On Wednesday, the San Antonio Spurs had an opportunity to get their first win of the season against an Eastern Conference opponent as they visited the Miami Heat.

San Antonio lost 95-88, however, moving to just 0-3 against the Eastern Conference. The team remains a strong 6-1 against the West.

It wasn’t the most encouraging performance by the Spurs, who were down by double digits for most of the second half.

3 Observations

Miami won the effort battle

The Spurs had one more day of rest than the Heat heading into the game and should’ve had a chip on their shoulder after a bad loss against Orlando.

That wasn’t the case.

Miami sprinted out to a 17-4 lead almost entirely on the strength of its effort advantage. The Heat had grabbed 10 rebounds before the Spurs got their second. Hassan Whiteside had five blocks in the first 7:33 of play, energizing the Miami crowd. Gregg Popovich had pulled all five Spurs starters by the 7:30 mark of the first quarter.

The numbers evened out a bit by the end of the game. Miami ended with a 60-49 rebounding lead, but that early surge was key in setting the tone for the game. The Heat were able to get the win despite having more turnovers than the Spurs and accumulating a 47.1 true-shooting percentage.

That shouldn’t be comforting to Gregg Popovich’s squad.

The Spurs’ shot selection was horrible

Wednesday was easily the Spurs’ worst offensive game of the season. They shot 33 percent from the field and had only 16 assists and 14 free-throw attempts. All three of those numbers either are season lows or tie their season low. They also had a mere 24 points in the paint.

Give a lot of credit to the Heat, who were contesting shots all over the court without fouling. Hassan Whiteside’s eight first-half blocks (he had nine for game) scared the Spurs away from the paint after intermission.

San Antonio chose instead to shoot a lot of midrange jumpers. Many of the jumpers were contested, because the Heat defense didn’t have to collapse on threatening drives very frequently.

The Spurs shot just 8-of-35 (22.9 percent) on shots from 10 feet to the three-point line. More aggressive drives and post moves to draw fouls would have been nice. If anything, stepping out for more three-pointers would have been wise too. San Antonio was a solid 13-of-32 (40.6 percent) from long distance.

I get that San Antonio has guys like LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan, who like taking midrange jumpers. But the team needs to be a bit more selective on those shots to get the most out of their possessions.

Davis Bertans was a bright spot

As long as Rudy Gay and Pau Gasol deal with foot injuries, Bertans is going to get a bigger role. He played 26 minutes both tonight and in the Magic loss on Sunday.

The Latvian stretch 4’s performance against the Magic was very lackluster (eight points on 2-of-7 from three-point range). However, he turned it around on Wednesday with 19 points on 4-of-7 shooting from downtown with four rebounds, one assist, one steal, one block and no turnovers. His strong play helped lead a fourth-quarter run that gave Miami a minor scare.

Bertans generally struggles when he comes in for garbage time or in short stints, but he thrives in a bigger role. It might be worth keeping an eye on him moving forward.

2 Questions

Is it concerning that Hassan Whiteside outplayed LaMarcus Aldridge this badly?

Whiteside and Aldridge were their team’s starting centers and guarded each other for much of the game. Here are their stat lines:

Whiteside- 29 points (10/18 FG, 9/11 FT), 20 rebounds, 2 assists, 9 blocks, 1 turnover, 2 fouls in 32 minutes

Aldridge- 6 points (2/14 FG, 2/2 FT), 16 rebounds, 0 assists, 2 blocks, 1 turnover, 3 fouls in 36 minutes

This was an embarrassing performance from the Spurs’ star big man. He struggled with Whiteside’s length and activity all game on both ends of the floor, and he could never really establish good position inside. He settled for too many difficult jumpers and didn’t use his strength, which should’ve been an advantage.

Aldridge is still the better player in this matchup, but he hasn’t played like an All-Star this season. His jumper is way off and he’s still figuring out to how to operate in a DeRozan-led offense. Defensively, he hasn’t been bad overall this season, but he’s struggled with effort at times. He looked especially disengaged on Wednesday.

I’ll let you answer this question for yourself. Whatever your opinion is, it’s clear that Aldridge hasn’t played at his 17-18 level so far this season.

When will Derrick White be 100 percent?

White made his first appearance of the regular season on Wednesday after recovering from a heel injury. The 24-year-old combo guard got the start and played 16 minutes, but he didn’t score and shot 0-of-3 from the field. His three assists were offset by two turnovers.

I’m a big fan of White’s game. He’s a capable offensive player both on and off the ball with strong handles and a clean shot. He defends decently well due to good length for both guard spots and his instincts.

We got a rusty version of him on Wednesday, though. He still needs to find his place in the team’s schemes and regain confidence in his own skills.

San Antonio needs more players like White, who have something positive to offer on both ends of the floor. But more specifically, it needs White at 100 percent to give both the offense and defense a shot in the arm.

1 Prediction

The Spurs’ record will be 13-14 on December 10

I’ve used December 10 as the cutoff because that’s the end of a brutal 30-day stretch that includes 17 games (10 of which are on the road) and four back-to-backs. That stretch starts Saturday against the Rockets and includes the following opponents:

Rockets (twice), Jazz (twice), Lakers (twice), Warriors, Bucks, Trail Blazers, Pacers, Pelicans, Clippers, Timberwolves, Grizzlies, Kings, Bulls and Suns.

There aren’t going to be many easy games in there. With White still finding his groove and Gay and Gasol dealing with some nagging injuries, there’s a good chance San Antonio loses ground in the Western Conference standings. I predict them to go 7-10 in their next 17 contests.

Note: Statistics are courtesy of NBA.com.

Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images