SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 13: SPURS AT LAKERS, 14-11-2021, 2:30PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

We embark on the first of a three-game road trip, all versus West opponents, with hopefully a tougher mindset that results in harder play. The focus to do everything with more grit and make it harder to play against us on both ends is of primary importance to our right play foundation. It's not just about the schemes, but about the approach to them. Let's see what we're made of.

WHERE: Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA

WHEN: Sunday, November 14, 2021, 2:30pm (CT)

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GO SPURS GO!!!

[G R E Y]

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[G R E Y]

Solid start so far with shot making and variety of chances generated, but we can't get into exchanging baskets. Double and strip passes, push in transition more. Good rebounding on both ends.

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Without being dirty, we need to put a body on AD. And then body him again. And then again.

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1ST Q: SPURS 29

LAKERS 34

End of Q details. We've been burned by them before. TOs, shots in transition the other way, and though they are 4-7 from 3, they just hit two at the end of the Q for a 7-0 run.

We need to be more physical for sure.

Derrick good shooting start, nice to see.

DOUG GETTING ONE SHOT ATTEMPT THAT Q IS INEXCUSABLE. MAKE THE RIGHT READS, PG'S!

[G R E Y]

Too many open shots allowed and losing the ball on O is a bad combination. This one looks to be on the brink of getting out hand already. We need to tighten our O sets and D coverages.

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10-3 start to the Q for them.

One thing that REALLY irritates me is when our defenders stand with the ball handlers well and then when the **** shot goes up they don't bother putting hands up, just turn to the basket to be spectators.

WHY didn't Keldon bother getting a hand up on Melo's J just now? He was RIGHT THERE.

These are habits I learned in girls elementary school basketball. It never ceases to amaze me that pros aren't consistent with basic BASIC **** fundamentals. Shot up, hand up. Like it's really not that **** hard. THINK.

[G R E Y]

Their baskets are too easy. We need to get more physical.

DJ one and done just called his own number and missed a contested quick in clock J. Why? WHY?!

PASS AND RUN SOMETHING. DUMB DECISION.

They get quick 2 in transition.

4-point swing when we're trying to stop bleeding and actually went on a run.

DJ is trying to shine in Hollywood again and tunnel vision is BAD **** LOOK. THINK.

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D TO O TRANSITION POINTS, LET'S GO!!!

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D TO O POINTS IN TRANSITION LET'S GO!!!

DJ steals, passes to Derrick running down the middle for a dunk.

Good quick smart play.

I also liked how we collapsed in the key for their passes inside to strip or force secondary choices.

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2ND Q: SPURS 55

LAKERS 60

The good: we finished the Q on a 11-2 run.

We are collapsing more down low to force the ball out of AD's hands. He's single-handedly killing us as their only double-digit scorer. WHY aren't we bodying him more?! We also need to drive at him and make him more uncomfortable on D, get him to commit some fouls. At least try. He has none yet. J's won't do it.

Lonnie and his disappearing act is here again...

DJ is scoring well so it may seem weird to criticize, but as the PG who initiates the O, he NEEDS TO RECOGNIZE THAT DOUG IS ONCE AGAIN BEING GHOSTED - 0-2 at the half for the guy we SIGNED TO MAKE 3S IS INEXCUSABLE.

Keldon ISO ball come hell or high water is back. Now, again he's scoring very well, but Christ his tunnel vision into they key and some weirdo awkward off balance misses in a contested key are not it when team mates are OPEN OUT ON THE WINGS. LOOK. PASS.

Thad at times looks like his knees don't bend but then he gives you a sneaky left hook and gets some O board putbacks and you're like, huh, old school vet game is on. Ok.

Thad and Devin are the only bench players to have scored.

Derrick is actually scoring this game but was only 1-2 in the 2ND Q.

DJ AND KELDON HAVE TO PASS TO TEAM MATES. THEY CAN"T TRY TO DO IT THEMSELVES. PASSSSSSSS THEEEEEEEEEEEE BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLL. ****.

Also, too many unforced TOs by us of the dribble of ourselves variety. Better focus here to make the most of our chances.

More physicalityto get them out of their O rhythm and make it way more uncomfortable and difficult to score, more movement, more team mates involved in the O - play to our strengths, play more locked in.

