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Missed the 2nd half, thanks for the grades
Overview: Pop’s on-going quest to find a lineup poor enough to give Brooklyn a game continues. For the first quarter, it looked like he succeeded. The Nets opened up a 15-6 lead, and the Spurs didn’t fully erase it until the last minute of the first. The second quarter compe ive for 10 minutes until the Spurs went on a 9-2 run to open up a 10-point lead going into the half. The lead never shrank to single digits again.
This was about as forgettable as any 26-point blowout can be. There were mostly just a bunch of mediocre performances ranging from above-average (Anderson and Mills) to below-average (Murray and Simmons). No one broke out or dominated, and Forbes was the only guy to disappoint. At least GS lost. Onto Toronto.
Box Score:
STARTERS MIN FG 3PT FT OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF +/- PTS L. AldridgePF 27 8-19 0-1 0-0 4 5 9 5 2 2 1 2 +2 16 D. DedmonC 29 4-5 0-0 2-2 1 7 8 1 1 1 2 4 +18 10 D. MurrayPG 22 2-8 0-2 0-0 1 5 6 3 0 0 2 1 +4 4 D. GreenSG 33 4-8 1-3 0-0 0 2 2 1 2 0 1 1 +14 9 K. AndersonSG 35 6-10 1-1 1-2 0 3 3 3 1 2 0 0 +16 14 BENCH MIN FG 3PT FT OREB DREB REB AST STL BLK TO PF +/- PTS D. LeePF 25 7-13 0-0 1-2 4 3 7 2 1 0 1 2 +26 15 D. BertansSF 12 3-5 2-4 3-3 0 2 2 2 0 0 0 5 +8 11 J. AnthonyC 5 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 3 4 0 0 0 0 0 -1 0 P. MillsPG 20 7-13 4-6 2-3 1 2 3 2 0 0 1 0 +26 20 B. ForbesSG 13 1-6 0-3 0-0 1 1 2 1 0 0 0 0 +0 2 J. SimmonsSG 19 3-7 1-2 4-4 0 4 4 2 0 0 0 2 +17 11 K. LeonardSF DNP-COACH'S DECISION M. GinobiliSG DNP-COACH'S DECISION TEAM 45-95 9-22 13-16 13 37 50 22 7 5 8 17 112 47.4% 40.9% 81.3%
Grades:
LaMarcus Aldridge – B: LMA the defensive anchor is a thing. Well, perhaps this wasn’t the game to show it. He is getting his hands on a lot of balls nowadays (seven blocks in the last four games), and he’s doing so without fouling too much. While the Spurs are going to need his offense against the best teams, they will need his defense even more. He wasn’t efficient scoring, but he made the right passes when he was pressured, and that’s something he’ll probably have to do in the playoffs as well.
DeJounte Murray – B: This is a bit of a pessimistic grade for Murray, since I think this will be in line with his average line. He was not horrible by any means. It’s just that the shots that he was making the last two outings didn’t fall. I like the floater as an option to have in your back pocket when driving at a man, but it’s usually not a reliable weapon, especially used from distance like DeJounte uses it. He’ll need better go-to moves in the paint to be a consistent inside scorer. On the plus side, he continues to show that he’ll be a factor on the glass.
Kyle Anderson – B-plus: Kyle followed up a superlative defensive effort against Cleveland with an above-average offensive effort tonight. The D was still there, as was the passing. For 35 minutes, I’d like to see closer to eight rebounds, but nobody’s perfect. He Vinnyed a three but knocked down another, so the stroke was there. He was strong at finishing at the rim. He was part of the overpassing that hampered the Spurs in the middle of the game, but he did his job getting good shots for himself and others.
Danny Green – B-minus: Green continues his under-the-radar slump. Overall, he shot well in the game, going 3/5 on long jumpers (counting those long-twos), so the shot’s not broken. It was disappointing that he started out the game teasing that it was going to be a patented LDN game and it ended up being a pretty lackluster outing. The D was there, though, with him completely erasing Foye and making Kilpatrick an inefficient scorer. With everyone healthy, this is a very solid game. With so many guys out, though, him not stepping up on O is a disappointment.
Dewayne Dedmon – B-plus: He threatened a double-double without getting into horrible foul trouble. This was a solid game in terms of what the team needs him to do, and he teased skills beyond his role once again with a nice bounce-pass to Bertans and a pretty-looking elbow jumper. Dude’s mother cost him millions so far. Who knows how good he could have been at this point? He’ll be able to cry into his millions next season, though.
