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Frustrating game to watch
but at least they competed
Frustrating game to watch
but at least they competed
Drew Eubanks
Eubanks got the minutes behind Poeltl. In the first quarter, he was an utter disaster. He was rushing things on offense, didn’t have any touch in the paint and seemingly made at least one mistake on each defensive possession. Considering that this was his first action of the season, it’s not overly surprising that he exhibited some rust.
I thought this too but why post it here when everyone's an expert and assumes our end of the bench 3rd big should play like season 10 Robert Horry when dusted off the bench for the first time in the season. He's had 0 playing time thus far. His shots in the beginning were short, and it makes sense if he has no feel and no reps. He did fine given the position he was thrown into, going up against one of, if not the, best frontcourt in the league. It's not like he was going up against the opposing 3rd string, 15th man big out there.
So many things went against them but they fought through it regardless. Hopefully they win the next one.
And yes they fought. I'm glad they played hard. The ty players for LA shot freskishly well, which is just typical for a Spurs game.
Pop needs to come back to calling plays / coaching guys in game. I think he stopped holding guys accountable as much now that it's a player's league, which makes sense I guess, but leads to undisciplined which is what we saw a lot of tonight.
No plays to run = recipe for failure, especially when you're playing 8 on 5 and possessions are literally being taken away from you and given to the other team.
Thanks for the grades. I like our guys competed until the very end. Lakers shots were just going in, and ours didn’t, plus some fouls that were not called. The would’ve been much closer. Still, unlike last year when it would’ve been 30 points lost without out two starters, this team hung-on. Our young guys were not intimidated. For that I would give them additional letter grades. Something good will just come out from this group. Is Lyles in the Demarre Carroll type doghouse? Geez. I don’t think he even go in when everybody got pulled.
4 shooting guards and a center is still midget ball
You could literally see it in most plays when he was on the court. "Where's Patty at?"
One of the biggest problems I feel due to going small is that teams are always going to have the opportunity for a 4 point play at the free throw line based off of missing the second free throw and getting the offensive rebound. We saw this the other night when Derozan couldn't box out Zion when Ingram was at the freethrow line which resulted in a 5 point play. We saw it again tonight when Gasol was able to get I think a 4 point play off of a Davis miss at the free throw line.
It doesn't matter
If it's any consolation, this is technically only the 10th game the starting line up has played together.
Perfect time to get rid of Murray's albatross contract.
Wes Matthews beat us ... this could easily gotten out of hands but the spurs never gave up and competed nicely
I get a couple times him being left alone, but over and over was really the end of us. Would need to rewatch to see how it happened, but what I did see didn't look especially contested. I was distracted a lot so who knows...?
I think the Spurs are moving in the right direction generally, but this was just another frustrating game like so many from last year where DeRozan led the team in minutes and had the worst +/- of all the starters. It's not a statistical anomaly or glitch if it happens consistently for a decade. How the does Poeltl only get 24 minutes? Yes he had early foul trouble, but he finished with 3 fouls while Eubanks also logged 24 minutes, had 5 fouls, and was less effective in every way. Makes no sense. I'd rather see Poeltl play until he fouls out rather than see him get punished while less effective line ups fall further behind in the game.
Overall, I'm quite okay with being .500 after 4 games. During the last two games, it felt like there was too much hesistation in letting it fly from outside. I love the team attacking the basket, but they need to establish being a threat from three early, too. If the Spurs' opponents only need to defend the paint, it's an uphill batle from the start.
Impressed with Murray and Johnson.
DJ has stretches where he scores from spots similar to Demar's. When Demar (hopefully) leaves, Murray might be able to fill his place on offense while adding way better defense.
Keldon plays fearless, and I wouldn't view those offensive fouls as too much of a problem. He's still a sop re, and this will only show him (and his coaching staff), that he needs to work on a short jumper/floater to avoid those calls. With his work ethic and talent, I have no doubt he'll expand this aspect of his game quickly.
It's a process, let's see how the second match goes. As always, thanks for the grades, timvp!
I don’t think there was a lot the Spurs could have done to win last night. When the Lakers, who already have a massive physical advantage, major favor with the refs, and an almost all star team hit threes at that clip, there’s just no way their opponent can come out with a W. Definitely some things to correct, but the Spurs played pretty well if you ask me. Just not much can be done. I’d give the collective team a B+. Thanks for the grades!
So the Spurs were assisted on their first 11 made shots before tallying 14 assists on their final 29. That drop-off in AST/FG ratio is the biggest problem for me. I did not like the way Murray played in the guts of the game. I'm only talking about him because I think fans took the wrong impression of his performance -- especially given those assist numbers. This looked like a game where the offense as a concept was hurt by Murray's decision to use entire possessions for his scoring efforts but the number ended up okay because DJM made the shots he took. So many times it was like, "All right let's get into our sets... oh no wait, DeJounte is going just go ahead and probe for a while instead." And yes, Murray's not the only one who's done this. timvp was basically saying Gay did this, and Walker started doing it at the end of the hot part of his night.
