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Game Thread Dec 26, 2022 06:00PM MT: Jazz at Spurs

Added to Calendar: 12-26-22

San Antonio played with a fast pace and hard working ethic right from the start, and they just aggressively drove to the paint on seemingly every possession. Vando and Kessler both had a bad day at the office but our perimeter defense didn't help them much by letting Vassell, Johnson and Branham especially drive inside pretty much uncontested. They got stuck on every screen it seemed and also got beat one on one.

I dont know why the hell Markkanen was wasted defending Sochan early on... but I was pleasently surprised in the 4th when Hardy switched him to Vassell. His one on one defense was one of the keys why we were able to come back. He challenged all his shots and only allowed 2 buckets on 7 attempts one of which was a dumb shot against good contest by Lauri and another one was a drive that Lauri initially stopped but then he just bit a little too hard on a step back fake allowing Vassell to finish it with a layup.

On the offensive end, it was again one of these days when Beasley cannot hit the side of the barn. This time Lauri was cold as well especially at the start, but he did get to the line a lot and finished with a nice statline. Usually 1-2 of our top 3 shooting bad ends up costing us against good teams, but to be fair we should win a team like San Antonio anyways. This was more about the defense, or lack of it.

Its funny how we somehow play so much uglier ball when we are the favourites. We need to be the underdogs to have movation? We came out flat and didn't match their energy, effort or aggressiveness.
 
Random observations:

- I really, really hate it when this team acts entitled and thinks they can win by showing up. Just a terrible effort after a 3 day layoff. Half the guys looked like they'd forgotten how to play basketball. Some of that is on Hardy. As a head coach, motivating your team during the dog days of the NBA regular season is one of your main responsibilities. And it's all the more important after a break like this. To me it looked like Hardy wasn't super interested or invested in what was happening on the court. This was one of those games where the ugly smell of stealth tanking appeared again.

- Speaking of tanking... at this point, I think I'd rather stab my eyes out with a rusty screwdriver than watch Rudy Gay play. Having him out there, bricking stupid shots and not closing out shooters, is an affront to the spirit of basketball. Just play one of the end-of-bench guys if you want to tank. But please, for the love of God... end this charade.

- When Beasley is not hitting his shots, it really makes you realize how awful his defense and passing is. He's like a 3pt shooting robot that hasn't been programmed to do anything else.

- I'm gonna keep saying this: more often than not, Vando brings nothing to the table. It's high time to bench his *** when KO returns. Too small to guard bigs, too slow and undisciplined to guard smaller, quicker players. Falls asleep, constantly gets burned by backdoor cuts, gets himself way out of position lunging at the ball for no reason. On offense, his "improved" shot continues to be a joke and he keeps throwing sloppy passes to the oppposition when he pretends to be a Draymond-like playmaker. IMO Vando's trade value is taking a nosedive right now and pretty soon teams will stop calling... if they haven't already. Should've sold high on him.
 
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Just watch the replay. No sur[rise there, too much poor shooting to expect anything. This team definitly fun to watch but not good enough to expect more than 7-10..
 
This game was a little bit of a chore to watch, so much fouling. The Spurs took us out of our rhythm and we couldn't hit open shots until the end of the game. Pop pretty much had a perfect game plan against us. Attack the paint and be physical with us on the other end. Maybe they need a total team fouling rule where if you exceed a certain number of team fouls for a game, you automatically lose.

Luckily, the last two minutes were entertaining. That shot by Beasley was about as far down as you can get without the ball going all the way down. I don't think that young Spurs team would have been able to recover if he hits that shot, and I'm pretty sure we win. A game of centimeters.

This team is interesting because our defense is so bad that we make bad offensive teams look good, but our offense is so good that we can score on all but the very best defenses in the league. If we are missing open shots we are vulnerable to lose to anybody based on how bad our defense is.
 
Just what i was afraid of. Long break, tanking SAS, holiday heads and a loss. We need KO back. He rings in some intangibles in both ends even he is not a huge stopper in defense.
 
SoUjazzfan said:
Putting Kessler back in with three fouls and 1:46 left in the first half is stupid as hell. I knew he'd pick up his fourth and handcuff him for the rest of the game. Sometimes Hardy is so dumb.
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Whats even dumber is not playing him when he is foul trouble. He ended the game with only 4 fouls. So the only reason his minutes were limited is because the coach chose to put him on the bench. Not due to fouls. Not really Hardys fault though because its simply part of a coaches programming that they think they have to remove a player who is in foul "trouble". They dont though.
 
SoUjazzfan said:
He's playing soft as not to get his fifth. It's not rocket science. Then when he could use them he's on the bench.
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Thats dumb though. Dont change the way you play. Its ok to foul out. That means you played literally every minute you could possibly play and played hard and aggressive the whole time. Its much worse to play soft and passive and then finish the game with low minutes anyways and only 4 fouls. Doesn't make sense.
 
fishonjazz said:
Thats dumb though. Dont change the way you play. Its ok to foul out. That means you played literally every minute you could possibly play and played hard and aggressive the whole time. Its much worse to play soft and passive and then finish the game with low minutes anyways and only 4 fouls. Doesn't make sense.
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Agreed, but Kessler's mindset, especially in the third, was not to get another foul and the team suffered for it. Not much rim protection, Kessler was too passive.
 
As much as i hate rudy gay, simone hasn't played well to force hardy to play him in gays place. Still think he should go with Simone anyways cause Gay in gone as soon as possible no matter what where as if Simone can get it together and play well he could be signed to another deal.
Both have been bad though. Maybe when KO is healthy Hardy should shorten the rotation and play neither guy. Idk. Just hate watching Gay out on the court. He is no fun.
 
fishonjazz said:
Whats even dumber is not playing him when he is foul trouble. He ended the game with only 4 fouls. So the only reason his minutes were limited is because the coach chose to put him on the bench. Not due to fouls. Not really Hardys fault though because its simply part of a coaches programming that they think they have to remove a player who is in foul "trouble". They dont though.
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He got benched cuz he was playing like ****
 
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