Davis Bertans – B-plus: The good: 11 points on six possessions. You don’t get much more efficient than that. The bad: The dude played a quarter of the game because he was a foul machine. That alone makes it a major disappointment for Davis, but the line itself would be tremendous if it came in a fourth-big role with the full cast. The potential is there for him to be that guy this season. Come on, Pop.
Patty Mills – B-plus: With so many guys out, Mills picked a good game to use to regain his form. He was aggressive and accurate from three, and he pretty much blew the game open by himself at the end of the first half. He scored nine points and had an assist during the Spurs 13-9 run in the final three minutes of the second quarter. By the time he saw the court again, the game was over. But the dude still threw in some more points.
Jonathon Simmons – B: There’s no shame in scoring 11 points on nine possessions and having a couple of assists with no TOs. It’s kind of surprising that he only played 19 minutes in a game where he was the third wing and third-string PG. I went through the play-by-play to make sure, but it doesn’t seem like anyone went off against him, either.
David Lee – B-plus: This line is threatening an A when the squad is healthy. As it was, it’s what we’ve come to expect from Lee in this time without Pau. Lee being willing to shoot that mid-range two is really helpful to his individual game, and he doesn’t shoot it to the extent that it hurts the team’s efficiency. His ability to score is just so welcome on a team where the other bigs seem to make it harder on themselves to get points a lot of the time. What a pickup he’s been.
Bryn Forbes – C: I don’t want to say he sucked, but I also want to say the truth. Dude just doesn’t seem like an NBA player. The shots are one thing; we know he’ll hit his open looks eventually. But his inability to do anything else is really highlighting those misses. I don’t know what he can learn in Austin that will make the difference. He’s small and slow and not athletic.
Joel Anthony – INC: Four boards in five minutes. That’s pretty incredible. Sure, he did nothing else of note and is the only Spur to carry a negative plus-minus, but I wouldn’t mind having another strong rebounder on the bench. If the team can’t secure a worthwhile prospect to stash on the bench, I’d be fine with giving Anthony the last spot, especially since he seemed to have earned on in camp anyway. I think he could help the team down the stretch in games where LMA and Pau are rested.
Pop – B: He got the team out of NY without further injuries. That’s the good news. That he had to play Green and Anderson 68 minutes to do it is the bad news. Kyle is mostly fine, as I am assuming he’s not going to play a big role tomorrow. But when you have a perfectly good Simmons on the bench, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to play Green so much. And I’m like the biggest proponent of playing Green on this site. Honestly, Pop didn’t have a lot of work with, and he didn’t do much with what he had. This was fine by him.
Missed the 2nd half, thanks for the grades
Very nice set of grades and write-up on individuals. When I read the intro, and you said "below average" for Simmons, I thought, "Oh, , here we go." But you pretty much nailed it in the grades section. I'll take a B from Simmons every night. And if that line was a B (and it was), it means that our expectations for him are a little higher than they were to start the season (as they should be).
If you had given Murray a C, I wouldn't have blinked. He looked like a rookie tonight. But considering where he was in November, he's still come a long, long way. I mentioned it in the game thread, but the thing I like the most was his body language. He wasn't beating himself up, and he didn't look like a deer in the headlights. I bet he'll ask a lot of questions in the next couple of days, and I will be surprised if he doesn't punish the next team that over-commits to him that much.
Also glad you credited Danny, because it was the kind of game where people here usually say he was terrible. He scattered some very good defensive plays through a quietly solid game. Sadly, 9 points is above average for him this year. If he could work his way up to a consistent 11-12, it would make a world of difference to this team. I just don't see how it's going to happen.
Thanks for taking all the time, and for getting the grades out so quickly. For those who didn't get to see it, this is the next best thing.
Thanks for the grades Chinook... very much appreciated!
I wondered about Simmons only 19 minutes, while Danny played a ton last night, over 30 in this one and they need him again. I don't understand it either. I totally get Kyle 35 minutes... he has barely played, is 23, healthy and only played 17 minutes last night. If there's one that was fresh and needed to get a rhythm with his shooting and confidence it was him. I thought Simmons gave up some minutes so that Pop could see Bryn Forbes myself, but he could have cut Danny's minutes a little too... I didn't give it much thought until you brought it up actually.
I have a question, how do you propose Pop work Davis in? Real question. Do you want Pop to promote Dedmon to start, run Lee/Bertans? What about Pau?
This is out of topic but Pau stating he's going to pick up his option makes me think one of Lee or Dedmon is most assuredly gone next season if they want to promote Davis for real... and that is fine, but I can't see Pop doing that this season, though who knows? It's an interesting subject.
