Spurs at Cavaliers
The San Antonio Spurs rebounded from a severe whipping to rout the
Houston Rockets and look to win for the 15th time in 16 games when they
visit the Cleveland Cavaliers in Saturday's nationally televised
showdown. San Antonio was routed 120-90 by the Golden State Warriors on
Monday before rebounding to pound Houston 130-99 two nights later.
Eastern Conference-leading Cleveland also was demolished by Golden State recently — 132-98 on Jan. 18 — and stands 3-1 since Tyronn Lue replaced fired David Blatt as coach. One of Blatt's final losses was a 99-95 decision in San Antonio on Jan. 14, and now the Cavaliers are looking to avoid a season series sweep. Cleveland received big games from power forward Kevin Love (29 points) and point guard Kyrie Irving (28) on Friday while registering a 114-106 victory over the Detroit Pistons. The Spurs will be without veteran center Tim Duncan (knee) for the third straight game and coach Gregg Popovich doesn't have a timetable on his return.
TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, ABC
ABOUT THE SPURS (39-7): Power forward LaMarcus Aldridge broke out of a two-game funk in which he averaged six points on 5-of-18 shooting to record 25 points (on 9-of-13 shooting), 10 rebounds and five assists in the beat down of the Rockets. "I wanted to be better than I was last game," Aldridge said afterward. "I wanted to have a better rhythm, try to put my stamp on the game. I was trying to be more in-tuned to the game, for sure." Aldridge initially struggled to fit in with the Spurs after coming over from the Portland Trail Blazers as a free agent but has been much more comfortable during the last month and was named as a reserve to the Western Conference All-Star team Thursday.
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (33-12): Cleveland is playing with a faster pace under Lue and has averaged 114.3 points while winning the past three games. Love is averaging 25 points and made eight 3-pointers during the past two games, and Irving's big outing against the Pistons was a welcome sight after he had just eight points in Wednesday's victory over the Phoenix Suns. "Part of our success as a team is me pushing me the pace and being aggressive and getting other players shots," Irving told reporters after the win over Detroit. "With the pace we're trying to play at — that we want to continue to play at — it's important for me to do that. I take it as a personal challenge."
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Cavaliers have dropped five straight home games against the Spurs with their last home win in the series occurring March 8, 2010.
2. Cleveland SF LeBron James had 20 points against Detroit and the 31-year-old became the youngest player to reach 26,000 career points — his total is at 26,005.
3. San Antonio SG Danny Green matched his season best of six 3-pointers against Houston and is 11-of-18 from behind the arc in the past three games.