timvp
11-25-2018, 04:09 AM
https://i.imgur.com/3yAHQvq.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/hfDUdUb.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/qNaD2vD.jpg
Moral victory. Yeah, I typed it. Moral victory.
This Spurs entered this second game of a back-to-back in Milwaukee as big underdogs. To begin the contest, the Bucks were on fire and roared out to a 26-11 lead. But a funny thing happened to what appeared to be a blowout loss: San Antonio stormed back and almost pulled off their most impressive win of the season.
Leading by as many of ten points in the fourth quarter, the Spurs looked poised for an upset. Unfortunately, they appeared to run out of steam and they definitely ran out of good fortune as the Bucks made their comeback and eventually took the lead with three minutes remaining. San Antonio managed to hang around until Malcolm Brogdon's three-pointer with eight seconds to go extended a Bucks two-point lead to five points.
In the past thirty Spurs seasons or so, moral victories didn't exist in the land of the Spurs. But this season is different. For this team, this result counts as a moral victory and another step in the right direction.
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LaMarcus Aldridge
https://i.imgur.com/1nluyNF.png
LaMarcus Aldridge was far from the dominant player we witnessed Friday night against the Pacers but he was still somewhat effective. Defensively, he spent a lot of the time on the perimeter defending pick-and-rolls and contesting three-point shooters. Doing that took him out of rebounding position but he did all he could do out on the perimeter. Offensively, his touches were sporadic but he usually managed to create good shots. He also knocked down half of his six shots from the perimeter, which is obviously good to see. All in all, the Bucks are designed to make life difficult for interior-oriented players like Aldridge. Despite that, he battled through it and managed to have some positive moments.
Grade: B
Summary: It wasn't an easy game for Aldridge but he persevered.
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DeMar DeRozan
https://i.imgur.com/ZKxGADZ.png
It was a tale of two sides of the court for DeMar DeRozan. Offensively, he was really good. He was a dependable metronome providing consistent life to San Antonio's offensive attack. Whether he was driving the lane with force, dropping off deadly jumpers in the midrange, getting to the line or skillfully setting up his teammates to the tune of seven assists with no turnvers, DeRozan was delivering on that end. Unfortunately, he was an abomination on the defensive end. He was terrible defending dribble penetration. His rotations were slow. He even fell asleep on the weakside multiple times. As good as DeRozan was on offense, he pretty much canceled it out by being so atrocious on defense.
Grade: B-
Summary: Great O. Terrible D.
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Rudy Gay
https://i.imgur.com/vqYr2we.png
Through three quarters, Rudy Gay looked really good considering this was the second night of a back-to-back. In the fourth, though, it was obvious he was laboring physically. In the final stanza, Gay's defense fell off a cliff and his offense got sloppy. Through three quarters, he was probably the team's best defender against Giannis Antetokounmpo. Gay was also bailing the Spurs out when via emergency isolations and had a second straight stellar passing game. Big picture: Gay looked a lot better than the previous second game of a back-to-back -- let's hope that means his health is improving.
Grade: B-
Summary: Gay was solid for 75 percent of the game.
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Bryn Forbes
https://i.imgur.com/yXVIEAs.png
Bryn Forbes is another player who saw his fortunes change when he crossed the halfcourt stripe. Defensively, he wasn't good at all. He was sloppy defending pick-and-rolls, rotated slowly, gave up a myriad of three-pointers and was basically just overwhelmed constantly on that end. Offensively, he was good. He hit big shots again in the fourth quarter and was very efficient. That said, I didn't always agree with his shot selection and he missed wide open teammates on multiple occasions.
Grade: C+
Summary: Forbes helped out on offense but got eaten alive on defense.
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Dante Cunningham
https://i.imgur.com/W3QWUCI.png
Alright, so this is a difficult grade to dispense. On one hand, Dante Cunningham's effort was undeniable. He was great on the boards, hustled back in transition, was mentally locked in to his responsibilities on defense and wasn't much of a liability on offense. On the other hand, he had literally no chance of defending Antetokounmpo, who ended up scoring 34 points on 16 shot attempts. The Greek Freak was too big, too fast, too strong and too smart for Cunningham. So while Cunningham gave effort, he just didn't have a single tool in his defensive toolkit that bothered Antetokounmpo at all.
