The Spurs got what they deserved in their visit to Miami. After a strong start, they played with low effort and minimal discipline on both ends and got blown out by the Heat, 128-107
From the start, it wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing game to watch, but it was hard to imagine how things would end up going. The Heat played slow and physical, and the Spurs were happy to match them. Both teams struggled with turnovers at times and the offenses were not sharp, but San Antonio had an aggressive Victor Wembanyama to turn to early and it was enough to carve out a sizable lead. Wemby’s dominance on both ends masked the lack of cohesion that characterized the Silver and Black in the first half and would only get worse later, but when they hustled, the visitors managed to keep Miami at bay. The first stretch of lazy play in which the transition defense and defensive rebounding were a disaster was solved by a timeout. As the second units checked in, the Spurs continued to play hard and upped the pace to good results. After one, the lead was 10.
An issue the young San Antonio roster often encounters after playing fast for a while is that the offense gets disorganized. It happened in the second quarter, and they paid for it. Instead of executing, everyone freelanced despite not having the individual talent to get away with it. Slowly, the Heat chipped away at the deficit by capitalizing on the Spurs’ mistakes and using a bigger lineup, with Kel’el Ware trying to draw Victor Wembanyama out and Bam Adebayo having a size advantage over Harrison Barnes. That configuration presented problems on both ends, but it was especially effective on defense, as the Silver and Black couldn’t find any reliable source of scoring. With the paint walled off, the Spurs over-relied on threes that didn’t fall. After scoring only 11 points in 12 minutes, the visitors went to the break down five…