Grades: Spurs vs. Hornets - Jan. 14, 2019

[timvp]

The greatest point guard in Spurs history returned to San Antonio on Monday night and Tony Parker and the Charlotte Hornets were able to leave the Alamo City with a 108-93 victory. The loss drops the Spurs to 25-20 on the season and marks the team's third loss in their last four games.

After an early 11-3 lead, things quickly went south for San Antonio. The Hornets grabbed a 28-24 advantage at the end of the first quarter and extended their lead to six, 49-43, by halftime.

Late in the third quarter, the Spurs finally found a rhythm and battled all the way back to take a 72-71 lead on a LaMarcus Aldridge dunk. That's when Parker took over and did what he does best: led his team to victory, the 1,023rd win of his NBA career.

On the next possession, Miles Bridges dunked home a Parker miss. Parker then forced a backcourt violation by Forbes and followed it up with an assist on a Marvin Williams three-pointer at the third quarter buzzer to put Charlotte up by four points.

To begin the scoring in the fourth, Parker hit a jumper. A minute later, the Frenchman hit a difficult layup in the lane. Parker scored again following a Patty Mills three-pointer that had pulled the Spurs within a point. San Antonio would never be that close again.

Midway through the final period, Charlotte had a 11-2 run that was punctuated by a three-pointer by Kemba Walker to up their lead to 101-89. Game over.

While Spurs fans did their part by giving Parker roaring cheers before, during and after the memorable homecoming, the players' performance was forgettable. The offense was ugly; the defense was going through the motions. The Spurs really do need to pick it up soon or they risk undoing all the good they did during the recent stretch where they won 13 of 16 games.

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LaMarcus Aldridge

It was yet another strong performance by LaMarcus Aldridge. He has been great lately and kept it up against the Hornets. Offensively, he ran the court hard, fought for advantageous position, was physical in the paint and was judicious with his jumpers. Aldridge's passing was well-timed and accurate; he has seven assists and no turnovers over his last two games. Defensively, the 33-year-old was sturdy in the paint and rebounded well. His one weakness on the night: Aldridge's perimeter defense -- both individually and help-wise -- was stiff, particularly when he was playing power forward. The Hornets got a lot of clear shots due to his sagging into the paint.
Grade: A-
Summary: Aldridge is playing All-Star basketball as of late.

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DeMar DeRozan

Ugh. DeMar DeRozan continues his unsightly play. He's a shadow of the player we witnessed early on in the season who was a tireless, effervescent offensive dynamo. As of late, DeRozan has been a lethargic, whiny mess. Tonight, all of his moves seemed to be in slow motion and with minimal force. That lack of chutzpah, mixed with a dash of carelessness, led directly to his season-high six turnovers and his season-low one free throw attempt. He has periodic moments when he looks capable of snapping out of his funk but DeRozan for the most part has been a steady stream of disappointment as of late. In the last two games, we could point to his defense as a partial saving grace. Tonight? Not so much. He wasn't particularly bad at that end but also wasn't any kind of difference-maker.
Grade: D-
Summary: Welcome to DeMar DeRozan's DolDrums.

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Bryn Forbes

That's back-to-back bad offensive games for Bryn Forbes. In the two contests, he's hit only two of 13 three-point attempts. Monday night was rather ugly. Forbes missing is survivable but tonight he was hesitating when he should have shot and then compounded the issue by forcing shots that weren't open. When he starts thinking too much on offense, bad things tend to happen. Defensively, Forbes was equally as bad. The Hornets purposefully isolated him, went right at him and Forbes was powerless to do anything to stop it. His team-defense was okay and his rotations were timely ... but, yikes, was his individual defense porous.
Grade: D
Summary: Forbes struggled thoroughly.

