timvp
12-06-2018, 05:23 AM
https://i.imgur.com/zUiVPn2.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Uoqs0sI.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/zVq5wyg.jpg
Well, at least it was a close game. A night after suffering their third blowout loss by more than 30 points in four games, the Spurs actually had a good chance to win Wednesday night in Los Angeles against the Lakers. That good chance evaporated when LeBron James exploded in the fourth quarter.
San Antonio was up by eight points with ten minutes remaining in the game when James reentered. Over the next ten minutes, the best player in Lakers history scored 20 of his game-high 42 points to propel Los Angeles to a 121-113 victory.
The autopsy of this latest loss starts on the defensive end. The Spurs were doing a relatively decent job on that end until the greatest Lakers player ever spearheaded a 43-point fourth quarter. At the final buzzer, the Spurs had allowed 115.2 points per 100 possessions -- a worse than usual rate (113.4 points) for the second worst defensive team in the NBA.
The offense, despite a combined 84 points by DeMar DeRozan, Rudy Gay and LaMarcus Aldridge, just didn't have enough firepower to hang on. Unfortunately, the team's offensive upside was neutered by Pop's decision to put Dante Cunningham back into the starting lineup in place of Davis Bertans and play him 34 minutes. It also didn't help that it took Pop until the second half to realize Derrick White needed a more prominent role.
Big picture-wise, it's possible to say this game was a step in the right direction. Not a moral victory by any stretch of the imagination ... but a notable improvement compared to their last two road games in which the Spurs lost by a total of 73 points. San Antonio competed well and put themselves in a position to possibly win the game. That alone, right now, is progress.
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LaMarcus Aldridge
https://i.imgur.com/1nluyNF.png
I wasn't impressed by the overall energy level LaMarcus Aldridge displayed. He did a lot of loafing, which manifested most negatively on the defensive end. He was slow to offer help, particularly at the rim and in pick-and-roll sets. Aldridge's individual defense was fine, though, as was his work on the boards. Offensively, he missed four of his five shots from outside of the paint and authored a handful of halfhearted forays into the paint. To his credit, Aldridge's efficiency was good for the night on offense and he scored some key points in the fourth quarter to give the good guys a chance. All in all, I don't have much issue with Aldridge's boxscore production but it would have helped if he had given better and more consistent effort throughout the evening.
Grade: C+
Summary: Aldridge put up stats.
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DeMar DeRozan
https://i.imgur.com/ZKxGADZ.png
Defensively, DeMar DeRozan didn't do much right. He read the passing lanes correctly a couple times but that was the extent of his contributions on that end. Offensively, DeRozan simply wasn't efficient enough -- 32 points on 27 shots is not good enough, particularly when the team's two other main scorers had it going. On this night, more passing, more precision, less ball-stopping and less sloppiness would have helped. DeRozan had stretches where he was really good offensively but consistency was lacking and he wasn't up for the challenge to fight back when LeBron was LeSurging in the fourth, as he went scoreless during a five-minute stretch that saw the Lakers go from down eight to up one.
Grade: C
Summary: DeRozan was busy during his 41 minutes but didn't do enough right.
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Rudy Gay
https://i.imgur.com/vqYr2we.png
A night after going scoreless in 19 minutes in Utah, Rudy Gay bounced back with a very good performance. He posted a season-high 31 points and was virtually unstoppable in a third quarter that saw him score 16 points. Truthfully, Gay still wasn't moving well and wasn't getting much elevation when jumping. But he battled through his physical limitations and gave the Spurs all he had. Defensively, he didn't have much success on James (no one did, really) and was slow to rotate at times but he was fighting for rebounds and was stubborn under the basket. The fourth quarter had to be infuriating for Gay. Despite his 16 points in the third, he didn't get many touches in the final stanza. To make matters worse, the Lakers had a small (usually Josh Hart) on him, yet the Spurs rarely tried to take advantage of the mismatch.
Grade: A
Summary: Gay poured in a season-high in points and his toughness throughout was excellent.
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Bryn Forbes
https://i.imgur.com/yXVIEAs.png
Bryn Forbes is slumping right now. Over his last five games, he's shooting 35 percent from the field and 26.1 percent from beyond the three-point line. Against the Lakers, he couldn't make the defense pay for routinely doubling off of him. It got to the point that Forbes was so out of sorts that he was unplayable. Defensively, I thought Forbes' tenacity-level was improved from recent outings but he's not to be confused for an asset on that end. The bottom line for Forbes is he has to hit shots to have value and he was shooting crooked tonight.
