What has been the problem in the last two games?

[apalisoc_9]

We had to comeback from large deficits just to win close games. I've missed the last three games and i'm kinda curious as to why that's been the case.

[BillMc]

A tired team that has to outsmart their opponents and gear up to get the energy. No energy from the proverbial 'get go."

Also, and I know I'm speaking sacrilege, but the offense hasn't looked very good with Dedmon out there to start the games. His skills are too limited, and with the narrow playmaking abilities of Green and a shooting slump for LMA, it puts a lot of pressure on Kawhi and Tony to create.

O perks up when Pau or Lee get out there. It also gives more space for LMA. But by then we've been behind. Some games Dedmon is a game-changer, some a liability.

[Robz4000]

Dead legs and teams making tough shots.

[Fireball]

no lob city anymore ...

[SpursIndonesia]

We had to comeback from large deficits just to win close games. I've missed the last three games and i'm kinda curious as to why that's been the case.

The rest of the team sans Kawhi play below the par man, some guys (especially Lee & Manu) has been more helpful than others, but nobody's really giving a consistent help to the Klaw.

[Mr. Body]

I think Dedmon's appeal may be waning as a starter. Teams have adjusted. But the team does look tired and not in sync. That they're grinding wins out is great, but hopefully they can click more and not get into OT games and have to expend energy to win games late.

[james evans]

One of the problems is thatwe got a player making $10 million a year to do 2 things, hit open 3s and play defense. And he can't do either of them right now.

[sasaint]

A tired team that has to outsmart their opponents and gear up to get the energy. No energy from the proverbial 'get go."

Also, and I know I'm speaking sacrilege, but the offense hasn't looked very good with Dedmon out there to start the games. His skills are too limited, and with the narrow playmaking abilities of Green and a shooting slump for LMA, it puts a lot of pressure on Kawhi and Tony to create.

O perks up when Pau or Lee get out there. It also gives more space for LMA. But by then we've been behind. Some games Dedmon is a game-changer, some a liability.

I missed watching the game, and I could only follow play-by-play on another site. But O was not the big problem when the Rockets scored 39 points in the first quarter. Deadman is supposed to deter that. Might as well start Pau for his D!

[Chinook]

One of the problems is thatwe got a player making $10 million a year to do 2 things, hit open 3s and play defense. And he can't do either of them right now.

Defense hasn't been Green's problem. Him moving over onto Ariza/Anderson pretty much killed the PnP was destroying the Spurs for most of the game. Not that Kawhi didn't have a great defensive game that may be what he needed to start changing the narrative back to him being the DPOY, but Danny earned his plus-minus.

Biggest problem is that the team is coming out of the gates like it's the beginning of the season every game. Guys definitely need some rest.

[coachmac87]

Lack of energy on the defensive end IMO...

It should start with Green/Dedmon their energy has to be through the roof and contagious but it's been lacking lately. It's a shame because they can really disrupt things but just haven't Bren lately. I think it's because of Pop tbh..he's not hesitant to pull either one if they make ONE mistake. Sooo instead of playing natrually they're thinking too much which leads to ty play.


I feel Pop is to mostly to blame for the inconsistency tbh. When you rest players as much as he does and put health over playoff seeding etc. you can't expect your players to bring it every night..especially early.

Spurs have been coasting tbh

[sasaint]

Dead legs and teams making tough shots.

Question: Don't all teams have dead legs at this juncture - especially those players that play more minutes per game than Pop plays his guys?

[Chinook]

Absolutely hate the timing of most of Pop's TOs nowadays. And I have no idea why it takes him so long to make an adjustment. If you aren't going to post Ryan Anderson up, put a damned small on him like Kyle or Bertans. Lee made it work out by being so awesome, but defensively, the team took way too long to handle that drag screen. It's not like you have to worry about Ryan posting up to get a turn-around long-two.

[manufan10]

They kept switching on the PnR with Aldridge guarding Harden. That was a nightmare.

