Even though they're at full health, the Spurs are inexplicably limping toward the finish line of the 2018-19 regular season. A game after barely getting past the woeful Cavaliers, San Antonio fell at home to the recently eliminated Kings by a final score of 113-106. The Spurs are now 44-33 on the season after dropping their fourth game in the last six outings following a streak of nine consecutive wins.
Sunday night's contest was a back and forth affair that saw the two teams trade leads on a seemingly minute-by-minute basis. Until the fourth quarter. That's when Sacramento completed a 14-0 run to build an 11-point lead with eight minutes remaining.
With Pop in the locker room after being ejected, the Spurs completed a speedy comeback by scoring 17 of the game's next 22 points over a span of four minutes and some change. Unfortunately, San Antonio's one-point lead didn't last long. The Spurs failed to score in the game's final 2:53 as the Kings scored eight straight points to close it out and complete a 3-0 season sweep.
It's difficult to summarize what was witnessed tonight. Basically, the Spurs didn't play with the focus, intensity or spirit of a team that is serious about making a postseason push. It was just another halfhearted effort.
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LaMarcus Aldridge
In the first quarter, LaMarcus Aldridge was a beast. He carried the team on his back while scoring 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field. The rest of the game, though, Aldridge was bad; he scored nine points in the final three quarters on 4-for-12 shooting. And while his rebounding numbers look stout, the truth is less kind: four of Aldridge's offensive rebounds were a result of him missing easy shots at the rim, while his defensive rebounds were inflated because he wasn't helping out on the perimeter. His pick-and-roll defense was particularly lazy. All in all, while Aldridge's numbers look good on paper, he was one of the leading contributors to the lack of intensity.
Grade: C+
Summary: Aldridge produced but his effort level was disappointing.
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DeMar DeRozan
We have to begin at the end when discussing DeMar DeRozan. After hitting back-to-back shots to give the Spurs their only two leads of the fourth quarter, DeRozan misfired on his final three shots -- all iffy looks from midrange -- to help dig San Antonio's grave. After being one of the best closers in the NBA the last few seasons, he has underwhelmed in that role this season. Tonight was just the latest reminder. Outside of his poor finish, DeRozan's lack of urgency was disturbing. No free throw attempts in 36 minutes and two rebounds? That's not going to get it done. DeRozan is just not good enough at anything intangible if he's not scoring or making plays at a high rate. Against the Kings, he was mostly asleep at the wheel ... until the fourth quarter when he took control in time to lead the Spurs to defeat.
Grade: D
Summary: Where's the urgency?
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Rudy Gay
Rudy Gay is another player whose stats look better than his actual level of play. Yes, he efficiently pumped in 18 points on 12 shots, rebounded well and made a few good passes. However, Gay was given a chance to lead the bench unit (even though he was in the starting lineup to match down to the Kings) and he failed to deliver in that role. He played well with starters on the court but the Spurs were demolished whenever Gay was in with the bench, including that 14-0 run into the fourth quarter. He needed to be more aggressive and attack mismatches, like he's being doing all season, instead of trying to blend in.
Grade: C
Summary: Gay wasn't Gay, despite the production.
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Derrick White
Rookie wall, meet Derrick White. He says he's healthy so that's the only explanation at this point. White scored three baskets in the first two and a half minutes of the second half ... and that was about the extent of his contributions. His defense was okay at times but it was mostly disappointing -- not as intense or as quick as we've seen previously on that end. His playmaking was meh, he had some uncharacteristic mistakes with the ball and his three-point shot looks diseased. It's not a coincidence that the Spurs suddenly appear listless after White's game started to go south in the last two weeks. For San Antonio to put together any type of run, they need White to return to form.
Grade: D-
Summary: This was a s of White.
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Bryn Forbes
Bryn Forbes was the brightest spot in the sea of disappointment. He played hard, efficiently scored 15 points on nine shots and acted like he knew what he was doing when the ball was in his hands. Defensively, he was above average compared to what we've come to expect. He got burned here and there but he paid attention to his responsibilities well for the most part.
Grade: B+
Summary: It wasn't Forbes' fault.
