Here are my two cents:
Spurs have a puncher's chance against any team in any series, but not serious contenders yet.
Wemby struggles against strength (esp. stumpy guys), inconsistent spacing, TO-prone, and Spurs can't defend movement or good off-the-dribble 3pt shooting.
Way ahead of schedule.
Love the fact that they need to be down by 25+ to see some quit in these guys.
Keldon, imo, is the man of the game. Missed a few open corner threes early in the third, and decided "it's bully ball time". This started the 24-8 run to tie the game at 94 going into the fourth.
Fantastic locking in practice, the good guys turn on the clamps in the second half, on the back of some inspired Keldon play.
Once he realized today's prescription was bully ball, the whole dynamic changed.
Wemby adjusting to pop more, realizing Draymond is just going to rough him up every time I'm the paint. Love it.
Amazing run by the good guys to close the quarter. Defense looking a whole lot better, too.
KJ brings the spark with fundamental basketball
Great shot selection in the third thus far. Layups and corner threes. Spurs are just bricking it.
I feel this season we're going to get to the playoffs, and every team we play is going to be so physical with Wemby, he'll have another Shaolin summer, focusing on handling that.
Either crash the O glass or get back.
Good timeout. They're getting wide open there's in transition. Part of that is shot selection by our Spurs leading to rebounds, but another part is just focus.
Doesn't help that they're hitting their shots, but Spurs have historically struggled defending good movement and good shooting, and GSW are both.
In the last 15 games, our Spurs have 109.5 DefRtg, good for 5th, and 116.1 OffRtg netting them the 8th place in the league.
This game, we're looking at ~134 DefRtg and ~126 OffRtg. So we're slightly better on offense, but flat out atrocious on defense against a very short handed Warriors squad.
Body language is a thing. Carter Bryant is one thing, but Fox showing his frustration is surprising.
Esp. a young rotation-caliber player
It feels like it goes deeper than that. I don't recall the last time a player couldn't see the floor while the rest of the team is scraping the bottom of the bench. Did he cross a line of some sort?
@jmcdonaldsa.bsky.social , what is going on with Sochan? We never see him anymore, and I doubt it's the spacing, we got either Biyambo or Olynyk out there at PF.
Wemby got it in his head to try 50? 60? Or did Mitch just tell him he's not playing the fourth?
My man can afford to force it a little :)
Second, I have to say, I LOVE the off ball movement on offense. It's been a long time since I've seen a solid Spurs squad pull that off consistently
First and foremost, I hope it's nothing and if not I hole Castle takes all the time he needs to recover.
Steph going to locker room. Hope you alright man
Which is why this time I'm absolutely positive I see Vassell getting screened off and proceeding to hug Hayes. Can anyone ELI5 why would you do that?
It is nice to have a game where you can just relax and watch off ball things.
For me what fueled that run was the switch of Wemby onto Thompson and Castle and co onto KD/Shengun. This unlocked Wemby in his best roaming self, and as odd as it is to say, put more physicality on the Rockets bigs.
Vassell says he’s going to be back for tomorrow night against the Pelicans.
@jmcdonaldsa.bsky.social , thanks for giving basketball conventions a go with random fans on here. We need more of these in our media landscape :)
I will die on the "Wemby needs to eventually be a 7-4 Kevin Durant, especially in crunch time" hill.
I don't need him posting up on the block like Timmy running 4-down. I don't want him driving into a crowded paint. Become proficient at an unblockable 15-footer and do that over and over and over.
Having said that. That's one nice closing lineup tonight.
I'm glad Utah is not pouncing on opportunities, this is a good mid-season practice game.
Have not seen center-keldon in a minute now. Fascinating look with defender that are supposed to help on the drive or gather? This is absolutely the right game to throw stuff at the wall to see what sticks.
Jazz got some semblance of offense going on, but the good guys not making wide open shots and later on in the quarter not even generating good looks is troubling, especially against this Jazz team with the defense they're usually running.