We've got the momentum as we trimmed a I think 14-point deficit down to five, so let's make a strong hard push here.

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DJ ONE AND DONE MISS. **** THINK AS THE PG FFS!!!!!!!

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Doug didn't have a hand up on their last 3 made. BAD. bad bad...

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So to recap: Drew gets fouled, hit in the head, takes exception to it, gets touched in the face by the guy who hit him in the head, shoves AD, gets a tech for the shove, but nothing more than FTs for getting fouled. Refs didn't look at it. Home cookin'. Expected, but hopefully this wakes up more fire in us of the focused kind because we're sort of in that middle ground where it could go either way, unravel or get tighter as a group and respond strong.

[imagump1313]

I don't see how LeBron James is allowed to just walk on the floor and get involved with whats happening on the court like that. He's been doing it the last 3-4 games. That should be a tech.

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Oof D to O transition but against us.

7-0 run for them on a foul, a bad pass, and them hitting 3s like they're layups. Of course it has to be that they get hot from the arc against us. Of course...

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3RD Q: SPURS 79

LAKERS 90

Low scoring game, we're getting points from Thad inside and on drives, but not moving nearly well enough to get their D out of position. We're getting lulled into their style of play more than imposing our own.

I do like that we're making a stronger effort to get the ball out of AD's hands and we've forced some shot clock violations with good D. Nice man D by Thad on the perimeter. Much closer, and stood his ground to not get driven on or pushed off.

But those 3s we've given up oof.

Finally some teammates remembered that Doug is on the team...

Maybe we can make a final push here and impose our game more...

[G R E Y]

I LOVE YOU, DEVIN VASSELL!

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4TH Q: SPURS 106

LAKERS 114

It was JUST 105-103 on another Devin dagger 3 and then... well they went on a strong 9-3 run and that's game. But along the way, we made some runs of our own, especially after looking lacklustre and a bit lost for a couple of stretches and as I mentioned before, it could have gone either way - fold or fight. Well we fought and we fought well. I liked our response and that we kept finding ways to push back despite an obvious front court disadvantage.

This is where I can't help but still feel some residual anger at Jakob for being away these last few games as this one and at least two more were so winnable had his D presence been there.

Again, we HAVE to take all the necessary precautions this entire season. We're a new team with half of it with new players and we're still getting acclimated to one another and each player's tendencies so we can't afford for anyone to be less than fully diligent in staying safe. If it had to happen, I guess better now and get the lesson reinforced now, but there's no doubt it has hurt us to have Jakob in particular out.

I liked that our fight and will actually got stronger as they game progressed and part of that is the belief in ourselves in coming through. I don't like moral victories, but this can be considered a better loss than that of the previous game. We adjusted in the second half to put more pressure on AD and forced shot clock violations but their secondary options came through for them.

Our front court tandem of Drew and Thad did what they could and succeeded to varying degrees. Drew got knocked around quite a bit and didn't get a chance to contribute on O but he did grab 5 boards (4 on O) and dished out five assists. Thad was a terrific 8-14, 1-3FTs for 17 points along with 9 boards (4 on O), 2 assists, and a steal. You can instill effort but can't teach height and we were outmanned and outmatched in this regard but tried to close the gap elsewhere.

We actually shot better from 3 than they did - took and made more 3s, and we picked up our pace in the second half: 47 of our 90FGAs were in the last two Qs to their 38FGAs of 83 overall. Our bench outscored theirs 40-34 but we had five players in double figures to their six. Their secondary players stepped up while ours still run hot and cold. I was surprised to learn that coming into this game, our bench scores most points in the league. That's a huge positive going forward, and a bit more on that later.

Part of it is weirdly inconsistent or poor shooting streaks: you never know which Lonnie will show up, and this is year 3 with him needing to be a scoring spark plug off the bench; Bryn was 0-1 but only played five minutes. Still, during that time we went from a 24-22 lead to a double digit deficit. It's not all on him, of course, but if he's not scoring, well... the under-sized shooter is not out there for his D... We got exploited on P&Rs and lobs and putbacks and couldn't find ways to get our O going in that stretch. Derrick, in the midst of the worst shooting slump of his career took 7 3s, making two, and scoring 10 points on a decent 4-10. So he was 2-3 elsewhere... just not the 3. So that's THREE shooters from 3 that were not effective. To his credit, Lonnie did get two assists, two blocks and a steal, but both numbers in the 1-5FGAs have to get better.

