It looked like the Spurs were going to do what good teams do and cruise to a victory over the worst team in the league after a rare two days of rest, but they had other plans. After San Antonio led by
as much as 25 in the first half, the New Orleans Pelicans found new life in the third quarter, confounding the Spurs with a zone defense while living in the paint on offense. Fortunately, the Spurs recovered and regrouped just enough in the fourth quarter, and some clutch play from Dylan Harper sealed the deal, 135-132.
Harper had a career-high 22 points on 10-16 shooting, including the game-winner, and Harrison Barnes had another big game with 24 points, 4-7 from three. Derik Queen had a huge night with a 33-10-10 triple-double, and Trey Murphy III was just behind him with 32 points.
Observations
- With Stephon Castle returning after missing nine games with a hip strain, this is the first time that he, De’Aaron Fox and Harper all played in the same game. Although there was never a point that all three shared the floor, two of the three were almost always out there without much issue outside of the opening minutes (see next bullet point).
- Castle’s first stint was classic Castle. He was aggressive and tried to assert himself early, driving and looking for his own shot while also setting up his own teammates, combined with a few careless turnovers as a result of pressing a little too hard. In his first stint, 6 points, 3 assists and 3 turnovers. After that, he seemed to settle into the game more and took turns sharing the ball, and whether he was sharing the court with Harper or Fox, no one felt out of place. Together, they combined for 54 points and 18 assists.
- Former Spurs assistant and current Pelicans interim head coach James Borrego used a zone defense to confuse the Spurs out of halftime, and they looked completely lost and one of their signature turd quarters, where the Spurs had no movement on offense while the Pelicans were loose, cutting behind the defense and getting whatever the wanted. It only took them 7 minutes to completely erase what had been a 25-point Spurs lead in the 2nd quarter and 20 at halftime, and they took the lead minute later. Barnes and Olynyk were the only ones who could seemingly break the zone, scoring 17 of their first 18 points in the quarter, with the other six going to Castle, and they were outscored 45-23.
- The mystery of Jeremy Sochan continues, as he played four minutes in the first quarter and was fine, but then Mitch Johnson went with Olynyk (who, make no mistake, was vital against his former team) the rest of the game. I don’t know if there’s something about his fit that Johnson doesn’t like, if there’s an attitude or effort issue, but this keeps getting stranger by the game.
- One of the great things about Julian Champagnie is his game isn’t impacted by whether he starts or comes off the bench. With Castle back, he was back with the second unit, and while there are some shooters who need to start instead of coming in cold to get in a rhythm, Champagnie is not one of them. He walked right into the game and promptly hit his first 3 threes in the first half, as well as hitting two more early in the fourth to help the Spurs regain the lead and control of the game, at least until the final minute.
- The hope was Luke Kornet’s return would help mitigate some of the damage the Cavs did to the Spurs in the paint, but instead he was ineffective on offense and eviscerated on defense by Queen. It was their second straight game giving up over 80 points in the paint.
- After Harper hit an acrobatic layup to give the Spurs a one point lead with 9 sec left, Borrego drew up about the worst play imaginable. They threw the ball way back into the backcourt, then had Jose Alvarado sprint down the court. He almost had an open lay-up but threw it back out to Queen for an open three. The problem? Queen is shooting 11% from three for his career, and it clunked off the front of the rim. Fox made free throws with 1 sec left, and Saddiq Bey missed a three at the buzzer to preserve the “bad” win.
