Spurs Update

Finishing out the 2011-2012 NBA regular season with 13 games in 19 days, and 4 games in the last 5 days (geeeez), the Spurs traveled to both Phoenix and Golden State for the final two games. After complete warm-ups prior to Wednesday's game in Phoenix, it was decided that Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili would fly back to San Antonio, and not play these two games. However, We're also missing Gary Neal due to a sore shoulder from a great pick set by Kurt Thomas Monday against Portland. What was the most surprising, however, is that Gregg Popovich decided to fly back with them. So without four of our top players, and our head coach, Assistant Coach Mike Budenholzer would take the reigns for these two.

Both games were close most of the way, as the Suns were set finishing up with a winning record, but the Warriors were set on giving the youngsters some serious experience.

Wednesday the Suns even gave Nash a final hoorah late in the 4th-Q, down by only a few. It could be his last game in Phoenix, but who knows. At least the home crowd was prepared. So he came in the game, and promptly turned it over, after a pretty decent 8 pts., 7 asst., and 3 reb. in only 17 minutes. Shannon Brown and Sebastian Telfair led them in scoring with 21 & 20 respectively, but our energy was too high, and the Spurs pulled out WIN #9 in a row, 110-106. Patty Mills & Tiago Splitter both registered career-highs with 27 & 26 respectively, while FIVE others contributed 10 or 9 each. Here's the boxscore..
Splitter was huge - Image Source (Photo by Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images)

Thursday night in Oakland, the Warriors started 5 rookies - marking the first time in NBA history any team has ever done so. They had started 4 rookies against us just 10 days ago, but this was unprecedented. Close all the way just as it was the
Mills had back-to-back career games - Image Source (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

previous night, the Spurs would capitalize on a few too many Warriors' late mistakes, despite being out-shot 52% to 44%. Patty Mills was again the hero as he bested his new career-high from last night by 7. He had 34 pts., 12 asst., and 5 boards in 43 solid minutes. DeJuan Blair & James Anderson followed with 22 & 19. It was Mills' two straight threes with the score tied at 95, and about 5 minutes left, that would ultimately do in the Warriors on this last day of the regular season. The Spurs' 107-101 WIN was the 10th straight win, as we were not only the only team with a double digit winning streak this season, but we wrapped it up in style with THREE of them (11, 11, 10). Here is the boxscore..

The San Antonio Spurs finish the 2011-2012 regular season with a record of 50-16, and will have home-court advantage over everyone except the Chicago Bulls, who also finished at 50-16. Thankfully, our first game is Sunday at Noon. I'll be back with more amazing regular-season stats later! WooHoo!

Here are the FINAL NBA standings for 2011-2012:

Click for clarity..

Source (ESPN.com)