The range of skillsets in the NBA has always made it more chess than checkers, players serving as distinctly effective pawns, bishops, and knights rather than uniform pieces on a grid.
It’s a somewhat limited metaphor as it applies to ten super-athletes trying to put a ball through a hoop, but the Spurs’ 14-point win over the Pelicans did have a few more analogues to offer, whether it was watching Julius Randle relentlessly make the same rook-like B-lines towards the basket (and typically into the outstretched arms of Pau Gasol), or DeMar DeRozan using shifty, L-shaped routes to his preferred shooting spots.