Game Thread Spurs (27-12) @ Thunder (33-7) (Tue 1/13/26) [7:00PM CST]

I expected the loss last night after the defending champions got embarrassed 3x straight. Still it was winnable had the Spurs shot better. Off to the next game.
 
Shai should get fined for that blatant trip
It’s so irritating. He’s getting the “I’d do that too if a 7’5 guy was standing over me” treatment on this. Ignoring everything about the actual incident and just thinking about it as a concept - sure. Snap those knees shut to avoid your junk getting stepped on.

But it was very obvious that he intended to clamp his leg and then, in classic Shai fashion, applied a layer of bitchy “I’m allowed” on top of it.
 
Keldon’s 3 turning into a pumpkin was only a matter of time. His mechanics are so gnarly. 8,000 things can go off kilter with his trebuchet strategy. You cannot sustain a high percentage with so much variability in your form.

The guys on this team who can’t shoot need to recognize when they don’t have it. Just infinite green lights to guys who are ice cold and awful lot.
 
I hate losing to these putos!! Their fans are insufferable when they win. Need to beat them in SA in our last matchup of the season. GSG!
the worst fanbase in the league. flyover dipshit region of the country and now so smug.

Whats getting me upset today is realizing that nobody on our team started a fight when they were harassing Wemby.

That’s the only thing about Zac Collins I miss—dude wanted to fight all the time. We have none of that right now.
 
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Nice to see DH be a positive for the first time in a bit. First Wemby sub-par game in a little while as well. (And it wasn't an absolute stinker, just didn't have the defensive impact we're used to)
 
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so apparently the government of Kim Yong-Pop cut out half of Wemby's postgame interview. Here's the whole thing. The first 4 minutes are not on the Spurs Youtube channel. Probably cause Wemby said "I heard one fuck you" :st-lol:

Such a thoughtful, well-spoken kid. I love how engaged he is even with some of these inane questions.
 
OKC worked us over in the 3rd so that’s the story of the game. So the obvious bullshit of Shai launching himself at defenders and tossing a ball towards the vague direction of the basket is lost to “theyre better, stop whining”. But to think that stuff is immaterial to their blitz in the 3rd quarter is lazy. It’s all the same system working together.
 
Some micro-observations:
  • Mitch and Wemby referring to not respecting and executing the game plan is telling. This one factor probably allowed OKC to get into their style of play, complete with fouls galore. (including removing Wemby's jersey right in front of a ref)
  • Wemby commented that OKC didn't change anything significant in any of the 4 games and that they trusted their identity. Our identity is in its infancy and will take more reps and more losses to galvanize.
  • Castle and Harper returning to form is a huge gift and a wonderful sign.
  • Wemby's postgame interviews are pretty awesome. "I only heard one fuck you tonight" is gold. His thoughtfulness and transparency are so unusual for superstars.
  • Fox is perplexing and difficult to watch when he's not in his bag. I wish he had a grittier style of play and could contribute when not scoring. He finally dove for a loose ball in the 4th quarter, but, there's something a bit off with his effort some nights. Could be a lot of things, but, if he's bringing the bad habits of the Kings with him, we gotta clean that shit up. One caveat is that OKC is a horrid matchup for him with their guys playing like Edward Scissorhands or 5 Bruce Bowens.
  • Then there is Harrison Barnes. Love the person. I'm pulling for him as a player, but, he's not contributing much of anything when his 3ball dries up. It's time to shorten the leash and use KO and even the Polish Rodman (while we still have him) to get some contributions. Perhaps the trade deadline reverses our PF fortunes?
  • Lastly, it looked and felt like 3 on 5 when Fox and Barnes were on the court together. Not going to win many games that way.
 
I'm not following what this means (I'm too tired/dense). Is it to do with minute management. Is it to do with not being able to manage the clock?


