The San Antonio Spurs will are facing a tough week with the surging, well sprouting LA Lakers Tuesday followed up by the seriously surging NY Knicks.
The Lakers are rolling into town with Bernie Bickerstaff as the interim head coach but the world already knows that Mike D’ Antoni has been hired on to replace him once D’ Antoni has fully recovered from reconstructive knee surgery.
The Spurs (6-1) are coming off a Saturday night 112-109 victory over the Portland Trailblazers where Gary Neal came off the bench to score 27 points (20 in the second half) and the Spurs climbed out from under a 14-point deficit. Duncan was his usual effective 22 points, nine rebounds self.
”He carried us on his back,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said about Neal. ”Sometimes a player will do that, and he picked a good time for it.”
The Lakers (3-4) are also coming off a victory over the Sacramento Kings 103-90 where Dwight Howard had 23 points and 18 rebounds and Kobe kicked in 20 points all before they knew that Mike D’Antoni was their new leader.
”My job is to coach the team until they ring the bell,” Bickerstaff said. ”But listen. What’s the reality here? I mean, we all know what’s going on and I understand that. But I consented to do this for the organization, and I’m not worried about the big picture.”
Spurs at the Lakers Tuesday night 10:30 pm Eastern Standard time.
Be sure to get your tickets to see the Spurs take on the Knicks at the AT&T Center Thursday night.