Trying to regain form
Poeltl expects to be on minutes restriction in return to lineup
As Jakob Poeltl walked off the court at the end of the first half of Thursday’s 115-90 drubbing at Minnesota, Spurs point guard Dejounte Murray put his arm around the 7foot-1 Austrian’s shoulder.
Seconds earlier, Karl-anthony Towns beat Poeltl off the dribble from the top of the key for a driving finger-roll layup at the buzzer that hiked Minnesota’s lead to 13 points.
It was that kind of night for Poeltl, who was playing in his first game since Nov. 1 after missing seven while in the NBA’S COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
Earlier in the day, the Spurs announced Poeltl would be available against the Timberwolves after clearing protocols following his participation in shootaround. Coming off the bench behind Drew Eubanks and playing under a minutes restriction, he finished with just two points, a pair of rebounds and one block in 15 minutes.
Clearly, it could take him a while to return to the form that allowed him to post pergame averages of nearly 30 minutes, 13.9 points, 9.7 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in the seven games he started before he entered the protocols.
“I honestly felt pretty good conditioning-wise,” Poeltl said. “I feel like I still need to get my rhythm again. It’s kind of weird playing these short, limited minutes. It’s tough to get into the game. In general, yeah, just not enough (time) tonight.”
For Poeltl, his reconditioning work was more difficult than experiencing COVID.
“I did have symptoms,” he said. “It affected me a little bit. I was stuck at home for a while. I thought I had enough
time to get back to it, but it’s obviously tough because you have to start all over again, start building up that conditioning. You can only do limited stuff for health and safety reasons.”
The Spurs went into the game not knowing what to expect from the sixth-year player labeled the team’s defensive “anchor” by coach Gregg Popovich.
“We are going to see what he can handle,” Popovich said. “He is certainly not back yet, but he’s been cleared medically to go back, so we’ll see.”
What they witnessed was a player with plenty of rust to shake. Fortunately, with the Spurs not scheduled to play again until Monday night against Phoenix at the AT&T Center, he will have time to work at chipping it away.
“I’m taking it day by day, going through my workouts,” he said. “Just get that rhythm back. I’m guessing it’s still going to be limited minutes (Monday), but we’ll see.”
The reeling Spurs need Poeltl to return to PRE-COVID Poeltl as soon as possible.
Towns had 25 points and 12 rebounds and D’angelo Russell contributed 22 points as Minnesota (6-9) handed the Spurs (4-11) their worst defeat of the season. The Spurs trailed throughout, including by as many 20 points in the first half.
For the second straight game, the Spurs had a season-low in points. They tallied just 92 in a 14-point loss against the Clippers on Tuesday in Los Angeles.
After Thursday’s game, a disappointed Popovich talked to the media for about 40 seconds without taking questions.
“That’s an ass whipping, for sure,” he said. “Give credit to Minnesota. They were on a back to back. They had great physicality, great energy, they shot the ball well. They were physical, executed well and beat us in a lot of different ways. That’s a bad night. We didn’t really have anybody who had a good game. And if that happens, this will be the outcome.”
The Spurs returned home after their three-game trip having lost five of their last six, including four in a row to match their worst losing streak of the season. Three of their last four losses have been by 14 points or more.
Only the 1996-97 Spurs had a worst record through
15 games, going 2-13. Popovich replaced Bob Hill as coach that season after they started 3-15.
After hitting just 22.7 percent (5 of 22) from 3-point range against the Clippers, the Spurs shot a seasonworst 18.8 percent (6 of 32) against the Timberwolves.
Lonnie Walker IV missed 9 of 10 from distance against Minnesota. He’s 2 of 22 from beyond the arc over the last four games.
While the Spurs struggled, the Timberwolves canned 42.9 percent of their bombs (21 of 49).
But Poeltl said the decisive factor in the embarrassing outcome was that Minnesota enjoyed decisive edges in energy and mental toughness.
“I think the shooting hurt us a little bit, but I don’t think that’s the reason we lost the game,” Poeltl said. “I
felt like we didn’t have enough heart and passion. Those spurts where we showed it, we fought ourselves back into the game. But then we fell back into playing too casual, letting missed shots affect the way we played. I felt like we lost our confidence and then didn’t play hard on defense anymore because we missed a couple of shots in a row.
“It can’t happen. (Defensive tenacity) has got to be our identity. We always play hard, we always play together, especially on the defensive end. I don’t think we brought that tonight.”