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Thanks for the grades TIMVP. I always look forward to them.
For the first time in more than a month, the good guys are the owners of a winning streak. After beginning their six-game homestand with a 133-120 victory over the Lakers, the Spurs followed that up on Sunday evening by defeating the Jazz by a final score of 110-97.
Considering this same Jazz team just slapped the Spurs in Salt Lake City by 34 points a few days ago, tonight's win was quite the turnaround. Surprisingly, it was the defense led the way. San Antonio, the league's second worst defensive team, held an opponent under 100 points for the first time in 12 outings. In fact, the least the Spurs had allowed in the previous six games was 118 points.
The Spurs held a firm grip on the lead for a majority of the game until the Jazz authored a few runs in the fourth quarter. Thankfully, Rudy Gay hit big shot after big shot to keep San Antonio ahead.
With one minute gone in the fourth, the Jazz cut the lead to six points and Gay responded with a jumper. A minute later, Utah cut the lead to five points ... only for Gay to knock down a jumper. Another minute later, the Jazz were within five points again. This time, yet another Gay jumper sparked a 9-0 run that essentially ended the game.
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LaMarcus Aldridge
This was a streaky game for LaMarcus Aldridge. When he was on, he was really on. After a slow-ish start, Aldridge erupted in the middle of the second quarter. Over a five minute stretch, the 33-year-old went 6-for-6 from the field, including five shots from more than 15 feet out. Not only was he on fire offensively, his defense was fantastic during the stretch as well. The rest of the game, I'd say Aldridge was average on both ends of the court. While I'm sure the Spurs enjoyed his spirited defense when he was cooking offensively, it's truthfully a bit disconcerting that Aldridge's defensive intensity was directly tied to his offensive performance. (Here's some good news: after Aldridge shot 40.6 percent from the field in the season's first 17 games, he has hit 55.5 percent of his shots over the last ten games.)
Grade: B+
Summary: Aldridge went beast mode in the second quarter.
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DeMar DeRozan
DeMar DeRozan didn't shoot particularly well from the field and didn't get to the line an inordinate amount, however I thought this was a very strong offensive showing. DeRozan's playmaking was impressive and he kept close care of the basketball, as evident by his eight assists and zero turnovers. The Jazz were sending a ton of help his way and yet DeRozan kept attacking and putting on pressure. That's when he's on his best; keep pounding away on that rock. Defensively, I also thought DeRozan was good. He had a few breakdowns but overall he exhibited a high level of effort on individual matchups and offered an acceptable amount of help. DeRozan has had flashier games than this one but I thought he played how the Spurs need him to play if they are going to play a consistent brand of basketball.
Grade: B+
Summary: DeRozan was rock solid in just about every facet of the game.
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Rudy Gay
With the team's two main power forwards out (Dante Cunningham with an injury, Davis Bertans for personal reasons), Rudy Gay slid up to power forward and responded with one of his best games of the season. He scored 13 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter, including the three previously mentioned jumpers that kept the Jazz at bay. Gay's ferocity in the paint was off the charts, which resulted in a number of physical finishes at the rim and a career-high-tying 15 rebounds. His defense was also easily above average. When Gay is moving well and jumping well, like he was tonight, he's a deadly weapon in San Antonio's arsenal.
Grade: A
Summary: Gay was feeling good and put together an outstanding performance.
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Bryn Forbes
While Bryn Forbes stats look good (15 points on 6-of-8 shooting to go along with five rebounds and three assists), I actually wasn't too enthused by his play. Offensively, he broke the offense too often and the rhythm was rickety whenever he tried to create in the halfcourt setting. I thought his passing decisions were too often needlessly slow. Defensively, Forbes struggled. He had trouble keeping players in front of him and was usually caught desperately trying to get into the right position. His team-defense was also a step slow. All in all, Forbes simply wasn't crisp on either end.
Grade: C
Summary: Forbes' numbers look fine but they hid his unsteadiness.
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Derrick White
With Gay at power forward, the coaches went with Derrick White as the fifth starter. It turned out to be a good decision. White was stout defensively. Not only did he stay in front of his man, his rotations were quick and he even helped defend the rim at times. Offensively, his court vision was an asset and he helped by absorbing a lot of the ball-handling obligations. I thought he should have been more aggressive calling his own number but he kept his mistakes to a reasonable level while doing a lot of dirty work.
Grade: B
Summary: White was busy playing a complementary role but his contributions didn't go unnoticed.
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Patty Mills
The good: Patty Mills played hard, was his typical vocal self and kept the ball jumping when he was on the court. The offense flowed so much better when Mills had his hands at the reins, especially compared to the ragged possessions managed by Forbes. The bad: Mills had energy on defense but he got overwhelmed even more than usual. The Australian also had worse than usual shot selection and his passing was nothing special.
