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An excellent job as usual, timvp. Very welcome.
Moral victory. Yeah, I typed it. Moral victory.
This Spurs entered this second game of a back-to-back in Milwaukee as big underdogs. To begin the contest, the Bucks were on fire and roared out to a 26-11 lead. But a funny thing happened to what appeared to be a blowout loss: San Antonio stormed back and almost pulled off their most impressive win of the season.
Leading by as many of ten points in the fourth quarter, the Spurs looked poised for an upset. Unfortunately, they appeared to run out of steam and they definitely ran out of good fortune as the Bucks made their comeback and eventually took the lead with three minutes remaining. San Antonio managed to hang around until Malcolm Brogdon's three-pointer with eight seconds to go extended a Bucks two-point lead to five points.
In the past thirty Spurs seasons or so, moral victories didn't exist in the land of the Spurs. But this season is different. For this team, this result counts as a moral victory and another step in the right direction.
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LaMarcus Aldridge
LaMarcus Aldridge was far from the dominant player we witnessed Friday night against the Pacers but he was still somewhat effective. Defensively, he spent a lot of the time on the perimeter defending pick-and-rolls and contesting three-point shooters. Doing that took him out of rebounding position but he did all he could do out on the perimeter. Offensively, his touches were sporadic but he usually managed to create good shots. He also knocked down half of his six shots from the perimeter, which is obviously good to see. All in all, the Bucks are designed to make life difficult for interior-oriented players like Aldridge. Despite that, he battled through it and managed to have some positive moments.
Grade: B
Summary: It wasn't an easy game for Aldridge but he persevered.
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DeMar DeRozan
It was a tale of two sides of the court for DeMar DeRozan. Offensively, he was really good. He was a dependable metronome providing consistent life to San Antonio's offensive attack. Whether he was driving the lane with force, dropping off deadly jumpers in the midrange, getting to the line or skillfully setting up his teammates to the tune of seven assists with no turnvers, DeRozan was delivering on that end. Unfortunately, he was an abomination on the defensive end. He was terrible defending dribble penetration. His rotations were slow. He even fell asleep on the weakside multiple times. As good as DeRozan was on offense, he pretty much canceled it out by being so atrocious on defense.
Grade: B-
Summary: Great O. Terrible D.
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Rudy Gay
Through three quarters, Rudy Gay looked really good considering this was the second night of a back-to-back. In the fourth, though, it was obvious he was laboring physically. In the final stanza, Gay's defense fell off a cliff and his offense got sloppy. Through three quarters, he was probably the team's best defender against Giannis Antetokounmpo. Gay was also bailing the Spurs out when via emergency isolations and had a second straight stellar passing game. Big picture: Gay looked a lot better than the previous second game of a back-to-back -- let's hope that means his health is improving.
Grade: B-
Summary: Gay was solid for 75 percent of the game.
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Bryn Forbes
Bryn Forbes is another player who saw his fortunes change when he crossed the halfcourt stripe. Defensively, he wasn't good at all. He was sloppy defending pick-and-rolls, rotated slowly, gave up a myriad of three-pointers and was basically just overwhelmed constantly on that end. Offensively, he was good. He hit big shots again in the fourth quarter and was very efficient. That said, I didn't always agree with his shot selection and he missed wide open teammates on multiple occasions.
Grade: C+
Summary: Forbes helped out on offense but got eaten alive on defense.
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Dante Cunningham
Alright, so this is a difficult grade to dispense. On one hand, Dante Cunningham's effort was undeniable. He was great on the boards, hustled back in transition, was mentally locked in to his responsibilities on defense and wasn't much of a liability on offense. On the other hand, he had literally no chance of defending Antetokounmpo, who ended up scoring 34 points on 16 shot attempts. The Greek Freak was too big, too fast, too strong and too smart for Cunningham. So while Cunningham gave effort, he just didn't have a single tool in his defensive toolkit that bothered Antetokounmpo at all.
Grade: C+
Summary: Cunningham played hard but was hopeless against the Greek Freak.
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Patty Mills
The good: Mills played with a ton of passion. With the bench leading the charge tonight, Mills was the one in command of that the brigade. He pushed the pace, got the ball-movement hopping, visited the line for a season-high seven free throws, and his ballhandling was better than average. On defense, his flopping ways actually paid off for him a few times. The bad: Mills could have been more aggressive looking for his shot on offense; three attempts in 23 minutes isn't enough. Defensively, his small stature made him close to worthless when the Spurs were scrambling around trying to cover up the three-point line.
