SPURS GAME DAY! GAME 22: SPURS AT ROCKETS, 11-12-2023, 7PM (CT)

[G R E Y]

Keldon late on rotation and not contest, they O board. We got lucky they missed on their 3 chances.

[G R E Y]

Great pass ahead to Cedi for the laypu and foul.

[G R E Y]

Zach has the ball ripped away from him. He has not bee the physical piss and vinegar energy player in the last not sure however many games.

[G R E Y]

I mean you can see we're scrambling and hustling. We just have to get shots right at the rim of the sure dunk variety.

[G R E Y]

They should just erase the 3 point line and have the teams battle it out anywhere else.

[G R E Y]

3RD Q: SPURS 62 ROCKETS 69

Spurs 15 to Rockets 18 this Q.

lmao

We made 0 3s this Q. 0-7.

We had another 5TOs this Q which were from the passing up of great chances for poor chances.

Just. Play.

[G R E Y]

Zach looks like he's forgotten how to play C.

[G R E Y]

Really nice find I think Devin to Zach down low.

[G R E Y]

We bring it to within 4 and allow a 5-0 run against.

Pop timeout.

[G R E Y]

DO NOT like Devin's trot back on their leak out for that dunk.

[G R E Y]

Aaaaw they just showed Wemby and Silver at the draft, crying and being consoled. Overflowing with emotion. Nice to see.

[G R E Y]

Sochan reads on O are not even basic at times. Like he keeps bringing the ball into Wemby's space. Or he takes 3 and blows like just now.

[G R E Y]

We... stopped playing and they dunked.

[imagump1313]

Same old story.

Zero BBIQ.
Zero ball security.
Chucking up contested threes with 3 guys open.
It still looks like everyone hates Wemby for some reason.
No one can play defense or box out because their arms are tired from chucking up threes......

[G R E Y]

4TH Q: SPURS 82 ROCKETS 93

Well our D looked better, both man and team for longer spurts. The 3RD Q wasn't a total disaster, we only lost it by 3 points.

We just could not bloody score: 35.6%FG, 12.2% from 3 (!), and 15-22FTs.

Sochan is tiers ahead on D compared to his O. As I stated previously, I can see why he was thrust into the point-forward role because he really needs to 'read' plays better and make better decisions. It's back to bad on on-ball. He doesn't look good next to Wemby at the 5. For some reason he plays with more understanding next to Zach, so it's there, but like continuing to drive into Wemby's space and passing to him a couple of feet away, or posting up smaller players, dribbling dribbling, and passing out, or missing cutters or missing Wemby on the alley oops and instead taking shots stood out. It's like opposite-ville in his head. He's just getting up to a full season's worth of games in his pro career so there's that, and he's been thrust in positions beyond his reach right now, but there are some basic don't go where the C already is reads that I don't think require a ton of NBA experience to know. Also, his 3s release is off balance. His elbow is tucked in and the release hand looks like a winding road rather than a straight arrow. Weird. My sense is he looks for his own chances in times when there are better team ones and it's a habit he has to get out of. Not attributing malice, but hastiness and temptation and eagerness are winning out over smart play on O. What's best for the team is what's best for him. Don't rush O but use more of the big energy he's got. We need it.

On D I thought his defense of PGs and sneaking in with help D down low to double opponent bigs then rotating out to cover the 3s shooters was on point. Like I said, D is tiers ahead.

Dan just said the teams combined for 17-80 from 3. **** brutal.

I didn't like the slow, low energy start, nor the settling for 3s - we were, get ready, 5-41. Considering we took 87 shots overall, it's not the shot distribution that is optimal for us. It's the shot distribution we settle for. Part of it is guys wanting to make the quick impact, but the making of 3s covers up a lot of flaws and the missing of 3s shows what else a team can do.

Adding to the lower energy start, we didn't get to the FT line enough, coming on better in the second half but, again, 48 minutes. We probably thought well in the law of averages more of these shots are bound to fall. Nope. Look we generated good chances and the lot of them did not fall. But there were other chances where we had a *better* opportunity to score and passed it up to over cook it for worse shots later in the Q.

Wemby was terrific with another double double leading us with 15 on 7-15, 1-6 from 3 (attempts should be lower), 0-1FT (attempts should be higher), with a whopping 18 rebounds (2 on O), 3 assists, 5 blocks, and 5TOs, two coming in the first three plays of the game. He missed some chances to cut into open space - this was for the taking all game long, team-wide we missed chances in the paint - and he battled well through physicality directed at him to force the ball out of our paint.

