ the PG calls his own number. One and done top of key J miss.

Devin iced by his teammates when he had the hottest shooting hand on the court. Inexcusable.

[G R E Y]

4TH Q: SPURS 108

MAVS 109

It hurts that we had it IN OUR HAND and GAVE the game away. Just baffling mental errors.

Devin was the hottest hand on the court and we went away from him.

We needed to create quality shots and settled for one and done Js.

Keldon's stat line is inflated by ball hogging. He simply gets bad tunnel vision and misses a lot of open teammates.

DJ should operate as more of a PG, too. He took a 3 when we had Doug out there for it.

DJ: 2-7 from 3 (so basically he took a THIRD of our attempts - not enough for the team, not enough from the guys we signed to shoot them); Doug: 0-0 from 3. How? HOW?! HOOOOOOOWWW??!

Why didn't any Spur come back to help Keldon on the inbounds when he was guarded by Boban? Christ.

We were given MANY opportunities to push through to keep the lead but ONCE AGAIN we got lulled into "I'm going to get mine now" when we had a 10-point lead and it vanished. Time and again we are doing this to our detriment.

I wish Jock got some minutes tonight. I don't mind that Bryn played so few, but we needed to reward Doug more than TWO shot attempts the entire game for all that great off ball running he did the whole game.

Back to the team game for a moment: we need a huge mental adjustment. Team scoring isn't five or six or more guys getting double digit scoring because they TAKE TURNS doing it; team game and scoring is creating good to great shot chances, particularly for the hot hand. We keep GOING AWAY from the guy who has the hot hand, AWAY from TEAM concept of passing it. Just **** dumb basketball.

Keldon and Drew 50% from FTs. Five missed FTs in total in a one-point game. **** off.

Jakob - thank for not being **** careful enough and getting sick at the worst **** time.

Team D was actually solid tonight. DJ and Derrick did a good job on Doncic and we recovered inside well for 10 blocks.

Ok. On to the next one. Lots of lessons from this one, the central one being RECOGNITION and SELFLESS play to get the ball to the guys who are scoring. We looked like a **** high school squad at times and if we want to say we're a better team than that then we have to show it with team-ball execution for the whole game.

I did like our compete level tonight. Much improved. But we're too loose and comfortable with leads, and too tight in other moments. Just take the best of this game and use the frustration of missed chances as fuel for the next one.