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Thanks for the grades.
I disagree with White's C-. He was execution on offense (especially) the first half was beautiful. No way does Patty Mills get a B- and White a C-. If White doesn't play the way he did tonight then the Spurs don't win.
Bad win. There's no other way to describe it. The Spurs were at home taking on a Suns team that had lost eight straight games and hadn't won on the road all season against a Western Conference team. On top of that, the Suns were dealing with a handful of key injuries. Despite all those advantages, to escape with a 126-124 victory, San Antonio needed a buzzer-beating 21-foot jumper by Rudy Gay.
Offensively, the ball-movement was sticky and the cohesion was lacking. That said, the Spurs scored at a more than acceptable rate against Phoenix -- even considering they are the league's second-worst defensive squad.
Defense is where the Spurs really struggled. Bad strategy. Bad execution. Bad effort. Bad compe iveness. The Spurs have had a lot of defensive low points this seasons but this might have been the lowest of the low.
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LaMarcus Aldridge
Production-wise, there's not much to critique when it comes to LaMarcus Aldridge. He scored 29 points on only 15 shots, pulled down 14 rebounds (eight of which were offensive), handed out four assists and turned it over only twice. While the stats are pretty, I wasn't overly thrilled with his offensive play. He wasn't as physical as usual, he wasn't running the court hard to gain deep post position and allowed the Suns to defend him with undersized defenders too often. Phoenix was playing without a real backup bigman, yet Aldridge never truly made them pay. He played with effort on offense but it wasn't dialed all the way up. Defensively, he wasn't too impressive. Aldridge didn't do much rim protecting in the paint and wasn't too enthused about helping out on the perimeter.
Grade: B
Summary: Aldridge played well but could exerted his will more.
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Rudy Gay
Thanks for hitting that game-winner, Rudy Gay. Nailing that shot avoided what could have been an utter disaster. Other than the memorable jumper, though, Gay was below average. His shot-selection was too liberal and the ball was sticking in his hands. It was too bad because when Gay looked to pass, he actually made good decisions. Defensively, I was really unimpressed. I don't know if he's hurting again or what but he was simply incapable of defending out to the three-point line. He was porous in one-on-one situations, was slow to rotate and his overall effort on that end couldn't have been much lower. When Gay isn't at least trying defensively, it quickly sinks the whole scheme.
Grade: C
Summary: That game-winner hid what was otherwise a forgettable night.
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Bryn Forbes
The good: Bryn Forbes scored eight straight points for the Spurs in the fourth quarter on 3-for-3 shooting, including a pair from downtown. The bad: Virtually everything else. He was anemic offensively outside of that fourth quarter mini eruption. Defensively, he was hopeless whenever he tried to guard Devin Booker, which happened quite a bit. The rest of his defensive play was a frazzled, unconfident mess. Forbes rarely was in the right spots at the right time -- and even when he was, he did little to stop anyone.
Grade: D+
Summary: Really bad outside of some fourth quarter shooting.
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Derrick White
Defensively, Derrick White was the man primarily tasked to slow Booker. Considering Phoenix's superstar went 14-for-19 from the field on his way to 38 point, it's safe to say White didn't have a good game on defense. However, to be fair to White, he only shares a minority part of the blame because the coaches had the perimeter players switching every screen, so it was rare for Booker and White to actually go head-to-head. That said, White's defense was still too lax and he wasn't applying near the amount of pressure that the situation asked for. Offensively, White was also sub par. He didn't shoot well and that was due to his shot-selection. Instead of making the heady passes as he has all season, he opted for circus shots on the run far too often. I like White being aggressive but he has to be smart and make the right pass when it's open.
Grade: C-
Summary: White was discombobulated on offense, not locked in enough defensively.
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Davis Bertans
With the Suns going extra small, Davis Bertans got the start and played a season-high 36 minutes. Offensively, he did pretty well. He tied his season-high with five made three-pointers -- but, truth be told, he uncharacteristically missed at least three or four wide open three-point looks. Bertans' passing was again a plus, however he did have a few occasions where he was unnecessarily sloppy. Defensively, he was one of the bright-ish spots. Bertans set a career-high with four steals, all of which came in the first half. He was moving his feet well, staying active in regards to his help-defense responsibilities and played a leading role in an impressive number of Suns turnovers. The downer on D for Bertans was his rebounding, or lack thereof.
Grade: B+
Summary: Bertans came to play on both ends.
