GAME DAY, BALA! GAME 16: SPURS VS. MAVERICKS, 22-1-2021, 7:30PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

We switch from seven of the last nine games on the road to nine of the next eleven at home. Perhaps our consistency has been affected by a tough schedule and a lot of travel in a short time. But we've gutted it out and can now enjoy a much needed home stretch. Coming together, improving our consistency, and strengthening our chemistry are necessary to strengthen the foundation of better, more solid bubble play. It starts tonight.

WHERE: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX

WHEN: Friday, January 22, 2021, 7:30pm (CT)

Earn The Stripes Mode: Play together, play harder, play better! Moving forward with a Fiesta flavour tonight!





(Above image is from the Twitter account of Reginald Thomas II, Spurs team photographer)

GO SPURS GO!!!

[imagump1313]

Not sure if I would call that last game "gutting it out" LOL.
I think the MO of this team is becoming more clear. If we can hit an extraordinary amount of threes we have a chance, but if we cant we will get rolled. We cannot out-defense anyone so we will have to out score them.

Will be interested to see if Johnson can slow down Luka if that's the matchup.

[G R E Y]

Yeah it was more gutting out the 7 of 9 road trip than that last game lol

But I disagree about our D - we're actually 10th! And it'll be better still when Derrick returns. Games like the last one or the Utah one stand out as 'learning experiences'.

We are more vulnerable versus teams with those mobile bouncy bigs like I've said, but we've also defeated teams with them because we've stuck to our D principles - and yes, made shots.

Let's see how we do tonight against a talented tandem, one of whom is huge. It's a strength vs. strength type of game.

[G R E Y]

Read on Twitter

[imagump1313]

Not sure what to say Grey except that stats lie

Dallas can get to the rim anytime they want with little resistance and we are down double digits until we hit 5 threes in a row, then we miss a couple and we are down again

[Phreak50]

Our D is embarrassing.

I know Murray left with his ankle injury, but even he hasn't defended well one on one this season.

A combo of bad defenders and a disgraceful lack of effort. Makes you sad to be a fan, since this franchise has NEVER been like this.

[Phreak50]

Why does Sean Elliott keep hyping up Murray's defense?

"I was looking forward to seeing him lock down Doncic but as soon as he left, Luka took over.."

Murray hasn't shut anyone down for years.

We're going to lose 2 straight games by 20+ points.

[imagump1313]

Why does Sean Elliott keep hyping up Murray's defense?

"I was looking forward to seeing him lock down Doncic but as soon as he left, Luka took over.."

Murray hasn't shut anyone down for years.

We're going to lose 2 straight games by 20+ points.

I talked about that in another game thread LOL.

Elliot constantly hypes up Murray for some unknown reason, like we cant actually see the game for ourselves. I know he has a job to do but it borderlines on insulting at times.

If Murray guarded Doncic the whole game, Doncic would get 50+ easy. Even Johnson isn't slowing him down much.

[Phreak50]

Yeah I recall that. Great minds

We should just feed Aldridge, get him a career high 10 made threes and start calling teams haha!

[G R E Y]

Read on Twitter

Well we took a scoring punch early and made some adjustments - getting more physical on both ends, putting different guys on their two main ones, and counter punched to get it closer at the half.

I LOVE that we are still competing and are not out there just taking it and being defeated.

And for those who complain about DJ, this is what it's like to not have his D presence in the game, and his improving running of the team.

I have a feeling we can get this if our shots start falling better.

We do need to pick up our pace. They have 50 shots to our 42, 21 attempted 3s to our 16.

We should also keep driving at them hard to get them into foul trouble and get some extra points at the FT line.

Go Spurs Go!!!

[imagump1313]

Also:I dont understand why Pop is going to play Mills like 48 minutes now that Murray is gone.

Give Vassell and Tre Jones Murray's minutes and keep Patty where he is effective. Otherwise he is going to to try to do too much and shoot us out of the game even more.

[imagump1313]

And for those who complain about DJ, this is what it's like to not have his D presence in the game, and his improving running of the team.

Grey, I love you! But HUH? WHAT?

I guess 2 people actually can see completely 2 different things watching a game.

Our offense is positionless. We have 3 guys who can bring the ball up and pass to a wing, then try to use a pick to drive. Then when they can't get to the basket they try to kick it out to the 3 or 4 guys we have standing around wanting to shoot a three. Just about every player we have can initiate this including Aldridge and Poeltl. Murray doesn't run anything differently than anyone else on the team runs. Basically he brings the ball up the court more than others after a made basket. This isn't a Tony Parker PG run offense. Its positionless basketball for the most part. I'm not saying we don't miss Murray a bit but having him not playing doesn't effect what we are doing much at all.
Defensively, he is decent permitter defender but anyone in this league can drive by him to the basket easily.

