The San Antonio Spurs hope to continue their dominance over the visiting Los Angeles Clippers as they aim to snap their longest losing streak in more than three years. San Antonio has lost four straight, including a pair of three-overtime contests, while the Clippers have split their past six games following a nine-game winning streak. The Spurs won the first meeting this season, 89-85 on Nov. 10 in Los Angeles, and are 120-33 all-time against the Clippers including a 66-9 mark at home.
Despite the grueling stretch, some of the Spurs should have fresh legs, as veteran stars Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili and key role players Danny Green and Tiago Splitter all sat out Saturday's 99-93 loss at Dallas. The Clippers, who are coming off a 106-102 home win over Milwaukee on Saturday, have a tough stretch lined up with road games at San Antonio and Atlanta before returning home to face Golden State and Toronto — all over a six-day span. "We don't have time to practice; we don't have two days between games this entire month," Clippers point guard Chris Paul told reporters. "But you've got to get through it, because the other teams aren't feeling sorry for us. Everybody's gunning for us, anyway."
TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, FSN West (Los Angeles), FSN Southwest (San Antonio)
ABOUT THE CLIPPERS (19-8): Los Angeles is a difficult team to defend because of its ability to dominate inside or light it up from outside. Big men Blake Griffin (23.2 points, 7.8 rebounds) and DeAndre Jordan (9.1 points, 13.2 rebounds) are a handful in the paint, but the Clippers have a trio of lethal 3-point shooters in Paul (17.9 points, 9.9 assists), Jamal Crawford (16 points) and J.J. Redick (14.6 points). Los Angeles' weakness is its bench, which is especially thin with forward Spencer Hawes (6.3 points, 4.3 rebounds) sidelined with a knee injury.
ABOUT THE SPURS (17-11): San Antonio won't be quite as short-handed as it was against the Mavericks, but point guard Tony Parker (hamstring) and defensive whiz Kawhi Leonard (hand) remain sidelined. Those are two of the Spurs' top three scorers, putting pressure on Duncan (15.8 points, 11 rebounds), Green (12.7 points) and Ginobili (12.6 points, 4.7 assists) to carry the load. The Spurs have had unlikely heroes step up at times, including Marco Belinelli (9.5 points), Cory Joseph (9.4 points) and Boris Diaw (8.6 points).
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Duncan (25,267) needs 13 points to pass Reggie Miller for 17th on the NBA's all-time scoring list.
2. Paul needs 22 points to reach 12,000 for his career and become the first player in NBA history with 12,000 points and 6,000 assists in his first 650 games or fewer.
3. The Clippers are 18-3 when scoring 100 points or more while the Spurs have given up triple digits in 13 of their 28 games, going 7-6 in those contests.