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The Cavs hit the road to take on the San Antonio Spurs deep in the heart of Texas. The Spurs started the season 5-2 then lost 16 of 17 before winning their last two games against Houston and Miami. Their record is 8-18 overall and 4-10 at home. The Spurs are basically starting a rebuild with mostly young guys.
At the moment the Spurs are dealing with some injuries to their bigs; both their starting center and top two power forwards are out. Center Jakob Poetl averages 13 points and leads the Spurs with 10 rebounds. Starting PF Jeremy Sochan averages 8.1 points and PF Keita Bates-Diop averages 7.9. All three are out so the Spurs will be short on big men. So will the Cavs with Wade out and Love a game time decision.
What the Spurs have left isn’t very tall. SF Keldon Johnson, 6’5”, leads the team in scoring at 20.9 points, but only shoots 41%. SG Devin Vassell, 6’5”, averages 20.4 points on 46% and 42%. PG Tre Jones, 6’1”, averages 12.6 points and 6.7 assists on 42% and 30%. Backup center Zach Collins, 6’11”, 250, averages 8.6 points in 20 minutes.
Against Miami on Saturday they also played Romeo Langford (6’5”), Doug McDermott (6’6”), Josh Richardson (6’6”), Charles Bassey (6’9”), and Malaki Branham, a rookie from Ohio State (6’4”). So other than Collins and Bassey the Spurs didn’t play anybody over 6’6”. Bassey was a late 2nd round pick in 2021.
The Spurs should be at a significant disadvantage up front against Allen and Mobley.
The Spurs rank 24th in points per game. They play fast, ranking 6th in field goal attempts per game and are 9th in points in the paint. They prefer to attack the rim and shoot mid-range shots. They are 23rd in 3-point percentage and they turn the ball over a lot, ranking 26th. The are bad at drawing fouls, ranking 29th in free throw attempts per play.
The only area where they are above average offensively is offensive rebound percentage where they rank 10th. However, the three bigs that are out combine for 50% of their offensive rebounds.
Cleaningtheglass.com, which removes garbage time data, ranks them 28th offensively and 30th defensively. In terms of point differential they are last, being outscored by 10.6 points per game on average. The next worst team is -7.3.
CTG has the Spurs 5th highest in shooting frequency at the rim, but with Poetl, Sochan, and Bates-Diop out that may change.
Defensively the Spurs are a hot mess, ranking last in points allowed at 120.4 per game. The next worst is at 117.6. The Spurs are also last in effective field goal percentage and opponents’ 3-point percentage. They’re 27th in points allowed in the paint and with three bigs out they are likely to be even worse.
The only thing they don’t do much is foul - they allow the 6th fewest free throws. Normally bad defensive teams foul a lot. I wonder if these guys even try on defense.
Despite being probably the worst team in the NBA and having two starters out the Spurs somehow beat the Heat in Miami two nights ago 115-111. The Heat were at home and had all their main guys playing, including Butler, Adebayo, and Herro. I can’t explain it - maybe the Heat played “arrogant basketball”. Or maybe the Spurs are just better without their bigs - all of them are in the negative in the on/off stat, especially Bates-Diop at -10.5.
The Cavs need to come hard and not take the Spurs for granted. I’m sure JBB will emphasize that win over Miami. Kevin Love and Donovan Mitchell are listed as game time decisions. With or without them the Cavs should pound it inside with the Spurs being short-handed on the front line. Nobody is worse than the Spurs at defending the perimeter so the 3-pointers should be there as well. Play the inside-outside game and on defense defend the rim.
On paper this should be a breeze but the same was true two nights ago and the undermanned Spurs beat 12-14 Miami at home. Last night Houston (7-18) beat Milwaukee (19-6). On any given night a bad, injury depleted team can beat a top five, totally healthy team. All it takes is the good team coming in overconfident and cracking open the door.
At the moment the Spurs are dealing with some injuries to their bigs; both their starting center and top two power forwards are out. Center Jakob Poetl averages 13 points and leads the Spurs with 10 rebounds. Starting PF Jeremy Sochan averages 8.1 points and PF Keita Bates-Diop averages 7.9. All three are out so the Spurs will be short on big men. So will the Cavs with Wade out and Love a game time decision.
What the Spurs have left isn’t very tall. SF Keldon Johnson, 6’5”, leads the team in scoring at 20.9 points, but only shoots 41%. SG Devin Vassell, 6’5”, averages 20.4 points on 46% and 42%. PG Tre Jones, 6’1”, averages 12.6 points and 6.7 assists on 42% and 30%. Backup center Zach Collins, 6’11”, 250, averages 8.6 points in 20 minutes.
Against Miami on Saturday they also played Romeo Langford (6’5”), Doug McDermott (6’6”), Josh Richardson (6’6”), Charles Bassey (6’9”), and Malaki Branham, a rookie from Ohio State (6’4”). So other than Collins and Bassey the Spurs didn’t play anybody over 6’6”. Bassey was a late 2nd round pick in 2021.
The Spurs should be at a significant disadvantage up front against Allen and Mobley.
The Spurs rank 24th in points per game. They play fast, ranking 6th in field goal attempts per game and are 9th in points in the paint. They prefer to attack the rim and shoot mid-range shots. They are 23rd in 3-point percentage and they turn the ball over a lot, ranking 26th. The are bad at drawing fouls, ranking 29th in free throw attempts per play.
The only area where they are above average offensively is offensive rebound percentage where they rank 10th. However, the three bigs that are out combine for 50% of their offensive rebounds.
Cleaningtheglass.com, which removes garbage time data, ranks them 28th offensively and 30th defensively. In terms of point differential they are last, being outscored by 10.6 points per game on average. The next worst team is -7.3.
CTG has the Spurs 5th highest in shooting frequency at the rim, but with Poetl, Sochan, and Bates-Diop out that may change.
Defensively the Spurs are a hot mess, ranking last in points allowed at 120.4 per game. The next worst is at 117.6. The Spurs are also last in effective field goal percentage and opponents’ 3-point percentage. They’re 27th in points allowed in the paint and with three bigs out they are likely to be even worse.
The only thing they don’t do much is foul - they allow the 6th fewest free throws. Normally bad defensive teams foul a lot. I wonder if these guys even try on defense.
Despite being probably the worst team in the NBA and having two starters out the Spurs somehow beat the Heat in Miami two nights ago 115-111. The Heat were at home and had all their main guys playing, including Butler, Adebayo, and Herro. I can’t explain it - maybe the Heat played “arrogant basketball”. Or maybe the Spurs are just better without their bigs - all of them are in the negative in the on/off stat, especially Bates-Diop at -10.5.
The Cavs need to come hard and not take the Spurs for granted. I’m sure JBB will emphasize that win over Miami. Kevin Love and Donovan Mitchell are listed as game time decisions. With or without them the Cavs should pound it inside with the Spurs being short-handed on the front line. Nobody is worse than the Spurs at defending the perimeter so the 3-pointers should be there as well. Play the inside-outside game and on defense defend the rim.
On paper this should be a breeze but the same was true two nights ago and the undermanned Spurs beat 12-14 Miami at home. Last night Houston (7-18) beat Milwaukee (19-6). On any given night a bad, injury depleted team can beat a top five, totally healthy team. All it takes is the good team coming in overconfident and cracking open the door.
