SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 42: SPURS VS. ROCKETS, 12-1-2022, 7:30PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

4TH Q: SPURS 124

ROCKETS 128

**** fuming. Absolutely pathetic by most not named DJ who put the team on his back and it was too heavy for him to drag them across the finish line for a **** win against a **** deeply struggling team whose record we played to.

DJ a career high 32 points made some incredible plays late to give us chance after chance. DJ also had a terrific triple double yet we disappointed him.

Leading up to it, Lonnie took a stupid foul at the end of the 3RD Q and **** cursed us by giving up the **** lead. We did not have a foul to give, he didn't have to foul, yet he did and put them to the FT line. We have yet to win a game when we are trailing after three Qs.

Lonnie also took a heap of 3s way too early in the clock, and he made only 1-5, making only 3-11 overall. 4-4Fts was solid but just a lot of dumb plays in between. Just SUCH a Jekyll/Hyde player in terms of great plays followed by absolutely stupid ones. Like, dumb BBIQ.

Bryn scored 19 points in the first half and finished the game with 21 points. Our inability to recognize the hot hand killed us. Another stupid move by us. There's being egalitarian and distributing the scoring, and then there's ensuring the hot hand gets cold by not going to him. Like barely. True he was covered better, but Jesus, run something for the guy.

Jakob was too small and took to long to get going. I don't like the pasty lackadaisical takes too long to cook version of him. Jock couldn't find a shot. Our bigs were not athletic enough and didn't make enough shots, combining for 13 points, all of which Jakob scored. Jakob was 5-7FTs so that's terrific. Jock was 0-5, all from 3, and had 3 TOs.

When we ran cuts and reversed the ball we scored well. You'd think after all the times we got **** blocked we'd go back to those plays but no.

Primo was somehow a +6 and this is one of those games where the stat didn't pass the eye test. He is not there yet. He too took some ill advised too early in the clock hero 3s and missed. He TOd it a couple of times as well with some bad passes.

Keldon drove well and hit 3s well off the bench - interesting to see how long this stays the case - but I think he's lost something in terms of finishing at the rim. He drives and yells and gets blocked more often now. DJ, on the other hand, has developed that pretty high off the glass touch, so it's something for Keldon to learn. Still, he was 7-13 and 2-4 from 3, 2-2FTs, so perhaps this role to acclimate his return is optimal for us.

Devin struggled scoring in his first game back making only 3-10, 1-6 from 3, but made 5-6FTs. Solid defensively and in rebounding.

We absolutely got obliterated by backup PG problems. Primo couldn't initiate a play even if all he had to do was press a play button, Keldon couldn't run a play either. We didn't give Devin a shot at it, but outside of DJ OOF did we ever stink it up in terms of not being able to run a play. This is where Derrick missing really stands out. At least the guy can both run a basic P&R or create his own shot. So this is also in part where we lost the game, that stretch were we had a nine-point lead a couple of times and couldn't **** score.

We also lost the game by our inability to get second chance points off our O rebounds.

We also lost the game by fouling them time and again on their drives, and by not getting hands up to contest their 3s.

We actually made more 3s than they did, 17 (on 46 attempts by us!!! ugly ugly basketball) -16, but we lost the FTs 22-32 to our 21-27, we lost rebounds 48-43, even though we won 9-4 on O, we lost the points in the paint battle 54-46. They put up SEVENTEEN FEWER SHOTS than we did and still made two made FGs.

Like, our **** give a **** quotient to start the game and the 4TH Q was so poor and disappointing that I want to send Primo back down to the G-League to curb his mano-a-mano instincts and hone his play making instincts, I want to force feed us film over and over again of the same stupid mistakes we made of not running back, of making one handed passes, of fouling them by reaching in, of not fouling the right guy, of not getting crucial rebounds, especially of not boxing out the FT shooter, who we fouled again late in the game. Brilliant. And before that, we allowed him to get the pass and fouled him instead of the passed. Ditto.

We really lost this game under the rib cage and between the ears. Just a terrible performance, outrun by a team that has but tow weapons - athleticism and pace, and we were outsmarted when we got comfortable with our lead. It's like something clicks in our heads like oh **** we're down we better get hustling and we scramble but it's too **** few and far in between the Sunday stroll and deer in headlights we played out instead.

Yes yes learning experience and all that, but this game had too many stretch where we took steps back even as Diop looked better while scoring 11 on 4-7, 3-4 from 3.

I liked Pop's rotations and timeouts and challenge, I liked the moments when we recognized what we needed to do to score and defend cleanly, but between those pillars there was a whole lot of dumb plays and it cost us.

We gave us the second most points in the final Q, and just like in the 1ST Q, we lost it by 3 points playing catch up late. We lost three of four Qs to a team that doesn't defend well but maximized it's strengths because we didn't defend well either. We lost because we didn't think our way through the game, we didn't hustle enough, we didn't stay true to fundamentals enough of running back on D, of not fouling in the key, of not settling for dumb shot selection early, just uuugh!

It's not that we lost to a team that has a poor record, it's that we came back on our type of play and got lax and we lost on self-inflicted wounds compounded by their having nothing to lose and taking gutsy shots and making them, with us, of course, not contesting well enough.

We've regressed and whether it's because of Covid guys being out or not respecting our opponent or the game, we better get our **** asses in gear and turn this **** soft play around into something prideful and cohesive.

Once again, great games by DJ, Diop, Bryn, and to lesser extents Keldon and Devin. The rest of you, feel the burning shame that you should and **** do better.

[G R E Y]

Pop and DJ deserve better.

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We feel you, Pop, we feel you...