GAME DAY, BALA! GAME 7: SPURS AT HAWKS, 5-11-2019, 6:30PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

On the road again versus a suddenly Collins-less opponent can't have us complacent. We've done well so far this season in finding ways to win what used to be trap games. We must take nothing for granted, start strong, and impose our game on both ends with consistent tenacity.

WHERE: State Farm Arena, Atlanta, GA

WHEN: Tuesday, November 5, 2019, 6:30pm (CT)

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GO SPURS GO!!!

[ducler]

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[ThunderBolt]

Is Lonnie walker ever going to get more minutes?

[G R E Y]

Good news!

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[G R E Y]

Is Lonnie walker ever going to get more minutes?

Yes...? He does have to earn them, though. With Derrick back but maybe sore, hopefully Lonnie gets to show his game. But hustling on both ends is a must, or else...

[ThunderBolt]

Is Lonnie walker ever going to get more minutes?

Yes...? He does have to earn them, though. With Derrick back but maybe sore, hopefully Lonnie gets to show his game. But hustling on both ends is a must, or else...

Has he been lazy? I loved his athleticism in college and thought he seemed like a guy that popovich could take to an elite level.

[G R E Y]

Is Lonnie walker ever going to get more minutes?

Yes...? He does have to earn them, though. With Derrick back but maybe sore, hopefully Lonnie gets to show his game. But hustling on both ends is a must, or else...

Has he been lazy? I loved his athleticism in college and thought he seemed like a guy that popovich could take to an elite level.

Not lazy, but he does tend to disappear, and that's maybe a focus issue. Agree about Pop taking him to the next level, and I think pushing him this way is part of instilling what it takes to get there.

[G R E Y]

Trey active in running the floor, hitting a 3, getting to the FT line. Good job so far.

[imagump1313]

Damn, I just saw the Collins news

I would rather play teams at full strength so people dont get a false sense of how good we are.

Atlanta is defending pretty well soo far.

[G R E Y]

Beli's snakebitten, man. He needs some sort of cleansing the bad juju out.

We're not actually scoring particularly we this season, but I do like we're being more assertive and physical, and using D to O transition consistently tonight.

[imagump1313]

Yeah. Marco just doesn't seem to have his legs. Not sure if its an injury or just Father Time. Or maybe the FIBA thing was too much. I wish Walker could take some of his minutes and save Belinelli for later in the year.

[G R E Y]

Derrick is SO smart! His instincts on both ends are noticeably better, with great timing of what to do when. Such an impactful player. More confident now, too.

[imagump1313]

Belinelli starts lighting it up as soon as we mention him lol

[imagump1313]

Our defense is really lame and shot selection is dumb. We got a lot to work on.
You could blame it on our vets not keeping up with their youth but Vince Carter is having his way.

Walker wasted another chance by doing nothing but turning the ball over and playing timid.

[G R E Y]

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[G R E Y]

Looks like twitter is knee-jerking itself into a tizzy after this one. Last season, we found a way with eight new players and four new starters; we'll find our way through again.

I'd have loved it if we kept our lead, but it depended on their poor shooting continuing. Whereas ours improved slightly, theirs took off in the fourth Q, and they pulled away despite us putting up more shots in all three categories.

We had some miscommunications on D and didn't defend the P&R well, and these mental and led-foot errors had us a step behind defending and saw our lead vanish. They also make contested shots when we did everything right defensively. Along the way, they torched us inside 50-34 with dunks and layups throughout the game. On the other end, we were scoreless (excluding FTs) for four minutes mid-way through the final Q. Big drought; bad time.

Derrick was terrific defensively, stepping in to take charges again. It's good to see him making O decisions quickly and taking his shots even if accuracy was off tonight. Birthday Trey led the team with 12 rebounds, and he shot it confidently. Trey, DeMar (who on the defensive end watched some 3s go up he was supposed to be contesting, unacceptable) and FIBA Patty were the only ones scoring well. Rudy gets tunnel vision, and has to look for better options besides himself with the ball. Bryn kept at it and found ways to score. Not enough from the other guys.

Beli's becoming a lightning rod for criticism, and his five consecutive points book-ended by misses didn't mitigate it. He did get fewer minutes tonight than in previous games, but Lonnie looked out of place in the two minutes he got from Beli. It's a tough catch-22 of needing to prove yourself but knowing that a yank is at your heels. His turnovers (that inbounds that they stole was egregious; I love that Patty was supportive explaining things after that) and bad shots were a cluster of tight decisions. He has to fight through it. People say he has proven himself because he played well in G-League and Summer League. Sure, that's why he's with the big club now. He's starting from the same prove yourself level.

To that end, I think with Beli I'm at a point now that he has to earn his minutes back. He's a defensive liability, and we can't afford to have him out there when the thing he's good at he's currently bad at far more consistently.

LMA had a slow start last season, too, so I'm hopeful that he'll figure it out, and that it'll start on the upcoming home stand. We were pressured on the ball a lot, and didn't respond with crisp decisions and ball swings. Our shot selection suffered under pressure and we put it up either too soon or too late in the clock too often rather than developing good-to-great chances with move ball and off ball movement.

