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3 in the Key: Spurs v Warriors

October 27, 2016 /

We’re debuting a new column this season on SpursDynasty.com. We’re calling it “Three in the Key.”

After key games, two of our analysts will outline their three key takeaways.

We kick things off with Stephen Hale and Trace Ronning’s takes on the Spurs’ season opener against the Warriors. First, let’s hear from Stephen…

1. It’s just one game

This argument is rubbish. The Warriors will get a huge pass on this massive “L” to start the season. That’s understandable, I guess. It is one game. But the San Antonio Spurs have seven new players on their roster. They are also in the post-Duncan era, after having a team defined by him for 20 years. They were missing their starting shooting guard and they were on the road. The Spurs were prepared. Why weren’t the Warriors? I think this speaks to a larger issue: the Warriors might be talented, but lack mental toughness. The Spurs might have both. Also, it’s not just one game. The Spurs now lead the season series, which could impact home-court advantage in the playoffs.

2. That bench though…

… has the potential to be really good. Maybe it was just in comparison to the Warriors bench, which is just flat-out awful. But good Lord, they looked great. Simmons will get the majority of the praise and rightly so. He’s pretty awesome and I’m not sure we will see a better dunk than the one to end the game. But 39-year-old Manu Ginobili and 33-year-old journeyman David Lee were also effective. Lee had a play in the 2nd half where he single-handedly out fought three Warriors for a tipped ball, which eventually landed in Manu’s lap for a layup. I thought Dedmon got some
incredibly useful minutes. He’s long and fast. And Patty Thrills is still Patty Thrills. He hasn’t skipped a beat. The bench was incredible, is good, and could be the best in the league. That’s all I am saying.

3. Kawhi Leonard is really good

I got into an argument the other day with a guy who thinks Kawhi isn’t a top 5 player and would take Paul George over him, easily. Well, that guy is an idiot. Kawhi Leonard is dangerously close to becoming the best player in the entire league. He did it all last night. He set a career high with 35 points and got to the line a ridiculous 15 times and made them all. He hung in the air, he made fadeaways, he attacked, he dunked. He had five steals. Five steals?!?! That’s nuts guys. He’s quiet (although, he’s getting louder) and not flashy, so he gets forgotten about by fans… except by everyone that he plays. Your friends at the water cooler will tell you he isn’t that good. They guy at the rec league will blow him off. I’m sure some maroon will tell you that Paul George is better. Just ignore that. They don’t know anything.

Now let’s kick the ball to Trace…

We’re officially 1/82nd of the way through the NBA season, and while I’m not one to read too much into the standings this early, it’s worth pointing out that the Spurs are tied for 1st in the West, and the Warriors are tied for last. It’s just math, folks. Yes, that’s right, in case you somehow missed it, the Spurs opened the season in Oakland against the new-look Super Warriors and completely demolished them, 129-100.

1. Kawhi was not overwhelmed by the moment

The knock against Kawhi Leonard is that he has played Houdini in each of the Spurs’ last two playoff oustings. I think it’s been a fair criticism and many NBA folks seem to think it’s the only thing standing between Leonard and true superstardom. We shouldn’t rush to judgment after just one game, but Kawhi didn’t shy away from the pressure of facing the Super Warriors in Oakland in the season opener and that’s something to be optimistic about.

He not-so-Kawhi-etly (get it?) dropped 35 pts on 10-21 shooting, made all 15 FTs, and made 5 steals. My personal favorite was Leonard swiping the ball from Curry at halfcourt and then driving to the rim and finishing over Durant on the other end. It was like if Kawhi was Luke Skywalker destroying the first Death Star, except he didn’t need any last-second Han Solo bullshit to get the job done.

Leonard did miss all three of his 3-pt attempts, however. Here’s to hoping that’s nothing to worry about – it was only three attempts after all.

2. LaMarcus doesn’t look like a defensive liability

And he picked a helluva time to show it. Never known as a rim protector, Aldridge seemed to do just fine in game one of the post-Duncan era. He wasn’t credited with any blocks, but he wasn’t afraid to get in the paint and contest shots. Sure, Golden State scored 100 points and we don’t typically think of giving up 100 points as a solid defensive effort, but I’d like to see how many times this Warriors team scores 100 or fewer points this season. It won’t be many. This was a good defensive effort by the Spurs.

Aldridge also picked up eight of San Antonio’s 21 offensive rebounds on the night, which led all players and matched Golden State’s total. That led to 26 second chance points for the Spurs, compared to just four for the Warriors.

3. The Spurs bench is better than yours

It’s still plastered on the side of the Oracle Arena and various Bay Area billboards, but their “Strength in Numbers” motto is just a facade this year. They ran nearly all of their depth out of town in order to bring Kevin Durant on board, and for at least one game, it showed. The Spurs’ annually great bench unit, led by the now-infamous Jonathan Simmons, Patty Mills, and the ageless Manu Ginobili, outscored Golden State’s bench 54-16.

54-16!!

The Warriors’ starters account for 84% of their total points last night. I’m not so sure that’s a viable strategy, night in and night out.

Kevin Durant scored a team-high 27 points in his Golden State debut, but the host Warriors lost in blowout fashion to the Spurs, prompting Draymond Green to quip, "I'm sure the story tomorrow will be, 'KD broke up the chemistry and we can't win with KD.'" Noah Graham/Getty Images

Glee

October 27, 2016 /

Season 50, Game 01
San Antonio 129, Golden State 100
1-0

Not a bad way to start the season.

I was smugly confident going into Tuesday’s season opener against the Warriors. Not a single person expected the Spurs to win. The prevailing thinking was: “How close can the Spurs keep it?” The thought just kept nagging at me, though, that it would be oddly poetic for the Spurs to waltz into the lair of the new NBA super villains on opening night and beat them in a way that never happened last season.

I didn’t expect such a resounding beatdown. The Spurs just worked the Warriors in every facet of the game. They out-rebounded them, 55-35, including 21 offensive rebounds to the Warriors 8. They made 5 more 3s on 9 fewer attempts. The bench outscored the Warriors’ bench 54-16. They made 10 more free throws on 8 more attempts.The Spurs won every quarter.

Two things stood out in particular:

  1. The Spurs ended every quarter (that mattered) with a little run. They had a 13-2 spurt at the end of the 1st; a 12-2 run to end the half; and closed the 3rd with a modest 10-6 run, putting the game firmly out of reach. That’s a net gain of 25 points in a 29-point victory. Seems significant.
  2. The Spurs were able to withstand every offensive spurt from the Warriors. We’ve become accustomed over the last two seasons to seeing the Warriors put up points in a hurry. You never know when the avalanche is coming, but the threat is always there, and the game can be out of reach in a matter of moments. The Warriors had a few of these runs in the opener, but the Spurs were able to answer each one.

It’s how the Spurs did these two things that was illuminating. They used offense – not defense – to win this game.

Last year’s Spurs team was one of the best defensive teams ever. With Duncan anchoring the back and Leonard roaming up front, the Spurs were almost impossible to score on. But they had their own offensive issues. While they were able to hold the Warriors mostly in check, they just could not score enough to reasonably threaten them last season.

With the departure of Duncan, it seems clear that the team is looking to improve on offense while hoping the defense can be ‘good enough,’ by the Spurs’ lofty standards. Most of the off-season moves brought in plus offensive players that are either bad or neutral on defense.

Can the Spurs’ coaching staff and trusted scheme make players like Gasol and David Lee play adequate defense? We’ll find out. But we can know this: the offense will be potent this season.

It’s opening night against a team that is an outlier in many ways, so we don’t want to read too much into any one player’s game. Much like Duncan was last season, this Warriors team is a bad match-up for players like Parker and Gasol, both of whom I expect to have productive seasons as savvy veterans. Players like Lee and Dedmon are so new to the system, I want to give them time to play a few games before I pass any judgment. And most of the rest of the new players only saw burn in garbage time.

Let’s turn our focus to 3 players: Kawhi, LaMarcus, and (you guessed it) Jonathon Simmons.

First LaMarcus. Rumblings and rumors aside, I have high hopes for him this season. It’s his second year with the team, he seems much more comfortable in the system, and he ended last season on such a high, the hope is he can build on that. We know LaMarcus is moody and can be a difficult personality, but he has great talent. Here’s the key for him: can he accept his role as a really great 2nd player? He’s not quite good enough to be ‘the man’ on a team, but he’s better than most ‘second bananas’ in the league. Will he allow this to be Kawhi’s team? Can he keep putting up 26-14 and be happy not being the primary offensive threat? Will he work to be a more consistently great defender?

Now Kawhi. If Kawhi can make yet another leap in his game, the Spurs will easily remain at the top of the league and even be a dark-horse Finals contender. He can be that good. I loved what I saw in the opener. He was aggressive attacking the rim. He is starting to get the respect of superstars, getting tons of foul calls (something that was not the case last season). Pop is more and more comfortable putting the ball in his hands and letting him run the offense (which has the added effect of the team relying less on Parker, allowing him to age gracefully into whatever his role will be), and his handle and decision-making looks better. He ran one nasty pick and roll with Aldridge in which he threaded a bounce pass to LMA perfectly for an easy dunk. Can he keep upping his offensive workload while maintaining the best individual defense in the league? Can he be the main offensive weapon all season, including the playoffs?

Finally, let’s talk about Simmons. I think this was the kind of game all close watchers of the Spurs knew he had in him. He has athleticism, size, and a knack for making great plays. The hope was he could be more consistent and confident and help to anchor the bench with Manu and Patty.

If Tuesday’s game is any indication, we’ve got our next great bench player here. He was magnificent in every facet of the game. The Spurs had a historically great bench last season, using it to put so many games out of reach. One of the big questions coming into this season was how well the bench would play with so many key losses. Simmons (and Anderson) taking big leaps could give us an even more potent bench.

It’s just one game, but damn, it feels good to have our Spurs back.

The Spurs christen the Kings’ new arena in Sacramento on Thursday night.

Go Spurs Go.

Photo credit: Noah Graham/Getty Images

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