Official Game Thread: Hawks at Spurs

[lethalweapon3]

“…and then Trae can just lob it to Zion from right about… there.”

 

Still slouching all weekend on the MLK Draft, so it’s Tidbits Time! First, Atlanta Hawks at San Antonio Spurs. Let’s get the particulars (8:30 PM Eastern, Fox Sports Southeast and 92.9 FM in ATL, KENS 5 in SATX) out of the way.

The Spurs (17-22) ought to be the Patron Saints of Boomer NBA Twitter. If you long for the dying art of the mid-range jumper, DeMar DeRozan’s game is tailor-made for you. DeRozan will hoist the occasional triple shot, every other game or two, just for GP (General Principle, not so much Gregg Popovich). Yet the reigning Western Conference POW has been on a tear like few other NBA stars since mid-December (last 12 games: 65.1 FG%, 87.6 FT%, 27.3 PPG, 5.7 APG) while going almost entirely against the grain (0.6 3FGAs/game).

Slashing for dunks and threes “The Old-Fashioned Way” (72.7 2FG% within 10 feet of the rim) has been enough to keep DeRozan’s scoring average high, but the main thing is that his jumper (62.9 2FG% on pull-up shots) has been as wet as a Riverwalk gondola.

There have been only two NBA players in the past 35 years that have gone on a streak of 20-point games while shooting 52 percent or higher in each of them. Yet unlike His Airness, no one is out here making a silhouette out of DeRozan’s 15-foot pull-up.

Breaking MJ’s “record” with Game #13 tonight (further, joining Kareem, Shaq, KAT, Mailman, and Greek Freak with 13+ game streaks of 20 points & 50 FG%, as per bball-ref) seems an easy reach, on paper, with Atlanta (115.3 road D-Rating, 28^th in NBA) in town. However, Double D may first want to consult with fellow Texan James Harden, whose historic 30-point scoring streak ended at the hounding hands of DeAndre’ Bembry and the Hawks in Houston last year.

Many Boomers’ least favorite NBA Boomer keeps the Spurs from being fully embraced by those who miss the days of Ginobili’s money elbow jumpers. There are signs, though, that even Coach Pop is relenting on his team’s mid-range mania. NBC Sports’ Tom Haberstroh notes that the Spurs are the last of the 30 NBA clubs to ever have a calendar month where they’ve shot over 30 three-point attempts per game. They came close in December (28.9 team 3FGAs/game), and they’re well on their way to getting it over with this month (33.1 January 3FGAs/game). The biggest factor is their big factor, LaMarcus Aldridge.

LMA was just dabbling until going 3-for-5 from downtown, dropping 40 in a 30-point Spurs win at Memphis on December 23. From that point on, he’s been like Mikey eating Life cereal (2.7 3FGs/game, 53.6 3FG% in last 11 games, at least one 3FG made in each). Hey, LaMarcus likes it!

Aldridge’s and DeRozan’s recent exploits are arriving too late for whippersnapper All-Star fan voters to put down their avocado toast long enough to care. But if they keep it up, and if the Spurs (1.0 game behind red-hot 8-seed Memphis) can stay in contention for their NBA-record 23^rd-straight playoff appearance, media and coaches will be sure to make note.

Wednesday’s 106-100 loss in Miami concluded a 4-game road trip for San Antonio (8-9 vs. NBA East), and the annual Rodeo Road Trip month of February is right around the corner. Despite a loss to the payback-seeking Grizzlies last Friday, they managed to steal two impressive wins, beating Boston and staging a triumphant return for DeRozan at defending-champion Toronto. Just 11-9 at home, the Spurs want to build some momentum at AT&T Center, since they’ve got just six home games left (incl. Hawks and heat this weekend) before the eight-game road swing that straddles the All-Star Break.

Two days after losing in Milwaukee, the Spurs came home and bashed the NBA-best Bucks 126-104 on January 6, their last home appearance. The deluge came mostly off the bench, Rudy Gay and Patty Mills (combined 8-for-12 3FGs) scoring 38 of San An’s 59 bench points. Spurs reserves rank top-5 in the league in per-game points, rebounds, assists, and blocks, which can be amazing when one considers how tough it is for some to get a steady diet of floor time.

