SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 54: SPURS VS. HEAT, 3-2-2022, 6PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand Lonnie loses the ball on his dribble on the very next play. You can't make this up.

Like it's CLOCKWORK. It's his most reliable play. How? HOW?!

[imagump1313]

I wish Primo would play with 1 ounce of the urgency Herro plays with.

[G R E Y]

On a positive note Junacho has another O board putback 2.

He's done that in another game for us as well. He gets into the right positions and gets physical. Simple, smart basketball.

[G R E Y]

We miss two FTs, get outhustled for an O board by them, they drive and dish for a dunk.

Our hustle is waning...

[G R E Y]

SIDE NOTE: Looks like Pop gets sanitizing gel periodically throughout the game. Good to see.

[imagump1313]

Walker is almost as predictable as that Green car

[G R E Y]

YEAH CACOK TIME!

[imagump1313]

YEAH CACOK TIME!

This would make an incredible t-shirt

[imagump1313]

Why is Adabayo still in the game?

[G R E Y]

YEAH CACOK TIME!

This would make an incredible t-shirt

I'm **** crying!

[G R E Y]

3RD Q: SPURS 66

HEAT 88

Somehow I missed the 3RD Q. Needless to say we went back to our pattern of middle two Qs being our worst on both ends.

It hurts missing three starters, but it doesn't excuse hustle and fundamentals. So like when I said earlier about Keldon over committing in the key leaving his man wide open at the arc - this of a great 3s shooting team - it's cardinal sin.

We've been overcommitting team wide too much in too many games of late, and they made us pay from the arc and also at the FT line. Once theirs 3s kept falling it opened up the lane and we were forced to foul more.

I do like that we didn't give up a lot of easy ones, but they started to catch up here.

Just too much fire power to overcome at this point, so the hustle and the execution to earn more playing has to be there.

[somerandomdude]

GGs, much respect for the organization and fans, see you guys in the rematch on the 26th

[mzfk69]

Why is Adabayo still in the game?

I missed the game. Did Sean praise Primo today too?

[G R E Y]

4TH Q: SPURS 95

HEAT 112

Well we won the 4TH Q 29-24...

Derrick needed WAY more help than he got throughout the game even though he didn't even play in the 4TH Q.

He played 21 minutes in 3 Qs and still led the team with 22 points, and that's after getting shut down in the 3RD Q because he had 19 points for us at the half! So in the 6 minutes of 3rd Q play be scored only 3 points, going 1-2 from 3. SIX TOs in such a short amount of time stands out as rather poor, even if he got pressured more as the game progressed. Some poor dribbles, passes in mid air, and picking up ball early stood out. He's not normally the primary ball handler, true, but whether a 1 or 2, his ball handling HAS to get better. He does do better overall as a primary 1, though, so that's something to keep an eye on going forward with us having so many guards.

Tre woke up a bit scoring 16 points on 5-10, 0-1 from 3 (a step back off his own dribble), 6-8FTs, 1 board, 3 assists, 2 steals. Some missed bunnies on more contested and pressured shots but no TOs. It's good experience for him and I hope with more reps once the game slows down for him he learns to take higher shots and better angles at the rim.

Aaaaand the third highest scorer for us was... Devontae Cacok with EIGHT POINTS in nine minutes of solid, physical play, making 2-2, and second only to Tre in getting to the FT line, connecting on 4-7. He also grabbed 6 boards (second best on the team - again in 9 minutes!), and a team high 2 blocks. He's a tough, physical player who uses his body well and has a good touch around the rim. He is difficult to move in the key and he uses his imposing stature well to prevent players getting by him. I hope that we give him a stronger look in more games. I think his familiarity with Primo and Joe also helped them run our sets.

Put another way, we had two players in double figures. And for a team that leads the league in both points in the paint and bench points, without Jakob we were down 54-36 and without DJ and Doug as well, we had three bench players starting, and so the other players filling out the bench were down 50-36.

Our shooting was poor at every position. Without Jakob and Jock our bigs, Thad (7) and Drew (7 on 2-3, 3-6FTs), were outscored by their starting C 18-14. Thad was efficient, 3-4, 1-2FTs, but we didn't make him any sort of focal point of the O and paid for it. He did show his game well, however, leading us with 8 boards, including team-high 5 on O, dished 3 assists, and got 2 steals. The 3 TOs were signs of both going up against tough bigs and not having played regular minutes in a long time. Drew contributed 5 boards (2 on O), 1 assist, and 1 block. We were also on the wrong end 12-8 of made 3s. We haven't made so few 3s, in single digits, in a while now.