Grade: B-
Summary: Mills' production was iffy but his presence aided the on-court chemistry.
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Marco Belinelli
Yes, Marco Belinelli's shooting percentages were a step in the right direction. But, truth be told, his shot selection was certifiably insane. He added leans, tilts, fades and other oddities to his shots -- usually for no discernible reason. Thankfully, he hit enough of the crazy attempts on this night. Outside of his shot selection lunacy, Belinelli played pretty well. He played with a toughness on defense that we haven't witnessed much this season. His passing was also an asset, particularly when he was on the move.
Grade: B-
Summary: Belinelli's shots were loco but otherwise he was bueno.
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Jakob Poeltl
Jakob Poeltl missed a couple of shots he usually makes and wasn't as good on the defensive boards as he's been in recent games. The rest of his game was strong. This might have been his best defensive game, as his rotations were on point and he was physical at the point of contact. (By my count, Poeltl had at least two blocked shots -- maybe three.) Offensively, he was a monster on the glass, showed off his impressive passing ability and was patient when he had the ball. (Interestingly, this was the second straight game Poeltl played during money time in the fourth quarter. In this game, he entered midway through the fourth when Aldridge picked up his fifth foul ... and he finished the game out.)
Grade: B
Summary: Poeltl continued his very good play and has now become a reliable boost off the bench.
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Chimezie Metu
Chimezie Metu was in the rotation tonight due to the shortage of power forwards. He didn't play much but it's obvious that he's feeling much more confident. Unlike earlier in the season, he actually knows the plays and knows where to go on the court. Metu is still really raw but he passes the eye-test as an NBA player.
Grade: Inc.
Summary: Metu blended right in and didn't look out of place. That's an improvement.
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Pop
I'm hoping Pop takes a close look at how this game played out and gets hit with the realization that he doesn't need to play his defensive-stopper-in-theory-but-sub-par-in-reality centerpiece. Seriously though, Cunningham needs his minutes cut and doing so won't hurt the defense. If White starts, it'd almost certainly help the defense, in fact. There's probably nothing to read into but I like the idea of playing Poeltl to close out games, even if it means sitting Aldridge sometimes. Tonight, I think the Spurs would have had an easier time if Forbes had played less but otherwise I didn't have an issue with the rotation. I liked White starting and going with basically an eight-man rotation since fatigue shouldn't be an issue right now. But I'll give Pop a below average grade simply for the fact that he had the audacity to put Forbes on Donovan Mitc for a stretch of time.
Grade: C+
Summary: Pop pushed a lot of good buttons, even if his hands were forced to push some of those buttons.
Looking ahead: Hey, the sun is coming out in San Antonio. The playoffs suddenly don't seem as unrealistic as they did a couple days ago. If the Spurs can beat Phoenix on Tuesday, they'll be back at .500 with a record of 14-14.
And, really, the Spurs have to beat the Suns. Given how bad the Suns are currently and the fact that the Spurs lost to them once already, a second loss against Phoenix would be devastating.
Beat the Suns. Get to .500. Keeping the momentum rolling.
Last edited by timvp; 12-10-2018 at 04:12 AM.
Thanks for the grades TIMVP. I always look forward to them.
good
Forbes made his shots this time but boy is he a bad defender. No wonder he has the worst plus-minus by a mile. He shouldn’t play 30+ minutes. It’s insane. Even the spurtstalk hate-target Patty Mills is a way way better defender than Forbes. I don’t understand Forbes playing more minutes than Mills.
I liked Pop benching LA against the Lakers. But today maybe it would be wiser to get him back in the game with 3 or 4 minutes to go. The game was almost sealed by that time. But benching your star for the crunch time second straight night may be bad for his morale.
The defense was good in the first half but in the 3rd the usual lackadaisical stuff returned: please go to our basket, and here’s your touch-foul for the and-1 sir. Hopefully this 1st half wasn’t an aberration
TIMVP, if/when Lonnie comes back, will he be enough of an upgrade over Forbes to boost us into the playoffs, or does his rookie-ness equal a weakness on par with Forbes defense, lacl of athleticism, etc?
Of note, the last 6 quarters, the Spurs have allowed 145 points for an average of 24.16 ppts per quarter or 97 ppg. Can it continue?
And adding to your question: Is Lonnie capable of consistently shooting and making 3s?
I'm a Forbes hater but he at least his only skill which is shooting is a must from this position in our starting line-up since our two start don't shoot 3s at all.
