Game Grades: Spurs @ Kings 2-0

[tbdog]

102-94 away win over the Kings.

Some notes I took during the game
1^st.

• Starting unit is not moving the ball and the offense is just taking turns on the low block.
• Anderson provided two good defensive plays and was rewarded with a steal and block.
• Gasol is too deep on the ice defense and just ins’t contesting the shots off the dribble. He made a slow pass cross court which was easily picked.
• Manu was the first player off the bench.
• Pop let the team play and go through the pains at the start without calling a timeout.
• Out of the first timeout, Pop called a high low involving Gasol provide an ally hoop pass, resulting in 2 FT attempts by LMA. A much needed basket
• Demon first big off the bench around the 5 min mark
• All starters were subbed out by the 4 min mark at 14-18. Leonard had 12
• Manu is running the pick n roll with Lee and Demond beautifully.

2^nd

• Staters were back at the 9min mark 32-34
• Anderson looked good here. After Cousins upped the lead to 41-34, Anderson is the a little mvp in the run to even the game 41 apiece. He provided excellent defense and passing and was rewarded with 2 assists during this period.
• Kings made a huge run. With a 1min40 left in the 2^nd 46-55, Pop ran out the half with the bench. The bench made a small run to cut the lead down to 53-57.
• At the half, Leonard, Lee, Dedmond, and Manu were the standouts. Parker and Gasol were heavily hurting the team.
• On Parker, the guy didn’t’ control the pace and held on the ball far to much, not even dribbled, just holding, running down the shot clock while he waited for a screen. Patty is always moving with or without the ball. If Parker isn’t scoring (he just isn’t a scorer anymore), then he needs to run the offense by controlling the pace at least. A straight up F at the break for Parker. I am not sure he even registered an assist, and clank two midrange shots.

3^rd

• Pop adjustment was to give the ball to Gasol more, where he ran the offense from the top of the key, and provided some isolation off the block. The results were not great, but he did hit a nice midrange, and I was hopeful it will get Gasol going, considering LMA just cannot get it going.
• Anderson defense is great, and the second best defender outside Leonard tonight. His transitional defense is a few step below Danny Green, and if he continues throughout there year, we will look good.
• At the 6:20min mark, with the Spurs struggling, after losing LMA to his 4^th foul, down 57-66, Pop ran Lee in the Diaw to Mills play, where Diaw would isolate on the base line and fling a pass Mills to the corner for the 3. Lee provided a pin point pass resulting in a 3 by Patty.
• The Spurs took the lead and held a 76-71 lead, mainly due to Leonards dominates on both ends. Lee was great during this period, working hard under the basket, and Manu hit a nice three.

4^th

• Starting the 4^th, spurs went small with Leonard playing the 4 despite only minor rest. LMA started at center with 4 fouls. Parker, Manu, and Simmons (plently of ball handling) were the other three.
• Leonard individually extended the lead to 10 with a steal, resulting in a Simmons layup and the next play an And1. However, the lead was quickly cut down to 5 with Cousins individual brilliance. During that stretch LMA missed a bunny, making his night that much worse.
• With 6 mins left up 4, Spurs ran Mills and Demond instead of Parker and Gasol. For the record, Parker ran the offense much better in the first half of the 4^th quarter than he did throughout the game. It resulted in LMA getting some better looks and getting the FT line.
• With a 6 point lead, 3 mins left, Parker was subbed back in. Mills didn’t do much during that stretch, and as I said, I felt Parker ran the offense better that quarter and it looks like Pop trusted Parker more.
• To end the game, Leonard offense pulled the game away, and Demond D and rebounding secured the stops.

102-94

Player Ratings

Parker - Last game B-
D
He was an F up until the 4^th where he seemed to control the game better. Besides his 4ft’s and 2 assist is all he offered on O, but it was nice despite 25mins of play, he didn’t registered a turn over. Getting LMA going at the end was important to get the end result in the W.

Leonard - Last game A+
A
What can I say? The only reason why it was not an A+ was because in the first, it felt like he didn’t have Gay under full control, and his outside shot isn’t falling. Yet back to back 30point games, and he is 1-8 from deep. Yes, things are looking good.

Anderson - Last game C-
B
The box score doesn’t give him notice, like Bowen back in the days, Anderson is probably just one of those guys that does the little things that doesn’t get recorded. I was surprised he had 8 rebounds. The steal and block was made in the first few minutes in the game. But his transitional defense is where he get’s the B from. He is our third best defender so far on our team. Take that as bad or good. He needs to take some confident shots.

LMA - Last game A
C
Looked lost in the first 3 quarters. Was not involved, and registered no defensive stats. He made up for it by hitting some FT’s and jumpers down the stretch when the game was on the line. I didn’t notice much leadership out there, probably gassed by banging so much down low. He simply scored the C because despite an off night, he did help towards the end when it was needed. And that is what you want from your stars when you have nights like these.

