Game Thread Spurs (15-6) @ Cavs (13-10) (Fri 12/5/25) [6:30PM CDT]

[Paramore]

hate to lose

 

[Ice009]

hate to lose

Plenty more coming if Victor and Luke are out.

 

[Fireball]

Darn, I was upset too. I was actually thinking during that game that Dylan played so bad because he was trying to impress his dad, but then I remembered, his dad has watched him play before live and that didn't affect him. You think it was just more fatigue/played a bad game. He had some good passes to Sochan and other players, but Sochan keeps fucking up a lot of the time.

I'm starting to get a bit worried about Luke's reliability. I love the guy when he plays, but I said it weeks ago that he's never played big minutes and the Spurs should have had that in mind when signing him. You've got Victor, who we were not sure about if he'll miss games, and then you get a backup that hasn't played anything other than small minutes. He's playing a career high in minutes this season by 6+ more minutes per game. Career average is about 15 mpg. How in the h%ll did the Spurs not think that they may need a better Center than Bismack.

I think Harpers dad was around before so indeed this should not affect him. Just sad that we did not see any adjustments from him.

Good points about Luke. Lets just hope it was just soreness and he is back in NO. Still the FO should look into getting another backup center.

 

[tearsofmorningdew]

when vassell is your leading scorer this is the typical outcome lmao

 

[Ice009]

I think Harpers dad was around before so indeed this should not affect him. Just sad that we did not see any adjustments from him.

Good points about Luke. Lets just hope it was just soreness and he is back in NO. Still the FO should look into getting another backup center.

Unless this was the first NBA game his dad watched him play? Maybe Dylan was trying to impress a little bit and rushed himself. Maybe fatigue, bad game, and trying to impress were all factors.

when vassell is your leading scorer this is the typical outcome lmao

This is the thing. The team got smoked even with Devin having a great game. The Cavs made the adjustment at half time, and saw that they can take advantage of Biyombo so they started attacking/going to the rim in the third, and without a competent center, the Spurs lost their lead and got down big. I hope the front office is looking for backup centers right now, because if this is what they plan to roll with, any game Victor and/or Luke misses can't be penciled in for a win (even against the very worst teams). And if they're going to keep sitting people with minor injuries, may as well trade Fox and sit Victor for the year and let Dylan and Steph play big minutes.

Sorry, I'm a bit pissed off. Just need to vent somewhere. I went off a bit at the end there. I really hate being in the dark all the time with the Spurs and their injuries. We never know if what Victor has is minor and they really are just being cautious, or if it's something more serious. Because it's a calf, and the DVT stuff, just never sure what is going on. Hopefully it's just being overly cautious, but are they always going to be this cautious for every minor injury (if that is what it is), cause that's going to ruin the team's seasons doing that all the time, or are the simply being this cautious because it's a calf and would let him play if it were something else that was minor?

 

[tearsofmorningdew]

Unless this was the first NBA game his dad watched him play? Maybe Dylan was trying to impress a little bit and rushed himself. Maybe fatigue, bad game, and trying to impress were all factors.


This is the thing. The team got smoked even with Devin having a great game. The Cavs made the adjustment at half time, and saw that they can take advantage of Biyombo so they started attacking/going to the rim in the third, and without a competent center, the Spurs lost their lead and got down big. I hope the front office is looking for backup centers right now, because if this is what they plan to roll with, any game Victor and/or Luke misses can't be penciled in for a win (even against the very worst teams). And if they're going to keep sitting people with minor injuries, may as well trade Fox and sit Victor for the year and let Dylan and Steph play big minutes. Sorry, I'm a bit pissed off. Just need to vent somewhere. I really hate being in the dark all the time with the Spurs and their injuries. We never know if what Victor has is minor and they're being cautious, or if it's something more serious.

it’s frankly ridiculous. it’s almost as if we don’t have the DPOY, heir apparent GOAT on our team. how the hell is he ever supposed to get up to speed when he gets yanked for every little thing.

a 50 year old back up center has no place on our team either. Would honestly prefer Zach Collins over biyombo, dude can barely move and it’s 5 on 4 whenever he’s on the court.

