Spurs overcome injuries to take out Nuggets

Gasol injures finger in warm ups

The San Antonio Spurs keep humming along even through injuries from two of their starting players.  Pau Gasol broke a finger during pre-game warm ups while Tony Parker is still dealing with a left foot sprain.  Kawhi Leonard took up the slack as he completed his fifth consecutive 30-point game of the season.

“I’m just happy that my hard work has paid off,” Leonard said. “It’s just another stepping point to my career. Hopefully, I can keep going from here.”

The Spurs hit the road for a four game road trip that will have them visit Cleveland, Brooklyn, Toronto and Ne Orleans before returning home on the 29th to face their IH-35 rival Dallas Mavericks.  They will be home until the 4th of February facing Oklahoma City, Philadelphia and Denver before hitting the road for a long stretch.

Rodeo Road Trip

The Spurs begin their annual pilgrimage known as the Rodeo Road Trip.  This year the road trip kicks off o February 6th and will close February 26th.

 

 

Spurs drop first road game

Bulls take care of home court/end Road Win Streak

The San Antonio Spurs (18-5, 2nd Western Conference) fell one game short of tying an All Time NBA record last night after falling to the Chicago Bulls (12-10, 7th Eastern Conference) 95-91 at the United Center.  The Bulls were led by Dwayne Wade’s 20 points but they had five players in double figures and another three players within a basket of double figures.  The Spurs were again led by Kawhi Leonard’s 24 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

”Streaks are a good sign when they’re positive and they’re a bad sign when they’re negative, but at the end of the day, it doesn’t give you anything else,” Former Bulls center  Pau Gasol said.

For Head Coach Gregg Popovich, the loss was coming sooner rather than later because of sloppy first half play in a number of games leading up to the Bulls match last night.

”Our opponents have outplayed us physically and execute-wise in most first halves for most of the season, and somehow we pull it together in the second half and play harder and smarter than we did in the first half,” Popovich said. ”We got it to four, then some execution mistakes. That’s the disappointing part, that we’re not a very consistent team and we haven’t learned as a group the game is 48 minutes.”

At Home this weekend

The Spurs will regroup and take on the Brooklyn Nets (6-15, 14th Eastern Conference) at home tomorrow evening. The Nets are coming off a rare win over the Denver Nuggets (8-15, 11th Western Conference).

Plenty of great seats and affordable tickets are still available so be sure to grab yours today and help cheer on your San Antonio Spurs tomorrow!

[mappress mapid=”59″]

Spurs dismiss upgraded Warriors squad

Leonard sets new personal record.

The defending Western Conference Champions didn’t have a chance last night no matter that it was their home court season opener San Antonio Spurs star and reigning Defensive Player of the Year showed that his offense has taken yet another leap forward.  Leonard finished the game with 35 points on 10 of 21 shooting, 15-15 from the charity stripe, five rebounds, five steals, three assists with two turnovers in 32-minutes.

“We got punched in the mouth,” Draymond Green said. “I don’t know if it was quite a bad thing for us.”

“If there was an outcome I wasn’t expecting, it was this one,” the SpursManu Ginobili said. “A 29-point lead against a team like them? I truly didn’t expect it.”

And yet, one game does not make a season.

The Warriors had trouble with (and will continue to) the Spurs Bigs and they had no answer for the Aldridge/Gasol/Leonard points in the paint.

“No, I didn’t see losing by 29 points,” Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr said. “It’s going to be an ugly tape to watch. … I think our spurs-1guys were embarrassed tonight. I know I was.”

“It’s a nice little slap in the face,” Stephen Curry said. “First game you want to come out and protect your home court and have the energy of the home opener live throughout the game. We didn’t do anything to let that happen.”

Leonard also had help from his 2nd year Spur LaMarcus Aldridge, who looked very comfortable on the floor with and without new center Pau Gasol.  Aldridge finished the game with 26 points, 14 rebounds and was 5-6 from the line.  Jonathan Simmons, who nearly stole the show, came off the bench to score 20 points on 8-14 shooting which also included a monster block on Steph Curry and a emphatic slam dunk in the closing seconds of the game.  Simmons, Ginobili and Patty Mills led the bench scoring 54-16 over the warriors.

The Spurs home court opener is this Saturday, October 29th against the New Orleans Pelicans.  Plenty of great seats and affordable tickets are still available so be sure to grab yours today and help cheer on your San Antonio Spurs

[mappress mapid=”53″]