Game Thread Spurs (12-5) @ Nuggets (13-4) (Fri 11/28/25) [8:30PM CDT]

[spursparker9]

Easily the most impressive win for this season thus far....

Increible defensive efforts on Joker. He only put up10 shots attempt (also 8 FT attempts) in 36 mins was really impressive

 

[LeBowen]

...which reminds me, where's Teeds nowadays? Did he ever make the jump from Spurstalk to here? I miss his idiotic and lowkey racist rants tbh

Last season he ignored me because according to him I was an idiot for giving Atkinson credit for the Cavs turnaround because it was all their players' doing.

 

[ulosturedge]

We beat Denver and we're 4-1 without Wemby. (and Castle)
Fox, friendship crew, a few veterans, a few reclamation projects and a few rookies.
Something doesn't add up.

Add up in the sense that even though we were around .500 before Wemby went down last season, a lot of our losses were horrible, unwatchable blowouts.
We're 18 games into this season and our worst loss was a 12 point game, the only double digit loss we suffered. And haven't had a fully healthy roster yet.

My question is what changed? Was Pop that far gone? Are Mitch and the new assistants making all the difference?
During the game last night I never felt like it's over and we won't be able to consolidate and put up a fight.
And that's honestly the biggest takeaway from the season so far. Being able to stay competitive in every game is huge.

Have to think Pop didn't believe they had all the pieces to really try and make a legitimate run so he preferred sacking losses to try and develop players and stay in semi-tank mode. This coaching staff is doing some unique stuff out there. I can tell they are mixing up their defensive strategy. They aren't being as predictable on defense. But I think the main thing from all this is the Team is getting a huge amount of confidence from these types of wins and it is feeding off of itself. Reinforces the belief in the system and reinforces they can win on any given night. Mitch and crew are doing a great job out there.

 

[spursparker9]

 

[Exstatic]

Champ has that natural rebounding instinct.

He is poor man Ray allen

Allen didn’t grab the game 6 rebound, Bosh did, then kicked it out to crybabyRay.

 

[wemvp]

He's been getting us over the line, but he's not the reason we're not getting blown out anymore.
Wemby's backups are obviously a big upgrade, but last season we were getting blown out with Wemby while this season we're staying in games without him.

Last season almost no one played defense but Wemby. The technique on the perimeter was terrible. The technique defending the post was terrible. Rotations were slow or non existent. That's why without Wemby we were the worst defense in the game. Defense allows you to keep games close when you aren't scoring well.

The perimeter defense has struggled this season but it's showing signs of getting better. We didn't win with defense yesterday as we gave up 133 pts, but we had enough little stretches of defense and forcing turnovers to allow a hot shooting team to get back in the game and win in the 4th.

 

[ginobilized]

Seems surreal to re-watch our comeback and see how tight and downright perfect our schemes and execution were. Fox really carved up the Nuggets and exposed their defensive schemes and deficiencies. Like I said in the game grades, this team doesn't win this game last year, last month or maybe even last week. Huge win to pump up everyone as they each put their fingerprints on the game ball in securing the win. Coaching staff clearly won the battle vs Denver and the unfortunate comb-overs. We were close last year to getting to the knockout rounds, making it this year in the group from hell is truly an accomplishment!

 

[scott]

anybody else notice throughout the year how easily Fox executes these types of flare passes? like the one at 1:50 below. he's the only guy on the team who consistently is able to make this pass, and every time he throws these i think its going to be a turnover but he just makes them effortless. pay enough attention and you see he does this quite a bit

I'm glad someone else called this out! I've noticed this as well, and especially when the camera angle is the other direction and the pass is coming towards the camera they look like they'll be picked off but he drops them exactly in the perfect spot over the screen.

Good design by the coaching staff and really nice execution from the team on these.

 

[RC_Drunkford]

We beat Denver and we're 4-1 without Wemby. (and Castle)
Fox, friendship crew, a few veterans, a few reclamation projects and a few rookies.
Something doesn't add up.

Add up in the sense that even though we were around .500 before Wemby went down last season, a lot of our losses were horrible, unwatchable blowouts.
We're 18 games into this season and our worst loss was a 12 point game, the only double digit loss we suffered. And haven't had a fully healthy roster yet.

My question is what changed? Was Pop that far gone? Are Mitch and the new assistants making all the difference?
During the game last night I never felt like it's over and we won't be able to consolidate and put up a fight.
And that's honestly the biggest takeaway from the season so far. Being able to stay competitive in every game is huge.

-we got a hungry coach who actually cares about winning basketball games

-we got a coaching staff with some of the best defensive assistants, not some yes men drinking partners for Pop

-we play modern defense with more physicality and good schemes

-players have been slotted into their roles

-we don't have CP3 with a promised starting spot on the team

-we have a real back up C

Last year we didn't box out. This season we're one of the best rebounding teams in the league. We also do stuff that Pop has never done: foul more and go for offensive boards

So if you ask me the main reason is the old man being gone. And I said 5 years ago that's when we will start winning again. Not a coincidence.

