The Spurs and Bucks lit up the scoreboard in Milwaukee on Saturday, shooting a combined 55.1 percent from the field and 41 percent from three. Both squads were dialed in offensively despite playing the second night of a back-to-back.

In the end, the Bucks won 135-129 on the strength of a 31-15 run to close the game. Let’s discuss three observations, two questions and one prediction from a Spurs perspective in light of the contest.

3 Observations

Defending modern NBA offenses is difficult for the Spurs

Saturday’s contest was a bad defensive performance from the Spurs. It’s just the fourth time San Antonio has allowed 135 points in a regulation game since 1990. The Bucks had a 68.4 true-shooting percentage.

The frustrating part about those numbers is that San Antonio’s effort on that end wasn’t actually that bad. These Spurs just don’t have the individual defenders to contain a team like Milwaukee. Gregg Popovich does a great job using team defensive principles to maximize his roster, but the lack of one-on-one stoppers on this roster is a killer.

The Bucks attacked the rim all night with three main ball-handlers: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Eric Bledsoe and Malcolm Brogdon. San Antonio’s perimeter defenders couldn’t contain them, which created a catch-22 situation: the Spurs could help on the drives to leave good shooters open, or they could stay on the shooters to let the overmatched defenders fend for themselves.

San Antonio tried both of those strategies, but neither worked. Milwaukee ended up with 66 points in the paint, 45 points on threes and 22 points from the free-throw line.

The bench had to clean up the starters’ messes

The Spurs’ bench was much more effective than the starters on Saturday. Four of the Spurs’ starters had a plus-minus of minus-23 of worse. Meanwhile, reserves Davis Bertans, Jakob Poeltl, Derrick White, Patty Mills and Marco Belinelli were all plus-14 or better.

The defense from both units struggled, but the bench moved ball well, took good shots and got to the free-throw line a bunch. The Spurs’ reserves had 47 points on 6-of-13 shooting from downtown and 11-of-13 shooting from the free-throw line. They also had 11 assists and just one turnover.

The starters have been struggling recently with poor ball movement, an over-reliance on midrange jumpers and lazy defense. At least on offense, they need to take a page out of the bench’s book.

The Bucks did a great job on LaMarcus Aldridge

Aldridge has had a rough offensive start to the season. However, he has excelled on the glass this season. He’s averaging a career-high 15.2 rebounds per 100 possessions and entered Saturday’s game with nine consecutive double-digit rebounding games.

Milwaukee limited his offensive impact by double-teaming him and boxed him out very well on both ends. Aldridge ended the game with just 15 points and three rebounds (none offensive) on 6-of-12 shooting.

2 Questions

Can Aldridge and DeRozan play well simultaneously?

During the Spurs’ 6-2 start to the season, Aldridge and DeRozan played well as co-stars. In four of those eight games, both members of the duo scored at least 21 points.

In the 11 games since then, though, they haven’t hit 21 points in the same game even once. Aldridge has especially struggled in the last few weeks. But even in LMA’s three best scoring games of the aforementioned stretch, DeRozan has played poorly, averaging 16.3 points per game on a 48.8 true-shooting percentage.

The Spurs aren’t going to be successful this season if their stars are never “on” at the same time. Gregg Popovich will need to remedy that, maybe by staggering their minutes more often.

Can the Spurs find consistent minutes for Bertans and White?

Bertans and White are the two most valuable bench players for the Spurs right now. Bertans is a knockdown shooter with good size and an above-average basketball IQ. White is an all-around combo guard with no major weaknesses.

Bertans has bounced back and forth between the Spurs’ second unit and the garbage-time crew for most of his Spurs tenure. When he comes off the bench and plays at least 10 minutes, he averages 16.3 points per 36 minutes with a 47.1/41.6/87 shooting slash. When he gets fewer than 10 minutes, he averages 8.4 points per 36 minutes with percentage of 33.8/34/50. He relies on the rhythm that comes with a consistent role.

White seems to be stuck in Pop’s doghouse. His minutes and ball-handling responsibilities have steadily declined in the past two weeks after a poor stretch of offensive play. But he’s still the only guard on the team who can play passable defense. And his offensive struggles could probably be helped with more on-ball reps.

Bertans and White are 26 and 24 years old, respectively, and are both under contract through at least 2020. The Spurs aren’t major threats to go deep in the playoffs this year. What do they have to lose by prioritizing the development of Bertans and White?

1 Prediction

The Spurs will make a trade this season

San Antonio has not made a midseason trade since 2013-14, when they shipped Nando De Colo to the Raptors for Austin Daye. The Spurs under Gregg Popovich have rarely made significant changes to the roster during the season, presumably for chemistry reasons.

But this season is different. The Spurs are 9-10 with the league’s 21st-ranked defense. They’ve been maddeningly inconsistent on that end of the floor, which is surely irking Pop. In the deep West, they’re in serious danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 1997.

By February, the Spurs’ front office will have realized that this just isn’t their year and will be looking to jumpstart a rebuild. It’s probably too early to discuss potential incoming and outgoing players, but San Antonio could use some defensive punch on the wing and/or draft picks.

Note: Statistics are courtesy of NBA.com and RealGM. 

Photo by Gary Dineen/Getty Images