It was a pretty good game until the last five minutes or so. That was when the Spurs unleashed their true team – rolling with Parker-Green-Manu-Leonard-Aldridge – with Mills doing some offense-defense rotations with Manu. The Pels couldn’t figure out what their counter would be. They tried Anderson, but decided he couldn’t guard Kawhi and hid him on Danny Green. So Jrue got to try and handle Kawhi – who punished him in the post repeatedly. Then Dante came in for Anderson – and the Spurs switched the pattern, finding ways to get Aldridge onto Cunningham – and overpowering him. In totally predictable fashion, Gentry chose not to go big, despite the fact his team was being overpowered everywhere, and instead stayed small, keeping Douglas and Cole in the backcourt.
The hope, I believe was that those guys would hit some threes and keep the Pelicans in it.
The three ball, however, was a problem all game – and the result was a monster game by Davis(28-10-4-4-4) went wasted.
Observations
- I said the Pelicans needed to hit their threes to make this a game. They did it in the last matchup against the Spurs. They did not do it tonight, going 3-19. Worse, I charted 9 missed open catch and shoot threes tonight. The Spurs, as usual, were smart and kept those threes from going to Anderson – but you can’t miss 9 shots like that and hope to win.
- Bryce Dejean-Jones missed 3 of those open shots(and another with his foot on the line) early on. He also fell victim to a few of the Spurs veteran tricks. I don’t care. The kid has potential and should be kept. (And should have been out there in the fourth) He ended with a Q-pon like line of 8 points, 3 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal and a pair of made threes.
- Manu Ginobili continues to be a wizard. His passing when being blitzed by both his guy and the big man during the pick and roll is slick and perfectly placed so his roll guy can simply reach forward, gather the ball and take it home.
- Also in the pre-game I mentioned Holiday vs Kawhi would be fascinating. Pop being Pop only made his ace defender chase Holiday during the last 5 minutes. In related news, Holiday struggled mightily in the last 5 minutes of this game.
- Guess how many shots AD got in the last five minutes of the game! Naw, I’ll tell you. 1. The Spurs do that to you – they smother your preferred option – and the Pelicans guards decided they would just have to do it on their own. And they didn’t.
- Asik played well. Again, when almost all your starting caliber guards are down, why not at least try him at the end of the game? Rebounds and rim protection still matter!
- The Pelicans botched 4 fast break opportunities – but there is also the fact that not once, on any break away, did the Spurs give up on trying to defend them. That team works so damn hard.
- Cole’s midrange jumper was on target tonight. At least it felt that way – then I saw that he went 7-17 for 14 points and realized I’m just so used to him missing those shots that when he makes 3 or so in a row, it’s surprising and I take note. When he misses – it’s like the scenery now.
- I loved watching Davis tonight.
Next game is tomorrow night vs the Lakers. Enjoy!
One response to “Pels fall to Spurs”
These Pelicans coaches remind me of a quote from an old
1980s movie: “And try it again they
did. It never occurred to them that
maybe they weren’t any good.” Cannery Row (1982).