Like I said weeks ago, GSW got rid of him nearly 10 years ago for not turning up. Soon as I saw this drop off weeks ago, I knew he'd be useless in the playoffs and I immediately had reservations of what he could do in the post season (even if he turns the regular season around, I still don't trust him in the playoffs). Still can't rebound or play defense, so he really should NOT be starting at all anymore.

Anyway, as I mentioned before, I said the Spurs would win the last three games against OKC, but wasn't willing to this time around. The Spurs are in such poor form, I didn't feel they could do it with the way they've been playing. They're a bit of a mess right now. If they don't break out of it, they could be one of those 5-5 teams (hopefully not worse) I mentioned earlier today that can easily slip out of the top 6 or down to 6th if they don't turn it around. The Minnesota loss stings doubly after this one.

These next few home games are must wins if the Spurs want to try and stay in the top 4. Have to win these upcoming home games.

Also, just like I thought, the Thunder being 0-3 against the Spurs, I doubt it bothered them too much (I'm sure they were a little pissed off, but not having doubts). Now at 1-3, I bet they have more confidence against the Spurs than the Spurs do against them. Thunder are like the old Spurs teams, these regular season games don't mean as much to them as what they maybe do to their opponents.

Fox was terrible tonight. I will own that. I still think the Spurs have screwed up if they signed him to be an off the ball player. Humongous waste of money.

Oh, and this ridiculous minutes restriction needs to end. Either Victor is healthy enough to play or he's not. It's absolutely retarded at this point. He can't build stamina and the team can't build chemistry playing like that.


It's what I was afraid of. I don't trust him to hit them in the playoffs with that form of his. I didn't want to comment since he was hitting them (I was amazed at how well he'd been shooting) and didn't want to talk bad about his form.



I will say this, why did Kevin Durant get touch fouls during his early career and Victor gets pushed around, hit, hacked, tripped. What the fuck does it take to get fouls called his way? KD got that shit early on. KD unrightfully got that shit called in playoffs series against the Spurs on plays where it looked like the player didn't even touch him on the replay/s. Why can't Vic get those calls?
I will say Wemby in the next few years has to get stronger. He is on the ground way too much and while some of that is him trying to get calls that he is NOT getting, he also physically can be pushed around. But the Spurs need to get on the leagues ass about these no calls. Last night while we got badly outplayed he was getting mugged out there. SGA is a great player but damn he was getting Superstar call after Superstar call.. Wemby should be getting the same.
 
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Daignault getting a tech was funny. This is all part of it too. “How could the refs be in our favor if I got T’d for arguing a call”? The whole thing is top to bottom grift. Completely planned 3rd quarter. They were going to flood the field with shit and it worked.
 
Offense has been complete dog shit since the three OKC wins. Spurs really need to figure it out because it's looking like they are coming back down to earth from their hot start and that was the fluke rather than the last month of putrid offense
 
OKC fans are so hyped about SGA's "block" on a lob pass to Wemby. Acting like Wemby had any control of the path/direction of the ball.
they’ve been awake for a week smoking broken windows on a background of like 80 IQ I wouldn’t expect too much from them
 
In fairness, OKC shut him down. Their defense on him was excellent.
They did, I don’t even want to look at this loss too closely, it was a foregone conclusion with all the hype and their being sick of hearing about our guys being kryptonite or whatever.

But he’s been trending in the wrong direction for a number of games now. He can still be a great player on the roster, but I’m thinking he may not be 2nd, even 3rd best if he keeps this up.
 
I can't blame Fox for much last night. He was asked to play off ball a lot, and you can tell it makes it difficult for him to find his rhythm. We were due for a loss like this TBH. With such a young team, they need to feel the sting a little bit and know that teams are not just going to lay down and hand you the W.

As for the coaching staff, I'm sick of not having everyone all at once and establishing a player rotation. Load management is being carried too far. I can understand a game here or there or reducing minutes in some games, but this team needs more time to learn how to play with Wemby.
 
The biggest victory of this game is that Vic is okay! Looks like he wasn't even added to the injury report today.
 
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