The Washington Wizards and the San Antonio Spurs will sq. off Monday within the Alamo City in a battle of groups heading in reverse instructions on the NBA escalator.
The Wizards head to San Antonio after a 113-103 win in New Orleans on Saturday, their fifth consecutive victory. Daniel Gafford led Washington with a season-high 21 factors, with Bradley Beal including 16 factors — 9 of which got here within the fourth quarter.
Beal battled his option to a three-point play after which sank a 3-pointer to garner a 103-94 lead with 2:47 left, and the Wizards held on. They outrebounded the Pelicans 53-42 and grabbed 13 offensive rebounds and transformed them into 25 factors.
“Obviously, our bigs stepped up and rebounded at a high rate on both sides,” Wizards head coach Wes Unseld Jr. stated. “Plus-11 on the glass is big. You force some misses, you’re getting some stops. And then of course late in the game, we had some timely rebounds that helped keep them at bay.”
The Wizards performed with out Kristaps Porzingis, who missed his third consecutive sport with a sprained left ankle.
“No matter what, I just kept playing,” Gafford stated. “We’ve got KP out. So, really just stepping up was the main thing on my mind. Just locking in and being able to play physical throughout the full game.”
The Spurs hope their homecourt benefit will assist in snapping a five-game shedding streak that has dropped them simply two video games forward of the Houston Rockets in final place within the Western Conference.
The newest setback – that’s 10 of their previous 11 – got here Saturday within the type of a 128-118 additional time loss at house towards the Phoenix Suns.
San Antonio trailed by 11 factors coming into the fourth quarter however rallied to power the additional interval on Keldon Johnson’s three-point play with 47.8 seconds to left in regulation that tied the sport at 110. Phoenix shortly took the lead in additional time and the Spurs ran out of fuel.
“A great effort against a good basketball team,” San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich stated. “Physically they played hard and did everything they can do. Keldon tried to keep us in it but (the Suns) took over in the overtime. Tough way to lose, but I’m really proud of what they did.”
Johnson poured in 34 factors to guide San Antonio and Jeremy Sochan scored a career-high 30, with 14 of these coming within the third quarter. Keita Bates-Diop had 14 factors and Doug McDermott scored 10, whereas Jakob Poeltl grabbed 13 rebounds and Stanley Johnson took 12 boards for the Spurs, who had been lacking key reserve guards Josh Richardson and Romeo Langford due to harm.
San Antonio has received simply twice of their 14 January video games.
“We just don’t want to win one and lose five in a row — we want to get a win streak going,” Johnson stated. “That’s what kind of breakthrough we’re looking for. We make little mistakes and do it to ourselves.”
