Analysis GRADES: 1/17/2026 Spurs 126 v Wolves 123

[scott]

Scott's Notes:

• Fox was excellent, Wemby is other-worldly, Keldon was huge. Love to see it. I especially want to shout of Fox's Q3. It was just as critical as Wemby's Q4 and Keldon's big plays down the stretch
• Still incomprehensible that Mitch is abiding by some arbitrary minutes goal. As I've said before, I doubt this is based on some medical advice, but rather just a fear-induced risk limitation strategy. Stupid.
• I knew we'd blow that lead once we came out of halftime and started chucking 3s non-stop. This is not to absolve Mitch, but a lot of that is on the players. They spend halftime sniffing their own farts and come out and get cute. Totally self-inflicted meltdown if not for the three guys mention in my first bullet point
• Ant Edwards... man, he's pretty good. He definitely has a few loose screws, but kid can ball
• I fear that Will Hardy has some kind of Daddy Issues related to Coach Pop that he is eternally battling. Will: Pop loves you... you don't need to earn his approval by constantly fucking our shit up on our own court. Thanks. Let's go out and make it 3 straight at home Monday with what hopefully will be an easy win so we can be decently rested for HOU on Tuesday

What You Said

• @LeBowen - I've never seen a coach try to lose the game harder than Mitch did tonight. Wemby and Fox carried, Keldon showed up when needed the most. I guess we'll never learn and this is the new norm.
• @Guru of Nothing - I'd like to see Sean Sweeney field this press conference.
• @heyheymymy - Ant was sensational, things turned into a classic shootout thriller and Wemby/KJ delivered.
• @spurs10 - A win is a win, especially against those guys. Glad to return the favor. KJ had a big shot that kept us in the game. Wemby's 39 was much needed. Fox had some good energy. Kornet didn't score a lot but he hustled.
• @Correct Crusader - Win by 1, win by 100, a win is a win.
• @PhantomDashCam - An unusual game to grade, one we essentially had to win twice. Through the ebbs and flows - thought Wemby, Fox and KJ deserved 5s. Ant-man gets a 5 too. Absolute beast.
• @mazerrackham - This is a contender for most frustrating win to watch of the year for me, but taking aside my Spurs bias also incredibly fun shot making in the clutch. I was too put off by the Spurs letting it get to the clutch t enjoy it fully though

 

[koriwhat]

I love castle on our team but he really needs to figure out how to score in the paint without forcing up a bad shot like he does time and time again. Yeah, those forced shots have gone in over the course of the season but they're not high percentage and always a liability. I figure he'd simply looking for a foul when he forces those shots but I'd rather see more ball movement instead. Kick it out to the mid or three instead, you already sucked the defense into the paint!

Other than that, Wemby's bonehead foul shot is a mute point considering his tenacity to win after the fact. No more of those silly foul shots, please.

What else, Big Body is 6th man of the year! Johnson is a great role player. I consider him a "starter" for the 2nd squad. Dude is a flat out baller.

 

[onechance87]

fox runs the offense better then castle.Castle gotta hit the open shots

 

[Sugus]

I'm enjoying the fuck out of games this season.... But I can't wait until next one's tbh. Every one of our players needs to be faced with a playoff round experience and see how quickly things can go to shit, and so many other lessons.

It's a tough matchup but I'd love to see Minny in the playoffs. I know it's unpopular but I'd rather the team go through the tough rounds, Wemby vs Gobert, learning how to handle a superstar SG/SF in Ant, a physical PF like Randle. They're a great team to beat and see what the "next level" demands.

Last shout-out goes to Wemby, for sure. What an otherworldly player. I don't wanna hear any bullshit about stats when he's playing DPOY defense every single game on top of his insane scoring. If Fox can remember how to play a PnR consistently he can be MVP right next season.

 

[scott]

I love castle on our team but he really needs to figure out how to score in the paint without forcing up a bad shot like he does time and time again. Yeah, those forced shots have gone in over the course of the season but they're not high percentage and always a liability. I figure he'd simply looking for a foul when he forces those shots but I'd rather see more ball movement instead. Kick it out to the mid or three instead, you already sucked the defense into the paint!

Other than that, Wemby's bonehead foul shot is a mute point considering his tenacity to win after the fact. No more of those silly foul shots, please.

What else, Big Body is 6th man of the year! Johnson is a great role player. I consider him a "starter" for the 2nd squad. Dude is a flat out baller.

On Wemby's dumb missed FT: he seemed to acknowledge from his post game comment that it wasn't the best idea. Hopefully he learns from that. Too much trying to learn stupid gamesmanship from CP3, IMO.

 

[scott]

I'm enjoying the fuck out of games this season.... But I can't wait until next one's tbh. Every one of our players needs to be faced with a playoff round experience and see how quickly things can go to shit, and so many other lessons.

