Spurs fall to Kings to close out early season road trip
First things first, the Spurs didn’t look great Saturday night in their 94-91 loss in Sacramento. The offense just wasn’t there, but overall there was a lack of consistency. It’s not like they were playing a better team. The Kings have improved, but still haven’t figured out how to play a good 48 minutes of basketball themselves. No, this was about the Spurs missing key players and being at the end of a four-game road trip and on the second night of a back-to-back.
The first significant example of tired legs/lack of offensive punch came in the second quarter when the Spurs, up 34-27, then surrendered an 18-2 run. Next, after being down as much as ten points, the Spurs came storming back in the fourth quarter and took a one point lead with two minutes to go. Then the Kings scored on three straight possessions to put the Spurs away. Those were the big differences in what ended being a pretty even game. DeMarcus Cousins is pretty unstoppable on offense right now, but the Spurs did a good job of getting him in foul trouble. However, he scored 22 of his 25 points in the second half, a lot of times with Tim Duncan guarding him. Not to take anything away from Cousins, but being the second night of a back-to-back and not having Tiago Splitter in the lineup certainly contributed to his second half outburst.
Overall, the Spurs are fine. They had a great week on the west coast. Given the level of competition they played in the first two games of the trip and the potential for fatigue on the back end, the 3-1 record is a game or two better than some expected a week ago after the loss to New Orleans. What else did we learn on this trip? Duncan is still an elite big man and the anchor of Spurs team that is still ranked fifth in the league in defense despite Splitter’s absence. The offense is another issue. Simply put, the Spurs need Splitter and Belinelli back ASAP and clearly are missing Mills as well. Last season, every Spurs five man line up involving either Mills or Belinelli had an offensive rating over 100 and almost every line up involving one or both players had a positive net rating. Simply put, when you’re missing two of three best three-point shooters (based off last year’s averages), your offense is going to struggle. Getting Belinelli back soon-ish will be big and so will Danny Green and Matt Bonner finding their stroke from deep.
Again, San Antonio should be OK. If Belinelli and Splitter are back before December, there’s no need to panic. They have problems, but they’re fixable ones and they’re mostly due to the finally tuned machine that was last year’s roster missing some pieces. Next for the Spurs, former assistant Brett Brown and the lowly Philadelphia 76ers come to town on Monday.
All stats courtesy of NBA’s stats page
