Spurs down Thunder to stay hot at home

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SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Spurs continued their dominance at home as they used a full team effort to earn a 116-102 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder (38-24) at the AT&T Center on Saturday night.

The win was the second straight for the Spurs, who won their sixth straight home game as LaMarcus Aldridge, Rudy Gay, and DeMar DeRozan combined for 67 points in the win.

“We’re playing more like we did midseason,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “When we do play defense, we’re a pretty good team. We can score the basketball but we have to make stops. Now we have to do that more consistently.”

Here is what went good and bad for the Spurs, as well as three standout players: Aldridge, Gay, and Jakob Poeltl.

The Good:
  • San Antonio stayed hot at home, winning their sixth straight game at the AT&T Center. Overall, the Spurs are 24-7 inside the friendly confines.
  • Derrick White had a solid night with 14 points, eight rebounds, and two steals.
  • Bryn Forbes seemed to show no effects of his calf injury as he finished with 16 points.
The Bad:
  • The Spurs struggled to shoot the ball from distance, going 8-for-19 from three-point land. However, they connected on 42 percent of their shots from beyond the arc.
  • San Antonio had trouble in the rebounding department as Steven Adams dominated the boards for OKC, finishing with 17 points and 13 rebounds.
Three Standout Players:

LaMarcus Aldridge:

After scoring 56 points in the first home game against the Thunder, the Spurs’ big man picked up where he left off on Saturday as he put the team on his back and led them to victory.

Aldridge finished with 27 points and 10 rebounds, including 17 in the first quarter. Oklahoma City threw Steven Adams and Jeremy Grant at him defensively but they were no match in the post for the former Texas Longhorn.

Rudy Gay:

In his second game coming off the bench, Gay powered his way to a solid night. Which might give San Antonio the boost they need from the second unit.

Gay finished with 22 points off the bench as he shot 56 percent from the floor and went 2-for-3 from beyond the arc.

“He’s a heck of a scorer,” Popovich said of Gay. “He’s working harder and harder defensively to get better.”

Jakob Poeltl:

The big man made his second consecutive start for San Antonio and made some big contributions that helped energize the team.

Poeltl finished with just five points but he did the big things on the glass and defensive end that fans don’t really take notice of. He also finished with seven rebounds, three blocks, and two steals.

UP NEXT:

The Spurs are now 35-29 on the season and will return to the court on Monday night when they welcome the Denver Nuggets (42-20) to the AT&T Center at 7:30 pm Central Time.

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Stephen Michael 26, is a journalist, social media coordinator, host, and entertainment reporter. Michael graduated in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in Communication Arts and earned a Master's Degree in Digital Media in 2020 from the University of the Incarnate Word. He has worked covering the San Antonio Rampage, Stars, and San Antonio Futbol Club. He was the host of the Project Spurs Roundtable on NBC affiliate News 4 San Antonio from 2015-17.

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