Wemby Watch: Selfish Play, Turnovers Doom Spurs Again vs. Pelicans

Story of The Game

Keldon Johnson’s selfish play is out of control. This game he combined his customary ballhogging with an array of unforced turnovers to singlehandedly destroy any chance the Spurs had.

Keldon finished with 6–18 fgs and 5 turnovers and a team worst -30.

Jeremy Sochan also contributed to the blowout by calling his own number too many times early on, going 1–7 in 26 minutes.

It’s unlikely the Spurs would have been able to keep pace with New Orleans given the Pelicans history-making three point barrage, but the game was competitive early in the third. The Spurs only trailed by seven after making headway.

Victor Stats

17 points, 4 assists, 13 rebounds, 4 blocks in 31 minutes

6–13 fgs, 2–6 3 fgs

Quick Thoughts

Keldon Johnson was atrocious.

His talent, energy, and athleticism are all great, but his mindset is all wrong.

Jeremy Sochan also continues to force the issue on the offensive end, too often looking for his own shot. Because he lacks both touch and the ability to create his own shot, he continually misses or brings the offense into a standstill.

To a lesser extent, we also saw Devin Vassell missing easy setups for the 7'4 giant on the team.

It’s too bad their isn’t someone with knowledge on how the game should be played that can instruct these players on what to do.

We’re past the point of blaming this on Keldon Johnson, Jeremy Sochan, and company.

Sure they have a horrible me-first mentality, but Gregg Popovich is supposed to coach this team into making the proper basketball plays.

Ideally and optimally the Spurs offense would be running through Victor.

Ideally and optimally Victor would be shooting a minimum of 20 shots per game, getting the ball in positions to succeed.

But Gregg Popovich has been a horrible coach all season and this game was no different.

The blowout loss isn’t the problem. The problem is the Spurs are continuing to make very basic mistakes and the offense still doesn’t center around Victor.

Too often Victor comes into possession of the ball beyond the three point line with the only options being to chuck a three or pass to someone else.

The more I watch Spurs games, the more I think, “horrible coaching.”

We continue to see the same mistakes over and over and over again despite the fact that the correct path forward is so obvious and so very easy.

Pre-Game Setup

The Pelicans-Spurs matchup is game #25 for the Spurs.

Betting: Pelicans -7.5, Over/Under 238.5

(Guess-Prediction: I’ll take the Spurs and the over.)

Betting Record going into the game 11–10–1.

The Pelicans travel to San Antonio for this contest.