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Marco Belinelli
Offensively, Marco Belinelli was productive enough. He was active, found openings and remained a threat. But, like Gay, he deserves blame for the ineptness of the bench unit to begin the fourth quarter. His decision-making during that stretch wasn't good and it put the Spurs in a big hole. Even more damning was Belinelli's defense. On a team that played lethargic D as a whole, Belinelli was the worst of the bunch. The Kings successfully went at him and he never really exhibited much fight on that end.
Grade: C
Summary: Belinelli played bad defense and was a dud on offense when it mattered.
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Patty Mills
Bad shooting nights are understandably, they happen to every player in the league. But Patty Mills' brainless play tonight was difficult to stomach. When he wasn't being caught unaware of two-for-one opportunities, he was running away from the man with the ball or failing to realize the Spurs needed to foul late in the fourth. Add together only mediocre energy, wayward shooting and a series of low basketball IQ plays and Mills was a millstone around the team's neck versus Sacramento.
Grade: F+
Summary: Patty Millstone.
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Davis Bertans
Hypothetically, the small-ish, lanky Kings are a good matchup for Davis Bertans. In actuality, it didn't really work out that way. On defense, he was either giving up too much space or committing a dumb foul. His rebounding was also missing in action. Bertans helped out a little bit with a bench-high three assists and spread the court decently well but his offensive impact wasn't much to write home about.
Grade: C-
Summary: Bertans didn't help the cause enough.
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Jakob Poeltl
The good: Jakob Poeltl showed a little bit of life on the offensive boards after struggling in that respect the last couple outings. And, hey, he hit both of his free throws. That's a plus, right? It's the first time he can boast of a 100% free throw percentage in a game since he went 1-for-1 back on Feb. 6. The bad: On offense, Poeltl set ineffective screens and didn't roll to the basket with any purpose. On defense, he was soft on the glass and, as a result, the team struggled to rebound when he was on the court. His help D was more often a step slow than it was timely.
Grade: D+
Summary: Poeltl didn't do much right coming off the bench.
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Pop
Starting Gay turned out to be a mistake, as Gay played poorly with the bench and Poeltl never found a rhythm. The Kings are smaller than average but Pop could have gotten away with starting Aldridge and Poeltl together. I also have to place blame at Pop's feet for getting ejected. Yes, that ref made two bad calls in a row but the current Spurs team is a difficult one to coach due to all the moving parts (namely White struggling and the complicated rotations Pop has used to close out games). Ettore Messina drew up some fancy plays but almost none of the plays actually worked and he appeared to be unsure of what buttons to push down the stretch.
Grade: D+
Summary: Pop wasn't good. Messina took over and made matters worse.
Looking ahead: Next up, the Hawks come to town on Tuesday. It's difficult to know what to expect out the Spurs right now but let's hope they can get back on track because anything resembling a strong finish in the season's five remaining games could be enough to lock up the seventh seed. As it stands, getting the seventh seed and facing the Nuggets in the first round is the goal.
What's up with Mills? The guy was devastating off the bench. Making leads bigger. Getting Spurs afloat. Last season, he played a far bigger role than he should due to injuries. This year, back as backup, playing a reduced role and he is stinking it up. He is a veteran and can't manage the shot clock.
Those grades are pretty much a Grand Slam.
Kings own us, what a time to be alive
The main reason we lost was uncharacteristically poor bench play. Usually our bench wins us games but that night Bogdanovich, Ferrell and Brewer just outplayed our bench.
Spurs have to beat the Hawks tuesday so the can (kind of) afford to loose @Denver wednesday. Nugs home are favorite anyways against the Spurs, but still it would be nice helping them secure the #2 spot, while not risking too much to fall to #8 themselves. So swallow the pill, Spurs fans, and cheer for the ing Lakers to beat OKC and hope for the Spurs to not up another opportunity against a bad Team.
Picking the poison.. i got a feeling Spurs are tanking to be the 7th seed
The Demar shot at 1.15 min mark of the 4th. I had to do a double take on the replay . He literally went from an open shot around an LA screen, dribbled once into a tougher shot in front of Coliestein that resulted in a airball.
