Spurs Update

Thursday night the Spurs hosted the 4-18 New Orleans Hornets. No doubt memories of the finish against the Hornets 10 days ago existed, when Tim Duncan had to nail a hook shot at the buzzer in their gym.

This one was mostly defensive, as neither team seemed to get on an offensive roll. Spurs led 23-22 after 1 Q. We live and die by the three, and they weren't falling.. so yeah. But our defense was making stop after stop, and like many games this season, it was anyone's game at the half.. 44-45. Tony & Tim began their usual thing, since

Image Source (Photo by D. Clarke Evans/NBAE via Getty Images)

outside shots weren't falling. Neal, Green, Tiago, and even Cory Joseph made a few key shots in a contest in which we as a team only had 16 assists on 34 made shots. No, that's not good.

But it's not Tony's fault, as he led the scoring with 18, and had 7 assists. By the end of the 3rd Q, we led 71-68. This was turning into another common scenario, where we would have to either take control, or LOSE for lack of shot accuracy. Finally realizing the ball must go into Tiago, he scores on 3 of 6 straight offensive trips, and the other three were two TP layups & a Bonner three. Just like that we were up 12, 84-72. Spurs defense took over, and within a few minutes we were up 16. Suddenly, the Hornets only had about a minute left, and we finished-off the WIN 93-81.

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Spurs went nuts on Oklahoma City tonight in SA. In the wake of finalized all-star voting, Tony Parker made a HUGE statement to the coaches: "I'm not worthy, you say?" The Spurs made just as big a statement to the rest of the league with a serious pounding of the Thunder, the "favorite" to win the West.

Parker put together a 42-point, 9-assist performance (with NO turnovers) in a 107-96 WIN against the team with the NBA's best record. Kawhi Leonard had the super task of chasing Kevin Durant around most of the night. More on that later, but

Image Source (Photo by D. Clarke Evans/NBAE via Getty Images)

Kawhi also made a big impact right off the bat draining 3 early threes.. 13 1st Q points, and once the Spurs took the lead on Kawhi's 1st three (14-13), we would never relinquish it.

25-21 after one Q, Durant certainly made his presence known, compiling 17 first-half points. Parker (16 1st-half pts.) was constantly slashing and dishing, and the Spurs racked-up 8 threes by half-time. The lead was 10 halfway through: 57-47. An explosion of 3 threes in the final 2 minutes of the half reminded me of the Jan. 17th game @Miami, where we had 63 at the half, and a nice comfy lead.

In the last game vs. OKC (Jan. 8) it was the early 3rd when they took control. Same thing @Miami on Jan. 17th. After a couple quick OKC buckets, Tony Parker decided it was time to take over. Halfway through the quarter our lead was back to 15, as Russell Westbrook & Tony Parker took this duel to another level. While this became blatantly obvious, it soon became clear that Tony was playing at a level a notch or two above every one else on the court. Energy.. aggression.. defense.. steals.. a scuffle on the floor. Nearing 30 points, and a nice Spurs' lead, he changed mentality and decided it was time to get the San Antonio franchise assist record over-with. Timmy jumper, Kawhi layup, Green three.. Another quick 8 points, and one more Parker-assisted Bonner three, and we're up 24.

Thunder would actually make it a little interesting, such that Timmy & Tony had to come back in to seal the deal early in the 4th Q. That they did. And Tony would still score yet another 8 for his 42. Sweet, sweet win guys! 13-7 now without Manu. How's that?

Duncan had 13 & 15 boards. Kawhi, RJ, & Green held Durant to 22 points on 9-19 shooting, 11 reb. and 5 fouls. Westbrook had 18 on 8-15 shooting, 6 asst. 6 reb. and 4 fouls.

Tony's complete stat-line: 42 points on 16 of 29 shooting, 10-12 FTs, 9 assists 3 rebounds 2 steals 1 block, and 0 turnovers in 39 minutes.

Here's the standings. We've won 4-straight now, Dallas has lost 3 straight.. Things are starting to take shape as we head out for our nicely forgving 9-game rodeo road-trip.