Season 50, Game 46
San Antonio 103, New Orleans 119
36-10, 2nd in the West
For whatever reason (yes, like you, I can think of a few pretty obvious ones), the Spurs always seem to struggle in New Orleans. Always. Yes, they win some games there; but, relative to comparative talent between the two teams, it’s always closer than it should be.
One need only look back to the end of the 2014-15 season, the last night of the regular season, when a win in New Orleans (against a team already locked into their seed) would have secured the #2 seed while a loss meant the #6 seed. A game I’m sure we can all agree mattered. And yet, much like Friday night, the Spurs just laid an egg.
Friday night the team seemed to run out of gas (which seems odd considering they had two full days off before the game). The Spurs shot a meager 39% to the Pelicans blistering 52%. The Pelicans made 15 more baskets than the Spurs. With about 6 minutes gone in the 3rd quarter, the Spurs opened up an 11 points lead, 66-55. Over the remaining 18 minutes, the Pelicans shellacked the Spurs 64-37. Hard to win games giving up 64 points in 1 1/2 quarters.
The team just looked sluggish and a bit out of sorts. Parker and Leonard, in particular, seemed to be struggling after each had a week or so off. In a game so dependent on routine and rhythm, it’s natural that a week off would throw that out of whack. Parker was moving well (a more important indicator, considering his nagging sore left foot), but seemed a bit out of sync with the rest of the team.
Leonard showed flashes of his usual brilliant self, but in general, also seemed out of sync. He was also visually more frustrated than normal, which perhaps speaks to how discombobulated he felt on the court. Remember, though, after Leonard missed two games earlier this season with the stomach flu, his first game back was also pretty mediocre. Immediately after, though, he kicked off what might be the best streak of his career. We can afford to give him a game to regain his bearings.
In general, the loss isn’t that troubling. If you’d told me the Spurs would play the Raptors and the Cavs on the same 4-game road trip, and would finish the trip with a 3-1 record, I’d be very happy. There was a loss somewhere in this road trip, it just didn’t happen on the night we thought it would. Oh well. The Pelicans played very well and got big games from several role players. The Spurs do that to opposing teams all the time.
What’s a bit more troubling is the recent defense of the Spurs. Over the last 9 games (starting with the loss to Milwaukee, the first game where the defense seemed suboptimal), the Spurs have a defensive rating of 106.4 (15th in the league in that span). For comparison, the Spurs’ rating for the entire season is 102.1, 3rd in the league. The Warriors are 1st at 101.0. Over the course of a season, that 106.4 rating would rank 21st in the league.
In other words, not good. Digging deeper, the Spurs starters over those 9 games still rank 6th in defensive efficiency, while the bench is 24th. (To be fair, the bench’s net rating is 7.0 to the starter’s 8.7, so both units are performing very well.)
The only significant change over that time is the loss of Gasol. Perhaps the starters are benefitting from losing their worst defensive player, while the bench is suffering from losing their normal rotations and comfort as a unit, with deep bench players (not comfortable with the defensive principles) being pushed into more minutes.
Whatever the cause, the offense has been covering up a lot of ills of the defense recently. For the Spurs to be real contenders, the defense will need to get better. Thankfully, we have 37 games of data that show us it can be done.
The Spurs start a 4-game homestand Sunday against Dallas. Let’s hope the team gets back on track.
Go Spurs Go.
