If the Spurs can’t break through against the Pacers, it could be mid-November before...
Points, Johnson, 20.0 per game; rebounds, Johnson, 11.0.; assists, Primo, 5.0; steals, Johnson, Sochan, 2.0; blocks, Collins, 4.0Points, Haliburton, 26.0 per game; rebounds, Hield, 10.0; assists, Haliburton, 7.0; steals, Mathurin, Taylor, 2.0; blocks, Bitadze, Jackson, McConnell, Smith, Taylor, 1.0The Spurs lost both games against the Pacers last season. The Spurs lead the all-time NBA series between the former ABA teams, 55-43, and are 25-23 against the Pacers in Indianapolis.
It is true that, for the first time in the Popovich coaching era, wins and the losses are unimportant in the grand scheme of the Spurs’ season. The Hornets — who finished 10th in the Eastern Conference last season and were without a pair of starters in LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges — jumped out to a 25-point lead in the first half, nudged that to 30 in the second half and barely had to glance in the rearview mirror after that.“Teams are going to have nights like this,” said Spurs guard Doug McDermott, who scored 12 points off the bench. “I know it’s the season opener, so there is a bigger microscope on it.
That is especially true for guard Devin Vassell, who heads to Indianapolis still searching for his first made 3-pointer of the season.Vassell was 0-for-9 from the floor until swishing a baseline jumper nearly nine minutes into the third quarter. “We all talk to him, we are all pulling for him, but he definitely doesn’t need it,” point guard Tre Jones said. “He has the confidence. He has put in the work. We know it’s only a matter of time before those start falling.”They kept pushing in the face of futility.
“It is going to be a long process and there are a lot of things we have to learn — what it’s going to take at this level, the physicality, that sort of thing,” said Popovich, who dropped to 23-3 all-time in season-openers. “It improved a bit in the second half, but it’s a process.”
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