Game Grades: Spurs @ Rockets 11/12/16 W

[SAGirl]

I'll try to answer this... IMO Pop is going for the wins. He has Pau who is showing that he offensively has a lot in the tank. So i think situationally he felt he could maybe extend the lead by playing Pau against lesser players, and I mean at the end of the third quarter. I hope he does this going forward cause spreading the wealth would be awesome. We have a lot of options in the starting lineup and playing Pau with the bench gives him the chance to be a focal point and feel important, which I'd assume, really means a lot to him. So like a old Manu role or current Durant role. I'm not sure if Pop was planning this or if it just happened. I'm sure Pop would want to limit minutes more but maybe he's like, "what the heck,'' and feels he needs to coach more due to Duncan need being there. In past he could have bad stretches and feel like, "we're gonna be fine, just need to be healthy at the end," but now he needs to put them in the best position to win because it's a new team and we have no idea how they will respond. I think it's fairly reasonable to think we need to go for the one seed and for obvious reasons, so we might not see very many tanked games this year.

Thanks.
I like Pop experimenting early. And what you say is coherent with things I have noticed Pop do in past games and even past seasons.

[Robz4000]

Your making things up. The Spurs never played a kawhi centric offense in the playoffs. Porker 21 shots in game 7 two years ago...and never did last year.

Your delusional if you dont think a superstar needs his nights to prepare for playoff games that is more than like going to come down to best players makong buckets or not...

If Kawhi feels like he wants to take 30..he should.

Kawhi should never take 30 shots ever tbh. No one on this team should.

[GSH]

Thanks for the grades, and for taking the time. Nice job again.

Aldridge "showed a lot of effort on the boards and on defense". Except when he didn't. There were times when I just happened to be focused on him, when he just stood and did nothing. Not the whole game, obviously. But some plays when he was seriously a pylon on defense. And several I saw where made zero effort - and I mean ZERO - to fight for rebounds. The Spurs got their asses kicked on the glass, and he let Harden out-hustle him for rebounds more than once. But on a few plays, he just didn't make any kind of move toward the ball. I know he wound up with 10 boards, but none on the offensive end, and he whiffed on more than a couple that he should have had a good shot at. If you remember, last year he picked up quite a few points cleaning up the offensive glass.

One thing you didn't mention is that Gasol led the team in assists with 6. He's knows as a good-passing big man, and if the Spurs are going to get anything near full value out of him, that's going to have to be part of the package. Tonight he did a good job of finding the right pass and delivering.

Looks to me like Simmons has been listening to the coaches and putting effort into improving his game. He's not a one-trick pony anymore on offense, as he's really looking to kick the ball when he penetrates instead of always heading for the rim. He also played some very good defense. He handled Harden about as well as could be expected. He only committed one foul, and that was a very smart foul IIRC.

Did anybody else think Danny looked like he was walking a little funny a couple of times? I thought so, and one of the people I was watching with commented on it. He did get two blocks, which is something he's always done remarkably well for a guard.

The biggest problem with tonight's game is that the Spurs gave up 30 in both the third and fourth quarters. IMO, that had a lot to do with some poor shot selection that gave Harden a lot of chances to run. Give him a full head of steam, and no single player is going to stop him often. Put two guys in front of him, and he dumps to a 3P shooter. I know Pop says that good defense leads to good offense. But this was one of those times that really demonstrate the other side - that bad offense leads to ugly defense.

[raybies]

Thanks for the grades, and for taking the time. Nice job again.

Aldridge "showed a lot of effort on the boards and on defense". Except when he didn't. There were times when I just happened to be focused on him, when he just stood and did nothing. Not the whole game, obviously. But some plays when he was seriously a pylon on defense. And several I saw where made zero effort - and I mean ZERO - to fight for rebounds. The Spurs got their asses kicked on the glass, and he let Harden out-hustle him for rebounds more than once. But on a few plays, he just didn't make any kind of move toward the ball. I know he wound up with 10 boards, but none on the offensive end, and he whiffed on more than a couple that he should have had a good shot at. If you remember, last year he picked up quite a few points cleaning up the offensive glass.

One thing you didn't mention is that Gasol led the team in assists with 6. He's knows as a good-passing big man, and if the Spurs are going to get anything near full value out of him, that's going to have to be part of the package. Tonight he did a good job of finding the right pass and delivering.

Looks to me like Simmons has been listening to the coaches and putting effort into improving his game. He's not a one-trick pony anymore on offense, as he's really looking to kick the ball when he penetrates instead of always heading for the rim. He also played some very good defense. He handled Harden about as well as could be expected. He only committed one foul, and that was a very smart foul IIRC.

Did anybody else think Danny looked like he was walking a little funny a couple of times? I thought so, and one of the people I was watching with commented on it. He did get two blocks, which is something he's always done remarkably well for a guard.

The biggest problem with tonight's game is that the Spurs gave up 30 in both the third and fourth quarters. IMO, that had a lot to do with some poor shot selection that gave Harden a lot of chances to run. Give him a full head of steam, and no single player is going to stop him often. Put two guys in front of him, and he dumps to a 3P shooter. I know Pop says that good defense leads to good offense. But this was one of those times that really demonstrate the other side - that bad offense leads to ugly defense.

I'll have to pay more attention to him them. The few times I watched him play D I noticed effort. Maybe the fact that I noticed was evidence that he wasn't present previously

Overall solid post, thanks.

[GSH]

I'll have to pay more attention to him them. The few times I watched him play D I noticed effort. Maybe the fact that I noticed was evidence that he wasn't present previously

Overall solid post, thanks.