Grade: B
Summary: Mills did pretty good but could have been better.
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Davis Bertans
If there's one man most responsible for the swift comeback in the first quarter after the Spurs fell into a 15-point hole, it's Davis Bertans. Right after he entered the game, he sank a pair of three-pointers. By the end of the first quarter, Bertans had poured in 11 points and the Spurs were only down by a point. By halftime, the Latvian was up to 15 points in the stat sheet. Unfortunately, Bertans didn't do much in the second half. Defensively, Bertans' lack of strength was a liability throughout but he crashed the boards better than usual and his defense against Antetokounmpo wasn't any worse than Cunningham's.
Grade: B+
Summary: Bertans swiftly turned around what appeared to be an utter wipeout.
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Marco Belinelli
Offensively, Marco Belinelli was better than we've witnessed in a while. He shot relatively straight, got his teammates involved and tiptoed the line between catalyst and chucker rather well. In the fourth quarter, Belinelli had a couple costly mistakes on the offensive end, including a horrendously poor three-point attempt that added fuel to Milwaukee's rally. Defensively, he wasn't very good. The low point had to be when Brook Lopez beat him off the dribble.
Grade: C+
Summary: Belinelli made a respectable percentage of his shots but it wasn't all gravy on this night.
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Jakob Poeltl
Jakob Poeltl is getting better and better as he gets more comfortable in his silver and black skivvies. On defense, he defended the rim well enough and he was mobile enough to get a hand up out on the perimeter. Offensively, Poeltl actually looked competent a few times when running pick-and-rolls, made slick passes and he was once again a beast on the boards on that end of the court. It's safe to say the worst of his growing pains are behind him.
Grade: A-
Summary: Poeltl is starting to fit in rather nicely.
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Derrick White
Derrick White had a good finish, a smooth pass to Poeltl for an and-1 and looked pretty good defensively. However, his night will unfortunately be remembered for an extremely unconfident shot to end the first quarter, which White than compounded by fouling the Greek Freak on a buzzer-beating heave that was from halfway to Athens.
Grade: Inc.
Summary: White's experiencing growing pains.
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Pop
This game was a Monday morning quarterback's dream because there's a lot to second-guess regarding Pop and his choices in the fourth quarter. The bench was obviously much more effective -- mostly due to the fact that their defense wasn't as ghastly. Should Pop have gone with more Bertans, more Poeltl and some more of the other bench producers? Quite possible. Bertans, specifically, probably should have played more. But, then again, if Pop kept the bench in, they probably still lose . . . so, in reality, the ending was probably a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation.
Grade: C+
Summary: Pop couldn't stop the bleeding.
Looking ahead: Even though the Spurs are back under .500 at 9-10, they've now put together three strong games in a row. If they can avoid getting discouraged and keep improving at this rate, things could turn around sooner rather than later.
Next up, the Spurs play the third game of this road trip in Chicago on Monday night. If they are going to keep this streak of improved play alive, they need to beat the 5-15 Bulls.
Edit - thank you for the thread monitoring.
An excellent job as usual, timvp. Very welcome.
I thought the game turned the moment LA rejoined in the 4th. A couple of sloppy turnovers really did change the momentum of the game.
Liked what I saw out of Bertans and Poeltl, really disagree that Cunningham wasn't a liability on offense.
He doesn't do anything well enough to not be a drag. 5 points on 4 attempts in 31 minutes feels like a stat line from a starter back in 2005.
Starting to see why people want Bertans over Cunningham in the SL.
Aldridge outplayed Lopez, so he did his job as far as that was concerned, but the rest of the Spurs roster didn't match up well.
The moment I remember best was Mills trying to defend Giannis near the basket, with Forbes nearby. It was sad.
Only one of the Bucks bench had over 5 points, tho. That was notable. Unless it was just an off night, it's hard to see them competing for the championship with that bench.
The dreaded Forbes Mills duo....