Grade: C+
Summary: Cunningham played hard but was hopeless against the Greek Freak.
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Patty Mills
https://i.imgur.com/gTa4B5z.png
The good: Mills played with a ton of passion. With the bench leading the charge tonight, Mills was the one in command of that the brigade. He pushed the pace, got the ball-movement hopping, visited the line for a season-high seven free throws, and his ballhandling was better than average. On defense, his flopping ways actually paid off for him a few times. The bad: Mills could have been more aggressive looking for his shot on offense; three attempts in 23 minutes isn't enough. Defensively, his small stature made him close to worthless when the Spurs were scrambling around trying to cover up the three-point line.
Grade: B
Summary: Mills did pretty good but could have been better.
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Davis Bertans
https://i.imgur.com/ucY2jSF.png
If there's one man most responsible for the swift comeback in the first quarter after the Spurs fell into a 15-point hole, it's Davis Bertans. Right after he entered the game, he sank a pair of three-pointers. By the end of the first quarter, Bertans had poured in 11 points and the Spurs were only down by a point. By halftime, the Latvian was up to 15 points in the stat sheet. Unfortunately, Bertans didn't do much in the second half. Defensively, Bertans' lack of strength was a liability throughout but he crashed the boards better than usual and his defense against Antetokounmpo wasn't any worse than Cunningham's.
Grade: B+
Summary: Bertans swiftly turned around what appeared to be an utter wipeout.
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Marco Belinelli
https://i.imgur.com/hP9vIFY.png
Offensively, Marco Belinelli was better than we've witnessed in a while. He shot relatively straight, got his teammates involved and tiptoed the line between catalyst and chucker rather well. In the fourth quarter, Belinelli had a couple costly mistakes on the offensive end, including a horrendously poor three-point attempt that added fuel to Milwaukee's rally. Defensively, he wasn't very good. The low point had to be when Brook Lopez beat him off the dribble.
Grade: C+
Summary: Belinelli made a respectable percentage of his shots but it wasn't all gravy on this night.
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Jakob Poeltl
https://i.imgur.com/FUIlW00.png
Jakob Poeltl is getting better and better as he gets more comfortable in his silver and black skivvies. On defense, he defended the rim well enough and he was mobile enough to get a hand up out on the perimeter. Offensively, Poeltl actually looked competent a few times when running pick-and-rolls, made slick passes and he was once again a beast on the boards on that end of the court. It's safe to say the worst of his growing pains are behind him.
Grade: A-
Summary: Poeltl is starting to fit in rather nicely.
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Derrick White
https://i.imgur.com/IrTA2dV.png
Derrick White had a good finish, a smooth pass to Poeltl for an and-1 and looked pretty good defensively. However, his night will unfortunately be remembered for an extremely unconfident shot to end the first quarter, which White than compounded by fouling the Greek Freak on a buzzer-beating heave that was from halfway to Athens.
Grade: Inc.
Summary: White's experiencing growing pains.
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Pop
https://i.imgur.com/x7B1It7.jpg
This game was a Monday morning quarterback's dream because there's a lot to second-guess regarding Pop and his choices in the fourth quarter. The bench was obviously much more effective -- mostly due to the fact that their defense wasn't as ghastly. Should Pop have gone with more Bertans, more Poeltl and some more of the other bench producers? Quite possible. Bertans, specifically, probably should have played more. But, then again, if Pop kept the bench in, they probably still lose . . . so, in reality, the ending was probably a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.
Grade: C+
Summary: Pop couldn't stop the bleeding.
Looking ahead: Even though the Spurs are back under .500 at 9-10, they've now put together three strong games in a row. If they can avoid getting discouraged and keep improving at this rate, things could turn around sooner rather than later.