[Ice009]

Question: Don't all teams have dead legs at this juncture - especially those players that play more minutes per game than Pop plays his guys?

Since I don't believe in resting healthy players too much (I think you should do it within a game by limiting their minutes rather than give them the whole game off), I think the other players that play big minutes are better conditioned. Although, having said that, not many of them play both ends of the court, so that could help them in not being as fatigued even though they play bigger minutes.

The only players I was OK with resting was Tim Duncan and Manu, as they had a lot of mileage and wear and tear on their bodies. I really don't think anyone else should have been getting entire games off. I might add Parker to that list now too.

[GSH]

A tired team that has to outsmart their opponents and gear up to get the energy. No energy from the proverbial 'get go."

Also, and I know I'm speaking sacrilege, but the offense hasn't looked very good with Dedmon out there to start the games. His skills are too limited, and with the narrow playmaking abilities of Green and a shooting slump for LMA, it puts a lot of pressure on Kawhi and Tony to create.

O perks up when Pau or Lee get out there. It also gives more space for LMA. But by then we've been behind. Some games Dedmon is a game-changer, some a liability.

Sadly, the D hasn't looked as good as we had hoped. But I wouldn't abandon ship just yet. It takes time to work a new guy into a starting lineup. It took time to work LMA in, and Pau. No reason why Dedmon should be instant. We all know that Dedmon can play D, just like we all know that he is limited offensively. Pau actually looks to have benefitted from coming off the bench, IMO.

As for not matching the other team's intensity coming out of the gates? Everybody's gunning for the Spurs, for obvious reasons. They come out with their max effort, and eventually punch themselves out.

Pop always says that "good defense leads to good offense". But the second half of that should be that "bad offense is the same as the other team playing good defense - and it leads to them getting easy looks on the other end." The Spurs' offense has really struggled recently. Some of it is Dedmon, but basically all the starters except Kawhi have struggled. That has led to a lot of gimme points for their opponents. At least that's the way I've seen it. The Spurs have shot themselves in the foot a LOT. I think if the offense gets cleaned up, we'll see a lot less easy points for their opponents on the other end. If nothing else, more makes for the Spurs = fewer opportunities for opponents. And makes force them to inbound the ball, which gives the Spurs' defense more time to get set up.

[GSH]

They kept switching on the PnR with Aldridge guarding Harden. That was a nightmare.

And that. Aldridge looked like a ing pylon out there, trying to stay in front of Harden. That was as close as you can get to automatic points.

[sasaint]

Since I don't believe in resting healthy players too much (I think you should do it within a game by limiting their minutes rather than give them the whole game off), I think the other players that play big minutes are better conditioned. Although, having said that, not many of them play both ends of the court, so that could help them in not being as fatigued even though they play bigger minutes.

The only players I was OK with resting was Tim Duncan and Manu, as they had a lot of mileage and wear and tear on their bodies. I really don't think anyone else should have been getting entire games off. I might add Parker to that list now too.

Nah, I don't buy that. I think limiting minutes can prolong a player's career, and the difference in conditioning between a player who plays 35 minutes a game and a guy who plays 40 minutes a game should be negligible. Even taking an occasional game off over the course of an 82-game regular season should be a nada, replicating a break or two in the normal schedule.

[coachmac87]

Absolutely hate the timing of most of Pop's TOs nowadays. And I have no idea why it takes him so long to make an adjustment. If you aren't going to post Ryan Anderson up, put a damned small on him like Kyle or Bertans. Lee made it work out by being so awesome, but defensively, the team took way too long to handle that drag screen. It's not like you have to worry about Ryan posting up to get a turn-around long-two.

I really didn't like how he coached last night..they were switching too much and it got Harden going..

[GSH]

I really didn't like how he coached last night..they were switching too much and it got Harden going..

Once upon a time, the league cracked down on moving screens. They slacked off, and it's gotten out of hand again - across the whole league. Makes it a LOT easier to force a switch. Guys like Harden, who only need a crack of space, benefit the most.

