Tonight’s Spurs vs. Rockets game

Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

70NEWSJAPAN.BLOGSPOT.COM - Murray is obviously a marvelous young player, with vast potential. However, his inability to make threes, and perhaps more importantly, the fact that he and Kyle Anderson are not a threat to even shoot a three pointer, makes it very difficult for the Spurs to properly space the floor. This is in turn makes it difficult for the other Spurs to penetrate, which then means the Spurs don’t get nearly as many catch and shoot threes -- the easiest kind to make. As a result, the Spurs actual three point threats -- Danny Green, Davis Bertans, Pau Gasol, Patty Mills, and Bryn Forbes – don’t get the great looks they would get on another team.

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A similar issue arises with the Spurs best player this season, LaMarcus Aldridge. His best position on the floor is posting up on the left side of the floor. But because he is such an effective mid-range shooter, he often “posts up” 12 - 15 feet from the basket, and likes to shoot a fall-away. This means that the defender covering the guard feeding LMA in the post can both bother him and easily recover back to the shooter if Aldridge kicks the ball back out.

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To counter this, the guard feeding LaMarcus often clears that side of the floor altogether. But while this means that LMA remains alone on his side of the floor to operate, the four Spurs crowd each other on the weak side. Good balance dictates two players on one side, three on the other. It is very difficult to properly space the floor with four players all on one side. In Saturday’s game, OKC often doubled Aldridge when the guard vacated -- and the lack of floor balance and spacing on the weak side did not lead to good looks for the Spurs’ shooters, but turnovers and forced shots instead.