What We Learned from the Spurs win over the Thunder

11/20/2024 01:58 PM

San Antonio finally gets on the board in the NBA Cup

It's not that you can't learn anything from a matchup like this — it's just that it's harder. The teams aren't complete. The circumstances are weird. All the variables in play make it just this side of impossible to draw any Big Picture conclusions about what we just saw. Little Picture, though? Well, the Little Picture is swimming with details that we are more than welcome to sink our teeth into, form opinions on, and commit to bits we can hold dear to our hearts long past any real relevance they might have.

Anytime we're watching the Spurs without Victor Wembanyama, it makes for a weird exercise. Especially right now, when the team is not exactly in "win or die" mode. You basically have to shift your expectations completely into development goals. How are guys looking? How are they coming along? What intangibles were on display? Stuff like that. It can be nice to have the stakes lowered a little bit, but it does make it a little less fun.

Part of that is just the fact that it's kind of the mindset we've been in for five years now. Who cares about the wins? We're just here to get better in the long run! It's the correct way to think, and I'm also sick of it. It's the smart way to think, and I'm also just a dumb lizard who likes seeing his team win at sports. I can't help it. I like to compete. I like being in the mix. Looking at the injury report before last night's game felt like sidling up to a restaurant and only seeing salads.

So imagine my surprise when the odds and ends that comprised this Spurs team showed up and started throwing real punches. I was beside myself. Who did they think they were? Everyone is just minding their business out there, and Keldon Johnson is throwing down one of the most aesthetically pleasing highlights this franchise has had in a decade? My absolute boy, Chuck Bassey, is throwing his body around and causing problems against a pretty formidable front court? Steph Castle is doing a Shai Gilgeous-Alexander impression in front of actual Shai Gilgeous-Alexander? This game played out almost exactly like I would've planned it in my head to a degree that I can't help but distrust it.

In fact, I don't trust it. I mean, I do and I don't. It's complicated. What I don't think is that the Spurs are suddenly one of the best teams in the West or that Keldon Johnson is capable of having a night like this on a routine basis. This team is still woefully short of being competitive in the mix without its big guns being available and a lot of things going right. It's not that this game was a fluke or anything, but it was certainly fluke-adjacent.

Here's what you have to like, though. The Spurs seem... smarter? They still play like their age (too young or too old, respectively), but they're doing it in a style that seems cohesive towards some sort of bigger idea about how to play. They're taking better shots, moving without the ball with purpose, and crashing boards relentlessly. The turnovers are still happening at a rate that makes me want to walk into the ocean sometimes, but they aren't the lazy, low-energy turnovers we saw last year. These seem to come from a place of guys trying to do too much versus guys not trying to do enough. It's not perfect, and it's not going to win any championships this year, but every once in a while, it's going to click, and we're going to be treated to a night like this.

It feels better, even compared to earlier in the year. It's almost like the rust is starting to come off and everyone (me) shouldn't have overreacted to a few shaky performances out of the gate. This is a team with a lot of moving parts they are trying to fit in and a lot of young guys still learning how to play. It's so easy to lose sight of that once you fall into the breakneck slipstream of the NBA regular season.

It's important not to read too much into this one game, but it's just as important to take a minute to appreciate it.

Takeaways:

• Keldon's dunk really was something else. Maybe I've just been starved for cool looking Spurs highlights of the Non-Wemby variety, but it did feel like it was one of the first Spurs moments that really broke through into the mainstream NBA conversation that didn't have anything to do with the the tall Frenchman and that felt important.

• The NBA Cup! How do we feel? I basically ignored it completely last year and was ready to do the same this year, but now that we've logged a win and might be a little bit in the mix...are we into it? Is it fun? Is it something we want? Like I said up there, my dumb lizard brain just likes to win things and if this might be a way for our guys to get some high leverage reps with semi interesting stakes then, you know, I think I might be ready to care? That said, also totally prepared to pull the ripcord on that plan if we beef in the next one. We're nothing if not flexible.
• I felt genuinely bad about Zach Collins getting raked over the coals for his back-to-back airballs in the last game so it was nice to seem him putting in some good minutes tonight. He's useful! I know he's not our favorite option most of the time. I know he's not Jakob Poeltl and he never will be, but he's useful. He eats minutes. He buys time. He does score from time to time. I don't know. I think being realistic about what the options are for the role he currently occupies is probably healthy.
• Was the Chris Paul three down the stretch the first real, "Chris Paul is a freakin' Spur!" moment we've had? It's not exactly why you hire a guy like that, but it's certainly a nice perk!

WWL Post Game Press Conference:

- What's your strategy for deciding whether or not something is important or not?

- It's a really simple thing where I ask myself, "Does this hurt my feelings?" If it does? Well you better believe I start a full court press movement to downgrade it's importance in the wider ecosystem.

- Feels a little intellectually dishonest.

- See? Now that hurt my feelings.

- Are you going to start taking these press conferences less seriously as a result?

- You're definitely on notice, that's for sure.