I think we can all agree: Week 4 was our favorite week of Spurs basketball so far this season.
Not that the Spurs are playing at their highest level. They certainly are not. But after our team dropped three out of their first five, it’s been nice to see them win seven out of eight, including five in a row.
At 9-4, this season is already as different as night and day from the last. This is to be expected, although it begs the question: after winning an NBA Championship last season, what is different about the team this time?
Week 4 kind of sums it up. The short answer: cobwebs. The long answer: spiders.
The team looks rusty, and the rust is the cobwebs. They seem to know what to do, and how to do it, but aren’t doing it smoothly, if at all.
We have all watched enough Spurs basketball over the years to know when a play is broken and when the Spurs are out of sorts. We saw a lot of that the first two weeks, so this week came at a good time.
Sometimes, you need a few “get right” games. Games against the 76ers and Timberwolves make games against the Nets that much easier. You pull out the broom and dust off the cobwebs and before you know it, you have a bit more rhythm.
The truth is, the Spurs don’t lose like other teams lose. If you look around the league, you find teams who get out of sorts and ignore their systems, so you aren’t surprised when they lose. That’s not how the Spurs lose.
Even in the four games lost so far, you always thought the Spurs had a legitimate chance of winning. They stay within the confines of the game, they stick with their system, and they let the chips fall where they may. It is a matter of cobwebs and they just need to be shaken off.
The spiders are the injuries. Fortunately, so far they are fairly minor (knock on wood), but we can see how the cobwebs need to be cleaned up, to avoid spider bites later. For every injury, a rotation is changed and a role is slightly altered. Not only are the Spurs dusting off cobwebs, they continue to find themselves playing new roles, in new rotations and with new responsibilities, all within the same familiar scheme.
The Spurs had to respond to these new roles and responsibilities and rely on their history to win this week’s games. In the Cavs game, they didn’t play stellar team defense, but played fairly good defense. The Sixers game was an opportunity to shoot themselves out of a slump. The T’wolves game was a chance to work on some new things. Brooklyn was a chance to put it all together.
As the cobwebs are cleared, so will be the spiders. That doesn’t mean the Spurs won’t have injuries, but it does mean that injuries won’t be so devastating. No one is doubting how much the Spurs miss Tiago and Patty, but what is being lost in all this is that the team is learning to play without them.
When a team folds under injury (cough cough… OKC… cough), they not only suffer through the injury, they delay their recovery when they determine that they can’t win without the injured player. That’s why the Cleveland game was so important. The Spurs have two very important players on their team who are currently injured, yet they still showed progress without them. For everyone that reminds Spurs fans this week and in the weeks to come that the Cleveland Big Three will get better, remind them that the Spurs will too, with Tiago and Patty back in the lineup.
The Spurs are getting better without their full roster. That’s a rarity in today’s NBA. Most teams don’t do that.
We can’t undersell Aron Baynes’ 9-12 line against Minnesota and 8-10 line against Brooklyn. He’s been asked to step up, and well, he kind of has. Same with Austin Daye. I don’t like the guy, but he did what he was asked to do… well, sorta. We will have to see what he does in meaningful minutes moving forward.
More than those guys, Danny Green played a leading role in recent games. Pop is throwing these guys into the fire and seeing what they can do. Personally, I love it (I just wish it was more Anderson and less Daye). I love that this team is never dependent on one person, but equally dependent on the sum of its parts.
This is a good time for one of those long early season win streaks. The Spurs play the Pacers, the Kings, the Celtics, that Philly Team and then Brooklyn between now and December 3. It’s possible they could face Memphis on December 5 in the midst of a 10-game win streak.
The following week’s games are against the Timberwolves, Jazz, Knicks, Lakers and Nuggets, before playing the Trailblazers on December 15, where they could, quite conceivably, be on a 16-game win streak.
Now of course, Pop is gonna Pop, so let’s expect an L or two between now and then. The point is, this is the time in the schedule to dust off those cobwebs and squash the spiders, so as to make a move to the top.
Aside from cobwebs and spiders, here is what else I am seeing…
- Parker is lighting up the league in 3-point field goal percentage. Not that he shoots it a lot, but still. For being in an offense that is driven around team basketball, it’s kind of odd to see this version of Tony Parker. That said, he looks a lot more like Tony Parker than he did a week ago.
- Tim Duncan is good at basketball. That’s enough about Tim Duncan.
- Manu is secretly driving this team. If Duncan is the extension of Pop on the Floor, then Manu is an extension of Duncan. He’s an incredibly smart basketball player.
- Remember when BoBo was super fat and played for the Bobcats and we all forgot about him? Well, now, he is our ultimate utility player. He can guard positions 3-5, handle the ball, shoot from distance, and do a jello shake in the block. I’ll go ahead and say it: Boris Diaw is underrated.
- I wasn’t really a fan of Danny Green last year. Apparently, his uniform number change has helped him. He reminds me of Reggie Miller and Ray Allen, or even Richard Hamilton, all of whom never stopped moving. And yet, Danny does something those guys never did. He plays defense.
- Did anyone else notice that, when the game got physical in Cleveland, Pop immediately went to Baynes? Coincidence? I think not. Nothing wrong with a bull in a china shop, if you have the bull.
- Matt Bonner apparently had some funky deli meat on his quest for the world’s best hoagie. Drink some pink stuff and get well soon, Matt. You are the scariest player in the NBA who never needs to make a shot, and we need you back on that wing.
- Austin Daye is the ultimate face palm. Dude had a double-double this week. I’ll have to check the game tape, but I am assuming it was an anomaly, that 11 rebounds fell uncontested into his lap…
- Kyle Anderson basically did nothing this week. In three games, he had 2 assists, 2 rebounds, and a blocked shot, while averaging 13 minutes a game. He’s the only player on the team with a Player Efficiency Rating (PER) in the negative. Anyone else want to read into that?
- Marco is back. I love Marco. I mean, he is kind of slow and isn’t a stopper on defense. But if you ever want to know why I like Marco and not Austin Daye, just go look at their Instagram feeds during the offseason. Marco is going to help this team.
- Dear Pop,
Never shave.
Sincerely,
The other 11 months of the year.
It’s Thanksgiving week. Enjoy time with family and friends, eat lots of turkey and stay safe.
From the entire SpursDynasty family, have a Happy Thanksgiving and Go Spurs Go!