Lonnie has something that I consider more important: the ability to run the pick and roll and create open shots for others (I believe he will be able to do this on the main team faster than expected if given the opportunity), and he and White seem like guys who know the time to cut to the basket taking advantage of the defensive flaws (it will be another addition on the offensive side),defensively it seems to be at least one level up
That's nice, especially for the second unit. But if he's put on the starting line-up like TrainOfThought5 is implying to whom he'll be creating open 3s if nobody outside of Gay is shooting them?
Does Lonnie shoot 3s though? To be honest, I haven't watched him play much.
As for defence, I agree. Everybody's level up on Forbes :-)
It's been several hours since the game, and I've slept since then. So my memory's not as clear as it usually is. I don't think the defensive difference was all that pronounced, though. The Spurs played with more effort, and Utah missed a butt-ton of openish looks. In the last Jazz game, they hit every one of those shots until true garbage time. Combine that with Gay getting 23 points rather than zero like on Tuesday, and you get the main explanation for the score. Obviously, whatever makes the guys play with more heart and focus should form the basis of any adjustments. If that means playing White rather than Cun, then go with that. The main benefit of Dante is that he consistently tries on defense, which is something few guys on the roster can say. If effort is no longer an issue, then playing guys for things like scoring and spacing makes some sense. Dunno if the team can rely on Gay with his health in flux, though.
Other things:
Aldridge shooting so well from range really helped neutralize Gobert, who had only one block in 34 minutes despite the Spurs attacking the paint many times over the course of the game. Dude did threaten a triple-double with a Jazz-high seven assists, but LMA did what he has to do for the Spurs to reach their potential: be the best big on the floor. Gobert is also in a stretch of obvious frustration with the team's performance, though homeboy is signed for two more years after this one and isn't going anywhere. Still something to watch going forward.
White guarded Ingles for most of the time both were on the court. I do think that's a good adjustment for the Spurs. Joe has PF size, but he plays with a guard skill-set and isn't selfish, so him having a mismatch doesn't result in the same crisis that it should. Difference between Ingles and Diaw is that Boris knew when he had the best shot and wouldn't hesitate to score when it was his turn. Diaw loved passing and did it a lot, but give that dude a mismatch in the post, and he was scoring the ball or drawing help. Ingles passed up multiple layups for kick-outs. Teams will exploit that in the playoffs.
It's hard to say if the Spurs played successfully against Utah's back court. On the one hand, the two guys combined for 53 of their team's 97 points. On the other hand, they shot 19/46, which is actually worse than the rest of their team shot (18/39). The gameplan always has to be to make Rubio score, but he's had decent success in doing so against SA over the past couple of years. The Spurs did a good job of neutralizing his passing ability, but allowing 26 points to a non-scorer isn't a great plan to win. Mitc had a stretch where he tried to take over the game, and over all, he scored 27 points on 28 possessions. As mentioned in the OP, Gay did a decent job holding him off to preserve the win. White should have been the guy on Mitc tonight, but the others didn't get too hurt by it due to Don falling back to Earth this year.
This game also gives a good look at how the Spurs were planning on playing offense with Murray. They have better spacing right now, but they were going to play shooters regardless. What I'm talking about is the pace the team had offensively, beating the Jazz down the floor with look-ahead passes and running duck-in post-up plays to get Gay good looks. It's easier to make up for the lack of outside shooting when everyone is moving toward the basket rather than waiting for everyone to set up and attacking off a high PnR. I've been clamoring for this type of fast-post attack for years, and I'm glad to see it used now, even if it's not for Aldridge. All in all, the downhill style doesn't seem to jive with LMA's and DMDR's comfort zones. They can fit that offense, but their games prioritize half-court isos. I'm interested in seeing if they can keep it up.
Eubanks was active for this game, while Ben Moore was not. That's weird to me, given that they were missing two forwards. Moore has 45 games of eligibility for the big club (though that might be less depending on exactly how the CBA counts "active days"). They've played 27 games as it is, so there are only 55 games left in the season. There simply isn't all that much time left to worry about him sitting out. If being down two rotational guys isn't enough of a reason to bring a guy over, what is? Metu wasn't god awful or anything (though I wouldn't have called him good -- he only played six minutes for a reason), but this was a perfect game to give the guy some run. The Spurs are going to be in position to make some big roster moves after about another week. Ben shouldn't stop them from trading for a legit starting F if one is on the table, but he could be a factor in whether they could include Pon or Cun in a trade or whether they'd need to acquire a depth forward if someone is sent out. The way the team's handled that two-way spot this whole year has been odd.
Thanks timvp great assessment.
I thought Mills was a disaster on defense. The Jazz made a strong comeback by picking mainly on Mills.
As always OP thanks for the grades. I missed the game, so I really appreciate it.
