San Antonio Spurs, Dejounte Murray close out 4th quarter; 3 takeaways

2. Turnovers must be limited

A glaring issue in the first game was one that the San Antonio Spurs usually don’t have as a problem. Turnovers were the big killer in the Spurs’ momentum and are what ultimately kept them from putting the game away early. It kept their offense stagnated and let the Knicks stay in the game and take control during the third quarter.

At one point in the third quarter, the Spurs had 20 turnovers while allowing the Knicks to get 32 points off of those mistakes. The Knicks are a young team that was quick to get up and down the floor, as they scored 29 points on the fast break.

This will hopefully not be an issue moving forward, as the Spurs were ranked second in turnovers last season with only 11.7 a game. It is completely un-Spurs like to have a game with this many turnovers. With a team that has long prided itself on discipline and quality ball movement, this outing was lackluster, to say the least.

Guys like LaMarcus Aldridge, DeMar DeRozan and Dejounte Murray all led the team in turnovers with four apiece.

With Tim Duncan on the bench too?

This could just be a fluke and the Spurs certainly did not get blown out. Thankfully when looking at this team’s roster, you know that a lot of these guys are not prone to turnovers. One has to wonder what their pace will look like this season and if that will have any impact on what is to come.

What was promising about the situation was that as soon as the Spurs stopped committing turnovers, they began to run away with the game. The fourth quarter saw them get it all together. The only issue is that if they play sloppy as they did in the first three quarters against a team that isn’t the New York Knicks, they might find themselves in a hole too deep.