Grades: San Antonio Spurs at Oklahoma City Thunder – Game #22
Keita Bates-Diop and the Spurs lost again (Photo via Twitter)
‘Twas a tale of diametrically opposed halves for the San Antonio Spurs against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night. In the first half, the Spurs were humming offensively and took a 17-point advantage into intermission. Unfortunately, San Antonio’s offense collapsed in the final two quarters. After a season-high 77 points in the first half, the Spurs scored a season-low 34 points in the second half to lose to the Thunder by a final score of 119-111.
The good guys have now lost nine straight games and 14 of their last 15. This defeat was particularly demoralizing because the Thunder were without their superstar, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Yes, the Spurs were without Jakob Poeltl, Jeremy Sochan and Josh Richardson due to injury — but they had this win seemingly wrapped up before playing their worst half of basketball of the season.
Even if you are rooting for the Spurs to tank, this type of collapse shouldn’t be something to be happy about. Instead of a hard fought loss against a more talented squad, the Spurs fumbled away a potential morale-booster against a SGA-less team that figured to struggle to put points on the board. Ouch.
Spurs at Thunder – Final Grades
Keldon Johnson
First half: Johnson was really good. He scored 13 points, hit 3-of-6 three-pointers, handed out five assists and didn’t turn the ball over. Johnson was making smart decisions with the ball and appeared to have put his slump in the rearview mirror. Second half: Oh my. Johnson was atrocious. He was 1-for-14 from the field and his decision-making couldn’t have been much worse. He was driving into the teeth of the defense with his head down while tossing up ill-advised shots. Johnson had an assist on the first possession of the second half off of a set play. That was his final assist of the night. Poor, poor shot-selection and he seemed to lack his typical explosion at the rim. Slump status: Ongoing.
Grade: D
Devin Vassell
Impressively, Vassell isn’t negatively impacted by Johnson’s slump. He had another strong outing that was buoyed by nine free throw attempts. He played a fearless brand of basketball, took smart shots and played with an efficiency that was lacking in his teammates. Defensively, Vassell was decent but nothing too special. Overall, the only issue with Vassell is he isn’t enough of a self-creator to shoulder an even bigger load of the offense. If he works on that part of his game, he may soon become San Antonio’s go-to scorer.
Grade: A-
Tre Jones
Jones was okay-ish. He wasn’t doing as much playmaking as usual. In the second half, the Spurs really needed someone to take control of the wheel — but Jones was only able to provide sporadic guidance. Scoring-wise, his shots in the paint are looking better but now he’s losing confidence in his outside jumper again. Defensively, he had above average intensity.
Grade: B-
Keita Bates-Diop
Starting at power forward, Bates-Diop did well enough. When the Spurs were really struggling, Bates-Diop was one of the few players on the team who played with purpose. His drives to the rim were stubborn — but in a good way. I also thought his focus on defense was better than usual. His passing and rebounding could have been better, though.
Grade: B-
Zach Collins
Starting in place of Poeltl, Collins had an up-and-down affair. The down: Early on, Collins was being much too careless in terms of his fouling. I was never impressed with his defensive rebounding and his passing wasn’t as timely as typical. The up: I like that Collins took open shots and provided the Spurs a post-up threat in the low block. Defensively, he was better on the perimeter than usual. Net-net: Collins was pretty decent but the Spurs could have used more tangible production from their starting center.
Grade: B-
Romeo Langford
The silver lining of this disappointing loss was Langford’s play. For the first time all season, we saw him play with fire and a palpable amount of enthusiasm — and the results were impressive. Defensively, he was easily the best player on the Spurs. He was rugged, smart, quick and offered timely help. Offensively, he entered the game with an aggressiveness I’ve never seen from him and he ended up with a season-high 14 points. If he can bottle this effort level and uncork it on a nightly basis, the coaching staff may have found a rotational player in Langford.
Grade: A
Malaki Branham
The good: Branham got a majority of the reps as the team’s backup point guard — and I thought he held up quite well. He didn’t turn the ball over and his ball-handling wasn’t a liability. Passing-wise, I was impressed by the speed at which he read the defense, especially considering he’s a 19-year-old rookie. When he took the initiative to create for himself, Branham looked like a natural. The bad: Branham missed all three of his three-pointers and rushed a couple of them for no good reason. Confidence remains an issue; he’s seemingly always thinking defer first whenever he touches the ball. Defensively, woof, yeah, he’s a major work in progress.
Grade: B
Isaiah Roby
Roby had some extra pep in his step going against his former team. I thought he was really good in the first half. He was all over the court on both ends and seemed to want to prove a point. Sadly, like the rest of the team, Roby fell off a cliff in the second half and didn’t do much of anything right.
Grade: C+
Doug McDermott
McDermott came out of the gates with both guns ablazing. When the Thunder started paying him extra attention, McDermott hurt OKC via the pass. Unfortunately, McDermott turned his ankle early in the second half and was forced to exit. I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to state that the Spurs probably win this game if McDermott doesn’t get hurt. Then again, his defense was bad enough that maybe San Antonio would have still lost.
Grade: B+
Alize Johnson
Yesterday, the Spurs released Jordan Hall and re-signed Alize Johnson, who spent training camp and preseason with the Silver and Black. With the Thunder running small lineups, Johnson got some of the big man minutes — and he held up rather well. I liked his rebounding and he flashed some ball-handling and passing abilities I didn’t know he had in his repertoire. Johnson is undersized for a big but he’s a good tool at the bottom of the toolbox for when other teams turn to small ball.
Grade: B+
Pop
Rotations-wise, Pop did well. Considering the healthy bodies remaining, it’s tough to argue he should have done anything differently. That said, I thought his play-calling in the second half left a lot to be desired. Specifically, Pop could have either called more plays for Vassell or put Johnson in more advantageous spots. As it was, the Spurs were predominantly relying on their movement sets and that was resulting in bad look after bad look in the final two quarters.
Grade: C