Grades: Spurs @ Blazers - May 8, 2021

[timvp]

https://www.spurstalk.com/grades-san-antonio-spurs-portland-trail-blazers-game-67/

[BackHome]

Props to Timvp putting in the work on all these back to back gotta be tiring - Just a few more games left and it will all be over - keep up the good work :toast

[lefty]

Blazers weren’t worried about missing shots, they knew they would get the ball back.
If Tim was playing, Pop would have benched him lol

Also, Jacob Portal was ass. he made Nurkic look like prime Hakeem

[BillMc]

Many thanks OP.:bobo

At least Luka was agressive for his six minutes.... He and Devin are my focus for the future.

[Robz4000]

Need to rest players en masse the next three games imo, and use the last two against the Suns to get ready for the play-in game (they'll be massacred regardless, but at least they won't be gassed). Mills prolly shouldn't play until that last game.

[tbdog]

I didn't watch. Mother's Day and all. But if there was one game this season that I didn't want the Spurs to win, it was this one. My dream scenario is Spurs knock out the injured Lakers in a pop game plan masterpiece.

[PhantomDashCam]

Props to Timvp putting in the work on all these back to back gotta be tiring - Just a few more games left and it will all be over - keep up the good work :toast

Well said my man.

The 4th quarter ‘O’ for long stretches was just abysmal. One pass, one screen - Shot.

[spurs10]

Thanks for the grades. The Bucks on Monday will be a tough one. I sure hope the Suns aren't still duking it out with the Jazz by the last two games.

[timtonymanu]

I didn't watch. Mother's Day and all. But if there was one game this season that I didn't want the Spurs to win, it was this one. My dream scenario is Spurs knock out the injured Lakers in a pop game plan masterpiece.

Yeah and Tim Duncan will come out of retirement tomorrow to play for this team again.

[daslicer]

I didn't watch. Mother's Day and all. But if there was one game this season that I didn't want the Spurs to win, it was this one. My dream scenario is Spurs knock out the injured Lakers in a pop game plan masterpiece.

Under play in rules the spurs would have to beat the Lakers twice to eliminate them from the playoffs while the Lakers would only have to beat the spurs once to eliminate the Spurs from the playoffs. No way this crappy team can beat the Lakers twice.

[timtonymanu]

Under play in rules the spurs would have to beat the Lakers twice to eliminate them from the playoffs while the Lakers would only have to beat the spurs once to eliminate the Spurs from the playoffs. No way this crappy team can beat the Lakers twice.

Lebron and AD can both sit and this team will struggle to beat them. They couldn’t beat other undermanned teams all season. Spurs are so easy to game plan against, this isn’t the old days where the team has a second gear in the postseason.

[Robz4000]

Under play in rules the spurs would have to beat the Lakers twice to eliminate them from the playoffs while the Lakers would only have to beat the spurs once to eliminate the Spurs from the playoffs. No way this crappy team can beat the Lakers twice.

Lakers would play the 8th seed (most likely Dubs) while the Spurs would play the Grizz. If by some miracle the Spurs win and the Lakers lose to the Dubs, they would play each other once for the 8th seed. Even in that case, the Lakers could rest Lebron and Davis and win by 20.

[tbdog]

Under play in rules the spurs would have to beat the Lakers twice to eliminate them from the playoffs while the Lakers would only have to beat the spurs once to eliminate the Spurs from the playoffs. No way this crappy team can beat the Lakers twice.

No. If Lakers lose to Dubs and Spurs beat Grizzlies, it's one and done Spurs vs Lakers. Give me that. Every team in the NBA would be highly motivated to take on Lakers in a one and done. Every player as well.

[tbdog]

Yeah and Tim Duncan will come out of retirement tomorrow to play for this team again.

Why is it hard to believe that that Lakers are extremely vulnerable right now.

[NK123]

- Thanks for the grades one more time.

- Can't blame either Poeltl or Eubanks nor Dieng. If you have to help other teammates defend in every attack, you can't box out or get the rebound effectively. This team need to play another 4 that is big enough to help the job of rebounding, boxing out and help defense.

- Portland have three things that play into our weaknesses: 1) guards that can break the defense and 2) elite offensive rebounders 3) size at the wing positions. Once again, our genius coach, did not adjust once, which resulted in another loss.