Part of it is the reads we're making, or not making, in getting the ball to the guys who can score. Now Keldon flat out had it going, leading us in scoring with 24 on 9-18, 6-9 from 3!, along with 6 boards and 2 assists. So the stat line looks great, but his decision making still does not. Credit for the things he did well, but the misses were of the driving into a congested key variety - AGAIN, attempting a weirdly off-balanced shot and missing - AGAIN, while his open team mates on the weak side were left watching - AGAIN. He did make a nice pass to Devin to the left corner for a 3, and he does pass out at times when he picks up his dribble or is too contested, but his willingly making the extra pass because he recognizes the play developing of someone else being in a better position seldom happens. It's just not a feature of his game and the tunnel vision is frankly disappointing. The ball shouldn't stick with anyone this season, and the good work others are doing off ball to get free is not being realized because, in part, of Keldon's tunnel vision.

DJ had a triple double, and that's a great stat line, but I've long believed that if he's our best player or our #1 O option we're not going to be as good a team as we can be. He was hunting for his own shot, taking the most on the team, and although he was 9-20, 2-5 from 3 with 10 boards (1 on O) and 10 assists, he didn't have a good balance of finding others versus hunting for his own shot. Too many one and done attempts too early in the clock with no other team mate touching the ball. And once again Doug - THE GUY WE SIGNED TO SNIPE 3S - also had five attempts from 3, making two.

So our backcourt tandem combined for 12 attempted 3s, and each them took at least as many if not more 3s as the GUY WE SIGNED TO TAKE THEM, the guys who is among the BEST 3-point shooters in the LEAGUE. Too often our PGs and other players are not finding Doug nearly well enough. There's something to what Pop said that guys are still getting used to playing with one another so it's understandable that DJ and Keldon have some chemistry and it clicked well between them tonight. But besides that, you could tell that DJ was points hunting, looking to get his own (which is fine in the right context) despite the nice stats he flat out had tunnel vision too often. There's something about DJ playing against certain teams - and the Lakers are always one of them - when he deviates from team first ie/ taking shots at the expense of open team mates it's like two conflicting schemes or agendas, DJ with his own, the team running around him with another. Without having looked it up yet, I'm willing to bet we have a losing record when DJ gets a triple double. He's doing too much and the distribution should be better.

What I did like is when DJ got bested or missed FTs he came back right away and made great plays - steals and passes for points in transition or steals and drives for dunks in transition. This was just one of those 'I'm the man' games that doesn't really bring out the best in everyone around him.

And you can tell because Doug - super nice guy, but maybe he needs to call for the ball more - is often getting fewer chances from the arc than players who are nowhere near as efficient. Doug is averaging 47.9% from 3 for us so far this season - ALMOST FORTY-EIGHT PERCENT FROM 3!!! Shouldn't we try to create more than 4.8 attempts from 3 per game? His previous career high was 4.3 attempts last season, but he started in 29 games last season, so it was largely as a bench player.

Perhaps he's adjusting to being a starter even though his 24.9MPG is very close to an average he's played in many seasons in the league. But he's ranking third on our team in 3s attempts behind Lonnie (5.4) and Devin (5.1). But Doug ranks first in 3s efficiency and Lonnie ranks fifth (32.9%) and Devin (40.9%) ranks third. Bryn ranks second at 44.1% but only takes 2.6 threes per game. DJ is fifth in attempts (4) and sixth in efficiency (32.7%) and Derrick is fourth in attempts (4.7) but seventh in efficiency (31.1%). Keldon has had a couple of great 3s shooting games after a woeful start (so there's hope for Derrick!) and now ranks sixth in attempts (2.9) and fourth in efficiency (34.2%).

And that's it. Half of our team takes anywhere from around three to just over five 3s per game, and the other half of the team just doesn't take anywhere near enough of them to rate anywhere on the scale. We're actually SIXTH in 3s efficiency in the league at 36.5%! Alas, we're second last in attempts per game at 29.7 per game.

