Young Spurs crumble under pressure of 'unique' Raptors attack
San Antonio sorely missed Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell on Wednesday, as Toronto ran roughshod over a shorthanded, inexperienced roster.
SAN ANTONIO — Through the first seven games of the season, the Spurs’ free-flowing offense was able to move along largely unbothered. The pick-and-roll game, the dribble-handoffs, the off-ball motion — it all worked together in harmony to create the second-highest number of open shots in the league behind only the Milwaukee Bucks, and more assists per game than any other team.
Sailing had been relatively smooth prior to Wednesday night, but San Antonio knew the Toronto Raptors’ ball-hawking swarm of pterodactyls would provide a challenge they hadn’t yet faced.
“They’re the most unique team in the league,” Gregg Popovich said prior to the game. “They’ve got a great group of athletes who are long and strong, very aggressive, they can switch everything — all five positions basically — and they have a great attitude of how to play hard every minute.”
Behind its never-ending sea of arms and flood of red jerseys, Toronto would go on to throttle San Antonio, 143-100, and hand Pop the worst loss (43 points) of his coaching career in the process.
The Raptors forced 23 turnovers — 16 of which were steals — and scored 39 fast-break points. In the halfcourt, their size and physicality were simply too much for the Spurs to handle as they poured in 76 points in the paint.
On the other side of the ball, San Antonio’s offense was essentially neutered without Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell (both out with minor injuries). Toronto took away any available ounce of breathing room from Spurs ball-handlers — constantly switching on screens, aggressively shifting its amoeba-like defense to the strong side of the court to crowd the ball, and jumping passing lanes on the back side to kill the drive-and-kick sequences that are a staple of San Antonio’s offense. When the Spurs did manage to create penetration, they were met by a throng of bodies collapsing on the paint, ready to eat any shot or pass attempt that went airborne.
Irrespective of the absence of Johnson and Vassell, the blowout loss to the Raptors was a harsh reminder of just how much more San Antonio must build and develop in order to contend with the best the NBA has to offer. Toronto may not be on the short list of title contenders, but it has the ability to bring a game into the mud and beat teams up in a way few sides do, and the Spurs had no answer for all the punches that were thrown.
“We probably aren’t ready for that right now, obviously,” Pop said after the game. “(The Spurs) tried hard, but they were up against something that was a little bit different for them.”
There is a handful of teams capable of playing elite-level defense in the NBA, but there may not be another that can blanket an opposing offense in wingspans the way the Raptors can. It takes a certain level of experience and shot-creation talent to deal with such a unique foe. A great system can only take a team so far.
“They’re good at switching one through five. They get in the passing lanes. We have to get better at moving off the ball and off the back door. That was a good veteran team, and it was a good test for us,” Keita Bates-Diop said. “They’re tall, long, lengthy, strong, and fast. We have to learn how to adjust to that on the fly. They’re tough to cover and they’re a tough team.”
As the season rolls along and defenses begin to lock in, San Antonio is going to be faced with difficult tests of execution. Opponents will turn up the aggression, pick on the Spurs’ weak points, disrupt their flow and muck things up for an offense that relies heavily on a team concept to create space. Without a superstar in the fold capable of creating advantages in one-on-one matchups, there is significant potential in the future for things to bog down the way they did Wednesday, especially against elite defensive units with size.
But considering the way they’ve played this season when healthy, being without Johnson and Vassell was a huge blow. When the Spurs got in the weeds, there was nobody who could take the ball and go get their own shots, and the ripple effects of their absences reached almost every aspect of the game.
With the offense struggling mightily to put the ball in the basket, the Raptors were able to grab the ball off the glass and repeatedly run out in transition; without players used to initiating offense, Toronto could crank up the pressure and force the turnovers that are its lifeblood; and lacking the size and length Johnson and Vassell possess, San Antonio’s smaller reserves struggled to provide enough resistance to the Raptors’ relentless downhill attack.
Late in the first quarter and into the second, there were glimpses of a young team that started to figure out how to counterattack Toronto’s style. The Spurs were crashing the glass, hitting cutters, and finding the inside-out passing lanes to locate open shooters on the perimeter. But oftentimes the most difficult thing to achieve in the NBA is consistency, and the waves of Raptors defenders eventually flooded San Antonio’s shorthanded operation.
The mismatches, the inexperience, the talent discrepancy, the size differential — as the game went on it all blended into one runaway snowball, and the Spurs could not get out of its way.
Tony Buzbee press conference
Attorney Tony Buzbee will be discussing allegations made against Joshua Primo at a press conference in Houston, which will be live-streamed at 10 a.m. CDT on Thursday.
The Buzbee Law Firm recently sent out a press release outlining what will be addressed.
“At the conference, Tony Buzbee will discuss allegations made by Dr. Cauthen and others against NBA player Josh Primo, the events that precipitated the release of Primo, the veracity of recent public statements made by both the Spurs organization and Primo, interactions with individuals within the San Antonio Spurs organization, and the expected path forward. Dr. Cauthen will be present to make a public statement and answer pertinent questions.”
Given the Spurs’ silence over the last several days, it’s difficult to predict exactly what’s coming. But one thing is clear: Dr. Hillary Cauthen has details to share about an ugly situation, and it sure does feel as though multiple people — and not just Primo — will be subjects of the discussion.
We will all find out together.