Thanks for the grades! What an aggravating team. They’ve proven they can be good. That nine game win streak wasn’t flukey. You hit the nail on the head that it’s an effort thing. The problem is that this isn’t one of the contender teams that can sleepwalk until it matters. They really need these last few games to get into playoff shape
Thanks for the grades Timvp. I like to think they’re just tanking to remain 7th place against the Nuggets.
That doesn't make sense. If they would have won, they would've been up 2 games( including the tie breaker) with 5 games remaining.
OKC would have to win out to even have had a chance to jump the Spurs.
Why were you surprosed? DeChoker is very consistent, he never disappoints...
What grade is an F+
like is 50-69 an F+ and anything below an F-?? Patty was a solid 50! As in 50 million dollar waste of a player
Best set of grades of the season fo far tbh.
Starting Rudy Gay to adjust to a non-playoff team is so quintessential Pop tbh.
And yeah, the coaching staff hasn't gotten the team up to play in the last few weeks. But these are professionals who get paid to do this. If they can't recognize the sense of urgency in these final games and need a 70+ year old to coach them up, then they're already ed tbh.
What we're seeing is their most important player go through some struggles and the leaders like LMA/Demar/Fatty unable to compensate for it.
About 35 seconds left in the 3rd. Patty tells the inbounder to throw it ahead so the clock doesn't start....Pretty standard set up for a 2 for 1....Patty picks up the ball and decides to throw it around the horn and the Spurs end up missing a shot with like 20 seconds left in the quarter, Kings get the ball back and score with like 4 seconds left.....
Just quintessential Patty Mills not know how to run a basic 2 for 1 play to end the quarter. Simple like that are what translates into "winning plays" when teams aren't good enough to overwhelm their opponent with talent.
Not sure what's more inexplicable: 1) Patty still having zero clue how to manage a clock 2) The coaching staff still having him close quarters/games...
Both are pretty easily explainable:
1)Patty has zero clue how to manage a clock cause he was never managing the clock in the Spurs teams that he was a part of.Manu was managing the clock and if Patty was open he would get a pass for a 3.
2)The coaching staff have a shortage of play makers.I don't care if it's their own fault,the FO fault or Patty's fault for being a small SG.When the rotation suffers, happens.(Forbes,Beli are terribly at clock managing,seting plays and bringing ball down court under pressure as well for example)
Tanking for 7th seems like a stretch. Wouldn't we have wanted to win then to stay in front of okc. And besides no guaranteed nuggets will be 2nd. They could end up 1st.
What's with Patty getting an F+, that was an F- performance if there is such a thing, j/k.
Lol @ drawing the Nuggets. So we can lose in 6 games vs 4 against the Dubs
You and I both know it'd be Nuggs in 5 mah dude.
True.
What a delusional . You probably think Pop coaches like a re sometimes so he can throw opponents off as well, "CIA"
That inbound play with 3.1 seconds left, late in the fourth quarter was a coaching disgrace. It was a nearly impossible inbound to DeRozan. The pass got tipped, and DDR had to scramble just to get any shot up before the buzzer.
3.1 seconds was way more than enough time. They have a 6'11" guy who specializes in mid-range shots. DeRozan lives on mid-range shots. But Messina has to try and get a layup? Does he think the refs are going to bail the game out with a whistle, if DDR misses the shot? With this team, it's much better to get a semi-clean mid-range shot off, rather than trying to force a perfect pass into traffic for a close up shot that is going to be heavily contested even if the pass is clean.
The of it is that Pop probably would have called it exactly the same way.
We are acting like the specially-enabled version of the Warriors...bored with the regular season, just waiting for the playoffs to start. The last four losses were all winnable if this team had been playing like they GAF.
Poeltl doesn't start, the Spurs lose. I could coach the Spurs to more Ws than Poop.
Timvp, your point about Derrick White is spot on. The Spurs seem to go as he goes. He's our X-factor. Hopefully he can muster whatever mojo he had going during the Spurs turnaround, because he looks terrible right now. We'll need everyone playing at a high level, and 3-pointers falling at a high clip to have any post season hopes, whatsoever, but White is definitely the head of the snake as far as the Spurs' potential for success.
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