The best of the Spurs’ mauling of the Grizzlies in Memphis

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:

DeRozan also confidently did damage to the Memphis defense on the move:

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:

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:

Lyles may be finding more comfort as a floor-spacer as evidenced by his new season-high:

Dejounte Murray continued to apply lessons from the ‘Tony Parker School of Driving and Finishing’:

We must applaud a fine effort by Marco Belinelli as the ‘deke heard round the world’ made its way around the interwebs:

Patty Mills’ current career shooting year is well-known, but his underrated playmaking has lifted up Aldridge and Jakob Poeltl:

It also didn’t hurt that the Spurs achieved a new scoring record in the PATFO era:

Most importantly, Lyles summed it up best:

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!”