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Marco Belinelli
Marco Belinelli is still blazing from behind the three-point line. He has now hit 12-of-22 three-pointers over his last four games and has his three-point percentage on the season up to 39.7%. His playmaking has blossomed recently as well and he added five more assists on Tuesday night. His O wasn't all good, though. Belinelli misfired from two-point range and had a team-high three turnovers, including one late in the fourth that allowed the Suns to tie the game. Defensively, he wasn't good ... but that's become a given for Belinelli on a nightly basis, unfortunately.
Grade: B
Summary: Belinelli scored 17 more points but he also made mistakes.
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Patty Mills
Patty Mills hit half of his eight three-point attempts against the Suns to bump up his three-point percentage to 40% for the season. He hit a couple contested threes, which helped stave off Suns runs. Mills' clock management was lacking and he wasn't pushing the pace as well -- but his passing was a bit better than usual. Defensively, he exhibited a decent amount of effort but he could have gone harder on that end. That said, he wasn't one of the leading causes for the flimsy defense tonight.
Grade: B-
Summary: Mills wasn't bad but he didn't provide his typical spark.
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Jakob Poeltl
Jakob Poeltl only played eight minutes because Pau Gasol was the first backup center off the bench. After Pop scratched the Gasol experiment, Poeltl did okay. His mobility is night and day compared to Gasol, which makes him an asset on defense right away. Offensively, he kept his head up, made hard cuts and made smart passes.
Grade: B-
Summary: Poeltl wasn't great but he didn't hurt the cause.
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Pop
I have a number of complaints regarding Pop's decisions versus Phoenix. 1) When you only have one legit perimeter defender in White and the Suns have one legit perimeter superstar in Booker, the switch-everything zone the Spurs tried to go with just didn't make sense to me. Just stick White on Booker and switch the rest, if you must. By switching so freely, the Suns would just force the Spurs to switch off an inept defender on Booker and then attack. 2) Gasol being the first center off the bench against the tiny Suns bench was a head-scratcher. Pop quickly realized Gasol couldn't hang with his quick counterparts but that's something he should have realized before trotting him out there. 3) I realize White was struggling on both ends but you have to finish the game with him. Tonight, Pop opted for Mills down the stretch. Although, to Pop's credit, I don't remember the last time White didn't finish a game, so I'm confident this was a one-game lesson for White. 4) Instead of splitting minutes between Dante Cunningham, Quincy Pondexter and Lonnie Walker IV, please just play Walker -- if only for entertainment value.
Grade: D+
Summary: Pop's decisions left me with more questions than answers.
Looking ahead: Bad win, undoubtedly. But, hey, a bad win is better than a good loss, right? The Spurs are now 30-22 with two more home games remaining in their four-game homestand before the Rodeo Road Trip.
The next game, against the Nets on Thursday, is the most difficult game of the homestand. Brooklyn is 20-6 in their last 26 games and have won seven of their previous eight outings.
If the Spurs play like they did tonight against the Nets, they'll get run off the court. Let us hope that doesn't happen and the good guys instead are ready to play from the opening tip.
Thanks for the grades.
I disagree with White's C-. He was execution on offense (especially) the first half was beautiful. No way does Patty Mills get a B- and White a C-. If White doesn't play the way he did tonight then the Spurs don't win.
Walker is so bad and Pop still tries to give him minutes. The guy needs to learn so many things ... As of right now it even looks like he has not so good bball IQ. He is getting lost out there. Not even that. One on one he just is a rider without a head and he do not understand positioning of the opponents defense.
Hopefully he can learn though cause he is super athletic and can shoot the ball.
man, our defense sucks
Explains why Danny Green and Murray were so valuable to this franchise.
Spurs couldn't shut down anyone in the Suns.
Spurs were also a step slower both in offense and defense.
Need youth infusion with quicker players. Cunningham, Gasol and Pondexter are too slow for today's game. In fact you can say the same for Aldridge and Gay, but at least these two can post and score.
Maybe, and this is just me spit balling here. Maybe we should stop giving the ball to Marco in the final seconds of the game. This is the 3rd time he has been stripped in these instances for either a dunk to tie the game or just for us to lose the game in general.
Did they change the rules again, or can you still inbound into the backcourt? I’m not so down on Marco as I am that ing play. When the ball is inbounded, the center court stripe instantly becomes a 3rd defender. Run Marco into the backcourt, and let him dribble it around a bit. Players on the move are much more likely to draw the foul.
