Just because Jakob Poeltl is a starter, doesn’t mean he should be barred from playing in garbage time. The Nuggets’ lead ballooned to about 30 points near the start of the fourth quarter, rendering that last period meaningless. Normally, that’s when players like Poeltl shine; they can do stuff that maybe they wouldn’t do otherwise, and they get loads of pressure-free minutes to just play the game. Poeltl started this game, just like he has every game in the series, but that’s more because the Spurs totally lack other viable center-like options than because he is a starter-quality player.
What I’m saying is, I was expecting a few more buckets for him to push his total into the 16 or 18 point range, but instead, he sat at the end of the third and never returned. This arrangement did lead to a bucket for Donatas Motiejunas, which I’m very happy about, but I think Poeltl deserved a chance too. At least drag Chimezie Metu from whatever precarious seat behind the bench he occupies, tell the scorekeeper that it’s actually Poeltl checking in (who’s going to care at that point?), so you can have Metu get some valuable playoff experience and Poeltl can receive whatever stats he manages to accumulate.
Oh, and just saying, it was very clear that the Spurs were going to lose this game when their first bucket was a jump hook by Poeltl from about a million miles away from the basket. That’s the kind of shot a team that’s going to win a game is never going to take; losing teams, on the other hand, take those kind of shots all the time.