Next up, the Spurs play the third game of this road trip in Chicago on Monday night. If they are going to keep this streak of improved play alive, they need to beat the 5-15 Bulls.
https://i.imgur.com/hfDUdUb.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/qNaD2vD.jpg
Moral victory. Yeah, I typed it. Moral victory.
This Spurs entered this second game of a back-to-back in Milwaukee as big underdogs. To begin the contest, the Bucks were on fire and roared out to a 26-11 lead. But a funny thing happened to what appeared to be a blowout loss: San Antonio stormed back and almost pulled off their most impressive win of the season.
Leading by as many of ten points in the fourth quarter, the Spurs looked poised for an upset. Unfortunately, they appeared to run out of steam and they definitely ran out of good fortune as the Bucks made their comeback and eventually took the lead with three minutes remaining. San Antonio managed to hang around until Malcolm Brogdon's three-pointer with eight seconds to go extended a Bucks two-point lead to five points.
In the past thirty Spurs seasons or so, moral victories didn't exist in the land of the Spurs. But this season is different. For this team, this result counts as a moral victory and another step in the right direction.
-------------
LaMarcus Aldridge
https://i.imgur.com/1nluyNF.png
LaMarcus Aldridge was far from the dominant player we witnessed Friday night against the Pacers but he was still somewhat effective. Defensively, he spent a lot of the time on the perimeter defending pick-and-rolls and contesting three-point shooters. Doing that took him out of rebounding position but he did all he could do out on the perimeter. Offensively, his touches were sporadic but he usually managed to create good shots. He also knocked down half of his six shots from the perimeter, which is obviously good to see. All in all, the Bucks are designed to make life difficult for interior-oriented players like Aldridge. Despite that, he battled through it and managed to have some positive moments.
Grade: B
Summary: It wasn't an easy game for Aldridge but he persevered.
-------------
DeMar DeRozan
https://i.imgur.com/ZKxGADZ.png
It was a tale of two sides of the court for DeMar DeRozan. Offensively, he was really good. He was a dependable metronome providing consistent life to San Antonio's offensive attack. Whether he was driving the lane with force, dropping off deadly jumpers in the midrange, getting to the line or skillfully setting up his teammates to the tune of seven assists with no turnvers, DeRozan was delivering on that end. Unfortunately, he was an abomination on the defensive end. He was terrible defending dribble penetration. His rotations were slow. He even fell asleep on the weakside multiple times. As good as DeRozan was on offense, he pretty much canceled it out by being so atrocious on defense.
Grade: B-
Summary: Great O. Terrible D.
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Rudy Gay
https://i.imgur.com/vqYr2we.png
Through three quarters, Rudy Gay looked really good considering this was the second night of a back-to-back. In the fourth, though, it was obvious he was laboring physically. In the final stanza, Gay's defense fell off a cliff and his offense got sloppy. Through three quarters, he was probably the team's best defender against Giannis Antetokounmpo. Gay was also bailing the Spurs out when via emergency isolations and had a second straight stellar passing game. Big picture: Gay looked a lot better than the previous second game of a back-to-back -- let's hope that means his health is improving.
Grade: B-
Summary: Gay was solid for 75 percent of the game.
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Bryn Forbes
https://i.imgur.com/yXVIEAs.png
Bryn Forbes is another player who saw his fortunes change when he crossed the halfcourt stripe. Defensively, he wasn't good at all. He was sloppy defending pick-and-rolls, rotated slowly, gave up a myriad of three-pointers and was basically just overwhelmed constantly on that end. Offensively, he was good. He hit big shots again in the fourth quarter and was very efficient. That said, I didn't always agree with his shot selection and he missed wide open teammates on multiple occasions.
Grade: C+
Summary: Forbes helped out on offense but got eaten alive on defense.
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Dante Cunningham
https://i.imgur.com/W3QWUCI.png
Alright, so this is a difficult grade to dispense. On one hand, Dante Cunningham's effort was undeniable. He was great on the boards, hustled back in transition, was mentally locked in to his responsibilities on defense and wasn't much of a liability on offense. On the other hand, he had literally no chance of defending Antetokounmpo, who ended up scoring 34 points on 16 shot attempts. The Greek Freak was too big, too fast, too strong and too smart for Cunningham. So while Cunningham gave effort, he just didn't have a single tool in his defensive toolkit that bothered Antetokounmpo at all.