All that said, I hope his injury isn't bad. Looks like a sprained ankle.

[G R E Y]

And for those who complain about DJ, this is what it's like to not have his D presence in the game, and his improving running of the team.

Grey, I love you! But HUH? WHAT?

I guess 2 people actually can see completely 2 different things watching a game.

Our offense is positionless. We have 3 guys who can bring the ball up and pass to a wing, then try to use a pick to drive. Then when they can't get to the basket they try to kick it out to the 3 or 4 guys we have standing around wanting to shoot a three. Just about every player we have can initiate this including Aldridge and Poeltl. Murray doesn't run anything differently than anyone else on the team runs. Basically he brings the ball up the court more than others after a made basket. This isn't a Tony Parker PG run offense. Its positionless basketball for the most part. I'm not saying we don't miss Murray a bit but having him not playing doesn't effect what we are doing much at all.
Defensively, he is decent permitter defender but anyone in this league can drive by him to the basket easily.

All that said, I hope his injury isn't bad. Looks like a sprained ankle.

Aaaw love you back, gump, even if we don't see the same things!

In fairness I did say his improving running of the team - ie/ relative to him. We do have positionless basketball, but the more he can be a better facilitator, the better it is for us, and he has improved in that regard.Patty played the bulk of his minutes and you could see how DJ's height and length relative to Patty's are advantages as I think twice Patty got stripped with passes just above his head. Also, with DJ guarding it gives us a stronger perimeter presence, and opens Patty to be more off ball and do what he does best - stretch defenders, open lanes, take and make shots.

DJ is averaging career highs in points and assists and assist to turnover ratio. Gone are the days of giveaways, of bad passes. You can see we missed him with DD and Patty getting the bulk of the ball handling duties tonight. Dev's handles aren't there, and as much as I'd like to say Lonnie's have improved, not so in a half court set. KJ's vision of when to drive and when to pass ie/ not really seeing the open man in the wings needs some work, too.

Rudy CAN do it, but he gets tunnel vision and ISOitis, too.

DJ just would have helped on both ends is all I was getting at. He's not the TP traditional PG, but that's not our system. He surely would have aided our D, surely in transition, mid range, and setting guys up who would otherwise have been in their more natural positions.

As for this game, I love our compete level, just came up short at the end there. Lots to improve, lots of positives to take to the next game, too.

[G R E Y]

Well that's a huge positive!

Read on Twitter

[Phreak50]

Vassell - getting a decent look at him here and watching replays lately.

He is not a good defender. He could be but doesn't read plays well and certainly doesn't remain active for the unexpected.

He is also extremely unfit and unprepared for this league.

I don't think I've ever seen a player so out of breath and struggling to catch a breath as much as he does.

Edit: and by far the worst +/- for the entire team today and looking at previous box scores, pretty regularly the worst of the bench squad too.

[Phreak50]

In the end, to look at positives, we fought to stay in this. Led physically and mentally by Keldon.

I now agree with myself on Lonnie at least... He is waiting for LMA and DD to be gone before breaking out and feeling entirely comfortable.

[G R E Y]

We ran out of time

Read on Twitter

Not to be glib, but it was closer than the start of the game would have indicated. Loved our fight, our D improved as the game went on - why can't we rotate and switch like that to start games!

We need to fix some things on D and decision on O, more on these later , but I hope we start putting together stronger starts. Can't keep playing catch up.

Keldon is a beast. I love him!

Can't wait for DJ and Derrick to finally be out there together!

[imagump1313]

Keldon is a beast. I love him!

100% agree, even if he is 2 inches too short Phreak

[imagump1313]

In the end, to look at positives, we fought to stay in this. Led physically and mentally by Keldon.

I now agree with myself on Lonnie at least... He is waiting for LMA and DD to be gone before breaking out and feeling entirely comfortable.

I think Vassell feels this way. He looks lost out there just standing in the corner waiting for DeRozan and Aldridge to take a bad shot. I don't understand why we dont have him moving without the ball like we did in pre-season. Oh Wait! I know why, because he was allowed to do it then. Now he has to stay out of DeRozan and Aldridge's way.....

As far as Walker goes, he needs to play defense once in awhile before he feels entitled to do anything on this team. He is more lazy than DeRozan defensively.

[Phreak50]

Keldon is a beast. I love him!

100% agree, even if he is 2 inches too short Phreak

He looked more than 2 too short against the 7'3 unicorn.

But I'll give him credit, he is strong enough to body the defenders away in mid air a lot of the time. There aren't too many players I've seen do that, over and over again.