 

[LeBowen]

we got a coaching staff with some of the best defensive assistants,

We need a Sweeney cam, he's going insane every time someone fucks up on defense.
Just try to pay attention to him during games, he's always on his feet during important possessions and trying to coach the team.

 

[RC_Drunkford]

We beat Denver and we're 4-1 without Wemby. (and Castle)
Fox, friendship crew, a few veterans, a few reclamation projects and a few rookies.
Something doesn't add up.

Add up in the sense that even though we were around .500 before Wemby went down last season, a lot of our losses were horrible, unwatchable blowouts.
We're 18 games into this season and our worst loss was a 12 point game, the only double digit loss we suffered. And haven't had a fully healthy roster yet.

My question is what changed? Was Pop that far gone? Are Mitch and the new assistants making all the difference?
During the game last night I never felt like it's over and we won't be able to consolidate and put up a fight.
And that's honestly the biggest takeaway from the season so far. Being able to stay competitive in every game is huge.

you also have to consider that the team was much better than their record for the past 2 seasons. In Wemby's rookie year we had a bad record, but it took Pop like 25 games to find out that Tre Jones should start at PG. Sochan started for like 18 games and then he thought it should be Branham until he got injured too. So that team probably wins 5-8 games more than they did because the coach manipulated them into looking worse than they were.

Then last season obviously Wemby went down, we got Fox who barely played, traded our back up C in the Fox trade and promised CP3 a starting gig which resulted in hurting our defense. That team was bound to be in the play-in.

This is the first time the team hasn't been sabotaged by the coaching staff.

 

[ginobilized]

It was such a pleasure to see us forcing the same actions over and over again and Denver making zero adjustments. Such a reversal of our play style from recent years. We are also making deceptively simple, yet, precise passes to exploit defenses. Again, this is such a joy to see and the growth is clear. Coaching staff is clearly dialed in and we are making huge improvements game to game. CB on Jokic was not in my playbook going into last night. That seemed to really take the Joker out of his rhythm. He and Murray looked pretty gassed by the 4th, too.

 

[RC_Drunkford]

We need a Sweeney cam, he's going insane every time someone fucks up on defense.
Just try to pay attention to him during games, he's always on his feet during important possessions and trying to coach the team.

I've heard this since the beginning of the season and I love it. Corliss also deserves a ton of credit, he's the reason we are dominating on the boards.

 

[ginobilized]

We need a Sweeney cam, he's going insane every time someone fucks up on defense.
Just try to pay attention to him during games, he's always on his feet during important possessions and trying to coach the team.

I've been enjoying that show, too. It's nice to have that Irish anger next to Mitch. Corliss has some moments as well. He's a hand-wringer when we don't boxout.

 

[Arcadian]

We took out a jar of Vasselline, lubed up, and went in.

 

[tearsofmorningdew]

Is this the only thing you do prematurely?

to my credit I came back after Texas stomped A&M

 

[John B]

If Spurs continue winning these type of games, they should really start thinking putting the ball on Fox as the 1st option. It’s not popular, but Wemby can feast on opportunities where defense is on somebody else, call it misdirection. Until Wemby becomes dominant on post, with a go-to move like ala Timmy’s bank shot or soft floater. He will get stronger and will get his go-to move instead of settling on a jump shot. The more teams prepare for Fox or Castle, the better off Wemby capitalizing on getting more open shots.

 

[NASpurs]

If Spurs continue winning these type of games, they should really start thinking putting the ball on Fox as the 1st option. It’s not popular, but Wemby can feast on opportunities where defense is on somebody else, call it misdirection. Until Wemby becomes dominant on post, with a go-to move like ala Timmy’s bank shot or soft floater. He will get stronger and will get his go-to move instead of settling on a jump shot. The more teams prepare for Fox or Castle, the better off Wemby capitalizing on getting more open shots.

Yeah I haven’t been a fan of everyone standing around to see what Wemby does. It’s like everyone becomes a statue while the defense focuses on him.

 

[Exstatic]

Vassell just did to Denver what Curry did to us.

Curry scored over 90 total points in two games, so, not quite.

 

[Arcadian]

Curry scored over 90 total points in two games, so, not quite.

Let's say what Curry did in one of those games was similar to what Vassell did - the way he broke their spirit with shot after shot down the stretch, and then iced the game at the FT line. He literally scored our last 10 points in the last 90 seconds.

 

[Area 51.247]

We need a Sweeney cam, he's going insane every time someone fucks up on defense.
Just try to pay attention to him during games, he's always on his feet during important possessions and trying to coach the team.

He looks like he's aged a few years in the first quarter season!

 

[spursparker9]

Mitch's speech to the team after the win