What we learned from the spurs -loss of the heat

The spurs made a brave effort without Victor Wembanyama, but got beaten by the horn of Bam Adebayo’s game -winning shot. One of the biggest differences was that their offense was neutralized, scoring two baskets in the last five minutes. The team is now 4-4 in games decided by three points or fewer and 2-4 without Wemby.

The heat may have been absent Jimmy Butler, but at this point they are better without him. One of the most encouraging signs was that the spurs could hang in the game while being overwhelmed by the athletics and length of Adebayo and Rookie Kel’el Ware. The second was that the defense did a solid job of protecting without the enthusiasm, allowing only 17 free throwing attempts and kept the heat at 5.5 percentage points below their average in 3-point shooting.

Although the concerns lose too many creative opportunities and not be able to maintain output from the first quarter. The sprouts shot 39 percent in the last three quarters.

Takeaways

• The half -court attack was miserable and scored only 88.2 points per year. 100 pieces, good enough for the 24th percentile of all games played this season, per. Cleaning the glass. Part of this was because Heat’s Zone caused Spur’s problems by forcing bad shots and turnover. Without Wemby, the team did not have the matchup advantage that could crush the zone in the middle. Friday against Bucks, such tactics were meaningless with him on the floor.
• Adebayo, which has played much better since Butler was banished, looked like an all-star again against Charles Bassey. He came downhill and connected his jumpers. On top of that, the heat did not see the resistance in the back line from a real shot blocker, which allowed them to score effectively in the non-limited area and at the middle class.
• Wemby’s absence released minutes for reserve bigs. Bassey’s best work was to recover 15 rebounds, including seven on offensive and make four shots on the edge. Sandro Mamukelashvili made three baskets in a row to give San Antonio a three-point lead late in the game. But Zach Collins was a dud and Jeremy Sochan had trouble scoring towards length.
• Keldon Johnson picked up where he escaped the night before and scored 17 points in the first half, mostly on trips to the line. But the heat was ready for him in the second half and held him to two points on 25 percent shooting.
• Castle did not register the most conspicuous statistics, but he stepped up as a playmaker and dived six assists without the top goal on the team. In addition, his Pick-6 gave under six minutes to go the spurs a short lead as both troops were head-to-head on the scoreboard for the quarter.
• Harrison Barnes spent most of his time from defense and bothered Ware, who had 25 points against Spurs on January 19th. Ware tried only two shots against him, making one in five and a half minutes, per minute. NBA’s tracking data.
• The most awful part of the film review for coach Mitch Johnson and the team will probably see Terry Rozier again and spank them from long reach. He had done 24 percent of his 3-point attempt from December 1 to before the game. Johnson should take the opportunity to nip the latest trend-washed players who were balling out against Spurs- after seeing what Rozier and Khris Middleton did with the team over back-to-back games.