After a second straight blowout victory, the Spurs have successfully climbed out of the eighth seed in the Western Conference. The Clippers loss to the Warriors moved San Antonio up to the seventh spot, which would currently lead to a first round series against the Nuggets. But there are still a ton of moving parts and a lot could change. More on that later.
The Spurs 112-90 win over the Cavaliers on Sunday afternoon was another impressive performance. Sure, Cleveland is a bad team but it's same squad that nearly beat the Spurs in the AT&T Center a week and a half ago. This time, the good guys grabbed control in the second quarter and coasted to the W.
-DeMar DeRozan and LaMarcus Aldridge were good. Aldridge had his best all-around game in a couple weeks. He was active on both sides of the court and continues to look extremely bouncy right now, which will hopefully continue into the playoffs. DeRozan's playmaking was sharp, he physically attacked the rim and his defense was once again relatively good. (Speaking of which, DeRozan's defense since the All-Star break has been much improved. I mean, he's still not a stud defender but he's not much of a liability anymore. That, in itself, is a noteworthy development.)
--Bryn Forbes' hot streak isn't over yet. His three-point shot is money right now; whenever he's open, he's seemingly all net. Forbes is making strong moves to the rim and his passing off the dribble has emerged as a weapon. He has at least three assists in six straight games and most of those dimes are a result of him creating looks organically in the halfcourt. Add in conscientious defense and Forbes has been playing the best basketball of his life over the last nine games.
-In the first half, Derrick White was invisible. His defense was okay in the first two quarters but everything else was painfully mediocre. Thankfully, White emerged energized after the halftime break. After missing his first four shots from the field, he was stubbornly able to find a rhythm scoring-wise and then mixed in a few nice passes. Even more impressive than his offense in the second half was his defense. White was able to take over the game for possessions at a time on D by way of his quick feet, toughness when bodied, avoidance of cheap fouls and expert timing when challenging shots.
-Recently, I was stumped regarding why Jakob Poeltl suddenly looked so plodding on defense. This afternoon, the real Poeltl awoke from his defensive hibernation. He was great on the defensive glass, protected the rim well, and disrupted things by getting his hands in passing lanes and sprinting back in transition. Offensively, while the spacing -- or lack thereof -- hurt the flow, Poeltl did some good: hit the offensive glass, connected on a couple relatively difficult shots and made heady passes.
-With apologies to the original Jaren Jackson, Patty Mills played the role of The Eliminator against the Cavs. For a three-minute stretch spanning the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth, Mills hit four three-pointers to turn a 13-point cushion into a 25-point laugher. Besides those timely three-point bombs, Mills was trying hard to make plays. The results were mixed; we witnessed a few slick passes and a few unwise decisions.
-It was good to see Davis Bertans feel his oats. The 14 points he scored in Cleveland are the most points he's put in the books since he scored 16 in Toronto back on Feb. 22. It was also the first time in five games that the Latvian hit multiple three-pointers. For any type of playoff push to occur, the Spurs will need Bertans to play well, as he's likely to be on the floor to close games.
-Rudy Gay looked fine when he was attempting to put the ball in the iron ring. However, he had a disastrous stretch in the third quarter where he could do absolutely nothing right. When the dust settled, he had turned the ball over five times in the quarter and had picked up a technical foul.
-Coming off a hip injury that caused him to miss the Wizards affair, Belinelli sat out the first half against the Cavaliers before dusting off his silver and black duds for the second half. He ... didn't look good. He was stiff in his movement, wasn't getting his normal amount of elevation on his jumper and his defense was even more glacial than usual. Let us hope that he can get back to 100% by the time the postseason tips off.
-Lonnie Walker IV did well. With how this roster is composed, he usually ends up playing point guard during garbage minutes -- and he doesn't look too out of place doing so. His ball-handling is good enough and his court vision and passing are better than his reputation (and statistics) suggest. Walker's athleticism going to the rim was the most exciting aspect of his play against the Cavs but he also made a few plays on the defensive end that point to him having a decently high ceiling on that end as well. His overall defensive IQ is still in its infancy but his tools (quick hands, quick feet, willingness to compete) are intriguing.
-So, uh, Donatas Motiejunas didn't exactly do himself any favors this afternoon. Pop hates bigmen who needlessly foul and this dude almost fouled out in six minutes of garbage time. His reaction times on defense were extremely slow, as was his running of the court. And, whoa, he went to the free throw line and his two attempts were some of the ugliest shots I've seen on the NBA level. For Motiejunas' sake, let's hope this was a case of him shaking off rust.
