San Antonio Spurs Take Win as Casey and DeRozen Reunite
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By Ava Tremblay
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Detroit’s Langston Galloway stands guard against a driving Bryan Forbes of the San Antonio Spurs last night in Detroit
Halfway through the first quarter, San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich called a timeout. After sending the boys back to the court, and watching the Detroit Pistons take control of the ball and slam dunk for two more points to put the Spurs down by ten, he called another, and it took just fourteen seconds.
Bryn Forbes, point guard for San Antonio, felt the sting stating mental errors gave the Pistons some easy buckets. Forbes also stated about the timeouts,
“I don’t know if it was to slow the run, but kind of get our head on right — kind of slow their pace there.”
After the second timeout, the San Antonio Spurs responded and by half time had cut the ten point deficit and taken the lead reversing Detroit’s ten point to lead to a ten point deficit with the Spurs ending the second quarter 59-49.
The win pushed Gregg Popovichès all time wins to 1,221 and that puts him in a tie with other NBA coach legends Lenny Wilkens and Don Nelson. Commenting on the outcome of the game, Popovich said,
“I thought after the first quarter, we competed well, we were sharper and we executed better. We had a poor first quarter, but I thought we pulled it together and focused pretty well after that.”
DeMar DeRozan following the @spurs win in Detroit against his old coach!#GoSpursGo pic.twitter.com/sB7kIU6oGP
— FOX Sports Southwest (@FOXSportsSW) January 8, 2019
There was little doubt that after the second timeout, a different team returned. The Spurs went 23-3 over the course of the first and second and turned the game around for what was, for the most part, a pretty easy third and fourth quarter that ended with the Spurs winning 119-107.
LaMarcus Aldridge was San Antonio’s top scorer with twenty-five points, and Blake was Detroit’s with 34 for the night. Detroit’s coach, ex-Raptors alumni, Dwayne Casey commented,
“Everyone talked about the regime ending in San Antonio, but they still have two Hall of Fame players in LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan and they are obviously a well-coached team. I thought we got off to a great start, but their second unit came in and speeded things up. We didn’t match it. We have to be able to pump the gas at the start of the second quarter.”
Rudy Gay did not play due to a sprained left wrist, but it did little to impact the Spurs who won their fifth game in a row. Detroit, on the other hand, have now lost seven, and bookmakers are taking notice, but for punters, it means information that can be used when placing bets with top ranked sportsbooks like bet365, one of our recommended sports betting sites.
Next up for San Antonio is a Wednesday night game against the Memphis Grizzlies before returning home to welcome the Oklahoma Thunder. Detroit heads to Sacramento to take on the Kings before heading to Los Angeles for a game against the Clippers.
