Game Grades (02.04.2017) - Spurs vs. Denver (121 - 97 W)

Game Recap:

The Silver & Black finished off the 4 game homestand outstandingly by winning against OKC, PHI and DEN, after their not-so steady effort against Dallas. Tonight, against the Nuggets, the guys started well offensively but let a lot to be desired at the other end of the court. Besides Manu and D. Lee, the bench weren’t impacting much of the game, so it was not a surprise that by half-time we led by 6 (which could’ve been 3, had Wilson Chandler’s three were shot in time.) In the second half, the guys knotted up their defense, spearheaded by LMA, Danny and Kawhi. This allowed the guys to blow wide open their lead to more than 15, at which point they never looked back.


Grades:


Lamarcus Aldridge – B+

LMA didn’t had a strong game offensively and seemed to struggle a lot with Jokic both offensively and defensively. However, I liked the fact he didn’t put his head down while still managing to put pressure on Denver’s defense. Defensively is where most of his impact was felt tonight. He acted properly like a defensive anchor and helped set the tone in the second half protecting the paint and swiping the ball just in time. I would’ve liked he rebounded the ball better, as Denver was attacking the boards aggressively.

Kawhi Leonard – A

Kawhi had a steady performance throughout the game despite not shooting particularly well this game – at least by his standards. He affected the game all around as evidenced by his game-high 6 rebounds and game-high 5 assists. It’s amazing how he has accustomed us fans to this type of consistency and stat stuffing impact bringing it night in and night out. Tonight, I was most impressed by his decision-making offensively. He knew when to set up others and when to take it upon himself, even when the results didn’t reflect that. Also, when Wilson Chandler was starting to heat up, he clamped down on him and took him out of the game. What a player.

Dewayne Dedmon – B

This was not an outstanding game for double D. He should’ve grabbed more rebounds with Denver attacking the glass so ferociously, but did not because he did a poor job boxing out Denver’s bigs whether it was Jokic, Nurkic or Faried. It was impressive those two ‘Hibbert’ he pulled in the second half maintaining picture-perfect verticality, yet his impact defensive-wise was not there consistently – perhaps because he got into foul trouble early. He did manage to take advantage of his opportunities offensively, though; that alley-oop connection with Kawhi was impressive.

Tony Parker – A-

TP started out the game trying to set up others and failed. On the other end, his defense let a lot to be desired by allowing Nelson to shoot (and make) comfortably the three. After the first 6 minutes or so, he turned his play around for good. He started attacking the basket with purpose creating very well off the dribble, and controlled the pace correctly. On the other end, he started showing some activity as evidenced by his 3 steals. By the second half, his timely scoring helped put Denver away.

Danny Green – A-

It was good to see Danny having an outstanding all-around game. Verde ended up impacting the game in every facet of it – creating of the dribble for his teammates and rebounding the ball, namely – in spite the fact the ball not going in for him as often as we expected to. Is it just me or has Danny been not-so-atrocious this year when creating off the dribble?

David Lee – B+

D. Lee (not d-league) came out with lots of energy yet little results. Along with Manu, he brought some needed juice when the offense started to become stagnant, but was not able to capitalize with his scoring. That did not stop him from playing very good team-ball but I think this was one of those games that exposed why he is no longer a starter in this league – either his rotations were a second late or his shots were just about flat.

Manu Ginobili – B+

Oh my! What a first quarter for the Argentinian! Manu caught fire launching the ball from three, so it was a shame the squad couldn’t buy a stop in the first, otherwise the game would have been over long before. Then, he cooled off and turned over the ball while allowing Denver to stay breathing in their neck. His hand wasn’t needed in the second half, as the starters were able to put the game away.

Patty Mills – B+
The Tasmanian Devil brought some needed energy in the second half talking a page from Manu’s first half. He started scoring the ball using every move in his arsenal and his drive to the basket was the haymaker against the Nuggets. He didn’t run the offense as smoothly without Manu, which is part of the reason he didn’t create adequately for his teammates. On the defensive side of the ball, there was little (literally) he could do since he ended up defending the likes of Jamal Murray and Emmanuel Mudiay.

