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Nice write up OP
Anyone know why LMA only played 18 minutes? Was it because of the back-to-back coming? His ankle still tender? In Pop's doghouse?
San Antonio Spurs (12-3) @ Denver Nuggets (6-9)
November 28, 2015
San Antonio came to Denver without Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili on Friday. Without their defensive anchor and bench playmaker, there were lots of questions regarding how the team would play, and how their bench players would step up. The Spurs and Nuggets both finished the first quarter with 16 points, and the game started off slowly. The Spurs played worse though in the second, and the Nuggets pulled ahead for a bit. The San Antonio bench looked lost. At about 4 minutes left in the first half, Kawhi checked back in the game, and in what felt like a 20 second stretch, Kawhi blocked a shot, ran back, blocked another shot, and made a three. From there on out, Leonard and Parker essentially played a two man game and brought the Spurs back in the lead. From then on out, the Spurs were in charge, and after a string of threes, never looked back.
- Boban Marjanovic got the start in place of Duncan. Wonderful! He lumbered and tromped around, looking clumsy, but once again stuffed the stat sheet in limited minutes. He only played 6 minutes, but picked up 4 rebounds (2 offensive), 1 assist, and 2 fouls. He was pulled quickly, but boy is he fun to watch.
- Kyle Anderson and Jonathon Simmons got big minutes after barely playing so far this season, and made the most of it. Anderson did surprisingly well today; didn't rush anything on offense, took what was given, and played well on defense. He didn't bite on fakes, stuck with his man, and contested the shot. He's looking more and more comfortable on the court, and finished with 5 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists in 28 minutes. Not huge numbers, but he played much better than the numbers indicate.
- Jonathon Simmons got 26 minutes, his largest in the season after a few DNPs. He looked like a barely-controlled ball of lightning out on the court, sprinting around everywhere. Simmons looked like a mess when he checked into the game, flying around on defense and losing assignments, but over the course, calmed down and controlled his game a little more. Offensively, he drove recklessly and finished solidly. The Spurs haven't had someone crazy fast to drive and break down defenses this year with Parker looking slow, but if Simmons can control his game and pick up some solid rotation minutes, I'd call that another great Spurs front office pickup. His potential alone was more than worth the contract; he shows flashes of a homeless man's Russel Westbrook on offense, and almost had another great full-speed spin and finish in the lane. It was blocked (dangerously close to a goal-tend), but if he can get comfortable, Simmons might end up looking a little bit like a young Ginobili off the bench. Simmons finished with 12 points (4-8), 2 rebounds, 2 steals, and a whopping 5 turnovers in 26 minutes of play.
- David West did a solid job today. It wasn't his best outing, but once again he rebounded and passed well (6rb, 1ast, 2stl). He shot 0-4, unfortunate given how rough things looked for the bench. As well as he fits in the Spurs offense (his shots were good looks, they just didn't fall), West got lost a few times on the Nuggets pick-and-roll. More than a few times, the Nuggets ran a pick with Gallinari or Barton, and West rotated to help out on the drive. Then, the big guys would come screaming down the open lane for a dunk, or a missed layup and follow-up rebound/dunk. The collapse wasn't all on West, but the Spurs needed to adjust. Luckily, they did.
- Danny Green and Patty Mills looked much better today. They fought and scrambled on the defensive end, and both played great transition defense. Green's reputation for arguably the best transition defender in the league showed today; he finished with 0 fouls and was almost always able to contest Denver's fast-break attempts, affecting the shot. Green finished 3-9 for the game and 3-6 from three, while Patty finished 4-7 and 1-4 from three. Even if the numbers weren't great, they looked good and got the shots in flow without hesitation.
- Parker looked slow several times on defense, but he was once again a pest. Parker is looking as good as he probably can on the defensive end, chasing people around. Unfortunately, he's just not as fast as he used to be and got burned a couple times on drive fakes and pull-back jumpers. On the offensive end though, Parker was great. He broke down defenses, made great passes, and shot well to bring the Spurs back. For a little bit, he looked like he was young again, taking control of the game; driving and kicking, drawing defenders, and making shots any time the defense gave him an inch. He even had a seamless catch-and-shoot three from a pass from Kawhi. It looked great, and hopefully Parker shoots those threes whenever he's open this season rather than driving, because he's been making the few he attempts. Parker and Leonard looked great together out on the court, passing to each other multiple times and getting a great shot off nearly every time. The two-man game they played to close out the half was huge. Parker finished with 13 points on 6-7 shooting and had 5 assists in 24 minutes.
