What We Learned from the Spurs loss to the Rockets

10/29/2024 12:49 PM

A chirpy affair sees the Spurs come up short

Well, I guess it's a good sign that I hated that. It's the third game of the season, and this young Spurs team is, very unofficially, not exactly trying to climb all the way to a championship in the coming months. They have modest expectations, a solid growth plan, and all the right soundbites. We've been told to expect some rust coming out of the gates, and lo and behold, here we are—awash in it. I hate it.

It's not that I'm impatient, although I certainly am. I think I'm just ready to hold this team to a different standard. They've earned it, right? Yeah, they've earned it. We've spent a long time around here practicing restraint and growing alongside a team that needed to cut its teeth on the hard truths of NBA life. It's not that the process is over by any means; it's just that I think they're ready to move on to the next level.

What level is that? It's the level where you don't get a free pass for taking three quarters off against a rival team. A particularly annoying interstate rival that we'll be going head-to-head with and competing for every inch of space with for the next decade or so. The fight isn't just getting started with these guys; the fight started a year ago, and everyone needs to wake up.

I don't need everyone to be on Jeremy Sochan's level. They don't have to get on the mic and tell an entire city to...go away. I mean, they're welcome to get there if they'd like, but I don't need them to do that. What I need them to do is follow his lead. I need them to adopt the attitude that it's okay to get fired up and play this game with a little bit of vinegar. This isn't a friendly pickup game or a cool learning exercise. This is real. The stakes are high. The best time to bring your A-game was yesterday, and the second-best time is now.

This is the irrational fan talking. I know that. The rational basketball mind in me understands that the beginning of the season is for working out the kinks, and that spending too much time fretting over Small Sample Size Theater is a recipe for cooking up opinions I'd rather have back a few months from now. This is a similar-looking team to last year, but they're working some pretty big changes into the system, and expecting it to be firing on all cylinders from the get-go is unreasonable.

Having said that... I'll be reasonable when we're playing the Jazz on Thursday. This was the freaking Rockets. This was Fred VanVleet jawing at our boy and Dillon Brooks being the absolute worst at every possible moment. This is a team that should make the Spurs physically ill to lose even one quarter to. Frankly, I'm tired of going through the motions of NBA seasons and acting like some kind of basketball monk, lighting candles on the sideline and trying to reach enlightenment. I want to get my blood pumping. I want to feel things. I want to be FIRED UP about wins in October and annoyed about the losses. If we can't do that, then why are we even here in the first place?

This isn't a piece of calm basketball analysis. This is a statement of intent from me as a fan. I'm taking this Spurs season seriously. I'm setting a high bar for them to clear, and I'm going to be mad if they don't. Everything that comes out of the locker room from these guys at the moment is them saying they want to be pushed. They want the smoke. They want to be great. Well, I'm here to acquiesce to that request.

Practice is over. It's time for the Spurs to join the game.

Takeaways:

• I almost don't even want to talk too much about Jeremy Sochan right now because I don't want to jinx it, but he looks awesome. He's an absolute dynamo. He's physical, fast, and tough. He's even playing with a level of precision that I never would have imagined from him. He seems completely freed from having to think too hard about the intricacies of basketball and is finally just playing the kind of raw, instinctual game that comes easily to him. I love it. I hope he loves it. It feels like we're getting our first real look at the type of player who can slot in alongside someone like Wembanyama every night and fill in the gaps. Vic can do almost everything on the basketball court; he just can't do it all at once. That's why you have a Jeremy around.
• Speaking of Victor, it's been a slow start for the Tall Boy. Which, again, if you have your Rational Fan Hat on, is probably to be expected. However, something that's become very apparent is that when he isn't all the way right, it's sort of hard for this Spurs team to be all the way right, too. Which is understandable! I mean, if you have a player like this, then you build the team around him. That's kind of the whole raison d'être for NBA franchises. These first few games have shown exactly how right he needs to be for this supporting cast to work properly. He can't have 5 points heading into the fourth. He can't be turning the ball over. He can't just be a tall distraction out there. That's an awful lot of pressure to put on a 20-year-old, but it's the kind of pressure Victor says he wants so, you know....here you go my dude.
• I still don't know where I stand on these little mini-series that dot the NBA schedule these days. I know they are better for travel and other logistical things like that, but it just feels so unnatural to play a team again right after you just played them. It goes against everything I've come to believe regular season basketball should be. I say this as someone who watches copious amounts of baseball, where the entire regular season is built around playing teams multiple times in a row. But still! It's weird. I'm sure I'll get used to it.
• Although, I also said I was sure I would get used to the Spurs wearing their black jerseys at home a few years ago and, reader, I have not. I still hate it. Those are the road jerseys. We are not on the road. Grow up NBA. Get your house in order. You're like three gimmicks away from a circus.

WWL Post Game Press Conference

- Three gimmicks away from a circus is a fun turn of phrase. What kind of gimmicks would put you over the edge?

- Ugh, I mean, I'm so close to the edge at any given moment these days it's sort of hard to say. There's a chance I fell over the edge when they were trying to make sleeved jerseys happen and just never got up.

- Yea, the sleeved jerseys were a tough hang.

- The toughest of hangs! It kind of ruins any highlight montage from the last decade. It'll just be like: Cool play, fun dunk, incredible pass, most amazing thing you've ever seen but Steph Curry looks like a dork wearing one of those swim shirts kids wear at the pool, awesome block. Bums me out every time.

- It's almost like life is full of little imperfections you have to learn how to live with.

- It's almost like the NBA has let their bad ideas screw up my nostalgia.

- I like mine better.

- Yea, that's probably a healthier thought process we should go with moving forward.