San Antonio is a great team, there is no a doubt on that, but they have certainly began this season with the left foot and are now 1-3 with their lone victory coming on Wednesday night to the Timberwolves by 129-125. The game ended with two overtimes. If the Spurs had lost this game, it would be the first time since 1973 (when still playing at the ABA) to start the season 0-4.
Tony Parker finished with a career-high 55 points, and this is the highest scoring output by a rival in the Twolves history, the second is Shaquille O’Neal whom came out with 53 points back in 1994. Parker also helped the Spurs with 10 assists, and became the second player – the other being Michael Jordan—to finish with that number of points and assists on the same game in NBA history.
Tim Duncan finished the game with 18 points and praised Parker’s efforts, “Just an unbelievable effort, especially with the minutes he’s played to continue to push like that.” He said.
Minnesota had a 9-point lead three times in the game but lost the edge late in the third quarter.
The Spurs are struggling this season without the services of Manu Ginobili, who will be without a San Antonio uniform for the first two months of the regular season as he went through surgery to repair his ankle. Ginobili led the Spurs in scoring last year with an average of 19 points per game.
So, if San Antonio lost such a great asset for the team, other players are forced to come up and raise up their level to a peak performance, which coach Gregg Popovich hopes to become a standard for the rest of the season, and for what we could see of Parker on Wednesday, I think he’s the first to get the idea.