Jonathon Simmons – B-

Even though his numbers suggest otherwise, I didn’t like much of what I saw out of Juice while the game was still in play. He was careless attacking off the dribble, as shown be his 2 TO, and he was hardly making an impact with his energy either offensively or defensively. I’ll cut him some slack because he picked it up in the second half with his scoring. It was nice to see it coming in a variety of ways: driving to the basket, the three ball, the mid-range jumper and the pull-up coming out of the screen. Also he drew a charge, which reflected his improved effort on that end of the court.

Joel Anthony – B-

It is really hard to grade Anthony’s game since his role is very defined and his talent is limited. He rebounded the ball OK, drew a charge and protected the paint with sound positioning. Since he did his job, should his grade be higher? I’m going with the “because he didn’t exceed expectations but he did his job appropriately well, this is his grade” reasoning.

Davis Bertans – A

I think Davis is winning more playing time by the passing of each game. His offensive repertoire is Top 5 in the team and he competes every defensive possession with intensity. He also seems to be a good weakside rim protector, which is a welcoming sign with the team losing Timmy to retirement this season. I hope Pop doesn’t stick him to the bench in the Playoffs.

Kyle Anderson – B+

Kyle entered the game when it was already over, so it was a little disappointing he didn’t take advantage against Denver’s benchwarmers, at first. However, once he got comfortable, he displayed great defense and good playmaking as the highlight with Murray showed. He even tied Kawhi’s 5 assists in less playing time. It should be painfully obvious to Pop right now that Kyle’s best position is the PF and not the SF – the SF position brings out the worst of Kyle’s weaknesses while hiding out his best abilities. Now, if he could incorporate Boris Diaw’s back to the basket game and Diaw’s 2.0 aggressiveness on the offensive end, that would be great.

Dejounte Murray – INC

Dejounte had an OK game with some mistakes here and there. He seemed out of control at times and was not adequate getting the team into its offensive sets. However, he did have a hell of a highlight reel.

Coach Pop – A+

What a difference in comparison to the Dallas game. Pop was engaged early and often, blasting the team out of timeouts and teaching the young guys, when necessary. He was in LMA’s grill when he was not defending correctly and he spoke to Dedmon with patience after a missed rotation in the 3rd. I imagine he demanded more from his team at half time and that was reflected by the team's attitude out of the gates in the 3rdd. Also, I thought his decision of going to Anthony instead of Davis was correct since our frontcourt needed a breather against Denver’s bruisers and the former provided a skillset more adequate to handling them than the latter’s.


Some things I noticed:

- LMA definitely is engaged on defense whenever he feels involved offensively (Slowpoke much? Has everyone already caught on this?). Otherwise, he doesn’t care so much. This is disappointing considering both that he and Kawhi are 1A-1B supposedly and, that he doesn’t have to spend much energy on the offensive end so it shouldn’t be an excuse. His effort on that end of the court is night and day when he decides to care.

- Kawhi has not Lebron James type court vision. I don’t know if anyone in the game is able to get better in this aspect (if someone can, I’m sure it is Kawhi) so it is best when he keeps it simple while creating for others.

- On the other hand, one of my favourite aspects of Kawhi as an offensive player is his patience. Whenever he is on, he seems to know when to drive to the basket, when to pull up in the midrange, when to shoot the three, when to slow down or when to speed up. I guess this is the reason why he is one of the league leaders in fourth quarter scoring.

- Simmons has a bad habit of defending with his hands instead of his feet. Perhaps this is part of the reason why he struggles defending through screens.

- The game plan tonight was to set up LMA in the first. It seems a good idea to get him going early so that his effort on both ends of the court is constant (and appropriate) throughout the game.

- I like the depth of our frontcourt this year with respect last year. In fact, I think this year’s frontcourt is one of the deepest ever because everyone brings a different ingredient to the table. The two most similar skillsets are Pau’s and LMA’s. The only thing we miss is a bruiser, but this year it appears there’s no need to carry one over to the playoffs.

- I’m cautiously optimistic this is the year that Danny has figured out how not to be a train wreck when creating off the dribble. Perhaps my hopes are up because the games I’ve seen this year haven’t been game planned for him.

