What we learned from the Spurs Summer League loss to the Warriors

Every year, Summer League teaches us the same lessons. Without high-level NBA talent on the floor, defense typically has the advantage. The more physical and aggressive team can completely stifle an opposing offense that hasn’t played much together and doesn’t have the offensive weapons to counter the defensive force. The San Antonio Spurs Summer League squad learned that the hard way on Sunday in a 69-98 loss to the Golden State Warriors Gold squad.

From tip-off, it was clear that the summer Spurs were outmatched by Golden State. The Warriors were pressuring the ball on the perimeter, not allowing San Antonio to get into an easy offensive flow. When the Spurs did manage to get to the paint, the Warriors had the rim protectors to stop them from scoring. Overall, Golden State looked like the more physical and mature team. That played out on the stat sheet as well, as the Spurs had 19 turnovers, shot just 38% from the field, and were outrebounded 47-30.

Advertisement

Without Tarris Reed Jr. and Carter Bryant, the summer Spurs were missing two key contributors who could have brought some offensive firepower. Through two games, it’s clear that San Antonio’s summer team was designed for Bryant to be a key offensive force, as there aren’t many offensive creators on the roster. When he comes back in San Antonio’s first Las Vegas Summer League game, we should see more of what this team was designed to do.

Takeaways:

The standout performer on Sunday was Emmanuel Miller, who has one of the Spurs’ two-way roster spots. He had 12 points, 6 rebounds, and 2 steals, and knocked down two three-pointers. Miller is an awesome athlete who can get downhill quickly in transition. Defensively, he’s disruptive in the passing lanes and has enough size and strength on the wings to make things tough on his opponents. He can often get out of control in half-court settings, driving into a collapsing defense with nowhere to go. But his combination of size, athleticism, and shooting is intriguing. He’s a player to watch for the rest of the summer.

I’ve loved Maliq Brown’s defense. With Reed Jr. missing the game for a non-injury reason, Brown…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/learned-spurs-summer-league-loss-003638906.html

Author :

Publish date : 2026-07-07 00:36:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.