 

[Ice009]

it’s frankly ridiculous. it’s almost as if we don’t have the DPOY, heir apparent GOAT on our team. how the hell is he ever supposed to get up to speed when he gets yanked for every little thing.

a 50 year old back up center has no place on our team either. Would honestly prefer Zach Collins over biyombo, dude can barely move and it’s 5 on 4 whenever he’s on the court.

I did some edits to my post. The venting wasn't directed to you or anything, just needed to get it off my chest.

I agree with everything you've said here. Zach Collins would be a huge upgrade. Bismack looked somewhat OK on a team with nothing to play for after Victor and De'Aaron were ruled out for the rest of season, but yeah, I don't know if he's fallen off a cliff due to age (from last season to this season) or just getting exposed now that teams have to put effort in to beat the Spurs, they're attacking their weaknesses.

 

[LeBowen]

a 50 year old back up center has no place on our team either

Fun fact, Biyombo is younger than Barnes.
And he's a third stringer. How many teams have a better third string big?

Would honestly prefer Zach Collins over biyombo, dude can barely move and it’s 5 on 4 whenever he’s on the court.

Collins is making 5x the money Biyombo is.
And saying Collins would be an upgrade is recency bias.

 

[Quentin_Compson]

Rough second half. Giving up 80 points in the paint in a game simply won't do, even with both our rim protectors being injured. But yeah, our guys just looked exhausted in the second half. Not too many takeaways from this game, I'd say.

 

[OK Computer]

This stretch here is where they lost the game. Can't keep coming out and giving up leads on the road. They had close to two ten points leads and got one back, but letting Cleveland back in it at the start of the third, game was over.

Got to get a better 3rd string Center. Spurs are toast if they don't do something soon. Huge mistake not upgrading that spot in the offseason. I even said, Luke appears to have played low minutes in his career, so we don't know how he'll hold up playing more minutes than he's accustomed to. Looks like he's not holding up too well. How did the Spurs not make getting a better backup big than BB a priority?

How many third string centers on other teams in the league can you name? What team tries to make that spot a point of emphasis?

 

[Raven_]

Rough second half. Giving up 80 points in the paint in a game simply won't do, even with both our rim protectors being injured. But yeah, our guys just looked exhausted in the second half. Not too many takeaways from this game, I'd say.

takeaway is playing barnes at center isn't good coaching. I don't care how bad they are, olynik and sochan had to cover every center minute available and 90% of the pf minutes. In fact we had the upperhand everytime we played a decent lineup

 

[Ice009]

So you guys are saying there is no one better than Biyombo out there? He looks completely washed. Surely the Spurs have scouts whether it's G-League, Europe, Australia etc. where there might be someone they can give a chance to that has more potential/upside than Bismack. Bismack's only going to get worse is my point, so why hold onto him rather than try and get someone that has a chance to trend the other way (get better). You may as well just play Jeremy at center. Start Olynyk there. There's no reason to have Biyombo out there at all. What about Potter (at least he has some upside compared to BB)? Is it that watered down across the entire NBA and Basketball that there is no one that they could try in his spot?

If it's that watered down for big men, the Spurs shouldn't have thrown away their second round picks and tried to get Ryan Kalkbrenner if Maxime Raynaud wasn't interested in playing outside of Sacramento.

And what team makes it a point of emphasis? Well, the Spurs should have been a team that did. They signed a backup that has never played big minutes so they had no idea how Luke is going to hold up playing more minutes. Then going into the season, they also didn't know what to expect from Victor coming off of what he went through. I don't care about other teams, but the Spurs should have darn well made it a point of emphasis.

Rough second half. Giving up 80 points in the paint in a game simply won't do, even with both our rim protectors being injured. But yeah, our guys just looked exhausted in the second half. Not too many takeaways from this game, I'd say.

The Cavs simply saw after the first half the Spurs have no center/pf rim protection and that they could exploit that, and that's what they did. Lots of team will exploit that if Victor and Luke are out longer.

