Golden State (69-8) and the Spurs square off twice in four days, clashing Thursday in Oakland, Calif., and Sunday in San Antonio.
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To put some perspective on this, Duncan has more regular season wins than five National Basketball Association franchises: the Charlotte Hornets (912), the Minnesota Timberwolves (843), the Toronto Raptors (730), the Memphis Grizzlies (694) and the New Orleans Pelicans (527).
Duncan has been selected to 15 All-Star Games during his career and has scored over 26,000 points while recording over 15,000 rebounds as he remained a central figure of Spurs teams that spanned from Robinson to Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili to Leonard.
And centre Tim Duncan became just the third player with 1000 victories in the regular season, following Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Robert Parish. “If Rodney Hood makes that shot, or if Kawhi Leonard misses that shot., we can do better, we play better”. But you’ve got to make shots to win. “With the practices, shootarounds, film sessions, whatever it is, we’re really focused on being sharp together because that’s what we’re going to need, obviously, for the playoffs”.
The closest such pairing is by Utah Jazz legends Karl Malone and Jerry Sloan with 775 wins.
In March, Parker expressed pessimism about the chances for a Spurs and Warriors matchup involving all the team’s key players, citing Popovich’s penchant for resting key contributors leading into the postseason. The Jazz remained in the No. 8 slot and a half-game ahead of the Houston Rockets. The Jazz should not pose much of a threat for the second-seeded team in the West.
The Jazz next host the Los Angeles Clippers Friday night.
Utah is 0-3 against the Spurs this season, but the Jazz have won 10 of their last 13 games to stay in playoff contention.
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The Utah Jazz are fighting for a Western Conference playoff spot and it can’t be a good feeling to see the San Antonio Spurs coming to town for Tuesday’s contest. Only Oklahoma City (113) and Golden State (103, in overtime) have cracked triple digits against Utah during those 13 games. “If you think a short time ago, they set the bar on a style of play, the ball movement and the spacing and the passing and the cutting”.
