SAN ANTONIO – With the San Antonio Spurs season looking like it was slipping away again in the 4th quarter, head coach Gregg Popovich turned to his veteran leader Tony Parker to get control of the game and their playoff hopes.
Parker came through with a season-high 23 points and the Spurs beat the Memphis Grizzles, 100-98.
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"Just try to be aggressive, a lot of stuff went my way tonight, we needed it you know, try to get a win," Parker said. "Right now we are in survival mode."
#Spurs Tony Parker on tonight's season-high 23 pts, carrying team in 4th quarter and getting rare technical foul. TP was big time in win over #Grizzlies #KSATnews #KSATsports #GoSpursGo pic.twitter.com/bJn8fByqtl
— RJ Marquez (@KSATRJ) March 6, 2018
The Spurs stopped a two game losing streak with the victory, but once again it might have been costly.
Parker revealed that Pau Gasol got injured and it doesn't look good for him in the immediate future.
"Pau, his shoulder maybe, he says it's pretty bad so I am just assuming that we are going to lose him, just so bad this year," said Parker.
He then added that he thought Gasol would miss the Golden State game Thursday.
At least they have a little momentum heading into that game.
Parker and the Spurs defense get a lot of credit but Kyle Anderson might have made the play of the year.
With just under nine minutes to play, Anderson knocked it away from Wayne Selden Jr., Bryn Forbes picked it up and tossed it down the floor, Anderson had to make a save on the baseline, he did it with an alley-oop pass to Davis Bertans.
"I think he saw me, time just slows down when he got the ball he had probably six seconds to figure out what to do," said Bertans, who scored 17 off the bench.
After giving up an average of 29 points in the fourth quarters of the previous 11 games, the Spurs outscored the Grizzlies 30-26.
Only four better than that average, but still better and it resulted in the win.
"We still could be better we know that but it's something to build on," said Danny Green, who knocked down 14 points including hitting 3 out of 4 three pointers. The Spurs bench scored 67 points.
Now it is off to run the road gauntlet: Golden State on Thursday, Oklahoma City on Saturday and Houston on Monday.
"We need to get one, so somehow we just have to try and get a win," Parker said.
"We are looking to get every game when we step on the floor," Green said.