Losing White again hits hard
It’s been an emotional roller coaster for the Spurs with all the injury news involving guard Derrick White.
The Spurs welcomed White back Friday for his first game of the season only to learn three days later that he would be out indefinitely with a nondisplaced fracture of his left second toe.
“Man, it’s tough,” center Jakob Poeltl said via Zoom after a shootaround at Staples Center before Tuesday night’s game against the Los Angeles Clippers.
“I really don’t know what to say,” Poeltl added. “It’s obviously a big loss for us — in the locker room, too. Derrick is a guy who adds a lot to our team, and it sucks that only one game in, he’s out for a while now.”
White suffered the injury late in Friday’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers at the AT&T Center. It’s the same toe the fourth-year player had surgically repaired in August shortly after the Spurs completed their eight seeding games in Orlando, Fla.
The Spurs were hoping White could pick up where he left off in the bubble, where he averaged 18.9 points, 5.0 assists and 4.3 rebounds and provided his usual hard-nosed defense.
But on Monday, White’s teammates absorbed a gut punch when they learned he wouldn’t return anytime soon.
In some positive injury news, center Lamarcus Aldridge was back in the starting lineup Tuesday after missing three games with a sore left knee.
The game marked the start of five in a row on the road for the Spurs, who face the Lakers on Thursday, the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday and Sunday, and the Oklahoma City Thunder next Tuesday.
“The schedule is a tough way to start out with Derrick and LA having been out, and losing Derrick again,” Popovich said. “But there is nothing we can do about that. You just fight through. A whole lot of other people have it a whole lot worse than we do, that’s for sure. So you slap yourself and move forward. You got no reason to complain.”
Pop says isolation is tough on team
Popovich suggested he wouldn’t mind seeing the NBA continue to schedule two-game series in the same city after the pandemic ends. But for now, he said, “COVID makes it a little strange.”
“We’re not used to just sitting in your hotel room for three days or four days and getting your meal and walking back to your room by yourself and eating,” he said.
Road trips early in the season usually help build team chemistry. But not this season, Popovich said.
“The chances for socialization and camaraderie and exchanging
ideas, all the things we usually talk about that are going on in the world — it doesn’t matter what it is — we can’t do that,” he said. “So it’s a totally different environment. ... If you are staying for someplace for a while, that would be OK if we didn’t have the virus going on. That really exacerbates team situations and team development.”
Masks required for bench players
The NBA unveiled an updated COVID-19 policy Tuesday that requires players on the bench who are dressed for games and eligible to participate to wear a mask until they enter the game.
When players come out of a
game, it’s strongly recommended — but not required — that they put on a mask after returning to the bench, the Associated Press reported. The rules reset at halftime, calling for players who aren’t in the game to start the third quarter wearing a mask until they enter the game.
Coaches and inactive players must wear a mask throughout the game.
“I just follow the rules — that’s all I worry about,” Poeltl said when asked for his reaction to the updated policy.