Spurs fly by Pelicans, 113-100

Spurs fly by Pelicans, 113-100

Spurs fly by Pelicans, 113-100
NBA

Spurs fly by Pelicans, 113-100

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On Tim Duncan’s celebration night, the Spurs made it easy on everyone and took care of business against the Pelicans. A loss wouldn’t have been a good start to the after-game festivities.

The Spurs picked up their 22nd win of the season as they put down the New Orleans Pelicans behind 22 points from LaMarcus Aldridge (his first game leading the team in scoring since the November 26th tilt against the Wizards) and a bit of a throwback performance from 39-year old Manu Ginobili, who scored 17 points in just 15 minutes.

Pau Gasol chipped in a season-high 14 rebounds just two games after he pulled down 13 boards against the Boston Celtics. He also contributed seven points, four assists and a couple of blocks for good measure.

The game was fairly even for most of the first half until the Spurs used a 19-5 run to turn a two-point deficit into a 12-point lead over the last five minutes of the second quarter.

A solid end to the third quarter, the third straight quarter the Spurs would score at least 30 points, put the game out of reach and the Spurs took a 21-point lead into the final period of the game. The fourth was mostly just waiting for the game to be over so that we could get to the real fun of celebrating Tim Duncan. We’ll have more on the celebration and jersey retirement for Timmy soon.

Simply put, the Spurs took care of business and put the required effort into beating a not-so-good Pelicans team.

Your Spurs improve to a ridiculous 22-5 record which is a 67-win pace. I don’t know what to say about that. It doesn’t seem fair that the Spurs are sporting such a nice record post-Tim.

Quick Notes:

With three against the Pels, Dewayne Dedmon now has 14 of the Spurs 24 alley-oops this season. h/t Paul Garcia

Manu Ginobili can still dunk. For those wondering, he’d only tallied four dunks over the past two seasons including the playoffs before tonight’s throw-down. After the game Pop was asked if he thought Gino was playing better than expected for his age and said, “I don’t think of it in those terms. Manu is Manu, and wen he gets on the court he is there to play and compete. And h’s done it for his whole career and he’ll continue to do that ‘til he stops playing. I don’t care what his age is or anything like that. It’s got nothing to do with it.”

Amen, Pop

LaMarcus Aldridge scored 20+ points for the seventh time this season, something that wasn’t lost on Gregg Popovich who said , “He was very aggressive. He wanted the ball, he demanded the ball and he got the ball. He was very aggressive going to the hole, taking shots that were open. I thought he did a great job defensively, and the team in general did a pretty good job.”

Up Next:

It’s a tough week on the road before the Spurs come back home for Christmas to host the Bulls and try to get a little revenge against the Bulls, who handed SA their only road loss of the season. San Antonio will visit the Rockets on Tuesday before a back-to-back at the Clippers and Trail Blazers on Thursday and Friday.