- Kawhi Leonard was an absolute monster today. The Nuggets were able to keep up with the Spurs while he was on the bench, but when Leonard checked back in to close out the second quarter, he went nuts. The defense flows so much with him on the court and barking orders. Man-on-man defense, help defense, fast-break defense, any time the Nuggets had the ball and even thought about scoring, Leonard made his presence felt. The number of possessions and potential fast breaks broken up by Kawhi were numerous, and he essentially willed the Spurs in front. On the other end, Kawhi looked like he couldn't miss. In one article, there was a mention of how Chip showed Kawhi Kobe's shooting form, and sometimes you can see it. Last game against Dallas, the dagger 3 looked like a young Kobe shot, and today Kawhi was just faking shots, passes, and drives multiple times before drilling the shot. He got guys off their feet, and even if the defender got a hand anywhere near Leonard, it didn't matter. He shot and passed out of double teams like it was nothing. Leonard finished the game with 25 points (11-18/2-4 from three), 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 steals, and 5 blocks with only 2 turnovers in 32 minutes of play.
Diaw and Aldridge looked like a mixed bag today. Diaw had some great passes and an overall very quiet, Boris-like game. Aldridge looked out of place at times, rushing several shots. Both got a bit mixed up on defense at times. The Spurs are still figuring out how to work with LaMarcus, and him with the team, unfortunately.
The Spurs took a while to get clicking, both on offense and defense today, but when they did they looked great. At the end, the Spurs shot 48% from the floor, while holding Denver to 40% and 80 points. Messy at times, but there were stretches where the Spurs just looked unstoppable. The final score was 91-80, Spurs.
Box Score and Recap from Yahoo
Last edited by ILoveOranges; 11-28-2015 at 02:08 AM.
Nice write up OP
Anyone know why LMA only played 18 minutes? Was it because of the back-to-back coming? His ankle still tender? In Pop's doghouse?
Kawhis game was as effective as a triple double just spread among more stats. What a game!!!
I hope there's a stretch in January where Pop starts West for 5-10 games and lets Duncan come off the bench. DWest has shown a lot in the time I've seen him on the court. He is a compe or and doesn't take any plays off.
Parker is going to get burned, every PG in the league gets burned because they have to fight through so many screens. I think Parker has been above average on D this year for 1s. He's held his own more often than not. He does have nights where he struggles on that end though, to be sure.
Simmons has potential to be like a CoJo, when everyone else is a little sleepy, he comes in and gives the team an injection of energy. We've come to expect that from Patty, but he's getting more minutes now so it's less noticeable.
Kawhi is making a case for a top 5 player in the League status. Seriously, the DMVP voting is already over as far as I'm concerned, barring health issues. Leonard is the best defender in the league and it's not particularly close. If he gets anywhere near 25 PPG this year he should have a STRONG case for a top 3 player in the league and a run at 2nd in MVP voting, which sadly is Steph's to lose at this point.
Thanks for the thoughts, I missed a chunk of this game, so game grades won't be happening.
Thanks for the thoughts!!
IMO... back to back.Nice write up OP
Anyone know why LMA only played 18 minutes? Was it because of the back-to-back coming? His ankle still tender? In Pop's doghouse?
He's definitely not in Pop's doghouse; I doubt that would happen barring a horrible game. Today was pretty bad for him though. His shots looked forced, and he got lost a few times on defense. Aside from that, Popovich went with small ball for large stretches of the game.Nice write up OP
Anyone know why LMA only played 18 minutes? Was it because of the back-to-back coming? His ankle still tender? In Pop's doghouse?
Yeah, I've been feeling the same way for a while. Today, even though the Spurs iso'd Leonard, it happened fast in the flow of the offense and didn't break anything up. He passed the ball back and forth, attacking and passing out for a reset whenever he didn't get a good look. I feel like West, with his passing and overall fit in the offense right now would look better starting. Aldridge would get the benefit of coming off the bench with Patty, Ginobili, and Diaw, who all share the ball amazingly well. I think this would help him learn much quicker than with two ball-heavy offense players in Paker and Leonard.
