Spurs at Timberwolves
The red-hot San Antonio Spurs are racking up the victories and look for
their seventh in a row when they visit the Minnesota Timberwolves on
Wednesday. San Antonio posted a 106-92 victory over the Indiana Pacers
on Monday to raise its record to 24-5, second best in franchise history
behind the 25-4 opening stretch in 2010-11.
The Spurs have routinely dominated the opposition and the win over Indiana was their 21st by double digits. Small forward Kawhi Leonard has starred on both ends of the court and had 24 points against the Pacers while holding Indiana star Paul George to seven points on 1-of-14 shooting. "I'm not surprised at the way Kawhi is playing," veteran guard Manu Ginobili told reporters. "Each game is more of confirmation of what he brings to the team." Minnesota has dropped nine of its last 12 games, including Monday's 113-99 road loss against the Boston Celtics.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, FSN Southwest (San Antonio), FSN North (Minnesota)
ABOUT THE SPURS (24-5): Point guard Tony Parker had 15 points against the Pacers and is averaging 16 points on 55.1 percent shooting over the past four games. Parker isn't looking to score as much he did earlier in his career and felt San Antonio wasn't clicking on all cylinders in the first half against Indiana. "Felt like the first half was a little bit low energy," Parker told reporters. "A little bit of a hangover from the last game, but in the second half we played a lot better. Offensively, the ball movement was great and defensively we created a lot of stuff after that."
ABOUT THE TIMBERWOLVES (11-17): The young trio of shooting guard Andrew Wiggins (26), center Karl-Anthony Towns (25) and backup guard Zach LaVine (17) combined for 68 points against Boston but Minnesota still suffered its fifth double-digit loss of the campaign. Towns also collected a season-high 16 rebounds and has at least 24 points and 10 boards in three of the past four games. Shooting guard Kevin Martin had just three points on 1-of-6 shooting in 19 minutes off the bench as speculation swirls that the club would like to deal him to open up more playing time for LaVine.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Spurs swept last season's four meetings by an average of 23 points.
2. Minnesota is a porous 4-10 at home.
3. San Antonio SG Danny Green had three points on 1-of-7 shooting against Indiana while scoring in single digits for the 12th time in 15 games.