Game Thread: Spurs @ Nuggets -- TUE. (2/13) - 9:30/C (5:30am Riga Time)

[Slippy]

TP/Murray played damn good. Legs gave out. It was obvious. SA was massive underdogs in both these road games, especially this one.

Hope Manu is ok.

Would of preffered more of tony for stability . DJ had more TO's than assists. Spurs are regularly blowing 4th quarters. Patty & Dj struggle to run da show & make too many mistakes when the pressure is on. Wish pop would prioritize wiinning over growing pains. Unless he really is tanking which i hope not

[Brunodf]

WTF joffery???
24min 26pts 11reb 3ast...

He's a rookie, would be unfair to the other guys to give him more minutes #equality

[SAGirl]

Going to be a long flight home. Worst RRT in our history.....by a long shot.

I mean when Pop rests Lamarcus so he's ready for the all star game. they play 37 year old Pau as the only big pretty much all night last night on a close draining loss... he didn't have it. Many guys were tired. The young legs had it for a while but it was an up and down game at a really fast pace and Dijon is basically a rook. Does he know how to control tempo, call plays, set up something adequately. No.

This was predetermined. It wasn't as embarrassing bc they had a hot shooting night. It easily could have been and looked worse.

[spurraider21]

Yes, and you'd get a blow-out win, like a team as talented as the Spurs when healthy is wont to get. This was a pretty standard game for RRT. They come out of these games with wins most years. Pop would sit the Big Three on the second night of a B2B and the others would get them a win. Parker/Green/Anderson/Bertans/Gasol with guys like Mills and Murray tossed in aren't a playoff rotation, but they're the type that's gotten wins for SA more often than not in years past.

this squad is substantially less experienced than previous years where the spurs were notoriously old/veteran. you dont have guys like diaw, splitter, marco anymore. its a younger cast that is still learning on the fly. murray/bertans weren't rotation players a year ago, and anderson barely got minutes

its basically pau and danny at this point, and danny has been . im not going to blame danny's poor play on pop

[dabom]

this squad is substantially less experienced than previous years where the spurs were notoriously old/veteran. you dont have guys like diaw, splitter, marco anymore. its a younger cast that is still learning on the fly. murray/bertans weren't rotation players a year ago, and anderson barely got minutes

its basically pau and danny at this point, and danny has been . im not going to blame danny's poor play on pop

Forbes too.

[SAGirl]

Seems the only one who realizes Jokic is an atrocious defender and attacks the rim every time is Joffrey.

Joff had been rested all season for this game tbh.

[spurraider21]

Forbes too.

yeah and patty went from microwave to toaster

[Chinook]

this squad is substantially less experienced than previous years where the spurs were notoriously old/veteran. you dont have guys like diaw, splitter, marco anymore. its a younger cast that is still learning on the fly. murray/bertans weren't rotation players a year ago, and anderson barely got minutes

its basically pau and danny at this point, and danny has been . im not going to blame danny's poor play on pop

I'm confused as to why Parker, Manu (for the first six or seven quarters of this B2B) and Mills wouldn't factor into your calculus for vets. Anyways, you have Cory, Nando and others stepping up in those days. It's not like it wasn't young and bit players back then, too.

And because it's in my contract, I have to point out that Danny hasn't sucked for a couple of weeks now. He's shooting like 50 percent from three since Pop benched him.

[dabom]

yeah and patty went from microwave to toaster

Well we didn't lose cause of him. So...

[$pursDynasty]

Joff had been rested all season for this game tbh.

first time he looked like the younger David Lee he was advertised as. Hopefully it isn't a one off.

[spurraider21]

Well we didn't lose cause of him. So...

that's a really low standard for a 50 million dollar player

[SAGirl]

Maybe Poop realized Wolves and Thunder both lost tonight, wants to keep them close to manipulate playoff matchups. If they both would have won tonight, more HOTS less Mills ( which means a win) but this allowed him to pseudo rest Tony...CIA

Frankly the moment it was announced that Lamarcus was going to sit out these two games... these were two losses in my book.
They were surprisingly good scoring to keep these games close but I really didn't expect them to win it, they don't have rim protectors, Pau can't defend a PnR to save his life and there is nothing Pop can do bc he can's switch, he can't hedge, he doesn't contest on Jokic's 3s... I mean that is just one aspect of it. JOLO was surprisingly effective scoring but he also gave up layups after layups... they made runs and couldn't get stops.

Pop has to start by looking at himself and what he thought he would get out of these lineups. He has needed an extra big all season, but no. I mean they did better than I thought they would if I am honest.

[Slippy]

Finally, never saw what was so special about Bryn.

Forbes hasnt been special for awhile now. Time to move on from him. Spots mins is all he deserves for rest of the season.

[DPG21920]

I'm confused as to why Parker, Manu (for the first six or seven quarters of this B2B) and Mills wouldn't factor into your calculus for vets. Anyways, you have Cory, Nando and others stepping up in those days. It's not like it wasn't young and bit players back then, too.

