San Antonio at Washington, Final Score: Wizards trounce Spurs 116-106

The Spurs got blown out of D.C. and lost Aldridge to injury along the way.

Another road game, another let-down loss for the Spurs. Going up against the John Wall-less Washington Wizards for the second time in a week, the Spurs couldn’t find enough offense to keep up with a suddenly red-hot Wizards team that was looking to snap a three-game losing streak of their own. The Spurs started well enough, taking a 24-21 first quarter lead that would get as high as eight, but from there it was all Wizards.

A horrific second quarter was the Spurs’ undoing as they gave up a 16-1 run and ended up being outscored 38-21 overall despite holding leading scorer Bradley Beal to 3 points in the half and having a 16 to 7 FT advantage. To make matters worse, they lost LaMarcus Aldridge, who was the Spurs only bright spot on offense at that point, to a left knee contusion just before halftime. They ended up down 59-45 at the half, and sans their best player they got down by as much as 25 on their way to a 116-106 loss.

The loss drops the Spurs to 43-32. They will remain in the sixth seed regardless of the outcome of the Pelicans–Trail Blazers game, but it only puts them a half-game above the seventh seeded Utah Jazz, who own the tie-breaker.

Random Observations

• The game was nowhere near as close as the final score would indicate. The third stringers found a little life and tried to make a miracle comeback in the final few minutes, but it was too little, too late.
• Ian Mahinmi is still what he was when the Spurs drafted him in 2005: long, athletic and a decent defender, but also a foul machine with no offensive game.
• He and Kelly Oubre also got dumb technicals late in the fourth quarter for mouthing off at the refs despite the game being well in hand.
• The bench came in midway through the first quarter and instantly brought some energy to what was a pretty dull game at first. Unfortunately, the Spurs second unit suddenly finding life on the road didn’t last long as they gave up the 8-point lead they had built and allowed the Wizards’ bench to go on that decisive second-quarter run.
• Usually when you see the Spurs took better care of the ball (8 TO’s to the Wizards’ 16) and shot 15 more FT’s, you’d expect a victory. Not this time, especially since the Spurs only hit 18 of their 33 attempts from the line.
• While the odds that the Spurs would win 50 games for the 19th-straight season have remained slim for quite a while, the streak is now officially on notice since the Spurs would have to go undefeated over their final seven games. The schedule doesn’t appear friendly enough for that to happen.

For the Wizards fans’ perspective, visit Bullets Forever.

The Spurs return to the AT&T Center to take on the Thunder in a nationally televised game. Tip-off will be at 7:00 PM CT.

Source: Pounding The Rock