TOs continue to be an issue. We had 17 in this game which cost us only 10 points against, but that's also a LOT of missed chances to score and it messes with rhythm and momentum and energy. It's also part of the reason that, for another game, we shot fewer FGAs than our opponent, 93-87 which again put more pressure on defense. We fared well on that end actually, but our O is out of sync.

We have a trio that we rely on to be consistent O contributors, and of late our star rookie has stepped up and Keldon and Devin in particular tonight have not. I have NO IDEA how or why Keldon, one of our most physically punishing players, settled for something like 11 3s in a row, combining last game and starting this one. WE NEEDED DRIVES and the energy off of them and got played into taking shots that were not falling. To his credit he did better in driving especially in the second half, but we need him to lean into and lead with his strengths. He ended up leading us with 6-6FTs. Good. But Keldon took more 3s than any other shot (9 of 14FGAs were from the arc); Devin took more 3s than any other shot (9 of 16FGAs were from the arc); Sochan took almost as many 3s as all other shots (5 of 11FGAs were from the arc). We must be smarter about the shots we take and better at the shots we create. So part of it is the wonky O which is free flowing to a fault. Not enough P&Rs and alley oops. Not enough sets or sets not run well enough (lots of broken down ones for which we struggled to find secondary options) and wrong decisions with the ball.

Same thing for Devin. He's been too passive on both ends. Love him and his game, but we need more leadership of the communication, gathering players for on court huddles, hustle and energy by example, right reads, passes, DRIVES, and defensive stops by example, and we didn't get nearly enough of it. I was surprised to see he led us in FGAs as he was largely unimpactful and not standing out with great plays.

Boxing out. This continues to be a weakness, for some reason we occupy empty spaces with no O players near, at times with backs to the basket lol so like who are we covering on misses? Air? Unless the ball comes right in the vicinity, and unless we then hustle for loose balls, we are making it too easy for second chances. Sure enough, though both teams missed a whole lot, we were on the wrong end overall 60-51 and especially on O boards 15-9 which also contributed to the FGAs disparity.

Recognition. Branham was the first half hot hand, he and Cedi the predominant drivers, leading us at the half with 11 on 5-8 in 18 minutes. He finished with 34 minutes, 13 points, 6-13 (so 1-5 in the second half). He needed the ball more. It was one of his best overall games with 6 boards, team leading 7 assists (!), 1 steal, 3TOs.

Zach looks like he's forgotten how to play. No lift, no dunks, lower energy, plays smaller than his size which is hugely surprising, 2 points on 1-4. Mamu tore up the G-League but didn't get a shot. Very solid D on their starting C, very physical, fought to front him and not get sealed very well. But he's got way more game in him as we have to utilize it.

Our backup bigs combined for 2 points. Julian the sharp shooter had 1FGA. In fairness Mamu only played 4 minutes and Julian 8.

We need to get better at setting up our bigs in general. It's the Wemby show with Sochan driving in to his space or taking Js (he had only 3FGAs in the paint, all in the 4TH Q), and the bench bigs not helping out even as twins Doug and Cedi did what the do best, make 3s and move off ball, and take advantage of open lanes for drives. Smart, pros in their roles.

Tre led the bench with 16 minutes but had only 1 shot. ONE FGA. He did get to the FT line for 3-5 and was a driver well enough, but we frankly needed more from him than 3 points, 2 assists, 2 steals. Now he *was* a defensive pest, and was an energy provider and raiser with full court press, fighting over screens, getting fouls called on the opposition with his defensive pressure. But well it was an off O game for just about everyone.

So some things we did better - D stood out better again (but for those couple of times we didn't run back on D hard enough), the 3RD Q looked a bit better, we didn't allow huge runs, did better in getting to the FT line in the second half, played and withstood physicality, but the disjointed O settling for 3s without working other basic things like P&Rs when we have Wemby at the 5 hurt us. As did the not boxing out, as did the TOs.

We need better energy from more downhill play, more leadership from young guys who've been here longer than any other players, more Manu (yes, Ginobili) and Dieng (who is officially on our payroll - great!) one on one and team talks, and more focused set execution. In a make or miss world, we have to find the seams of light and weave them together for a stronger scoring path. Heads up, both in smarter, more focused play and in keeping our minds on what we can control which right now starts with heart, through to resilience, and leading to stepping up together.

[G R E Y]

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