Basketball: Spurs Struggle (Again) On Back-To-Backs

If the San Antonio Spurs want to stay healthy for the playoffs, Austinist suggests they avoid playing the Denver Nuggets ever again. The Nugs are gaining some notoriety around the league for replicating the bruising style of the Knicks and Heat of the early 90's, and last night proved to be no exception. Tim Duncan got poked in the eye twice, Tony Parker was literally tackled on a lay-up, and Ginobili was thrown into the cameramen on multiple occasions. The Spurs fell 104-92 in Denver, which continues a disturbing trend of blowouts on the second game of a back-to-back. Denver agressively outrebounded the Spurs 58-27, which may have been the deciding factor in the contest.

Manu Ginobili provided the only highlights for the Spurs, finishing with 26 points amidst a chorus of boos. The Denver fans seemed to have long memories of Ginobili's destruction of their team in the playoffs last year, and they let him know it. Kenyon Martin added to the thuggery with some unneeded elbows and shoves in Ginobili's back in the second half. Generally, it was good that no injuries occured on either side, as the 'chippy' atmosphere was getting fairly dangerous.

Thankfully, the next couple of weeks look better for San Antonio. After four West Coast road games in the next seven days, the team finishes the year with a lengthy homestand. Even better, many of the Spurs' opponents over this stretch are sub-.500 teams with little hope of the playoffs. This should mean that SA has a shot at the league's best record and at some rest for their starters during the final week of the regular season. Regardless, they're done with Denver now, so maybe nobody else will punch them in the head.

The Spurs play a road game in Portland Friday night at 9pm (TV: KNVA Austin, Time Warner Channel 12). Photo via Spurs.com.