Spurs-Magic need overtime, Spurs earn first road win
With the fourth quarter approaching its ending and the San Antonio Spurs leading the Orlando Magic 71-69 with 2:30 left in the ball game, Spurs 
guard Tony Parker hit a jump shot that gave the Spurs a 73-69 lead with 2:17 remaining.
At this point, you’d think the Spurs were well on their way to winning their first road game of the season. How hard could it be for the Spurs to lose this game on the road?
Well, the Spurs made it hard on themselves as they turned the ball over on back-to-back possessions with Tim Duncan losing the ball first, and Parker being the second to turnover the ball.
The Magic would tie the game behind crunch plays from guard J.J. Redick and overtime was underway in Orlando.
In overtime, Richard Jefferson, who bounced back after struggling in his past three games and a critical three pointer by guard Gary Neal, led the Spurs to a 85-83 win. Keep in mind, before Neal’s three pointer, the Spurs were 1-of-16 through four quarters of play.
The first half looked like a game featuring two tired teams, as the Magic were playing their third game on the last night of a back-to-back-to-back series and the Spurs were playing a back-to-back as well. The Magic shot 30% from the field and took a 40-37 lead into halftime.
The third quarter was another close quarter between both teams as the Spurs barely outscored the Magic 20-18 in the third quarter, but the Magic still lead going into the fourth quarter leading 58-57.
The fourth quarter was all about Tony Parker who had 14 of the Spurs’ 16 points in the quarter with two minutes remaining in the game. Danny Green provided a big play to Duncan in crunch time to help the Spurs go to overtime and win the game.
With the win, the bleeding is finally stopped on the road (1-5) and the team moves to 10-5 overall on the season. The Spurs will fly back to San Antonio, get Thursday off, and prepare to face the Sacramento Kings in the AT&T Center on Friday night.
Game notes
- After struggling in his previous three games, Richard Jefferson finished with 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting. Though the numbers don’t look great, Jefferson has to be given credit for stepping up when it mattered most, overtime.
- Kawhi Leonard’s six straight double-digit scoring streak was snapped as the rookie scored two points on 1-of-4 shooting against the Magic. The rookie did play less minutes against the Magic and even made a great block by following Magic guard Jameer Nelson to the baseline and then blocking his shot as Nelson thought he got passed Leonard.
- Parker led the Spurs with 25 points and nine assists, although he logged a heavy 44 minutes in the game.
- Duncan finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds, and one block. But, his counterpart Dwight Howard finished with 24 points, 25 rebounds, and three blocks.
- After only logging 10 minutes against the Miami Heat on Tuesday, Tiago Splitter was unleashed against the smaller second unit of the Magic as Splitter scored 10 points, grabbed six rebounds, and had one block in 17 minutes of action.
(Photo: Sacbee.com)
James Anderson is supposed to do the slashing. When Manu was injured, Anderson was supposed to take his place. Bur more often than not, he failed. It must be frustrating to the point that he is near being assigned to the d-league. In the end, it boils down to lack of big men. The spurs has still 1 to to fill out 15. Why not recruit another pf/c? Malcolm Thomas must be used or waive!
@rtesoro440 so once again, you know better then the coaching staff apparently? malcolm thomas is going to be given the minutes he gets because NO TEAM plays a 13/14/15 man rotation, NO TEAM! anderson obviously hasnt filled in or pop isnt trusting him BUT he is better off playing/practicing/just warming up with the big boys then going to the dleague where the last time he dominated. he is to good to be sent down but inst mature enough in his game to get on the court in a tight game. as for bigs, the spurs have out rebounded and out played every other teams bigs in ALMOST every game. last night howard and anderson (especially howard) had huge games, but thats what they do, thats all they do, howard is the absolute best big man in the game. its like duncan 10 yrs ago, he would beast everyone, did the other teams say "oh crap duncan killed us we better go out and get 2 more bigs to compete", hell no they said "thats the best player in the game, a 1st round haul of famer, and an all but unstoppable force."
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what an ugly game. a road win on a b2b but still ugly. with the exception of parker, nobody played well. ok so tim did ok but not great. the 3 ball is still the death of the spurs, and last night it almost killed them. 2-17 is TERRIBLE! without manu the spurs outside of tony do not attack the rim like they should, they spend so much time on the outside not even trying. the spurs could sure use a slasher, a guy that will attack the rim and get to the line. i mean 18 free throws in an over time game just isnt enough in my opinion.
regardless, spurs are no long on that .500 pace!
