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With a high-profile matchup looming and a four-game road trip behind them, the San Antonio Spurs could be tempted to rest at least some of their starters for a visit from the lowly Philadelphia 76ers on Monday night.
The Spurs' record, though, is probably not where coach Gregg Popovich would like it and the 76ers are coming off a close loss to one of the Western Conference's top teams.
Popovich said he felt San Antonio might have run out of gas when it reached the end of its trip Saturday with a 94-91 loss to Sacramento. The Spurs (5-4) rallied from a 10-point deficit with 8 1/2 minutes to go to take a one-point lead with 2:02 remaining, but missed three of their final four shots in the end to a three-game win streak.
Manu Ginobili had a season-high 21 points for San Antonio, which shot 38.9 percent in the fourth quarter.
"We hung in there. We just ran out of juice a little bit," Popovich said. "A couple of guys were probably a little tired at the end of the road trip, but everybody goes through that. We had a good chance to win the thing; we just didn't."
The Spurs will go on the road again for a two-game trip that starts Wednesday against Cleveland and LeBron James, but first they'll try to get back in the win column against a team that's yet to experience one this season.
Philadelphia (0-9) is off to its worst start since dropping its first 15 games in 1972-73, a season in which it finished with an NBA-record 73 losses.
The 76ers had one of their best chances for a win Friday but were edged 88-87 in Houston.
Philadelphia was leading by one point until the Rockets took advantage of Michael Carter-Williams' turnover with 17 seconds to go. James Harden made a go-ahead layup with 9 seconds left, and Carter-Williams missed the 76ers' final shot.
The 76ers were coming off one of the most-lopsided defeats in team history, a 53-point loss at Dallas on Thursday.
"I think it's a tremendous reflection of what they can be," said coach Brett Brown, who received a technical foul with 36 seconds remaining. "I think it's a tremendous sign of not feeling sorry for ourselves and then coming back with fight."
San Antonio won last season's two meetings with Philadelphia by a combined 46 points and has a six-game win streak in the series. The Spurs have won 10 consecutive home matchups and 26 of 27 dating back to the 1986-87 season.
The Spurs didn't play starters Tony Parker, Tiago Splitter and Danny Green in the last matchup, a 113-91 home victory on March 24. Tim Duncan was given a break in a 109-85 win in Philadelphia on Nov. 11, 2013, and Ginobili played 13 minutes.
Popovich rested both Duncan and Manu Ginobili in a 98-81 loss in Houston on Nov. 6, in the second game of a back-to-back.