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Derrick White

Offensively, I thought Derrick White was superb. He fed Aldridge early and often; White was undoubtedly the bigman's premier nourisher, supplying him with numerous scrumptious feeds right below the rim. His game-high seven assists only tell part of the story regarding how well he set the table tonight. When it came time to call his own number, White was efficient. He patiently searched out the best looks and fired away with confidence, whether the look was a leaner in the lane or a spot-up three-pointer. After scoring in single-digits for the first time in eight games last time out, White bounced back in fine fashion. Defense was a different story. Kemba Walker was his man and he poured in a game-high 33 points. However, truth be told, it wasn't really White's fault. When Walker was isolated on White, the second year player held his own. It was when Walker danced around screens and got switched off onto other players that he did his damage. That said, I thought White was too eager to switch and wasn't fighting through screens as aggressively as needed to be done against a superstar offensive weapon like Walker.
Grade: B+
Summary: Walker's overall growth is exciting to watch unfold.

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Pau Gasol

Meh, Pau Gasol did what he has done since recapturing the starting role: use his length defensively in the lane, rebound well on the defensive end, move at a turtle's pace when switching sides of the court, play little to no help defense outside of the paint, not get in the way offensively and throw a couple good passes. The Hornets took advantage of Gasol's slowness on the offensive end to get easy shots so it was difficult for the coaching staff to keep the Spaniard on the court at all.
Grade: C
Summary: Gasol is slow right now -- much slower than usual.

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Davis Bertans

Defensively, I can't muster many complaints. Davis Bertans rebounded well, played solid individual defense (even when switched onto smaller, faster players), rotated in time and stayed mentally engaged. Offensively, Bertans wasn't as sharp as we've seen him. A few times he rushed shots and wasn't quite in rhythm with his teammates. Regardless, he shot well enough to ignore the maladies. It's safe to say the Spurs would have been better off if he had played more minutes.
Grade: B+
Summary: Bertans played well enough on both ends.

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Patty Mills

I mean, yeah, the Spurs needed a shot in the arm offensively but Patty Mills took it to a ridiculous level. He shot the ball way too often and didn't get his teammates involved. He had energy but he didn't funnel the energy into anything positive -- he was just a chicken with its head cut off. Defensively, the Hornets targeted Mills and usually got easy points in those situations. The Spurs were down Marco Belinelli in addition to Rudy Gay so Mills was more important than usual since he was unquestionably the man responsible for the bench's production. The fact that the bench was bad and that Mills got handily outplayed by Parker were leading causes of the loss.
Grade: D-
Summary: Mills was energetically terrible.

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Jakob Poeltl

Ever since Gasol has returned, Jakob Poeltl has stopped producing. That's not helping matters, obviously. I can't pinpoint exactly why Gasol's presence makes Poeltl play worse but I don't think we can chalk it up to a coincidence at this point. Versus the Hornets, he didn't do much at all. He had a nice block of a dunk attempt and scored a basket ... but that was about the extent of it in his 11 minutes. Poeltl had no rebounds, wasn't playing with toughness and was mostly invisible.
Grade: C-
Summary: Poeltl has reverted to early season Poeltl.

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Dante Cunningham

If anyone needed a reminder for why Dante Cunningham was dropped from the rotation, this was it. He did nothing offensively other than get in the way. What's impressive is how bad he is on defense. Cunningham tries at that end -- it's really his No. 1 focus -- but he's just not a good defender. Can't stay in front of anyone, slow in rotations and has no defensive IQ to speak of, honestly.
Grade: D
Summary: Cunningham was in the rotation with Belinelli out. Come back soon, Marco.

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Quincy Pondexter

With the Spurs desperate for perimeter players, Quincy Pondexter got dusted off. After watching him play for seven minutes, I'm ready for that dust to start ac ulating again. I don't see an NBA skill he brings to the table. Good guy. Tries hard. Not too good at basketball.
Grade: D+
Summary: Pondexter kept the scorecard clean outside of one turnover.

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Pop

I want to admonish Pop for playing Cunningham and Pondexter (and Gasol, if we're being honest) but I don't know what choice he had with Belinelli and Gay out. Bertans could have played more minutes ... maybe push White's minutes higher. However, the truth is this roster doesn't have enough depth to survive two main pieces like Gay and Belinelli being out. But I'm not letting Pop completely off the hook. Hornets head coach, and former Spurs assistant, James Borrego got the best of him. He obviously had scouted the switch-happy, zone-ish defense the Spurs have been playing lately and used it against San Antonio. Charlotte utilized a lot of screens early in their offense to generate switches (specifically, to get White off of Walker) and then attacked the mismatches relentlessly. The Hornets also obviously knew how hesitant the Spurs bigs are at helping all the way to the three-point line. It was the type of gameplan that usually isn't unveiled until the playoffs but give credit to Borrego for smart coaching. Let's hope the rest of the league wasn't watching.
Grade: C-
Summary: Pop's understudy knew what he was doing.

