The San Antonio Spurs escaped the Dallas Mavericks 91-91 on Monday for their sixth consecutive win. But that wasn't the story of the game, at least for Spurs head coach Greg Popovich who roasted his team for their effort, or the lack of it, against a short-handed Mavericks team.
The San Antonio Spurs came into the game riding a 5-game win streak while the Dallas Mavericks have a 5-game losing streak. The Dallas Mavericks have been plagued with injuries to start the season and now have the worst record in the NBA this season at 2-11.
Although the San Antonio Spurs got the win and now have a 6-game win streak, coach Greg Popovich wasn't a tad bit happy with how they did it. And unlike the usual Popovich who usually gives short answers to the media, decided to roast his team in a manner only he knows how.
"That was a pathetic performance on the part of the Spurs. You know, they had some guys out, we had some guys out, but they had a lot more out than we did. I thought we showed a lack of humility, a lack of respect for the opponent, a very pathetic performance at both ends of the court, both in execution and in grunt, in fiber, in desire. It was an awful performance," said the disappointed Greg Popovich after the game.
He then walked out the door. After a few seconds, he walked back in and added, "Oh, and they deserved to win the basketball game. I forgot to say that."
The San Antonio Spurs played without starters LaMarcus Aldridge and Tony Parker who were on a scheduled rest day. The Dalls Mavericks played without their three regular starters due to injury. Andrew Bogut and Deron Williams are out due to a calf injury while Dirk Nowitzki is suffering from an Achilles injury. J.J. Barea also missed the game due to a calf injury and Devin Harris has yet to play a game this season because of a toe injury.
Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle inserted four undrafted players into the starting lineup (Salah Mejri, Seth Curry, Wesley Matthews, Dorian Finney-Smith) to go along with their leading scorer Harrison Barnes. They also just had 10 eligible players for the game but that didn't' stop them from playing hard.
"I mean, we went into this expecting to win it," said Matthews. "I know no one else did, but we did. And that's how we played. We played well enough to win the game," he added.
The Dallas Mavericks went hard at the San Antonio Spurs all game long and they even had several chances to win the game. They were down by just a point (92-91) in the final two minutes of the game. Barnes had a chance to give the lead to Dallas while Curry had a chance to send the game to overtime.