The only thing missing from the starting lineup would be the Duncan/Aldridge pairing around the rim, which has been amazing. Reminds me of when Duncan and Robinson still played together, it's been stifling defense. Even though today was an off day for Aldridge, the number of looks he gets and the effort he gives on defense makes me think it won't be long before he fits seamlessly into the Spurs offense.
Leonard is for sure looking like a top 5 player. The past two games, he's just taken over for large stretches on offense, while essentially playing the same, if not better, DPOY defense. I didn't think he'd look like a considerable MVP candidate before and to start the season, even with his monster game against the Thunder, but he's been looking better and better. Those isolations to start the season that slowed down the offense have been transitioning to little micro-isos, and he's been moving a lot better without the ball. The team as well has been responding to both giving him the ball and reacting when he has the ball much faster and fluidly. I'm amazed how fast they've started to gel together.
While the older Pop playing mad scientist tonight...
Thanks for doing these ILoveOranges
Agree with you on all accounts. Lively description of the game!
I don't truly know. I do recall that the defense was much better with Anderson at the 4 and Diaw at the 5, than when LMA was on there. Anderson at the 4 was the most effective defensive lineup. Like the OP says although he had an underwhelming line if you didn't watch the game, he has very good instinct and was able to sniff out a lot of plays and contest shots.Nice write up OP
Anyone know why LMA only played 18 minutes? Was it because of the back-to-back coming? His ankle still tender? In Pop's doghouse?
I mentioned it in the gamethread while I was watching the game, that Lamarcus was concerning in that regard. I don't think he had an advantage bc he could not exploit the small ball the Nuggets were throwing out there scoring inside, and then on defense was picked apart. The worst offender on PnR defense was West like the OP pointed out, but Lamarcus wasn't very good tonight.
It is possible Pop was saving him for tomorrow some, but he just didn't have a good game.
No problem! The game thoughts and grades were a huge part of why I came to this forum in the first place. I'll try to post up thoughts whenever I get the chance to sit down for a few hours and watch the games, which will probably come and go. If I can help this forum get back a little bit of how it used to be though, I'll be happy to contribute what I can!
I imagine it was a bit of both Aldridge being ineffective and trying to save him. Like he usually does on back-to-backs, Pop will manage the minutes heavily and since Aldridge had a frustrating game, he'll probably give him more time and call more looks for him. This was a rough game for San Antonio's bigs, but like the Spurs always are in the regular season, they're a work in progress. There's going to be plenty more tinkering, and with the talent this team has I think they'll only get better.
Did you participate in the thread the other night after the Mavs game where we had a brief discussion about how statistically the DWest/Diaw defensive combo was actually better than average? I asked a poster (don't recall who) if he could post D ratings for all the various combos of Timmy, LMA, Diaw and DWest, which he did. It turns out that LMA/DWest is our worst, but LMA/Diaw and Tim/DWest are both very good. I have been advocating the use of these as our primary big combos for some time, and I think that is what will ultimately happen - at least until Playoffs.
You hit the nail on the head about PGs all getting burned. The league should enforce moving screen fouls more strictly, especially on repositions at the top of the key to rub PGs in both directions. They have rough going fighting through legal screens, but they get screwed a lot by non-enforcement of moving screen violations. In short, I agree that Tony gets a bad rap for his D, but he is also getting very little acclaim for his offensive game, which is improving every night out. He had a stellar game tonight, going 6/7 and a great floor game. He is getting very little love this season, and he has turned in a couple of very fine performances, capped by tonight's.
Simmons is slowly learning when to be aggressive on his drives and when they will get him into trouble. He is starting to do more of the former and less of the latter. He has good instincts on both ends, and I think he can learn to be a troublesome defender, like Cojo.
Leonard is easily a top 5 player.
The game grade that would be hardest would be LMA's. He played very little and not too well, but it was mostly a small ball game that Boris, DWest and Kyle handled adequately. Even though we really didn't need LMA, it was a little weird that he didn't really assert himself when he was on the floor.
Thanks to you (and all the guys) who put in the effort to post these game grades. You pretty well described the game I watched. I may have liked Tony's performance a little more than you. I thought he was outstanding. I think he is growing into his new role very well, better and better with each game. Took his shot in the flow and shot lights out. Really seemed like a masterful floor general when he was in the game. If he is this steady, we will be terrific. Manu was not missed tonight.
Satan
I rewatched some sections of the game, and noticed that Patty was very, very poor on PnR. It caused West to get consistently burned, and West is already slow laterally and on PnR, but combined with Patty it was a disaster.
