San Antonio Spurs: Game 6 Takeaways From Memphis

The San Antonio Spurs defeated the Memphis Grizzlies 103-96 Thursday night to move on to the second round of the playoffs. Here are some key takeaways from the final game of their opening round.

While Game 6 wasn’t nearly as dramatic as Game 4, there was still plenty to watch over the 48 minutes of action between the San Antonio Spurs and Memphis Grizzlies. Kawhi Leonard went for 29 points, despite seeming to struggle before he started getting to the free-throw line.

Mike Conley was on one, hitting shots in the final seconds of the first two quarters that made viewers think something special might happen in the end. And a certain future Hall of Famer turned back the clock to lead the Spurs to the next round.

Here are a few takeaways from the Spurs’ Game 6 performance.

LaMarcus Aldridge Is Ready For A New Series

LaMarcus Aldridge has had enough of this Memphis Grizzlies series. Throughout it Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph have made Aldridge look like their kid brother by pushing him around the paint. At times though, Aldridge was the kid brother figuring out his size and skills.

He had 17 points and 12 rebounds in Game 6, including some scrappy offensive rebounds and putbacks. But overall he looked really uncomfortable, getting knocked off his spot on both sides of the ball.

On his shots, he hardly saw an easy pick-and-pop look, which is where he dominates. Most of his shot attempts were either down in the paint getting bumped or forced fadeaways.

San Antonio Spurs /

San Antonio Spurs

With the team moving on to face the Houston Rockets, Aldridge will welcome Ryan Anderson on defense with open arms (and 17-foot jumpers).

Defensively he looked pretty good by showing some fight with Gasol and Randolph in the post. But with both Grizzlies’ big men having the strength advantage on him, they often got what they want.

Z-Bo’s low center of gravity allowed him to get into the middle of Aldridge, back him off and take whatever shot he wanted. In other cases Aldridge had done everything right and held his ground, but it just didn’t matter.

In the second quarter on a Marc Gasol post-up, Aldridge did just that. Gasol made one move, two moves and Aldridge stood pat. But when Gasol went up for the shot, LMA chose to swipe for the steal rather than contest and Marc went right over the top and nailed it.

LaMarcus may even prefer chasing Anderson around the three-point line to this matchup.

Tony Parker Is Officially No. 2 (In A Good Way)

Tony Parker led the charge for the San Antonio Spurs in the first quarter of Game 6, scoring 11 of the team’s 24 points. He had 27 points for the game on 11-of-14 shooting from the field and 4-of-4 from the free-throw line.

Parker looked like his old self in this game, like he did for much of this series. A lot of the offensive game plan in this game was simply, “Let Kawhi Leonard and Tony Parker go to work.”

He appeared to get to whatever spot of the floor he wanted, getting all the way to the rim on multiple occasions as well as working his way to open space for pull-up jumpers.

With Kawhi pressing just slightly in this game (8-of-19 from the field, 1-of-5 from three) it was a huge lift for the team to get some vintage Tony. They will need similar performances from him moving forward.

The Offense Worked Out … Considering …

The San Antonio Spurs managed to crack 100 points Thursday night by scoring 103, but it did not happen in their usual way. The team, which is is in the top 10 in assists per game with nearly 24 per contest, only had 13 dimes on the night.

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A lot of this had to do with the fact that Kawhi and Tony were going one-on-one a lot, which in this case was fine. Clearly the mentality was, “Just give us the ball, and we’ll win this game,” and it ended up working out.

Still, 13 assists is more than five less than the league’s worst assisting team this year, the Toronto Raptors. That’s a pretty significant number and one the team should look to correct in the next round.

It is also surprising the Spurs cracked triple digits considering the lack of contribution from some of their role players. Danny Green, Patty Mills, David Lee and Aldridge all scored their season averages, but the team got just four points from Manu GInobili and a goose egg from Pau Gasol.

That equals about 20 missing points between the two of them (compared to their season averages) that the team had to find elsewhere. (Hint: It came from France)

All in all, the team did what it took to get the win, and the series. Some things will have to be worked out between now and the first game of the next round on Monday, as the Rockets are a different animal.

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But with Kawhi Leonard, a hot Parker and the adjustments of Gregg Popovich, there should still be a lot of confidence in this team.