5 posts tagged “san antonio spurs”
San Antonio vs. Dallas
With two key players out, two of the Texas NBA teams have has to fill large holes. For San Antonio has been missing Manu Ginobili's presence of the bench. His achievements were so impressive a season ago that he won the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year. While not receiving an award for his efforts of the bench, Jason Terry is still missed by his team, Dallas. Each player will be missing another two weeks or so and will miss out when their teams face each other Tuesday in San Antonio.
Ginobili had missed the first 12 games of the season after surgery on his left ankle. Now his right ankle is bothering him. Terry, who leads the league with 20 points off of the pine is recovering from surgery on his left hand.
Grab a date and prepare for the dance, San Antonio because the Spurs are having their homecoming. As February is in its final week, the Spurs (37-17) will play at the AT&T Center for the first time in the month.
With nearly 11,000 miles of travel over 19 days, the Spurs had been evicted from their home while the rodeo dazzled the locals. They went a respectable 5-3 on the grueling trip and still lead the Southwest Division. The last time the Spurs played at home was January 31st, a 106-93 victory over New Orleans.
They capped the extensive road trip with a 98-67 destruction of Washington. Former Wizard Roger Mason led the team with 25 points and hit 5-of-9 from beyond the arc. Mason needed to step up as Tim Duncan was held to a dozen points and Tony Parker netted 9. San Antonio is 8-8 in games without Ginobili.
In their last game, Dallas (33-22) had an easy time of it, thrashing Sacramento 116-95. The Mavericks were able to rest their starters and rely more heavily on the bench on the basis of their 70-50 halftime advantage. That gave some reserves and role players more time to shine. Brandon Bass recorded his season high of 20 points while James Singleton set his high with 19 points and also grabbed 12 rebounds. The Mavericks won their third game in five games that Terry has been absent.
Dallas has dropped four out of their last five against San Antonio. The teams have split their two prior contests this season with each team winning on the road. The Spurs won their most recent matchup in overtime on December 9th, 133-126.
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Orlando -2 1/2 vs. San Antonio
With or without Dwight Howard, the Magic continue to win. Orlando has not started a season this hot since 1994-95, when they started 22-5 and made it all the way to the NBA Finals, the only appearance for the nearly 20-year old team. Nonetheless, they will be very happy to have their All-Pro forward back for tonight's home game with San Antonio.
The game with the Spurs opens a four-game home stand for the Southeast Division attic dweller Magic (19-6). Howard has missed the last two games for Orlando with a knee injury, but the Magic won both, including their last game, 109-98 at Golden State Monday night. Rashard Lewis picked up the pace without Howard by scoring 21 points, five assists and eight rebounds while Jameer Nelson ruled the court with 32 points in the win over the Warriors.
The NBA's renaissance story this season has been the San Antonio Spurs (15-9). Hampered by injuries and bad play, the perennial power sputtered out of the gate at 0-3 and lost five of its first seven. As players have come back from injuries and slowly regained form, the Spurs have regained theirs, winning 10 of their last 14. They lost their last time out to New Orleans largely because of they misfired on 17 of their final 21 shots and only hit at a 38.3 percent clip from the field.
The loss to the Hornets halted the Spurs six-game winning streak, but they look to get on track against the Magic, a team they have had a lot of success against over the years. San Antonio has beaten Orlando in 10 of the last 13 games and have won the last three straight, including both games last season. The Magic have not beaten the Spurs in Orlando since April 2006.
Denver -4 vs. San Antonio
Just how good can the Denver Nuggets get? The team seems to be jelling and winning in better and more complete ways every game and it seems their prized commodity has finally arrived.
When the Nuggets made the trade for Chauncey Billups, they expected the perennial All-Star who lead Detroit to the 2004 championship and was named Finals MVP that season. For the first month, they did not see that Billups. But his presence made the difference in turning a 1-3 team into a 13-6 team. Now in the midst of a three-game winning streak, Billups has clearly arrived and has been the best player for the Nuggets during the stretch.
Denver just destroyed the Raptors 132-93 Tuesday. Billups had 24 points and 14 assists in the rout. Billups is averaging 26.3 points per contest in the three-game winning streak in wins over Toronto, Houston and Minnesota. Carmelo Anthony contributed 23 against Toronto as well.