It's a tough matchup but I'd love to see Minny in the playoffs. I know it's unpopular but I'd rather the team go through the tough rounds, Wemby vs Gobert, learning how to handle a superstar SG/SF in Ant, a physical PF like Randle. They're a great team to beat and see what the "next level" demands.

Last shout-out goes to Wemby, for sure. What an otherworldly player. I don't wanna hear any bullshit about stats when he's playing DPOY defense every single game on top of his insane scoring. If Fox can remember how to play a PnR consistently he can be MVP right next season.

I wouldn't mind it at all in Rd 2 or 3. It would certainly hurt to be eliminated by MIN since they are so unlikeable, but it would be quite the learning experience for our guys. But, with that said... I think that's also true if we get eliminated by DEN or OKC. Basically... so long as we win in Round 1 I'm happy.

 

[Ice009]

I love castle on our team but he really needs to figure out how to score in the paint without forcing up a bad shot like he does time and time again. Yeah, those forced shots have gone in over the course of the season but they're not high percentage and always a liability. I figure he'd simply looking for a foul when he forces those shots but I'd rather see more ball movement instead. Kick it out to the mid or three instead, you already sucked the defense into the paint!

Other than that, Wemby's bonehead foul shot is a mute point considering his tenacity to win after the fact. No more of those silly foul shots, please.

What else, Big Body is 6th man of the year! Johnson is a great role player. I consider him a "starter" for the 2nd squad. Dude is a flat out baller.

He's gotta start taking that mid-range/free throw line jumper. He was making them earlier in the season, but he's just not taking them much anymore and I don't know why. Would be a great shot for him to have, then if he gets that down, he can work on going a bit further out to Shai's type of range between the free throw line and three point line. Like you said, he also forces those shots in the paint which I think he is trying to draw a foul on. I love his confidence, though.

 

[Guru of Nothing]

Beating Kawhi and the Clippers in round 1 would be fun.

 

[SpursBills]

Beating Kawhi and the Clippers in round 1 would be fun.

This would be doubly fun because it would mean that OKC's much vaunted "potential top 4 pick" turned into nothing more than a pick in the late teens. Between this, Utah's collapse, and the Sixers looking decent, there's a very good chance that the Hawks swap ends up higher than anything OKC's getting. Small victories.

 

[spurs10]

fox runs the offense better then castle.Castle gotta hit the open shots

This was something much talked about in the last week or so, how Fox just runs the show better, and performs at a higher level.. Remember Castle won ROTY with a lot of cutting and tenacious plays. Running the offense and guarding the opponents best man is a load...as I believe Ice009 mentioned recently.

 

[Dex]

@LeBowen - I've never seen a coach try to lose the game harder than Mitch did tonight. Wemby and Fox carried, Keldon showed up when needed the most. I guess we'll never learn and this is the new norm.

Occurs to me that this is another case of Mitch using the "foul when down 3" method at the end of the game. It usually doesn't go as cleanly as you would like, but not because we accidentally surrender an and-one. It's because we either miss our own free-throws, or some other craziness occurs like Vic trying to bounce the ball off the rim for no apparent reason.

I'm generally in favor of the strategy, but sometimes I'd rather just live with forcing them to hit a half-courter.

 

[LeBowen]

I was mostly refering to his rigid rotations in that post.
As in Timberwolves on a b2b playing their key players more than we did, despite being well-rested.
You can't tell me Fox can't check back in with like 7 minutes left when nothing is going our way.
That's with giving Mitch the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Wemby's minutes.

 

[heyheymymy]

Was it a lane violation on the wemby intentional miss? Figure the best strategy at that point was to try and hit it. You go up 4 if you make, with less than 2 secs. And if you miss accidentally then you get the scenario you were trying to affect with the intentional miss in the first place.

What was wemby afraid of enough to try and pull that stunt? Make, up 4, MIN somehow inbounds (were they out of TOs?) and hits a 4 point play to tie and force OT?

 

[heyheymymy]

To be clear: I support fouling for 2 when up 3. Yes it has its own pitfalls like botching inbounds but you take the three to tie off the table and live with whatever happens next imho barring select context.

 

[Dex]

Was it a lane violation on the wemby intentional miss? Figure the best strategy at that point was to try and hit it. You go up 4 if you make, with less than 2 secs. And if you miss accidentally then you get the scenario you were trying to affect with the intentional miss in the first place.

What was wemby afraid of enough to try and pull that stunt? Make, up 4, MIN somehow inbounds (were they out of TOs?) and hits a 4 point play to tie and force OT?

Either he didn't know score and situation (which would be wild), or he simply thought "if I miss, they won't have enough time to do anything" and went with it. But then the lane violation kinda squashes that.

I believe the scientific term is "he dun' goofed".