Grade: D+
Summary: Forbes couldn't hit a shot and the Lakers were well aware of that fact.
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Dante Cunningham
https://i.imgur.com/W3QWUCI.png
I don't even know what to type. Dante Cunningham playing 34 minutes in this game was an inexcusable coaching decision. First of all, Cunningham didn't slow down James at all. At all. Secondly, Cunningham only defended James for about 60 percent of the time he was on the court. So why play him so much when he's not always defending James and not slowing him down even when he was defending him? I don't understand. To no one's surprise, the Spurs offense sputtered in the minutes Cunningham was on the court and was humming when he was on the bench.
Grade: D+
Summary: Cunningham didn't do much of anything yet played 34 minutes.
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Patty Mills
https://i.imgur.com/gTa4B5z.png
The good: Patty Mills was extra vocal tonight. It's obvious he took it upon himself to attempt to be more of a leader. He was doing what he could to keep the spirits up. Commendable. He also had a few good passes on the move. The bad: Mills just wasn't very good at basketball tonight. He missed shots on one end and wasn't his usual frenetic self on the other end. His play in the fourth quarter was well south of par; his shot selection was poor and he telegraphed a key turnover that further swung the momentum away from San Antonio.
Grade: C-
Summary: Mills was mentally engaged but made too many mistakes.
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Derrick White
https://i.imgur.com/IrTA2dV.png
Derrick White entered the game for the first time at the beginning of the second quarter and instantly changed the game in San Antonio's favor. After the Spurs totaled three assists in a clunky first quarter, White handed out four assists in the second quarter's first two and a half minutes to completely erase an eight-point deficit. That stretch was the finest stretch of basketball we've seen out of White thus far in the NBA. The rest of his game against the Lakers wasn't quite as magical. His defense was relatively strong, he helped out rebounding-wise and he kept his mistakes to a minimum but White also had a multiple misses on wide open looks that could have changed the trajectory of the outcome. That said, White certainly did well to further make it obvious that he'll need to be a key cog if this team is to play consistent, winning basketball.
Grade: B+
Summary: White was amazing at times but missed shots that could have taken his performance to the next level.
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Jakob Poeltl
https://i.imgur.com/FUIlW00.png
Jakob Poeltl continued his strong play. He looks really solid on both ends of the court now. Offensively, he's nearly automatic in the paint, he's a threat rolling to the rim and he makes the right passes. Defensively, he grabbed a season high six defensive boards and guarded the rim well at times. Poeltl can still improve in terms of his rotation speed when defending the paint and contesting shots without fouling. However, overall, Poeltl is looking good and his improved confidence has exposed quite a bit of talent.
Grade: A-
Summary: Poeltl was a bright spot in his 15 minutes of play.
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Davis Bertans
https://i.imgur.com/ucY2jSF.png
Davis Bertans was back to the bench after starting the previous two games. Once in the game, he came out firing and knocked down all three of his three-pointers in his first seven minutes on the floor. The rest of his night, though, was a struggle. Defensively, he moved his feet okay at times but he also made dumb plays on that end, wasn't physical enough and allowed himself to get flustered by calls that didn't go his way. Offensively, after the Lakers stopped leaving him, he didn't have much of an impact besides the spacing his presence created.
Grade: C
Summary: Benched Bertans was a difference-maker early but fizzled out.
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Marco Belinelli
https://i.imgur.com/hP9vIFY.png
Ugh. Marco Belinelli played terrible defense in the first half. He compounded matters with out of control play on offense. In the second half, Belinelli watched from the sidelines as White absorbed his minutes.
Grade: D
Summary: Belinelli played bad.
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Pop
https://i.imgur.com/x7B1It7.jpg
The good: Pop eventually realized that White should play more and Belinelli should play less. The bad: Playing Cunningham 34 minutes tonight, as I've previously detailed, made no sense. It really hurt San Antonio's chances of winning. Playing White as an afterthought was laughably senseless. DeRozan played too many minutes for a guy who wasn't playing all that well on the second night of a back-to-back. Not calling plays for an on-fire Gay when there were mismatches galore in the fourth quarter was poor coaching.
Grade: F+
Summary: Pop's coaching made it all but impossible for the Spurs to win what was otherwise a winnable game.
Looking ahead: The forthcoming six-game homestand couldn't come at a better time. If the playoffs are going to include San Antonio this season, this is when the Spurs will start making up ground. The good guys need to go at least 4-2 to get their wheels back on the postseason track.