Coach Pop’s Good Side is like the Holy Grail. Our old friend DeMarre Carroll (9 MPG, 22 DNPs and counting; salary guaranteed through 2020-21) is still searching for it. Rookie first-rounder Keldon Johnson (7 total minutes in 2 appearances) and sophomore Lonnie Walker (one pick before Kevin Huerter, who’s played 2400 more minutes) can’t find it. But once somebody succeeds in currying favor with Popovich, it’s hard for the coach to even consider turning to somebody else.

Dejounte Murray spent all last season recovering from an early-season injury, only to find himself scrapping for minutes (and, for a while, starts) with Pop tart Derrick White. Like DeRozan, Murray is unlikely to be a safety valve along the three-point arc (1.3 3FGAs/game) and his assist production (4.1 APG, behind DeRozan’s 5.1) leaves a little to be desired. But Murray’s defensive game (3.3 steal%, 2^nd in NBA) remains his strong suit, the kind of thing Coach Pop and the Spurs (111.5 D-Rating, 20^th in NBA; worst D-Rating since 1996-97) used to profess to caring about.

Murray finds his playing time gobbled up by the players Pop has grown enamored with over the years, whether it’s the slightly more seasoned White and Bryn Forbes (36.6 3FG% on a team-high 6.2 attempts/game), or aging wonders Marco Belinelli and Patty Mills (40.7 3FG%). Maybe Popovich is holding out for Dejounte to stretch the floor more effectively, or to provide more consistent offensive production. But the early returns on The Tony Parker Treatment don’t seem to be going well.

Murray was benched mid-3^rd quarter for the rest of the game in Toronto, before the Spurs’ comeback from 17 points down to win. Similarly sidelined by Pop in Miami on Wednesday, he returned in for a couple minutes midway through the fourth quarter. But after matching an offensive foul he drew with one of his own, Dejounte was pulled and never saw the floor again.

Trey Lyles (12 boards in the 108-100 loss @ ATL on Nov. 5) lost his starting gig for a stretch, but Pop still re-Lyles on him to start. Despite the forward averaging 5.6 PPG on 38.6 FG% over his past 15 starts, Lyles’ penchant for occasionally having a big rebounding day keeps him on the top line, much to the chagrin of Jakob Poeltl (I’ll start pronouncing his name right if we bother to trade for him; 8.0 RPG and 2.3 in his paltry 7 starts this season).

I’m going to have to give up on my Boomer mentality that one can’t possibly depend upon conventional power forwards to be full-time starting centers. That seems to be where Popovich is at, with Lyles adjacent to the new stretch-five Aldridge. For the time being, it appears to be Hawks coach Lloyd Pierce’s newfound stance as well.

Help may indeed be coming soon for Trae Young, in the form of former Hawks good Jeff Teague (out for tonight along with Trevon Graham, paperwork, what’s the rush). As for Teague’s Demon Deacon alum John Collins (9.8 RPG and 3.0 BPG in last 5 games; one or more swats in 13 of 15 games, 30 of 61 games last season), “help” may have to eventually come in the forms of Bruno Fernando (re-activated tonight) returning from Collipark, and Jabari Parker’s shoulder and Alex Len’s back getting straight.

Blotting out the Suns on Tuesday night was made a little easier for the Hawks, with Ricky Rubio out and a pleasant dash of home-cooking from the refs (Tired: protect the rim in transition. Wired: give up dunks but goad opponents into taunting techs). But it also was great to see Collins, Huerter and Young looking like the most melodious collective since Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

All three Hawks had double-doubles against Phoenix, the first trio in NBA history to do so before any of them hit their 23^rd birthday. Huerter (15 rebounds, 8 assists, 4-for-5 3FGs and a steal on Tuesday) was particularly effective in making Kelly Oubre look more like Kelly Price.

To keep recent history from repeating, Murray will do what he can to suppress Trae (29 points, 13 assists, 3 TOs vs. SAS in November) after the Spurs guard endured a nightmarish 4^th-quarter stretch when the teams last met. The Spurs will also seek to overwhelm the Hawks with size upfront. Atlanta (9-32) offset any disadvantages with Huerter’s prowess, plus Young rewarding Damian Jones with post feeds for his activity off the bench. But the Hawks are really well-aided when De’Andre Hunter is a gatherer on the boards.

