What We Learned from the Spurs loss to the Grizzlies

01/16/2025 12:55 PM

A matchup with a potential rival yields a few lessons

Let's talk learning experiences. It's a phrase that gets tossed around a lot with young teams—"This loss is a learning experience," or "This road trip is a learning experience," and so on. These become platitudes and vague generalities meant to make us all feel a little better. It's methadone: it blunts the pain in the short term so we can survive long enough to keep at it.

I'm as guilty of this as anyone. I log on here after a tough loss and just sort of squint at it. I'll notice some good things, I'll acknowledge there's work to be done, and I'll move on. Simple as that. I don't want to dig into it any further because it's not really my job to. Watching a loss on TV is about as much emotional labor as I can handle, so asking me to... what? Sit here and live through it again? No, thank you. I'd usually rather just chalk things up to "Gotta keep grinding" and move on with my life.

We can only do that for so long, though, right? I mean, we're here. We're watching these games night after night, and there has to be a purpose to it beyond living and dying for that quick dopamine hit when the score goes our way. What if we took it upon ourselves as fans to really sit with a loss like this and stew in it—not getting mad, not overreacting just to feel something, not inventing problems that aren't there. None of that noise. We're just going to look this loss dead in the eye and figure out what this team is. We're going to figure out what we learned from the Spurs' loss to the Grizzlies.

What Did We Learn?

• From an aspirational standpoint, the Grizzlies aren't exactly the team we want to be. However, they are hanging out on a level right above us from a competitive standpoint and, in that sense, they are a team that deserves our attention. This is no longer 2011. Mike Conley and Zack Randolph aren't walking through that door, BUT, this team does seem to have a little bit of that "Grit 'n' Grind" DNA in there. They are competitive and they are tough and they are just going to battle with you all night. Building up a little lead on them isn't something that matters. You have to bury them. The Spurs did not bury this Grizzlies team last night and, frankly, it's a little unclear if they have that kind of capability at the moment.
• Devin Vassell mentioned after the game that both teams we're "chirping" at each other and you could really feel that during that game. There was an intensity to this contest that felt a little heightened compared to normal regular season games. That's good! I'm glad the Spurs have the ability to get a little feisty out there. The, uh, bad part, I guess is that they also kind of laid an egg when it came to backing up all that chirping. Victor, in particular, seemed flustered down the stretch. It's obviously not a talent thing with him, but you can tell he get's caught up in the moment a little bit. It's like, I don't know, it's like he's so smart that he can tell this is a moment he needs to rise to and then he sort of over does it. He's dribbling through three guys, he's launching ill-advised shots, he's trying to guard all 5 guys on defense. It's tough. I'm sure he feels the pressure to be The Man all the time and sometimes the effort he puts into that enterprise causes the whole thing to short circuit a little.
• Of course, in what felt like a "bad" game for Vic also resulted in him almost casually getting to a triple double and having handful of plays that you could safely file away in the "Mind Boggling" drawer. It's insane how much his gravitational presence affects the game. From the second he steps on the court, everything seems to revolve around where he is. I'm sure that's something we'll all get used to over the years but it's still kind of freaky to see it happening every night.
• There were two specific instances of the Spurs not boxing out on missed free throws down the stretch that lead to the Grizzles getting the ball back and draining a 3 for what amounted to a 4 point swing. It's not the reason the Spurs lost this game, but it feel indicative of why they lost the game. The attention to detail just get's lost sometimes with these guys. I don't for a second doubt their effort or desire or anything like that, but time and again I feel like they lose focus on the little things that make a huge difference on the margin. Luke Kennard exists on this earth for one reason and one reason only: Make open threes. If you and I know this then, surely, it must've been something that came up in the prep for this game. If that's the case then like...how is he just drifting away from the action over and over and over again and getting exactly to his spot with no one around him? Not getting a hand in Luke Kennard's face 5 more times than they did last night, again, probably wasn't the reason they lost this game, but taking away his 15 points sure would make a dent in that final score's 14 point margin, yea?
• Stephon Castle is the real deal. We've made this declaration a few times this season, but it feels important to re-declare every once in a while when he does us the curtesy of re-affirming his real deal status. He felt like a guy who was extremely tapped into the current of this game and understood what was happening. It was tough and it was intense and he responded by playing with every once of toughness and intensity he had. Every time he had the opportunity, he was attacking the rim and forcing the Grizzlies to deal with him and it changed the whole dynamic of our offense, especially with Victor sort of sputtering by his relatively lofty standards. The next step with Steph is, obviously, just to see this kind of performance more consistently and there's no reason to think we won't. Frankly, I mostly am hoping that the coaching staff empowers him to take the reigns like this more often.
• At what point do we start talking about Castle as a long term staple in the starting lineup? Are we doing that now? Have we already been doing it? It feels like we're there. Even with Jeremy coming back it seems like....well. I mean, does Devin need to start coming in with the second unit until we can get his shot going more consistently? Should we not worry about it because we probably need to start planning for life after Chris Paul anyway? Games like the one last night start to beg these types of questions. The Spurs are in the hunt for things this year but, make no mistake, this season is as much about next season as anything.
• I know it didn't count, but the Ja Morant dunk on Victor down the stretch hurt. It hurt to look at and I just hate every second of it. It's something that, unfortunately, we probably need to start inoculating ourselves against as Spurs fans because it's going to keep happening. A lot. Dudes are going to dunk on Wembanyama. They want to do it. They need to do it. They are going to be able to do it. Crucially, they will often fail. Vic is an absolute beast and already a generational defensive player, so he is going to block most things. The problem is that he's not going to block everything. Guys are going to slip through. Circumstances will allow for a "poster" here and there and every time it happens—sigh— it's just going to look so freakin cool, aesthetically speaking. I hate that for us. If it's the tax we have to pay for getting Victor in a Spurs jersey then, you know, so be it. But just know that I'm going to seethe every time it happens.

One Cool Thing to Watch So We're Not All Bummed Out About the Loss

WWL Post Game Press Conference

- What made you go with the format change for this one?

- Just felt like the team needed a switch up. Sort of like how Pop would call a timeout and sub out all the starters at once, you know? Sometimes little tweaks aren't enough of a momentum shift to really get anything accomplished.

- What were you hoping to accomplish with this kind of shift?

- I didn't like the last thing WWL I wrote. I mean, I did, but maybe it didn't really land the way I felt it should? I dunno. I made a flippant comment about Chip Engelland that I thought was funny but then it ignited this whole deal where people were arguing in the comments about Chip Engelland in a way that...didn't feel like what I intended. I mostly wanted to emphasize that he used to feel like a player development safety blanket and now when we say stuff like "Once Castle gets a jump shot ironed out" I don't actually know that we will?

- Feels like this is something you want to keep litigating?

- God, no, please. I'm sorry. I do not want to keep litigating anything. I never want to re-litigate. Toss those litigations in the trash.

- So, new format, new you? Is this going to stick around?

- Maybe? Maybe it frees us up to try some new stuff? Maybe we can have different versions of WWL going every few games? Maybe What We Learned is going to be the friends we made along the way? Who knows!

- Well we're all looking forward to seeing what you do

- Thanks. I'm going to try not to read too much into the fact that I'm basically doing a daily affirmation with a voice in my head in the form of a press conference.

- Yea, I wouldn't read into that too closely. Probably nothing good comes from that.