Becky Hammon made history a year after everyone anticipated the history. She was the head coach of the Spurs as Pop “pointed at [her] and said ‘You got them’”. He was tossed in the first half of the game, over-complaining about a non-call on DeMar DeRozan and Drew Eubanks on the offensive end. Pop was sent off (purposefully?) and so it happened.
It is a momentous occasion and something that will be referenced in books and things and stories told about the future and the history of the game. In the moment, it was nothing particularly special. That is how it should be after all. The players all said they respect her — something notable that they have to even mention that they respect one of the coaching staff — and that they are all ears when she is giving them instruction.
Hammon said she had no time to think about the moment or anything and that she was just coming together as a team to do her job.
The Spurs were handled pretty in the matter at hand. The Lakers were a little shaken up — Bron had his slight injury that only seemed noticeable when he was blocked a couple of times. He had 26 and hit 1000-straight games scoring 10+ points. That is a record. Anthony Davis had a unbothered night — something Laker fans are watching. He is not to the level he was last year and is working himself into shape.
I note this because the Lakers, as good as they are, were more vulnerable than they were in the bubble, for instance. The Spurs were coming off a loss to New Orleans, and the Lakers a loss to Portland.
There is some hope in getting a split — the Heat, who were destroyed by the Bucks came back the next night and won going away. The gap between the teams was evident in two areas: athleticism, and basketball smarts.
The First Thing
Look, when we say “athleticism” we mean relative athleticism. Any one dude on the squad is a ridiculous athlete compared to mere mortals. Keldon Johnson is out here defending Zion and Bron and Pascal Siakam. He is a dude. But Bron is 36 years old and is only now being out-jumped by some of these dudes in the league.
Bron is also a dude.
There was also another instance of the announcer Bill Land saying “the bounces are just going their way” and as I wrote previously, that usually happens when you are having to commit extra effort to one or two guys. The Lakers have Anthony Davis, LeBron James, mix in Marc Gasol, and even Montrezl Harrell in there — all energy guys, or big dudes, or a combination of both.
For all of the athleticism that Lonnie Walker, Keldon Johnson and Dejounte Murray bring, the Lakers are just more in all categories. Put that all together and you have LeBron winning a jump ball over Keldon Johnson, choosing between Gasol and AD (it went to Gasol) and then Gasol firing the ball up for an easy bucket. That brings me to the next thing.
The Next Thing
It is notoriously difficult in any sport to score points (or goals, or punches, or get yards) when the other team or player knows what you are going to do. Scoring before the defense is set is the oldest strategy in basketball. The Lakers pushed the ball against the Spurs, who struggle to get back in transition still. Los Angeles also found it easy to do because they have such good basketball brains. The aforementioned Gasol pass was just textbook good basketball.
One reason that the Spurs value experience and veteran savvy so much is that it can get you buckets like that — a lot of Manu’s passing was audacious simply because people do not usually try to make those passes. Some of it was because people do not usually even see those passes.
Bron and the Lakers have made a point of running the floor and getting easy buckets. AD sprints and Bron finds him with early lobs ahead and they get a lot of easy stuff that way.
The second part of that basketball IQ is that it prevents that kind of thing from happening. If you can see that pass when you have it, you can usually suss it out when you do not have the ball, also.
The best passer on the team is probably DeMar and he is not really in the class of no-looks, or finding guys that no one can see. He is also not the best defender in this or any world.
Overreactions
The Spurs played just about as well as they can. The young guys were unafraid and attacked with aggression. The old guys did their part, but are still getting into rhythm. The Lakers were not as good as we’ve seen before and did not have to try very hard. Also look at this:
That is the highlight sequence of the night and gives us all a little hope for the future (hope for the future is the lifeblood of Spurs fandom right now).
If there is anything to want it is maybe a ball-handler to make plays. Kyle Lowry is that guy for the Raptors, Bron is that guy for the Lakers. It would be nice to have someone make it easy for DeMar to score. Right now he has to do most of the work for himself and others. It is great having the young guys sprint at the defense and drop it off for dunks. The Spurs got up quickly on that kind of thing. LA responded, however, and stayed home, forcing the Spurs to finish those drives against their bigs. That was not so successful.
Add to that the fact that Wes Matthews could not miss and the Spurs got behind by 10-or so and it stayed that way for a while. The broadcast talked about missing something to go their way. Great players usually make those plays happen. Bron/AD/Gasol kept making the right plays and finding the right passes and the Spurs couldn’t make it up.
I liked the comeback. I liked the fight. I liked that the Spurs were not really scared of the Lakers for a while. What looked like hesitation or awe (perhaps) was just more like “I don’t have any more ideas. I just do these two things”
A List
List of players that make you think the Spurs know what they are doing:
Dejounte Murray: balling out this season
Lonnie Walker: 3-ball looking more confident. Attacking regularly
Keldon Johnson: guy is a monster on both ends of the floor. Scored first again!
Drew Eubanks: off-the-bench athlete that can block the 6th man of the year.
Slo-Mo at Memphis: Good things
Bryn Forbes: Everyone hated him but he is still a 3-machine
Kaw—- I’ll just stop here.
To be fair and honest and balanced and level and …
Luca Samanic: yeah.
Devin Vassell: Okay here me out — the Spurs drafted this dude and he looks good and he shoots with confidence. He also defense well and looks to be a classic Spur. BUT look at Tyrese Haliburton.
Other Stuff
Happy New Year. Thanks for reading. Send it to your friends if you think they would be interested. I am still settling in on a schedule. I was thinking M-W-F with some other sprinkled in but I had some hot sports opinions about the Laker game I wanted to fire off.