Hornets at Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs won four championships with Tony Parker as the starting point guard, including a four-game sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2007 in which he was named the Finals MVP. Parker will make his first trip to San Antonio as a visiting player when the Charlotte Hornets visit the Spurs on Monday.
Parker was drafted by the Spurs as a 19-year-old in 2001 and spent the first 17 seasons of his career in black and silver before leaving as a free agent last summer to join former San Antonio assistant James Borrego and the Hornets. "It'll really look weird, won't it," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich told reporters last week of seeing Parker in a different uniform. "Anxious to see him. We talk frequently. He's always going to be part of my thoughts. He's a special young man and I've always felt like a second daddy to him over the years and he's been like a son in all kinds of ways. So, he's just a friend for life and someone I'll always care about. So, it'll be great to see him." Parker sat out Saturday to rest on the second night of a back-to-back and watched Charlotte fall to 1-4 on the six-game road trip with a 104-97 loss at Sacramento. "We turned it over a little bit too much," Borrego told reporters. "We were trying to execute, trying to make the right play - give them credit. They turned us over in this game. Give Sacramento credit. We could have been better."
TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, NBATV, FS Southeast (Charlotte), FS Southwest (San Antonio)
ABOUT THE HORNETS (19-23): Charlotte won at Phoenix on the trip but dropped double-digit decisions at Denver, the Los Angeles Clippers and Portland before falling just short at Sacramento. "Just a lot of mistakes. We made a lot of mistakes down the stretch defensively, and they made plays," Hornets guard Kemba Walker told reporters after falling to the Kings. "That's really what it was. We came out with some great energy tonight. We were really conscious of that. We haven't been playing with that kind of energy as of late." Walker scored 31 points at Sacramento but is shooting 37.8 percent from the floor on the road trip, including 11-of-40 from 3-point range.
ABOUT THE SPURS (25-19): San Antonio is enjoying a seven-game home winning streak but is coming off a 122-112 loss at Oklahoma City on Saturday. The Spurs, who beat the Thunder in an epic 154-147 double-overtime thriller at home on Thursday, are 18-5 at home and are making a brief stop in front of the home fans before hitting the road again for four of the next five. All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge broke out for a career-high 56 points in Thursday's victory but could not muster the same effort on Saturday, when he settled for 17 points on 8-of-14 shooting in 33 minutes.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Spurs SF Rudy Gay (wrist) sat out the last four games and is questionable for Monday.
2. Hornets C Bismack Biyombo is averaging 8.8 rebounds on the road trip.
3. San Antonio took the last four in the series by an average of 12.3 points.