 

[CrustyCoastBendFan]

Lol, look at the Entrenched commentors holding on to their lil personal Grudges.
Blaming Wemby(cant set a pick)
Blaming Castle
Blaming the Bats in the Areana
Still not coming to grips that MITCH SUCKS
Again, I doubt the most entrenched commentators, the ones who think they own others’ opinions, even watch the game on anything other than an X post.

 

[heyheymymy]

It was 01.3 left on the clock. MIN had no timeouts left to advance the ball. Score was 123 MIN 125 SAS when wemby goes to the line for 2 FTs. He makes the first, Spurs lead 123-126. Wemby just wanted to eliminate any possession following and end it right there.

Ironically sinking the second FT and going up 4 would've done just about that. Also ironically, MIN got a midcourt 3 point shot heaved at the buzzer with the score 123-126, the exact thing wemby was trying to avoid happened anyway so it would be better to face that Hail Mary up 4 instead of it being the three to tie and force OT if Ant somehow hits it but the Wolves were hitting circus shit all night so I'd rather just try not to foul while up 4 and let them shoot away meaninglessly at the buzzer.

Also the ref does call the lane violation after the wemby trick FT, you see the ref point at the lane but I don't see any violation. It was KJ where the ref pointed fwiw. The lane violation actually put MIN at midcourt inbounds as well whereas if wemby had just made the second FT MIN would inbounds under the basket, further from their basket.

So wemby chose up 3 and advancing the opponent closer to their basket for the OT forcing 3 vs. up 4 with MIN inbounding the full length of their court to hope to hit a 3 plus the and 1 then make that pressure free throw, all in 1.3 secs, just to force OT.

Also, before those Wemby FTs with the trick play, if Wemby had just thrown the ball up at 2.5 left on the rebound from the Champ FT miss, before getting fouled with 1.3 left, he could have wound all the time off the clock and completely avoided that heart attack all together. Hope he learns from this tape because that was a pretty impressive close out despite the gaffes and if we tighten up those things we will be able to survive harrowing crunch time moments in the future.

 

[spurs10]

Either he didn't know score and situation (which would be wild), or he simply thought "if I miss, they won't have enough time to do anything" and went with it. But then the lane violation kinda squashes that.

I believe the scientific term is "he dun' goofed".

Yep without the lane violation, which occurred when Wemby went for the rebound I believe, it would have been game.

 

[heyheymymy]

Yep without the lane violation, which occurred when Wemby went for the rebound I believe, it would have been game.

Oh that's it, not KJ. Good call. Yeah wemby knew he was going for the trick free throw so he jumped the gun and commits the lane violation. The camera angle is weird, zoomed in on wemby so you lose the perspective to see him in the lane. But he shovels that shot at the rim so hard it kinda appears he lunges forward after it too soon.

 

[spurs10]

My above post was written but not posted before heyheymymyrocknrollwillneverdie's excellent description. Man I was holding my breath with that heave.

 

[spurs10]

Oh that's it, not KJ. Good call. Yeah wemby knew he was going for the trick free throw so he jumped the gun and commits the lane violation. The camera angle is weird, zoomed in on wemby so you lose the perspective to see him in the lane. But he shovels that shot at the rim so hard it kinda appears he lunges forward after it too soon.

I'm not certain, but think Wemby jumped the gun. They probably both did!

 

[mikec]

Also, before those Wemby FTs with the trick play, if Wemby had just thrown the ball up at 2.5 left on the rebound from the Champ FT miss, before getting fouled with 1.3 left, he could have wound all the time off the clock and completely avoided that heart attack all together.

 

[heyheymymy]

Good post haha that's incredible but it was on that team's side of the court. In Wemby's case, MIN would've had to throw downcourt, much harder shot than on your own 3 point line. Point taken though, no strategy is 100% ironclad.

 

[Ice009]

I was mostly refering to his rigid rotations in that post.
As in Timberwolves on a b2b playing their key players more than we did, despite being well-rested.
You can't tell me Fox can't check back in with like 7 minutes left when nothing is going our way.
That's with giving Mitch the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Wemby's minutes.

Exactly. He doesn't have to follow his substitution patterns and minute distribution to a T.
And also, if someone's on a minutes restriction and you can win the game if you give them a few extra minutes, I don't see why that's not allowed? Case in point, the Memphis game. Spurs likely win that game if he plays Victor a few more minutes.

 

[Ice009]

I remember this game. Saw the highlights when it happened. Just another crazy example of anything can happen in an NBA game.

Good post haha that's incredible but it was on that team's side of the court. In Wemby's case, MIN would've had to throw downcourt, much harder shot than on your own 3 point line. Point taken though, no strategy is 100% ironclad.

Here's Rasheed from an inbounds turnover downcourt shot.