I was in DC for work a few years ago and went to a Wizards game. They still had Bradley Beal and were in the middle of tanking. The thing I most remember was that the ushers didn’t let me go find my seat while the action was happening. I had to wait for a time out. While I understand the thinking here, it had never occurred to me in the decades of going to Spurs games. I mean I also had been to a Clippers game in LA and they didn’t make me wait for a break in the action to find my seat. Weird.
I think about that when I see Washington play. That and the fact that I had looked up the cheapest floor seat tickets in the league once and calculated that I could get a flight and hotel to DC and floor seats for the Wizards against some other terrible squad for cheaper than I could drive down to the AT&T Center (at the time) for floor seats against similarly terrible competition.
We love our Spurs. No one loves the Wizards, apparently. I’m sure winning is a big factor there, folks.
This game looked a lot like the other 41 games thus far: Spurs look good in spurts, but also look like they aren’t quite sure they are allowed to prevent the other team from scoring.
The Spurs were in a big hole and it was creeping away from them with about five minutes to play. The Spurs were digging, but the mighty Corey Kispert was simply too much, apparently. That former Gonzaga dude was flying up and down the court and getting way-to-easy runs to the cup. I remember when the draftniks said he was too slow and too white to really make an impact. These Spurs were showing Kispert that he can, in fact, go off in this league.
The Victor and Vassell scored 7-straight, with a Sochan block in between. Then Kuzma tried to show the world that it is his team and took a terrible three. Keldon got a dunk. Victor hit a three on the the trail. The Spurs were tied with just over 2 minutes left.
Then the Jones brothers trade baskets before Wembanyama blocks a couple in between a Sochan 3. Jeremy is steadily improving out there. This is just year two, and I would like you to consider the improvement a guy like Devin made in a couple of years’ time. The Spurs asked Sochan to learn the point, and while that wasn’t an amazing return on investment in the short term, it is good development. He hits a clutch three in a game no one will remember (myself included) but that will look like some future three in a playoff game sometime in the future.
Bagley gets two free throws and then Sochan, puts up a couple of his one-handers. I have full confidence. I absolutely love his Weird because it means he has no qualms about having a kooky free throw shot. Were that we all could be so boldly odd-looking in the pursuit of self-improvement.
After that Poole, Bagley, and Kuzma all miss — Kuz with another terrible hero shot. The Spurs hit a couple of free throws and get some stat-padding blocks (Sochan on Kispert) but that’s that.
Pop’s quotes about the differences coaching in the Timmy era and this one are all around but they can be summated thusly: He’s teaching the game now, and before they were all making adjustments with seasoned professionals. If you’ve watched a lot of basketball through the years you’ve seen what a good team does to terrible squads. You see how they ruthlessly take advantage of the missed assignments, hesitations, and confusion. The Spurs are not good and so this game was more about one poor team getting hot right when it mattered, with a little bit of some hero ball going bad.
I am going to tell you a silly anecdote about my rec league co-ed Sunday night team so adjust your life accordingly.
I play rec league to stay healthy, have fun, and get a little competitive during the week. I am in some reasonably competitive ones for my age and lifestyle (I don’t want anything that requires a practice session). The Sunday night one is a coed soccer with a bunch of people that just want to have light fun at the end of the week.
We were fine, not great, in the outdoor season but when we switched to indoor for the winter, we clicked. We went undefeated in the regular season. It was fun, and a little surprising. We tried some new strategies, but really it was all the time we had played together paying off. People who were not consistent before were suddenly regularly delivering great passes and great defense. People who were iffy showing up suddenly made it a priority to show up. In the last game of the regular season we went down 2-0 in the first five minutes. A little panic was happening, and someone wanted to make some drastic changes. As a team we weren’t really ready for teams showing up ready to play hard against us — they had wanted revenge, and were very hyped for this game. We had to calm ourselves and after approximately 1,000 shots on goal, we got our third to win the game. Then we killed it with some smart passes and kept the ball away for the final couple of minutes.
I write Mean Green Nation, which covers a college squad and I always encourage people who like to get riled up about who should have done better in this situation or played harder or what have you to go out and join a rec league. You surprisingly find yourself in a lot of the same situations you see in the pros, just at a less talented scale. I mean, we are all just humans. Sure, these dudes are playing professionally and have a ridiculous amount of coaching and support but so does their competition. Adding something to your game is difficult. Go out and join a hoops league and try to improve your defense. Make sure you play some solid competition and then you look differently at guys looking to improve out here.
I write all the above to remind myself and you that improvement is difficult. The Spurs — whatever combination of guys that will be — will have to learn to be good. And learning to be good means there are a lot of moments that are unfamiliar. Closing out the Wizards after a comeback on the road is a part of that. “Let’s not get down to the Wizards again” is one lesson. “Let’s lock down defensively and give the ball to our killers” is another.