SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 19: SPURS AT PELICANS, 1-12-2023, 7PM (CT)

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See they were very inefficient from 3 and we were hovering around 50% and now that we're missing and they're making deep ones, the close game has turned to a 15-point deficit.

Lots of defensive mistakes to clean up. I mean if I notice them, and I'm just a fan, surely our coaching staff do, too. Just wish our guys would do better with the effort plays (though we did these better last night when we had more juice).

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Holy **** what the heck kind of high low bad pass was that Cedi to Sochan? Picked off. ANOTHER TO. We're tying the right things but the execution is way off.

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Sochan gets these "I'm taking it!" sequences at the end of games with team mates at the wings. Film film film and resist the temptation.

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A-N-O-T-H-E-R TO!

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Blake time. We now have Blake, Branham, Mamu, Dom, and Julian in in the final two minutes or so.

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4TH Q: SPURS 106 PELICANS 121

First half: 63-61 against; second half: 58-45 against.

TOs: 19 which cost us 24 points against, a stat we were -10 in .

FTs: our 14-17 to their 27-29 overall.

PITP: 52-38 against.

The latter occurred throughout the game. The first two saw a big discrepancy between the halves. We were only 11-14FTs in the first half, already down to their 18-19. We were, therefore, ONLY 3-3FTs IN THE SECOND HALF to their 9-10. We had 7TOs in the first half, and another 12 in the second, including a whopping 8TOs in the 3RD Q alone.

Those 3RD Q woes have been our worst in terms of points against, and though we started slow in scoring once again, an 8-2 late run closed the gap to a more respectable 26-20. Still those 8TOs were a lot of chances left on the court.

We faced a big team, especially at the 4 and 5, but it didn't help that we got beaten on perimeter or screen drives right down the middle of our paint, or beaten down the court in transition D or late with help D. Boxing out and tracking down rebounds - actually running after them - needed work tonight as well (42-38 against, including 10-7 against on O boards).

So part of it is consistent effort - we should never let O players get behind our D. Running back in transition D is not optional. Every team has these instances, but it's more when teams are leading and let up. On the one hand, it happens, and we have bigger D issues to work out; on the other, this has nothing to do with understanding reads or getting beaten by quality O players, just effort.

We switched and rotated better, especially in the first half, but we have to angle drivers out of the key rather than towards it, have to make sure we direct them better to help D (and for help D to react to it faster), have to make sure we close gaps of passing lanes and physical space more resolutely. Defensive disruption starts earlier with ball pressure before half court, or preventing passes to lead ball handlers/O players, trying to break up setting up of plays. Last night Tre did a great job with such full court pressure, and Blake stood out in doing this late in the game as well.

On O tonight, the TOs mounted from moving screens, travels, bad passes (most common) and these were more mental based on the telegraphed attempts cross court or weak DHO attempts or dribbles picked up too early or right ideas but erratic execution (too high or to hard alley opp loops, high lows that didn't connect) or not making the right decisions with the ball ie/ shooting when team mates were open.

Sochan has this tendency to be assertive and get his, maybe as a reward for his running point and dishing out, still finding the right balance between when to shoot or pass. After leading us in scoring yesterday, he led us tonight with 13 FGAs, making only 4, a solid 2-4 from 3, 3-4FTs, the latter two showing a consistent improvement, good to see. Still, that he tends to take end of Q or end of game shots rather than see open team mate options is gutsy but short sighted when it's not the best option.

Devin is our second best player, made the most FGs - only 5, but still - 2-5 in the entire first half, 2-5 in the 3RD Q alone (at which point he and Zach led us with 10FGAs each), and only 1-2 in the 4TH Q. Sochan took only 1 shot in the 1ST, was 1-5 in the 2ND, 0-2 in the 3RD, 2-5 in the 4TH. Surprisingly, Keldon was only 4-7 for the whole game, the same as Julian and Branham, fewer than Cedi and Tre's 4-9 each. We were egalitarian to the point of not exploiting our best strengths. Keldon has grown into a very good scorer. He is a threat inside and out, and we didn't exploit it enough, especially with our top scorer not playing, especially considering he led the team with 33 minutes.

It wasn't all on Sochan, too, considering Tre had 3 assists and Cedi led us with 5. Speaking of which, everyone but Branham and Dom (who only played 3 minutes) registered at least one assist. Nice that Branham's pure shot reappeared, but we need more contributions from him as a starter. Julian, for example, also played 22 minutes, but chipped in 5 boards (1 on O) to Branham's 2 rebounds, while adding 3 assists. Truth be told, Dev didn't get a lot beyond the shots, with the 1 assist and 2 steals in 27 minutes. We're used to his contributing all over the board, so it wasn't the usual stat stuffing game.

Zach has been playing smaller than his size a bit too much. He gave up a lot of space tonight, but then again, you can't teach size. It was more about backing up and giving space when his man got the ball (this is in the post; it's less about how we get our bigs to sag in the paint), getting positioning, boxing out, etc. And yet... and yet he still led us with 3 O boards (5 in total), 3 assists, 2 steals, 1 block to 3 TOs.

Bassey was a big plus for us, scoring 4-4, leading us with 11 boards (1 on O), dishing 3 assists, leading us also with 3 blocks. Terrific rim protection and disruption. Great reactions and first bounce.

Nice to see Tre's 3 falling (2-4). He's being left WIDE open on these (along with Sochan) and simply has to make them to take advantage. Dev probably has our best contested 3s shot, but getting our non-traditional 3s shooters to make the open shots, which we do well to set up, is an important next individual and team step for us. Tre's overall FGAs and efficiency are lower but his 3s attempts are around the same, and unfortunately on even lower efficiency (25.8% this season vs. 28.5% last season from the arc). Just weird given how consistently high his FT% has been throughout his career, usually a reliable indicator of good corresponding arc production. Sochan, on the other hand, increased his FT% by almost 10% and is now at 79.5%, and his 3s efficiency has increased by about 18%, now at 42.1% on just about the same number of attempts as last season.

Loved Cedi's assertiveness in drives and cuts. He adds a dimension to our game, one of those older guys who sense that *something* needs to happen, and though usually Tre helps in that department too (less so tonight) it was the vertical impact we needed.

Hopefully the upcoming days off give us rest and reps for cohesiveness and film. Some patterns like 3RD Q slower O starts need improvement. But that we put together runs now, especially to close the Q, is good. We had a scoring drought of around 4 minutes, and while at times we've given up a lot of consecutive points against in other games, not being able to score for long stretches is the other side of that coin. Our D is slightly better but needs work with reads and angles and effort. Having our starters back together will help, mixing bench combinations with Dom and Blake will help, and at reaching the near quarter game mark, a higher, more consistent floor individually and team wise is the next step.

[G R E Y]

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[imagump1313]

Now that I saw us wearing those lameass jerseys again im not as upset that we lost.......