Spurs to rest Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili during Thursday national TV matchup with Rockets
The San Antonio Spurs will take on the Houston Rockets in the opening game of TNT’s weekly doubleheader on Thursday night. It looks to be a phenomenal matchup pitting the defending NBA champions against an undefeated Rockets squad that boasts the league’s second-most-potent offense and fourth-stingiest defense through five games, and is coming off an impressive win over the Miami Heat on the second game of a road back-to-back.
Fans eager to see how the two squads match up in the event of a playoff meeting down the line might be disappointed, though, because — you guessed it — the Spurs won’t be fielding their full squad this evening:
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Another nationally televised showcase, another DNP (though probably not listed as “DNP-OLD” this time) for 38-year-old Tim Duncan and 37-year-old Manu Ginobili. Say this much for Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich and general manager R.C. Buford: At least they’re consistent.
The decision to rest the two aging stars comes with San Antonio on the second night of a back-to-back after grinding out a 94-92 home win over former Spurs assistant Mike Budenholzer and the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday. Duncan played 35 minutes in that contest, battling the likes of Al Horford and Pero Antic on his way to 17 points, 13 rebounds, six blocks, four assists and three steals, netting both his 799th career double-double and the 900th win of his legendary partnership with Popovich. Ginobili got 26 minutes of work off the bench, chipping in 12 points, four rebounds, three assists and a steal.
On one hand, you can understand Pop wanting to give his two oldest players a breather on the second night of a back-to-back after a tough game against Atlanta. On the other, San Antonio is coming off a four-day layoff between their Halloween loss to the Phoenix Suns and the win over the Hawks. Then again, though, Wednesday’s game kicked off a five-games-in-seven-nights stretch that has San Antonio flying to Houston, then back home to host Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans before heading to California with road meetings against the red-hot Golden State Warriors and the salty Los Angeles Clippers.
It’s a tough road ahead for Popovich’s club, and with big man Tiago Splitter still working himself back from the calf injury that cost him the first two games of the season, noted robotics instructor Marco Belinelli straining his groin against Atlanta and sparkplug guard Patty Mills still unavailable after offseason rotator cuff surgery, the Spurs brass knows they need to be especially cautious about keeping their top guns in working order.
Plus, y’know, their roster management has kind of been shown to work out over the course of time:
Jeff Stotts’ NBA injury database lists San Antonio as “number one in both total games lost to injury and salary dollars lost to injury” since the 2005-06 season, a stretch that has seen the Spurs win no fewer than 50 games in any season, win more than 60 games three times, advance at least as far as the conference finals six times and take home two NBA championships. An NBA season that spans 82 regular season games and as many as 28 postseason contests over the space of eight months is a marathon, not a sprint, and no team in the NBA knows better how important it is to pace yourself than the Spurs.
As a result, we’re likely going to see more minutes for the likes of Boris Diaw, Matt Bonner, Aron Baynes and perhaps the NBA debut of former UCLA point forward Kyle Anderson, the Spurs’ 2014 first-round draft pick. It might not be quite as exciting as seeing Dwight Howard and James Harden get to test their mettle against a pair of future Hall of Famers, but the Spurs aren’t in the business of maximizing our excitement in November; they’re trying to be at their most thrilling come June.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
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