Spurs let the game slip away against the 76ers

The quality of play in Wednesday night’s Spurs-76ers game in Philadelphia could have been poor. Philadelphia was without Jimmy Butler and had both of its other stars, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, questionable on the injury report heading into the game. Davis Bertans didn’t play for the Spurs, who are typically weak on the road.

However, the game ended up featuring a lot of great shot-making and team play from both squads. Ultimately, the Sixers made more plays in crunch time and got the 122-120 win.

Let’s dissect the game from the Spurs’ perspective with three observations, two questions and one prediction.

3 Observations

The Spurs bench was good, but the Sixers’ bench was great

The advantage the Spurs needed to have in this game was with the benches. Philadelphia’s depth is pretty lackluster, and San Antonio’s reserves have considerably more experience.

The results?

Spurs bench (70 total minutes)- 35 points, eight rebounds, five assists, one steal, one block, three turnovers, 72.3 true-shooting percentage

Sixers bench (64 minutes), 34 points, seven rebounds, 11 assists, four steals, two blocks, one turnover, 75.8 true-shooting percentage

T.J. McConnell, Landry Shamet and Jonah Bolden all had several key plays in this game. McConnell’s midrange jumper was on point and he handed out several on-the-money dimes, Shamet was a three-point sniper and a nuisance in the passing lanes, and Bolden had a momentum-shifting sequence where he blocked LaMarcus Aldridge twice at the rim before running the floor for a powerful transition slam.

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Patty Mills and Marco Belinelli made big shots in this game, but so did McConnell and Shamet, and the Sixers bench did more outside of scoring to make an impact.

It’s evident why the Spurs are interested in wing help

The Spurs’ defense that was elite between mid-December and early January is now gone. The team hasn’t had as many ghastly defensive performances as the beginning of the season, but the squad is unfortunately settling in as a mediocre stopping unit. Simple regression to the mean is part of the reason for this. Also, Rudy Gay’s injury and Pau Gasol’s return have caused rotational instability.

On Wednesday, the Spurs’ weaknesses defending on the wing stuck out. Ben Simmons was either too long or too quick for the players San Antonio tried defending him with, which was a combination of Rudy Gay, Dante Cunningham and Derrick White. The Spurs had trouble staying with the Sixers’ shooters around screens. Even when the players did stick with their opponents, they often didn’t have the requisite length or athleticism to bother their shooting motion.

San Antonio could have also used some extra length and physicality for help on the boards and with the turnover battle. Philadelphia had 13 offensive rebounds to the Spurs’ five and forced 15 Spurs turnovers compared to just 11 miscues for the Sixers.

The Athletic’s Jabari Young reported on Tuesday that the Spurs have looked into acquiring a wing player over the past few months. Young added that the team could be interested in the Pistons’ Stanley Johnson.

Should the Spurs think about adding more rangy, versatile wings to the team? Of course. The roster is missing that type of player.

But considering team chemistry and asset management, the best move might be to wait until the offseason to add wing help.

Derrick White still doesn’t get the ball enough

White played 36 minutes and had 15 points and five assists to just one turnover on 6-of-9 shooting on Wednesday.

The high minutes are good. The low number of shot attempts and overall on-ball reps are unacceptable.

Since December 29, there have been 217 players who have averaged at least 20 minutes per game. White leads them all in true-shooting percentage (72.1). And yet, he ranks just 146th among those same 217 players in usage percentage (16.7).

That disparity would make sense if he were a player dependent on others to set him up for shots, like a pure spot-up shooter or rolling big man. But White isn’t that. He’s a very good pick-and-roll ball handler and a crafty all-around shot-creator who can score at all three levels and make plays for teammates.

Gregg Popovich and the Spurs rarely seem to feed the hot hand when that hot hand is White. He’s had nine games shooting better than 60 percent from the field this season, but he’s never taken more than 11 shots in those games.

Utilizing White more should help the team’s offense. Maybe the team can stagger his minutes with DeRozan more so he doesn’t have to play with the team’s primary ball-handler so much. A side benefit of White creating more is that DeRozan’s overall minutes and ball-handling load could be lessened to preserve his body.

2 Questions

Was this the end of DeMar DeRozan’s slump?

This was DeRozan’s best game in more than two weeks. He had 26 points on 12-of-19 shooting from the field and caught fire from midrange (7-of-11 between 10 feet and the three-point line). It was great to see him hit that shot quite a few times since that’s been such an issue for him in the past several weeks.

However, there have been more issues to the slump than just poor midrange shooting. DeRozan’s turnovers have been up recently, and he still gave the ball away six times on Wednesday. His free-throw rate and percentage have both plummeted in the past month. He took just three freebies against Philly, making two.

Two of DeRozan’s top strengths as an offensive player are his ball security and ability to rack up points at the charity stripe.

I’d like to see more of those things come back before declaring this slump over.

Is Lonnie Walker going to get meaningful NBA burn this season?

Walker was active in this game, but he wasn’t able to get any minutes. Some fans in the arena were calling for the Reading, Pennsylvania native to play, but to no avail.

The question of Walker’s potential role this season is one I could easily see going in different ways. Gregg Popovich has stated that “he needs to play” to facilitate his development, per News4SA’s Jeff Garcia, which is why Walker is spending a lot of time in Austin. Walker is thriving there, with a current four-game streak of at least 20 points and 50-percent shooting from the field.

Currently, the Austin Spurs are out of the playoff picture. If they stay out, Walker’s season with them would be done on March 23. Does the team want him to go more than three months without meaningful game experience before Summer League starts? That wouldn’t be ideal.

The current group in San Antonio seems to be pretty tight-knit, however. The team may not want to risk integrating an inexperienced prospect so late in the regular season.

Most likely, Walker will have to wait his turn for a real rotation role this season. However, he should be a garbage-time mainstay late in the season and the playoffs. He may also occasionally play in meaningful situations in the event of injury or foul trouble.

1 Prediction

The prediction in my last Spurs recap will be wrong

When I broke down the Spurs’ win over Minnesota last Friday, I predicted they would go 5-2 in the stretch immediately following that game before the Rodeo Road Trip.

Well, so far, the team is 0-2, so that prediction isn’t looking great. A five-game winning streak from now is definitely possible with a very workable schedule, but it’s certainly not likely.

The Spurs had a very uninspiring performance against the Clippers on Sunday. They were weak defensively on Wednesday against the Sixers.

Getting Davis Bertans back should help balance out the rotation. But DeRozan also needs to get back to his normal self and the team needs to do better at containing ball pressure on the perimeter if it wants to get out of its 3-5 funk.

Note: All statistics are from NBA.com or RealGM. Video is courtesy of Ximo Pierto’s YouTube account.

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