- This team as long as we remain with the same talent, will keep losing because the coach does what he wants, instead of doing what is necessary to win.

- DJM should never be our PG. Keldon should no longer start as our 4. But still. Patty should become our next coach. But still...

- He have enough talent but coaching is a must for us to win. Youth needs proper direction and motivation. Our coach has not.

- Hope Coach Pop can win fast enough so that he doesn't kill Lukas's and Vassell's bond to this team.

[Down Under]

Thank you for the grades. I just can't get how you could give Lonnie a B after watching his switching. He is so lost at one of the most important aspects of team defence, that it is massively outweighing any offensive production at this point. Doesn't mean it can't be fixed, but geez.

[rankingtear]

Non doom and gloom stuff

3 spurs honorable mention defensive team : Murray, White, Jakob

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/31406602/nba-mailbag-how-individual-defense-nba-evaluated-2021

[tbdog]

Non doom and gloom stuff

3 spurs honorable mention defensive team : Murray, White, Jakob

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/31406602/nba-mailbag-how-individual-defense-nba-evaluated-2021

Spurs really need to invest in defensive schemes over the off season.

[RC_Drunkford]

No. If Lakers lose to Dubs and Spurs beat Grizzlies, it's one and done Spurs vs Lakers. Give me that. Every team in the NBA would be highly motivated to take on Lakers in a one and done. Every player as well.

Spurs can’t beat the Grizzlies. Remember when they played against each other?

[tbdog]

Spurs can’t beat the Grizzlies. Remember when they played against each other?

It's a one and done. Anything could happen.

[JeffDuncan]

- Thanks for the grades one more time.

- Can't blame either Poeltl or Eubanks nor Dieng. If you have to help other teammates defend in every attack, you can't box out or get the rebound effectively. ...

That is not true. Every player always has some team defense responsibilities, which never excuses him for failure to do his job. One could point to the Spurs’ poor defensive coaching in general, of course.



- Portland have three things that play into our weaknesses: 1) guards that can break the defense and 2) elite offensive rebounders ...


That is not true. For the season Poeltl ranks 10th in offensive rebounds at 3.2. Nurkic ranks 33rd at 2.2. In this game Nurkic had 6, and Poeltl had 0.

Much more could be said...

[John B]

Thanks for the grades Timvp. It’s painful to watch our starting C getting manhandled in the paint every time. Poeltl just folds against aggressive big. And not even because of the defensive help, because mostly are on one-on-one. I just don’t see the fight in him, no strength to box and secure the rebound. Yup he got 2 blocks, again how many point blank shots he gave away? Pathetic. Mills doesn’t belong in the game at this rate. He needs to be a volume 3pt shooter, catch and shoot, not enough offense set for him. But then again Spurs don’t have post game to set him up. DJ just gambles too much for a steal, often times get burnt. No perimeter defense for this team. No defense on the 3’s, convoluted by us making not making the 3’s. Just an ugly game to watch.

[dbestpro]

Seems to me with players being so tired and players not getting minutes that is all comes down to Pops greatest coaching weakness that being rotations. He has always had a blind spot on what to do with this.

[Dex]

8/30 from three after going for 4/22 last game.

I know shots just don't fall sometimes, but damn we need some actual shooters.

[JeffDuncan]

Lonnie was 4/6 for 3ptrs in the game. Pretty hot, obviously. Hot enough. But the Spurs never worked to get him a heat check after he hit one. Typical.

There was a point where Lonnie hit one just a minute or so before Mills came in. The Spurs immediately worked to get Mills a 3pt try, which he missed. Again, this was with Lonnie having just hit one.

Typical.

[Dex]

Lonnie was 4/6 for 3ptrs in the game. Pretty hot, obviously. Hot enough. But the Spurs never worked to get him a heat check after he hit one. Typical.

There was a point where Lonnie hit one just a minute or so before Mills came in. The Spurs immediately worked to get Mills a 3pt try, which he missed. Again, this was with Lonnie having just hit one.

Typical.

Lonnie has been the bright spot in the three-point category.

