Bud Back in Town for Early Season Matchup
It’s been a daunting, two-games-in-eight-nights schedule for San Antonio to start the season, and after a shorthanded loss to the Suns, it’ll take a win against the very Spursy Atlanta Hawks to keep pace in the conference standings.
Of course, the Hawks are led by Gregg Popovich’s former right-hand man of two-plus decades in Mike Budenholzer, and everyone remembers last season’s matchup between the two in the Alamo City. This Atlanta team is difficult to defend, and it’s much different than the ones that have flown through town during the Spurs’ current 16-game home winning streak in the matchup.
The two matchups last year were strange. During the first one, Pop appeared to be coaching against himself, as Bud’s guys seemed to be everywhere the Spurs were. Tiago Splitter, who has missed the team’s first two games but is in the starting lineup for tonight, said as much after that first contest last season, making the observation that the game felt like a practice, with each side calling out the other’s plays regularly throughout the night.
That was the last time the Spurs faced the Hawks at full-strength; Atlanta lost Al Horford in late-December last year and was really never the same. But what you’ll see tonight is a pretty good look in the mirror.
It’s only been two games, but Budenholzer’s team is shooting lights out from the perimeter. The NBA has been a bit insane thus far in terms of 3-point attempts — the Rockets are launching 32.2 per game, the Clippers 29.3 — and the Hawks are putting up the twelfth-fewest shots from behind the arc. But they’re hitting at a clip of nearly 48 percent, and you can expect the attempts to spike for a team that finished second in the league last year in that capacity.
Again, this team is super Spursy. The Hawks currently sit atop the league at 26 assists per game and 61.5 points per game created via assist, and their pick-and-roll/pop game will bring about flashbacks to things you just saw from Tony Parker and Friends.
It’s far too early to start breaking all things down, as each team has played only two games. But the one thing that will be interesting to monitor if Splitter does make his return to the court tonight will be the usage of San Antonio’s big men. One early trend has been the Spurs running their offense through the post more often than they have the last couple of seasons, especially with Boris Diaw. He’s already averaging about 18 more touches per game than he did last season, but Splitter’s absence may have had a lot to do with that.
Another thing to watch with Tiago’s return is the mid-range game of Tim Duncan. Only three of his 21 shots have come from outside of 10 feet thus far through two games, which may have as much to do with Splitter’s absence in the paint as it does the Spurs’ offensive tweaks. Regardless, we’re still wondering if Tim’s struggles with the jumper last season were an anomaly or something we’re seeing as a result of being an old guy.
But let’s see what happens. Kawhi is still getting his feet under him and Splitter may be playing his first game of the season. San Antonio’s defense is bad when those two don’t play, so it looks like we may be close to seeing the real Spurs in action.
This should be a fun one. We’ll see you here after the game.