And because it's in my contract, I have to point out that Danny hasn't sucked for a couple of weeks now. He's shooting like 50 percent from three since Pop benched him.

Doesn't the Danny thing provide a counterpoint to your views

[sananspursfan21]

Can't wait for Jeff McDonald incisive questions for Pop, tbh...

"How's the wine in Colorado?"

Has to switch to beer there soooooo I’m sure he hates it

[DPG21920]

Taking Aldridge's credit now? This is why players don't want to play for Poop. Because of gots like you.

People here crapped on LMA all last year.

[SAGirl]

Dabom any defense of Patty's play?

no.. he's going to deflect on Kyle who also had a bad game.
He did play 35 minutes last night and led the team in scoring which is very unlikely taking a humbling loss and was looking drained... while patty played 22 and went scoreless.

this is a game Paddy should have shown up some of that leadership but no...

Dabom=Paddy is the man.

[SAGirl]

On that note, neither should Kawhi, tbh.... it's tough

Dude can't wipe his own ass yet... thus why we are having this discussion. so

[SAGirl]

^?

More worried about Fatbody being locked in for three years after this.

Fatbody?

oh the wombat...

[SAGirl]

I don’t get this. Honestly I know there is drama but this rag tag team just gave Pop 2 great efforts on the road seriously undermanned.

Not only that, they could have quit after that brutal loss last night and didn’t.

I agree they gave effort. Made too many mistakes. Tonight they looked tired specially in the 4th...

[SuperCam]

typical Spur media sycophant. in a town like Boston or Philly or New York the media actually holds teams and coaches accountable and calls them out. Meanwhile in SA they behave like 24/7 team employee semen shielders that only make excuses

[HarlemHeat37]

Nuggets are undefeated at home against teams on a back-to-back, tbh..obvious loss..yesterday's loss was the real killer, blowing a late double-digit lead..

[BatManu20]

[SAGirl]

That's all something to be impressed about early in the year or whatever. But SA wins these games the last few years. The RRT is when the team comes together, but it's just falling apart. Regardless, the Spurs aren't going to quit because they don't have a lot of quitters on their team. But they damned sure don't have an edge anymore. Can't keep making excuses for a team that is flat and incompetent this much. Pop knows that, which is why he's been freaking out much more than usual this year.

You can be more poignant and look at the timing of Lamarcus choosing to have this elective procedure. Pop had already given up on this trip when he sent LMA to get that procedure done in the middle of the RRT. It's flat obvious that this year the RRT didn't have the meaning of prior seasons without Kiwi and LMA. They are aiming to try to gel when hopefully they have their guys back after the ASB... so this didn't have the meaning of years past. If anything it was an opportunity for the young legs to get some burn and see what they have and that was it. They are too undermanned in their frontcourt to win and their frontcourt was the team's strength. They were weirdly built for the frontcourt to be their strength while having way too many guards, some of them extremely undersized and not enough legit wings (and the one they signed BP3, sucks). With this roster, what can you expect? What can Pop expect for that matter?

The roster imbalances are even more exposed. Were you expecting them to win with how Pau has looked in many (not just these ones) in many recent games. Prior to this game he was in negative territory. The team has been losing with Pau on the court. Wouldn't surprise me if that is why he was benched. He could only play 11 minutes against GSW and was terrible for all of them and he has not had any good recent games that I can recall, neither has Mills for that matter.

I didn't expect these games to be won. In fact JOLO was better than I thought possible in this game. Minus his 4th Q meltdown in the last game Kyle was better against the Jazz than I thought he was going to be. This game Murray and DAvis were on fire, several guys stepped up... Tony actually had one of his hottest scoring nights in recent games that I can recall. It just wasn't enough bc they couldn't get stops when they needed bc Pau can't defend a PNR, Davis was perhaps too tired and is not a stellar rim protector, Kyle looked tired to me in this game too and so on. And let's not even mention Mills getting signed and you really could play White in his stead and not miss him.

Frankly, yea I thought these games went about as expected or actually better than I thought. I didn't think they'd have enough talent to win... Perhaps better lineup management could have swung things differently in the 4th Q specially. It seemed to me Pop is developing the young guys and so this is what you get.

[SAGirl]

It's also the way Simmons and Dedmon left. The way Green has hired a new agent. The potential that Mills' deal was a way to mollify Mills' resentment over 2014. A lot of cracks.

I see your point about that.
the chemistry and the actual togetherness that they had is not the same.
Timmy retired. I think that explains a lot.

Kiwi is not the same kind of leader, and LMA wanted to be traded, by definition he wasn't and could not have been a leader (disgruntled as he privately was) last year.

Manu has said many many times this season, they really don't know who they are. They are looking for an iden y all year and they lack talent too. They obviously miss Kawhi and if you take LMA from them, this is what you get... but I totally see what you are saying.