Spurs Pick Up The Pace

by Wayne Vore (ATS) on Dec 30, 2009 11:28 AM CST in Game Previews

There's really not a lot to say about the Spurs 117-99 win over the T-Wolves that Tim didn't cover in the recap. We played well. Manu was a madman. RJ led us in scoring. We passed the ball really well.

But, did you know we played pretty good defense? I think we did even though we gave up 99 points.

It's called pace (read Graydon's take on Pace at 48MoH, I guess this is what happens when he and I talk about the game for an hour afterward.). The Spurs really pushed the ball up court and looked for early offense tonight. We did hava 29 fast break points, which is a lot. However, in general, we shot the ball pretty quickly. As did the Timberwolves. For the game, I charted us with 101 possessions. In the loss to the Blazers, I had us at 83. I'm going to make the assumption that the other team has the same number of possessions during a game.

The Blazers scored 98 points on those 83 possessions. The T-Wolves scored 99 points on 101 possessions. Holding a team below 1.00 points per possession is pretty solid. For the season, we are at 1.03 points per possession (via HoopData). Also consider that the T-Wolves scored 20 points in the last 6:31 of the game when we had gone up by 24. Prior to that run of 3-pointers, they had scored 79 points on 87 possessions and shot 35.9% from the field. It was garbage time basketball that uglied up our defensive stat sheet.

Still, those stats were good to great. We held the T-Wolves to 39.6% shooting from the field. We gave up 13 offensive rebounds, which is a lot, but we still grabbed 73.4% of the defensive caroms. We would really like that number to be over 75%. None of those defensive rebounds were cheapies either as they shot 23-25 from the line. So good, not great. The 25 trips to the line weren't that great. 13 of them were in the second quarter when we seemed to slap anything that moved.

I think most numbers you find that you don't like in last night's box score can be attributed to the pace and to garbage time stat padding. In truth, we were just really good at both ends of the floor.

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Graydon got Pop’d, big time. That’s like a badge of honor.

The Spurs - now playing like sh*t again!

by Tim C. on Dec 30, 2009 12:49 PM CST reply actions

That's funny

I was thinking to myself last night, wow the Spurs are playing good D. Obviously no spur fan of the last decade can be happy with a team that scores 99 points against us. Thanks for providing the method to my maddness.

by JaySo on Dec 30, 2009 3:44 PM CST reply actions

I firmly believe that the Wolves were desperately trying to break 100. They were pressing with seconds left. They fouled when the game was out of reach. They tried to make a play in the final possession. To me, they clearly seemed to be trying to reach triple digit scoring.

I don’t get why.

"Yes, it's important that I have good numbers, and I'm well-respected as a player. But I think it's more important that I'm respected as a man." - Some Tall Guy Who Wore #50

by theonlyromeo on Dec 31, 2009 12:05 AM CST reply actions

they’re a young team. obviously, they wanted to find out what number came after 99.

When the tooth fairy's own tooth falls out, it is taken during the night by Princess Peanut.

by the little o on Dec 31, 2009 12:24 AM CST up reply actions 3 recs

Oh my har.

I have flying monkeys at my disposal, and I'm not afraid to use them.

by Lauri on Dec 31, 2009 12:59 PM CST up reply actions

A serious and genuine GOL to you this holiday season.

Consider the gun jumped
5 in 10

by J.R. Wilco on Dec 31, 2009 4:17 PM CST up reply actions

Unlike these other losers, I will actually rec the hilarity. Well done, TLO, well done.

The Spurs - now playing like sh*t again!

by Tim C. on Dec 31, 2009 4:23 PM CST up reply actions

You did always know how to separate yourself from losers. That’s what I’ve always admired about you.

Well done, Tim C., well done.

Consider the gun jumped
5 in 10

by J.R. Wilco on Jan 1, 2010 11:05 AM CST up reply actions

It is sad

It is sad to see us talking about good performance and good D against a team that only won 7 games. We didn’t play good D. We did not really play well. They played really bad and had no D. If they had good D, they would have won by keeping the spurs under 100 while scoring their 99.

