The Spurs only shot 38.8% from the floor last night while the Hornets shot 50% which was the big reason for the home loss last night. Manu Ginobili led the way for the Spurs last night with 23 points, 2 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals. Richard Jefferson had a solid game for the Spurs last night finishing with 18 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Tony Parker pitched in with 13 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists in this game. The Spurs are now 1-1 on the year.

The Spurs will be without backup F/C Matt Bonner for the next 10-14 days due to a sprained right ankle. He was injured last night against the Pacers. Bonner played 14 minutes last night and he had 2 points, 1 rebound and 2 assists. The Spurs will miss his outside shooting while he’s out of action. Look for Antonio McDyess, DeJuan Blair & Tiago Splitter to see a spike in P.T. while Bonner is out of action.

The Spurs shot 50.6% from the floor last night and they outscored the pesky Pacers 30-20 in the 4th quarter to pull away for the win. Tim Duncan was outstanding last night! He played 33 minutes and he shot 10 of 12 from the floor as he finished up with 23 points, 12 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and 4 blocked shots! Manu Ginobili also stuffed the stat sheet with 22 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 1 blocked shot last night. Ginobili also hit 5 of 9 shots from three point range in this game. Tony Parker was excellent running the offense for the Spurs last night as he finished up with 20 points, 3 rebounds, 9 assists and 3 steals. Richard Jefferson (16 points), George Hill (16 points) and rookie James Anderson (10 points) also helped out offensively for the Spurs last night. The Spurs are now 1-0 on the year.

The Spurs were 50-32 last season so the linesmakers are banking on them having another year just like 2009-10. The Spurs have basically the same team as last year except for Tiago Splitter and rookie shooting guard James Anderson. Still, I think they are going to be better with a healthy Tony Parker so if I had to make a bet on the Spurs this year I would take the over. The Spurs are also 30-1 to win the NBA Championship this year and that’s pretty good value.

61-year old head coach Gregg Popovich deserves more respect than he gets. He led the aging Spurs to a 50-32 record (61%) last season and they were 4-6 (40%) during the post season. Popovich now has a 736-362 (67%) record in his career during the regular season and he is 106-69 (60.6%) during the post season as a head coach for the Spurs. The Spurs have won 4 NBA Championships under Popovich (#5 all-time and he is #3 in post season wins all-time in NBA history. Popovich will continue to have the Spurs playing at a very high level again this year.