- The two man game between LMA and Kawhi is almost non-existant isn’t it? Perhaps it is because of the way the offense is designed (I haven’t analysed enough game tape to point out a reason why), but personally I don’t see much chemistry between those two on the offensive side of the court. Isn’t there a way to make them an explosive duo? Is there no interest in doing such thing?


P.S. I still couldn't manage to post a picture of the game's boxscore. I tried the copy/paste command but it didn't work.

Good write up.

But you can't post images from your PC, Rodrigo

Thanks for the write-up my dude :tu

Disagree with a lot of the writeup, but thanks for putting in the time, tbh :tu

Thanks!

Terrible grades.

paddy krew can't :downspin: this

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Originally Posted by SuperCam

paddy krew can't :downspin: this

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There's like 1 mills supporter on ST. How are your cats by the way?

Enjoyed the read. Thanks.

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Originally Posted by RodNIc91

Danny Green – A-

It was good to see Danny having an outstanding all-around game. Verde ended up impacting the game in every facet of it – creating of the dribble for his teammates and rebounding the ball, namely – in spite the fact the ball not going in for him as often as we expected to. Is it just me or has Danny been not-so-atrocious this year when creating off the dribble?

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Qualitatively, I would agree with you. However, according to bball reference, Danny's on track to shatter his career high in lost-ball turnovers. He ALREADY has a career high 27 with him having only played in 42 games. However, he has a chance to set his lowest total TO rate since in his career because his other TOs have dropped off just as much. BBR says Danny's only had four bad-pass TOs this season. That's pretty incredible given the number of passes he's made to his teammates. In fact, he has an assist rate/turnover rate ratio greater than 2:1, which is definitely the best of his career, and just including bad passes makes than a 20:1 ratio.

So Danny is definitely passing better than before, but dribbling is still an adventure. He's doing what he can to have productive touches, but he probably should just shoot more. The added chemistry with LMA is helping him, though.

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Originally Posted by ElNono

Disagree with a lot of the writeup, but thanks for putting in the time, tbh :tu

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Nice grades...:tu
I appreciate you giving your ur opinion without the trolling...
Maybe Nono disagrees bc he misses the too much trolling. :lol

I agreed with you very often.

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Originally Posted by RodNIc91

TP started out the game trying to set up others and failed.

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that should come in handy during the playoffs.

18 points in 10 minutes gets you a B+? :lol

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Originally Posted by Play Boban

18 points in 10 minutes gets you a B+? :lol

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Especially when compared to the performances that also rated a B+ :Anderson, Patty, Lee, Aldredge. I don't mean to downgrade their performances to below B+ if you saw it that way, but without Manu's scoring, directing the offense, and overall energy in his brief appearnce, we are in deep shit in the first half, especially since Green, Aldredge and Kwahi basically didn't play well at all in the first half and still got "As"

He deserves an A+ for that game.

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Originally Posted by RodNIc91

Game Recap:

- The two man game between LMA and Kawhi is almost non-existant isn’t it? Perhaps it is because of the way the offense is designed (I haven’t analysed enough game tape to point out a reason why), but personally I don’t see much chemistry between those two on the offensive side of the court. Isn’t there a way to make them an explosive duo? Is there no interest in doing such thing?

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I think because they both play so much iso ball it is always going to be hard to build chemistry when both players want the ball in their hands.

Great grades! :tu

Great write up

I don't know how one can come out of that game thinking Fathead and Joel Anthony were as good or even better than Simmons.

These grades are pretty bad, tbh.

Kawhi's ball handling was terrible in this game.

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Originally Posted by wildbill2u

Especially when compared to the performances that also rated a B+ :Anderson, Patty, Lee, Aldredge. I don't mean to downgrade their performances to below B+ if you saw it that way, but without Manu's scoring, directing the offense, and overall energy in his brief appearnce, we are in deep shit in the first half, especially since Green, Aldredge and Kwahi basically didn't play well at all in the first half and still got "As"

He deserves an A+ for that game.

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:bobo

The OP is clearly a Parkerfan with an agenda.

Appreciate the effort but the grades are terrible tbh...

Thanks for the grades!