Thanks for the grades.
I was afraid you would give Forbes a higher grade because of his Q4 shots. But the truth is he was abysmal defensively. It was one of the worst defensive performances by a Spur playing 30+ minutes ever. He just stood there giving zero effort to stop any random scrub (not just Booker) going by him to the basket. It was painful to watch.
Thanks for the grades OP.
Teams can still inbound in the backcourt. Doesn't make sense to inbound in the frontcourt in those situations for the reasons you mentioned.
Last edited by cd021; 01-30-2019 at 08:35 AM.
At the end of the day, if our roster stays the same, defense will be the downfall of this team. They have proven time and time again that we can score but cannot get a stop when needed. We just hope for a missed shot.
Murray will help a lot of that next year but unfortunately this year we will have to just live with hoping the spurs can just outscore their opponents every game.
It was an exact replica of the thunder game with exact results. So stupid!
Yeah that's why we are doomed in the playoffs if the refs finally allow some contact on defense, and defensive teams gain an advantage
The D has been bad, no doubt for the Wizard and Suns games but they are still 20th in defense after being 29th when they were 11-14. It's not even average but a top 5 offense and a top 20 defense is still pretty not a bad position to be in in the playoffs. Houston is 26th in D and OKC is barely league average on offense so its not like the Spurs are the only west team with a big flaw.
Not being able to inbound the ball when the rules favor the offensive team is just bad tbh.
yeah but in the playoffs the refs may be calling the game differently... I would say top5 O and top20 D is good for regular season, not for the playoffs
This time he blatantly was fouled, though
This is why players are taught to be over-the-top aggressive in those situations, worst case you get called for a foul which is what you were willing to live with anyway. Best case you get away with it and tie the game just like they did.
Agree with all the points in Pop's grade.
Benching DWhite for Patty or Forbes isn't that surprising to me with Pop but....Dante/Pau the first bigs off the bench? QPon making an inexplicable cameo in the 4th qtr? Wtf
Absolutely. Beli's mistake was not to secure the ball protecting it with his body and wait for the foul. At worse you get a jump ball, but 99.9% of the times you get 2 FT. I don't know what possesed him to gamble showing the ball and hoping for a reaching foul (which he got but wasn't called), given the OKC debacle.
This team desperately needs a perimeter defender to go along with white .
There is no such thing as being too good looking.
No such thing as being too rich or talented.
No such thing as a BAD win.
These are not the 2003/2005/2007/2014 - and especially not the 99' Spurs with a suffocating defense.
Every ing win is a good win.
Had the Spurs lost this one - the cliff-jumping would have been epic.
Learn to appreciate that this team is a work in progress and a few of the players are just beginning to grow before our eyes and it is fun to watch -
to treat them as some experienced le team who should always act like a le team full of respected superstars with rings in their resumes and a respect for their opponents 24/7 - is to fool yourselves into thinking this is some kind of defending champion who is insulting their fans.
Enjoy the process. Remember the game that the refs gifted to fat Gasol? Well - accept this gift now and take the W.
Thanks for the grades Timvp. Whoever drew that pass to half-court where you have the full court to avoid being double-teamed is dumb, and twice I’ve seen it over the last few games that resulted to steal and almost lost us the game last night. They should run drills on how to get fouled in that situation, especially Belli if he has the best FT percentage. That was just atrocious. Whatever happened to Spurs defense lately? We used to be on top defensive team not allowing teams to score over 100, but not last night, against Suns geez. It felt like everyone’s out to get his baskets instead of passing the ball down low to Aldridge and punish a smaller team, albeit Aldridge was not running hard to establish deep position early, instead Spurs were 3 pt hungry. Last night was the best time to slow down, pound the middle. I like to see Walker more especially since we lack so much defense on the guard position, but he has to learn how to stick with his man. It feels like he’s okay to let the guy pass and he’ll just block from behind because of his athleticism, at least that’s what I think I saw. Stay in front of your guy and not let him pass you. Yup they need to go to the drawing board because while they won last night, they didn’t really execute. GSG!
Aldridge deserves an A+ if Poeltl got a B- for whatever it is he did tbh. Everything else is on point
Yea me too. I was terrified waiting for the grades, so stressed that I needed to change my clothes cause of all the sweat... But when LJ posted grades it was a huge relief to see Forbes with such a low grade.
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