 

[ginobilized]

Bismarck seemed much better last season for some reason. If we are looking for re-arming the team for a playoff run, a situational 3rd string center would be a smart upgrade to make. I'd start by looking at dudes taller than 6'8". Not sure who that might be, but, that's not my job. With Wemby and Luke missing time, foul trouble, matchups, there could be a solid 8 mins/game for someone.

 

[Raven_]

Bismarck seemed much better last season for some reason. If we are looking for re-arming the team for a playoff run, a situational 3rd string center would be a smart upgrade to make. I'd start by looking at dudes taller than 6'8". Not sure who that might be, but, that's not my job. With Wemby and Luke missing time, foul trouble, matchups, there could be a solid 8 mins/game for someone.

i actually though he looked just as bad last year..

 

[ginobilized]

i actually though he looked just as bad last year..

Yeah, we sucked so bad last season he might've seemed better by contrast to me. Objectivity is not always my strong suit.

 

[Ice009]

Yeah, we sucked so bad last season he might've seemed better by contrast to me. Objectivity is not always my strong suit.

I was going to say the same thing. I don't think we noticed because the Spurs had nothing to play for. Also, the other teams I am pretty sure weren't going all out against us like they are this season. No one was planning against exploiting Biyombo last season to be able to win the game against the Spurs. They didn't need to.

 

[wemvp]

Biyombo and Olynyk offer zero rim protection. We scored 72 in the first half and were only up 8. Then the team went ice cold in the 2nd half and it was game over. They got killed in the paint defensively.

I don't get how Wembanyama misses 10 games after having a calf issue so minor he showed zero signs of it during or after the game, never required a boot, and was doing dribbling drills the next day after it happened. Did he legitimately hurt it after he was shut down? If he's so injury prone this stuff keeps happening and he only plays 40 to 60 games a year we're screwed. He's not a max money guy if that's the case. It's getting concerning.

 

[pope]

How many third string centers on other teams in the league can you name? What team tries to make that spot a point of emphasis?

Totally fair point at the start of the season but given concerns about Kornet and Wemby availability now and for the rest of the regular season, seems like it really needs to be a point of emphasis now

So, I don’t think it’s fair to fault the front office for initially bringing back Biyombo thinking he could be serviceable like last season. But given the on court evidence now, I think it would be malpractice to not make a move given what we assume about the injury risk/availability of Kornet and Wemby

 

[STAT88]

Cavs laying an absolute egg against the Warriors without Steph, Dray and Free Throw Merchant.

Partly due to being on a B2B but also because Garland just fucks up their rhythm when he comes back. Would have been nice for the spurs if he played last night and took the ball out of Mitchell’s hands.

 

[STAT88]

Garland with a solid -22 so far with 6 minutes left to go in the game.

 

[Splits]

Worriers collapsing down the stretch , went from 13 to lead to 6 in a couple min

 

[CrustyCoastBendFan]

Worriers collapsing down the stretch , went from 13 to lead to 6 in a couple min

This is what happens when you play small ball against a strong team with legit seven-footers, which is why I was conflicted heading into the game knowing Kornet was out. It felt like a programmed loss from the start.

You can PARTY IN TH USA 100-fold, still doesn't make Keldon and BIZZZ MACK 7 feet

https://www.tiktok.com/video/7580108958103260471

Cleveland predictably dominated the Warriors on the boards and in the paint. The saving grace for this gritty crew of seasoned vets was a couple of threes, some veteran savvy, and their ball movement, with screening hardwired into the system they’ve been running for 17 years. Meanwhile, we’ve got a bunch of young pups and a Sochan.


So, I put my hands up
They're playing my song, the butterflies fly away (flying away)
I'm nodding my head like, yeah (nodding my head like, yeah)
Moving my hips like, yeah (moving my hips like, yeah)
I got my hands up, they're playing my song
They know I'm gonna be okay (I'm gonna be okay)
Yeah, it's a party in the U.S.A.
Yeah (ha-ha-ha-ha), it's a party in the U.S.A.