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Originally Posted by Play Boban

18 points in 10 minutes gets you a B+? :lol

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Lol

Nice grades. Generous, but nice.

nice review- the comments were thorough & well thought out. Grades are subjective, so I always take them with a grain of salt.

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Originally Posted by Play Boban

18 points in 10 minutes gets you a B+? :lol

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Originally Posted by Amuseddaysleeper

I think because they both play so much iso ball it is always going to be hard to build chemistry when both players want the ball in their hands.

Great grades! :tu

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How do you watch so much basketball and still not understand this?

Kawhi and Lamarcus are designed to play off each other and are almost always on the opposite side.

They are barely going to interact except in Pick and Roll situation but even then Kawhi is better suited to play with a roller..Thats why he gets more screens with Lee and Gasol and Dedmon

Thanks for the grades. In this day and age if that kind of game doesn't get Manu an A+, nothing ever will.

https://cs7063.vk.me/c637431/v637431...Av2gxLwgHM.jpg

https://pp.vk.me/c637431/v637431782/...fb4exSview.jpg

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Originally Posted by BillMc

https://pp.vk.me/c637431/v637431782/...fb4exSview.jpg

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Thanks for these, where are they from and are they available after every game?

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Originally Posted by BillMc

https://pp.vk.me/c637431/v637431782/...fb4exSview.jpg

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Cool.

What's Kyle's km/hr?

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Originally Posted by apalisoc_9

How do you watch so much basketball and still not understand this?

Kawhi and Lamarcus are designed to play off each other and are almost always on the opposite side.

They are barely going to interact except in Pick and Roll situation but even then Kawhi is better suited to play with a roller..Thats why he gets more screens with Lee and Gasol and Dedmon

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Thanks dude!

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Originally Posted by will_spurs

Thanks for the grades. In this day and age if that kind of game doesn't get Manu an A+, nothing ever will.

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Yeah, I totally missed he did that in 10 minutes. Should've grade him higher.

Great write up, Rod. Good analysis and comments.

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- LMA definitely is engaged on defense whenever he feels involved offensively (Slowpoke much? Has everyone already caught on this?). Otherwise, he doesn’t care so much. This is disappointing considering both that he and Kawhi are 1A-1B supposedly and, that he doesn’t have to spend much energy on the offensive end so it shouldn’t be an excuse. His effort on that end of the court is night and day when he decides to care.

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While I don't disagree with LMA dogging it on defense if he is not part of the offensive flow...I do think the team needs to do a better job of ensuring the latter.

I know Pop has obviously given the keys to Kawhi this season (with good reason), but that should mean Aldridge is in the passenger seat. Sometimes...it feels like he is riding in the back...or even in the trunk.

There may be reasons for this that aren't openly apparent, some of which you mentioned. Maybe he is trying to be more team oriented, or saving himself for the playoffs. Time will only tell.

But when engaged, Aldridge is easily the second most talented offensive player on the team, and it's mind boggling that he should be struggling for shots. He's not really the kind of guy who gives up the ball unnecessarily, but it seems like he'll go minutes at a time without even touching it. The guys should be looking for him, especially if they know it is going to affect his overall game.

Honestly, I don't expect this to be the case once the end of season or playoffs roll around...but I still think they should be reinforcing that habit now.

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Originally Posted by BillMc

https://pp.vk.me/c637431/v637431782/...fb4exSview.jpg

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Davis with the highest speed on the team? Now that's surprising...and a great sign for his player progression.

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Originally Posted by MI21

Thanks for these, where are they from and are they available after every game?

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They are on an Eastern European Spurs chat community site and are usually available most games.

Beetans, Mills and Green run the fastest on average. Something about how they use their three point shooters I guess.

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Originally Posted by apalisoc_9

How do you watch so much basketball and still not understand this?

Kawhi and Lamarcus are designed to play off each other and are almost always on the opposite side.

They are barely going to interact except in Pick and Roll situation but even then Kawhi is better suited to play with a roller..Thats why he gets more screens with Lee and Gasol and Dedmon

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That makes a lot of sense, just with lamarcus's playing style I feel like he hardly has great chemistry with anyone as he loves to go to work on his own but what you're saying about them playing off each other on opposite sides makes a lot of sense.