The San Antonio Spurs continued an up-and-down season with a 104-99 road loss to the upstart Sacramento Kings on Monday. It was the Spurs’ first loss to the Kings in their last 15 matchups.

Let’s take a look at some positive and negatives from the game in the form of three observations, two questions and one prediction.

3 Observations

The Spurs miss Dejounte Murray

If you watched the Spurs last season, Dejounte Murray’s youthful exuberance jumped off the screen at you. The then 21-year-old guard pestered opposing ball-handlers on defense and energized teammates and fans with exciting plays on offense, usually in transition. Unfortunately, Murray’s torn ACL means we won’t see him on the floor this season.

On Monday, 20-year-old Kings point guard De’Aaron Fox oozed that same quality against the Murray-less Spurs. He applied tight pressure to his defensive assignments on and off the ball and was a blur in transition on offense. He flashed his improving jumper with three makes behind the arc in four attempts.

Fox was good all game long. But his five points, two rebounds, four assists and one steal in the final eight minutes of the game were key in the Kings’ decisive run.

The Spurs’ perimeter guys looked old, slow and listless next to Fox. On this night especially, San Antonio could’ve used a 100 percent Murray to go toe-to-toe with Fox.

Youth trumped experience in the bench battle 

Fox wasn’t the only one making the Spurs look old in this game. Sacramento’s five reserves in this game, with a whopping three years of combined of NBA experience, generally had their way with the Spurs bench. Keep in mind, San Antonio’s reserves from this game have a combined 42 years of league experience.

On the whole, Sacramento led 43-26 in bench scoring if you exclude the final 1:06 of garbage time, in which Davis Bertans nailed two threes with the game already out of reach. The Kings’ reserves were noticeably more assertive on defense and held a true-shooting percentage advantage of 52.6 to 43.7 in the first 47 minutes of the contest.

Rudy Gay was arguably the Spurs’ best player in his return

Gay was one of the few positives for the Spurs on Monday. He had 14 points, nine rebounds and one block in 21 minutes on 6-of-12 shooting from the field. His movement and confidence didn’t seem affected at all by the heel injury that sidelined him for the Spurs’ last three games.

The rest of the bench, aside from Bertans, was bad on offense in this game. Patty Mills, Marco Belinelli, Jakob Poeltl and Quincy Pondexter had a combined nine points on 3-of-14 shooting from the field in 56 minutes.

But Gay had some much-needed unassisted buckets with those guys on the floor with him that helped keep the Spurs in the game. His continued his impressive season crashing the boards.

Gay’s solid performance is encouraging for the Spurs, especially since both LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan have struggled offensively as of late.

2 Questions

Can DeMar DeRozan consistently attack the rim?

DeRozan averaged 12.8 points in the paint and 6.3 free-throw attempts per game in the first eight games of the season. In his next three contests, he averaged a mere 5.3 points in the paint and 5 free-throw attempts per game. He’s been content to shoot a lot of midrange and three-point jumpers.

My expectations heading into game No. 12 for DeRozan were that he would be aggressive against a Kings team that isn’t exactly known for great defense. At the half, though, he had just four points in the paint and only took one free throw on a technical.

All of a sudden, DeRozan took charge in the third. In a span of just over four minutes in the middle of the third quarter, he had a layup and drew four shooting fouls. San Antonio badly needed those points, because DeRozan’s teammates shot just 3-of-12 in that quarter.

DeRozan needs to think about attacking downhill when he gets the ball more often. He’s a master at drawing fouls and using tricky footwork to free himself up for layups. He can usually force help defenders and find open shooters when he gets in the paint, too.

Even though the Spurs do have some relatively skilled shooters from the midrange, shooting frequent jumpers from there is just not a sustainable winning formula in today’s NBA. It’s a tired point, but that doesn’t make it any less true.

Does Jakob Poeltl have a future with the Spurs?

Poeltl has probably been the Spurs’ most disappointing player this season. He’s taken only 12 shots in 83 minutes on the floor and has a mere 14 points and one block so far.

For a review on his skill set, here are his BBall Index talent grades from 2017-18:

The hope with Poeltl is that his strength in the offensive rebounding, rim protection and finishing is enough to offset his lack of shooting, slow defense in space and poor defensive rebounding in a rapidly-changing NBA.

That hasn’t been the case so far. His offensive rebounding has been great in limited minutes. But his catching has been sloppy and is hardly even looking at the basket when he gets the ball. His lack of shooting and inability to defend outside the paint is still evident.

It’s hard to picture him having the confidence to execute a move like this right now:

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We’ll see if Popovich can find a way to maximize his strengths moving forward. It won’t be easy in a league that values shooting and versatility so strongly.

1 Prediction

Dante Cunningham will remain a starter for the entire season

Cunningham was an afterthought from this offseason. He signed a one-year deal for $2.5 million more than two weeks into free agency. It looked like he would just play a small role and provide some veteran leadership.

He’s proven to be more than that, though. The 31-year-old veteran has started eight straight games and averaged 24.3 minutes per contest in that stretch. He doesn’t shoot much, but that’s not his role. His attention to detail on defense and versatility on that end is earning him minutes. It’s not a coincidence that the Spurs’ defense is No. 1 in the NBA since he entered the starting lineup.

Before the season, I would’ve pegged Gay, Pau Gasol, Poeltl or Bertans as more likely candidates than Cunningham to earn a regular starting spot.

But with the way things have shaken out, Cunningham is now an essential piece of the first unit. Gregg Popovich cares too much defense to change things now.

Note: Statistics are courtesy of NBA.com. Jakob Poeltl footage is taken from a YouTube video by AIR Highlights. Featured image is courtesy of Getty Images’ Rocky WIdner.