I retract my comment on Ray. Pop is possibly holding him back based on his reluctance with new players, and PG is the most important position on offense. It's possible Ray may know some basic sets from his experience with the Kings, but not enough for Pop to feel comfortable with him, and trust that he will make the right choices. However, defensively Ray was by far much, much better than Patty for 3 mins in the 3rd. The rest of Ray minutes came in garbage time, but Patty is extremely limited on PnR defense. He's just such a small PG that he's not going to bother most guards, prevent the pass, or recover after the screen in time to do anything, therefore he needs a whole lot of help on PnR defense and a little luck. The best I have seen on PnR D with Patty is when the guy guarding the screener hedges (true bigs like TD do that) or simply switches to Patty's guard (all our perimeter players including Anderson + Diaw are capable), but West was not doing either here. I guess that was not the scheme Pop wanted. Pop seemed like he was encouraging Mudiay to shoot giving him space, but Mudiay got far enough into the paint and avoided Pop's wish to instead make a nice pass to the roll man, and that move killed us for some possessions in the game, and quite honestly a better team would have given us a repeat of Kanter/Adams and OKC. Denver's bigs missed a lot of bunnies off this move.
Still a terrific defensive game, but it was the one spot where Patty/West got burned repeatedly, and I noticed a better handling of the situation by Ray, which gives me hope for Ray.
On LMA he wasn't as bad as I thought. He just didn't stand out in his minutes. They doubled him when he was very close to the basket and forced TO off of that, he hit some jumpers early in the first half but in the second half, Pop had him catching the ball close to the basket and the quick doubles forced TO. On D he nothing special, particularly with the night Kawhi was having, but he also wasn't particularly bad and the game was extremely perimeter based. Good call by Pop on saving him for Sat.
Last edited by SAGirl; 11-28-2015 at 05:25 AM.
Can LMA play small ball or not? That's the big question.
I kind of like the lineup of Diaw, Leonard, Green, Simmons and Anderson. Denver had a lot of easy baskets against Mills and Parker. There were many times the defenses had to switch where Mills and Parker we stuck defending a 6'-10" guy like Galinari. Against a team like GSW, Mills and Parker are going to be exposed.
I originally had higher expectations of McCallum, unfortunately that's pretty much gone now. He has the same liability in defense as Parker and Mills without much of the offense.
LMA also is a disappointment. He doesn't have the speed or skills that I expected for a max player. In fact, I would say that a guy like Diaw is more valuable in today's game than a guy like LMA.
There's a feeling out there that the Spurs are hiding their true weapons come playoff time. My hope is that these weapons are LMA and West playing the stretch 4 and hitting the 3's.
Damn,would have watched if i knew Simmons gets so much time on the floor.
All great points. Good write up and good discussion. Kawhi was Jordanesque tonite. Parker was a beast too. Kyle's stats weren't great, but I like watching him...always in control and his shot & release reminds me of Dirk. Simmons...wow, that guy could be something. It seemed Leonard really liked having another athletic guy on the court with him.
And big props to POP for choosing the right game to really give us a good look at some new guys. This is how it's done.
Last edited by SouthernFried; 11-28-2015 at 07:44 AM.
He's fun to watch. I really hope he finds a solid role.
He has such great speed and body control. I'd really like to see him learn to defend like Green
He doesn't have the length of Green, but he's got potential. I think he had two steals in this game and he's shown to be very good in transition defense.
Brief, but great synopsis. Agreed, once again Pop is on the money.
Actually, I appreciate LMA more than I expected. His D is good, and he is a great offensive rebounder, and I don't really want to see him moving way out on the perimeter trying to transform himself into a 3-point shooter. I am pleased that he is trying to adjust to our game rather than the other way around. Our team-oriented approach is way better than the iso approach he is accustomed to.
Agreed. Don't want him to become LeBron-era Bosh, where he just floats outside and sometimes fails to get a rebound all game. Love the d and boards. Even if we're still waiting on the shots to fall, he's a HUGE upgrade over Tiago. (And I really liked Splitter).
Simmons had a good game. But he spends too much time standing around on the weak side 3 pt line waiting for a pass that isn't going to come to a rookie. It looks like he's deferring too much to the vets who are iso on the strong side and winds up alone. He'll have to prove himself to be a reliable 3pt shooter. If he'd keep moving without the ball I think he'll have more passes come his way as he attacks the paint.
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