Grade: C+
Summary: Cunningham played hard but was hopeless against the Greek Freak.
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Patty Mills
https://i.imgur.com/gTa4B5z.png
The good: Mills played with a ton of passion. With the bench leading the charge tonight, Mills was the one in command of that the brigade. He pushed the pace, got the ball-movement hopping, visited the line for a season-high seven free throws, and his ballhandling was better than average. On defense, his flopping ways actually paid off for him a few times. The bad: Mills could have been more aggressive looking for his shot on offense; three attempts in 23 minutes isn't enough. Defensively, his small stature made him close to worthless when the Spurs were scrambling around trying to cover up the three-point line.
Grade: B
Summary: Mills did pretty good but could have been better.
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Davis Bertans
https://i.imgur.com/ucY2jSF.png
If there's one man most responsible for the swift comeback in the first quarter after the Spurs fell into a 15-point hole, it's Davis Bertans. Right after he entered the game, he sank a pair of three-pointers. By the end of the first quarter, Bertans had poured in 11 points and the Spurs were only down by a point. By halftime, the Latvian was up to 15 points in the stat sheet. Unfortunately, Bertans didn't do much in the second half. Defensively, Bertans' lack of strength was a liability throughout but he crashed the boards better than usual and his defense against Antetokounmpo wasn't any worse than Cunningham's.
Grade: B+
Summary: Bertans swiftly turned around what appeared to be an utter wipeout.
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Marco Belinelli
https://i.imgur.com/hP9vIFY.png
Offensively, Marco Belinelli was better than we've witnessed in a while. He shot relatively straight, got his teammates involved and tiptoed the line between catalyst and chucker rather well. In the fourth quarter, Belinelli had a couple costly mistakes on the offensive end, including a horrendously poor three-point attempt that added fuel to Milwaukee's rally. Defensively, he wasn't very good. The low point had to be when Brook Lopez beat him off the dribble.
Grade: C+
Summary: Belinelli made a respectable percentage of his shots but it wasn't all gravy on this night.
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Jakob Poeltl
https://i.imgur.com/FUIlW00.png
Jakob Poeltl is getting better and better as he gets more comfortable in his silver and black skivvies. On defense, he defended the rim well enough and he was mobile enough to get a hand up out on the perimeter. Offensively, Poeltl actually looked competent a few times when running pick-and-rolls, made slick passes and he was once again a beast on the boards on that end of the court. It's safe to say the worst of his growing pains are behind him.
Grade: A-
Summary: Poeltl is starting to fit in rather nicely.
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Derrick White
https://i.imgur.com/IrTA2dV.png
Derrick White had a good finish, a smooth pass to Poeltl for an and-1 and looked pretty good defensively. However, his night will unfortunately be remembered for an extremely unconfident shot to end the first quarter, which White than compounded by fouling the Greek Freak on a buzzer-beating heave that was from halfway to Athens.
Grade: Inc.
Summary: White's experiencing growing pains.
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Pop
https://i.imgur.com/x7B1It7.jpg
This game was a Monday morning quarterback's dream because there's a lot to second-guess regarding Pop and his choices in the fourth quarter. The bench was obviously much more effective -- mostly due to the fact that their defense wasn't as ghastly. Should Pop have gone with more Bertans, more Poeltl and some more of the other bench producers? Quite possible. Bertans, specifically, probably should have played more. But, then again, if Pop kept the bench in, they probably still lose . . . so, in reality, the ending was probably a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.
Grade: C+
Summary: Pop couldn't stop the bleeding.
Looking ahead: Even though the Spurs are back under .500 at 9-10, they've now put together three strong games in a row. If they can avoid getting discouraged and keep improving at this rate, things could turn around sooner rather than later.
Next up, the Spurs play the third game of this road trip in Chicago on Monday night. If they are going to keep this streak of improved play alive, they need to beat the 5-15 Bulls.