If we’re allowing TWolves score 99 points, what are the lakers and cavs going to do to us.

Spurs had a great break with their schedule by playing mostly below .500 teams and winning most of them as they should. But I believe we only won twice against teams over .500. Not to mention they have played fewer games than most of the other teams.

I believe allowing TWolves to score 99 points is just sad.

by fado on Dec 31, 2009 12:36 AM CST reply actions

The T-Wolves scored 99 points on 101 possessions. Holding a team below 1.00 points per possession is pretty solid. For the season, we are at 1.03 points per possession (via HoopData). Also consider that the T-Wolves scored 20 points in the last 6:31 of the game when we had gone up by 24. Prior to that run of 3-pointers, they had scored 79 points on 87 possessions and shot 35.9% from the field. It was garbage time basketball that uglied up our defensive stat sheet.

"We suck on 'D. Both individually and team-wise, we suck. We're pretty consistent that way. I don't know if I have an answer to that. If I did, we wouldn't suck quite so bad." - Popovich

by Aaron "Hirschof" Preine on Dec 31, 2009 6:58 AM CST up reply actions

Our defensive efficiency(points allowed per 100 possessions) in that game was just over 98. For some perspective, if the Spurs defense averaged that kind of efficiency over the season, they’d be the #4 defense in the league. Tell me again why our D was so bad?

The Spurs - now playing like sh*t again!

by Tim C. on Dec 31, 2009 8:03 AM CST up reply actions

Because it was against the Wolf Pups?

It’s no consolation to say Spurs defense would rank fourth if they only played really bad teams. To average 98 for all games they need to be low 90s against weak teams.

by doggydogworld on Dec 31, 2009 9:57 AM CST up reply actions

Turns out I was wrong about where that would put them. According to basketball-reference.com, no team has a defensive efficiency of less than 100 this year. So, we would be first in the league, easily, if we averaged 98. We’re currently ninth at 105.2, and that includes some pretty horrible defensive stretches earlier in the season. And any time you hold your opponent to less than 40% shooting, it doesn’t matter who the opponnent is – that’s pretty damn good.

Am I saying that they’re as good as they can be? Absolutely not, but they’re getting much better.

The Spurs - now playing like sh*t again!

by Tim C. on Dec 31, 2009 10:26 AM CST up reply actions

Yeah, our defense was really good in the game. If you throw out the garbage time points, it was exceptional. Yes, it was the T-Wolves, but they can only play the team on the schedule and I can only write about a game that got played. Only Hipuks could analyze the game that didn’t get played.

We specialize in misinformation around here. Facts and stats just get in the way.

by Wayne Vore (ATS) on Dec 31, 2009 10:51 AM CST up reply actions

And he’d do a glomkup job of it, too.

Consider the gun jumped
5 in 10

by J.R. Wilco on Dec 31, 2009 4:20 PM CST up reply actions

No one here is saying we beat the T-Wolves, were ready to take on the Lakes or the Cavs. I think when you watch your team and you see them improve it does excite you. Don’t fool yourself about the T-Wolves, they had just won two straight, got Kevin Love back and Corey Brewer is turning into a stud. Heck they almost beat the Jazz last night. We can’t even beat the Jazz.

by JaySo on Dec 31, 2009 12:16 PM CST up reply actions

To add to what others have said, I strongly recommend you read Graydon’s piece on pace that ATS linked to. To give you the gist, the Wolves bad D gives us early good looks. We aren’t the Suns jacking up shots for the sake of getting early shots. We are taking quick shots because when you have a good look early, you take it. The Wolves defense set the pace of this game and allowed them to get to 99 points on a terrible shooting performance against a good D because they sped the game up. You really should still read the whole thing though.

by BlaseE on Jan 1, 2010 4:38 PM CST up reply actions