-Good win. The Spurs were faced with needing three consecutive wins to climb out of the eighth seed and now all they have left is a home game against the Mavericks to finish the mission. The Mavs usually play the Spurs tough so it's not quite time to pop the seventh seed champagne. And, remember, this will also likely be Dirk Nowitzki's final game, so Dallas will be even more motivated -- as if pushing San Antonio back to the eighth seed won't be enough motivation for the in-state rivals.
-With a win over the Mavs, the Spurs will play the Nuggets, Rockets or Blazers. Obviously, of those three teams, the Rockets are the team the Spurs would like to avoid. Who do I prefer between the Nuggets and Blazers? I don't have a strong stance either way. The Blazers are dealing with injuries and got embarrassed last year in the playoffs, while the Nuggets are more talented but also largely inexperienced. Either team is much preferred compared to the Rockets ... and, it goes without saying, the Warriors.
-If you're drawing up the dream scenario, I'd only ask for two things: a win over the Mavs to stay out of the eighth seed and the Rockets dropping to the fourth seed. The Warriors and Rockets in the same side of the bracket? That would leave the door open for all four teams on the other side of the bracket to talk themselves into having a realistic possibility of making a Western Conference Finals appearance.
-The other thing to think about in the final days of the regular season is draft positioning. The Spurs will be drafting anywhere from 18th to 22nd depending on how it all shakes out. If the Celtics beat the Wizards to end their season, that range will shorten to 18th to 21st. To get that 18th pick and simultaneously avoid the eighth seed, the Spurs would need the Pacers to beat Hawks, the Clippers to beat the Jazz, the Thunder to win at least one of their final two games and then win a series of coin flips.
-That first round pick from Toronto will either be 28 or 29. If the Raptors and Warriors win their final games, a coin flip will decide it. As it stands, both teams have 24 losses.
Thanks for the thoughts.
Poeltl's defense was awesome. We're going to need a lot of that in the playoffs. I saw how much Lonnie was handling the ball and he looked much better doing that than when he was playing off the ball and Mills was handling the point guard duties.
Any chance the Spurs trade two picks to move up a few spots in the draft in case there's a player still undrafted that they really like?
what I like in the last 2 games is that the team has carved out leads in the first half and then kept them til the end of the game. They also play hard again. Hope they can keep that up. If we beat the Mavs I think we'll wind up with the 6th seed and play Denver. Houston gon be 2nd
Those first half Lonnie minutes (ahead of Belli!) were the first meaningful minutes from him I enjoyed
So bad we were swept by the lottery teams like Charlotte, Miami and Sacramento, lost to Knicks, Bulls and Suns. Otherwise we would be facing Portland with home court advantage.
Sexton reminds me a young Tony Parker
As a basketball player or cause of his name?
The former
Thanks for the thoughts Timvp. Great win is all I could say. I like everybody’s play. I like especially seeing Lonnie out there. He looks more and more an NBA player to me. DMo is serviceable especially limiting Poeltl/Aldridge in garbage time. Great win
Pop playing DMo trying to pacify LMA?He’s almost a true center. Please stay and we’ll give you a fatty contract.
At the very least, we've seen our guys do what they were supposed to do in these last 2 games. I wish they would have done that more often this season.
This last game will be interesting. In all sorts, its a playoff game for us. We win and we avoid the GSW. Thats a huge plus.
We'll see how it goes down on Wednesday.
agreed. and you can slowly see the confidence growing in him. i still think there is hesitancy to some degree, but when that is no longer there, i think we will all see the walker that had so many of us so psyched about getting him where we did in the draft.
I would have traded Forbes for a second round pick earlier in the season. He's just plain old playing better in the last month, and earning the grades.
Bryn put in a lot of work in the weight room in the offseason, and it showed. He's a little heavier, and definitely stronger than he was. I re-watched a couple of the games from early in the season, and a couple of the recent ones, just keying on him.I think it just took him that long to figure out how to use the extra size and strength to his advantage.
In fairness to D-Mo. You've got a guy fighting to work his way back into the NBA. He's getting 4-5 minutes. It's sort of natural to press, trying to impress. I don't know about those nasty shots, but the fouls are probably more him trying to get notice for his D. Tough situation.