Mills looks washed. Gay is okay but only when he is wide open. White hasn't shot great and also can't stay on the floor. Johnson goes from putting up some of the most beautiful, high-arcing threes I've seen in a while to completely missing the rim. And Murray would rather break his man off the dribble and attempt a contested two-pointer than try to rise up when he is open.

And DeMar, well...he's just being a bitch at this point. He has flashed the ability to shoot and hit threes, but suddenly just decided to stop trying at this point.

[sananspursfan21]

For all of the Spurs faults this year, one head scratcher for me is how even when the Spurs defend the 3 well, the other team still swishes them through. I guess they’re present for the shot, but aren’t effectively contesting?

[R. DeMurre]

8/30 from three after going for 4/22 last game.

I know shots just don't fall sometimes, but damn we need some actual shooters.


Lonnie has been the bright spot in the three-point category.

Mills looks washed. Gay is okay but only when he is wide open. White hasn't shot great and also can't stay on the floor. Johnson goes from putting up some of the most beautiful, high-arcing threes I've seen in a while to completely missing the rim. And Murray would rather break his man off the dribble and attempt a contested two-pointer than try to rise up when he is open.

And DeMar, well...he's just being a bitch at this point. He has flashed the ability to shoot and hit threes, but suddenly just decided to stop trying at this point.


Dieng was having his best 3 pt shooting season before the Spurs picked him up, and Eubanks supposedly hits threes with great regularity in warm ups, but Pop refuses to use this aspect of the game. What better way to draw centers with better talent than the Spurs away from the basket? Nurkic, instead of killing us on the offensive boards, should be drawn out of the paint to defend the perimeter-- that's his one glaring weakness. I feel like most other coaches at this point would at least try to take advantage of a C with 3pt shooting potential, but Pop's bias against 3 pt attempts and unending patience for the midrange game is the impediment here. Dieng has the highest seasonal 3pt% on the entire team-- a team deeply flawed & screaming for better three pt opportunities-- and that useful tool goes entirely unused.

[Truth4sale$]

Thanks for grades TIMVP, but it seems you too have lost some optimism.
Popovich has to make the tough call: change up the lineup, rest some guys for 2 games, possibly the rest of the season. Let it be DNP-Coach's decision so the organization does not get fined.
Spurs need to start Luka at the 4, let Lonnie be the 6th man off the bench. I would even swap Keldon for Vasell.
Tough final 5 games

[rankingtear]

Dieng was having his best 3 pt shooting season before the Spurs picked him up, and Eubanks supposedly hits threes with great regularity in warm ups, but Pop refuses to use this aspect of the game. What better way to draw centers with better talent than the Spurs away from the basket? Nurkic, instead of killing us on the offensive boards, should be drawn out of the paint to defend the perimeter-- that's his one glaring weakness. I feel like most other coaches at this point would at least try to take advantage of a C with 3pt shooting potential, but Pop's bias against 3 pt attempts and unending patience for the midrange game is the impediment here. Dieng has the highest seasonal 3pt% on the entire team-- a team deeply flawed & screaming for better three pt opportunities-- and that useful tool goes entirely unused.

You did not watch the last UTA game? Dieng went 0-2 on those wide open threes Gobert never defended him in the perimeter after that.

[R. DeMurre]

You did not watch the last UTA game? Dieng went 0-2 on those wide open threes Gobert never defended him in the perimeter after that.

I did watch, unfortunately.... so based on that tiny sample size, you abandon the concept of the three (as opposed to every other nba team) and revert to a midrange game and still get slaughtered?

[Dex]

Dieng was having his best 3 pt shooting season before the Spurs picked him up, and Eubanks supposedly hits threes with great regularity in warm ups, but Pop refuses to use this aspect of the game. What better way to draw centers with better talent than the Spurs away from the basket? Nurkic, instead of killing us on the offensive boards, should be drawn out of the paint to defend the perimeter-- that's his one glaring weakness. I feel like most other coaches at this point would at least try to take advantage of a C with 3pt shooting potential, but Pop's bias against 3 pt attempts and unending patience for the midrange game is the impediment here. Dieng has the highest seasonal 3pt% on the entire team-- a team deeply flawed & screaming for better three pt opportunities-- and that useful tool goes entirely unused.

Eubanks is 100% on the season.

Granted, he is only 2/2...but he can definitely shoot them.