The Bucks bench has had better nights. Connaughton has been good for them. The Spurs bench spearheaded by Davis’ hot hand just thoroughly outplayed them tonight though with some hot shooting and that’s the reason the game was close. Spurs can’t stop anybody when they need to though and that’s why this moral victory doesn’t really leave you a good feeling either. Spurs shooters were hot and that’s fine.
and Aldridge playing much of the game as if he had 6'6'' and not 6'11''
Because Lopez plays strictly on the perimeter, LMA was never there to challenge the shot. Because Bucks has some of the most athletic penetrators, essentially they just walz right in. It was hard to watch and was sooooo boring to watch too. The NBA has changed so much. It doesn't feel like you get stops. Rather than the other team just misses.
Bucks and Raptors have enough athleticism and length that the occasional stop is going to win you games. Spurs with Mills and Forbes in the lineup can't really stop anyone. Spurs just hope the other team beats themselves by missing.
In today's NBA, you can either will yourself to win by outscoring your opponent or giving the a harder time scoring. Spurs can't do either. The best they can do is lull the other team to be disinterested in the game.
They'd actually be okay if they had any semblance of a competent wing defender. The Dejounte injury sucks and will probably cost them the playoffs but literally anybody that they can plug in that isn't Dante Cunningham or force them to go Patty/Forbes/Derozan...and they'd be comfortably a playoff team.
That said, I'm not sure if Pop cared too much about a big wing defender or if he'd play them over the midget ball anyways.
Moral victories are going to be my favorite Ws this season anyways
-32 from DeRozan and -29 from Aldridge. I didn’t get to watch this one but it’s obvious the bench was responsible for the Spurs staying in it which is encouraging. We’ve seen a huge drop off from our starters on the second night of back-2-backs, so it’s a nice thing to see the bench, at least, coming through.
The Chicago game is a must win during this tough 6 weeks of games. I hope the Spurs treat it that way.
With Derrick White too. Pop's version of small ball to counter Golden State and any other team
Poeltl +23
True that! A once-brilliant sport has been molded into entertainment for the $ of the masses. The NBA is nothing more than mildly interesting at this point.
Thanks once again Timvp for the grades! Spot on and great analysis of the game. This game is the best example of the Spurs able to score enough, even took a good lead just to squander in the last because they cannot defend. Defense, defense and more defense is what they need to improve on. Closeouts, fighting through pick and rolls. Offensively I like what I saw. Bertans/Forbes are deadly shooters and need to be drawn up plays for them to get open, pick and pop (I would put Belli in there, he’s such a great cutter but boy I hate his floating scissor shots, just shoot them straight will you!). They are getting there in discipline and focus. I wish Demar can become a better defensive player. Can he? He’s so athletic and works so hard on his game, so I can’t see why not. I mean if Pops could hone him to become a great defensive player (and hit those 3’s with consistency, he’d be a beast. White needs to improve on shooting and play great defense. Because Forbes is just too short to guard against starters’ talent (even 2nd unit talent but at least against 2nd unit he’s not as exposed). An improved White would be better option (or LW4 if he’s NBA ready). I’m starting to give up on Forbes if he cannot defend and help protect the lead. And the 2nd unit really needs to improve to allow Gay enough rest to finish strong. If LMA’s shots are not falling, Gay is very capable to close ala Manu, provided he has fresh legs to close. This team is improving and has a good potential to compete, just needs time. GSG!
Last edited by John B; 11-25-2018 at 12:17 PM.
Moral victories
Overall it was an interesting game instead of expected blowout on the road against a much better team.
But I didn't like Pop's decisions in the fourth. Why go with Belli for extended stretch when Bertans is having his best game of the season?!
Coulnt agree more.Lopez was doing it from the perimeter , then Giannis milked it in the 4th. Seriously the perimeter defense of this team is so terrible its worse than advertised.
Timvp yr grading on the spurs players d is spot on. It seems like these guys are coasting on that end, using short cuts or simply hoping their guy misses by givin way too much room.
they have no choice honestly, they have no ability to defend more aggressively, they would get slaughtered even worse if they tried
Demar to me looks like he coasting or isnt smart enough to figure it out on defense. Pattys d yah he short but he gambles too much. When you're a weaklink thats the last thing you do on that end. The rest of them i agree, they cant help it.
Thank you for the grades and it was a 'moral victory' in that they competed well for 45 minutes. Who was expecting a win here? On to Chicago for a needed win!
“My system turns cute midgets into defensive centerpieces.”
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