SAN ANTONIO — Eight days remain in the cruelest two months of the season for the Spurs, a stretch coach Gregg Popovich has called horrible.

Even the Christmas Day game is the front half of a set of back-to-back games. The team is scheduled to depart for Dallas after playing the Rockets at the AT&T Center.

Ho, ho, ho.

The November and December schedules have been so full of games and travel days that Popovich has chosen to use off days as rest days, including Sunday.

Asked to recall the last practice, Popovich furrowed his brow, scratched his head and gave up.

“I can't remember,” he said.

In fact, the last real practice was Nov. 19, during a stretch of four days without a game after returning from a victory in Utah and preceding a home win over Boston.

Popovich calls maintaining consistency the biggest challenge of long stretches without practice.

“There's always some slippage as far as execution is concerned,” he said. “You just play games. You don't get a chance to review or do any muscle memory things or get to the practice court.”

Home for the holidays: The Spurs were not pleased with the 113-100 loss to Oklahoma City, but they had to be pleased with its location.

Home sweet home.

It marked the beginning of a stretch in which the Spurs will play 13 of 16 games at the AT&T Center.

The homecoming continues Monday night with a visit from Toronto.

Despite the loss, Spurs captain Tim Duncan was satisfied with how his team came through the most road-weary part of the schedule that doesn't include a rodeo.

“We feel pretty good about it,” Duncan said. “Obviously right after a loss, you never feel good about where you stand, but for the stretch as a whole, we're on the right track.”

Parker improving, Leonard a maybe: Team doctors will re-evaluate small forward Kawhi Leonard (dental procedure) after Monday's shootaround to determine his availability against Toronto.

Point guard Tony Parker, meanwhile, is good to go.

Parker returned from a two-game absence with a shin contusion to score 23 points with eight assists against Oklahoma City, though he was 6 of 14 from the field.

Parker acknowledged “a little bit” of pain lingering in his bruised left leg.

“The doctors say I'll just have to work through that,” Parker said.

mikemonroe@express-news.net

Staff writer Jeff McDonald contributed to this report.