Game is Wednesday, 6:00 CST.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/preview?gid=2011020928San Antonio (43-8) at Toronto (14-38)
Tipoff: 7:00 pm EST Wed Feb 9, 2011
TV: FSSW, TSN2
By Kate Hedlin
Despite holding three of the first four teams they’ve faced on their nine-game road trip to fewer than 100 points, the San Antonio Spurs don’t believe they are as good as they need to be defensively.
The NBA-best Spurs will look for a more complete defensive effort and try to avoid a third straight road loss to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night.
After opening its trip with a 13-point loss at Portland on Feb. 1, San Antonio (43-8) has won three in a row, including a 100-89 victory at Detroit on Tuesday.
While the Pistons have only 19 wins, the Spurs struggled to put them away until the fourth quarter. However, San Antonio shot 52.9 percent and had six players in double figures. Tony Parker scored 19 points and DeJuan Blair added 18 and 12 rebounds.
Although it was the team’s second straight win by at least 10 points, it is still looking for improvement.
“There are teams playing better than we are,” coach Gregg Popovich said. “Just because we have the best record doesn’t mean we have the best team. To be that we have to be better defensively.”
Despite Popovich’s claims, his team has put up some impressive numbers early in the trip, holding opponents to an average of 94 points the last four games and 43.1 percent shooting the past three. The Spurs limited the Pistons to 15 third-quarter points Tuesday.
Popovich said Blair has been key lately, recording four double-doubles in the last five games.
“He knows his role, hits the boards hard and has a great touch inside,” Popovich said. “He plays the game to win, he’s a really compe ive young man, and he did a good job.”
Blair also came up big in a 104-95 win over Toronto on Jan. 19, finishing with 22 points and 11 rebounds. He shot 11 of 16 from the field in that game and had eight offensive boards.
San Antonio has lost its last two visits to Toronto, but the last-place Raptors (14-38) have dropped 14 of 15 overall, falling 92-74 at Milwaukee on Tuesday.
After snapping a 13-game losing streak Friday with a 111-100 win over Minnesota, Toronto shot 36 percent and was held to 36 points in the second half against the Bucks. Andrea Bargnani scored 23 points and DeMar DeRozan added 18, but the Raptors missed all 10 of their 3-pointers.
“It’s a tough season,” Bargnani said. “It didn’t become a tough season today. It’s been that way the last couple of months.”
Leandro Barbosa returned from a right hamstring strain and scored eight points in nearly 25 minutes. Barbosa hadn’t played since Jan. 14 against Detroit.
“It was nice to have him back in the lineup,” Toronto coach Jay Triano said. “He provided an offensive threat with his quickness to the basket. It’s going to take a little bit of time for him to shake the rust off. I was pleased with the way he played the second half.”
*********************
Team Stat Leaders
Points
Manu Ginobili SA 18.5
Andrea Bargnani Tor 21.1
Rebounds
Tim Duncan SA 9.3
Reggie Evans Tor 12.1
Assists
Tony Parker SA 6.7
Jose Calderon Tor 8.8
http://blog.mysanantonio.com/spursna...raptors-14-38/Wednesday: Spurs (43-8) at Raptors (14-38)
Jeff McDonald
...For the fourth consecutive season, Spurs visit Air Canada Centre on second night of back-to-back. Spurs are 1-2 in past three games at Toronto, having not won there since Feb. 11, 2008...
I'll be at the game tomorrow. Spurs always seem to struggle here in recent years. At least this time the Raptors will be on a back to back as well.
Hope you have a blast!
Thanks!
i hope derozan does not career night us again....
Spurs just need to duplicate their last 31 games as their first 31 games.
27-4 to start + 27-4 to finish = 70-12
We got some quality minutes from Matty Bonbon tonight.
Hopefully Splits will see some action vs Toronto.
Keep Timmy Dunks and Dyss minutes down on these b2bs.
Matt Bonner is going to be on fire tomorrow, he's gonna be playing in his hometown anyways. LOL
Strange things always seem to happen when the Spurs go to Toronto.
I'll always remember the epic tilt in February 2002, which was tied at 67 at the end of regulation -- and who knows how low those scores would have been if the teams hadn't combined to shoot 60 free throws. The Spurs shot .239 from the floor and lost.
A few years later, in 2005, the Spurs had a 19 point lead at the end of 3 quarters, got outscored 33-9 in the 4th and lost.
The following year, the Spurs won in overtime without Tim Duncan, thanks in no small part to Sean Marks (of all people) shooting 8-9 from the floor in 25 minutes.
I wonder what it will be this time . . . .
Get ready for some Splitter time tomorrow. He's the King of back-to-back games
Would love to see Splitter get at least 5 min. every game.
Tiago "the Hammer" Splitter!!!!!!
lol
http://www.nba.com/news/referee.html
Referee Assignments
Wed. Feb. 9
San Antonio @ Toronto: Steve Javie; Kane Fitzgerald; Zach Zarba
Have fun
I would have made the trip from Montreal to Toronto if the game was played during a weekend
Oh well....
Boo hiss to Zarba.
Should be an interesting one coming into a back to back game...I imagine we start off a little rusty and slow with the early tip. Hopefully we can hold it together and keep this young team at bay.
True, that 2002 game was on ESPN here in Brazil and was a ugly game. Raptors had a lot of injured players and VC left the game early and we still lost.
We also can't forget Roko Ukić I think in 2009 and last year game when Pop decided to bring TD off the bench
Yeah, I was going to mention the Spurs getting Ukic'd in my litany of strange things that seem to happen to the Spurs in Toronto:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/...902110TOR.html
That guy had 9 double-digit scoring games in his career and this was his only ever 20+ point game.
Who is this Demar Derozan guy? Is he any good? Of course if he is even above average he will probably destroy us. Ugh. I'll preemptively add him to the list...
Spurs-Torching Scrubs
Demar Derozan*
Goran Dragic
Jerryd Bayless
Milwaukee Bucks
Kyle Lowry
Roko Ukic
Boris Diaw
Sasha Vujacic
Jason Terry
Andre Miller
Stephon Marbury
Jerome James
*pending
Last edited by phxspurfan; 02-09-2011 at 03:10 PM.
Advanced Scouting: San Antonio Spurs at Toronto Raptors
by Scott Sereday
48 Minutes of
http://www.48minutesof .com/spurs...onto-raptors-2
Brandon Bass
Kobe Bryant
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