RESERVE STARS

Dennis Schroder leads Oklahoma Thunder past San Antonio Spurs

OKLAHOMA CITY — Dennis Schroder broke out of his slump in a major way.

The reserve point guard scored all of his 19 points in the second half to help the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the San Antonio Spurs 122-112 on Saturday night.

Schroder entered the night shooting just 32 percent from the field in 2019 and averaging just 10.4 points, dropping his overall average to just over 15 per game. He went 0 for 4 from the field in the first half before going 8 for 13 after the break.

“I just stayed aggressive,” he said. “I had a tough stretch of games. My teammates kept giving me confidence. You know, ‘Keep shooting, keep doing you.’ I think I did that tonight in the second half.”

Even Spurs coach Gregg Popovich couldn’t find an answer.

“Schroder just sliced us and diced us, did a great job getting to the rim, scoring,” he said. “Defense let us down a little bit.”

Russell Westbrook had 24 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists, and Paul George added 18 points and 11 rebounds for Oklahoma City, which bounced back from a 154-147 double-overtime loss to the Spurs on Thursday.

Oklahoma City’s reserves scored 48 points to help snap a three-game losing streak. The Thunder had seven players score in double figures.

Marco Belinelli scored 24 points and DeMar DeRozan added 18 points for the Spurs.

LaMarcus Aldridge, who scored a career-high 56 points against the Thunder on Thursday, finished this one with 17.