San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
Harden, Irving simply too much to handle
The Spurs welcomed back two familiar faces Friday night at the AT&T Center. It was a pair of familiar foes who ultimately sent them to defeat.
On a night in which LaMarcus Aldridge and Patty Mills played their first game as visitors since leaving San Antonio, James Harden and Kyrie Irving lifted Brooklyn to a 117-102 victory.
Harden posted a monster triple-double with 37 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists.
Irving scored 15 of his 24 points in the fourth quarter to push the Nets over the top.
He was playing in his sixth game this season after being cleared to play on the road. Irving cannot play in home games in Brooklyn due to his unvaccinated status.
Dejounte Murray led the Spurs with his ninth triple-double, registering 25 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists.
Jakob Poeltl grabbed 11 rebounds to go with 15 points in recording his 15th double-double, a career high.
Despite shooting 38.9 percent, the Spurs hung in through three quarters of a nip-and-tuck game before Brooklyn broke the game open in the fourth.
Here are three takeaways from the Spurs’ loss, which dropped them to 17-29:
1. Two former Spurs proved to be ungrateful homecoming guests
Harden was Harden and Irving was the road-game version of Irving.
Brooklyn’s pair of Spurs expatriates helped defeat their old team.
Aldridge had 16 points and seven rebounds in 22 minutes off the bench, giving the Spurs the kind of performance they had grown used to during his All-Star heyday in a smaller dose.
Mills did not shoot well, going 4 of 11, but scored timely baskets on his way to nine points as a starter.
It was Mills’ step-back jumper that put the Nets ahead for good late in the third quarter, which leads to the next takeaway …
2. Game might have been lost at the end of the third quarter
The Spurs led by a point after a pair of Derrick White free throws
with 1:39 remaining in the third.
The Nets closed the frame on a 6-0 run. It might not sound like much, but given the Spurs’ futility
with fourth-quarter comebacks of any kind this season, that spurt proved lethal.
The Spurs were 0-24 entering
Friday when trailing entering the fourth quarter. Down 79-74 after Bruce Brown’s run-out dunk just before the quarter horn, the
Spurs were unable to snap that streak against Brooklyn.
Irving got hot after a sluggish start, Brooklyn pushed its lead into double figures early in the fourth en route to a 38-point fourth quarter.
Put together, the Spurs stumbled to their 25th loss in as many outings this season when going into the final frame behind.
3. White may not survive another night like this
The 27-year-old guard was his usual no-regard-for-his-own-safety self, drawing charges and begging for contact and generally taking a beating.
It is only a slight exaggeration to say White hit the floor as many times Friday as the basketball did.
In the middle of the third quarter, White took a pointed elbow to the mouth from a driving Harden. He had to leave the game for a short period while the Spurs’ medical staff tried to stop the bleeding from his lip.
White, as he usually does, returned and played well, ending with 17 points and seven assists.
Considering the struggle the Spurs have faced in trying to get their entire lineup healthy, they want want to wrap White in bubble wrap for foreseeable future.