The San Antonio Spurs played a back-to-back set with the Miami Heat and Detroit Pistons this week, earning a split of the two games at the AT&T Center on Wednesday and Thursday night respectively.
The split moved San Antonio into ninth place in the Western Conference and a half game behind the Memphis Grizzlies for eighth place.
In case you missed it, here’s a mini recap of both games.
Wednesday: Spurs 87, Miami 107
The Spurs opened their back-to-back slate with a 107-87 loss to the Heat on Wednesday night. Miami used a 30-15 fourth quarter to pull away and earn the 20-point victory, their largest win over San Antonio in franchise history.
“We have to play a lot smarter,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “Disappointed how we played against the press. Just really poor execution obviously against the press. It was a good game to that point….for whatever reason we were not aggressive, we did not attack. We didn’t space the court.”
Bam Adebayo scored 23 points to lead the Heat while Tyler Herro added 22 points to help Miami earn their third consecutive win. Jimmy Butler paced Miami to chip in 18 points and 11 assists.
San Antonio was led by DeMar DeRozan’s 15 points. Derrick White added 13 points and Dejounte Murray had 11 but no other player scored in double figures for the Spurs, who are still clinging to a play-in game spot in the West.
Thursday: Spurs 106, Pistons 91
The Spurs closed out their back-to-back set with a 106-91 victory over the Pistons on Thursday night, snapping their five-game home losing streak.
San Antonio played without Trey Lyles and DeRozan, who both missed the game due to injuries. Murray and Patty Mills sat out for rest on the second night of a back-to-back.
Derrick White led the way for the Spurs with 26 points and Jakob Poeltl added 17 points and 11 rebounds for San Antonio, who took control with a 31-22 second quarter.
Lonnie Walker added 18 points and Rudy Gay had 14.
“I think he’s got to the point where he’s almost himself,” Popovich said of White. “He’s pretty close. He’s doing a great job in a lot of different ways.”
Josh Jackson had 29 points to lead Detroit, who played without Wayne Ellington, Jerami Grant, Cory Joseph, Rodney McGruder, Mason Plumlee, Dennis Smith Jr. and Hamidou Diallo.
UP NEXT:
The Spurs are now 29-29 on the season and will return to the court on Saturday night when they travel to face the New Orleans Pelicans at 7 p.m.
