That was a rough one. But at least there was a tangible increase in communication and effort in that second half. In the end though, they never really could figure out how to properly rotate to the three-point shooters. Even when we made our run it came down to the next missing shots. And as soon as they started hitting them again they got right back to having a blowout

For now I get what pop is doing and I’m cool with him. Continuing his Victor can do whatever he wants and we’re not going to run any set offense for him and put him in a box thing…

But at some point it would be really nice for San Antonio to get some nice set design to plays to get Victor touches in the paint.

Using him as a jump shooter is such a waste. That’s going to become an important part of his game at some point, and the threat of it will be important for allowing him to keep defenses honest so he can utilize the rest of his skills

But both him and the team let him settle way too quickly for those shots. He’s a guy who’s confidence and ability goes up a lot when he’s hitting shots and opening up quarters with him. Taking a bunch of jumpers is just not a great idea

If he’s going to be doing that it needs to be coming off a flare screen or pick and pop out of the pick and roll on a nice mid-range jumper

Plenty of people have screamed about the lack of lobs so I won’t even open up that can of worms. But it’s a real problem and San Antonio definitely needs to figure out why. So many guys on the roster are either afraid to throw lobs, not looking for the lob, or are absolutely terrible at it

Collins may have some solid stats but I thought he was dreadful tonight. He was getting moved around and pushed around by every big man on New York. Harstein absolutely at work him on the glass two or three times and on multiple occasions Zach got caught ball watching when Victor went out to defend on the perimeter and allowed Mitchell Robinson to get an easy offensive rebound

Johnson had a nightmarish game honestly. It was all the worst attributes about him boiled into one unfortunate game. As much as Victor took shots and missed pretty much every jumper, and was by far the worst on defense, he’s been as a spur… Johnson was a big big big reason. San Antonio got into a hole early and often… He was over helping so bad and leaving his man wide open. A good handful of those quickly/ Barrett/ brunson first half threes came off of KJ over helping on a rotation or failing to rotate at all as the help defender. I’ve been a big supporter of his improved defense but my goodness was he bad tonight. And when things started to get out of control he forced the issue. Some really silly turnovers and out of control shots.

Malachi gave Johnson a run for his money on terrible defensive rotations tonight. That’s about all I can say. He was a non-factor as a playmaker, he didn’t put pressure on the rim. He hit a few shots which he usually does but he did very little positive for me

Jeremy was actually a huge, huge bright spot. We can talk conspiracy theorist about his lack of passing to Victor and he definitely misses him quite a bit… But I thought all in all he was the only guy who didn’t look like he was in his own head all night. He methodically hunted for mismatches and did a good job exploiting them, he was one of the few players throwing himself at the rim to help on the glass. When Victor was on the perimeter or Collins was being overwhelmed, he didn’t make any high level passes, but he made some smart ones and his three-pointer looked good. San Antonio needs to find a way to get Victor more paint touches while simultaneously also utilizing Jeremy as a mismatch creator in the block. The Spurs can’t keep getting away with allowing teams to put their point guards on him on the other end. He punished the next today and the Spurs would be wise to utilize that more often

Doug McDermott had a second really solid game. He hit shots, his defense actually looked solid compared to Malachi and Johnson, and he played with his typical no hesitation confidence which this team really needed on a night where they looked like. They never thought they had a chance to win this game

Charles bassey had a few solid moments but I thought He had a few really really poor moments on defense where he went for the block that he had no chance of getting and allowed offensive rebounds or easy access to the rim for a score. He added some physicality but looked outclassed against harstein Most of the night.

I thought Jones had an up and down game. I thought he was a steady hand for the most part but he was uncharacteristically off at at finding the easy opportunities for his teammates. He missed Victor, Collins, and Charles on unguarded opportunities at the rim, Victor several times, and he validated a lot of people who point his defense as a reason why he shouldn’t start. He did a terrible job on quickly. Consistently gave him way too much space. With that said, I thought he took it right to quickly on the other end. And did it really good job in transition. Allen, all he was one of the better performers on a night were most of the team really struggled