Spurs are becoming unbeatable at home; Knicks latest to fall.
Aldridge’s 25th double-double helps avenge embarrassing loss to cellar-dwelling N.Y.
LaMarcus Aldridge began the season mired in a slump. He’s well on his way to ending it with a hot hand.
Perhaps almost as hot as the sunburn his frontcourt mate, Jakob Poeltl, is sporting after the Spurs’ recent off days.
Aldridge posted his team-high 25th double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds as the Spurs opened a four-game homestand with a rollicking 109-83 win over the shorthanded, bottom-dwelling New York Knicks on Friday.
“We’d be lost without him,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of the team’s lone All-Star.
The victory, which avenged the Spurs’ embarrassing 130-118 loss to the Knicks last month at Madison Square Garden, pushed their season-best win streak to seven games. They are 27-7 at home after winning their last nine games at the AT&T Center, also a season high.
Perhaps most important other than the win, which left them a season-best 11 games over .500 at 40-29 for sixth in the West: The Knicks’ point total was a season low for a Spurs opponent.
“Defensively, we were really locked in,” Popovich said. “A lot of people played well defensively, and that fueled us, helped our offense.”
The defensive gem included strong play down low by Aldridge, who didn’t have a block but altered several shots, and Poeltl, who shook off his sunburn to score 12 points, grab nine rebounds and tie his career high with five blocks.
“Jakob was really impressive,” Popovich said. “He’s been impressive the whole year, a young guy, learning the system and learning his teammates and where to be on the court, what his role is. But it’s been a steady improvement the entire year. Now that he has started (his last five games in a row), he’s starting to feel real comfortable and really helping us on the defensive end of the court.”
The Spurs improved to 8-1 in games when Poeltl is in the starting lineup with Aldridge.
“We started the season with that lineup, and there was not a whole lot of activity out there on the court,” Poeltl said. “But we figured out a way to be more active when we have that lineup out on the court. We play team defense and get a lot of deflections and blocks and altered shots.”
It helps that Aldridge is a savvy rim protector, Poeltl said.
“He just knows how to (defend),” Poelt said. “He’s not the fastest any more, doesn’t jump the highest any more. But he knows where to be on the court, how to use his hands, his body and be in the way.”
Aldridge, who hit 8 of 14 shots in almost 27 minutes, did his damage in just three quarters. With victory assured and the Portland Trail Blazers in town Saturday night, Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan, who added 13 points, rested in the fourth quarter.
“We played a lot of people, and that was fortunate because we’ve got a real tough game tomorrow,” Popovich said.
In six games in March, Aldridge is averaging 26.0 points on 57.3 percent shooting to go along with 10.1 rebounds. He said moving to power forward now that Poeltl is at center has a lot to do with his surge.
“That is home,” he said of the four spot. “It feels great. It is like walking in the house and getting mom’s cooking. It just feels right.”
Aldridge said having Poeltl by his side frees him up offensively.
“It spreads the floor a little bit more,” Aldridge said. “I am not the pick-and-roll guy all the time. He has been active and blocking shots.”
Poeltl, meanwhile, marveled at Aldridge’s offensive moves.
“Man, there’s just some things about him that are so tough to guard,” Poeltl said. “Like when he gets into his post move, when he gets his touch going, when he’s making those fadeaways, that’s really hard to guard, especially because you can’t always send a double-team because he’s a pretty good passer out of the post. He finds the shooters around him and he forces the other teams to play him one on one.”
The Spurs finished with six scorers in double figures in sending the Knicks to their eighth straight loss. New York, which played without guard Dennis Smith Jr. (back), are an NBA-worst 13-56.
Bryn Forbes contributed 13 points for the Spurs, who are 914 this season in back-to-back games, including 6-6 in first games. Marco Belinelli and Rudy Gay, who returned after missing two games with the flu, chipped in with 12 points apiece. Damyean Dotson led the Knicks with 21 points.
The Spurs went into halftime leading 56-41. They led by as many as 28 points in the second half and limited the Knicks to 14 points in the fourth quarter.
“When we play good defense, we’re a darn good team,” Popovich said.