Spurs’ long road trip has proved a successful one.
By the end of the Spurs’ fourth road game in six nights Sunday in Minnesota, players were out of gas.
Gregg Popovich was out of options.
Already without leading scorer Demar Derozan, guard Derrick White and reserve forward Drew Eubanks, Popovich also saw Lonnie Walker IV and Devin Vassell deemed unavailable to return in the fourth quarter with minor injuries.
“We ran out of bodies,” Popovich said.
That, as much as anything, helps explain the Spurs’ 96-88 loss to a Minnesota team that had lost seven games in a row and was without All-star center KarlAnthony Towns.
The Spurs managed a season low in scoring, fast break points (four) and assists (21).
They shot season lows from the field (38.3 percent), from 3-point range (26.7 percent) and from the foul line (57.1 percent).
It marked the first time the Spurs had failed to crack 90 points since a Game 7 loss at Denver in the 2019 playoffs, and came a night after they had scored 125 in an overtime victory over the Timberwolves on the same Target Center court. “We hit a wall,” Popovich said. After the game, Popovich’s players couldn’t muster the energy to disagree. A long road trip
coupled with a dwindling roster couldn’t help but take a toll.
“That’s a fair statement,” said guard Patty Mills, who was shooting 56.9 percent from 3-point range heading into Sunday and then went 3 of 13. “I think we all felt it, as much as we probably hate to admit it.”
Good news for the Spurs: With a 3-1 start to the trip, it has already been an unabashed success.
Bad news for the Spurs: The trip continues Tuesday in Oklahoma City, and the cavalry is not on the way.
Derozan is expected to remain in Los Angeles for the near future while caring for his sick father.
White is out for the next month or more with a fractured toe, having appeared in all of one game after spending the offseason recovering from surgery on the same toe.
Eubanks, assistant coach Becky Hammon and another unidentified staffer are also stuck in Los Angeles while waiting out the NBA’S COVID health and safety protocols.
Walker (leg cramps) and Vassell are more likely to be available sooner rather than later.
Despite it all, the Spurs have been hanging in. After leaving town New
Year’s Day on the heels of a four-game losing streak, the Spurs chug into OKC with a .500 record (5-5).
“I think we’re making progress,” center Lamarcus Aldridge said. “I think everyone is all in. Everyone’s competing. I think you can see it from game to game how the team is getting better.”
No doubt the Spurs are doing some good things despite a bit of roster instability.
They are both sharing the ball and taking care of it, with an assist-to-turnover ratio (2.36) that not only leads the NBA but would be the best in league history were it to stand for an entire season.
In keeping with their stated goal of the preseason, the Spurs are playing with more pace, ranking
12th in the league in possessions per game. They are taking 30.9 3-pointers per game, the most in team history, while making 39.2 percent of them, tied for third best in the league.
More tangibly, the Spurs logged victories over the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers to start the trip — becoming the first team to sweep that Staples Center double-dip since Kawhi Leonard and Lebron James both came to L.A.
“Mostly we’ve been playing great,” Walker said. “We kind of found our groove.”
That groove got interrupted in the fourth quarter Sunday in Minnesota, as the Spurs found their fuel tank on empty.
Nobody is going to feel sorry for them, of course,
and they do not expect anybody’s sympathy.
Miami and Boston had a game postponed Sunday when the Heat could not muster eight healthy players required to play due to a COVID-19 outbreak.
That was probably fine with the Celtics, who were down to eight players themselves.
The Philadelphia 76ers recently faced Denver with eight active players, but only had that many because forward Mike Scott — who is coming off a knee injury — dressed for the game but did not play.
The Spurs were able to suit up 14 players for Sunday’s game against the Timberwolves, which puts them ahead of the NBA’S COVID curve.
The compressed schedule caught up to the Spurs down the stretch in Minnesota anyway.
They were ahead by nine points with nine minutes to play. The Timberwolves finished the game on a 28-11 run to win.
“We were a little bit exhausted at the end of the game and just hit a slump,” Walker said.
In a way, Walker was the poster child for the Spurs’ second night in Minnesota.
The third-year guard roared out to a 22-point first half, posting his second career 20-point game before intermission.
He finished with 25 points, then left the game with 4:28 after his right leg cramped.
“When you run out of legs and run out of gas, you tend to get sped up easy and we just couldn’t get into a comfortable rhythm, especially in crucial moments,” Mills said. “The learning point I guess is, when you run out of juice, just be able to slow down a lot more.”
It is a lesson the Spurs will aim to put into practice at OKC.
The Thunder return to Chesapeake Energy Arena on the heels of road trip that has breathed life into their season.
After opening the season 1-3 — including a threegame home losing streak — Oklahoma City began the new year with a five-game road trip.
That ended Sunday in Brooklyn, when the Thunder capped a 4-1 trip with a 129-111 victory over the Nets that spoiled Kevin Durant’s return from a week-long stay on the NBA’S health and safety protocol list.
“We have a team that’s really well-intentioned,” first-year OKC coach Mark Daigneault said. “We want to run through the finish line.”
With the end of a road trip in sight Tuesday in Oklahoma City, the Spurs aim to do the same.
No matter which of them show up to play.