The homestand begins with a Lakers rematch on Friday night. If nothing else, it'll be fascinating to see if Pop realizes his coaching was nonoptimal tonight or if he'll double down on his strategies.
https://i.imgur.com/Uoqs0sI.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/zVq5wyg.jpg
Well, at least it was a close game. A night after suffering their third blowout loss by more than 30 points in four games, the Spurs actually had a good chance to win Wednesday night in Los Angeles against the Lakers. That good chance evaporated when LeBron James exploded in the fourth quarter.
San Antonio was up by eight points with ten minutes remaining in the game when James reentered. Over the next ten minutes, the best player in Lakers history scored 20 of his game-high 42 points to propel Los Angeles to a 121-113 victory.
The autopsy of this latest loss starts on the defensive end. The Spurs were doing a relatively decent job on that end until the greatest Lakers player ever spearheaded a 43-point fourth quarter. At the final buzzer, the Spurs had allowed 115.2 points per 100 possessions -- a worse than usual rate (113.4 points) for the second worst defensive team in the NBA.
The offense, despite a combined 84 points by DeMar DeRozan, Rudy Gay and LaMarcus Aldridge, just didn't have enough firepower to hang on. Unfortunately, the team's offensive upside was neutered by Pop's decision to put Dante Cunningham back into the starting lineup in place of Davis Bertans and play him 34 minutes. It also didn't help that it took Pop until the second half to realize Derrick White needed a more prominent role.
Big picture-wise, it's possible to say this game was a step in the right direction. Not a moral victory by any stretch of the imagination ... but a notable improvement compared to their last two road games in which the Spurs lost by a total of 73 points. San Antonio competed well and put themselves in a position to possibly win the game. That alone, right now, is progress.
-------------
LaMarcus Aldridge
https://i.imgur.com/1nluyNF.png
I wasn't impressed by the overall energy level LaMarcus Aldridge displayed. He did a lot of loafing, which manifested most negatively on the defensive end. He was slow to offer help, particularly at the rim and in pick-and-roll sets. Aldridge's individual defense was fine, though, as was his work on the boards. Offensively, he missed four of his five shots from outside of the paint and authored a handful of halfhearted forays into the paint. To his credit, Aldridge's efficiency was good for the night on offense and he scored some key points in the fourth quarter to give the good guys a chance. All in all, I don't have much issue with Aldridge's boxscore production but it would have helped if he had given better and more consistent effort throughout the evening.
Grade: C+
Summary: Aldridge put up stats.
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DeMar DeRozan
https://i.imgur.com/ZKxGADZ.png
Defensively, DeMar DeRozan didn't do much right. He read the passing lanes correctly a couple times but that was the extent of his contributions on that end. Offensively, DeRozan simply wasn't efficient enough -- 32 points on 27 shots is not good enough, particularly when the team's two other main scorers had it going. On this night, more passing, more precision, less ball-stopping and less sloppiness would have helped. DeRozan had stretches where he was really good offensively but consistency was lacking and he wasn't up for the challenge to fight back when LeBron was LeSurging in the fourth, as he went scoreless during a five-minute stretch that saw the Lakers go from down eight to up one.
Grade: C
Summary: DeRozan was busy during his 41 minutes but didn't do enough right.
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Rudy Gay
https://i.imgur.com/vqYr2we.png
A night after going scoreless in 19 minutes in Utah, Rudy Gay bounced back with a very good performance. He posted a season-high 31 points and was virtually unstoppable in a third quarter that saw him score 16 points. Truthfully, Gay still wasn't moving well and wasn't getting much elevation when jumping. But he battled through his physical limitations and gave the Spurs all he had. Defensively, he didn't have much success on James (no one did, really) and was slow to rotate at times but he was fighting for rebounds and was stubborn under the basket. The fourth quarter had to be infuriating for Gay. Despite his 16 points in the third, he didn't get many touches in the final stanza. To make matters worse, the Lakers had a small (usually Josh Hart) on him, yet the Spurs rarely tried to take advantage of the mismatch.
Grade: A
Summary: Gay poured in a season-high in points and his toughness throughout was excellent.
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Bryn Forbes
https://i.imgur.com/yXVIEAs.png
Bryn Forbes is slumping right now. Over his last five games, he's shooting 35 percent from the field and 26.1 percent from beyond the three-point line. Against the Lakers, he couldn't make the defense pay for routinely doubling off of him. It got to the point that Forbes was so out of sorts that he was unplayable. Defensively, I thought Forbes' tenacity-level was improved from recent outings but he's not to be confused for an asset on that end. The bottom line for Forbes is he has to hit shots to have value and he was shooting crooked tonight.
Grade: D+
Summary: Forbes couldn't hit a shot and the Lakers were well aware of that fact.