Forbes underwhelmed. They gave him the ball to make plays and at least he didn't look as scared as he did before and there were no major issues (no TO for Example), but he also didn't show any play making and got stuck at times on set (no good passes out of the PnR), was actually bailed out by Davis from a pass when he took a contested 3 that he made. Hate to say it but if his shot is not on he doesn't give anything and he's too small to be a SG...
Thanks for the grades
Just want to add-
LMA's passing in general has been great lately. I think this is his 6th or 7th game with 5 assists or more this month. His decision making has just been solid overall.
Lee's motor man. Dude is non-stop hustle, and his ability to finish around the rim with either hand, and with the ability to dunk on folks (with his patented stare down) is just amazing. We had nothing like that from the front court last year. He's also shown sneaky good shot blocking ability this year
Anderson has been doing a solid job of stripping guys the last few games. His hands might be the quickest element to his game tbh, but it comes in handy.
Overall it was a solid performance. Started very slow, 2nd unit came in and provided some spark, and they really just pulled away after Pop called a timeout when it was 37-36.
Those aren't easy questions. Lee has been so good and Dedmon is so necessary. I wouldn't want to have a Lee/Bertans back court even with Pau out of the picture. Right now, I'd like for one of Anderson or Bertans to start any time the team could get away with it. That buys me another few weeks to think about how this would work. Depending on how Dewayne performs, I think the team might benefit most from LMA/Lee and Gasol/Bertans or Gasol/Anderson. Obviously, you want Dedmon playing well enough to start, so him falling out of the rotation would suck. But there are nights where I can see how it could happen.
If it does, having Lee there to threaten the rim and make LMA's life easier with the starters would be interesting. Against teams like GS, I think LMA/Lee do more to take advantage of GS' lack of size than Gasol/LMA do, because David's a superior rebounder and inside scorer. Meanwhile, Pau against David West off the bench should be a huge advantage to the Spurs. If Lee can play with Dedmon and Simmons as his front-court flanks, he can definitely play with LMA and Kawhi.
So that's how you're going to play it...
Missed the whole game..Thanks for the grades
Who did the Cavs grades?
Our boy HarlemHeat37 had the call. Hoping he's planning on doing a package deal with that game and the one tomorrow.
Going to miss that game too..
Its going to be interesting to see how Pop plays them now that Pau is out bc they will all have chances. I wouldn't expect Anthony to pass either Davis or Kyle (unless they are getting bullied and in that case it becomes a matchup thing and Pop is likely to stick to his other 3 bigs and give them more time) and I will be honest I was surprised Pop went to Kyle against the Cavs bc he has almost exclusively played Davis as the 5th big and Kyle has been in the doghouse (but Davis' game against Denver was very poor on defense and I think Pop changes his mind, but it still surprised me.)
Dope review. Thanks!
Thanks for the write-up
thanks op! good stuff
smdh one of the best games of the NBA season, I'll do grades if he doesn't have something up in 24 hrs.
Thanks for the grades, good Sir!
Spurs win, and the Warriors lose!
Great day!
thanks op! good stuff
Pop should always play Kyle against bad teams. The announcer was all raves about his 7'2" wingspan. Honestly, he's like the glue guy that does little things in both offense and defense. However, he needs to be more aggressive, like he was in this game. I liked what I saw.
Speaking now about Forbes. Almost anyone in the NBA can make a 3 point shot, the issue is whether (1) you can make and hit is while being contested and (2) are not a liability in defense. Forbes is Parker's size, so that counts as a liability. A player like Forbes that can't create needs his team mates to set him up. I still have faith that he's going to be serviceable.
Simmons likely sat for the same reason Leonard sat. Toronto is athletic and guys like Bertans and Anderson are the ones going to sit on the bench.
Solid write up and grades Chinook
Yes please and thank you
Appreciated the write-up..
boy, does Forbes even belong there?
I find it difficult, however, to reconcile your two characterizations of Simmons' play. In your introduction you characterized his play as "below average." Yet you gave him a grade of "B." I would have characterized his play as "solid," which I would call "above average" for a player I consider to be improving but erratic. I really don't disagree with the game grade, though. Semantics...
Missed the game, thanks Chinook, good stuff
Thanks for the grades man
Green looked so smooth offensively taking his shot. No hesitation taking shots off the dribble. I loved what I saw.
Forbes is a good shooter, but he has no clue how to be in position to get open looks . He looks completely lost on the court. He is really struggling to figure out the offensive system.
What's the story with Dedmon's mom costing him millions?
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