Dejounte had an off O night. I forget that this is his first full season as a starter. His shot is inconsistent, but he's aggressive and looking for ways to score besides the J. When he directs a play, guys respond to him which is good to see. It's a learning process and we'll have to be patient when he has games like this.

They mentioned after the game that this is our fourth game in six nights and we've traveled something like 3000 miles across time zones. Teams go through it, so it's not an excuse, but you can see why they looked flat footed and slower to react at times.

When we keep our game simple, we give ourselves a good chance. I hope we get away from this driving to withing two feet of the basket only to kick out two feet above the arc. I mean, just take your chances with the drive at that point. When we played with physicality we got many good scoring chances. Lot of our shots were front rim misses, so maybe it was a lead legs issue.

It's tough playing with restrictions that affect the whole team, and I'm looking forward to the new line-up possibilities once Dejounte can play more minutes, and that's coming soon. Until then, let's see how we regroup and respond on the next series of games at home.

[Phreak50]

^you are far too kind.

Aldridge has been terrible. Not just on paper but his body language and effort.

And someone earning 20 million dollars a year does not get to 'start slow'.

And for all his youth and mistakes he will make, Lonnie Walker needs to be getting ALL of Beli's minutes.

You try to be cute and develop him slow and yank him after every mistake and he'll leave and develop elsewhere.

Pop is getting stranger each year as well. I think his whole 'its just a game, life goes on' (whilst correct) is influencing players for the worst. They don't look engaged this year. I've never seen anything like it. Patty and Murray (and somewhat White) are literally the only players showing like they want to be out there.

Pop has barely called timeouts when teams go on runs. Is he bored? Does he think he is teaching the team a lessen? Or just wants to get home to his wine earlier.

I'll call it early, we are missing the playoffs this year unless we make a substantial trade.

[G R E Y]

Nice to see you, Phreak50.

Well, I think given that we're half a game out of fourth, one game out of second, and two games out of first, nowhere near playing our best yet still very much in the thick if it, I'm counting on us figuring it out. We have a full roster, two new starters, and a plethora of line-up options we're still scratching the surface of.

So I offer some counterpoints within the contexts above:

LMA had a slow start last season, something like the first 14 games or so, and then proceeded to have his best, most efficient season. He's put in a lot of work this off season getting in better shape, so his engagement was there early.

Dejounte is on a minutes restriction which is affecting line-ups. We'll have more flexibility after guys have grown more comfortable with one another - win, win. Despite our early struggles, we've so far scored under 100 once this while adjusting to incorporating a faster pace, which is a big positive for us. It's clear we could be in better sync, but it's also early in the season, one with so many positives going into it. We need more time to gel together. I'm confident we'll do it, because we have with far bigger challenges, like the last two years.

The most minutes Beli's had is 17 so far this season, and it's been cut five minutes twice already. In those two times, Lonnie had five minutes and proceeded to tie Beli with a -3 and then bench-worst -6. Last game, it wasn't even so much as playing through mistakes as making egregious ones - inbounds pass for a steal, and then driving for a shot when he should have executed the set play designed for two other Spurs (per Sean commenting about it as it was unfolding), ironically out of a timeout. Two turnovers in two minutes isn't the best case to make for himself. Pop's rotations have been consistent, if frustrating for fans. It's clear that Beli is the worst player on the court when he's not making shots. But to just give these to Lonnie when he's not only making mistakes but not doing what is drawn up, or equally bad, not flat out hustling, is not the way anyone not named Timmy has earned his minutes. He has to earn his minutes. Though I appreciate it's a catch-22, he can't show intermittent effort, he just has to be consistent. Mistakes in that frame will be tolerated more, as they have been for Derrick, and Manu before him.

I read an interview with Steve Kerr who said one of the most important things he learned from Pop was perspective. When a team struggled, he'd ask the guys if they were refugees. That's not coasting, that's making sure guys aren't bogged down with the here and now enough not to rise above it and play better. But there seems to be some contradictory criticism leveled at Pop here - on the one hand he's too hard on Lonnie, on the other his perspective is responsible for guys not looking engaged? Which is it? This still needs repeating, but we have to trust that guys are internalizing they system and are in the process of learning to play with one another while implementing different styles of play as we have done for a long time. What got us here and through tough times is still here and will get us through again. Faster timeouts? Sure. I've seen both letting guys figure it out, or quick timeouts because of cardinal sins of driving down the middle or not talking on defense that led to no help D. But assuming Pop is disinterested because he has perspective contradicts interviews with him and Spurs and Team USA players who say he's rejuvenated by teaching young guys who don't know the system as well.

Let's see how we play in the next home stand to finish the first ten games, and then in the next ten-game block when Dejounte's minutes increase. Many teams are struggling, and in last night's first national game, commentators were talking about how shortened prep time and shorter pre-season has so many teams looking like they're out of sorts so far. We are nowhere near where we can be. Let's give it time.