So many folks want the "Beautiful Game" offense and have no problem running Aldridge out of town because of it, but they don't seem to understand that it's that tendency to call your own number when you don't have an obvious advantage and to not go from good to great because you think you have it that undermines that whole style. Passing up open threes for floaters and contested twos isn't historically a good offensive decision. That those shots went in doesn't make it a good decision. And I am aware that with LMA out you can understand why Murray might've felt the team needed him to be aggressive. But if you don't give your offense a chance to work on its own, you're already committing to a game relying almost solely on individual talent, and that's not a game the Spurs can win all that often.
I think Walker lost confidence in the second half. I thought at his peak he was a little too aggressive, but that also seemed to be the play called for him. His defense seemed good enough to justify him getting minutes in the second half, but his lack of production probably didn't help Murray when deciding when to break the offense and when to let it flow.
Johnson wasn't really effective in the game. He, like Murray, called his own number more than I'd like. But he almost always did it off secondary penetration, so at least the offense flowed before he touched it. He needs a pull-up to keep the defense honest. That'll kept guys from being able to set their feet on charge calls. A floater would help too, as would more acrobatic finishes. But I don't know that those should be the priorities. I think he should've stayed on Davis most of the night. Size clearly doesn't bother AD, so tempting LAL to focus on that mismatch while hounding and swarming would've been the better strategy. Gasol was basically irrelevant in the game, so Poeltl helping off him would've been a better use of his talents.
Poe was really good in the first quarter before he got into foul trouble. He made good passes on the give-and-go and took advantage of open space on rolls. In the second half, he was less effective. I don't think he had the same aggression, and by then, the team had stopped running offense. I don't know that Jakob is playable if he's not an active part of the offense. In the very least, he'd be misused horribly if he doesn't touch the ball in positions to pass and score. This is the issue with having him start with DJM, White and DMDR. Ideally, it's this system where all four can pass and anyone can be facilitator on any given action or whatever. In practice, you'll have one of those guys dominate the ball each possession while the others half-heartedly wait for shots.
Eubanks was too in love with the long-two. Like it's great that he can hit it, but he's not dragging anyone out of the paint with that shot. His hook is usually pretty decent, so it was a shame it didn't go in. He needs to just play straight up and not worry about swiping at balls. He's not the biggest guy out there, but he can still do some damage if he sticks to verticality.
I thought DeRozan was shoot and never got back into it. I see that he was efficient or whatever, but I thought he played really tightly. He started off as the Lebron defender, but Pop didn't like what he saw and switched him with Keldon. I think that was a mistake, given that Johnson didn't stop James and DMDR was less equipped to guard Davis. I'm not expected DeRozan to shut guys down, but playing small isn't going to work if Pop isn't going to let DMDR guard guys James' size.
Gay and Mills combined for 20 points on 19 possessions. I thought Rudy was a couple of rim-outs from having a good game. He defense against Davis was about as effective as anyone else's (hence why I speculated he could start for Walker), but I think he wanted to compete too much with Lebron. Like Murray, he seemed to feel the need to step up in Aldridge's place too. He wasn't as successful as that it as DJM was, but I get it. The team needs Aldridge healthy and playing well. STers need to stop kidding themselves there. Mills was on the good side of meh. Not bad but not the spark plug he's been trying to be this season.
I think Vassell is the only one left. Unremarkable. He's not doing anything this year when the offense is structureless. He's a spot-up three-and-Der who can do things off secondary penetration and keep the ball moving. In a BG offense, that works. In the "hydra offense", it won't be as valuable. He didn't play enough to be bad, but if this is the future of the team, he'll need to develop a bit more so he can take his turn isoing against the defense.
This right here.
Wow, I'm speechless how anyone can have anything negative to say about Dejounte's performance last night. You have to lean HEAVILY one way to come up with a skewed perception of how his night went. Is this how far you'll take it when a player is slowly proving you were wrong about him?
Chinook
Last edited by Dejounte; 12-31-2020 at 09:06 AM.
The whole narrative would shift if this was a win (easily possible without refs interfering) than how it turned out.
STers need to stop kidding themselves when they say LMA is still an acceptable option to run the offense through. Stop ignoring the obvious decline in his game. Even Tim Duncan, 4 years from retirement, had experienced a drop off in his game. It happens.
Last edited by Dejounte; 12-31-2020 at 09:35 AM.
The thing is... At least from what I've seen... DJ has good self-awareness for when he's shooting poorly or being too selfish. He attacks the basket when he's feeling it (as one should) or passes it when it's clearly not his night. I don't see DeMar or Westbrook selfishness on frequent display when he calls for his number.
Last edited by Dejounte; 12-31-2020 at 09:34 AM.
Hurry up Derrick
Get well
We need you!
Having Derrick back would be huge.
On a scale of 0 to 10,
Murray pushes the pace to 10, while Derrick slows it down to 5.
It would keep the opposing team guessing. Dangerous weapon when you can switch up the pace just like that.
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