He can be useful against many of the playoffs teams. I can think of a few minutes of him banging Jokic, DMC, Nene, not to mention eventually Kanter. All of them are prone to get mad and get technicals, too.
He probably came over too late, but he can be (could have been) a nice surprise.
So many little puzzling things from a coaching perspective:
-Subbing out DWhite midway through the 3rd for Fatty when Derrick was getting it going
-Pop keeping Derozan in way too long when the Spurs were up by 20+ late into the 4th
-Pop bringing injury prone Rudy Gay back into a game where they were up a ton, only to sub him out like a minute later
-Obviously the failure to bring along Lonnie throughout the season will probably come back to bite them in the postseason (no reason for Lonnie to not have gotten 5-10 mins a game regularly to spell Beli or Forbes. Now he's probably way too green to make even a minimal impact in the playoffs if needed)
Cavs are a lottery team so the above didn't make much of a difference in the game but these are the little things that are the difference between winning and losing a playoff game. Frankly, I don't have very much confidence in Pop to right these errors when the games matter, a guy who has been thoroughly outcoached by the likes of Billy Donovan and Doc Rivers.....
Side note - is there anybody that would actually be surprised if the Spurs lost against the Mavs? I definitely wouldn't.
D-Mo is such trash, another puzzling move by a clueless FO that brought on and kept on Quincy Pondexter and Dante Cunningham....
Not only has Eubanks looked okay whenever he's seen the floor but he actually knows the system. DMo looks beyond done and absolutely terrible.....yet the re FO decided to bring in insurance for an irrelevant position for a playoff run
D-Mo is international, Eubanks isn't. Culture matters. Culture wins championships.D-Mo is such trash, another puzzling move by a clueless FO that brought on and kept on Quincy Pondexter and Dante Cunningham....
Not only has Eubanks looked okay whenever he's seen the floor but he actually knows the system. DMo looks beyond done and absolutely terrible.....yet the re FO decided to bring in insurance for an irrelevant position for a playoff run
QPon and Dante better be from Wakanda or some because I don't know what those 2 losers bring to the table despite stealing paychecks from HoltCat.
yeah those two have been complete and utter failures. i mean they were trying to start cunningham and have him be a regular rotation guy but he played himself out of it. q-pon never even had a role and giving him a deal was pointless. i guess that was the FO's idea of an "athletic wing" tbh
Eubanks? Like, seriously? the guy cannot play a single meaningful minute in the NBA. Will he? Maybe. This season? No way. He is right now just slightly above Metu's level (meaning G-league tops, on a good day).D-Mo is such trash, another puzzling move by a clueless FO that brought on and kept on Quincy Pondexter and Dante Cunningham....
Not only has Eubanks looked okay whenever he's seen the floor but he actually knows the system. DMo looks beyond done and absolutely terrible.....yet the re FO decided to bring in insurance for an irrelevant position for a playoff run
Irrelevant position? I guess that's why the best NBA team brought a center from Australia for the playoffs. The morons could have saved a ton of money just making a phone call to you, I guess.
You've been one of the dumbest GNSFs on the board so I don't expect you to comprehend. But yeah, Eubanks has looked significantly better when he's been on the court.
I mean granted it's a low bar if you've watched DMo look absolutely horrible in the 2 games he's played (and this is a guy who was playing in China very recently so he's not out of shape or anything).
If you think that if Poetl and LMA went down that DMo would be more serviceable than a younger, more athletic big without back issues that actually knows the system, then I don't know what to tell you. I'm willing to bet that DMo doesn't produce a serviceable minute in the entirety of the Spurs upcoming playoff run
Eubanks is way better then Metu
Oh well, according to you Pop can't coach and the FO sucks. It only fits that you think Eubanks is an NBA player.You've been one of the dumbest GNSFs on the board so I don't expect you to comprehend. But yeah, Eubanks has looked significantly better when he's been on the court.
I mean granted it's a low bar if you've watched DMo look absolutely horrible in the 2 games he's played (and this is a guy who was playing in China very recently so he's not out of shape or anything).
If you think that if Poetl and LMA went down that DMo would be more serviceable than a younger, more athletic big without back issues that actually knows the system, then I don't know what to tell you. I'm willing to bet that DMo doesn't produce a serviceable minute in the entirety of the Spurs upcoming playoff run
And you are right, you are incomprehensible: must be what you drink.
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