The Spurs’ struggles proceed and their renewed shedding streak extends to 4, as, sarcastically mentioned, NBA video games proceed to have third quarters — which is when the Spurs routinely lose their lead, or, extra generally, lose contact solely.
The latter was the case on the highway to the Mavericks final night time. Alas, when your opponent’s beginning 5 plus their sixth man have 5-10, 2-2, 5-11, 3-5, 4-6 and 3-4 capturing clips from past the arc, there’s virtually nothing you are able to do.
One Spur did do an terrible lot final night time, and his title’s Jeremy Sochan. Having Luka Doncic drop nearly 40 on you and dispensing of 10 assists occurs to the perfect perimeter defenders, and you may’t say that Jeremy didn’t do the whole lot humanly attainable to make life tough for Doncic. Jeremy got here marketed as an excellent defender, although, so the shocking a part of his efficiency final night time got here on the offensive finish.
Star analyst John Hollinger final season acknowledged he noticed star potential in Jeremy, and draft guru Sam Vecenie had mentioned even earlier than that if Jeremy’s shot got here round, he would doubtless have a star future. Effectively, Jeremy’s shot did come round final night time. He was three out of three from three at half-time (and 4 out of six total):
And Jeremy didn’t simply shine as shooter, he dished out plenty of lovely passes and assists, this one on dunker Zach Collins being one in all them:
Evidently, Jeremy continues to be the Spurs’ most dynamic dunker. I by no means get bored with his seemingly easy two-handed slams:
He wasn’t the one Spur to, as Sean Elliott normally and superbly places it, “throw it down with authority”. Mamu did, too:
Neither of the Spurs’ two major wings had a very good night time, however it was at the least encouraging to see Devin persevering with to make all of it the best way to the rim and rating via contact:
Sadly, Devin’s struggles from lengthy distance continued, he was zero out of six from three, and his wing companion Keldon Johnson, who unusually didn’t begin, wasn’t significantly better with two out of eight. However he gave us this good post-up and turnaround on Derrick Jones Jr:
Lastly, the Spurs will play the also-tanking Portland Path Blazers twice and the Utah Jazz as soon as earlier than the yr is over. All three video games are clearly among the many extra winnable ones the Spurs have performed to this point this season.
In the meantime, when you missed final night time’s sport, listed here are the total highlights:
