Well, right, we held true to pattern of lead, giving up lead, getting it back and keeping it. I do like the resilience we're showing throughout it. Home teams will make runs, and on a night when the crowd was electric after the home team came from behind to pull ahead, we stayed poised, made clutch plays on both ends, and sealed an important win.
Lost in the media hoopla but not to Spurs fans was LMA's stellar performance, leading us with a huge game: team-high 32 points (12-20, 1-4 from 3), team-high 7-8FTs, team-high 14 rebounds, team-high 6 O boards, tied with Jakob for team-high 2 blocks, and 2 assists. He got three quick fouls in the final Q, one of which was a smart hard one that did not allow a basket and made them score at the FT line where they hit 2-6. He got big rebound after big rebound (including an O board tip-in to keep us ahead with just under three minutes left), made big shot after big shot (including a clutch J with just over a minute left), and big FT after big FT (including our final two with under a minute left to make it a two-possession game). Huge credit to Pop for keeping him in the game with five fouls, and to LMA for contributing all of these plays in the final four minutes with them.
DeMar had a more quiet but still efficient game (20 on 8-16, 4-4FTs), with once again timely drives to get us to the FT line and stem their runs and keep us ahead.
It was good to see DJ get into double digit shot attempts. His efficiency is better this season, and he has been terrific defensively, so expanding his O contribution around the cog of our two main guys is fleshing his game out all the more at just the right time for solid all around two-way play: 13 on 5-11, 1-2 from 3, 2-3FTs, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and a strong on-ball and deflection presence throughout the game.
Bryn was steady once again, with a solid 4-8, 2-5 from 3, so not all of his shots were from beyond the arc, and he took advantage of his outside shooting threat to break down their D and step in and hit Js and make drives (a nice spin move and off glass finish). He could get his hands up on shooters more, but overall he played his role, didn't over-complicate it, stepped up to make his shots.
Trey. Well, every point counts especially in a close game, so his 5 on 2-3 (1-2FTs) helped, as did the 3 rebounds. When every other starter got double digit attempts (Bryn came close with 8) there's only so much to go around.
Derrick has been all around terrific as he's been increasingly assertive on O looking for his shot while maintaining an impressive defensive presence. He has a knack for making the right play after reading what is about to develop, like staying vertical to contest on help D on one of their missed drives, getting deflections, and bravely stepping up to take yet another charge, this time from the big deal rookie. He led the bench with 12 on 4-9, 1-3 from 3, 2-3FTs, 4 boards, and team-high 7 assists. While deftly getting others involved, he kept looking for his shot, 3s yes, but he was really good at finding driving lanes, and using that quick little stutter step to fake out defenders and blow by them. Very Spursy all around game.
He and DJ were once again together to finish the game and they came through combining for 8 points, 3 assists, and 8 rebounds (1 on O), this last stat standing out since they each had one rebound after the first three Qs. I love this tandem finishing games for us, two young smart defensive hounds who are getting crucial minutes together in pressure situations and stepping up on both ends.
Ever steady Jakob with good touch around the rim - a dunk! - and a nice J slightly farther out than I'd expect, plus 2-2FTs gave us 6 points and 5 boards, but also was second on the bench unit with 3 assists. Patty had an off scoring night (8 on 3-9, 2-8 from 3), but his movement and energy keeps defenses focused and they can't cheat on him because he is a distance shot and driving threat. I loved how he got up defensively on ball handlers on the perimeter and pressured them to either back up or gave us enough time to adjust on help D when they drove. Lonnie looks like he's focusing on running our sets and making sure he move to the right spots without the ball. He hasn't exploded like in that Houston game, but I do like that he's looking to show other aspects of fitting into our system, and that he tried to dunk on that 1st Q drive rather than finish with flair. He chipped in with 6 on 2-4, 1-1 from 3, 1-3FTs.
Beli along with Bryn are exemplifying Pop's adopted pound the rock mantra. Beli once again came through with another clutch 4th Q 3, this time to put us ahead again after they stormed back on a big run to take a one-point lead. Beli scored 5 of his 8 points (3-4, 2-2 from 3, 1 board) in the final Q, and once he gave us our lead again, it spurred the momentum back in our favour. Including his shot, we outscored them 15-10 in the final six minutes.
We started slower than I thought or hoped we would, sort of probing our way through to see what we could get. It may have been a function of this being the first time we played this team and also taking a steady approach to a highly hyped game. But we still paced ourselves to a 31-point 1st Q and a seven-point lead. We found ways to break the game open with ball movement and hitting a variety of shots. Shot charts for each of the Qs show them to have taken shots predominantly in the paint and beyond the arc. Ours on the other hand were a really nice balance of paint, non-paint, and 3 attempts and makes at better efficiency throughout.
We had a scoring advantage from the 3 until their big run in the 4th Q, and to that end, closeouts at the arc still need to be better (rather than playing the percentages of who's taking them) in terms of both contesting and doing so from the side so as to not give up FTs. Both teams had 46 points in the paint, though we fouled too much (even accounting for those we disagreed about). Trey and Jakob were on the floor together jostling for rebounds on a couple of their putbacks, and though it's often a matter of reacting to the moment, some box-out awareness could have been better in these as well as positional presence on their missed 3s (long shot, long board). We had three fewer turnovers but gave up six more points on ours, so some transition D to clean up, and they also had a 15-4 fast-break advantage. But we did win the rebound battle 44-41 (9-8 on O), and that along with 7-6 in steals and 4-3 in blocks helped to both limit their scoring chances and generate more of our own. He not only put up five more shots, we made six more overall.
The main difference was staying poised and resilient and executing in pressure situations of the last half of the 4th Q. A lot of guys stepped up to make big plays on both ends in front of a raucous crowd. It was the first time we won two road games in a row, after winning both games of a back-to-back. We are trending the right way, and if we can get better at limiting opponent runs and prevent scoring droughts of our own, we'll do well to keep trending the right way. Solid performance and team win, thanks in no small part to our own big main guy, LMA.
NOTEWORTHY ACHIEVEMENTS
Was super cool seeing Tim though, no matter how many athletes come through, it's still surreal to me.
