Preview: Santa Cruz Warriors face the Austin Spurs in a G-League shootout
The Santa Cruz Warriors will travel to Cedar Park Texas as they face the Austin Spurs at the H-E-B Center at Cedar Park on Thursday.
The Santa Cruz Warriors will have their hands full with the San Antonio 2018 first round pick Lonnie Walker IV in the lineup who is with the Austin Spurs recovering from a right knee injury (meniscus tear).
On today’s edition of TimeOut, I am going to highlight two things the Sea Dubs need to do to avoid a loss against the Spurs.
Avoid teams from having third quarter magic
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Don’t let the stats from their loss to the Memphis Hustle fool you, the Austin Spurs have offensive from the starters to the bench.
Against the Sioux Fall Skyforce, although the game resulted in a loss for the Spurs, six of the eight active players scored double digits. Since basketball is a game of runs, the Warriors have to prevent the Spurs from having a huge scoring run in the third quarter where the currently have the eighth-highest points in that quarter.
Meanwhile, for the Warriors, they tend to take their foot off the gas offensively in the third quarter, currently last place in point scored in that quarter despite being +5.9.
The Warriors need to not only attempt a lot of shots but they also need to ensure that they make those shots.
Although the Spurs are 24th in the field goals attempted, they make more shots than the Sea Dubs. Despite winning the game against the Texas Legends, the Warriors allowed the Legends, to score 45. points in the third quarter allowing them to lead 99-89 going into the final quarter.
With Darius Morris being great for the Warriors recently, especially in the final minutes of the games, it is safe to say that the Sea Dubs are in safe hands to close game but the team must ensure that they stay on point on both sides of the ball consistently.
If the Sea Dubs were able to hinder the Rio Grande Valley Vipers offensively to the point of them only scoring two points in the third quarter in Thursday’s loss, they can do it again going forward.
Keep them away from the free-throw line
The Austin Spurs are in the top five from the free throw line shooting six-of-eight (5.7 of 7.6 to be exact) from that area. Anybody who has paid attention to the Sea Dubs is knows one thing: the Warriors have a tendency of sending opponents to the free-throw line too often.
There is an upside though.
The Warriors per game for the season thus far has had 5.9 fouls, and the Spurs have recorded 6.1 personal fouls for the season thus far. This could work in favor for the Sea Dubs if they can find a way to get the whistle.
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The game will be live on ESPN+ on Thursday.