[rankingtear]

I did watch, unfortunately.... so based on that tiny sample size, you abandon the concept of the three (as opposed to every other nba team) and revert to a midrange game and still get slaughtered?

Huh? Though it was about using a stretch big to get a rim protector off the rim.

[R. DeMurre]

Huh? Though it was about using a stretch big to get a rim protector off the rim.

It is... once the inevitable odds kick in and the threes start dropping, Gobert would be forced to defend out on the perimeter.

[BackHome]

How many times has Mills not hit on the 3 and yet he keeps on shooting

[GAustex]

DDR standing around while Portland crashed the boards

[GAustex]

The team is not good enough to have to carry a diva along. DDR half assing it on defense and effort is too much to overcome when the margins are so small.
DDR attitude and entitlement is destroying the team. He is the cancer. He needs to be excised.

[timtonymanu]

Why is it hard to believe that that Lakers are extremely vulnerable right now.

They 100% are vulnerable but lol at this Spurs team beating any team in the play-in. Not with their antiquated style of basketball and major lack of 3 point shooting. I’ll eat crow if they prove me wrong though

[KobesAchilles]

Blazers weren’t worried about missing shots, they knew they would get the ball back.
If Tim was playing, Pop would have benched him lol

Also, Jacob Portal was ass. he made Nurkic look like prime Hakeem
That’s one of my issues with Poeltl. He sucks majorly against any big man with talent. Bc he has no talent he doesn’t know what to do or how to defend big guys who can actually put the ball in the hoop. But we got him ata steal :rolleyes

[LeBowen]

That’s one of my issues with Poeltl. He sucks majorly against any big man with talent. Bc he has no talent he doesn’t know what to do or how to defend big guys who can actually put the ball in the hoop. But we got him ata steal :rolleyes

The problem is that we can't really make good bigs work on defense in most games.
Jakob is offensively challenged and we don't have a single PNR ballhandler who can just pull up and force bigs to step outside every time.

We're running 2001 offense in 2021.

[rjv]

One can only hope that Pop is secretly giving Mills his farewell tour.

[TDomination]

It's a one and done. Anything could happen.

this

[lefty]

That’s one of my issues with Poeltl. He sucks majorly against any big man with talent. Bc he has no talent he doesn’t know what to do or how to defend big guys who can actually put the ball in the hoop. But we got him ata steal :rolleyes


The problem is that we can't really make good bigs work on defense in most games.
Jakob is offensively challenged and we don't have a single PNR ballhandler who can just pull up and force bigs to step outside every time.

We're running 2001 offense in 2021.

this

[Dejounte]

This

This

[Ed Helicopter Jones]

Timvp, thanks for the grades. These must be painful to prepare after such a promising start to the year.

This home stretch tells me clearly that the Spurs would be dumb to resign DDR. Mills needs a much smaller role if he were to return. Gay is the only veteran I'd even consider keeping, and in my opinion anyone on this roster is fair game for trade material in the off season.

Pop should shut down the vets and play the young guys bigger minutes these last few games and see who you want to keep and who makes good trade bait. Maybe with rested vets we surprise a team or two in the play-in tournament, should we qualify. Playing them now really only hurts the Spurs at this point -- we're not winning with them, and those guys will be too tired to perform should we have a play-in game.

[Seventyniner]

Timvp, thanks for the grades. These must be painful to prepare after such a promising start to the year.

This home stretch tells me clearly that the Spurs would be dumb to resign DDR. Mills needs a much smaller role if he were to return. Gay is the only veteran I'd even consider keeping, and in my opinion anyone on this roster is fair game for trade material in the off season.

Pop should shut down the vets and play the young guys bigger minutes these last few games and see who you want to keep and who makes good trade bait. Maybe with rested vets we surprise a team or two in the play-in tournament, should we qualify. Playing them now really only hurts the Spurs at this point -- we're not winning with them, and those guys will be too tired to perform should we have a play-in game.

If you don't want DDR back, you should be glad the Spurs started relatively strong and have faded late rather than having had a slow start and strong finish. Last year's bubble probably emboldened the FO to run it back this year (not that they wouldn't have anyway: the 2021 cap space plan appears to have been in place for a while), while the end of this season makes it clear that changes are needed.