Jeremy Sochan's Defense 'Makes it Tough' on Spurs' Opponents
The San Antonio Spurs fell to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday night, 113-107. Victor Wembanyama could not get it going on the offensive end, adding only 12 points.
Tre Jones led the way for the Spurs with 22 points on four-of-five shooting from deep, but the main storyline following the game was Luka Doncic's triple-double, despite his abysmal shooting.
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Doncic dropped 16 assists and ten rebounds, both of which are excellent, even for him. However, he added only 18 points on horrible 6-of-27 shooting, and only made two three-pointers.
While Doncic was able to find open teammates with ease, he could not get quality shots off, and that was largely thanks to the defense of Jeremy Sochan.
"I think that Jeremy (Sochan) is the main one guarding him (Luka Doncic) tonight," said Jones. "He made it difficult for him from the start. He's he's been doing a great job defensively this year. You know, all the matchups that he's been getting, most nights, he gets the toughest one. He accepts the challenge. He makes it tough on the opposing team's players."
While Wembanyama is the best rim protector in the league, swapping away and deterring shots in the paint, Sochan has been the primary point-of-attack defender all season and has done an excellent job against some of the best offensive players in the league.
This season, across the dour games the Spurs and Mavericks have played, Doncic is averaging 29.3 points per game. That's nearly five points below his average.
Doncic is shooting 43.4 percent from the field against the Spurs this season and 26.8 percent from three, while he averages 48.8 percent and 37.6 percent on the season, respectively.
He does average 11 assists per game against the Spurs, so even while Sochan manages to cover his assignment, the rest of the Spurs still struggle on the defensive end.
As the Spurs continue their rebuild and look to compete in the coming seasons, having an elite point-of-attack defender to compliment Wembanyama will be the driving force behind defensive success. If Sochan can continue to shut down superstars and Wembanyama can totally close off the paint, opponents' options will be severely limited.