Looking ahead: The Spurs were handily outplayed and deserved the loss.

Next up is a two-game road trip that starts Wednesday in Dallas and ends Friday in Minnesota. The Mavs are better than expected. Luka Doncic has all the makings of a superstar. It's not going to be easy. If they don't have more players play better, the Spurs won't give themselves a chance.

Step it up.

[RC_Drunkford]

thanks for the grades TimVP. The main problem we have right now is DeFrozan showing up. I don't buy that he's tired, it has to be something else. Also this team can't really compensate any of the 9 rotation players going down. This roster just doesn't have that type of depth. Aldridge and White are the only players playing hard right now and this team is really missing Rudy Gay. Having Rudy out there with LA and DeRozan just creates a lot of mismatches that they can take advantage of. It's been reported that he plans on playing on wednesday against Dallas, so let's hope for the best

[Twisted_Dawg]

Timvp, you forgot a grade for Tony Parker.

[ego]

Timvp, you forgot a grade for Tony Parker.

!!!!!!!! ��

[Nathan89]

Spurs need to cut their losses with DeRozan. He should always be on the trade table tbh.

[therealtruth]

You think the Spurs could still use TP? Maybe they shouldn't have spent so much time cheering him if they didn't want to lose.

[SAGirl]

Rudy Gay is definitely missed.

I would have also liked to see "Skywalker IV" in.

[John B]

Thanks for the grades Timvp. I thought Pop did not prepare the team enough for this game, and was super nice to the nostalgic return of a hero. Yup besides Demar on a weird slump (I hope it’s not because he is disappointed with the early ASG returns) I put all the blame to Pop. He was like a “daddy” pleasantly watching his boys wrestle. And I don’t know why we’ve never called up Walker to take Dante and Q-Pon’s minutes. I mean it’s clear Dante and Q-Pon have no place on the court, and it’s obvious that Spurs need physicality at the guard position. Likewise Eubanks has way aggressiveness than Pau. Idk but I think he could’ve closeout better than Pau. Anyways I thought this was a gimme to the returning boys, an exhibition game. I hope the Spurs will go back to film sessions and watch what went wrong the last few games. We need to regroup. Need to get some nasty!! GSG!

[vavvi]

My main problem with Pop is not going to LA enough.
Last season I often thought we were overdoing LA post-ups. But today with Aldridge in a monster mode with nobody able to cover him defensively he got only 17 attempts – almost the same as Patty freaking Mills. I don’t get why after every single timeout we didn’t go to LA especially with his passing out of double team being pretty effective this game.

Same with Bertans 3s. LA inside and Bertans outside are our most effective weapons and we didn’t use them enough. I think that’s on Pop.

No real issues with Forbes. He is what he is and does what he does. We just shouldn’t rely on him too much.

[MoSpur02]

LA was the only bright spot IMO. Derozan looks horrible. I'm starting to believe it's more than just fatigue. Something is going on and I can't figure it out. It's frustrating. He looked awesome in the beginning of the season. Hopefully him and Pop figure out what's going on and fix it.

[John B]

It was just a weird game subs uting Q-Pon for Forbes to take Kemba? But it affected the double-team on Aldridge without a true deadly shooter to pass the ball to. I think we over-played Kemba and affected the rhythm.

[objective]

Pondexter and Cunningham deserve F grades

Not only did they combine for 0 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists, 0 steals and 0 blocks, that also had zero energy.

That Bridges dunk near the end of the third was all about Pondexter standing around instead of finding his man and boxing out.

Both of them got beat down the floor for an easy Bridges layup after a Spurs miss in the first half.

