San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Aldridge saves home opener
For the first 47 minutes and 21 seconds of Saturday’s game, FIBA Patty Mills was perfect.
The Spurs guard had made all eight of his fieldgoal attempts to that point. So when Mills lined up No. 9 with a chance to put the Spurs ahead of Toronto, he naturally figured it would go in too.
It did not.
“I’m not going to lie,” Mills said after the Spurs pulled out a 119-114 victory at theAT&TCenter anyway. “I’m disappointed that one didn’t go in.”
Luckily for the Mills, and for the Spurs, LaMarcus Aldridge was there to save both the possession and the day.
Aldridge snared Mills’ missed 3-pointer amid a thicket of Raptors and his ensuing putback put the Spurs ahead by a point with 29.9 seconds to play.
The Spurs held on — surviving a game-tying 3-point try from Fred VanVleet with five seconds left — to win their home opener for the 22nd time in 24 seasons and improve to 2-0.
“Everybody stuck with it,” said DeMar DeRozan, who ended with 27 points and eight of the Spurs’ 36 assists. We fought for it. The ball was bouncing everywhere. LaMarcus came up with it and came up with a big, big putback for us.”
The go-ahead play salvaged what had been a forgettable night for Aldridge, who ended with 12 points and five rebounds and missed nine of his 14 attempts. He was 1 of 5 from 3-point range.
Aldridge’s final rebound and final basket, however, proved pivotal.
“It was a massive gamewinning play,” Mills said.
DeRozan led the way for the Spurs, improving to 3-2 against the Raptors since being dealt from Toronto in summer of 2018.
His 16 points in the first quarter helped keep the Spurs afloat while Toronto opened up a 10-point lead in the opening frame.
Mills pumped in points off the bench, 21 including
five 3-pointers, while Dejounte Murray added 11 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for the first triple-double of his career.
Itwas the first triple for a Spurs player since DeRozan scored 21 points with 14 rebounds and 11 assists in his first game against Toronto on Jan. 3, 2019.
“I feel like I can play like that every night,” Murray said. “It’s nice, but at the end of the day, I’m a team guy and I want to win. I want to play better.”
Having made nine 3pointers all of last season, DeRozan swished three Saturday, including a pair in the final 4:34.
With his second 3-pointer of the night, DeRozan passed Nate Archibald for 100th on the NBA’s all-time scoring chart. He found the moment humorous, given the near career-long clamor from coaches to get him to take more 3-point shots.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich is one of them.
“That’s part of his game this year, to try and shoot more 3s,” Popovich said. “He’s feeling more confident in it, and it shows.”
For the second time in as many games to open the season, the Spurs saw all five starters score in double figures.
Despite so much that went right for the Spurs on Saturday, they found themselves in a slugfest with the Raptors (0-2) down the stretch.
VanVleet scorched them for 27 points. Three Raptors players posted doubledoubles: Pascal Siakam (16
points and 15 re-bounds), Chris Boucher (22 points, 10rebounds) andKyle Lowry (16 points, 10 assists).
“That’s a powerful team over there,” Murray said of a Toronto club that has made the playoffs in seven consecutive seasons. “They were champions before (in 2019). They go to the playoffs every year. It was a great test for all of us young guys to go out there and make the right plays.”
It was the Spurs’ elder statesmen that turned in the most significant plays down the stretch.
With 2:08 to play, VanVleet made a deep 3-pointer over Mills to put Toronto ahead 114-100. The Spurs seemed close to cooked.
DeRozan answered with a 3-pointer of his own to pull the Spurs back within one.
After Mills drew an offensive foul on a driving Siakam at the other end, it set the Spurs up with a chance to take the lead.
Murray missed a runner. DeRozan corralled that rebounds and dished to Mills, all alone on the left arc.
It was as open as Mills had been all night.
“They’re the ones you practice every day, with the clock winding down to win the game,” Mills said.
This time, Mills shot bounced off the rimand into a crowd. Boucher and O.G. Anunoby were there for Toronto.
Murray and DeRozan were in the vicinity.
This time, Aldridge was not going to be denied.
“He outfought thewhole team,” Murray said.
Aldridge secured the board — his only offensive rebound of the night — and kissed a 7-footer off the glass to put the Spurs ahead.
“He stuck with it,” DeRozan said. “Hewas willing to go out there and do whatever we needed to win. He came up with one of the biggest plays of the game.”
To Murray, Aldridge’s all-heart game-winner— on an other-wise forgettable night for him — meant more than just one game.
“It shows L.A.’s buying in,” Murray said. “I’m happy he’s out there fighting for us.”
Nobody was happier for Aldridge’s hustle than Mills, who did not have to spend a late-night flight to New Orleans for Sunday’s game against the Pelicans kicking himself for the only shot he missed against Toronto.
Asked if he would be buying Aldridge a steak dinner to showhis appreciation, Mills declined.
“It’s a couple steaks for him,” Mills said. “He’s a big boy.”
And he came up big for the Spurs when they needed him most Saturday.