Talking about it, Mills and Poeltl have developed a very nice P+R; Poeltl has a beautiful roll to the basket, he can develop into a Gortat with better hands; and Mills is feeding him very nice passes.
So when you make comments like this or that player should have more or fewer minutes, does that pertain to only this game or does it take the season development routine into consideration?
Do you think the Spurs are in "win now" mode?
The Spurs have 3rd quarter woes historically, even with completely different lineups. That makes me wonder about Pop's halftime routine.
Lot of times this year, there's been a reluctance to switch White or Deroza on the hot hand of the opposing team's backcourt for whatever reason....
I get if you don't want to tax Derozan but White should have been on Mitc as soon as he was getting it going in the 3rd and then switched to Rubio in the 4th...IIRC Rubio was lighting up Bryn and Pop subbed in Patty to try and slow him down.....??????
Overall, liking what I see from Poetl since his terrible start. Really hope they package and ship out Pau and Beli by the deadline....
Thanks for the random thoughts!
Thanks for the grades Timvp. Poeltl is becoming a reliable big and has effectively closed games, when Spurs often relinquish the lead. White needs to defend the scoring guard because he is for now our best defensive guard. Hopefully this helps control the bleeding in the 4th quarter. Spurs can score and doesn’t need to necessarily play the 3 points chucking style. If they can limit the opponent to less than 100, they have good chance to win.
Thanks, TiMVP!
I was at the game for the first time this year. Plenty of random surprises.
-At least 3000 empty seats.
-1st half defense was much better than I expected
-Derrick White looks solid defensively and will take some time offensively, but, the potential is there to be a decent NBA player
-DeRozan is such a good facilitator.
-Belinelli is still crazy, but, can swing a game with his unorthodox shooting swagger
-My main takeaway was that this team is focused, together and trying to learn and grow. The teamwork, enthusiasm and heart are intact. Those intangibles can lead to growth, even beyond the middling talent level. Seeing Pau on the bench cheering showed me that the season has a long way to go and this team is starting to look like a Spurs team.
Thx for the grades, I mostly agree.
What I really liked yesterday:
- I thought they did a much better job in communicating on D. Only a few errors on switches, way better than the weeks prior
- Poeltl improved a LOT. Enough for him to start at the five if they want to go back to the lineup with two bigs, while Gasol can lead the bench mob (he will be above average vs almost any other 2nd unit).
- Beli is doing better. Still way too trigger-happy, but he's moving more off the ball and even hit two 3s where he stood pretty much still. If he can keep it up, he should get 10-20 mins (depending on injuries, etc).
- the LMA-DDR-pnp did really well today. If it's sustainable, they don't even have to be an elite defense to win enough games.
- Rudy Gay is a ing DOG. That dunk over Gobert, great. Put the team on his back. An alpha-X factor, giving me Manu-vibes.
- the 2nd unit is one of the better benchmobs in the NBA. I kinda hope Walker can instantly start so they don't need to mess too much with that unit.
This homestand will show what this group is capable of. Hope they can string together some Ws.
Thanks Timvp!
It was a fun game to watch. I really like Poetl's emergence...that's been one of the great things about these last couple of games for me, besides the wins of course.
This team needs two quick-footed defenders at the guard and forward spot. Forbes just gets destroyed, and Patty, for all his efforts, is just too small in a lot of matchups. It would be great if the Spurs could fix those two holes. Walker might be helpful there. The team is dangerously thin. Pop really went only 8 deep last night, and realistically a couple of those guys shouldn't be playing they kind of minutes they're being asked to play. Cunningham shouldn't play at all, and Bertans is a 10-12 minute role player from my perspective. Gasol's a spot player at this point. The only two guys who are missing who could be helping, in any significant way right now, are Murray and Walker.
in a nutsjazz
Something I haven't liked for awhile but happens too much including last night's game is "point Rudy" where Gay decides to he's taking over as point guard and is abetted by some of the other players. I hate that it takes the ball from White and usually it's a few possessions of stagnant, no scoring basketball.
Pop needs to cut that out and make sure the other guys get the ball to White or DeRozan if he's on the court, though this usually happens without him.
I saw too much isolation and still not enough team play / passing.
Deroz, Gay, LMA all seem to be black holes nearly all the time.
But 2 winsinaro? amazing. 4 more home games to keep the streak going, but the 4th seed 16-9 clippers will be tough
Disagree as I think he's a good fit in any lineup, either next to LMA or Poetl. Him and Rudy should be the 4 with Cunningham getting 0-5 mins a night. I think Rudy is probably at his best going 25ish minutes a game and the rest should go to Davis. I mean if Bertans is a 10-12min a night player than I don't know what you'd consider Beli tbh
Agreed, it's weird when it happens.
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