Gasol - Last game D-
D-
Well look at my rant in my notes to know why. He registered 1 assist to 3to’s. 6 rebounds in 20 mins is nice, but no offensive rebounds. The saving grace was the nice timely 3 pointer he hit and got a nice block. The only saving grace for not getting a F.

Mills - Last game A
C
Had a favourable matchup with no decent points to guard him or defend against, yet struggled to get pass the very temporary ex Spurs, Temple. Hit some 3’s, missed some. Played with pace with the second unit. Overall, just okay.

Manu - Last game A-
B-
Hit some timely shots, and broke down the D a few times with the drive. Ran the pick n roll with Lee and Demond beautifully, and I wanted to see more of that. Lost some points due to shooting ordinary overall. This is the type of games we should except on a nightly basis, with some gems in there.

Simmons - Last game A
C-
Not a good matchup for a slasher with so many bigs. I don’t recall him actually taking a midrange shot this game. Got burnt by Affalo late in the game. The charge on Gay was nice. His passing is very inconsistent. He hit Manu with a perfect pass for the 3, but missed some, especially when Mills had his feet set, the pass was off center, which resulted in a successful closeout.

Lee - Last game B+
B+
Kinda hard to give him an A for just 16 mins of play, but 5 of 6 shooting, 5 rebs, 2 of them offensive, 2 steals, 2 assist, and blk, and no turnovers. His defense is much better than expected, and it did surprising well boxing out the Kings huge front line. I suppose Pop just couldn’t play him any more due to the size difference, but unlike West, this guy plays bigger than he is. He has great hands, and his little off balance layup floaters, ugly enough, go in.

Dedmond - Last game B-
A
Man, a dud preseason to this gem. 5 of 6 shooting, 7 rebounds, 4 of them offensive, and 4 blks. He challenge shots, grab big rebounds, including down the stretch and that nice putback over Cousins in the 1^st quarter (I believe). He would have gotten an A+ if he hit that midrange and didn’t give the And1 to McLemore.

Pop
Hard to tell. He obviously made enough adjustments defensively at the half to get us back in it. He ran the second unit enough which put us back in the game. This is the second game in a row our starters look like they were stuck in the mud. LMA, Parker, Anderson, and Gasol provided us nothing on offense at the start of the game. When the bench came on, Leonard had 12 of the 14 points.

Some minor things I want to show you guys


http://imgur.com/4dQrt5u
Look at the spacing when Anderson and Parker are on the floor together. Despite having two jump shooting bigs, the defense has no desire to have anyone on Anderson and Parker.


http://imgur.com/uwfRcgn
Then compare it when Manu and Mills are on instead, despite having two non jump shootings bigs.


http://imgur.com/AIRAzpF
Gasol shot block attempt on Cousins. Seriously should just have given this guy an F.


http://imgur.com/kmfSdxK
4secs prior, Dedmond grabbed a big rebound, whilst running up the court, he symbol to Leonard that he was setting a pick. The defense scrambled and a few passes later resulted in a open midrange shot by Leonard, giving us a 9 point lead.

Next up, home opener on the 30th against the Pelicans.

[Chinook]

Thanks for the work, tbd. Reading it now.

[apalisoc_9]

Thanks bro.

Can somone compile all the grades every 10 games so we can have a look at how players perform in average?

[MVPCues]

Very nice job!

[Snaq O'Meal]

Great review!

It's Dedmon by the way.

[ceperez]

Good job! I did not watch the whole game, but this is great insight that the highlights can never show.

Let's just hope that Parker and Pau have not hit the wall! In fairness, maybe they are coasting since they just played in the Olympics.

Leonard now looking like Kobe in offense. Good to hear he spent the summer working with Kobe.

[Robz4000]

Great write up imo

[mkurts]

Pau still finding his place in the team

Porker still the same old 14 million dollar salary with the usefulness of a big turd

[DeRozan m8]

Too much positive Anderson talk.

Cheers but

[Pocho La Pantera]

Great, thanks.

[buttsR4rebounding]

Outstanding grades and game summary. Thanks.

[Chinook]

That was well worth the wait, tbdog. I'm glad you did yours in a different format while also carrying over Apa's grades. And I do think it would be cool to do what he's suggesting and keep track of them. So if someone wants to volunteer to do that, it would be cool.

I agree with your grades in that it was a disappointed game from the main cogs while being a very good game for role-players. Dedmon was amazing and got screwed out of at least one rebound where he sent a controlled tap to Lee for a score at the end of the game. Whoever is working with him on his man defense deserves a lot of praise, as he looked way more disciplined than his career foul rate would suggest. And if those two guys can keep working off each other and collecting offensive boards, then the Spurs will be OKCing teams all year. That definitely increases their chances of being successful in the long term.

Anderson led the team in rebounding due to Dedmon being screwed over. That's fantastic. He did have one bad defensive play where he let Afflalo get by him on a screen. But besides that, he really did a great job making life difficult for the whomever he was guarding, and when he had to play Cousins, he competed rather than conceding the points. There really isn't a path for him to get the touches he wants right now. Even if he supplants Simmons on the bench, the Lee/Dedmon combo has too much upside to break up now for Kyle to get the ball in his spots and against favorable defense. And obviously with the starters, forget about it. So he'll have to settle for things like this right now, and hopefully he'll be ready during rest/injury/foul trouble games.