[Shakril]

@Poeltl: i think his mediocre play of the last games has a simple reason. Bench stopped playing teambasketball. I think they got to much in love with 3P-Shooting, and playing iso ball. This has the result, that poeltl is not as involved in plays as he was earlier. That his minutes got cut, because of Gasol is something i dont understand. Poeltl cant improve if he does not get his time on the court.

[elbamba1]

Spurs need Gay back in the lineup. It seems like lots of the recent struggles started with his last injury.

[elbamba1]

@Poeltl: i think his mediocre play of the last games has a simple reason. Bench stopped playing teambasketball. I think they got to much in love with 3P-Shooting, and playing iso ball. This has the result, that poeltl is not as involved in plays as he was earlier. That his minutes got cut, because of Gasol is something i dont understand. Poeltl cant improve if he does not get his time on the court.

I would like to see Gasol benched, Bertans start, and 20 minutes of playing time for Poeltl.

[dbestpro]

The team has regressed. Too much reliance on DeRozan. When he plays bad he needs to get the same treatment as any other player which is to put him on the bench. This is what Pop would do even with the big three. Whatever DeRozan's problem is, it does not look like he can just play through it. Maybe, they should call up Walker and see if they can find a little magic. Better that trying to just get by with QPon and Cunningham.

[Arcadian]

Let's hope the rest of the league wasn't watching.

They were. Or they will be.

Some gameplan. "Let's hope nobody else in the league prepares for us!"

[Blackhaus]

Loss outa the playoffs. Spurs looked great just a few games ago now they look like the beginning of the season. DD looks flat out horrible. Need Rudy back and healthy(which may never happen) and let DW run more of the offense. Maybe give DD a night off or 2 to clear his head.

[ceperez]

Let's get real here, Cunningham cannot defend anyone in today's NBA. Let's get some dude in Austin to fill up his minutes, either Moore or Huestis.

[r0drig0lac]

Spurs need Gay back in the lineup. It seems like lots of the recent struggles started with his last injury.

a real SF (or two wings imo) in the current league is virtually mandatory, or else we are forced to put two centers (which clearly is not working, since Gasol is a former player), or even smaller than normal, without Rudy (not the player, but the prototype), the team gets incomplete

[TDomination]

injuries is the name of the story here IMO losing 3 of last 4. Sucks. I understand the Memphis lost (kind of) and the thunder loss (though we were in position to steal that game) but this game was inexcusable. and we probably played the worst in this game in comparison to those other 2 losses.

but with that said, i agree with a poster earlier talking about LMA. he was the hot hand, you need to feed him. He probably should have had 30+ shots in truth. The fact that derozan had 15, and patty with 16, 2 players who struggled mightily shows why we lost (offensively) Each player should have had 5 less shots each. They may have had more assist.

Aldridge is killing it down low right now man we gotta take advantage while he is feeling it.

I'm disliking Pau more and more. We were looking like a real team before Pau came back. and i understand the injuries forced Pop to play him but the way we were playing shows we don't need him to play much. Maybe as a 3rd Center behind LMA and Poetle. And thats it. at most 10 minutes a game.

[phxspurfan]

If anyone needed a reminder for why Dante Cunningham was dropped from the rotation, this was it. He did nothing offensively other than get in the way. What's impressive is how bad he is on defense. Cunningham tries at that end -- it's really his No. 1 focus -- but he's just not a good defender. Can't stay in front of anyone, slow in rotations and has no defensive IQ to speak of, honestly.

This kind of reminds me of being worried when PATFO got him in the offseason, clearly as a post loss of Kawhi stopgap at SF. Everyone immediately posted the gif of Manu faking him out and it seemed like he wouldn't be too smart on defense.

[paperboy77]

Rudy Gay is definitely missed.

I would have also liked to see "Skywalker IV" in.

Zero excuse not to give Lonnie some run. That and please stop with Pau.

[phxspurfan]

Forgot about the Parker comeback game. Wish I could have been there to cheer him. Will be there when his jersey gets retired next year (or two the way he's going)

[wildbill2u]

DDR's problems go deeper than a shooting slump. He is unable to handle defenses set up to mob him when he gets deep in the lane. This results in lots of TOs.