Season 48, Game 38
San Antonio 108, Minnesota 93
23-15, 7th in the West

Last night was one of those “good for what ails you” games, a welcome respite from the gauntlet that is the Western Conference. I’m not sure too much can be drawn from the game (Austin Daye did go for 22 and 10, after all), but the team didn’t crap the bed in the final minutes against a lesser opponent, so that’s forward progress.

A few big picture thoughts through the prism of the victory over the Timberwolves:

–If you read me regularly, you know that I’m a late adopter to the Cory Joseph revolution. I stand by all of my thoughts, but a couple of things have changed recently. One: he really keeps improving every week, every game. It’s remarkable. Full credit to Joseph for putting in the hard work and dedicating himself to his craft. The Spurs’ coaching staff always gets credit for turning players into professionals and getting the most out of them, but none of that can happen without the player wanting it for himself. The Spurs’ staff beset gift may be the ability to spot players with that drive. Joseph certainly has that drive.

Two: All things being equal, Joseph is still the 4th best option at PG for this team. However, Tony is injured and struggling to come back, Manu is having an up and down season (yes, I consider Manu a PG option for this team), and Patty is still getting his legs back. Right now, Joseph is the best PG on this team. But a fully healthy Tony or Manu easily supplants Cory in that role, and Patty is a completely different player that fits better alongside either Manu or Tony than Cory does.

So Cory is our best option at PG, and he is playing great. The team is 7th in the West, though, which probably doesn’t happen with a fully healthy Tony and Manu. What’s been really encouraging over the last few games is seeing how well Cory and Patty play together. This hinges on Cory being a hybrid 2-guard of sorts. With his pesky defense, it can work against most teams in the league. Cory has earned minutes, and I imagine he’ll keep getting them.

–But let’s hope it’s not because Parker continues to play like garbage. Because Parker is mostly playing like garbage right now. A little bit of the old Tony comes back with each game. Let’s hope that trend continues. Right now, the offense is just a beat off with him at the helm, and it becomes a lot more noticeable when Cory and Patty come in and the team really takes off.

–Last night we got a few more glimpses of “Playoff Boris”. “Playoff Boris” is a really good player and I hope he comes around some more.

–The big story of the night was Austin Daye, who is always due for at least one or two “better than completely sucking” games a year. The game shows what a fine line there is in the NBA; all it takes for Daye to become a moderately useful player is to hit a decent percentage of shots. Which he normally doesn’t do. Throw in the aggressive rebounding and he becomes an actual useful player.

–Daye’s play also underlines one of the reasons the Spurs struggle without Kawhi (other than the “Kawhi is really really awesome” reason): Austin was our starting SF last night. In fact, when Daye does play, it is usually at SF, despite his size and lack of speed. The teams other options at SF without Kawhi are: Kyle Anderson (the only other true SF on the team, also a rookie) and Marco Belinelli (a 2-guard). The team really has no back-up SF, barely even a replacement level player that can actually play that position. With a healthy Kawhi, that’s not a big deal, as he should be playing 38-42 minutes a night. But it becomes glaring when Kawhi has been out for a month.

The Spurs travel to Washington, D.C. for a game against the Wizards Tuesday. Before that, though, they get their trip to the White House to meet the President on Monday. I am very excited for the team to meet Obama, a huge hoops fan. Based on past trips, I imagine it will be a fun and entertaining trip and a wonderful experience for the Spurs.