What We Learned from the Spurs' Loss to the Grizzlies

Yesterday at 03:15 PM

The Spurs and Wemby have found their kryptonite, but they've also found their backup big.

This season had been fun until we ran into that baseball series at home. Chris Paul and Harrison Barnes have proven to be the catalysts the Spurs needed to start winning more consistently. Victor Wembanyama, after a rough start, has developed nicely. Stephon Castle has been a much better rookie than anyone could have expected. The Spurs have significantly outperformed their Vegas over/under projections. And then they ran into the Grizzlies.

For the second game in a row, they conceded a whopping 78 points in the second half. I can remember the days when the Spurs won games by scoring 78 points. Maybe happy days are lurking around the corner. Maybe the season will continue to be a fun season next week when they play another baseball series on, as far as Victor Wemabnyama is concerned, home court. But for now, they've hit rock bottom. They and their best player have found their kryptonite in the Memphis Grizzlies.

Over two games, the Grizzlies attempted 27 more shots than the Spurs, totaling 200, and made 26 more, finishing with 106. Wemby, on the other hand, took a total of 38 shots for just 32 points. The Grizzlies have the perfect players to defend against him. And it's not just Jaren Jackson Jr.; it's also, perhaps even more so, Santi Aldama from Spain, who effectively covered Wemby very closely last night – and for whom Wemby and the Spurs couldn't find an antidote yet again.

A first-round playoff matchup with the Grizzlies remains a remote possibility for the Spurs, but I must say: Anything but a clean sweep would come as a complete surprise to me.

Takeaways

• It feels strange to start the takeaways with the opposing team, but in the case of the Grizzlies, I can't resist. The Spurs are envied by the league for having Victor Wembanyama, but when it comes to identifying and signing talent others overlook, is there any team doing as well as the Grizzlies? Jaylen Wells is firmly in the race for Rookie of the Year, and he's a second-round pick. Jay Huff was waived three times before signing with the Grizzlies, and now, in his age-26 season, he's emerged as a stretch rim protector in a backup role (both the Lakers and Nuggets must be kicking themselves now, seeing what they failed to recognize before). Scotty Pippen Jr. is another major find. Most strikingly, the Grizzlies traded for former number-30 picks Desmond Bane and Santi Aldama just days after these players were drafted by the Celtics and Jazz, respectively.
• Another remarkable thing about the Grizzlies is that no one, not even Ja Morant or Desmond Bane, is averaging 30 minutes per game; they're all below that threshold. The Cavs seem to follow a similar approach. Reportedly, both teams limit their stars to shorter stints. Is there something to be learned from this? Very likely. After all, we're talking about two of the league's best teams. (It'll be interesting to see how the minutes will be distributed in the playoffs. Both the Cavs and the Grizzlies have rather resourceful head coaches.)
• We Need to talk about Victor. And by that, I mean Victor's offense. The Spurs started the game with Wemby taking a heat-check three just 10 seconds in, and on the next possession, he took a one-legged floater from around the area where Harrison Barnes loves to take his three-point attempts. That's two possessions wasted for Victor to figure out, "Do I have a hot hand?" No, he didn't. Later in the game, he took contested mid-range shots against Santi Aldama, which didn't work out either.
• There were also instances on the other end where Wemby didn't look good. The most striking moment came when the Spurs fell apart, and the Grizzlies went on a big run: Wemby closed out on Aldama at the top of the arc. Aldama fired, Wemby speculated on a fast break and kept moving toward the offensive end, but Clarke grabbed the offensive rebound from Aldama's miss, passed it back to Aldama, who then charged toward the basket and scored. Meanwhile, Wemby was in no-man's land. That's not serious basketball, and it has to stop.
• Stephon Castle played some serious Basketball during stretches. In the first and second quarters, it looked like the Spurs were his team, not Wemby's. His driving game is already excellent, he can even work with his back to the basket, and he coolly converted a mid-range shot. However, when he catches the ball behind the arc, the Grizzlies' defenders don't even bother closing out. On the other hand, Castle has been making some impressive whip passes from the right side of the key to the left corner. I continue to be convinced he has a bright future with the spurs, despite his Shooting struggles.
• Devin Vassell had a sloppy first quarter and a passive second quarter, but he completely exploded in the third. The highlight of his hot stretch — and maybe even the Spurs' highlight for me personally this season — was when he collected a block by Charles Bassey on Jake LaRavia, ran the court, dribbled behind his back to get past LaRavia and Bane, then dunked powerfully over both Wells and Brandon Clarke. Devin kept the Spurs in the game for a few more possessions, but soon after, things fell apart completely.
• All Spurs players, except one, only impressed in stretches. However, there was one who once again made the most of his minutes: Charles Bassey. His role as the primary backup center should be cemented for the rest of the season. Bassey isn't perfect, but he simply manages to produce on both ends. And that's something Zach Collins can't consistently do.
• My last point concerns Spurs fans in Europe, like myself, more than anyone else, because we're about to experience something we've never ever experienced before. For three consecutive games, we're going to be able to watch the Spurs live during evening primetime: against the Heat at 9 PM, the first Paris game versus the Pacers at 8 PM, and the second at 6 PM. Go Spurs Go!