Season 48, Game 11
San Antonio 92, Cleveland 90
7-4, 6th in the West

It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but it was well-earned. Let’s play a little “Good Cop, Bad Cop” to recap the action as the Spurs beat the LeBron James-led Cavaliers in Cleveland.

Good Cop: Boris Diaw came to play tonight. His fingerprints were all over this game. 19 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and a block, all in a team-high 39 minutes. He out-LeBron’d LeBron with that stat-line. He kept the offense fluid when it threatened to bog down, and he played position-less defense, guarding all manner of players and gumming up the Cavs high-powered offense. Of particular note was Boris and Kawhi’s ability to switch all Love-James pick and rolls to almost no ill effect, as both Boris and Kawhi are expert at guarding LeBron. Boris has had a sluggish start to the season, but games like this one show that he’ll be there when the lights get brighter and the stakes heftier.

(David Richard/USA Today Sports)

Bad Cop: Neither Tony Parker nor Manu Ginobili really showed up to play tonight (though they were solid hitting FTs down the stretch, and Manu clinched the game in the closing seconds with the steal and dribble out). Manu’s role on the team is flexible, and we expect some odd and off nights from him. He can impact the game in so many ways, but the team also relies on him less. Parker’s slow start to the season is officially becoming worrisome. He just doesn’t look himself. He’s not running the offense, he’s not exploding on fast breaks, he’s not sneaking his way into the lane for layups. Cory Joseph is generally outplaying him.

Good Cop: Cory Joseph is outplaying Tony Parker. The offense actually looks smoother in many cases with Cory in, and his defense adds a ferocity to the second unit. He is penetrating like Parker should be, and his jump shot is getting more and more reliable.

Bad Cop: Our 3rd-string PG is our best PG option right now, which might explain why the offense is so mediocre to start the season.

Good Cop: While Kawhi’s offensive night was good but not great, his defense on LeBron James was quietly brilliant. I only say ‘quietly’ because there is no huge stat nor highlight play that stands out. He just manned up and guarded him one-on-one as well as one human can possibly do it. This is not exaggeration. LeBron’s numbers were not great, and Leonard never gave him breathing room. James is the head of the snake, and Kawhi’s on-ball defense was a large reason why the Spurs were able to dramatically slow down the Cavs’ complete offense. Plus, only one foul for Kawhi on the night, and it came while guarding Kyrie.

Bad Cop: Austin Daye and Aron Baynes shared the floor for large chunks of time in a meaningful NBA game. It’s as bad both offensively and defensively as you might imagine. Worse, probably.

Good Cop: The offense looked a lot sharper for huge chunks of the game, with cutting and crisp passing and attention to detail. Twenty six assists on 35 made FGs shows the intent is there.

Bad Cop: But the shots are still not dropping, particularly from 3. And for stretches the offense completely bogged down into isolation, overpassing, or drives into traffic leading to TOs and fast breaks. Throw in poor FT shooting, and it’s no wonder that 92 points was all the team could muster.

Good Cop: Duncan looked goddamned incredible in the first quarter, having his way in the paint. He slowed down a bit, but was still the anchor of the defense down the stretch and made hugely important offensive plays to both keep the Spurs in the game AND win the game.

(Getty Images)

Bad Cop: Duncan got a little too greedy in the post, and hurt the team a bit in the second half going at both Varejo and Love in isolation. Duncan is still a tremendous player in the paint, but the days of throwing it down low and letting him go to work one-on-one are over. He can still score down there, but it works best off of movement, high-low action, and passing. He’s a tremendous passer from the low post, but that doesn’t mean much if the rest of the team stops.

Good Cop: Austin Daye hit a 3-point basket in an important game. The final margin was 2 points, so one could argue his shot won the game for us.

Bad Cop: Haha, just kidding. Austin Daye is terrible and I can’t believe he played in this game. (Thanks for the 3, though, buddy.)

Eleven games in, this season is still very much about the process. The Spurs will get healthy, the Spurs will turn the corner, and the Spurs will look better. Every piece is there for another impressive season. It’s important to keep in mind that the teams that usually ‘win’ the first few months of the season are rarely the teams holding the trophy at the end.

Both teams playing tonight hope that is true.