I don't want to leave the wrong impression. I thought your grades and write-up were good. I usually just mention a few little things that I notice in the games. Aldridge had a decent night, and respectable numbers. (Except for that 5-13 shooting. ) One of my old coaches would always say, "Yeah, but there was a lot of chicken left on that bone." That's kind of what I thought about Aldridge tonight - he left a lot of chicken on the bone. But what really disturbed me were those times when he just didn't make any effort at all. A couple of times on defense I thought maybe he just didn't want to pick up another foul - he finished with four. But on the glass - just not even trying to get position, or put a body on anyone. I don't know, the guy had 16 and 10. But I think he could have done a lot to keep Harden and Anderson from having 9 offensive boards between them.

I got pissed on in the game thread about saying this, but Manu was just 2-4 in the first half, without much else in his stat line. He went on a tear there in the third quarter and went 3-3 plus got a couple of FT's. But two of those shots were 3-pointers, and one was assisted by Simmons. Bottom line, with few exceptions, Manu's not beating anyone off the dribble anymore. I kept hoping that he would be able to do it some, but just not as often or for as many minutes. But it's starting to look like that was wishful thinking. Not knocking Manu - it's understandable with his age and mileage, and he's still Manu. He's smart, and a good distributor. But without the threat of slashing to the basket, it puts some limits on the second unit. Probably also says that Simmons is going to get lots of opportunities to prove that he can step his game up. I still miss the old Manu.

[jARS mEsH sEt]

If Kawhi had the ability to get his teammates involved off the dribble while players are in motion more effectively, he'd be the best player in the game. As it stands the combination of his individual offense, marginal ability to get his teammates involved, and DPOY-level defense cements his rank as the 3rd or 4th best player in the league. If he ever makes the jump to skillfully passing out of double teams or quasi double teams while players are in motion, he'd be unstoppable. He can't do that yet.

[monkeypunk]

Why I can't post the last name of former Spurs SF who made a historic shot??

A lot of ******

Is this a joke?

Spell it right and it won't blank it out.

[r0drig0lac]

Simmons needs to play like this every game

[spurs10]

Thanks for the grades! Also have really enjoyed the basketball discourse in this thread. A lot of interesting observation from various people.

[r0drig0lac]

Kawhi should never take 30 shots ever tbh. No one on this team should.

[Yuixafun]

Simmons needs to study 2004/2005 Manu, add some herky jerk. But Manu was genius with the ball and otherwordly instincts. Only baller I ever watched that made me think he was playing 2 seconds ahead of everyon else. I mean he would see things develop before they developed.

[elemento]

Thanks for the grades.

Danny Green is such a huge plus defensively it's ridiculous. I love that we have him back. Team looks much better.

[TheDoctor]

Thanks for the Grades OP

[kaji157]

I do have a question for anyone, since I didn't watch this. I just looked at the stats and noticed Pop played his 3 main bigs a lot in a B2B. I thought this was going to be a game for Dedmon to play more specially after Pau getting 37 minutes last night. So I do wonder if this is just a way to humble him, or it's just a matter of getting Pau and LMA time together since they had not exhibited good chemistry and hadn't been playing well together. It's more of a general wondering...

Truth be told, the team probably needed to focus on LmA and Pau anyways, they were not going to be better by ignoring the issue if they didn't have chemistry. It might just be a function of Pop needing to address this than anything having to do with Dedmon, but since I missed the game, I am wondering.

I think it is as you said, a combination of things.

On offense Dedmon plays off missed shots and occasional open dunk, while Pau, LA and Lee all play a more active role, they need the time to polish how they work together on that end.

On defense, Dedmon has been the best big of them all by far, he has learnt what is expected from him and so far delivered, while the other 3 are having the most trouble, again, it makes sense that Dedmon is relegated this early.

Finally, a humble bath at the begining of the season will also help remind Dedmon and everyone what is and what is not allowed here, we have 7 new guys and Dedmon got to be "the example".

[Thunder1]

Thanx for the grades..

[Yuixafun]

I think it is as you said, a combination of things.

On offense Dedmon plays off missed shots and occasional open dunk, while Pau, LA and Lee all play a more active role, they need the time to polish how they work together on that end.

On defense, Dedmon has been the best big of them all by far, he has learnt what is expected from him and so far delivered, while the other 3 are having the most trouble, again, it makes sense that Dedmon is relegated this early.

Finally, a humble bath at the begining of the season will also help remind Dedmon and everyone what is and what is not allowed here, we have 7 new guys and Dedmon got to be "the example".

All of this exactly.

[Brazil]

Thanks OP, one of the best game grades of the season. Your takes are spot on and you were respectful of all players... keep it up brah

[skulls138]

LaMarcus Aldridge B- : Wanted to give him a C+ but he made his free throws at the end and got a big board. But I'm not surprised he was a -10 for the game. It felt like he missed every shot at the elbow. I dunno, seems like he is just throwing the ball up there and hoping it goes in. No rhythm or anything, just chuck it cause I'm open. Well I liked the passion he played with tonight. He showed a lot of effort on the boards and on defense and even managed to grab 10 boards.

I didnt see the game til the end and one of LMAs last shots was a post up, drive, re-post up, baby hook. Simple, easy, in-rhythm. Thats what Id like to see more of. I think he also kicked out after they double teamed him and they passed around to find the open man. Parker finally got the ball and should have made it and LMA should have tapped it in but the point is, it was an open shot from LMA posting up and finding the open man instead of jump shot. And he got another double/double. Thumbs up.

And thanks for the grades.

[Proxy]

Super happy DG is back