[Chinook]

Once upon a time, the league cracked down on moving screens. They slacked off, and it's gotten out of hand again - across the whole league. Makes it a LOT easier to force a switch. Guys like Harden, who only need a crack of space, benefit the most.

But they'll be damned if the Spurs get away with another travel again.

[james evans]

Defense hasn't been Green's problem. Him moving over onto Ariza/Anderson pretty much killed the PnP was destroying the Spurs for most of the game. Not that Kawhi didn't have a great defensive game that may be what he needed to start changing the narrative back to him being the DPOY, but Danny earned his plus-minus.

Biggest problem is that the team is coming out of the gates like it's the beginning of the season every game. Guys definitely need some rest.

did we watch the same game? Green was getting murdered and was more than willing to switch on the picks in stead of trying to fight thru them.

[Chinook]

did we watch the same game? Green was getting murdered and was more than willing to switch on the picks in stead of trying to fight thru them.

The Spurs have been switching picks this easily every since Messina installed his defense. Obviously, had Pop not wanted them to do it, they would have fixed that really early. "Hey, don't switch" is actually really easy to say and doesn't require a time-out.

What was burning the Spurs on those PnRs is that the bigs weren't pushing Harden off the line. Initially, that was by design, because Harden is a mediocre shooter. But obviously, he shot well last night. However, even after seeing how well Harden was shooting the bigs kept trying to square him up at the arch. Sean diagrammed the correct way for the bigs to play those PnRs, but they probably did it once or twice the whole game.

They did eventually make the adjustment to have the opposite-weak big come over to disrupt the lob as well. That's why the second have had a lot of volley-ball TOs for Houston.

Anyways, I was talking about the PnPs with Anderson and Ariza, not the PnRs. Once the Spurs actually put a wing on Ryan instead of a big, the Rockets just stopped trying to do that.

[SAGirl]

Missed these games too and will miss a few more until halfway next week as I am on vacation. However there are too many guys slumping in the team recently. Glad Tony decided to shoot some 3s and he made them but that's very atypical.

kawhi has been the MVP, a few others are very erratic offensively

[SAGirl]

Sadly, the D hasn't looked as good as we had hoped. But I wouldn't abandon ship just yet. It takes time to work a new guy into a starting lineup. It took time to work LMA in, and Pau. No reason why Dedmon should be instant. We all know that Dedmon can play D, just like we all know that he is limited offensively. Pau actually looks to have benefitted from coming off the bench, IMO.

As for not matching the other team's intensity coming out of the gates? Everybody's gunning for the Spurs, for obvious reasons. They come out with their max effort, and eventually punch themselves out.

Pop always says that "good defense leads to good offense". But the second half of that should be that "bad offense is the same as the other team playing good defense - and it leads to them getting easy looks on the other end." The Spurs' offense has really struggled recently. Some of it is Dedmon, but basically all the starters except Kawhi have struggled. That has led to a lot of gimme points for their opponents. At least that's the way I've seen it. The Spurs have shot themselves in the foot a LOT. I think if the offense gets cleaned up, we'll see a lot less easy points for their opponents on the other end. If nothing else, more makes for the Spurs = fewer opportunities for opponents. And makes force them to inbound the ball, which gives the Spurs' defense more time to get set up.

Thanks for sharing. I had seen that b4 and even with OT etc some games, Spurs opponents are not scoring through the roof. OTOH I have noticed they have guys not shooting well and have been erratic on offense outside Kawhi.

[sananspursfan21]

Isn't this what we beg for every season??? Gritty wins? That was last year's problem. If it was close, our guys lost. I'm loving this. Sure, I'd love to see a little more blowing teams out, but cmon, this is what playoff basketball is going to be about. Stop being spoiled little fans. A team winning these closer games against contenders is exactly what these guys need. Builds chemistry and trust...even if kawhi is the main major weapon