This was one of those “had to have it” games. The Jazz are, respectfully, not good. They were missing their best player. The Spurs were healthy, rested, and at home. I mean, It can’t be overstated how much you simply have to win this one.
And yet, given their propensity this year for playing down to competition, the Spurs just running away with it did not feel like something we could mark down as automatic. Not even close. We have seen them lose this exact game before. Honestly, games like this scare
me more than the ones against the cream of the crop.
So despite a stretch in the middle where it felt like a few controllers got unplugged, this was a pretty nice evening for everyone involved. It’s what we wanted to see. And more importantly, it’s what we needed to see.
I don’t have a whole lot else to say, really. The offense looked like it was humming along a little more efficiently, recovering nicely from the doldrums it has been stuck in for parts of this month. Sure, it helps when the Giant on your team drains seven threes and generally behaves like the menace we all know he can be. He’s great. We know he’s great. And yes, he should be able to eat against a team like the Jazz. But it is still nice to just watch him do it. Pull out the flamethrower. Leave no doubt. That is what the stars in this league are supposed to do. It is why you hire them in the first place.
This win also felt like a pretty clean snapshot of what this year’s iteration of the Spurs is trying to be. The offense is not perfect, but it’s clearly capable of nights like this. There was a real balance to it. Wembanyama was the anchor in this one, but we have seen De’Aaron Fox fill that role too, and on other nights the load has been spread out even further. What mattered is that the offense didn’t feel fragile. When the first action got blown up, there was usually a second or third option available. The ball moved. The floor stayed spaced. Possessions ended with shots that made sense.
A lot of that shows up in the way they have been shooting the ball over the last few games. The three point volume has crept up, but the looks feel cleaner. We aren’t seeing as many desperation heaves late in the clock. Instead, we’re getting looks coming out of pick and roll and pick and pop actions, drive and kick sequences, and early offense before the defense is set. When you combine that with multiple ball handlers who are comfortable keeping an advantage alive, the offense starts to feel less like a young team searching and more like a group executing a plan.
I don’t have an answer for why they seem to drift away from that at times. Maybe it’s focus or lack of experience or, you know, maybe it’s just harder than they make it look. That’s certainly possible. All I know is that they are capable of this. We’ve seen it enough to know that, and it’s the standard they should be held to at all times as far as I’m concerned.
The defense plays a big role in all of this. It’s good, and it’s been good all year. When Wembanyama is on the floor, it becomes downright oppressive. These guys just defend with so much confidence out there. They’re aggressive. They reach. They rotate. They’re willing to gamble because they trust the help behind them. That kind of pressure knocks teams off balance, and once that wobble starts it is incredibly hard to recover.
You can feel it when it happens. A bad pass here. A rushed shot there. Suddenly the Spurs are running, the crowd wakes up, and the offense gets easier. That loop, defense creating chaos and chaos feeding offense, is starting to feel like a real part of this team’s identity. At that point, all the Spurs really have to do is hit shots.
Easy enough, right?
This was a nice win. It’s the type of win that should feel easy but, for whatever reason, hasn’t this year. The Spurs did a good job of showing up for work and taking care of business. Most nights, that’s really all we’re asking for.
Takeaways
- Congrats to Victor on making the All-Star team as a starter. I knew you had it in you, bud. Now go out there, have some fun, make us proud, and remember the most important rule of all. Come on, say it with me: “Don’t! Get! Hurt!” You hear me? Ne te blesse pas!
- Insanely good home crowd at this game. Considering it was a weird start time on a holiday against an opponent that doesn’t necessarily get the heart racing, there was a ton of energy in the building. The people are pumped. It really feels like the Spurs have an actual home-court advantage this year, in a way that doesn’t feel like a given at most NBA games these days. I can’t wait to see how that translates in the playoffs.
- I’m glad nobody on the team is panicking. I’m allowed to panic. You’re allowed to panic. All of us jabronis sitting at home can freak out game to game. The guys in the locker room, though, seem pretty chill. Little slumps don’t get anyone down, and they never really snowball into something bigger.
- Castle is a great example of this. In December he played a stretch of basketball so good it had me tasting colors. Earlier this month he looked like he maybe forgot how to shoot the ball. Last few games? He’s quietly settled back into his old self. Not quite setting everything on fire, but just looking poised and sure of himself. Shots are falling, he’s making plays, and he’s keeping turnovers down. Like the rest of the guys on this team, he never seems to get too high or too low. It’s not flashy, but it’s exactly the kind of temperament that makes the ups real and the downs survivable. It’s so very Spursy it almost makes me emotional. I need to pull it together.
- Sick!
- Sick!!!
WWL Post Game Press Conference
– Second night of a back-to-back tonight. As a writer, how do you get ready for something like this?
– Well, obviously, number one, you have to hydrate. People forget this, but something like 63 percent of writing is just maintaining the right level of hydration throughout the day in the lead-up to putting words down.
– 63%? Really?
– Yeah. It keeps the sparks flowing between your brain and the rest of your body. Keeps everything attuned. Writing is as much a physical process as it is mental, and not enough people are talking about that.
– How so?
– I mean, think about it. To write a piece like this, your hands are in constant motion around the keyboard. The dexterity involved in typing is an endurance test, not dissimilar to playing 90 minutes of soccer.
–Isn’t soccer famously one of the least dexterous sports out there? Like, the one rule is to not be dexterous.
– You’re thinking locally right now, and I need you to think globally. Get your brain out of its box and let it go places it hasn’t considered. Imagine the physical act of writing existing on the same spectrum as a man playing in a soccer match, and let that image meld together into something that elevates your understanding of what it means to create art.
–Right. Okay. So, hydration. What’s your hydration strategy?
– I drink roughly four to five cups of coffee over the course of the morning, and then after lunch I have about four to five more in the lead-up to the game.
– Got it. The earlier part is starting to make more sense now.
– Right? Go with me on this journey. Let’s fly together, brother. The Spurs are the two seed in the West and we play the Rockets tonight. Life is good! Life is magical! Life is a blessing!
