Popovich says Spurs were 'pathetic' in win over Mavericks

SAN ANTONIO – It was not exactly the way the San Antonio Spurs drew it up, but the Spurs were able to hold off a relentless Dallas Mavericks team to win 96-91 Monday night at the AT&T Center.

After the game, Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said his team's performance was "pathetic at both ends of the court, both in execution and in grunt and fiber and desire."

"It was an awful performance," Popovich said just after he walked out of post game press conference room and he returned to add, "and they (the Mavericks) deserved to win the basketball game."

He voiced his displeasure for his teams performance in about 35 seconds and didn't take questions. It was one of those nights.

Before the game, Popovich chose to sit LaMarcus Aldridge and Tony Parker. Dejounte Murray (4 points) got the start for Parker while Davis Bertans (3 points) started in place of Aldridge.

The Mavericks were missing four key players: J.J. Barea, Dirk Nowitzki, Deron Williams and Devin Harris were all out with various injuries.

Dallas started four undrafted players, which made such a close game even harder to digest.

"They had some guys out we had some guys out but they had a lot more than we did," Popovich said.

There was an inkling that kind of performance might happen after the Spurs shootaround Monday morning. Danny Green described the game as a "dangerous" one.

Green knew that the young players for Dallas would be out trying to prove something. They did as Dallas hung with the Spurs for the entire game.

The Mavs got a huge night from Seth Curry who scored 23 points while Wesley Matthews had 20 points. Harrison Barnes also scored 20.

Kawhi Leonard did not have a great shooting night but he kept the Spurs in it with 24 points on 8-19 shooting.

The Spurs were down most of the game, and when they got the lead, it didn't last long.

"It was a very poor game. We didn't bring the energy we needed to bring against any NBA team," said Manu Ginobili who scored 8 points. "Every team has a lot of talented guys that can get hot that can make things happen."

San Antonio got down by as many as eight in the third quarter, but then put on a run thanks to David Lee who finished the game tying his season high with 12.

"I don't think we did a very good job at either end today," Lee said.

At the end of the quarter, Jonathan Gibson broke the defense down going baseline for a layup. The game was tied after three 73-73.

The Spurs opened the fourth quarter with a 7-0 run and took a five point lead and it looked like they were ready to take over but Rick Carlisle called a time out and his team responded with a 9-1 run of their own.

The Spurs finally started to apply a little defense. Off a turnover, Patty Mills finished the break with a reverse layup to put San Antonio back up by three points with 4:21 left.

Kawhi Leonard came up with a huge steal at mid court off Seth Curry and went in for an uncontested slam to put the Spurs up 4 with 2:07 left.

But with under a minute to play Danny Green missed a quick three Ginobili lost the rebound out of bounds to give the ball to the Mavericks with 34.1 seconds left and down one 92-91.

At the other end, Barnes missed with just under 20 seconds to play. Ginobili was able to get the rebound, was fouled and hit both free throws to put San Antonio up 94-91.

After a Mavs timeout, Curry got a good look at a three from the left wing but it bounced off the iron and Green pulled down the rebound, then hit a couple of free throws to seal the victory.

"We were kind of irresponsible, we were not as sharp as this league demands you to be every game and we almost lost the game," Ginobili said.

"There is such a thing as an ugly win and that's probably it," said Patty Mills, who scored 17 points of the bench.

The Spurs extended their winning streak to six and are now 11-3 on the season.

NOTE:

Even though Popovich was not happy with the win, it was victory No. 1,100, placing him seventh on the all-time NBA coaching list.

The Spurs now hit the road for a three game east coach road trip: Charlotte, Boston and Washington.