Including his team-high 8 rebounds when the Hawks last beat the Spurs, the power forward by circumstance has only collected six or more rebounds in six games. Yet the Hawks are a sturdy 3-3 in those contests and hadn’t lost one of those games by more than 8 points (also back in November, when he snatched a season-high 11 rebounds plus 27 points vs. Milwaukee). At least for tonight, particularly when matched up against Lyles or Gay while Cam Reddish checks DeRozan, Hunter could be Collins’ biggest help of all.

February 15, 1997. Boomers were thriving, bread was a nickel, Nique was a Spur, we know the story. Let’s just relax about the Alamo City losing streak for now. If the Hawks pull off an end to the nearly quarter-century run tonight, that’s great. If not, let’s all chill until Atlanta can build a sustainable core worthy of ending it once and for all.

Schedule Watch! The Hawks aren’t in town, but I bet you can guess who is. That’s right! The Detroit Pistons get the second of their two-days’ rest in the ATL while awaiting the Hawks’ return from Texas for a game tomorrow evening (way fewer Tidbits tomorrow, I promise). This feels all so… familiar. Hey, NBATV, why don’t you pull a curveball and make Jeff Teague your special in-studio guest tonight? Oh, who am I kidding? It’ll probably be Andre Drummond. Might as well make use of the Big Penguin’s time, since it sounds like he won’t be chillin’ around town for long.

 

Let’s Go Hawks!

~lw3

[Spud2nique]

2 minutes ago, lethalweapon3 said:

February 15, 1997.

Happy 21st birthday to me! Nice early game thread lw3! These aren’t your older brothers Spurs. Despite Derozan’s masterful midrange and high FG% I think we can pull this one out. After all, we won in Denver earlier, Spurs aren’t as good. 
 

Spurs -8  o/u 230

Go Hawks!

[lethalweapon3]

CORRECTION from the injury report. Rudy Gay will sit this one out. Although the 1:30 PM report cites as a reason... " "; “” I have no idea what that is. Maybe Pop can't say DNP-OLD no more?

Also, oh, a national game next week for the Spurs! Must be nice. Don't get too excited, DeMar, it's not about you.

~lw3

[Spud2nique]

1 minute ago, lethalweapon3 said:

DeMar, it's not about you.

Then who? ....  

[lethalweapon3]

Among my pet peeves is the "I could care less!" people. You could? Well, why don't you try?

Anyway, good on ya, Bryn.

~lw3 

[Spud2nique]

This roster is not at all the way Pop likes his rosters, I guess in the past. It’s just a makeup of point guards who aren’t really point guards. He’s not a DeRozan guy either. I thought Pop and RC were close. Pop has to have a say in this doesn’t he? 
 

The admiral, fundy, TP and Manu ain’t walkin through that door .

 

[JayBirdHawk]

 

 

[lethalweapon3]

On the night the Hawks last won in San Antonio, Vince Carter was here in Atlanta, wearing Carolina blue.

https://apnews.com/c8012e2b0929a64c2be78bd6bc4e317e

Quote

 

The Yellow Jackets (9-13, 3-9) had their biggest lead of the game when Jon Babul converted one free throw to make it 57-41. But North Carolina outscored Tech 31-11 the rest of the way escape with an improbable triumph.

``When we cut the lead to seven (with about six minutes remaining), you could tell they were getting a little frustrated,″ said Vince Carter, who scored 15 points. ``They seemed to be arguing among themselves.″

 

~lw3

[GameTime]

 

[Dnice]

With  the pic in LWs post, would y'all want trae on team USA  in the future? It might  be a good look, but can take  a toll. 

[Spud2nique]

Can’t wait to hear Bob rave about the return of Teague in a minute! 

Welcome home Teague time!

[Buzzard]

Man I would to get this mini upset tonight!

[Spud2nique]

Headband Hunter!  

[Spud2nique]

Trae crazy 3 what the... How the..

[Dnice]

Dammut  trae  got mopped. 

[Vol4ever]

Need to call Young CODE cause he can score from long distance.

[NBASupes]

This is a good game so far. So is Cam Reddish role to be Andre Roberson. He barely gets any touches.

[Spud2nique]

My bad  

[Dnice]

Well season  high for  LaMarcus. 

[JTB]

Those Teague time moments off the bench is going to be nice !

 

as far this game goes I really liked the defense I saw from our young core starting unit