SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 20: SPURS AT WOLVES, 6-12-2023, 6:30PM (CT)

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Like I said. Don't allow them freebie easy practice shots from the arc lest they start making them. And here we are.

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EIGHT POINTS WITH JUST UNDER FIVE MINUTES LEFT IN THE 4TH Q.

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Dev GREAT block from behind.

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We steal - good deflection by KJ, Cedi end to end for the basket.

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Wemby nice move down low.

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Cedi doing great work.

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TOO EASY AT OUR RIM. WE JUST WATCHED THE LAYUP.

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GOOD D AND HUSTLE.

[imagump1313]

Wemby's body language doesn't look good IMO. He is tired of losing like this

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Wemby's body language doesn't look good IMO. He is tired of losing like this

4-13 won't cut it, though. Sorry, love the kid obviously, but he made poor decisions with the ball and finished better we're closer. Is it fair to lay that on a rookie? No. But he is who he is, and it's mirror time, too. Four days off and he looked largely lacking energy and focus, so, yeah. That's not all on him, of course, our second half Q starts are Jekyll and Hyde, then we chase frantically, but we could have used some go-to magic. Dev and KJ kept us in it but could only sustain the whole team for so long on O...

[Fundamentals21]

That's 20 games of Wemby... what to think about him, I dunno yet. Honestly, it would be interesting to see him next to some good pieces, and especially a good PG that can set him up. OKC looks happy with Chet and I want to be the same with our franchise savior.

[imagump1313]

That's 20 games of Wemby... what to think about him, I dunno yet. Honestly, it would be interesting to see him next to some good pieces, and especially a good PG that can set him up. OKC looks happy with Chet and I want to be the same with our franchise savior.

He has some decent pieces next to him (Vassell, Johnson, Collins, Sochan) its just seems that all these guys have gone brain dead. They rarely even look to get him involved and just chuck up bad shots themselves every night.

And I understand part of this blame is Wemby's for not making himself more available offensively. He needs to learn to put himself into positions to receive the ball from someone in the flow of the offense instead of just standing at the three point line or half ass cutting to the basket when he ever does go to the basket.

The low BBIQ on this team is frustrating, I dont care how young people are. They should at least know some fundamental basketball at this point.

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4TH Q: SPURS 94 WOLVES 102

Of course the first attempt of this I accidentally closed the tab on. Of course...

Ok, gists, then:

First half: 53 points; second half: 41 points.

We held a top West team to three consecutive Qs under 30 points, but couldn't find efficiency for anyone not named Devin or KJ.

Some familiar patterns unfortunately returned, like the slow starts of both second half Qs. So even though our team and man D were better, our inefficiency put a lot of pressure on paper thin margin of error.

Of course opponents make adjustments for second halves but we once again started the second half without the requisite energy that we built to finish the first half, losing its momentum.

Part of it is TOs and even though we only had 11 in this game, the consecutive ones without scoring to start the 3RD Q hurt. So it's about when they happen, and their clustering. Still, we fought well when losing leads to getting back from deficits to gaining leads, but shot selection and frustration set in.

Love Zach but he was a different player in the second half, maybe because of the physicality he endured in the first half, but he and Wemby struggled against their two huge bigs.

Shot distribution is also something we can improve. Zach was 6-20, leading us in FGAs, unusual, but we went with the initial hot hand; Zach was 5-10 in the first half, but then only 1-10 in the second OOF. Wemby was 2-7 in the first half, 2-5 in the second. Yes we didn't get the ball to him enough, but some like Dev and KJ showed they were doing more with the chances they were getting, others continued woeful shooting. Every player has an off night; tonight Dev and KJ needed that one extra team mate to score better.

For example, every Spur who got minutes put up at least one 3 but only three of our guys connected on at least one - Dev and KJ from the starters and Doug from the bench. We finished 8-36, -12 in the category. You could feel that it was a matter of time before our opponent hit their 3s and I was weary of us giving up open attempts when we were leading. Sure enough, they kept taking them and eventually leaped us in makes.

Shot selection is also an issue - too many 3s too early in the clock. There's a reason some of our guys are left open. I get taking an open shot, but we also have to recognize good to great better. Sometimes guys are trying to make something happen, sometimes guys are baited into taking a shot that favours the opponent. Recognition and patience are important.

Cedi having zero shot attempts in the first half is part of that recognition, too. He finished with 3-8, 0-2 from 3, 0-2FTs, but contribution across the board with 8 rebounds (2 on O), team high 6 assists, 2 steals. The contributions were across the board for a lot of our players, like Zach with 8 boards (team high 4 on O), and 4 assists; Wemby getting a double double with 12/10 (3 on O) and some fine D plays; Tre leading the bench with 5 assists.

Twin Doug filled in well in the first half.

There just wasn't enough from guys like Sochan or Branham outside of not scoring. Sochan mentioned something along the lines of "... it is what it is" regarding coming off the bench. I haven't watched it yet so I don't know the tone of that, but even if he doesn't like coming off the bench, it's either the point-Sochan to which we just devoted a quarter of a season with results well documented, or getting the 3 over Keldon (why? defense yes but Keldon has justified his start overall as the more experienced scorer, better ball handler) and of course he's not getting the start over Wemby at the 4, the position he played last season. Should it come to Sochan getting slotted next to Wemby at the 5, Zach starting next to Wemby right now as the 5 and the more experienced player around our star rookie makes sense.

While Sochan has been put in the widest range of different situations and under the biggest scrutiny, Branham has been placed as a starting guard, as a bench primary point, yet his efficiency and broader contributions stand out as not enough. Is it fair for either player? Well they're getting tons of opportunity to play. Sure they're getting stretched but certain things like how they are not passing to more open team mates when they are not running point stood out. Things like choosing to shoot when it's not the best move for us stoodd out. Things like Sochan's very poor glass use when all of his shots except for the two 3s were in the paint, or getting blocked in part because of it, stood out.

We have to take the good from this game, the fight we put together, and really scrutinize the pattern repetitions without the weight of emotions from the result. We did well defensively versus a top West team, and a top defensive team at that. We didn't make enough shots or get to the foul line enough to get some easy points. We did it with a brand new starting five, more experienced and balanced. And we'll have to do it again and again until we are sick of losing enough to hustle for every single point. Every play counts. This must get ingrained in us. Every. Play. Counts.

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