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Season’s Greetings, Pounders! Though the 17 losses this season have ranged from confusing to gut-wrenching to unfathomable, the recurring theme in the 12 wins have been the hallmarks of Spurs basketball: leadership from their two ‘grizzled’ vets, ball movement and teamwork, a (sometimes glacially-paced) youth movement, and a matter of hitting shots.
A career-high 91% shooting effort from DeMar DeRozan was accomplished with timely shooting:
gettin fancy with it at the buzzer @DeMar_DeRozan | #GoSpursGo pic.twitter.com/tpedpq5cQa
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) December 24, 2019
DeRozan also confidently did damage to the Memphis defense on the move:
16 PTS in the third quarter for DeMar! pic.twitter.com/qrFcqJoHjb
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) December 24, 2019
LaMarcus Aldridge paced the team with 40 points - doing it from inside and outside - and notched his highest scoring quarter in his career to get San Antonio comfortably ahead:
22 PTS | 10-13 FG
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) December 24, 2019
A look back at @aldridge_12's career-high quarter! pic.twitter.com/JKYmRYdGIt
DeRozan, remarking about Aldridge’s vintage evening, “when his shot is dropping, he’s unstoppable. We were able to get everything we wanted from there, guys cutting, finding spots, because they were so worried about trying to play (LA). We all just caught the rhythm from there.”
Their combined efforts made it far easier for secondary scorers like Bryn Forbes and Trey Lyles to freely fire away:
Bryn is feelin' it in Memphis
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) December 24, 2019
9 PTS | 3-3 3PT pic.twitter.com/EUn8yLTwOs
Lyles may be finding more comfort as a floor-spacer as evidenced by his new season-high:
A new season-high 14 PTS and counting for @TreyLyles! pic.twitter.com/hAaJGOgDuT
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) December 24, 2019
Dejounte Murray continued to apply lessons from the ‘Tony Parker School of Driving and Finishing’:
"OH MAMA!"@DejounteMurray with the SCOOP! pic.twitter.com/OqrZbQmO35
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) December 24, 2019
We must applaud a fine effort by Marco Belinelli as the ‘deke heard round the world’ made its way around the interwebs:
@marcobelinelli pic.twitter.com/eaomfrqxiQ
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) December 24, 2019
Patty Mills’ current career shooting year is well-known, but his underrated playmaking has lifted up Aldridge and Jakob Poeltl:
DIME!
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) December 24, 2019
Patty ➡️ LA pic.twitter.com/vv0pI5cdi9
It also didn’t hurt that the Spurs achieved a new scoring record in the PATFO era:
Spurs scored 46 points in the first quarter - that matches San Antonio’s highest-scoring quarter EVER under Gregg Popovich since 1996.
— Jordan Howenstine (@AirlessJordan) December 24, 2019
SA also had 46 in the third against Boston on 12/31/18.
Most importantly, Lyles summed it up best:
T. Lyles on win v MEM: "We were talking and sharing and helping each other out.” #nba #gospursgo
— JeffGSpursZone (@JeffGSpursZone) December 24, 2019
Let us continue to hope for more complete 48 minute efforts by the team and a few more victories to even out this 12-17 record!
Wishing you a safe and healthy few days and, as always, GO SPURS GO! If you are sick of the Christmas songs on the radio during that time, feel free to sing and hum along to “You’re a Sly One, Popovich!”