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Dante Cunningham
https://i.imgur.com/W3QWUCI.png
I don't even know what to type. Dante Cunningham playing 34 minutes in this game was an inexcusable coaching decision. First of all, Cunningham didn't slow down James at all. At all. Secondly, Cunningham only defended James for about 60 percent of the time he was on the court. So why play him so much when he's not always defending James and not slowing him down even when he was defending him? I don't understand. To no one's surprise, the Spurs offense sputtered in the minutes Cunningham was on the court and was humming when he was on the bench.
Grade: D+
Summary: Cunningham didn't do much of anything yet played 34 minutes.
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Patty Mills
https://i.imgur.com/gTa4B5z.png
The good: Patty Mills was extra vocal tonight. It's obvious he took it upon himself to attempt to be more of a leader. He was doing what he could to keep the spirits up. Commendable. He also had a few good passes on the move. The bad: Mills just wasn't very good at basketball tonight. He missed shots on one end and wasn't his usual frenetic self on the other end. His play in the fourth quarter was well south of par; his shot selection was poor and he telegraphed a key turnover that further swung the momentum away from San Antonio.
Grade: C-
Summary: Mills was mentally engaged but made too many mistakes.
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Derrick White
https://i.imgur.com/IrTA2dV.png
Derrick White entered the game for the first time at the beginning of the second quarter and instantly changed the game in San Antonio's favor. After the Spurs totaled three assists in a clunky first quarter, White handed out four assists in the second quarter's first two and a half minutes to completely erase an eight-point deficit. That stretch was the finest stretch of basketball we've seen out of White thus far in the NBA. The rest of his game against the Lakers wasn't quite as magical. His defense was relatively strong, he helped out rebounding-wise and he kept his mistakes to a minimum but White also had a multiple misses on wide open looks that could have changed the trajectory of the outcome. That said, White certainly did well to further make it obvious that he'll need to be a key cog if this team is to play consistent, winning basketball.
Grade: B+
Summary: White was amazing at times but missed shots that could have taken his performance to the next level.
-------------
Jakob Poeltl
https://i.imgur.com/FUIlW00.png
Jakob Poeltl continued his strong play. He looks really solid on both ends of the court now. Offensively, he's nearly automatic in the paint, he's a threat rolling to the rim and he makes the right passes. Defensively, he grabbed a season high six defensive boards and guarded the rim well at times. Poeltl can still improve in terms of his rotation speed when defending the paint and contesting shots without fouling. However, overall, Poeltl is looking good and his improved confidence has exposed quite a bit of talent.
Grade: A-
Summary: Poeltl was a bright spot in his 15 minutes of play.
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Davis Bertans
https://i.imgur.com/ucY2jSF.png
Davis Bertans was back to the bench after starting the previous two games. Once in the game, he came out firing and knocked down all three of his three-pointers in his first seven minutes on the floor. The rest of his night, though, was a struggle. Defensively, he moved his feet okay at times but he also made dumb plays on that end, wasn't physical enough and allowed himself to get flustered by calls that didn't go his way. Offensively, after the Lakers stopped leaving him, he didn't have much of an impact besides the spacing his presence created.
Grade: C
Summary: Benched Bertans was a difference-maker early but fizzled out.
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Marco Belinelli
https://i.imgur.com/hP9vIFY.png
Ugh. Marco Belinelli played terrible defense in the first half. He compounded matters with out of control play on offense. In the second half, Belinelli watched from the sidelines as White absorbed his minutes.
Grade: D
Summary: Belinelli played bad.
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Pop
https://i.imgur.com/x7B1It7.jpg
The good: Pop eventually realized that White should play more and Belinelli should play less. The bad: Playing Cunningham 34 minutes tonight, as I've previously detailed, made no sense. It really hurt San Antonio's chances of winning. Playing White as an afterthought was laughably senseless. DeRozan played too many minutes for a guy who wasn't playing all that well on the second night of a back-to-back. Not calling plays for an on-fire Gay when there were mismatches galore in the fourth quarter was poor coaching.
Grade: F+
Summary: Pop's coaching made it all but impossible for the Spurs to win what was otherwise a winnable game.
Looking ahead: The forthcoming six-game homestand couldn't come at a better time. If the playoffs are going to include San Antonio this season, this is when the Spurs will start making up ground. The good guys need to go at least 4-2 to get their wheels back on the postseason track.
The homestand begins with a Lakers rematch on Friday night. If nothing else, it'll be fascinating to see if Pop realizes his coaching was nonoptimal tonight or if he'll double down on his strategies.