Tim Duncan retired last summer, while Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili continue a severe decline in their old age. The Spurs are still awesome. The Golden State Warriors are the only NBA team with a better record. 2014 Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard is a still-improving, if not flashy, superstar on both ends of the court. Last year’s free agent signing LaMarcus Aldridge is still a scoring machine. Gregg Popovich is regarded as the best coach in basketball, if not all of the major sports. Parker, Leonard and Pau Gasol are sitting out tonight. Prospects Dejounte Murray and Kyle Anderson, and veteran David Lee start in their place.

The Raptors have lost 3 games in a row for the first time in over a year. They’re struggling to hang onto 2nd place in the East, with the Boston Celtics just 1.5 games behind them. Leading scorer and recently named All-Star starter DeMar DeRozan is out with an ankle injury. In the Raptors’ lone trip to San Antonio they got blown out 110–82, and that was with DeRozan playing. They totally melted down against Phoenix in their last game – especially Kyle Lowry – something that can’t happen if there’s any hope of a victory tonight.

On the bright side, Patrick Patterson is back in the lineup. The Cleveland Cavaliers have also been struggling (6 losses in their last 10 games) so the Raps are still only 2.5 games behind first place in the East. Jared Sullinger is making his first start of the season. Recently back from a foot injury, he is still playing his way into shape.

End of Q1: Spurs 29, Raps 25

After a couple of missed bunnies by Sullinger, my brother turned to me and stated flatly: “He’s too fat”. Yes he is. The Spurs make it a slog to even get a decent look at the basket. Lowry has 11 points almost entirely through sheer force of will. Powell has 8, mostly in transition. The Raps will need a big night in the transition game to score enough points tonight. The Spurs have an intriguing stretch 4 prospect in Davis Bertans. He came in and scored their last 5 points of the quarter.

Halftime:

The Raps are hanging tough, but it seems like the Spurs will win each quarter by 3–5 points and the final score will look like a blowout. The starting frontcourt of JV, Sullinger and Carroll isn’t providing much.

End of Q3: Tied at 79

The Raptors win the quarter! Cory Joseph and Patty Mills had a little duel of the backup point guards. T-Ross gave the Raps a brief lead near the end of the quarter, but Davis Bertans tied it up again.

4th Quarter:

Ross hit a pair of threes to give the Raptors an early lead. He also made some bonehead turnovers and defensive gaffes to help give it back. Lowry and JV played strong. The Spurs kept on coming. The game was tied at 104 with 3 minutes left. Lowry drove, didn’t get the foul and stayed down. The Spurs missed a wide open 3 while he was on the ground but got the rebound. Kyle got back into the play but Dejounte Murray scored on a pull-up to make it 106–104 with 1:24 to go. Not bad for a rookie. Ross airballs a 3. JV gets a steal but Powell blows a layup. Ross blocks Danny Green’s 3-point attempt with 30 seconds left. Green misses another 3. Ross misses a 3. 11 seconds to go with Aldridge on the line. He makes 1 of 2. 107–104 Spurs, Raptors ball. Powell gets a quick dunk. 6 seconds to go, 107–106 Spurs. Aldridge back on the line. He misses the 2nd but the Raptors are out of timeouts. Powell’s halfcourt heave is way off.

Final:

The Spurs are ultra-disciplined. They don’t let you get away with mistakes, and the Raptors just made too many of them. It was good to see Ross break out of his shooting slump, and Patterson looked good in his return before running out of gas early in the 4th.

The Raptors are off to Memphis for a back-to-back tomorrow night, once again without DeRozan. If they replicate this effort they can get the win to break what is now a 4-game losing streak.