Look when you're missing three starters it disrupts not only roles but also team chemistry. So the other way to view it is 'learning experience'. But shot making at this level frankly is what it is and a player will either make or miss open shots from the arc, mid range or layups. And we collectively missed a boat load of them making only 37.5%FG and even worse 24.2% from 3. And while we got to the FT line a lot, we only made 71.1% of these. I don't like the lack of concentration in giving away points here, and hope we refocus our attention in making it more of a priority and a matter of pride in making these. We missed NINE of them. We must do better.

We kept the first Q competitive, but our old pattern of getting badly outplayed on both ends in the middle two Qs reared its head. We gave up two 30+ point Qs, and committed a poor 17 TOs throughout the game which cost us 23 points (we got 13 off of theirs).

We did get to the FT line 38 times so that's an improvement, and we did rebound better edging them 43-42, and impressively 12-7 on O boards. We also finally won the 4TH Q 29-24 where we also scored the most points of all the Qs.

But we once again got caught overcommitting too many players into the key on their drives and leaving and experienced team to find the open man for 3s too easily. This is something we simply HAVE to correct as it's been a bad pattern that has been costing us a lot of points. All it takes is one player to overcommit and others have to then cover two players, decide which one to go to and the ball chase ensues. It's gotten messier and we need players to think their way through these situations rather than drop down out of habit. We did do better at contesting when we did rotate over properly; there were fewer hands at sides watching opponents take shots.

So once again Keldon (3-12, 1-8 from 3), Devin (2-9, 1-6), and Lonnie (2-10, 1-3) shot the ball poorly. It's unusual for Keldon, but it happens. Nobody will shoot well all games. But Devin and Lonnie have struggled scoring in a big enough string of games that it stands out. Perhaps Devin is still upset about not being selected to the rookie vs. sophomore game. He should have as his improvement from last season to this one ranks sixth among his peers. And I don't buy that it's all about our record either. It unfortunate that those selecting don't bother to do their jobs diligently. And perhaps I'm too hard on Lonnie who has played noticeably better D both man and help, who has watched Devin surpass him in minutes, games started, and now PPG on better efficiency, and who can't seem to help but make weirdo mistakes for TOs and bad shot reads at times. To his credit he stood out in making right passes and extra passes so the ball definitely didn't stick with him as much. That he finished with a team-high 3 steals along with 2 boards and an assist shows his D effort, and his 3 TOs his struggles with getting out of his own way in making unforced errors. He's trying. You can see it and I applaud him for keeping on keeping on.

Our two bench players who put up double digit shots, Lonnie and Primo (1-13, 0-6 from 3), couldn't hit the ocean from the side of the boat. Pop said post-game that he'd have been upset with Primo had he stopped taking shots as they were good ones to take and for the most part I agree - the shots were within the flow of the game and our sets. He just couldn't find the range tonight. He did grab 5 boards (bench high 3 on O) and 2 assists, so he didn't stop playing but you could see the misses getting to him. It's now a matter of him learning to put games like this behind him and keep up his confidence from the work that he puts in.

The rest of the bench players actually connected very well but nobody else took more than four shots. It was good to see Juancho with some spirited play. His lone make was a O board putback on good position, awareness, and touch. He's a smart player who throws his body into plays and knows where to be and go. We ran a play for him to get a hand off pass and make a curl drive which must have felt good for him. He didn't score but got fouled and ended up with 3-4FTs along with 6 boards (1 on ), 2 assists, and a block. Joe did his job - 7 points on 2-4, 1-1 from 3 and looked more comfortable about where to be and what to do in our sets. He also did a decent job staying with drivers and keeping them in front of him even as experienced scorers still made fadeaway Js on him.

Pop was mindful of this being the first of a back-to-back and so Tre was the only player with over 30 minutes, hopefully a sign that DJ will return for tomorrow's game. No one else played more than 27 minutes as Pop opened the bench and all 11 players got minutes. Everyone also scored, one of the positives of our otherwise flat scoring night.

We look forward to getting back reinforcements, look forward to resetting our rotations and chemistry, and look forward to getting some juice back into the line-up. And for some better play and better results from them all.

[imagump1313]

Why is Adabayo still in the game?

I missed the game. Did Sean praise Primo today too?

He was better today. Maybe he heard me?
Primo played like ass though so it was hard to keep his Primo glasses on....