Whats up, 911. Sure, I’d wish to report a homicide.
From the leap, the San Antonio Spurs have been outgunned and outmanned by the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder in a 127-89 loss. With out Victor Wembanyama and most of his supporting forged, the Spurs merely didn’t have the expertise to maintain up with a Thunder squad that’s preventing for a prime seed within the Western Convention.
It oddly mirrored the Spurs’ huge win the evening prior in opposition to the Memphis Grizzlies. A crew that had sufficient key contributors stomped on a crew lacking them. It’s not so enjoyable to be on the opposite finish of it.
The Thunder swallowed up the Spurs defensively, inflicting them to shoot 33.3% from the sphere and 22.5% from three. San Antonio turned the ball over 15 occasions, permitting 28 factors off these turnovers. In the meantime, OKC was crimson sizzling from three, hitting 42.1% of their deep photographs. Of the fourteen Thunder gamers that logged minutes tonight, solely 4 of them didn’t hit a three-point shot.
It was an unpleasant sport, however a minimum of Spurs followers acquired to see some prolonged minutes from Sidy Cissoko and a few of the different end-of-the-bench gamers for the Spurs. With nothing to play for however ping pong balls, San Antonio let a few of their two-way gamers log huge minutes, giving followers a have a look at some guys which have developed in Austin. Of all of the two-way gamers, RaiQuan Grey seemed probably the most spectacular. His burly body and taking pictures contact make him a novel participant. He completed with 13 factors and hit 3 deep photographs.
Plus, with the loss the Spurs discover themselves again within the race for the underside three information within the league. In a draft class crammed with uncertainty, the upper the decide, the higher. With Gregg Popovich noncommittal about Wembanyama taking part in once more this season, there is perhaps a pair extra nights like this earlier than the offseason.
Takeaways:
Zach Collins had a stable sport because the Spurs’ main choice. He was outplaying Chet Holmgren for many of the sport. He completed with 20 factors, 7 rebounds and a couple of blocks. He additionally knocked down two of his 5 three-pointers. The large man was stable within the low publish, getting a number of hook photographs to fall over the bodily Thunder defenders.
Cissoko (or Cissokoo, because the Thunder broadcast crew referred to as him) gave fixed effort all sport lengthy. He’s a freak athlete and performs a bodily model of basketball. His reducing appears pure, making him a simple plug-and-play wing off the bench. The leap shot seems improved from final season with the G League Ignite. He knocked down his first NBA triple in opposition to OKC. This summer season will likely be an essential one for Cissoko. If he’s profitable, a rotation spot might be ready for him subsequent season.
I’ve lengthy been impressed with Julian Champagnie’s on-ball protection. He did a reasonably good job guarding Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. He was bodily, bumping him off of his spots, and used his size to make the MVP candidate make powerful photographs. SGA nonetheless completed with 26 factors, however Champagnie made it powerful on him when guarding him 1-on-1.
I might have appreciated to have seen a bit extra of Jamaree Bouyea on this sport. He’s been a lights-out scorer within the G League and has some actual juice with the ball in his palms. If San Antonio goes to backside out to finish the 12 months, they need to give the younger guard some run to see what he can do in opposition to NBA competitors.
