They are so wrong about this...

It feels like after one game, a lot of people have already made their minds up about the Spurs, and they're about to be very, very wrong. Look, not everyone, of course. A lot of Spurs fans and most people understand the Spurs will bounce back, but that one game where Victor Wembanyama shot one for 13 did leave a sour taste in a lot of people's mouths. But it hasn't stopped the media. Carmelo Anthony asked on TV what he even worked on all summer. The headlines called it the worst shooting game of his career, and the fans who hated the three-guard lineup got to say, hey, I told you so. I get it. Look, it was a bad night, and nobody should pretend that it wasn't, but here's what the headlines have left out of this whole equation. Friday night versus the Spurs, we got the Houston Rockets on Prime Video. Wemby against Alperen Sengun, a bit of a pest himself. Castle, Fox, and Harper against one of the best defenses, at least in the backcourt in the league, and a Houston team that San Antonio beat three out of four times last year. I'm about to show you the numbers, and I'll be honest about what can go wrong. You can tell me if I'm crazy, but right now, we're primed for a major, major bounce back. Let's start with how loud the doubt got from a lot of people. Carmelo Anthony, on his show, 7pm in Brooklyn, quote, What have you worked on skillset-wise? And, in that first game, I didn't see any developed skillset. To be fair to Carmelo, he did say, look, again, this is his first game, and that part did seem to get lost in a lot of clips, a lot of snippets, so gave a bit of credit where credit's due, but still, there already was this sort of anti-Wemby skillset narrative going on. We saw some other places calling it a career-worst night. 1 for 13, 7.7% of his shots made a career low. Sports Illustrated went with Wemby's worst shooting game ever. Yahoo went with Fiennes' new nemesis. Clutch Points wrote, pump the brakes on Victor Wembanyama's coronation. It got a bit crazy, and before tip-off, fans were already writing the spurs off over the lineup. Not everyone, again, but there were a number of people saying that the three guard lineup was a mistake. One posted that with those guards and one shooter, we're going to get fried. as we talked about yesterday, another calling benching Champagny a grave mistake, stuff that you guys have already seen, and yeah, I mean, maybe it turned out a bit worse than we thought, but there's a lot of time left to prove the coaching staff very right. You know what ruins a great outfit fast? 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Try to make his catches, talking about Wemby, a little easier to where he doesn't have to always create for himself. And then, quote, if we can make it just a little bit easier for him, I think that's when you start seeing 40, 45 points, the step back threes. There's the fix for you right there. At least one of them. You got to play faster and make his catches easier. Let him live on those lobs or dunks in the lane instead of having him create on the perimeter or in traffic. And to go back to some of the hater comments let's just go to Carmelo he wants to see a post-up game hey he thrived in that high post with that jab step and fine look we know Wemby can average a ton of points 65 games 51% shooting last year the thing is he's just one go-to move away from being an incredible player and even if he had just made three of those jumpers yesterday I think we'd be singing a bit of a different tune because just one night I don't think is a big enough sample to say that it is a skill set problem for him or he didn't develop enough but now there's a matchup that decides this game versus Houston, and that is Wemby versus Alperen Sengun. Sengun has started this season on a pretty good tear, 23 points, 10 boards, 5 assists, 9 for 15 shooting when they beat Dallas, and that's the third most games in Rockets history already for Sengun with 20, 10, and 5 assists. Only Hakeem and Harden have more. Look, we know Sengun is good. He averaged 20 points, 9 boards, 6 assists last year. We're not going to try and tell you he isn't good, but when Wemby played against Sengun there were four regular season games last year the spurs won three of them Wemby averaged 23.3 points 10 and a half boards and 2.8 blocks in those four games well that is maybe a bit below some of the numbers that you would expect the spurs still managed to get those wins against houston and that's really what matters but let's look back to march 8th where the spurs won 145 to 120 Wemby had 29 points on 69% shooting it was a plus 27 Sengun had 16 points five turnovers and was a minus 28. And what Sengun hasn't historically done is stretch the floor a bit. Only 27.8% from his career on three, 70% on his free throws. He's a solid passer. He can play around the elbows. He can try to drop that shoulder on Wemby, but when he tries to get into the paint, that's where he usually thrives. Now we have Wemby there to stop him. And it's a great way to get Wemby back his confidence. Wemby against Sengun. These are the numbers that matter here. And it's a head to head that I think San Antonio is really going to look for to get Wemby his buckets to get Wemby back into that winning mindset though historically Wemby hasn't been amazing against the Rockets over just 11 career games against them he averages only 19.1 points and the Spurs are five and six in them but again last season was the season where not only the Spurs turned it around against the Rockets we had a completely different winning Spurs team compared to the first few years January 20th 14 points 23.8 percent shooting but eight days later he went out for 28 and 16 with five blocks, and that is more the Wemby that we expect. But the three guards are a big story against Houston as well. Castle, with the big 24 in opening night, has averaged 16.5 points and 8 assists across four games against Houston in his career, and even had 13 assists in that first one. And back to that March game where they won 145-120, he had 23 points, making three of four threes, and was a plus 19. Against Houston last year, how about De'Aaron Fox? three games, averaged 17.3 points, and in that March game, he had a cool 20 and 10 assists. How about Dylan Harper? There's been a lot of talk about him, and Ty Small over at Air Alamo wrote that the Rockets were, quote, already an elite defensive group last season, and then they added Marcus Smart, got Fred VanVleet back. We know it's going to be a bit of a challenge for the Spurs backcourt, but look at Harper against them. Three games last year, eight points, then 16, then 19. You know he's just going to keep developing that shot and that efficiency, 62.5% from the floor, and in that March game that we keep going back to, three of four from three. He's already seen this defense, although not the fully healthy version, but he has scored on it. These three guards played together in only three of the four games against Houston last year, but the Spurs went two and one. They did win the one game where they weren't together, but it's still worth noting. So why do I think that Friday turns everything around? One, the Spurs, I don't think are going to shoot that same way from three again. They're going to start to get their shot back. Two, they're going to play faster. They're going to get Wemby the ball, and Wemby against Sengun to me is just a recipe for success to get down low to put some baskets in and to just get that mindset shift going for San Antonio so let me know in the comments how many points does Wemby score against the Houston Rockets on Friday I'm saying an easy 25 plus but i'd love to see 30 main things i'm watching first five shots of wemby's night against houston if he can even go two for five or three for five we're in for something big you gotta just make more than one If you can make more than two shots in those first five, this whole thing is going to change. Second, we got to watch the pace. Again, if the Spurs can get out in transition with Fox, with Harper, with Wemby, Vassell, and Castle, those five guys love to play fast. It'll result in more touches for Wemby, more lobs, hopefully, for Wemby, and just more efficient basketball overall. And finally, the three-point shooting. Of course, those four starters besides Castle are not going to shoot one for 12 again. At least we hope not. And if they can get out to a hot start themselves, any one of these three things happens. The Spurs are going to start very hot. But if the Spurs come out again with very little offensive game plan and Houston continues their hot streak, then, hey, you know, things could change my tune. But I'm not betting on a second bad night. If anything, I'm betting that the San Antonio Spurs are absolutely going to turn things around. This team that was in the finals four months ago, a star like Wemby who told us exactly what he needs to do and how he's going to fix it, and three guards who have already beaten this team. Don't you forget, we got pregame, we got postgame reactions after games. That's the one to watch next. Get ready for incredible Spurs basketball this season and make sure you're subscribed for the latest and greatest daily San Antonio Spurs content.