While the Nuggets enjoyed the ride in their last game, the Spurs (9-8), who visit Denver Thursday night, could not have played any worse in their last game Tuesday night. The Spurs lead at half time by five, but collapsed in the second half, scoring 32 and falling 89-77 to Detroit at home.
Manu Ginobili returned to the starting lineup for the first time this season but the rust was clearly a factor as he only netted 13. Tim Duncan has 23 and Tony Parker contributed 18 in the losing effort.
The teams met November 19 in a game also played in the Pepsi Center. Denver won that contest 91-81 and has won three of the last four.
San Antonio -3 1/2 vs. New York
Starting 1-4, the San Antonio Spurs thought their season could not have possibly gotten any worse. They were wrong. The Spurs stayed winless at home Friday night when they were beaten by the Miami Heat 99-83, have now officially had their poorest start since 1996 and lost point guard Tony Parker for two weeks with an ankle sprain. The loss is particularly tough for San Antonio as Parker was coming off an incredible 55 points in the lone Spurs' victory of the season in overtime against the Timberwolves. For a team also missing guard Manu Ginobli until roughly the same time as Parker, the next fortnight could be a shaky one for the Spurs.
San Antonio risks slipping deeper and deeper into the abyss of the deep and talented Western Conference with some tough upcoming games, including welcoming in the surprising New York Knicks on Tuesday night. One smaller glimmer of hope for the Spurs is that no one has played particularly well in the Southwest Division in the early part of the season. San Antonio resides in last place, but three of the five teams in the division have losing records, while Houston is 4-3 and slumping and New Orleans is in first at 4-2.
Things have not been this good in Madison Square Garden in a long time. The Knicks (4-2) are hoping to extend their three game winning streak against a reeling opponent. New York is coming off a 107-99 victory over Utah on Sunday.
The Knicks new look offense has propelled the team to victory this season, but when its not there, they lose. New York reached the century mark in all four of its losses and failed to make it there in both of their losses.
It has not been all fun and games for the Knicks this year as the media has been calling for the team to cut ties with perennial malcontent Stephon Marbury.
This will be the Knicks best chance to get a victory against the Spurs in awhile. San Antonio has won six straight dating back to March of 2005, when the Knicks last won in San Antonio. The Spurs have won nine out of the last ten in the series.
San Antonio -6 1/2 vs Miami
Any sort of improvement will be seen as a step in the right direction for the Miami Heat after last year's debacle. Only two seasons after claiming their only NBA championship, the Heat had fallen to the bottom of the NBA standings while Dwyne Wade was injured and Shaquille O'Neal was shipped to Phoenix. Now the rebuilding Heat have gotten out to a respectable 2-2 start and have a very good chance within perhaps the worst division in basketball. A stellar defense has helped propel the Heat to respectability. They lead the league in steals and forcing turnovers and have held their two opponents in American Airlines Arena to 39 percent shooting.
The Heat had improved to 2-0 at home with a victory in South Beach over Philadelphia 106-83 Wednesday night. Miami had the distinct edge in fast-break points at 21-8 and scored 32 points off of 76er turnovers. Friday they will take to the road in search of their first victory away from Miami and a victory in San Antonio for the first time in 12 years and where they have gone 1-20 all-time.
Meanwhile the Spurs (1-3) have gotten off to an uncharacteristic slow start. And like the Heat last year, the Spurs are now in the midst of their second season following their most recent champion. San Antonio hopes their season will not collapse onto itself like Miami's 2007-2008 Season.
The San Antonio Spurs will be prepared for the Heat who take advantage of their opponents mistakes, leading the league with 22 turnovers a game. San Antonio commits a league-low 10 turnovers per contest. But still with this distinction the Spurs were a few shots away from being 0-4.
Wednesday night they edged the Timberwolves on the road in double-overtime 129-125. Tony Parker easily surpassed his career high in points, by going 22 of 36 from the field and netting 55 points, collecting seven rebounds and recording 10 assists. In fact Parker's desperate 25-footer in the first overtime period sent the game to a second extra period.