I actually liked how Simmons played. It may have been better than his explosion against GS, because this should be easily sustainable. He and Manu worked off each other very well, and him forcing the issue is going to get the bigs a lot of easy shots once they get chemistry. You'd love more points, but you also love him not hurting the team.

Lee was great. He definitely has the best center game on the roster. He's bringing the IQ Diaw has without the lack of drive. That pass on the Hammer play was fascinating, given that it was an in-bounds bounce pass rather than an out-of-bounds hook pass. Dunno if Lee intended to change it up or if that's just how he has to throw them. But having multiple ways to hit the shooter would make it harder to jump that pass. Dude even made a jumper. Just an excellent game from a fourth big.

[daledondale]

Thanks man, nice job.

[xellos88330]

Nice work! Looking forward to more grades from you.

The stagnation of the Spurs starters offensively outside of Leonard is concerning. The bench is performing ridiculously well though. I am even more excited for the Spurs this season.

One thing that I am extremely happy about is the fact that this was an extremely physical game and the Spurs didn't back away from it. Instead they dished out punishment of their own. That was a welcome sight indeed.

[Em-City]

thanks for the grades - agree with everything, more or less. Parker was woeful for so much of the game and he did play just ok in the 4th quarter, but i think the fact that lawson wasn't so good meant that Tony was able to get off lightly on defense.

This is the version of Dedmon I was expecting, and I must admit I was puzzled with his play in the pre-season so it's refreshing to see the bounce-back.

One note about simmons is that his passing is overall quite good, but the instances of poor passing are mainly due to his weakness that is dribbling under pressure. He ends up with his head down and can't quite gather to make the pass he needs to because he's making up for the lack of ball handling ability. I personally think he could work on this and be a more reliable facilitator in future.

Patty was frustrating at times with how he used the screen man, and his refusal/inability to attack the rim off some decent picks. I guess the height/athleticism compared with higher quality PGs is the difference here, and in my opinion the main reason why he'll never be able to be a successful starting PG. I wanted to mention this because in his interview a few days ago he was talking about his yet unfulfilled goal of being a starting PG. I think the writing is on the wall that he is truly an undersized SG, and will likely never be a starter for that reason.

I would love to see a starting lineup of Parker, Leonard Bertans, Aldridge, Dedmon but it's just not gonna happen.
Mills, Manu, Simmons, Anderson/Lee/Pau would work really well as a unit IMO.

[Mr. Body]

The starters really need Greene, badly missing a 3pt outlet. I like Anderson's defense and general role but the starters need more shooting.

[housious]

Anderson played decent defense, but once again looked completely lost on offense. B is extremely generous for him.

Agree on everything else.

[Captivus]

Great!!!

[Chinook]

Anderson played decent defense, but once again looked completely lost on offense. B is extremely generous for him.

Agree on everything else.

Seven of Kyle's team-leading eight rebounds game in the second half. In a game where the teams finished tied in total rebounds, I think he deserves a ton of credit for helping to keep the Spurs steady as they came back. Dude's an elite rebounder for his position, so seeing him actually show that is awesome.

[picnroll]

I was impressed with Simmons game. I was afraid that after the GS game he had he'd go hero balling out of control. Instead he played a very controlled, intelligent game.

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

3rd

Anderson defense is great, and the second best defender outside Leonard tonight. His transitional defense is a few step below Danny Green, and if he continues throughout there year, we will look good.

We watched different games. Every time Kyle's man got the ball in the third, he took him off the dribble and beat him on the first step. We had to rotate help to his man every time (usually Gasol). Kid was a turnstyle against their wings until Pop pulled him.

[Chinook]

We watched different games. Every time Kyle's man got the ball in the third, he took him off the dribble and beat him on the first step. We had to rotate help to his man every time (usually Gasol). Kid was a turnstyle against their wings until Pop pulled him.

That's funneling. You don't play defense one-on-one in the NBA often. What you want to do is make it as easy on your bigs as possible to contest shots. Green and Kawhi were experts at this when Tim was there. The reason why you didn't see Kawhi funneling his man nowadays is because guys have learned to stop dribbling anywhere near him.

[Dex]

Thanks OP.

Cousin's post-game comments on Kawhi: https://www.instagram.com/p/BMGUhU9BQcj/

"Flashes of Kobe"

[Nathan89]

Nice work. I can already see that the designated grade games is going to bring out the best of the posters that volunteered.

I just want to see some signs of life from Pau. I can't handle more dead weight on this team.

[TheDoctor]

Thanks for the Grades! You could've given DLee an A for sure. He played great, hustled every play and was a spark -along with Dedmon- off the bench.
Chinook apalisoc_9
I volunteer to compile and inform the Game Grades every 10 games. I'm going to assign a numerical value to the Grades so that it can be displayed in a simpler way.