SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Spurs opened a brand new decade with a 109-103 home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder (19-15) at the AT&T Center on Thursday night.
The loss snaps a two-game winning streak for San Antonio.
“We didn’t move the ball very well tonight,” Spurs Head Coach Gregg Popovich said. “I think we were on the dribble too much. We didn’t really attack. I thought they attacked a lot better than we did. They just went straight ahead at the rim, found people, and we were too much on the dribble and never really got out of it.”
Three Standout Players
Lonnie Walker IV
The second-year forward/guard was the first off the bench for DeMar DeRozan in the first quarter and continues to show why he’s earned the minutes and deserves to keep them moving forward.
Walker was active on both ends of the ball, had good decision making, and aggressive on defense. He finished with 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting to go along with seven rebounds and an assist.
Lonnie seemingly will be the backup for DeRozan moving forward and if he can continue his level of play, the Spurs have a great chance of moving back up the standings.
DeMar DeRozan
DeRozan led the team with 30 points, shooting 52 percent from the field. He added four rebounds and three assists to his stat line as he helped San Antonio build a 14-point lead in the first half.
The game continues a nice trend for DeMar, who has played well for the past month. If the Spurs want to move up in the standings, they will need their leading scorer to continue to be on a tear.
LaMarcus Aldridge
Another player who has had a nice outing the past few weeks is LaMarcus Aldridge and that continued in the first game of the new year.
Aldridge opened 2020 by scoring 22 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. He shot 7-for-13 from the floor and was a perfect 4-for-4 from three-point land.
UP NEXT:
The Spurs are now 14-19 on the season and will return to the court on Saturday when they travel to face the league-leading Milwaukee Bucks (31-5) at the Fiserv Forum at 7 p.m.