Well we have half the team taking 3s, so there's that. One step over time is to get more out of the players we will have soon and players we do have. When Zach returns we'll get more from the front court stretching the floor (he's increased his 3s efficiency in each season, career best 36.8% but on 1.7 attempts per game). We know Jock can spread the floor and make 3s but he has to be on it (his final season in Australia he shot 38.9% on 3.6 attempts per game). Hopefully Tre gets more comfortable to take more from the arc; he averaged 36.1% from 3 in his final year in college.

Until then, another step is shifting the imbalance between the current 3s takers. Doug should definitely be getting more attempts considering he's making almost half them! DJ and Derrick, heck the whole team!, should make a concerted effort to get him the ball. That doesn't mean each of them takes fewer than their current averages, but it should mean that there aren't these games where he averages his bench attempts or our bench players average more attempts, particularly Lonnie.

I want so much for him to get consistent and do well but I do wonder if he can find another gear - or if it's with us or what. He's had plenty of chances to step up and raise the floor and while his effort is better, his efficiency and hence our ability to rely on him, is not. I feel like I've been writing a version of that thought for three years now....

So, Lonnie who is near the bottom of 3s efficiency from among those who take them should cut back on it and drive more to maximize hi athleticism. Lonnie takes about 55%/45% of 3s/2s but once again this season the bizarre stat that the closer he is to the basket the lower he ranks in finishing there on the team is inexplicable. The farther away from the basket the higher he ranks in efficiency on the team, and that drops again when it comes to 3s.

Bryn is averaging near career lows in 3s attempts but his efficiency is at a career high so far. He was averaging 4.8 attempts last season from the bench. So we can probably exploit that better.

Basically if we can get Doug, Devin, Keldon and Bryn more chances - or at least feed the hot hand in any given game, something we tend to go away from, then we can better distribute the shots we take while creating chances at better efficiency.

Of course, it helps that if an opponent's bench player is getting hot that we contest better, too.

Devin is flourishing. There's a growing SM sentiment to have him start and Derrick go back to the bench for a while. Perhaps Devin is flourishing because he has a bench role and someone previously mentioned a balance in scoring we now have. Good point.

What sets him apart form Lonnie and even Keldon is his BBIQ. And if things don't improve much with Derrick and Devin keeps growing, well, he'll force Pop's hand at some point. I love that he backed up his frustration with another solid game.

If every young player on our team had his BBIQ our errors would be minimized and we'd have likely won some more games. As it stands, our progress is there, just improving at the rate of the weakest link on a given game or series of games. We need to know we can rely on guys to finish at the end of games, at the rim, at the arc, at rotations. The D has on the whole been a lot better even with new guys and even with guys out of the line-up. So it's great that we're hustling better, that we're fighting, that we're hungry. The battle is mental fortitude to stay the course, to limit the mistakes, to play more of our movement and transition game. With Jakob back for the next game, some better recognition to maximize our players' strengths, and making our FTs we can get more Ws.

This is a crazy stat. Look how close we are:

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Keep up the D pressure, make the most of what each of our players does best.

[imagump1313]

This is another example of how important Poeltl is to what we are doing.
We look like a completely different team when he is not there or playing passively.

I'm not too worried about White right now. He has the entire season to figure things out. I consider this whole season an extended training camp for next year. His really soft handles and total lack of concern for turning the ball over is annoying though.

Murray is taking steps and becoming reliable more and more.

Its good to see Johnson taking more threes. He was starting to disappear in games more and more this year now that the league knows him better and the balance will help him.

I'm not sure what more you are expecting of McDermott. This is exactly what he always has been in the league. Getting him more shots is always going to be difficult because he cant create his own shot. Ball movement and spacing will be the only way and with Poeltl out that will be even harder to achieve.

Forbes playing only 5 minutes is a small victory for us. The only problem I have with it is that he should never have more minutes than Jones this year.

Vassell is making the kind of improvements that we are all looking for. I was worried when the young guys went to Austin that his game might regress a little because he was a big leader for them but he is still playing aggressively well.

Thad Young is doing Thad Young things and he can really help us. I'm not sure if we finally decided to involve him or if we are just showcasing him for trade but he is a pro and chips in everywhere.

Eubanks is another one of those scrapper guys that you can use for 5-10 minutes a night but if we need more than that he will stick out like a sore thumb.