SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 32: SPURS VS. CELTICS, 31-12-2023, 6PM (CT)

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BARLOW FOR THREEEEEEEEE

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Dom 3. First of his NBA career. Nice to see.

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Fans are SO WEIRD to get TV time. WTF is with all the belly exposing and rubbing?

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And that's why Bake continues in Austin. RUN SOMETHING as the PG. Don't just pass to get passes back and chuck 3s, mate. SET UP TEAMMATES.

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Mercy. The 48 minutes are done.

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4TH Q: SPURS 101 CELTICS 134

Well it wasn't really the 3s in the end as they made 15 to our 12 on 41 and 45 attempts, respectively.

Sean said that we should not get sucked into playing the Cs game of bombing from the arc but we did, as we tend to do when we are not working to set up shots properly. Whereas our opponent works to set up 3s, we revert to them from not setting up plays well enough.

Part of that is things like Julian not even looking at Wemby who had his man sealed in the left block and instead pass back up top to Devin. Or turning it over in our end on bad passes.

Julian as I said is in theory a 3&D prototype but in reality he is not a starter. 0-2, 2 boards, 2 assists. Only registered 1TO but caused others.

Neither is Branham. Though his scoring package is more advanced, his D is glaringly deficient. Just standing there under the basket not bothering to provide help D is brutal. Not having hands our but reaching in for a foul in the paint.

Branham was 4-9 (1-5 from 3), 2-3FTs with only 1 rebound and no other positive stats for -25. Despite efficiency, the glaringly poor D makes him a liability as a starter facing starting back courts.

Devin was a team-worst -34 despite making 9-15, 2-4 from 3, 5 boards (1 on O), only 1 assist, 2 steals, 2TOs. Sure facing a formidable back court will humble you, but the concerning thing about Devin is his spotty competitiveness. He started with an assertive 1ST Q then reverted to taking outside shots. He has it in him to create off the dribble and drive, but isn't doing it enough which is frustrating. As one of the leaders on the team (self-expressed) he has to lead by example with more heart and hustle and effort.

On D, Devin goes after the first ball be it a steal attempt or fighting over the screen, but then the secondary attempts and follow through is non-existent, at least in this game. It's a big disappointment. What's he saving it for? The whole oh look I got my shots and efficiency isn't fooling anyone. He led us in scoring and I don't really care. He has to bring his two-way game and bring up his intensity and lead by example.

Sochan looking a bit better on O, not as much of a ball hog with it, dribbling slightly less, finding Wemby slightly better. 4-11, 1-4 from 3, 3 boards, starter high 5 assists. This test was a good one to see what level he has to be at. He was out-physicaled by Brown time and again, which was a good measuring stick.

People keep calling for Tre to start like it is some panacea but he was 4-10, 0-5 from 3 with a very janky release form (his body is sort of bowed to the side on the shot and not enough legs in it with a push follow through. What a mess). Four boards (1 on O), 3 assists, cementing himself as a bench guy.

Blake continues to show promise and concern. His speed was apparent, but his decisions as O initiator were lacking. He took shots rather than finding team mates, he dribbled a whole lot, and yet he led the team with 6 assists after we got down over 30 and Pop put in the end of bench subs, so context counts. Just feels like he's one of those guys who plays to show his game first and play the team game second. I need to see more setting up of teammates and initiating O sets properly.

I do like his D tenacity. He stayed with his man and worked hard to prevent passes, as did Tre. As the two smallest guys on the team, it was an example for everyone else to do better. If these smallest guys can make an impact, there's no excuse for everyone else to do better.

Dom needs to get the scared stiff by bright lights out of his system. He does much better finishing and making shots in Austin. So the potential is there. But he's not the first to get stage fright and not make it on the big stage. It's up to him to get over the nerves and translate what he's doing in Austin to the big club. He has great footwork, is in the right spots, but is still so slight that he gets tossed out of the way. We'll see how he progresses.

Doug was scoreless; Cedi 2-4.

Graham scored 9 points in 8 minutes (3-4, 2-2 from 3, 1-1FT) with a TO the moment he got in. Still, the more we show of him, the more a team may bite on taking in a trade. We're barely playing him anyway, may as well get an asset for him.

Mamu is also on the chucking trajectory. At least that's what it comes across as with 3-9, 1-5 from 3 - that's NOT what we need from him!, but also good work with bench high 7 boards (2 on O), and 4 assists.

Wemby was Wemby, flashing out of this world finishes, more assertiveness to start the game as we've done a better job looking for and involving him and finding him. He finished with 21 on 8-16, 3-8 from 3 (too many, frankly), 2-2FTs, 7 boards (2 on O), 3 assists, 1 block.

We were severely short handed at the bigs position with Wemby being our only C so of course we would not be getting most of the rebounds, losing them 56-39 including 12-9 on O boards. Despite the lack of bigs, we still do not box out well and do not position ourselves smartly near opponents to at least get deflections. Instead we occupy empty spaces waiting for the ball to come to us. Boxing out, even versus bigger players, will pay better dividends for us.

Four shot clock violations were forced by a team that has both its' O and D locked in. We played a top tier contender and it showed.

The consistency issues Pop talked about is expected from younger players, but disappointing from guys like Devin.

You can see what we're trying to do more on O now which is an improvement (with lots of room for improvement). The D versus a top tier team and missing some key contributors was what it was, with too many open 3s and with too many rebounds given up and with too many plays of TOs to no one back in transition, with too many players in the paint on opponent outside shots.

I'd like to see more Sidy minutes. He showed well on man D, and though he missed his shots, that he even took them is a step up. He used to pass up all chances to even take shots. I'd even slot him in for Branham or Julian at times.

Only 12TOs is good; 9-12FTs is not. This is part of setting up better shots and being more assertive on open driving lanes rather than heaving 3s.

Lots of work to do. It's easy to say oh we're playing a great team so the result is decided before we start. But there's still a lot in our control to do better. Some of it is experience (and the reps show better results with including Wemby better) and some of it is hustle (going after secondary D plays, staying with it, not giving up on the play), and some of it is BBIQ and talent which we frankly have to do the reps internal improvement route before we go the upgrade talent via draft and perhaps trade route.

Hope we return in the New Year with some refocused determination on D-out, team-first, better BBIQ play.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

GSG!

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