Season 48, Game 08
San Antonio 93, Los Angeles Lakers 80
5-3, 7th in the West

It says a whole lot about the state of the Lakers that there was no margin of victory large enough to make me think the Spurs played a good game Friday night.

The Spurs (mostly) led wire to wire, the game was never really in doubt, and the lead stretched past 20 midway through the 4th; Duncan played 25 minutes and Kawhi only played 18; the Spurs got whatever they wanted on offense and more or less forced LA into bad shots on defense; Cory Joseph might have been the most consistent player on the court. And yet I was frustrated most of the game because the Spurs should have annihilated the Lakers. That’s just how bad they are this season.

I realize now that most of my frustration this game–and a large part of it this season–is born from missed shots. Simple as that. The offense has looked good the last week or so, and the team is working into a nice rhythm. The shots just aren’t falling like they did last season. The entire team seems to have hit a slog at the same time, and it’s depressing the offensive output. But the action is still there; the intention is still there. It’ll come around soon enough or it won’t. It’s a make or miss league, and all an offense can do is put the players in the best position to make shots. The Spurs are doing that right now, and you just have to trust in the process and in the system.

Even in this game, the Spurs looked great in the 1st and 4th quarters when their 3-point shots went in. The middle quarters appeared a lot worse. But the looks were very much the same: the shots (particularly the 3s) just stopped going in. The Lakers just did not have enough of anything to capitalize on it.

A few more thoughts from tonight’s game and this road trip:

  • I like Manu a lot better as a facilitator with the second unit, the de facto PG. This is what makes Mills so critical to the bench (and Marco, too). With all of that shooting surrounding Manu, he has the entirety of the court to maneuver and work his magic. Playing with Cory gums things up a bit, as Cory very much wants to drive to the hoop more than he wants to shoot. So when Manu finds him open, instead of taking the shot, he’s driving again, often resetting the offense. It’s taking time, but they’re learning how to work together, and Cory is finding his role as Parker’s back-up. He played a great game against the Lakers, and he is secretly very good attacking the basket and scoring. He puts a lot of pressure on a second unit’s defense. It’s not the same as last year, but it could be just as potent.
  • Pop is doing interesting things with the PG rotation. He seems to be playing Parker in shorter bursts, but still his usual number of minutes. So instead of 2 ‘shifts’ a half, he gets 3 or 4, but each one 4-6 minutes, instead of 9 – 10. He’s also experimenting playing Cory and Tony at the same time. It’s an interesting wrinkle. This gives Cory plenty of minutes against starting PGs, where he can hold his own, and put a lot of pressure on them defensively. Something to watch in the first half of this season.
  • I’m happy Daye has lost his spot in the rotation. For a “3-point specialist”, I don’t think I’ve actually ever seen him make one in any sort of important game situation.
  • Baynes is a much better shooter with much better touch than you might think, but also a little softer than you might think for somebody his size. He’s a good big off the bench, but his play makes Tiago’s absence pretty obvious.
  • Besides shooting, turnovers have been the biggest problem in the early going offensively. The team has kept the TOs way down the last 2 games, and it makes the offense look a lot sharper.
  • I still see Parker struggling as the team’s PG, though. His decision making just seems a bit off so far. He did fare better tonight, handing out 9 assists, even as his shot was off. He looks great physically, so I think it’s only a matter of time before it really clicks in for him this season.
  • Tim is very good. He passed the 25,000 point milestone tonight.
  • Kawhi is very good. When the two are on the floor together, I feel very calm and relaxed. When they are not on the floor, I worry. The thing I probably look forward to the most each game is to see just what sort of amazing plays Kawhi will accomplish in the most routine-looking of manners. Tonight it was back-to-back steals of poor Jeremy Lin. He just straight picked it off of his dribble like it was nothing. Pop is starting to use Kawhi as a main offensive weapon (actually running sets and isolations for him) and as a defensive cooler (putting him on whichever player is going off or hurting us the most to just completely shut him down). And the young man is still just scratching the surface of what he can be.

The Spurs play the Kings in Sacramento Saturday night. The Kings have been an early season surprise in the NBA, and this will actually be a good early season test for the Spurs.